4:05 AM

I have been having trouble sleeping again, so what's new, huh? Anyway, my Dr. gave me some stuff to try, it's not a sleeping pill per se, but something to help your system regulate the sleep cycle, sort of like a ramped up melatonin. I just got some sample pills and first tried it in Chicago where it did NOT work and I was seriously disappointed. But last night I gave it a second chance. I had been to Yoga earlier in the evening and also had some sake with dinner so I was pretty chilled out and very hopeful for a solid night's sleep. Alas, if I hadn't had so much water to drink I would have been good to go.

But, as nature would have it, I had to pee at 4:05 am and got up in a somewhat comatose state, nearly stumbling to the bathroom. Merlin could hardly believe his luck that someone was up so early and he celebrated by tipping over the waste basket. He further couldn't believe his luck when he found a piece of acetate that I had removed from a package of makeup. That cat is such a freak; he loves to chomp on acetate and will nosh on it basically until we take it away from him; he has an obsession that almost rivals bubblewrap popping. In fact, I feel certain that if he had an opposable thumb he would be totally in to bubblewrap.

You know how loud a cat crunching acetate is at 4 am? Really really loud. I feared that even my half deaf husband would hear him, so I jumped up to grab it from him and he ran. Naturally he carried it in his mouth as he ran and hopped up into the middle of the bed, so pleased was he with his prize.........I heard a little moan out of John as I grabbed the acetate out of Merlin's mouth and put it on top of the dresser on top of the TV, a height he could never reach.

And then I fell right back to sleep.

P.S.............The painting was accepted into the show!