The Plus Side of Insomnia

I've been having a tough time sleeping lately. Falling asleep is no problem, staying asleep is. Even with the CPAP for the sleep apnea. Of course, that could be part of the issue itself. Either type of mask I wear has been causing me to break out in eczema right around the nose. It's pretty embarassing, as some days it is so bad I look like a junkie. ;( Finally getting that under control, but it makes wearing the mask at night irritating.

Anyway. I've been waking up around 1am-2am just about every night. Dogs love it because they get to go outside. To get back to sleep, I put the TV on for background noise, with the sleep timer. Our local "government" channel (not PBS) usually has clips of ballets and operas, etc, at that time of night. So it's relaxing go to sleep music.

The other night, they had something else on. Some guy dressed up as Thomas Jefferson was speaking before a crowd. Turns out it was the last 20 minutes of a presentation from 2001. But it was fabulous. I stayed up for the credits and wrote the guys name down. It's Clay Jenkins, and he does what is called the Jefferson Hour.

Long story longer, I've subscribed to the podcast (first one ever for me). Have about five downloaded to my iPod so far. Was listening to one last week, titled "Civility" (show 904). Imagine my surprise when about 20 to 25 minutes into it, he started discussing the very thing I posted about last!

If you have time (and the interest) I recommend listening. It's pretty interesting. At least to this history buff, and self- professed geek. ;)

It's all about the words

Apparently the iPad has negatively affected my blogging. That, and work. I'm too lazy now to break out my laptop at home - it takes half a lifetime (okay, ten minutes or so) to turn on, and I'm too paranoid about fires while I'm at work to leave it on full-time. It's too time consuming to type a blog post using the on-screen keyboard of the iPad. It's also been busy at work, with no breaks to blog during. I've also been making a concerted effort to leave my desk for lunch. So. Until I get a wireless keyboard for the iPad at home, posting will continue to be sporadic.

Words have really been on my mind lately. Anyone who's known me for a long time will recognize that I've always been a word person. I love words. It's why I'm fairly good at crossword puzzles. (Hey, I'm up to Wednesday on the NYT puzzles!!!)  I love the sound of them, the feel of them, the weight of them as I move them around in my head. I know I don't measure my words as carefully as I should a lot of the time. It's so easy not too in this fast-paced, hectic sound bite we live in.

However, this is something that is really starting to bother me. Especially since our state legislative session has been in full swing. Whether it's what they themselves are saying, or the words in the bills, or the articles and online comments...words have been flying around like crazy. Big words; and I'm not talking syllables. Yet no one seems to be measuring them. No one seems to be weighing them. No one seems to be sounding or feeling them out first.