March Break, writing (or lack of), sleep debt, and The Casual Vacancy

Hi and welcome.  :)

It has been raining here like crazy today, but the cold is gone, somewhat.  I hear we are in for another snow storm next week though, so I'm not packing the boots away yet.  I'm a winter girl though, to be honest.  It gives me the perfect excuse to stay inside and write.  Seems more acceptable to be a hermit in the winter doesn't it?

It's march break right now, which, for me, means not a whole lot of writing is getting done.  That's one of the draw-backs of having office-space upstairs, but I'm coping. I do have an alphasmart I could use, but I prefer the quietness of my office. I get a couple of hours in the evening, but lately I find that as soon as I am in front of the computer I can't seem to keep my eyes open. 

My husband is an early to bed and early to rise kind of guy, and he has been telling me for the past 16 years that my sleep pattern is going to catch up to me.  every headache, or ache he attributes to my sleeping.  But I mean come on it is hard to teach an old dog new tricks, and I have been a night owl my whole life...and I do mean My WHOLE life.  In this town if you ask anyone about the 'Amero's" sleeping pattern they can all tell you we are night owls...I could not even fathom going to bed before midnight.  that just seems insane to me, I mean why go to bed and waste the best part of your day...er night...morning (whatever).   

but the truth is my lifestyle is not working for me anymore, maybe it's because after 16 years of living with this man he's rubbed off on me, but I find myself staying up late and then barely able to function in the mornings, and if I set down quietly, or put on the TV I'm out like a light bulb.  I refuse to attribute this to my age, so for now I'm blaming it on him.  So I mention to him about my inability to stay awake and difficulty staying focused and he, as I suspected, blamed it on lack of sleep and then he shows me this link, and I'm starting to think he's on to something.  So this march break I'm in bed by 10pm every night and sleeping until one of two things happens 1)I wake up naturally, or 2) My youngest son wakes up.  So far I've been like clockwork, waking up at 7am every morning with just enough time to take the dog out to pee before my son wakes up.  So right now I'm in the process of paying off my sleep debt!  Let's hope this works...I'm tired of being tired.

On another note I'm into J. K. Rowling's The Casual Vacancy and despite the fact that the book really sounds snore worthy IMO, I am riveted!!!  This woman can write.  And her characterization is just out-of-this-world unbelievable.  trying to get it finished quickly because I have Jonas Jonasson's The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out The Window And Disappeared on the way.  Have any of you read either of these books?

~R