gotta love it, livin' on the edge

am/pm blogging soundtrack: Aerosmith's Get A Grip
am/pm blogging sustenance: peanut butter on whole wheat, skim milk, and Oak Cliff Coffee Roasters organic coffee

Sitting here thinking about the value of well laid plans. I had it all worked out. It was perfect. Perfect except for the fact that I am now surrounded by disaster. And that, definitely not part of the plan.

Got off work yesterday morning around 7 and was excited about the prospect of a week off from the hospital. A week where no travel was planned. A week where I could simply do whatever moved me, whenever it moved me to do so. Didn't want a messed up day/night schedule to start me off on the wrong foot. So instead of heading home to the beautiful oblivion of my bed, I headed out in search of a different kind of comfort. Something that would be a recurring theme throughout the day. Something, ultimately, that I believe may have contributed to the downfall of those previously mentioned well laid plans. I went looking for coffee. The caffeinated kind. And I found it. In abundance.

Bought myself an omelet and a newspaper to accompany the coffee and then spent a pleasant few hours just winding down and reacquainting myself with the waking world. But the winding down thing, you see, was definitely a problem. Not at all a part of the plan. It was time for a location change. I had several shopping errands that required my attention in the vicinity of the West Village so I headed there. The places of business that I'd planned on patronizing had not yet opened their doors so I detoured to the neighborhood Starbucks. Settled in on one of many comfy couches with my good friend Vente Latte and observed the goings-ons. Just a few days ago I had read a very entertaining article in D Magazine about this particular Starbucks and its regulars. Passed some time (unsuccessfully) trying to identify Kareem Abdul Bizzare, Mad Underscorer, and the Speed Dater before the couch became a little too comfortable and I again felt compelled to move on.

Became a bit of a shopping whirlwind over the next few hours and ultimately came home with quite the varied list of goods: a dress, a spa gift certificate, several books, a food processor, some Gerber daisies, a ridiculously expensive saute pan, owl stickers (?!?), a case of Miller Light, and a somewhat random collection of perishable food items. Oh and, of course, more coffee. My shopping mania took me from the West Village, then further into Uptown, and finally back to the OC. I went to more than one grocery store yesterday during this out-of-body shopping extravaganza and still somehow found myself perilously low on milk when I woke today. Note: sleep deprivation, over caffeination, and a credit card do not, should not, mix.

Decided on arrival home to further stave off sleep by attempting cooking challenge number 6. The lone advantage to attempting this solo is that I don't have to divulge the messy details. To anyone. Ever.

Somewhere during the above efforts I thought sleep sounded like an ok idea and stopped mid-challenge to position myself on my couch with a 3 hour run of NCIS. My eyes didn't close once. I was so beat that the thought of picking up my arm to reach for the remote made me wanna cry. But still sleep would not come. At the end of my mini-marathon I did manage to switch over to CBS for new episodes of Big Bang Theory and How I Met Your Mother. I don't remember much about that period of the night so I can only guess that I did actually catch some zs. The next thing I remember clearly is flipping through channels and finding yet another run of NCIS. Apparently sleep came again shortly - I woke at around 3 am and stumbled to the bathroom and then on to bed. Got up this morning (afternoon?) and was greeted with a global apartment disaster that spanned from the floor of my bedroom to every available counter space in my kitchen. I don't really recall the making of this mess but assume that, unless last night I played hostess to some kind of weird food-processing house party, I am responsible.

And so, I find myself sitting amongst disaster and thinking about the value of well laid plans.

I think I'll have another cup of coffee.