It's been a rough week

As a reporter, I tend to keep weird hours, though I usually get home around 5:30 or 6 three or four nights a week.

This, though, has been a rough one. For a couple of reasons.

First, my husband, my rock, my encouragement and my sleep aid, was out of town for the better part of the last week for a training workshop in Mississippi. This wasn't a big deal; after all, I lived on my own during college, and I have two enormous vicious dogs to keep me company. What I didn't expect, though, was for me to have so much trouble falling asleep at night.

I figured it's like this: when he's home, I subconsciously realize that if an axe murderer breaks down the door, he's going to be the one to handle it. But if it's just me there by myself, I'm going to have to be the one to heroically defend myself and my dogs with a baseball bat.

Anyway, so I didn't sleep much, and the elections were this week, so of course Tuesday night I didn't drag myself home until the wee hours of Wednesday morning. And Thursday night was much of the same with a healthcare banquet, with me finally leaving the newsroom after ten. Factor in church on Wednesday night and you see that I didn't have a lot of 'me' time this week, and that's when I do all of my writing.

It sucks, yes, but at the same time, I can see that I did need a break from constantly thinking about this story, and trying to work out chapters and plot lines and character relationships during every waking moment that isn't devoted to work or other daily necessities. In a way, it was a nice change of pace.

But then my husband surprised me by showing up at the newsroom last night (he wasn't supposed to be home until this afternoon). That more than made up for this crazy, exhausting week that I've had.