Sleep is a Good Thing
I can only remember a couple of times when I can say I have been truly exhausted.
One of those times was during the Christmas Season. This usually causes me a great deal of stress and total exhaustion. I was decorating at the last minute, which is normal for this master procrastinator. My husband was having a social at our house with his meeting buddies. In order for me to create what I thought was “Better Homes and Gardens Holiday Magazine,” I actually stayed up three nights in a row without going to bed or allowing myself to rest in any shape or form. I would not recommend this, as strange things happen to you when you try to go without shuteye. Since I also had to go to work during the day, I decorated all night and continued on my necessary schedule. I can say that I actually started seeing objects in my peripheral vision. To say I was exhausted was an understatement. To start this holiday event, the club that came to my house had a speaker before we were to party. I have never been so tired. I had to use every ounce in my being to stay awake for his speech. What he spoke about, I have no idea. So, don’t try this at any time, as it is very dangerous to your health, taken from experience.
Another time was when I had knee surgery. Everything went well, I went to physical therapy, and did everything I was supposed to. The feeling of a successful surgery lasted for about two weeks. Then it hit me. I felt terrible, was so exhausted, didn’t want to, and couldn’t get out of bed except on those necessary occasions when duty called. For two weeks, I lay in bed not reading, not watching TV, not showing any interest in anything, including not being able to eat. I just lay there literally for two weeks. I did force myself to go to physical therapy, but barely made it there and couldn’t wait to get back to my bed to just veg.
I was finally forced by my husband to come downstairs to eat. By this time, he was getting very frustrated with me, and consequently, I felt I had better go and make a showing at the table. He had made a casserole out of noodles and cream of mushroom soup. It looked awful to me. I had been nursing a McDonald’s hamburger all day and swore I would be sick if I ate any more. Well, he brought me a large dish of his cream of mushroom delicacy and watched as I ate it. Well, I took a little spoonful and was surprised that it stayed down. I took a second spoonful and thought, “Geez, this isn’t half bad as long as you don’t look at it. Then, when the third spoonful went down, all my energy came back; I could feel myself coming back from whatever had caused my exhaustion and illness, and I felt great. I mean, really great, totally cured. I literally felt the symptoms of sickness leave my body. Wow, that was a shock and a welcome one at that. My doctor suggested that Art manufacture this miracle dinner. That sounded like an interesting idea to me. Bring on the Cream of Mushroom Casserole.
On another occasion where I was known for staying up all night at work to get extra and necessary work done. Well, my sister was moving from California to Wisconsin and needed help moving. She asked my daughter, Lisa, and me to help her. So, in order to accomplish this necessary feat, I knew I would have to do an all-nighter for sure, as this was unplanned, and I had lots, lots of work to do. So, with the help of my two daughters, I actually got everything that needed to be done at the office, with all of us staying up all night and working our fool heads off. Then had to go home to pack. Well, Lisa and I, who had two of the three who stayed up all night, were then on our way to California. The packing consisted of a whole condo of furniture to be picked up by a moving company in two days. We, again, were not able to sleep as we had a deadline to keep. We were found sleeping in a hamster mode on the bedroom floor, sound asleep. We were woken up, as, remember, we had a deadline to keep. When we were done, we felt like a decent meal would be a good treat. Well, in dirty clothes, no sleep, and no proper nutrition, we went to a rather fancy restaurant for dinner. We were all so tired that my sister fell asleep with her spoon halfway to her mouth. I would say we were exhausted to the max.
When I was helping my daughter get an apartment ready when she was in college. It was nothing to go on a weekend, paint, ladders, and brushes in hand, and decorate for a whole weekend again without sleeping. After all, we only had a weekend to accomplish the re-creation of an apartment. I would stop painting, take a nap right where I was painting, and wake up and continue on with whatever project I was doing. Driving home was another interesting feat. But I did it and lived to tell this story.
In reading this over, it seems there is a word to describe these actions, and that is “Stupidity”. Sleep is a good thing.
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