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Not enough sleep

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I’ve been feeling pretty tired lately.  I think I’ve been doing okay about getting to bed at a reasonable hour, but I’m rethinking my whole let’s-get-up-super-early-to-run-before-the-sun-comes-up-and-the-heat-gets-unbearable idea.  I still think it’s a good idea, but 5:15 is kinda early.  I usually wake up 20-30 minutes before my alarm goes off, whatever time it’s set to, and waking up in the 4am hour is disconcerting.  And TOO EARLY, even when I get to go back to sleep for a while.  This morning I got up with my alarm, sat on the edge of the bed for a couple of minutes (felt like a couple, but when I looked at the clock I saw it had been about ten), and then I stood up and looked at the bed for another few (probably closer to ten again) minutes, and THEN I reached for my workout clothes.  On the one hand, maybe I need all that extra time I’m giving myself by setting the alarm so early.  On the other hand, if I used all that extra time for sleeping, maybe I wouldn’t be such a zombie and I wouldn’t need the extra time.

I don’t like being a zombie.  It doesn’t last long, though.  Once I get back from my run, I’m wide awake and talking a mile a minute.  Just ask John, who generally isn’t ready for that yet.

Not creative enough to figure this out

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I need a new 0-calorie drink for work.  A hot drink.  My office is freezing, and I’m already wearing a sweater.  I spend all day drinking water, but water is cold.  I’m trying not to let myself get hot chocolate or coffee or tea (I add way too much milk and sugar to coffee (and tea) to make it drinkable, and I don’t need the calories from either drink), but I don’t really see any other options.  It looks like I either need to learn to drink my coffee (or tea) black (gross – makes me shudder just thinking about it) or I need to start heating up my water.  And that’s just weird.  So maybe I’ll just suffer.

Put me in charge

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You know what shouldn’t be allowed?  Eighty degrees before 6am.  Hell, eighty degrees before 9am.  The only reason I’m getting up this early (5:15 today) is so I can run in the cooler temperatures before the sun comes up.  Sure, 80 degrees is not as hot as our high of 102 yesterday, but I’d hardly call it cooler, especially not when I’ll be warming up while running anyway.  Back in the AC I go.

Success! Kinda

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I made crepes for dinner, filled with mushrooms, spinach, mozzarella, garlic, and garlic mayo.  I say it was only kinda successful because they looked awful.  The crepes I bought were a little too thin, so they didn’t fold well.  The first one turned out more like sauteed mushrooms and spinach with bits of crepe throughout.  The third one looked pretty good.  They tasted fantastic.  I think next time I’ll use tortillas and call them quesadillas.  Screw crepes.  Unless they’re filled with strawberries, like the crepes I didn’t use for dinner will be very soon.

(My spellcheck has issues.  It’s okay with crepes and mayo (and spellcheck!), but not quesadillas.  What’s up with that?)

Breakfast for dinner

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It’s a topsy-turvy day, with eggs on toast and cantaloupe for dinner, and I’m not going back to my hair stylist again.  Her prices went up, she didn’t do exactly what I wanted her to do with my hair (it looks fine, but it’s not what I asked for), and ohmygod she talks and talks and talks and talks and talks.  I can’t take the pressure.  And she’s a little heavy on the “God has blessed you” and “you should thank God” for me.  She’s welcome to think that and say that to whoever she wants, but you’d think that in a small business like that, you might hesitate before assuming everyone shares your views on religion.

But that’s not what I came here to talk about.  I came here to talk about eggs.  The most perfect way to eat an egg (other than hard-boiled and chopped into bits with celery, mayo, and tuna on toast) is fried over easy on lightly buttered toast.  With another piece of toast to get all the extra yolk that ends up on the plate no matter how careful I am.  All the egg needs for seasoning is pepper.  Love it.

I could have been happy with biscuits and gravy for dinner, too, but we didn’t have any in the house.  And that’s a little harder to fit into my eat-healthy plan than eggs.  Sometime this week, I plan to try to recreate the most delicious crepes ever.  Salmon one night, and stir fry another…I’ve got the week all planned out.

Thanks, Internet, for helping me think!

We cleaned Target out

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For real.  We went this afternoon, and now there’s nothing left.  It’s all at our house.  Such a dangerous place for us to go.  “I need new running shorts.”  “Me, too, except I need running shirts.”  “Okay, let’s go to Target.”  “Hey, light bulbs!”  “That reminds me; we need a new lamp.”  “Weren’t we talking about getting an everyday tablecloth?”  “Hangers!  We’re out of hangers with clips!”  We managed NOT to buy a new vacuum cleaner, even though we need one.  We’ll give Target a chance to recover and restock and then we’ll be back for that.

After Target, I dropped John off at home and went to Wegman’s, where I bought out the produce section.  Oh!  Then I sliced my first whole cantaloupe.    I’m very proud of myself.  And I ate two slices immediately.  I think that’s all I’ll be eating for the next two days ’cause this cantaloupe is that fresh.  I need to learn more about picking them out.  But it’s so good!

4th of July

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I wore the dogs out today.  We went for a two-mile walk around mid-morning and they came inside acting like I’d asked them to run a marathon, and this evening I brought them to the block party where John’s band was playing.  Roxy laid down at the end of her leash and pretended we weren’t there, as usual, but Riley got a little nervous and spent the whole time trying to crawl into my lap.  While drooling.  He was mostly okay as long as I had my hands on him, but heaven forbid I let go so I could clap for the band (who did really well – John was awesome during “All Along the Watchtower”).

We’ve never really made a big deal out of the 4th of July.  I think we’re too lazy.  A couple or three years ago, we had some people over and played with sparklers, but that hardly took any effort.  Last year, we tagged along with other people’s plans and spent the afternoon at the pool and watched the fireworks in Falls Church (really good fireworks).  This year we had tentative plans to do that again, but then the band got a gig, and that ended up taking up pretty much the whole day.

Tomorrow will be all about trying to keep cool.  It’s supposed to get ridiculously hot, but I don’t have to do anything that’ll keep me outside.  I think I can safely skip running.

Going nowhere

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I can be organized, but I’m usually not.  Our book collection is one of the only exceptions.  Maybe the only exception.  A few years ago (maybe four?) I created a spreadsheet with details of every book we own, and now it’s terribly out of date.  Yesterday, I started going through the shelves and updating that list.  It’s going to take a while, but I’m already about 25% done with the fiction after just a couple hours spread across today and yesterday.

I know, this is fascinating.  My point might be that I always want to be organized, and I can be about most things, but only short term.  You can see where my priorities lie.  Everything else takes more effort that I want to put in.

I don’t really know where I’m going with this.  Possibly nowhere.  And that seems like a good place to stop.

My hero

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I bought wasp killer (and crabgrass killer – we’re don’t believe in nature in this house) and after rehearsal, John humored me by putting on long pants, a sweatshirt, safety glasses, and leather gloves, and then he went out in the dark, sprayed the hell out of the wasp nest, and sprinted around the side of the house when he saw something drop to the ground.  I think I freaked him out with my speculations about swarms of angry flying venomous insects.  But they’re dead!  He went back out after a couple of minutes with a flashlight to check out the carnage.  I’m thrilled they’re dead.  He feels kinda bad.

Today was the first day of my new job.  Same company, new boss, loads of new (and higher) responsibilities, and I think I’m in a little over my head.  It’s a good thing (right?), and I certainly won’t be bored.  The best part is the complete and utter lack of anything resembling travel.  Or even a commute.  I’ll have the occasional meeting in DC, and there may be a time in the fall when I have to spend a few days in a row down there, but the majority of my time will be spent in the office that’s only 20 minutes (max) from my house.  SO much better.

Enough about work.  I performed my adjunct-to-the-band duties tonight and put their set list together for them.  They’ve got a 4th of July gig nearby, and tonight was their last rehearsal before the big day.

Ricky Gervais is doing stand-up in the other room and I can’t concentrate anymore, so I’m off.

WASP! – Now with flowers

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We have a wasp’s nest just outside the garage door.  A baby wasp’s nest.  A nest for baby wasps.  (Not really.  Actually, that, too.)  It looks like it’s just the beginning of a nest, so it’s still really small.  There were about five wasps crawling on it and I refused to get close enough to find out what kind of wasps they are.  I looked up how to get rid of them and that’s almost as scary as leaving them there.  Apparently, the first thing you’re supposed to do it go make sure you’re not allergic to wasp stings.  If you are, call an exterminator.  If you’re not, go buy a pressurized can of wasp killer/poison, wear multiple layers with long sleeves and long pants, tuck your pants into your shoes, tuck your sleeves into your gloves (wear gloves), and wear a hat and goggles.  Oh, and it’s suggested that your top layer be something non-permeable, like rubber.  Wait until dark and spray the hell out of the nest.  You’re also supposed to make sure you have an escape route just in case you don’t aim very well or the poison doesn’t act fast enough and you end up with a swarm of angry wasps chasing you.  I wish I were making this stuff up.  Just google it.  I want nothing to do with this.

In other news…am I fixed?  It looks like it on every browser and every computer I have access to, but I no longer trust that.  If it looks weird to you (no picture, tag line in the wrong place, etc), please let me know.  John found a way to make it work again, but it’s not the right way.  Of course, it is, it works, but we can find no earthly reason why it wasn’t working before.  I’ve compared my CSS file to the original one, before I tinkered with it, and we don’t see any differences. But hey, it works (I think), and I still might tinker with changing the look over the weekend.  This whole thing started because I wanted to change the picture, and I still want to do that, so we’ll see what happens.

So John is wonderful (I don’t say that enough), not only because he fixed my website, but also because he came home with flowers for me today.  He stopped to buy wasp killer, but the store didn’t have it.  Instead, he bought ice cream (for himself – I swore off ice cream when I quit eating pound cake) and flowers for me.  ‘Cause that’s what you do when they’re out of wasp killer.  Or that’s what you do when you know you can’t immediately kill the wasps that are threatening your wife.  I love flowers.

Writing things down doesn’t always work

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This is the second day in a row I’ve forgotten to pick up my dry cleaning.  And that’s kind of a problem this time, ’cause ALL of my work clothes are there.  What am I supposed to wear tomorrow?  I think I’ll have to wear what I wore yesterday or the day before again.  Not really a big deal since when I’m downtown, I never see the same people two days in a row.  But still.  How could I have forgotten again?  I wrote it down!

I know exactly how I forgot ’cause I do this every time I plan on stopping somewhere on my way home from work.  Whether it’s the pharmacy, the bank (which I also forgot about today – I remembered as I typed those words), the grocery store, or the dry cleaner’s, I have to tell myself over and over again just so I won’t go into auto-pilot mode and go straight home.  It rarely works, in part because I’m usually on the phone.  I’m talking to someone (today it was John, venting about work) and repeating my errands to myself isn’t as effective when I’m trying to have a coherent conversation.  So I find myself in the driveway.  Often, that’s when I remember the errand, and I just back right out and go.  Today, though, I was unloading groceries from the car (I didn’t start talking to John until after the Wegman’s stop) and letting the dogs out.  I sat down at the computer, remembered the dry cleaning, grabbed my keys, and looked at the clock.  Then I yelled a few not-nice things into the phone (still talking to John) because it was 7pm on the dot, and that’s when my dry cleaner closes.

What do I have to do?  Install dry-erase boards on my dashboard?  …  That’s not a bad idea.

Bloodbath

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Roxy is fine.  Thought I’d start with that, since that’s pretty much how John started a phone call to me late at night on the first Monday I was in Rhode Island.  That’s two weeks ago now.  John got home from work that night and everything was fine.  He went out to rehearsal at Will’s place just before seven and got back right around ten.  He said both dogs met him at the door, as usual, wagging their tails and looking stupidly happy, as usual.  But Roxy was soaking wet all around her neck.  And then he saw this:

And this:

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And lots more.  Those two pictures are of opposite corners of the first floor of our house.  There was blood EVERYwhere.  It was on the dishwasher, the blinds, the walls, all over the floor, the couch, and, of course, the dog.  Who was fine (and not really bleeding anymore).  John spent a couple of hours cleaning up, and then he brought Roxy upstairs to sleep and left Riley downstairs.  Roxy spent all of Tuesday at the vet, who didn’t have much to say.  She had a shallow gash along her shoulder, which apparently bleeds like a scalp wound would on a person.  As far as we can tell, Roxy had a seizure while John was a rehearsal and Riley did his crazy holding her down thing and in all the thrashing around, managed to scrape her shoulder.  Blood flew during the seizure, I’d imagine, and then Roxy did her recovery thing, which consists of her wandering aimlessly around the first floor, rubbing on everything and bumping into every hard surface.  This time, she tracked (and rubbed) blood all over everything within reach.

She really is fine.  John said she wasn’t bleeding anymore by the time he got her into the bathtub.  The vet didn’t even have to shave her.  We realized we can’t leave the two of them loose in the house when we’re not home after this, and so we can’t use the pet-sitting service anymore.  We can crate them while we’re at work or when we go out, but if we’re out of town, we can’t crate them all day and all night except for the three hours a day the pet-sitter is visiting.  Maybe if we had a house-sitter…  Luckily, the kennel had an opening (two – they have to be boarded in separate runs now, too) for the RI trip, so John left them there Wednesday morning and came to see me Wednesday night.

While I’m documenting seizures, she had that one Monday night two weeks ago (6/14), another short one the following Tuesday night (6/15), and she had one yesterday around noon (6/27).  Short, we were home, no big deal.  Every person who answers the phone at our vet’s office knows who we are.  I called this morning to update her file with yesterday’s seizure, and all I had to do was say just that: “This is Susannah, and I’m calling to update Roxy’s chart.”  They used to have to ask for my last name, my phone number, all that stuff, but not anymore.  On a positive note, two weeks ago she only had two seizures in a row, 24 hours apart instead of 12.  This time, she had one yesterday around noon and hadn’t had another one by the time I left for work this morning.  She seems to have broken the three-in-a-row-12-hours-apart pattern.  Yay!

So much for doing nothing

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Our do-nothing weekend was surprisingly productive.  We made it to the book sale and bought a ton of books, went to Home Depot on the way home, and then spent maybe half an hour re-potting my herbs, planting seeds in the little face pots, and hanging flowers from the front porch.  While we were out front, our neighbor came rushing over and gave us a pound cake!  We couldn’t imagine what for, but then she apologized for being so late with it and said it’s a thank you present for helping her husband and daughter shovel out the driveway and sidewalk last February.  I’d completely forgotten about that, at least partly because I didn’t help.  That was all John.  Such a good neighbor.  And SUCH a good pound cake.

Today, we slept in again (sleeping in is a beautiful thing) and then totally cleaned up our super messy bedroom.  Everything is put away, we got rid of some things, we dusted everywhere, and vacuumed the whole room, including under the bed.  I haven’t attacked my closet yet, but that’s coming soon.  And it’s not that scary.

Pound cake isn’t scary, either.  I want some.

Close call

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I came thisclose to missing this year’s huge used book sale.  You know, the one that happens the last weekend in June every year?  The one I usually talk up to everyone I meet?  The one I usually invite people over for so they can be in town to go with me?  I forgot about it.  John and I were just going through the garage, looking for hazardous household waste to get rid of at the high school (the county has a contractor come by every couple of months for that sort of thing), and the book sale popped into my head.  I kinda shouted “Oh, shit.  The book sale!” as I ran for the computer to check the dates (yes, it’s that important to me), and from the garage I could hear John asking, “When is it?” with some concern.  Yeah, it’s this weekend.  Like right now.  So we’ve put everything else on hold (everything else equals, um, not really anything since we weren’t doing anything and hadn’t made any plans – that’s interesting.  Maybe subconsciously we knew the book sale was this weekend and deliberately left our schedule open.) and we’re going right now.  I’m not prepared (I usually have lists), but I’ve got a pretty good idea of what we have and what I want.  Not having a list means I’ll browse more.  And that’s okay with me.

Losing my mind

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I thought something I had planned for July was actually happening in June, and I was getting John all annoyed about it because it would have happened tomorrow (Saturday), and I’d be gone for the whole day right after coming home for the first time in two weeks.  And while we were talking about it (two days ago), I realized it might actually be scheduled for a Saturday in July,  but I couldn’t be sure….  I checked, and yes, it’s not until July, and yes, I can’t tell one month from the next.  But that means we can both sleep away the whole weekend, and that kind of rest is something we could both really use.  John got in last Sunday night from Rhode Island and has worked almost nonstop since then.  His mother and youngest sister stayed a couple of nights earlier in the week (college visits), so when he got home from the airport, he spent a few hours furiously cleaning the house from top to bottom.  Several days later (now that I’m home to see it), it still looks good.  Having your mother come to stay is a powerful motivator.  I have the same reaction to visits from both sets of parents.

Anyway, we have deliberate plans to do nothing this weekend.  I could see myself going for an early morning run, but only if I happen to wake up early enough (’cause it’s HOT here).  We might try to get rid of some of the crap in the basement, but that might take too much effort.  I guess I’ll just have to wait and see.

Craving healthy food

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I don’t make smart food choices when I’m traveling.  See yesterday’s post for exhibit A.  I bought a custard-filled muffin and a cookie.  And that was not an isolated incident.  Now that I’m home (Ahem.  I’m home now.), with access to a fridge and cabinets and a Wegman’s, all I want to eat is fruit.  And vegetables.  Salads and turkey sandwiches.  This used to happen to me in the Navy, too, when I got back from being at sea for a stretch.  Fresh food disappeared fast, and we didn’t get supplies all that often.  I’d come home craving leafy green stuff.  SO not normal for me.  But it’ll be great if I can keep it up.

Keeping myself up today is something else.  I’m not nearly as tired as I was the last time I had to get up at 3:30 for a 6am flight (and I’m pretty sure that’s due to getting close to seven hours of sleep last night), but I can feel sleepiness rolling in.  I don’t think I have more than two hours left before I’m unconscious.  Hopefully John will get home before then.  Both so I can see him and so we can eat.  I’m hungry and I’m pretty sure I missed lunch today.  I had breakfast in Chicago while waiting for my connection (bagel, banana, iced vanilla chai – best drink ever), and that’s the last thing I remember eating.  8-ish.  I’m gonna have an apple while I wait.

I missed my window

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For real.  It was sunny all day long (I was able to run outside this morning), but I spent some time working in my hotel room after I got back from work today, and now that I’m ready to go out and explore, it’s raining again.  Like pouring down rain.  Lots of water is falling from the sky, really fast.  So I’ve given up and ordered food to be delivered.  It’s my last night, but I’m doing a repeat of my trip home from North Carolina and getting up at 3:30 in the morning so I can make it to the airport on time for my stupidly early flight home.  So I’m okay with staying in.

I did get to see a little bit of Duluth.  I found a jogging path that goes right along the lake, and I ran across Duluth’s aerial lift bridge (while it was down, of course).

So that was neat.  I guess.  I’m sorry.  I have NO enthusiasm for this town and I’m going to stop apologizing for it.  I don’t have to like every place I go.  I do feel like I did my part in supporting local businesses, though.  Today, anyway.  I had breakfast at the New London Cafe, which was adorably cute.  (Yes, you read that right.  It wasn’t just adorable, not just cute, but adorably cute.)  I wish I’d been able to get there for lunch, but I didn’t have enough time.  I liked them so much that I just went to their website and sent them a message.  ‘Cause I’m nice like that.  On my way home from work, I stopped at this used bookstore I’d been driving by every day.  I tried to resist, but I failed.  And come on – how could I not check it out?  It’s a pretty good little store with crazy-low prices, made even lower by the girl who rang me up.  According to the signs, I should have been paying between $1 and $2 for each of the two books I was buying, but she said she’s allowed to do her own pricing and she was WAY too excited about that.  She was clearly still in high school, very young, and she’s working there for free, and then she only charged me $1.08.  For both books.  She said it was accurate, so I didn’t complain.  And then she said I had to go this bakery just down the street ’cause at the end of the day, they sell cookies and muffins and things at a major discount.  She didn’t have to tell me twice.  They had a poppy seed muffin, which is good enough for me, but it was filled with custard, and that makes it heavenly.  🙂  So I got one (and a cookie) for the jaw-droppingly low price of 93 cents.  How do these places stay in business?  Does it cost that little to live here?  My breakfast (two eggs over easy on toast) was only $3.03.  I think I may have overstated when I said I supported local businesses today.

It stopped raining for a whole hour this evening!

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I was so excited.  I actually walked to dinner tonight.  I guess technically I walked to dinner last night, too, but only to the lobby.  Tonight, I walked four whole blocks.  Outside!  And I stayed dry!  Seriously, though, a guy at work said they’ve only had two sunny days in the last two weeks, possibly more.  Of course, the weather could be more like it is at home – dry (John says our lawn is dying), humid, and HOT.  I can’t say I’m really looking forward to that weather.  But I’ll be HOME.

Dinner was really good.  Better than last night.  I went to Va Bene.  My waiter was great, and my table had the BEST view.  I was right at the lakeside edge of their back deck.  Still inside, but with an uninterrupted view of Lake Superior and all the sailboats.  Really nice.  If you ever find yourself in Duluth, I can recommend that restaurant.  The forecast says it’s supposed to be sunny tomorrow (it said that about today, too, but I’m still hopeful), so tomorrow evening I may venture farther afield (further afield?  They both look really weird to me right now.).

The early bedtime followed by early exercise worked for me last night and today, so that’s my plan for tonight and tomorrow, too.  See ya!

Where is my brain?

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I had dinner tonight in the hotel restaurant (actually very good and decently priced) because it was chilly out and I’m lazy.  Also, I’m aiming for a ridiculously early bedtime tonight and I didn’t want to have to go far for dinner.  Anyway, on my way back to my room, I headed for the bathrooms in the lobby to throw some trash away.  I went in that bathroom earlier tonight (I had one of those sneezing fits that just won’t quit – I hate those), and when I pushed open the door this time and reached towards the trash can, I thought “this looks different from earlier – ”  When I reached that point in the thought, I snatched my hand back, jumped about three feet in the air, and threw myself back out the door.  Of the men’s bathroom.  Luckily for me, no one was in there and no one was in the hallway just outside the door to see me come flying out.

I still haven’t tried very hard to like Duluth.  At least the sun came out today.  If it’s still shining tomorrow, and more importantly, if I get enough sleep tonight and exercise tomorrow morning, I’ll try again.  I’m so done with traveling.  It’s hard to care.  I want to try, I want to see what’s great about Duluth (I’m sure there are great things), but only half-heartedly.  Traveling alone loses its appeal (it had appeal?) after the first five weeks.

Ugh, that’s depressing.  I swear, I’m just tired.  And brain-dead.

Trying not to make a snap judgement about Duluth

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I am not in the mood to appreciate Duluth.  I got to my hotel last night right around midnight (central time, so it felt like 1am).  I was a little lucky getting in, though.  The rental car counter closes at 11:30, and that’s when my flight was supposed to land, so I thought I was going to have to take a cab to the hotel, then a cab to work (since the rental car counter doesn’t open again until 7:30 in the morning, which was when I was supposed to be at work), then a cab to the airport to pick up the car after work.  I wasn’t looking forward to that.  Fortunately, my flight landed ten minutes early and the rental car counter is less than 10 feet from the baggage carousel.  The one baggage carousel.  Duluth is tiny.  So, lucky me, I got my rental car.  Small yay.  Anyway, midnight at the check-in desk and thankfully, no one else was in the lobby, ’cause the check-in guy took it upon himself to bellow my room number to the space at large rather than just point to where he wrote it down for me like most hotels.  It was 1am before I could turn off my light, and all I wanted to do was sleep for hours and hours, but 1) it wasn’t dark in my room, and 2) I had to get up 5:45 to get to work on time.  Why wasn’t it dark in my room?  Because the Holiday Inn in downtown Duluth doesn’t believe in blackout curtains.  All I had were sheers, and my room faced the bright green Holiday Inn sign.  Still, I was tired, so I didn’t notice as much as I might have on a normal night.  5:45 came too early, but I made it to work okay and then through the day without falling over.  The day itself could have been better (I forgot to buy candy to bribe my students, so they were less enthusiastic than I was used to, and the lights in the room we were in were either too bright to see the projector screen or too dark to keep anyone awake), but it went well enough.  I headed back to my room thinking I might take a walk down the lakefront to find dinner, but it was raining, so that idea went out the window.  Speaking of the window, I was going to change clothes, but I saw a rope dangling from an upper floor.  I took a closer look and found a guy on one of those window-washing platforms about three feet down and three feet to the right of my window.  I could see him, and if he looked to his right, he could see into my room.  Not okay when I only have sheers on my windows.  On top of that, about 30 seconds after I noticed him, he started drilling into the wall outside my room.  SO loud.  I was on the phone with John, and he could hear it, too.  That eventually stopped (around six), but when I called the front desk to ask about it, they said it’ll be going on all week.  Shortly after that, the fire alarm went off.  The front desk made an announcement asking us to stay in our rooms while they investigate to find out if it’s a false alarm.  The alarm went off again, and then I heard the announcement of the false alarm.  Except that then the alarm went off again.  And again.  And again.  All in all, it went off about six times before I gave up and found a new hotel.  So now I’m somewhere else, in a hotel that has a really nice lobby and really nice employees (the check-in guy was great – upgraded my room while keeping me on the rate I’m supposed to be on for work) and HEAVY CURTAINS ON THE WINDOWS.  I never knew how important that was to me until the last few weeks.  In NC, the hotel only had sheers, but it wasn’t downtown or anything, so it got fairly dark at night.  In RI, the B&B had shutters that didn’t completely block out the light, but they were so cute and I was so relaxed that, while I would have preferred a darker room, it didn’t really bother me.  When I don’t have to wake up to an alarm clock, I enjoy waking up to sunlight streaming in my window.  But for work?  While traveling?  I want a dark room and real curtains.  Especially when there are men working outside my window.

Anyway, Duluth is not winning me over.  I’m sure it’s fine, and maybe I’ll like it better when the sun is shining and I’ve had a good night’s sleep, but I’m not seeing its charm at the moment.