What If Friday – Redo

As customary on Friday today’s topic is coming direct and in full effect from If (Questions for the Game of life).  As I sit in Syracuse, NY and play If with my best friend this blog is officially coming together! It was hard to pick just one question today but I hunkered down and made a decision… enjoy and as always feel free to share your answers!

Question: If you had to identically repeat any single year of your life to date, without changing a thing, which year would you relive?

So there many years I enjoyed but none completely enough to relive! Most of the 80s and early 90s I would avoid primarily because of bad fashion! Seriously!!!!  Then there is high school, which I was not the biggest fan of, mainly because I worked like a slave trying to get into college (clubs, sports, school work, and an actual job). If I would have known I was going to end up at UGA I might have relaxed a little and snuck out of the house more!

Then there is college, which for the most part is a haze but I made some pretty bad decisions in college and continued to overwork myself so I wouldn’t exactly want to relive it. Some things are better left forgotten (thanks alcohol for helping me leave the past in the past). 

Then I graduated into my mid-20s and lived a roller coaster of health woes, job stress, weight fluctuation, family drama, financial freakiness, and a slew of murder mysteries (books that is)! There are many moments I would like to burn from my memory and a few I would love to just relive over and over but alas I have to pick an entire year! With all of that said I think I would chose my first year of life (1983 -1984) for several reasons including:

1. I don’t remember it
2. I survived it without health issues or major sickness
3. I was still an only child and the apple of my parents’ eye
4. My only joys were eating and sleeping (like now in my adult life but the difference is people expected me to do it without dirty looks)
5. People waited on me hand and foot
6. I was adorable even when I cried
7. No working/ No job
8. I didn’t have to wear pants (I’m definitely anti-pants)
9. The world was amazing and new (now I’m just shocked and appalled with it)
10. Binge Eating – yes I could eat whatever I wanted and gaining weight was appropriate
11. Perfect skin (soft like my bottom)
12. I was too young to know the true impact of Reaganomics
13. Boys were a non-mutha f’in factor (phrase as learned from reality tv)

So now you know my answer! I’m going to go back to this 90210 (the original) marathon, grab some sour patch kids, and at some point visit the streets of downtown Syracuse!  See ya next blog!

Sleep Deprivation

I remember the days as a hung-over college student when I could sleep until 1:00pm or take 2 days to lay in my bed only getting up to use the bathroom, have sex, and eat.  Those were officially my golden years and I realize that my ability to function coherently on 5 or less hours of sleep has departed. The staple of college is pulling all-nighters, staying up to hand in one of those 15 page papers you cranked out in 2 hours after coming home from a Thursday Quarter Drink Night! Then smudging through classes and finding an extra boost of energy to go out Friday night and party like a drunken rock star. 

My favorite was partying all night and when they finally decided to close the club at 2am you and your friends in a drunken state decided it would be a great idea to road trip from GA to NC right then to visit your roommates’ boyfriend at another college.  Oh and then drive back in the wee hours of the next morning so you could make it to work on time (only stopping so people could throw-up and then to grab McDonalds griddle cakes for fuel).  Did anybody else do that or was that just my crazy crew?

Either way I miss not needing much to get by, it made life easier when I was the busy 19 year old me. School, working 2 jobs, and drinking require a lot of your time and sleep just got in the way of that.  Who needed sleep when you had 24-hour diners and fast food to keep your body going? 

Fast forward 10 years and I’m at the point in my life where I would sell a kidney for a decent night sleep and I don’t even have kids yet.  I know parents of infants are going through it right now trying to manage life and a newborn’s “lack of sleep” schedule. I feel your pain in a very very distant way. Between work, hobbies, family, relationships, and general mind warping sleep is sacrificed for the greater good right now.  But unlike in my college years, now without sleep, I’m useless.   I don’t have fast food to fuel my body mainly because it destroys my body so I had to give it up a few years back. And unlike many of you I do not drink coffee or tea so my caffeine fix comes from red bull or soda (both of which I’m trying to give up like a responsible adult).  So I’m a truly just a tired soul meandering through my work day running on about 4.75 hours of sleep!!!  Which means I am not reading emails accurately, I am not responding to conversation appropriately, I am not going to remember what floor I parked on come 4:30pm. I probably won’t even remember this day.  There will be no remembering important details or smiling when people ask stupid questions. I am having waking daydreams and altered perception at this point. My only focus is the warm feeling I get when I lay in my bed, pull the covers over my head and drift into a heavenly state of being where my eyes close and my dreams come true. I wish my office came equipped with a pull out cot so I could just rest my eyes.  I’m debating on weather I want to take my lunch break in the car and catch a quick 30 minute snooze. 

I know all the science tells you the importance of sleep and how lack of sleep negatively affects your health. Sleep guidelines say we should get about 7 -9 hours of it a night; tell that to my active life. Dating alone puts a cramp in that! Late night get to know you phone calls, evening rendezvous, sleep overs and 2am hanging outs.  Sure that’s fun but sleep was nowhere in that equation.  Combine those activities with early morning workdays, afternoon workouts, dinner parties, birthday gatherings, work functions, and general daily routines and what time is left for sleeping.  I’m thankful I have time to shower and eat. I can only imagine when I have kids the horrors I will see and the lack of sleep I will experience.  Sweet dreams to you smart people that go to bed at a decent hour one day I will be on your team. For now I am just going to drink my energy V8 Fusion, hope my logical thoughts return,  and pray for reprieve.