In Which I Complain About Getting Old

I sleep, on average, 4-6 hours a night.

I have always been a light sleeper, a weird combination of night owl and early bird which enabled me to stay up for hours after my bedtime as a child (usually hunkered over by my nightlight, reading way into the night) only to pop out of bed first thing in the morning, cheery and wide awake for school. One summer when I worked for a cafe chain, the managers of all the stores in my town loved me because I would work split shifts, waking up at 4 in the morning to open at one store, then staying up til almost 11 at night closing at another, only to do the whole thing again the next day. My ability to not need sleep made me relatively unique (and, that summer anyway, very rich) among my peers, who could not seem to drag themselves out of bed before noon without a very very good reason.

Now, though, I notice that things are changing. I still stay up late and get up early. I still sleep like my cat, ears quivering, awake at the slightest provacation. Now, though, I start to feel it after a few days.

I am REALLY feeling it this week.

My new job is affording me lots of hours. This is good, as hours=pay=financial stability=good. My classes, though, also take up quite a lot of time, not just in the classroom, but in terms of homework as well. I also cover outside projects for our school paper, which adds to my workload.

The hilarious thing is, I spend SO MUCH TIME writing--I've written thousands of words in the past week alone--and yet almost none of it is the kind of writing I really want to do. I am still working on my WIP (still has momentum--yay!) but my writing time has been relegated to my half hour train commute to and from work/class, and on my lunch breaks. Hardly a solid writing session, it must be confessed!

I know priorities must be kept aligned. At this point, much of my ability to write hinges on first having the money=financial stability=good equation completely hammered out. Which requires a degree. Which itself requires money. Which requires the job which helps pay for the degree so I can get more money so that ONE DAY I can spend all the time I currently spend on homework and articles on MY WRITING.

/end rant.

This is what happens when you only average 4-ish hours of sleep a night. I need to sleep, for real.

Until next time, keep writing! (regardless of topic! :D)

~Katherine