Bad Sleep Habits and How to Fix Them

A little over twelve hours ago, I was just falling asleep. Why, you ask? Because I spent all night putting all my music onto my computer and then putting it back onto my newly re-formatted Zen. I still lost three soundtracks (Wicked, Spamalot, and Seussical) but I can get those back easily. And now my computer's hard drive is clogged up with as much music as there is on my Zen.

So I guess that whole story is the thrilling conclusion to my current technology woes, and the reason I slept until almost one o'clock this afternoon. This is not the first time that has happened... I am the exact opposite of a morning person. I find it much easier to see 5AM if I stay up until then than to wake up before then. I've become increasingly annoyed with this trait of mine. I feel much more productive after dark, and much less constrained by other people because they're all asleep, and I would be perfectly content with keeping thngs this way if it weren't for the fact that the rest of the world works on the opposite schedule. This make me feel as though I've wasted half my entire day if I don't wake up before noon, even if it's likely I'll be awake the same amount of time as anyone else, just for different hours. I then feel annoyed with myself for wasting that time, and I don't get the things done that I planned to (like excercise, which I've really been slacking off about lately and it's been making me unhappy with the world). And then, because I woke up so late, I'm more likely to stay up later the next night (or morning). So the cycle continues and worsens.

I'm going to try to fix this a little by making myself go to bed earlier. There was a time when I could get up at some ungodly hour to get ready for school and even have time to watch TV. I could do that because I wasn't staying up so late, partially because my parents enforced a bedtime, and partially because I wasn't distracted by the internet. So I'm going to try to not let myself stay on my computer past 10 pm. It's going to be hard, especially since this is summer and I generally have no reason to do this, and I will proobably fail at first for those same reasons, but I'm going to do it anyway because I know in the long run it will be good for me. Or maybe I just want to see if I can change. Or to challenge myself because I'm bored. We'll see.

My first test is on Thursday with a 9 am appointment.

Why, technology, why?

Even though something SEEMS to be working fine, doesn't mean it actually IS. My Zen, although it is again perfectly capable of turning on and playing music, refuses to connect to my computer. This means I cannot take music off of it to put on my computer, and I cannot put new music on it. In any normal circumstances, this would be mostly fine, and I would probably just go ahead and reformat so that I could start over. Unfortunately, I recently got a new computer, and have yet to back up my music with the albums that I borrowed. Some of my favorite music was borrowed albums! :(

I know this is my fault because I kept putting off backing up the music, but I can still be sad about it. And now it's going to be that much more work to put everything back. Grr...

In better news, I went to a pirate festival today for Father's Day. My dad loves that sort of thing, so what better way to spend the day, right? It was basically a free-admission Ren Faire with more pirate hats, i.e., very fun but exhausting. Afterward, we stopped by my grandma's house because she happens to live right next to where the festival was, and I learned that my dad got arrested a lot as a teenager (he was a troublemaker...).

Totally Fine and Banking Bonanza

I really didn't need to panic so much... After my Zen lost all charge, I just plugged it in to charge it and it turned right back on fine. I didn't lose any music or anything. I'm listening to it right now. What I do need to do is put all my music onto my computer, especially the albums I don't own. I should do that, like, now...

Today I set up my bank account for college. With my mom, of course. I don't think I'm ready to handle that kind of thing on my own yet. But it was exciting, and now I have a checking account, as well as a brand new savings account! Whoop-de-doo!
But seriously, we spent exactly two hours at the bank setting it up, and it was really boring apart from the me-now-having-access-to-money-and-my-own-credit-card part. But for my own good, I really shouldn't touch any of that money until the quarter begins in September. 'Cause, y'know, it's for school. Tuition and housing and stuff. And I kind of need that.

Before the whole being-at-the-bank-all-day thing, I finished reading Paper Towns. I absolutely love that book! And I just happen to look pretty much exactly like Margo Roth Spiegelman as she is described in the book (blue eyes, kinda curvy, bony fingers, and my hair could very easily become short and chestnutty with bangs). So I need to be sure to find out about auditions for the screenplay that I hear John Green is writing. Consider that a note to self.

It finally feels like summer to me. It didn't while I was on my trip in the mountains. But now it does. And I am enjoying it ^^

Possible Death in the Family

My Creative Zen Vision: M (what I have instead of an iPod) isn't responding. I had it on shuffle and was flipping through songs when it just froze up. It's not playing or switching songs, or showing options, or turning off. It can tell when buttons are pressed and when it's put on hold, but the display won't change. Oh Maria, don't die yet! There are still tons of songs on you that I haven't tranferred onto my computer! If you die now, all that music would be lost!!