Dogs, cats and husbands - a conspiracy to deprive me of sleep!

I haven't been sleeping well lately. Normally sleep is hard to come by because my mind is sifting through a thousand thoughts and nurturing the negative ones. But once I am asleep, things are usually pretty good and I get a solid 8 hours (read 9 or 10 hours). I still wake up grumpy and tired, but that's just me.

However, lately, I think the household has been conspiring to deprive me of sleep. The only things not waking me up in the middle of the night are the houseplants, and I'm sure it's only a matter of time.

First it was Shae, our doberman/greyhound/wussy. She decided that she realllllly needs to go outside in the middle of the night. Seeing as she is quite old and can possibly become incontinent, I prefer not to take chances, so I get up in the middle of the night and put her outside. I then stand by the patio doors, my forehead plastered to the glass as a way to stay upright and awake while doggy does her thing.

Second, Smokey the cat has decided that the Cd's stacked on the bedroom floor need re-arranging, you guessed it, in the middle of the night. I have since removed the Cd's. And perish forbid that I leave a book laying around, because she will proceed to flip the cover back and forth until I wake up.

Thirdly, Mephistopheles (aka Derek) my husband, my love, my soul mate...snores. Most of the time, I can prod him to roll over to his side and the snoring stops, but by then I am awake enough that my brain decides to do some marathon thinking and I can't get back to sleep.

This is not good. When my thoughts are on a run-away mission, I get no peace. My angels don't seem to be helpful (of course not, it's the middle of the night and they are fast asleep). So what to do.

Brilliant idea. Pop a Cd into the player and listen to it till I fall asleep. It works every time!! I am currently listening to "The Secret" . Rhonda Byrne's voice is pretty soothing, I can use all the positive messages I can get, and my sleep, though interrupted resumes pretty quickly. I'm so brilliant...or...maybe it was angelic inspiration. Naw, I'm brilliant (I kid, I kid).

The Secret

When I first read The Secret I thought what a load of simplistic crap--knee jerk reaction I know. It's premise is: focus on what you want and you will get it. Visualize it and it will happen, blah blah blah.

Well, I want to be a published author of supernatural fiction, but after a few false starts I realized I wasn't getting anywhere in the world of authorship. Didn't really have a story outline or anything. I don't think I'm very good at sentence structure. Ernest Hemingway is not in my blood. So much for visualizing me finishing a super great novel. Booooo The Secret.

But wait a minute. I'm writing this blog...6 months ago I didn't even know what blogs were, much less that I'd be writing one.

OK, so I'm not writing a best selling fiction novel (Dean Koontz does not have to worry about competition from me...yet).

OK I'm not published, but there are people reading this blog. Well, my family reads this blog, sometimes.

OK The Secret's law of attraction theory didn't quite work out the way I visualized, but I am writing, people are reading this (at least there is a potential that people outside my family will read this) and most important of all, I am really enjoying blogging (using my creative juices, pulp and all).

Maybe there is something to the Secret after all.

There is a saying "Do what you love, the money will follow" we'll see...