h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

We were told some time ago that we needed to get the some items of paperwork done by the first of October . Well, that would be fine, except that the back office (a wonderful bunch of guys - always remember, the real enemy is the back office) now says "Hey, they need to be at the HQ building by Oct 1. That means that we need to see them several days before that, because WE all need input on those."

They're pretty much due yesterday. (This follows some obscure military law originated by Alexander the Great, that says that all paperwork must be done with the least-achievable deadline.)

Which means that I spent most of the night typing away at them instead of doing, like, my REAL job. And I had only budgeted myself for five-anna-half hours of sleep last night, and then, an hour before I was planning to get up, SSgt Sheldon came busting in, turned on the light, and yelled (because he always yells), "They're here!" He followed that up by marching down the aisle much in the manner of a drunken orangutan, and tried his hardest to stumble and fall against... well, hell, I was half asleep. I have no real idea what he stumbled over. Possibly his own footprint. That's the kind of guy he is.

(The "They're here!" comment had to do with two incoming people. It had, at one point, been decided that one of them would bed down in our tent. Not, you understand, for any particularly good reason, especially since there were tents with a lot more room than ours. There's a whole big argument involved with that, and we won't get into it here, except to point out that I was right.)

So I've spent the whole night trying to alternately type and fall asleep. Meaning that, last night, I put down an average of a cup of coffee every hour on the hour. My mood isn't improving.

And, just to make things perfect, I didn't sleep worth a damn between now and then. Probably has to do with all the coffee I slugged down still being in my system, but I just couldn't get to sleep. Lay there, staring at the ceiling of the tent. Or lying on my side. Got up in the middle of the "night" (MY night, anyway) to eat dinner (something I almost never do, but I was awake, slightly hungry, and... well, and I got up and went to dinner).

So I've got more paperwork tonight, so there's probably more coffee in my future, and the cycle probably starts again.

Did you see "Insomnia"? Robin Williams and Al Pacino? You know those scenes where the director tried to show the unreality of the situation in Pacino's eyes as, not having slept for days, he looks around the squad room and each item, from a fan to a water-cooler, takes on a world-filling importance as he looks at them in sequence? (It's actually a pretty effective scene, and familiar to many of us who've been ridiculously tired.)

Yeah. I'm doing that right now. It's fun.

Which, of course, is why god gives us coffee. Caffeine is our friend.