February 28, 2008: Pretty Much No Sleep

I wasn’t very tired when we turned in for bed so I finished listening to “The Titanic Disaster Hearings” by Tom Kuntz. I still wasn’t tired so I started listening to “Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions” by Dan Ariely which only just went to print last week.

Oreo got me up at one thirty needing to be taken outside quite badly. So I lept from bed, dressed and shuttled him to the corner as quickly as possible. It was extremely cold outside and we ran the whole way. By the time that we returned to Eleven80 I was wide awake and unable to go back to sleep.

I lay in bed until two forty and at that point had considered the issues that would arise should I fall back asleep since I need to be up and getting ready by five so I decided that it would be best if I just went ahead and got up. So I did. I went out to the living room and logged on to the office so that I could get a jump on the day since I would be out for a stint this morning.

I worked from three in the morning until seven when we left to take Dominica to work in Totowa, New Jersey. From there I had to drive up to Nanuet, New York by West Nyack. On the way to her office Dominica installed the GPS unit into the car so that I could use it driving to New York today. Believe it or not this is our first time driving anywhere since Christmas! The only movement that the car has done since then is Dominica taking it back and forth to work.

The Garmin GPS worked wonderfully and made it so easy for me to go up to Nanuet which I don’t know very well. I have only been there once before. I went up there once to have the BMW looked at.

The Mazda didn’t pass inspection. There is a light socket that had rotten out and needed to be replaced. But the part isn’t easy to get so they had to order it from Mazda. They are hoping to have the part tomorrow. So the plan is that Dominica will run the car up there on her lunch break now that we know how close she is to the border.

I worked quite hard all morning. It was a busy day. Around two or a little earlier Ramona stopped by on her way home from Manhattan and we went over to Airlie Cafe for some lunch. I have gotten addicted to the salads over there. They have a “design your own salad” service and I do iceberg lettuce, carrots, hard boiled eggs, chick peas, cheddar cheese and Russian dressing. It is really good.

We haven’t seen Ramona in an entire months. She was in Chicagoland for two weeks and then spent the last two weeks sailing from the British Virgin Islands to Fort Lauderdale or somewhere around there. She got back to Newark early this morning.

Ramona and I hung out for the afternoon. She came over and visited while I worked and helped to keep me awake. Oreo’s new potty has arrived from Doggy Solutions. I can’t whether he is excited that a package finally arrived for him or not.

I forgot that I had the car today – quite a rarity and didn’t keep track of the time and it was a quarter to five when I realized that Dominica was still at work and that I needed to run up to pick her up! She gets done with work at five. So I ordered the car and we bundled up little Oreo. It is very cold out today. Low temperatures and very high winds.

Ramona rode up to get Dominica with me. We made really good time and were there before five thirty. The GPS unit really helped. This was my first time driving to Dominica’s office by myself and only the second time going to her office at all since she changed offices and works in Totowa and not in Nutley. I have been to the area before but not to her particular office or its exit.

We hung out at her office for fifteen minutes or so because Al, one of her coworkers, wanted to get a picture taken with Oreo. Oreo is quite the celebrity.

We tried to figure out some dinner plans but Dominica has so much homework that needs to be addressed right away that we weren’t able to do anything. It probably was for the best, however, as I was about to pass out from lack of sleep and Ramona has barely had a minute at home since she has gotten back.

I drove Ramona home and, believe it or not, it was the first time that Dominica and I got to see where Ramona and Chris live! We didn’t take time to go in because Ramona had to do some quick shopping at the corner store so we dropped her there.

We came home and Dominica spent the evening doing her homework. She is doing work for her academic planning class tonight and not for her geography class. I had zero energy left and just passed out on the living room floor with Oreo on his Star Wars Episode I pillow. He thought that that made for a nice evening.

I went to bed early around ten – after having napped since seven or so. We have nothing in particular going on this weekend. I have no classes in session. Dominica will be doing some homework but only her GPS class most likely because she won’t have time to get feedback on her academic planning work before then. No traveling this weekend so we will have some time to relax we hope.

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