Rules

Ahoy there, skippy.

Don't be offended, I call everyone that at some point in me knowing them.

Anyway, now that second semester is nipping at my heels, attempting to start consuming me and my sanity . . . or something like that . . . I have requested some rules that my best pal and her roommate established for their dorm room which I believe could work nicely for my dorm room.

1. No dance parties while Jenna is gone (Jenna is NOT my roommate, she's five hours away)
2. Door = LOCKED when we have our pants around our ankles (. . . Yeah. Don't want to be caught in a compromising situation, but my roommate walks loudly enough I can hear him coming.)
3. No taking naps instead of doing homework (TV instead of homework is okay) (I'm highly likely to break this one.)
4. No dying! (I make no promises)
5. Don’t turn down Combos (Obvious. It's free food, you never turn down free food. Ever.)
6. No murdering with spoons (Again, I make no promises.)
7. Jenna must bring her keys (I tend to leave my keys in my room, all the time, unless I leave the building)
8. Don’t panic! (This one may be an issue toward Finals)
9. No Yankees fans (Also obvious. This is Twins Territory, deal with it.)
10. No expired food . . . in the fridge. (I will go on an axe murdering rampage if this happens. Okay, not really, I'm not violent at all. I will however put in my angry eyes)

Most of these have exceptions and are plenty self explanatory. If there are any questions, please don't hesitate to ask. However, I feel obligated to tell you that if you ask an obvious question, I will be forced to mock you. If we can abide by these rules, I truly believe we can have a successful and pleasant second semester. 

P.S. This post is not what I originally had in mind. This is simply a whole lot easier than trying to reign in my train of thought on the other one I had planned on posting. Just throwing that out there.

Sleep

As defined by Dictionary.com, sleep is a verb which means "to take the rest afforded by a suspension of voluntary bodily functions and the natural suspension, complete or partial, of consciousness; cease being awake."

I am particularly bad, downright suckish at doing this verb at normal human hours. Because of this, I have developed what some people call "night owl tendencies."  Which is somewhat redundant . . . I mean, you only ever see owls at night. When was the last time you saw an owl at two in the afternoon? 
 

 Okay, you win.

However, generally, owls are nocturnal and unfortunately, so am I, sort of. 

I did a little researching as to why I was having such trouble at falling asleep at regular hours to fit societal norms. I came across a specific condition that fit me pretty much to a T. A big capital T, like those last two Ts you just read. I believe I have Delayed Sleep Phase Syndrome. 

DSPS Overview, Incidence and Prevalence - Delayed Sleep Phase Syndrome - Sleep Channel

Oh, hey look! A magical link you can click! I almost went with Wikipedia, but some people like to question its reliability. Wikipedia can be a useful source if you follow the citations given at the bottom of the page. 


The sad thing is that I've been like this for, like, ever. According to my parental and grandparental units anyway. When I was a wee little babe I had a difficult time going to sleep. Clicking around on that link will show people out there going through the same or similar situation. Huzzah! I'm not alone. 

However, being a night owl has put me in awful situations: Missing several classes and my grades being affected by it. I also have been called lazy, told I have a poor work ethic, and a variety of other things that are completely untrue and hurtful. I don't mean to miss classes. I don't mean to sleep till 12 on the weekends (or weekdays). I don't mean to be anything other than me (I feel like that is a song lyric/line of poetry). I am a night owl. I can't change that. As much as I would like to try and change that, there is no changing that. If I've been like this for 18 years, why and how would I change now? Someone, give me an answer. 

That's what I thought. 

I don't appreciate being told to be more pro-active with sleeping and waking up on time. I do try. Nothing works. I don't appreciate being condescended to because of my sleeping habits. Just because I don't pop out of bed like a Pop-Tart every morning like some people I know [cough cough], doesn't mean I'm a bad person who has no future. Society can suck it.

Okay, society already has been sucking at, well, everything for a while now. 

I am also making generalizations, something I try to avoid doing, but every so often they slip out.

So basically, sleep and I are on really good terms, specifically, its terms. Meaning, no sleeping before one in the morning, two sometimes. If I choose to rebel against it and just say hey, I'm not going to do the whole sleep thing tonight (which happened way too many times first semester), sleep will come up from nowhere and beat me into submission till I'm sleeping, which makes our relationship abusive. (Sidenote: I know abusive relationships are real and aren't a joking matter) Sleep is pretty much the dominant partner here and no matter how much I try to take control, sleep lulls me into a false sense of security and pounces on me later, effectively taking control back. 

And that's all that I'm going to say about my relationship with sleep.

Being A Functioning Member of Society

As everyone knows, No Shave November was last month. It ended December 1st. I recently removed the product of No Shave November about 10 minutes ago. On December 19th.

I'm a bum. 

I looked like a bum, a homeless bum. 

Like this, only less Shia LaBeuof, and more, well me. And less creepy mustache. 

I didn't shave for . . . 3 reasons. 

1) It keeps my face warm. Let's be serious, I live in Minnesota, otherwise known as Minnesnowta and I quote, "another Siberia, unfit for human habitation."

2) In all honesty, most days I generally don't care if I have some facial hair. It adds character and I am quite the character as everyone who knows me can attest to, and

3) I tend to be a bit lazy when it comes to that aspect of self grooming.

So with that out of the way, I am now the proud owner of a clean-shaven face.

Yay. 

Anyway . . . I believe I have begun catching up on sleep! He says at 5:30 in the morning. I slept till two yesterday, after sleeping for like ever the night before and not getting any the night before that. I do plan on sleeping at more normal hours in the coming future so this whole blog thing may have to be retitled, potentially. Although I do enjoy the title, it makes me happy and feel somewhat original! I really hope I start sleeping at normal hours anyway . . . I have an 8:30 class everyday next semester . . . stupid French. Oh well, it has to happen and all that. 

Now, I need to either go to sleep or just pull, another, all nighter . . . which are both bleak options. Sleep doesn't want to come to me and well, staying up again just seems like a simpler and easier option. Just bah. My circadian rhythm just loves me; we have a dysfunctional relationship.

Home

I can now confidently say that I have completed my first semester of college.

Good deal.

I was sick of half of my classes and a fourth of my professors. It was super frustrating having to go through classes I didn't want to take, or even volunteer to take, wait, yes I did volunteer, by going to Concordia. I like the idea of going to a liberal arts college, but some of the requirements just get in the way. I talked about this with one of my clubbies and how the core is a total drag but how fantastically awesome it is to have the opportunity to take the classes that don't necessarily meet the requirements of our majors.

So, I've been waiting for the end of semester since, oh, about Thanksgiving Break, roughly three weeks ago. I am ready for two whole weeks of doing absolutely nothing. I almost started writing in the third person just now. Cursed be Facebook and the whole third person status update thing, but I digress. I plan to do some reading. I brought home A Clockwork Orange and The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. I also plan to sleep . . . I love sleep. Like a whole bunch. I would say I would marry sleep if I could, but I can't.  I mean, Facebook won't even let me be in a complicated relationship with it. Trust me, I tried.

If I could just hibernate for a few days, that would be spectacular. It would be my way of thanking my mind for not blanking out on me during Finals week. It would also be me thanking my body. It went through two all nighters in the past week and didn't just crash. Go body, go. Gold star for you.

Currently, I am sitting on a couch, having just woken up all of a half hour ago. I was bombarded with a request to do more "blagging," Michael, and this blog is dedicated to you. L'chaim and what not. (L'chaim means "to life." See? Theatre teaches you stuff!! O.o ) I am watching tv for the first time in what feels like forever and listening to my iTunes library. Nothing of any importance. I also have a half gallon of orange juice nearby; I love me my orange juice. To top off my little celebration of being home, I have two cookies, a half eaten bag of M & M's, and an orange.

Oh yeah, party central over here in the 55704! Woot woot!

Go team, go.

The Beginning

Oh hello there, it seems that you have found your way to a land of magic and wonder. If this is not the destination you wanted, well, sorry. 

Anyway, welcome to my blog! I felt inspired to set one up at various times but just failed to do so because of lack of inspirational topics and what not . . .  however, now that I am at college and have discovered how much I suck at this little game called "Sleeping Like a Normal Human at Normal Hours," I decided to create one. The title of my blog, as seen above, "Late Night and Street Lights" comes from a) my inability to fall asleep early like a normal person and b) the view I have of multiple street lights from my dorm room (Okay, not really street lights, more like path lights, but street lights had a much better ring to it). As a matter of fact, I have a street light right below my window, give or take a few feet. 

See? This is the view I have.

Now, I don't know how many people I will have reading my blog, ever. Which means little to me. This blog will be a cathartic experience for me. Just me, venting, getting my feelings out . . . on the internet, or as my floor likes to call it (maybe just me) the interwebs. Hmmmm. Maybe I should rethink the purpose of this blog? I dunno. Who knows. 

Well, I have sufficiently wasted time, as well as a bunch of other things, what specifically, I do not know. So, with that, I take my leave and we'll see where this blog takes me.