Nap Time

Ok, this is craziness. I had a full eight hours of sleep last night during a rain storm, which makes sleeping more fun for me (I'm only guessing since I'm sleeping through the storm itself, but it's the thought that counts, yes?). It's only 10:45 am, I've been awake for about three hours, I've had at least a half a pot of coffee, I've done a little yoga, I'm writing in blue (see "Seeing Red" post), and my head is about to plop down right onto my keypad. Right now I'm yawning. What gives?

I have some theories.

One is, of course, the weather in the Buff. Four days with little sun, high humidity and some serious sogginess from the cloud cover. The air is thick and quiet. My backyard feels and smells like a dewy forest. This could be making me sleepy, I suppose.

The second is my schedule this week. I wrote about one funeral in the "Taps" post from Wednesday, but I also had another funeral yesterday as well. Odd and strange. I didn't get home from either until 1:30-ish and can only work until 3pm or so on writing and such things. So my momentum has been thrown out of whack. I'm off kilter. And this could be making me sleepy, I suppose.

The third is a bit larger in scope, and combines just about every damn thing going on around here. In grad school, I'd march down my street everyday at 8:30, catch the bus, hit the gym, and head for the library to work almost everyday. I was busy. I had stuff to do. Lists. Schedules. Whatnot. Having my home office 10 feet from my big, cozy bed may be the killer here. I can't lug all of my Diss shit to Starbucks here in the burbs because they are tiny ones with tiny tables (how I miss those big-ass tables from the Madison store. GREAT for working). My computer battery has almost no juice in it and I'm too pisspoor to buy another one, so I need a power outlet within reach to write. Gas is expensive. My days are wide open since its summertime in academia. I feel like I have time but it evaporates like puddles in the sun. Blah blah blah. In a nutshell, it makes sense to stay home and "work," but--hold on, I'm yawning again--sometimes sense is not the key to all logic.

Fourth: it's Friday which makes it tempting to stay, with all due respect, "fuck it" and prepare things to do for Monday. After all, my garden needs tending after this much rain, doesn't it?

So.....I think my next course of action is this: nap as long and leisurely as my body needs it and learn from this meandering day. Make a list for Monday and then do it. Drive less over the weekend and venture out at least for a goddamn hour to write somewhere new and get myself over myself. Shoot for writing in black by 3pm Monday. Give myself a break today.

This doesn't come easy for me because I already feel like a slacker for being friggin' TIRED at 11am. But, these things happen. Buenas noches!

Stormy Monday

I know there have been tragic weather-related events in the past few weeks, and that while Buffalo weather is wild and wooly, it always saddens and terrifies me when the weather is so destructive around the world. Sometimes there is very little people can do even with warnings and watches and whatnot. And in the past few years, we've seen it all, yes?

Last night we had a few major storm cells pocket the region. Good sleeping weather, and great for my garden. And this morning, while the ground is damp and wet still, the sun is out, the breeze is moderate, and all seems back to normal.

I woke up in a spot so comfortable in my bed that it was a bummer to have to roll and hit the alarm (but this must be done). I'm still a little foggy. No "fresh as a daisy" today. I feel like a recovering daisy that was pelted with cold rain water all night. But, I'm getting there. To point: I made a pot of steaming hot water a minute ago. Who needs coffee grounds for coffee, I guess....

But today's Diss chunk is Buffalo in the 19th century and how/where the music organizations began and flourished. The historian in me really really digs this stuff. While gathering research over the winter, I found a lot of material that was haphazard as far as organization and placement, but will come together nicely in my Diss. I didn't do a great job of organizating that material for myself, and the unraveling of my own thoughts has been a chore. But a lesson learned as well.

The first bar in Buffalo was the Eagle Tavern. It was one of 14 public buildings in the city "center" around 1814. The building of the Erie Canal was underway and workers quickly came to the area with the promise of extended work on such a big project. It was a rag-tag group, for sure. Rabble-rousers, dreamers, pioneers. And part of this new "city" burned in a conflict with the Seneca Nation as the Canal was dug, the largest Native American presence in the area (still today even, although moved farther southwest along I-90....lots of stories there).

Funny music-related story....the first music shop owner, John Sheppard, brought to Buffalo its first piano on some sort of flat-bed barge driven down the Erie Canal by mules and rope from the landshores. It was 1827!!! I can only imagine the scene. We are a tenacious bunch!