I think I have insomnia. Not a political issue, I know. I think there are some intersections between the nation as it is and my inability to sleep. I didn't sleep last night because of the government. I probably won't get to sleep tonight, either, because of the loud people down the hall.
(This is my first diary!)
So, see you after the fold.
At first, I went to sleep at a normal time. Ten o clock at the latest, and my mom and dad made sure of that. I had trouble sleeping then, too, but I'd always be asleep by 1030. All that changed once I hit the fifth grade. I don't know why, but that was the year, from age 11 to 12, where I first had trouble getting to sleep, and staying asleep.
I was in fifth grade during the 2000 election. Like any other fifth grader, I didn't care for politics. Not much, anyway. Our school had a straw poll, maybe a day before the election, and I chose by einie-meanie-miney-mo. It landed on Bush, so I circled his name.
It's amazing how much regret someone can feel for a fake vote at eleven. So, perhaps the insomnia is phantom limb, sympathy pains from other, older people whose votes weren't counted, and whose election was stolen.
(As an aside, the first reason I ever had for <3ing Al Gore was the fact that he was on Futurama. Twice. And was really pretty funny, and not boring at all.)</p>
Oh, and then 9/11 happened. That didn't help my sleeping habits any, that's for sure. I didn't have CNN on nonstop that month, like almost everyone else I knew, but the images stayed with me. Because the very first thing I said, when I watched it on tv? Was a joke. A terribly unfunny joke that I can't even remember.
I haven't been able to sleep since. I go to bed, sure. Three in the morning seems to be the average. I try to sleep normally. I just can't, not anymore. Through out my teen years, my bedtime kept getting pushed back, further and further. If I was going to stay up til 11, unable to sleep a wink, why the hell should I sit in bed at 11, too?
I was in tenth grade when I first read 1984. This may have been a few weeks before the wiretapping story broke. The two became linked in my mind. I haven't been able to sleep since, and now I have something to blame.
I'm in college now. the people down the hall are playing loud music at night, so now I can't sleep. I blame them, too, but not as much as the bigger them.
So, is anyone else unable to sleep? Maybe we can bitch about that, or the interesting things that happen at three in the morning, when no one else is up.