Insomnia struck me again Monday night. We went to bed around 11:20, which when you factor in that I had been awake since 7:00 AM and had gone for a three mile run in the afternoon, should have been late enough for me to lay down and be comfortably asleep within 10-15 minutes. Not that night, though. Thoughts bounced through my mind, my mental stereo changed songs every few seconds, and I lacked the ability to relax (I generally know I won\u2019t be sleeping anytime soon if my mind jumps among thoughts and background music like a caffeine fiend flipping a remote). So I came downstairs and half-typed a post that seemed to be going nowhere, then surfed for about an hour while I drank a stout to calm the system. It was roughly 2:00 before I was finally able to fall asleep.<\/p>\n
Insomnia is nothing new to me; I\u2019ve suffered from Sunday Insomnia my entire life. That\u2019s what I call the lack of rest on Sunday nights after my sleep schedule has been altered over the previous two nights. The weird thing about that, though, is on Monday mornings I\u2019m never tired. My body has stored up enough sleep and I can get away with 4-5 hours of sleep for one night. I\u2019m one of the few people who wake up in a better mood on Monday morning than Friday (that should not be mistaken for some strange desire to get to work on Mondays). I\u2019ve had periods of more extensive insomnia throughout my life as well but I\u2019ve learned to embrace those spells: read books, watch some movies, find ways of using the extra time to my benefit and understand that after a few nights, I\u2019ll wear down and get back into a regular routine.<\/p>\n
What\u2019s caused the current bout? Life changes are the most logical basis. Even though I\u2019m quite excited about becoming a father, it\u2019s going to be a massive life change. There\u2019s lots of night before Christmas-type excitement involved, there\u2019s also plenty of subconscious trepidation in there too. Monday night, though, I was kept awake by something a few of you know about that I can finally publicly reveal. My employer informed me, and everyone else in my position, in late June that our role was being eliminated. On the surface, that\u2019s awful news. What a time to lose your job, right before you\u2019re about to become a parent! For me, however, in many ways it\u2019s a blessing. I have a month scheduled off in which I can spend lots of time working on my resume, sending it out, and networking. I can spend the time bonding with my daughter discovering what it is that\u2019s really important to me as I carve out the next steps in my career path. Most importantly, after six and a half years with the same company, I was already feeling the itch to do something different.<\/p>\n
Since it is, all things considered, a positive step, I\u2019m not stressing about the change. I am, however, having a hard time determining how to plot my first steps. Some people are blessed with a gene that allows them think about their career three steps ahead of where they are today, leaving them prepared for the unexpected and building towards something greater. I tend to lose myself in what I\u2019m doing, whether I enjoy it or not, and have a tough task at review time when I\u2019m supposed to write down what my goals are. Now I\u2019m forced into a situation where I have to examine my values, discover what pleases me, and create a new set of goals. It\u2019s exciting, but a bit frustrating at the same time.<\/p>\n
There is still a chance that I will remain with my current company. They are making an effort to place as many of us as possible in new positions (no doubt so they can avoid using the term \u201clayoff\u201d or \u201cjob cut backs\u201d in an election year when a board member\u2019s wife just happens to be running for office). I\u2019ll be exploring those options over the next few weeks, but odds are favorable that I\u2019ll either emerge from my paternity leave unemployed, or with a new job.<\/p>\n
So what was I doing while battling insomnia and nerves Monday night? Examining websites of two local universities, doing some early research should my process lead me back to school. (There\u2019s a blog poll: What should I study? Talk about fun for the loyal readers and the interlopers alike!!) I checked out websites of a couple retail stores that I enjoy making purchases at to see if there were career opportunities there. And being the geek I am, I examined used iBooks in case I do decide to continue my education and need a laptop to cart around!<\/p>\n
Changes. Like last summer, I\u2019m trying to pack as many large ones into as small a time frame as possible, although in this case one of them wasn\u2019t totally planned by me. Is it any wonder I can\u2019t sleep?<\/p>\n
Note: I\u2019m intentionally not mentioning my employer by name at this time. This news just began to be released publicly Tuesday, and I don\u2019t to be responsible for clients to find it in an accidental Google search, nor do I want to disparage the company while I\u2019m still receiving paychecks from them. Should anyone comment, I ask you to please refrain from using the name as well.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Insomnia struck me again Monday night. We went to bed around 11:20, which when you factor in that I had been awake since 7:00 AM and had gone for a three mile run in the afternoon, should have been late enough for me to lay down and be comfortably asleep within 10-15 minutes. Not that night, though. Thoughts bounced through my mind, my mental stereo changed songs every few seconds, and I lacked the ability to relax (I generally know I won\u2019t be sleeping anytime soon if my mind jumps among thoughts and background music like a caffeine fiend flipping a remote). So I came downstairs and half-typed a post that seemed to be going nowhere, then surfed for about an hour while I drank a stout to calm the system. It was roughly 2:00 before I was finally able to fall asleep. Insomnia is nothing new to me; I\u2019ve suffered from Sunday Insomnia my entire life. That\u2019s what I call the lack of rest on Sunday nights after my sleep schedule has been altered over the previous two nights. The weird thing about that, though, is on Monday mornings I\u2019m never tired. My body has stored up enough sleep and I can get away with 4-5 hours of sleep for one night. I\u2019m one of the few people who wake up in a better mood on Monday morning than Friday (that should not be mistaken for some strange desire to get to work on Mondays). I\u2019ve had periods of more extensive insomnia throughout my life as well but I\u2019ve learned to embrace those spells: read books, watch some movies, find ways of using the extra time to my benefit and understand that after a few nights, I\u2019ll wear down and get back into a regular routine. What\u2019s caused the current bout? Life changes are the most logical basis. Even though I\u2019m quite excited about becoming a father, it\u2019s going to be a massive life change. There\u2019s lots of night before Christmas-type excitement involved, there\u2019s also plenty of subconscious trepidation in there too. Monday night, though, I was kept awake by something a few of you know about that I can finally publicly reveal. My employer informed me, and everyone else in my position, in late June that our role was being eliminated. On the surface, that\u2019s awful news. What a time to lose your job, right before you\u2019re about to become a parent! For me, however, in many ways it\u2019s a blessing. I have a month scheduled off in which I can spend lots of time working on my resume, sending it out, and networking. I can spend the time bonding with my daughter discovering what it is that\u2019s really important to me as I carve out the next steps in my career path. Most importantly, after six and a half years with the same company, I was already feeling the itch to do something different. Since it is, all things considered, a positive step, I\u2019m not stressing about the change. I am, however, having a hard time determining how to plot my first steps. Some people are blessed with a gene that allows them think about their career three steps ahead of where they are today, leaving them prepared for the unexpected and building towards something greater. I tend to lose myself in what I\u2019m doing, whether I enjoy it or not, and have a tough task at review time when I\u2019m supposed to write down what my goals are. Now I\u2019m forced into a situation where I have to examine my values, discover what pleases me, and create a new set of goals. It\u2019s exciting, but a bit frustrating at the same time. There is still a chance that I will remain with my current company. They are making an effort to place as many of us as possible in new positions (no doubt so they can avoid using the term \u201clayoff\u201d or \u201cjob cut backs\u201d in an election year when a board member\u2019s wife just happens to be running for office). I\u2019ll be exploring those options over the next few weeks, but odds are favorable that I\u2019ll either emerge from my paternity leave unemployed, or with a new job. So what was I doing while battling insomnia and nerves Monday night? Examining websites of two local universities, doing some early research should my process lead me back to school. (There\u2019s a blog poll: What should I study? Talk about fun for the loyal readers and the interlopers alike!!) I checked out websites of a couple retail stores that I enjoy making purchases at to see if there were career opportunities there. And being the geek I am, I examined used iBooks in case I do decide to continue my education and need a laptop to cart around! Changes. Like last summer, I\u2019m trying to pack as many large ones into as small a time frame as possible, although in this case one of them wasn\u2019t totally planned by me. Is it any wonder I can\u2019t sleep? Note: I\u2019m intentionally not mentioning my employer by name at this time. This news just began to be released publicly Tuesday, and I don\u2019t to be responsible for clients to find it in an accidental Google search, nor do I want to disparage the company while I\u2019m still receiving paychecks from them. Should anyone comment, I ask you to please refrain from using the name as well. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[83],"class_list":["post-289","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-personal"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/289","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=289"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/289\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15642,"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/289\/revisions\/15642"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=289"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=289"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=289"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}