The lack of sleep is starting to catch up with me. I’ve been averaging 6-6.5 hours per night for a week now, which is a couple days longer than I can really handle that kind of schedule. It’s funny that it has taken me so long to realize this; in retrospect, I spent a good portion of my college years in a constantly sleep-deprived state. Perhaps that’s why I was an emotional mess half the time.
Or maybe that was just because I was 20. 🙂
Because I am sleepy and fuzzy-headed and probably not able to put together something too coherant, here’s a list of random things I’m doing and thinking:
- I have discovered that while getting up early makes me feel kind of nauseous, drinking the Mission Control Center coffee makes it 10 times worse. First of all, you should know that the MCC coffee is disgusting. I’m not sure if that’s due to the coffee itself, or to the fact that the coffee machine is approximately 40 years old. (Seriously, I think that coffee machine has been in use since at least the Apollo program.) But in the past, I have been able to drink it without issue when I need some emergency caffeine. But OH BOY that is not the case this time. The awful coffee combined with the early morning hour apparently creates something that my body finds almost toxic. It took me 4 days to figure this out, but: no more MCC coffee for me. Why, OH WHY, is Starbucks not open at 2 a.m.?? However, Becca brought me Starbucks this morning when she came in for handover, so she is currently my favorite person in the world.
- What is UP with airline ticket prices? I’ve been looking for plane tickets to Charlotte for Christmas for at least a month, and they remain constant at around $450. $450! For a 2.5-hour flight! And there are two of us! I know I can’t expect to fly there for $100 or anything, but the most I’ve ever paid to get to Charlotte is $300. Come on. It’s a major city. The stranglehold that US Airways has on the airport there is absurd.
- I’ve been cross-stitching lately. I was inspired to do some more after giving Jen some projects to work on while she’s stuck at home, so I ordered two small items online that I plan to hang in our entryway. One is a “home sweet home” drawing, and the other is Christmas-themed, so it will replace the home one during December. I started working on the Christmas one first, and it’s looking good. Something about cross-stitching is very calming. I have been doing it a lot after my shift, with the TV on in the background.
- I joined a book club. A girls book club. Becca started it after hearing all the fun stories from one of her DC friends about her book club. We met for the first time a few weeks ago and I’ve already finished the book for December. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to be in a book club, but I think it’s going to be good — I’ve already been reading more in the past two months than in the six months prior. There were the 2 club books, of course, but now I’m halfway through another one that caught my eye at Borders. As a kid I loved to read, but as an adult I’m not very good at making the time. I find myself surfing the web or watching TV instead. Doing more reading is good! I get to pick our book for the February meeting, so if you have any suggestions, let me know.
- I finished up my fifth shift this morning at 11:30. We are shifting a half hour earlier every day, so what was a 3:30 a.m. start time is now 2:00, and will keep shifting until we are arriving on console at 1:00 a.m. I would tell you how exciting it is to be supporting real-time human spaceflight — and it IS exciting in its own way — but the truth is that it’s quiet. This mission is going very smoothly, which means there is nothing for me to do but wait for undocking, scheduled for early Wednesday morning. The good news is that the mission is officially more than halfway done for me. I stop supporting after the shuttle undocks, which means only four more shifts!
- It is difficult to find the motivation to work out when I’m sleepy — and the longer I go without working out, the easier it becomes to put it off one more day. Last night I forced myself onto the bike trainer for a half hour and was dreading it, but once I got going, it wasn’t so bad. I may go for a run in the next couple hours before going to bed. I’m not entirely confident that it will go well since I’m tired just walking around the house, but we shall see.
