the night of no sleep

Last night, I think there was a conspiracy against me. It was my stomach, my cats, and a stranger - all in it together.

I went to bed relatively early for me - in bed by 10, read until 10:30. I finished off my night with a Frosted Brown Sugar Cinnamon PopTart (r) and a few swigs of tropical punch kool-aid. (it was the only non-alcoholic drink I had in the house!)

at 11:30, my stomach decided that it REALLY didn't like the contents I had swallowed an hour before, and I was up for another 45 minutes trying to convince my stomach that it had really gotten rid of everything the first three trips to the bathroom. (still wobbling on sore legs from exercising 3 days ago, so I bumped into the wall fairly rough on the first trip.)

so, i fell asleep again.

at 2:30, the stranger arrived. He P-O-U-N-D-E-D on my door several times, very quickly. I couldn't get up (again, wobbly) fast enough before he did it again. I even said "coming" and he STILL pounded a third time. By this time, Fox is looking at me like I'm the one committing the "pounding" offense, and Shadow's already at the door, trying to see who's there - 'cause we NEVER get guests.

I opened the door after putting on my robe, and was dismayed to see the Stranger there, smoking something suspicious smelling. He saw my state of dishevel, and almost backed up. He apologized and walked away.

I stumbled back to bed, and fell back to sleep, but not before my stomach could remind me that it wasn't really thrilled with me yet, and I better watch myself.

at 5:00 - 6:00, Shadow made his appearance at the Window. This is a nightly routine I'm trying to discourage him from continuing. He has, until recently, ignored the window in my room. Last weekend, I rearranged the furniture in my bedroom, and all of a sudden, the window (no more noticable than it was before) is his favorite part of the bedroom! I previously kept a sweatshirt there to discourage him from scractching at the bottom where the frame meets the window. It worked until he scratched so much the sweatshirt fell off. THEN - I put my pile of dirty sheets * duvet cover on the floor in similar "window-frame-blocking" position.

However, this only served to ELEVATE him to "now I can reach the mini-blinds" status. And so he did - from 5:00 - 6:00 this morning. He'd walk over, scratch, wake me up. I'd yell, he'd run under the bed, just far enough that I can't reach him from any side of the bed.

Repeat as necessary. I even threw my sudoku book at him once.

To no avail, he continued this trip until 6:00, which, when i saw the sun coming up and my alarm close to going off, i took action. I chased fox out of the room and then threw my pajama pants under the bed at shadow. this worked to get him out of my room. I blocked the bedroom door from any possibilities of scratching (this week, it's a sofa pillow, a blanket and a hat box)... and turned my light off and went back to sleep.

for 30 minutes before JACK FM 94.7 woke me up again.

is anyone EVER surprised when i get to work late after nights like this?

anybody want a blue russian cat? he's REAL sweet, I promise!