Sleepy, sleepy

I made a glorious discovery today. Are you ready for my most wonderful epiphany? Are you sure?

Here it is:

Sleep is good.

After weeks of staying up until 1 AM I finally succumbed to exhaustion last night and crawled into bed at 10 PM.

Those who have lived with me can attest that my awaking from a deep slumber can be best compared to separating a grizzly bear from it's dinner. Needless to say I'm not what you call a morning person. So when I stumbled out of bed at 7 AM (+ 30 minutes), I was amazed to discover I had a ready supply of energy.

I did my hair, ate breakfast, and even (drum roll please) made my lunch. On top of that I had the capacity to think in complete sentences AND problem solve. In fact, I think McGuyver would have been proud with my figuring out a cool way to keep the pesky dish scrubber from sitting at the bottom of the sink or making a soggy mess of the counter, by using a hook, some packing tape, and the dish rack.

Ironically my "sleep is good" discovery happened to occur the same morning that 98.47% of Boston awoke blurry eyed and exhausted. With the Red Sox playing the 4th and final game of the World Series until late last night, there were more than a few New Englanders suffering from what the newpaper referred to as "Red Sox: induce insomnia."

Now that the Red Sox have won the World Series, I predict that my fellow Bostonians will become reacquainted with their pillows this evening and will awake tomorrow with a new realization of how good sleep really is.

My Student Films

I've recently heard some grumblings that some of my friends have either never seen my student films or cannot watch them whenever the mood strikes you.

To allay your grievances, I have uploaded two of them to Youtube for your viewing pleasure. I would have done this sooner, but some of the soundtrack is not "technically" legal. Something about needing permission for copyrighted music, so there's a possibility that they won't be up for very long. If you like the films, you may want to use a nifty program like "TubeSock" so you can save the films to your computer just in case Youtube decides to get persnickety about the rules.

Anywho, this first film is called "My Fake Job." It was my first attempt at making a film. I co-wrote, co-directed, co-produced, co-starred, and co-edited it with three other students. I'd say it's pretty good for a first attempt and a collaboration. And of course everything you like in the film was my idea, and anything you don't like, that was someone else's idea. ;)

This second movie is called "Chocolate Therapy." I wrote the script entirely by myself which might explain why it's a little odd. ;)

Wicked Utah Connection

Let me start off by saying "Wicked" is an absolutely wonderful musical. I know you must be thinking. "Uh Aleigh, we knew that already. In fact the whole world knew that already."

You're right the whole world did know that, but I had my doubts. I had purchased the "Wicked" soundtrack months ago, and found the main character's voice grating--perhaps not as bad as say Disney's Snow White, but painful on my ears all the same.

Then last week I saw "Wicked" live on stage in Boston, and was absolutely blown away by the Wicked Witch. There were so many great songs, that I hadn't recognized as been all that grand on the original soundtrack. When I got home I tried to locate a "Wicked" soundtrack recorded by Victoria Matlock, the awesome actress I'd seen last week.

Although, I wasn't able to locate any CD's, I did discover that Victoria Matlock graduated from Skyline Highschool in good ol' SLC in 1995. Too bad I went to Hillcrest, otherwise this could have been one of those "I knew her when...." moments.

Since y'all weren't there with me to see how cool this was, I also found a couple bootleg youtube postings of her performances:

Mystery Allergy

It was neither a cold or the flu from which I suffered. To the best of my knowledge viruses do not work on a time clock, and my symptoms were punching in at 5 PM and punching out at 5 AM.

What I had were allergies, but I couldn't begin to guess the source of my suffering. The pollen count was low and we'd been in a dry spell for weeks so mildew wasn't much of a possibility either.

But I suppose that doesn't matter anymore because to my great relief it rained last week and washed whatever it was out of the air and I can breath again.

Viruses Among Us

Viruses -- those mean, vicious, dirty, stubborn, annoying organisms that wreck havoc upon their unsuspecting victims-- have attempted to break down my best defenses.

I am of course referring the microscopic variety, not to be confused with the plush version.

(available at thinkgeek.com. This is my favorite.)

Nor am I referencing the kind which can be seen walking upright on two legs. (Sorry no examples. I've found that taking a picture of this one insures it will follow you around for good two weeks.)

The microscopic bugger that's got me in it's cross-hairs has yet to be identified. Is it the flu, cold, or influenza? I don't know yet. And where is it from? Also unknown. It could have been my coworker, my roommate, a friend, or that weirdo on the subway who kept sneezing on me.

Regardless, it's just me against the disease now, and I'm bulking up on my arsenal. I've got nasal sprays, decongestants, airborne tablets, ibuprophen, orange juice, zinc chews, and really anything else the clerk at the store is willing to sell me.

Sales Clerk 1: My mom says that eating pretzels knocks out a cold. *
Sales Clerk 2: Try eating an entire canister of tootsie rolls.*
Sales Clerk 3: This one always works. If you chew on this doggy treat for three days, there's no way that cold will stick around. *

(* comments do not accurately reflect real sales clerk suggestions and are included for comedic effect only. I have NEVER eaten a doggy treat, really I haven't. I swear. ;) )

So far so good. Other than a serious headache about every 10 hours when I need to take another decongestant, I haven't developed any additional symptoms, so here's hoping I can out last the virus siege. But just to be on the safe side, perhaps I should look into buying some of those doggy treats................or perhaps I should consider visiting my doctor.