Hello 5am

I took this picture a few days ago.
She gets herself into some mighty amusing situations.

I decided to give up. I am pretty wide awake. For the last hour I've been very awake and I decided to come here to the living room, write, and exorcise the sleepless demons.

My nights are peppered with spans of time when I am awake, and as outlined here repeatedly it is usually dog related. I usually can fall back asleep but today's struggle made me just give up and get up.

Last night I fell asleep at 10:22 according to my fitbit (I believe it) and somehow, Brodie didn't wake me up until 3:50.

I did have a dream that she was walking around the house and Jess was here, and took the dog out for me, so I could stay in bed. In my dream I was awake listening to the dog walk around and Jess get up and talk to her ever so sweetly, and go outside.

We've reached peak level weird when you're dreaming about taking your dog out instead of waking up to take your dog out, don't you think?

Brodie can get up on her own if she's sleeping on the dog bed, but if she rolls off or moves about (see photo) and gets in a weird place where the paws meet hardwood, then she's got to have some help.

I woke up before she had the opportunity to wake me up. She was on her dog bed, her head was up and she was looking around the room. I waited, watching her as she got ready to get up and allowed her the time to go get food and water, and pace a little bit before getting my shorts on and taking her out. Some days I ignore her when she does her walkabout, but last night she didn't poop or pee when we went out at about 10pm, so I figured she may be in need (and I was right).

Outside at 4am, the sky is usually pinkening (which doesn't turn out to be an incorrectly spelled word according to spell check here, who knew?) but not so far today. It is very cloudy out. The grass is very wet from yesterday's severe downpours and the overnight dew, and it already feels like we'll see more of the same today even at this early hour.

I stood and looked up the yard to the east, where the sun is usually starting to show the outline of the trees and houses on Darrow, watched her putter about in the still dark, and realized that the sound of the Beltway is absent at 4am on a Sunday morning.

One of the things I notice about our neighborhood is out of place cars. There's been one sitting out in front of Betsy and Tony's house, and I think there is a guy sitting in it, can't quite tell from here. We get a lot of Uber drivers in the area (reminds me I should write out the dream I had about Owen Wilson and the Uber trip) waiting for their next call. There was a really nice car in front of our house a few nights ago, and the guy was listening to music and talking on his cel phone in speakers very loudly having a fight with what I can only assume was his significant other. It was one of those situations where I couldn't quite hear words but the tone was unmistakable. He saw me with the dog, and drove off quickly.

Brodie is fast asleep again, her body is off the dog bed but her legs are on it. She will probably need help getting up when she wakes up next.

Because I'm sometimes awake at this hour I've wondered where the best place is to go watch the sun rise. In Massachusetts, if I were so inclined a drive directly east by about 5 miles would take me to Plum Island or Salisbury Beach, and a short walk along the sand could bring me to any number of vantage points to sit, sip some coffee, and watch.

But around here, I have no idea where to go. For a sunset, I know where to go but for sunrise I don't feel like I have a real sense of direction or best place to park and gawk. Aside from actually driving 45 minutes to Annapolis or 2 hours to Rehoboth Beach, I have no sense of the best vista. I asked the local hivemind on Twitter, we'll see what they come back with.

Maybe Doug will also be awake, and we'll find ourselves just ... awake. And I can suggest a trip. And if he doesn't want to go I would just go. Beats sitting here on the couch listening to the nothing.

Although, sitting here listening to the nothing isn't so bad.

I may go back to bed, I don't think I've had enough sleep even though 5 hours is pretty great. Getting close to 5 hours of sleep feels fulfilling and normal, instead of the usual 90 minutes to 3 hour stretches interrupted through the night. If this was a work day I'd just declare it morning and go make the coffee and start reading the emails. There are 5 unread emails in my inbox. I am not reading them.

Oh but I just did, and there was an emergency page at 11pm last night (we all get an email notification even if we're not on call). I was not on call, so I trust the person who was handled it beautifully.

The sky is much lighter now, the heavy cloud cover has some breaks in it, and the sun is filtering in making everything pink. The blue sky with the clouds makes me think of Joe Jackson's "you dress in pink and blue just like a child" for some reason. Maybe it won't be a total washout weather wise today. And maybe it would have been a good day to go see a sunrise.