Life was so simple back then

When I was in college, I used to sit at the bottom of the stairs just outside my bedroom door.  My dear friend (and then-roommate) A would sit at the top of the stairs just outside her bedroom door, and we'd talk for hours and hours.  We were regularly giggling and chatting until two in the morning, and then up at six to work out before class.  Somehow, I could function on four hours of sleep at twenty.

I have a much harder time starting my day after just four (or even five) hours of sleep at thirty-one.

Tuesdays are long days for both Steve and me.  We start our day every weekday just after five a.m. and are usually in bed by 10 at night.  On Tuesdays, we're taking a graphic design class at the local community college.  From 6pm to 11pm.  This means we all but skip lunch in order to leave work early, run home for no more than a minute or two, and scarf down a sandwich for dinner in the car on the way over, just to make it to class on time.  And when we get home just after 11, we have to wind down before we can manage to get to sleep.

I don't think the 18-year-olds (who make up 90% of the class) have the same trouble with this late ending time.  Does this make me old?  I feel old.  Especially when I realize that I just turned in my first paper in a decade. 


The whole experience reminds me of this:

And yeah, these kids are so much younger than me.

But you know what?  I really, really like the class.  Totally worth it.

[Yesterday, to make things even more interesting (as if I needed anything piled onto my Tuesday) I had a "not-mandatory-but..." event for work from 5:30-8:00, downtown.  I made it to Graphic Design right at 9:00 for the last two hours of class.]

Unrelated, I've been collecting tips and tidbits for healthier living.  Here are a few:

• Sleep with your cell phone more than 5 feet from your head. I missed the actual segment on why, but it had something to do with the phone not letting your brain fall into a deeper sleep cycle.  Regardless of why, it seems like a good enough idea to me.  I started charging my phone in the computer room overnight, and whether it's a placebo effect, coincidence, or a True Fact, for the last week I have not been waking up every 45 minutes after about 3am like I usually do.

• Moisturize immediately after getting out of a hot shower.  I've never been a consistent moisturizer.  When I do remember, it's usually as I'm getting dressed in the morning, an hour or more after my shower.  I never understood why I never felt like it helped.  I guess I was just doing it at the wrong time.  My skin was noticeably less dry from day one of after-shower application.

• Exfoliate your lips.  The recommendation was to rub them with a wet washcloth.  I suffer from chapped lips most of the year, which is probably a product of my fairly dry environment. (I also have a bad habit of peeling the dry skin off my lips, which is awful, I know!)  I have lip balm with me always, and still, dry lips.  I started this exfoliation routine (combined, of course, with continued lip balm use) about a week ago, and my lips are still dry, but there is less skin to peel off, which is good for me.  Hopefully, this means my lips are healing.