Day Three
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HALLOWEEN
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EARPLUGS
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PERRY THE PLATYPUS
| HALLOWEEN | EARPLUGS | PERRY THE PLATYPUS
Today’s vibe:
For some totally random reason I was much more at peace with the world today. A good night’s sleep may have helped, combined with the fact that when I woke up the sun was just starting to shine on the tops of the trees out of the bedroom window. The weather really does have a huge impact on my mood and today was an undeniably beautiful fall day in Connecticut.
My other half was not so cheerful. He was already up at 7am, but not with a spring in his step. Apparently he’d been awake at 3am, 4am, and then had finally given up and got out of bed around 6am. He said something about “bloody cats” and then commented on my snoring (rude!). The cats are a pain in the backside to be fair (glossing over the snoring bit). We have five (I know, we’re crazy). Two of them live pretty much full-time in the basement. They’re very sweet and don’t cause too much trouble -just roll over and let you tickle their tummies when you go down, and meow for food periodically. Then we have Apollo, the Prince of Cats , basically everything a cat should be - majestic, slightly aloof but will succumb to a cuddle - likes to go out and put critters in their place but doesn’t rub it in your face. Then there’s Romeo, the youngest, slightly paranoid cat who the others all seem to hate. He pounces on them and pretends to be tough but then they turn on him and he gets all neurotic and pees all over the sofas. That’s bad enough - but then, we have Loki. Loki started life as a male kitten but we soon discovered she was actually female - we thought the name was actually surprisingly spot on so we stuck with it. Initially she was sweet as anything. She spent most of her life asleep on our bed stretching out in the rays of sunshine and letting you bury your nose in her lovely long, soft, fur. We’d even have conversations about whether we ought to encourage her to be a bit more active and how she didn’t do much compared to the others. Flash forward about 18 months and that cat has had a COMPLETE personality change. She went from never having stepped outside to becoming a crazy huntress. It started with mice and baby bunnies and last week she caught a squirrel, ate it’s face off - just it’s face, mind you - and left the rest of it in the screen porch for us to clean up. Nasty. Additionally, she is INCREDIBLY demanding. I’ve literally never heard a cat meow so loudly or so incessantly, and, she likes to go outside in the middle of the night - hence my husband’s disturbed sleep.
You may be wondering why all the cat shenanigans didn’t disturb my slumber. The answer - earplugs! I don’t know how anyone female going through perimenopause, menopause or just life generally lives without them! In fact, I’m not sure if this is something that everyone experiences, but over the past 2 years or so, getting to sleep at night has become quite a palaver.
To sleep I require:
A very nice, tight, unbobbled fitted sheet with no crumbs or creases
A single top sheet (my husband does not like sleeping under a top sheet, so this is only on my side of the bed). When it gets cold I can forgo this.
A single duvet (we have two singles on our kingsized bed as I can’t abide drafts of cold air when other people turn over)
Three pillows - one feather, one some random make Chris bought for me that’s nice and firm and I have to take everywhere with me because it’s literally the only pillow I can sleep on - and one extra just to throw on the floor
A top blanket folded over concertina style so I can pull it up in the night when I get cold
March to September - a bed height fan pointed right at my face
A mason glass “vase” of water - seriously, I just looked at it and it’s 800ml
Earplugs
Honestly, even then, it’s hit or miss whether I actually can go to sleep. Bloody hormones.
Anyway, last night, I did sleep, and today the sun shone and I got lots of work done and felt like a productive member of society so everything was good. Also, it’s Halloween and we got to give the lovely little kids on our street candy, and my daughter went to school dressed a Perry the Platypus. So all in all, an uneventful but nice day.
So, today I am grateful for:
Halloween - it’s a bit of a rubbish holiday in the UK where I’m from but we do it in style in the US. Love seeing all the little kids having fun in their costumes (and the big kids!)
Earplugs - see above.
Perry the Platypus - because my youngest was having so much fun dressed up as him and dancing around today.
Word Cloud - Actually, I think I’ll start calling it a Gratitude Cloud
Each day I’m asking people to take part in helping to create a Gratitude Cloud. This way we can all see the things that other people are grateful for and perhaps we’ll think - “You know, I’m grateful for hot chocolate too!” and then we’ll all feel EVEN more grateful to be alive. So please take part if it appeals. I’ll update the cloud each day - you can find yesterdays’s here.