My Kingdom for a Nap
Mother has decided that naps, for me, are a no-no. I lay down and within 45 minutes to an hour she's in my room asking me what I'm doing, not that the closed eyes and snoring are any clue. This wouldn't be so bad if she also didn't decide that I needed to be woken up in the middle of the night. Friday's are hard for me since I close the store on Thursday nights, meaning that my body is wide awake when I get home around 9:30. I'm usually up way after midnight (2:00 a.m. this time) and her waking me up at 4:00 makes the 6:00 alarm clock a scary thought. So naps on Friday is a must - just not this Friday.
THE CHAIR arrives Saturday which means my life shut in mother's room will begin. It's almost half-way that now since she calls me in there every five minutes or so, which makes this week of cleaning hard to do. I've already started ordering season DVD's of shows that she likes because the cable in that room is limited. We have what are referred to as A and B channels, and that TV only gets B channels, like Sci-Fi (not for her) and Court TV (also a no-no), but History Channel, TCM and GSN do help. So yesterday the 6th season of I Love Lucy and the 1st season of The Rockford Files arrived (mom loves Rockford). I have to make sure that I buy things that I don't mind watching.
This week off of the blogs has been hard, but necessary as I have managed to get a lot of organizing and cleaning done. Hopefully I'll finish by Monday (it's been so hot that I haven't been able to clean after noon). I've also got to figure out someway to organize my blogging - since my time away from mom will be limited. Oh well, something else to think about.
That's it - I know, very deep and revealing post, but I'm too tired to think of anything else. Well, there is the Regis Philbin thing - which I'll blog about later.
Take care.
THE CHAIR arrives Saturday which means my life shut in mother's room will begin. It's almost half-way that now since she calls me in there every five minutes or so, which makes this week of cleaning hard to do. I've already started ordering season DVD's of shows that she likes because the cable in that room is limited. We have what are referred to as A and B channels, and that TV only gets B channels, like Sci-Fi (not for her) and Court TV (also a no-no), but History Channel, TCM and GSN do help. So yesterday the 6th season of I Love Lucy and the 1st season of The Rockford Files arrived (mom loves Rockford). I have to make sure that I buy things that I don't mind watching.
This week off of the blogs has been hard, but necessary as I have managed to get a lot of organizing and cleaning done. Hopefully I'll finish by Monday (it's been so hot that I haven't been able to clean after noon). I've also got to figure out someway to organize my blogging - since my time away from mom will be limited. Oh well, something else to think about.
That's it - I know, very deep and revealing post, but I'm too tired to think of anything else. Well, there is the Regis Philbin thing - which I'll blog about later.
Take care.
posted by Bailey Stewart at 8:38 PM
4 Comments:
Eve--I was talking to a man I work with today, when I suddenly yawned. He then told me about something he's trying: polyphasic sleep. (Here's his blog.) Basically, you get yourself used to sleeping for about 4 hours and then take a nap every four hours. Wait! Don't we already do that?? Supposedly, if you do the naps right (hmm, might be a problem there), you get the REM sleep you need, plus, extra time. I'd explain more, but I'm ready for bed!
That's sort of like my old routine - until mom decided that naps were a no-go. I'd write or read until midnight, then sleep until 6:00 (of course, midnight meant turning off the light and settling in bed, not necessarily going to sleep), so I averaged about 5 hours a night. Then I'd be up until about noon or 1:00 - nap until 3:00 or 4:00 and then off for the day. That was the only way I could do it, but now - I don't know. I think I'm about to lose a lot more of my life than I expected. We'll see. If I can't take a nap during the day, then I can't stay up late. If I can't stay up late, then no writing or reading ... yikes.
I'll be back to blogging on Monday.
I can relate very much to the sleeping part of this (not to mention the housecleaning which is my bete noir!).
These days my mom and I and my pc are all in the same room, but if I lie down for a nap and she cannot see me before long she starts to rave and I am awakened by her calling out.
Last week when she was in care for my Respite Care stint, I slept 12 hours a night for 4 or 5 nights in a row. It was wonderful, though!
Patricia
The DVD routine sounds very familiar. A (humorous) word of caution: I've found myself going crazy from the repetition of theme songs every half hour to an hour when Mom stays on the same series. It didn't take me long to figure out that the best thing to do is to insist that she watch one episode of, say, "Murder She Wrote", then a couple episodes of "Mary Tyler Moore", then something else, etc. Since she can't operate the remote (she doesn't understand it, anymore), changing programs keeps me busy but it's worth it not to hear "Who can turn the world on with a smile?" over and over and over...
When it's a series I really enjoy, like Northern Exposure or Sex and the City, I watch with her and am there to forward through the theme. Otherwise, suffice it to say that I don't give a good god damn, anymore, "Who can turn the world on with a smile"! And, that one used to be a favorite show theme of mine! Thank the gods I learned my lesson before the theme to Roseanne lost it's appeal for me!
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