This is What Happens at 2 a.m. When You Can't Fall Asleep

The not being able to fall asleep was caused by St@rbucks. This actually happened Wednesday night and I didn't actually get any shut eye until after 4:30 in the morning and I'm still feeling the repercussions. Due to the irregular heart rate issues caffeine was nixed from my diet 12 yrs ago. That was fine because I found that caffeine was also causing more frequent migraines and once I stopped so did the majority of my migraines.

So here's the scoop. I swung by a St@rbucks cafe on Wednesday afternoon before picking Eriks up from school. I went inside because I had to use the little girls room. After emptying my bladder I went to order coffee because it just sounded good. The guy helping me was very friendly and provided excellent customer service except for the fact that he was too busy talking to me to remember that I had asked for decaf. So the 2nd to largest cup 'o coffee St@rbucks sells, also known as a grande was consumed by me. I wasn't even thinking about it when I left the store. I've never had St@rbucks mess up my order. So I drank the whole thing. It was a few hours later that I realized I was hyper - I'm usually beginning to crash at that time of day. So I looked at the cup 'o coffee and noticed he did not check the decaf box on the side. I had gotten full-throttle coffee.

Needless to say I tossed & turned until after 4:30 a.m. yesterday morning. I got 4 1/2 hrs of sleep and I'm still exhausted. I'm trying to catch up. I should get a nice long nap this afternoon while we're on our way to D@llas for the weekend visiting Lane's sister and her husband.

During this time my mind was extremely active and I couldn't stop thinking about stuff. I started thinking about my childhood and stuff that was in existence that I don't see at all anymore. Like this:

and this -

and this -

I remember at school watching things on the reel to reel projector and the tin cases that they came in. I remember we learned how to load them ourselves so that the teacher wouldn't always have to. I remember how at times while the film would get fed through the player it would shake and garble what was being projected. The best part was being the person who could rewind it. I know that's silly but I thought it was cool.

I started thinking that the majority of us have cordless phones nowadays and I know you can't buy rotary phones anymore, except probably at an antique store or on e.Bay. I thought about the big, heavy one my great aunt had. My grandmother had a smashed pea green one - typical of the 60's & 70's colors. I remember thinking how cool it was having to dial higher numbers and turning the wheel for the 8 all the way to the top and watching it rotate all the way back down. Our kids will likely never know what one is and they'll probably never use one.

Lastly, the overhead projector. The big huge boxy kind. I don't remember them being extremely heavy but I remember the teachers using them almost on a daily basis. From what I understand now is that they have these fancy kind that you write on but then that image gets fed through a computer and then projected on the wall. My mom who was a teacher would use them a lot, especially with math problems. She'd bring them home and I would get the pleasure of spraying them down with Win.dex and cleaning them for her. I thought it was so cool to spray it and just see the ink scatter. When I was older - 6th grade and above my mom let me grade her papers. I'd follow a key but thought it was cool that I as an upper grade student would be grading 2nd grade stuff. My mom taught kids in bad neighborhoods and I just couldn't believe I was grading papers for kids who had only done 1/2 the work or got the majority of the problems wrong (probably because they were guessing) and I would have to put a grade of 21% on their paper. That also reminds me of the rotary grading scale that you would turn the number of possible answers to the window and then it would give you the percentage rates based on the number of missed questions. OK, so I know you think I'm crazy, but I had A LOT going through my mind!

Next big topic on my wild night of thoughs was who I would like to see on the TV show - D@ncing W/ the St@rs. It's one of my favorites and I still can't figure out why Cloris Le@chm@n is still on. I commend an 82 yr old for doing it, but she sucks. So here's my list:

Girls - Tiffany Theissen (90210 & Saved by the Bell fame), Kristen Storms (General Hospital but formerly played Belle Black on Days), Kelly Ripa (but I know with her schedule it just wouldn't be possible), Jane Leaves or Peri Gilpin (Frasier), Candace Cameron Bure (Full House), Melissa Rivers...

Boys - Tike Barber (former NY Giants running back), Nick Lachey (his brother did it why can't he?), Jeff Foxworthy, Sean Hayes (Will & Grace), Jason Alexander (Seinfeld)...

I had a much easier time comin up with gals than guys.

And finally, he's no longer a little boy, he's a big boy. Sniff, sniff.

Age 18 months at a baseball game in California - June 2005

This past summer on my parents deck

Eriks is getting so big. It's hard to believe that in just 2 short months he will be 5. He's doing big boy things and no longer likes toys for toddlers but instead loves playing with the little Leg.os, Pl@ymobil, Spider-M@n, B@tman...things that I knew he would eventually play with but I didn't realize how fast they grow up.

Other big boy traits: He now uses the words, "Dude" and "awesome" on a regular basis. For example recently when we were in T@rget and I was looking at ideas for b-day and Christ.mas. Going down the aisles where toys that he would play with I heard this about every 30 seconds: "Dude, that's awesome!!!"

OK, I've rambled enough for one day. Plus I have to go pack for our weekend in Dal.las. I'm looking forward to it. I'll be back next week and I'll answer another reader question.