Off Work...Doctor's Orders

Day 1, Monday, July 6, 2015

So, I was a little befuddled this morning. I got up with Mike, as usual, then went back to bed for a nap. I wasn’t sure....set the alarm or not? What do people do? I didn’t want to sleep my day away, but then again, I wanted my body to get the rest it needed. In the end, I did not set the alarm and slept from 7:00 AM to 10:00 AM. Well, that should be enough sleep for anybody! I hope I sleep tonight.

Just out of bed, I wandered around trying to figure out what was next. (You’d think getting dressed would be the natural next move!) Again, I was a little out of my realm. How does one plan to relax without being lazy? As it turns out, that proves to be a difficult line to walk.

I got myself breakfast, then prepared stuffed green peppers for the crock pot, all the while texting Mom, Alice, Olivia, my work mate, Stephen, and Stephen Dale on various subjects. i suppose I must have spent about 2 hours in the kitchen, unloading, reloading, and running the dishwasher twice; making my breakfast and our dinner, and putting away all the mess at the end, all the while jibber-jabbering to everyone in general and no one in particular by way of text messaging.

I threw a load of hang-up clothes in the washer, then moved them over to the dryer and sat down for a 45 minute nap in Mike’s chair. When I got up, it was almost time for Mike to come home, so I put my makeup on, and slipped into some jeans. I checked the dryer, but my t-shirts weren’t dry yet, so I stayed in the top I had been wearing all day. I had a few more minutes, so I worked on separating the pile of junk I had brought home from Mamaw’s old apartment. I started to feel tired right about then. That must have been about 4:15 or so, and that was after a 3-hour morning nap, and a 45-minute afternoon one.

Sure enough, Mike got home about 15 minutes later, and I went to sit down in the living room with him for a few minutes. He fell asleep and I looked at Facebook for a while. When he woke up, we went out to get cat food and litter, then came home and ate and cleaned up the dinner dishes. By now, I was really feeling it. Just to be clear, “really feeling it” turns out to be so much less tired than I feel at work every normal day. That’s a little scary, that understanding of how far too far I push myself every day. Is it any wonder I am declining quickly?

I think I’m doing a good job listening to my body, but it really is a little unnerving facing the truth about what I’m doing to myself day after day.

Now I am on rest time for the remainder of the evening, and journaling, as Mike requested.  I think I’m going to make a list of … something. I don’t know what…. maybe nothing.

i’m just a little befuddled still, I think.