I don’t usually have trouble falling asleep.  However, lately I’ve been feeling like I don’t want to head to bed.  I would rather just stay up. But I have nothing else to do.  And I’m tired.  Is there some sort of psychological/emotional tension that is telling me “if I stay up later, things will be ok”?  And how could that possibly be remotely true?!

Why am I still awake?  I’m going to bed now.  I love sleep, why do I delay it?!

I woke up from coughing.  Now I can’t sleep because I’m thinking and pre-visualizing all the av setup and the main sessions. in my mind.stuff like music before sessions, video songs, worship lyrics, computer setups, and a whole lot more.  i had a mocha in the afternoon and chinese tea  at dinner but nothing keeps you up at night more than a looming conference with many open loose ends.

Back in Toronto.  Lots of snow here.  Not quite what I would expect to be dumped on Ottawa regularly, but enough that the Zondervan got stuck on our street when I returned home.  However, that very night some plows came by and cleared our street.  Pretty fast eh?

So I drove for about 7 hours from Ottawa.  Usually it takes 5.  I was stuck behind a gang of highway plows for at least half an hour at one section after Kingston.  It made it safer, but much slower.  I would say the driving wasn’t too dangerous, just warrented caution.  Although I was driving straight into the storm, the roads weren’t covered in snow for the most part on the right lane.  The passing lane was a bit more treacherous.

Right about when I arrived home I started having a headache and as I went to bed early, I plunged into a fever.  Woke up midway through the night and popped some acetaminophen tablets.  I’ve been taking those every 4-6 hours since then.  I have never been a big proponent of pain-killers but the last time I was sick I refused to take drugs until a friend told me that the pain-killers will lower my core brain temperature and allow me to battle out the sickness quicker (I think that’s what it means!).

Went to a wedding for Elvin and Carol today, saw many supporters and friends, but didn’t really feel like had enough energy to engage much or even smile…. that part is a bummer.

I’ve slept most of the other hours of the day.  I’m quite determined that I get better soon so that I won’t be sick through these holidays and Winter Conference.

I am doing some paperwork.  I just reached my clerical breaking point.  Entering parking stubs is monotonous.  But I have to do it in order to get money back…

Another breaking point I went through today was the realization that I should go buy a bed.  So I went to Sleep Country and bought a mattress with pillowtop and good support, and it was on cash’n'carry as well as mix’n'match so I got it for much cheaper than it should have cost regular price.  And he threw in a 1/2 price mattress cover too.  And then after doing some equipment pickup, I went to Ikea and flew in and booked it out after purchasing a day-bed.  A couple hours later and it’s now constructed and ready to be enjoyed.  I hope this purchase will allow for me to have more restful sleep, even if my sleep length doesn’t increase.

Last Thursday I went to a concert at a nightclub to see the amazing turntablist Kid Koala.  Unfortunately the doors opened at 10pm and Kid Koala only started spinning at midnight.  I stayed until about 1:30 or 2am.  He was amazing.  Somehow he managed to keep the floor pretty hyped and moving even though it was an amazingly complex set.  This DJ manages to play amazing beats for the dance floor, while still churning out some unbelievably skilled moves on 3 turntables.  I pretty much stood there the whole night watching in amazement.  If I understood more about turntablism I think I would have been even more awed.  A neat thing is in this day and age of Final Scratch (the age of digital vinyl scratching, where you don’t have to ever switch plates anymore, you can store your whole collection on a Mac and scratch virtually anything you want from the hard disk) Kid Koala still sticks with the old-school vinyl.  No samplers, no effects racks, just two (or three) turntables and a mixer.

I would liken this talent to John Mayer, who can totally throw down some mad licks effortlessly, and still make melodic music that the general public enjoys.  Except Kid Koala is on the very edge of new music, pushing the limits.  John Mayer’s music is still mad crazy, but he uses a mainstream instrument (electric guitar) with history-steeped tone (blues, etc).

So that night also set a trend that I can’t knock off.  I haven’t been able to really sleep earlier than 2am for the past 4 days.  I’m kind of tired, but my body doesn’t really want to hit the hay.  Although when my head hits the pillow, I’m totally out really quickly.  It’s just brutal when I realize that the rest of the world still runs on normal daylight time.