Corner of Bourbon & Division

 ... and yet, it hasn't been that long. Insomnia posts will do that to you. ;)

I survived going to work on one hour of sleep by breaking every rule I know is good for me and buying an energy drink (I KNOW), but so far it doesn't appear to have killed me, regardless of the caffeine content or any of the other content. Everything in moderation, energy drinks once a year, etc.

Last night I increased the amount of sleep I got by 400%! It was very exciting, I must say. On a more serious note, the lack of sleep can stop ANY TIME. It's been a good thirteen years or so since I last had chronic insomnia, and with the passage of time I forgot just how much it sucked. I mean, I remembered it, but in that intellectual way that probably makes women forget about the pain of childbirth, too. :P Tonight I plan on sleeping even if it kills me.

*record scratch* Wait. 

Okay, so I'm clearly a little loopy, but I'm in a remarkably good mood in spite of it all. I got a little frustrated with people at work, but not my coworkers, just the faceless people on the other side of Computerland™ who don't understand how to do their job properly so that I, in turn, can do my job. Overall, the past two days at work have been okay, although parts of them dragged considerably due to my being super tired.

I started trying my hand at learning Romanian on Duolingo, and while the new course is still in beta and not always super clear or helpful, I'm enjoying it quite a bit so far. My lack of brainpower is hindering me considerably, however. I have to revise the same basic things over and over and over in order to be able to assimilate them even a little bit. I finally finished Basics 1 (after revising it five times), and am feeling confident enough to move onto Basics 2. I got myself a notebook, and am trying to help myself by taking my own notes instead of relying entirely on the website. My main frustration is that so far there has been very little explanation about when or how to use pronouns, and when and how declensions come into play. So when an exercise asks you to write a sentence and the program hasn't actually taught you the dative form yet, you get it wrong automatically. They also have a distressing tendency to add new words randomly in exercises that were not part of the lesson. Still, it's in beta, so I'm willing to give them some leeway, here.

Apart from that, there's not much to report. I worked, I played some D&D (a mini-campaign being run by an Internet friend), I slept poorly, I worked again. Somewhere in there I bought pet-friendly de-icer and put it all over my steps and driveway, because Canada is drunk and doesn't know what weather to have, and thus turned my steps into a death trap. Is my life exciting, or what?

Tonight is Critical Role night! I'm excited, but also conflicted, because it starts very late and ends even later, and I should go to bed early. I may compromise and try to nap first, we shall see. I don't want to truly mess up my sleep cycle, but I'm starting a night shift tomorrow anyway, so I don't know how much of a difference it would make. Decisions, decisions!

That's it! Stay tuned for more thrilling adventures in the life of Phnee.

I'm sorry, you say I got that wrong? That it's Valentine's Day? *peers out the window* Snow Day seems like a perfectly apt name for it. :P

Happy Valentine's Day for those who celebrate it, whether you're single, dating, married, shacked up, in a polyamorous relationship, whatever permutation of humanity floats your boat. Love is for everyone, and doesn't come purely in the form of romantic love, no matter what the greeting cards would like to have you believe.

The proof is in the pudding, after all. Lots of friends get together on Valentine's Day to do something special. My father always made sure that both my mother and I got a symbolic present on the day, too. It wasn't about being a couple, it was about love, and he loves both of us.

It'll be the same tonight. If I can get through all this snow, I need to run some errands in order to make tonight special. I haven't figured out what I want to make for dinner. It has to be something Bean will eat (hah), but I'd also like it to be a little fancier than our usual fare. I also need to wrap the tiny presents I got. I was going to knit little Valentine's hearts for the two of them, but I think I won't have time. Maybe next time. :)

I keep meaning to get back into knitting, but I haven't yet found a pattern that I like and that will use only the yarn I have in my stash. pdaughter seems to really like her Doctor Who scarf, so at least there's that. I should check my stash again, and see what I might be able to get away with.

Also, in my copious amount of spare time, I'm thinking of trying to learn to draw better than I do now. That's not hard, as I can't even manage basic drawing right now. If I ever manage to get myself out of the house today, I'm planning on a trip to Michael's for stitch holders and for a small drawing pad and pencils. I may borrow pdaughter's copy of Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain and do some of those exercises (I had my own copy, but a long time ago my cats peed all over it and ruined it. My cats are one of the numerous reasons I can't have nice things.). I wonder if april_drawing is still taking place? I've been out of the loop.

I miss a lot of the things I used to do before work ate my life. I miss dancing and learning languages. Dancing isn't feasible these days, schedule-wise, but I may look for some language books and see if I can't immerse myself back in German or Italian, or maybe start a new language. Spanish seems a pretty likely candidate. The last time I tried Mandarin was an unmitigated disaster, so I think holding off on that is a better plan.

Not me, Bean. He refused dinner last night and this morning wouldn't eat breakfast, and he's running a low-grade fever. Apart from that, though, he's much the same as he always is, if slightly quieter. Right now he's playing a computer game with pdaughter and providing running commentary about the "tricky" puzzle she's working on.

So today's plans have changed. I was going to try to work on my novel, and I still might try, but obviously I'm not optimistic about whether I'll be able to manage anything on it today. If the current level of quiet persists, I might be able to write at least a few hundred words. Maybe. Afternoons are usually harder for Bean, though, because he's a lot more tired by then.

I think I'll try writing this morning while things are still quiet, and do things like laundry in the afternoon. I have at least one load waiting for me, but I'm reluctant to "waste" the quiet right now. ;)

tx_cronopio has asked me to talk about the French language and whether or not it's as easy for me as English, and while I was originally going to write about that today, I think I'll save it for tomorrow. What little writing time I have today I'm going to try to devote to fiction, while I can.

I made pancakes this morning, and am about to have a second cup of coffee. Currently chatting with pdaughter about the clusterfuck that is the Sochi Winter Olympics so far. Human rights violations aside, the whole thing sounds like a shambles. I might try to articulate my thoughts/feelings on that too, in the coming days.

Just because I can. ;)

This is a public service announcement:

There is NO "a" in "definitely." The adverb comes from the adjective "definite." Note the lack of "a" at the end of that word too?

Good.

Please, for the love of God, stop spelling it "definatly." That is not a word. It does not exist in the English language. Please stop using it before people come to view it as an acceptable term to use.

I honestly don't understand how native English speakers, who come into regular contact with this word, cannot spell it to save their lives. Exceptions can be made for non-native speakers, but after they've been told a few times how to spell it properly, there's no excuse there anymore either.

That is all. You may now continue with your day.