It’s been a month since I’ve been able to sleep in my own bed. It’s right here - and although I’ve removed the plastic sheets, boxes and chunks of plaster from it, I can’t sleep in it yet since it’s in the middle of the floor, surrounded by towers of boxes and bags that were thrown there haphazardly by people other than me.

I’m unbelievably tired. I’m cranky. I want my comfy bed and a good night’s sleep.

Once I spend some time with friends tomorrow morning to a) play some tennis and get some damn exercise and b) so that I feel happy, I’ll get to return to this.

My only consolation is that in having to go through every item that I own, I’ve been able to start weeding out things I know I won’t need when I move or that I haven’t touched in years. I’ve found letters and cards and objects that made me smile, and others that I just shoved in the paper shredder without reopening them because I could remember quite vividly what was inside and have no wish to relive it. I found my early admission letter from NYU. I found a birthday card from a friend I haven’t spoken to in almost 10 years. I found an old journal; I don’t know whether to tear offending pages from it or to throw it out entirely.

I’m trying to view this as chance to separate the wheat from the chaff in terms of personal belongings so that I might not have quite as much to deal with when getting settled into a new place. Hopefully soon. Hopefully before Thanksgiving.

Right now, though, my eyes hurt, my head hurts, my back hurts, my legs hurt, my feet hurt, my toenails hurt, and my left wrist is sort of throbbing. It’s only 10:15 and I could get some more cleaning done… but screw this. I’m done with today and with this week. Even if I can’t sleep comfortably, some sleep is better than no sleep.

My goal for tomorrow: a night of quality sleep in my own bed. Even if that means I have to work at it until 3 in the morning. I can take advantage of coffee’s speed-like effect upon me. Yep. That’s the plan.

I’m up early. Much earlier than I like to be on a weekend. But I have a 10:15 appointment with the eye doctor to see how my eyes are doing with the new contact lenses; they have to have been in my eyes for a minimum of three hours. However, had I not been up this early, I might not have seen these fun things until later:

• On his blog, author Neil Gaiman has posted a link to a few seconds of footage from the movie adaptation of his book “Coraline.” It’s really only a few seconds, and the movie is a) a year away and b) going to be in 3D so we don’t get the “full effect,” but I’m excited. I love that book. Creepy creepy kids’ book.

• In the metro NYC area (and in Manhattan proper, esp.) it’s a fact that things are more expensive*. When people visit from “out of town” they marvel at the cost of boxed cereal and Starbucks’ coffee. But if you’re tenacious, you can get yourself the most expensive coffee at Starbucks : A 13 shot venti soy hazelnut vanilla cinnamon white mocha with extra white mocha and caramel.

It would have cost the (brilliant? ridiculous?) guy who took on this challenge $13.76 were it not for the fact he had a “Free drink” coupon for Starbucks which he unveiled after ordering the drink. And yay for the barista who helped him figure out how to make the most expensive drink possible. I don’t drink coffee, but this sounds like fun and I wish my coffee-drinking friends and I had thought of it.

• And I took this “How Much of a Sci-Fi Geek Are You?” quiz (via Neatorama). I suppose I should be embarrassed to post the results (it said something like, “You’re an extreme geek. You’re probably wearing your own homemade Tron helmet right now!” While I’ve never actually watched “Tron,” I am familiar with the visuals), but I posted about Jane Austen not too long ago. My interests are simply well-rounded. And I do not attend conventions, so I’m still in the “socially functional” category.

	I received 85 credits on The Sci Fi Sounds Quiz How much of a Sci-Fi geek are you?
Guess the Sci-Fi Movie Sounds here

*Though in NJ, the fact that we have the lowest gasoline tax in the nation keeps gas prices low and people marvel at that, too. The state of NJ hasn’t increased its gas tax in 19 years. I guess it’s some small compensation for the fact that NY and NJ have the highest property taxes in the United States - easily 2 or 2.5 times as much as other areas within throwing/inconvenient driving distance, like Connecticut and Pennsylvania. (Oh, and that’s part of your answer right there.)

Edit: Here’s the Coraline video: