Kids say the darndest things.

Friday evening, I received a phone call from my niece Laura. She started the conversation by asking if I was working the following day (which is never a good sign when it comes to a phone call from one of my nephews or nieces). Apparently, she had forgotten about the ISSMA (Indiana State School Music Association) choir contest she was required to attend Saturday morning, and needed a ride to and from the contest seeing as both her mom and step-dad were working. My sister's children are notorious for forgetting about events and springing them on you at the last minute. Although I was scheduled to work on Saturday it luckily was not until later in the afternoon, so I told Laura it would be no problem for me to take her to the contest.

Afterwards, I decided to run a couple of errands and take my niece to lunch at Steak 'N Shake before taking her home. As we were leaving the school parking lot, my niece gave me what she tells me is the highest compliment you can receive from a teenager. She said, "You're cool to be seen with in public."

How about that. I'm cool to be seen with in public. :-D

Not a morning person (but not a night owl either).

If you asked, I would tell you that I am one hundred percent, completely and totally NOT a morning person. During the week when my alarm goes off at 6:00a.m. I find myself hitting snooze repeatedly, and by 6:30a.m. I am having to force myself to get out of bed. I would also tell you that I cannot remember the last time I woke up feeling refreshed and ready to start the day (okay, so I CAN remember - it was exactly eight months and ten days ago).

(That would be July 10, 2008 for those of you who are wondering.)

(I know, it's pathetic that I remember the exact date of the last time I actually felt like I got a decent night's sleep.)

(Don't judge me.)

After my alarm has gone off and I am hitting snooze, desperately trying to ignore the fact that if I do not get out of bed I am going to be late for work, I often think about the movie Bruce Almighty, when Jim Carrey's character Bruce is throwing a temper tantrum when he has to get out of bed in the morning. I often have to stifle the urge to start kicking and throwing just such a tantrum myself. (Seeing as how I sleep on my futon, without it being folded out so it is like a couch rather than like a bed, the reality of my throwing such a tantrum would most likely end with me falling on the floor.)

The funny thing is, I know I am more productive in the morning than I am at any other time of day, and most mornings I naturally wake up around 5:30a.m. On the occasions when I actually get out of bed rather than rolling over and falling back asleep, I feel much better than when I have allowed myself to hit snooze. Either way though, I am still generally tired throughout the entire day, and most nights I am ready to pass out around nine or ten o'clock (yet I usually don't go to bed until almost midnight). I find it nearly impossible to wake up in the morning, yet I also struggle to stay up late at night. So, if I'm neither a morning person nor a night owl, what does that make me?

I think it might be time for me to accept the fact that I am meant to be a morning person, and I need to start going to bed earlier.

Up in Smoke.

There was a fire that started downtown around three o'clock this morning. This is a picture of the smoke from the fire almost ten hours later, taken from the top floor of the building where I work.

This is how I feel right now.

Like everything in my life is going up in smoke.