It’s in the middle of the night and I’m completely wide awake, smoking the last of my cigarettes until I go to the pharmacy first thing in the morning to pick up my nicotine patches. When I first got up I was miserable and grumpy and out of sorts and chain smoking, until I had my cup of coffee and then I was okay and a more reasonable human being. Coffee does set me to rights and I can never do without it. It’s like a medicine to me. I sorts out my brain. I’m convinced of the healing powers of caffeine in my case. I don’t know what it does for you, but for me it is a very positive experience.

I read blogs, which I was behind on, and left comments on most of them. Some of them I had not read in three days, so I was shamefully behind. I had not been in the proper mood and could not bring myself to read them, let alone comment on them. I am caught up now and can relax again. I feel I’ve had my enjoyment and done my duty. I read some blogs that I hardly ever comment on, because I feel a little bit like a stranger there, but I’m a faithful follower. I hope the fact that I show up counts for enough.

I had not planned to stay up, but now that I am, I am going to make the most of it and enjoy myself. I’m in such a good mood now that I want to take advantage of that and let the situation last as long as possible. I’m not going to spoil it by going to bed. There’s not a hair on my head that’s thinking about it anyway. I’m too excited to go to bed just now.

I do have very interesting dreams when I sleep and I wonder how much they are influenced by what I hear on the radio while I’m asleep. I have elements in my dreams that were not there before, so I’m sure they are coming from outside, but I give my own twist to them and incorporate them into my own fantasies. Music is part of it and I do dream about that regularly, but have people play it whom I know very well. Or have them sing songs. Still, although I listen to a Dutch radio station, all my dreams take place in the English language, of that I’m sure, and I find that interesting. My dreams are all very dramatic and look like large screen movie productions with special effects and a music score and everything. Like a filmed opera, I suppose. There’s wailing going on too, sometimes. Lord only knows what I listen to at night.

I talked to my sister yesterday and she told me that her party went on until 2:30 in the morning. Can you imagine lasting that long? I would have called it quits by midnight. I’m so obviously not a party animal and my sister so obviously is. She always has a lot of fun in a crowd of people. I do better in small intimate groups. She’s a very outgoing person, a real extrovert and shares herself with anyone and everybody. I’m more introverted and private and share myself sparingly. Except on my blog, that’s the exception. I share myself here because I can be contemplative and choose my words carefully and show what I want to show, although I’m not that secretive about myself. For the most part, I’m pretty open and tell it like it is in a mostly rational way.

For the past few days I’ve felt a bit down and I thought that maybe I was getting depressed, but it seems to have lifted now and I feel better. I suppose those are just the natural cycles that people go through that I have to get used to. Not every mood has to have a significant meaning, except for the last one I had, which was distinctly hypomanic and could have gotten me into a lot of trouble. As it is, the damage was relatively small and I didn’t do anything too crazy, except for buying a new sofa and coffee table and area rug. That’s still within reason, just about. I’m going to pay them off with the money I save on the tobacco I won’t be buying anymore. That adds up to a large amount of money.

I’m afraid of the black dog that’s always stalking me in the background, but maybe he will stay in the background this season. I’ve had years when he didn’t appear at all, and maybe this will be one of them. I’m as prepared as I can be and have all systems in place. I know I can count on the light therapy lamp to elevate my mood, there’s no doubt about that. It’s a shame that I had lost faith in it and didn’t use it last year. It would have saved me a lot of bother.

Yesterday afternoon I didn’t have an Internet connection. I reset the modem four times, unsuccessfully. I finally called the help desk and they talked me through the procedure and it turned out in the end that the cable in the hard drive wasn’t plugged in properly. Duh! I think Tyke must have pulled it loose when he went to retrieve his ball. It sure puzzled me and I hadn’t thought of that solution, but I will from now on. It will be the first place I look if and when it happens again. You learn a new lesson every day. It makes you appear a little dumb, but I don’t care about that. Let them think what they want, as long as I have my connection back.

Well, I’m going to enjoy the last hours of my smoking life. I have to stock up on some air freshener and Febrèze. I’m going to treat the whole apartment and do lots of laundry. I will have the place smelling good in no time.

Have a good day!