A bed of nails or a bed of roses

It turns out there's a downside to a job that has me working out of my living room and the home office I've created from a laptop holder and portable office supplies.

I get so spoiled that an hour subway commute each way to and from the client cuts down significantly on both my free time and my sleep. Making that sleep up cuts down on my time to spend with jadegirl and I don't like that. Not making up that sleep somehow, or not finguring out how much I can cut out of my sleep cycle, means having to pound far more coffee than I probably should in order to be functional at work, and I don't like that either.

Of course, that latter option also means being more tired when I'm spending time with jadegirl, which can make it hard to do a decent job of running a game.[1] Yet another thing I don't like.

And something underlies it all. How much sleep I need is what's bringing to light the fact that I'm gettin' old. It's kind of funny, really: My beard and hair is getting more and more grey in it, and I welcome it. I'm doing that mid-life taking stock of where I thought I would be and where I am, and holy shit I never dreamed I would have it this good. No worries about running out for the Miata there. My eyesight remains so keen that... let's just say that I've occasionally been afraid it would decay to 20/20, but it hasn't happened yet.

But needing this much sleep is kinda new. I'm shooting for 5 hours of sleep a night these days, because 4 hasn't been cutting it. Once upon a time, it was between 3 and 4. I used to be able to Take The Oath[2] for LARPs and Cons, then the 2/1 rule became the 5/2/1 rule[3]. Staying up 24 hours is a challenge now. I suppose accepting that -- and that it will get worse as time goes on -- is part of accepting the inevitability of age.

But I don't wanna.

But I gotta.

[1] That's right, I'm living every fan-boy's dream: I'm with this hot, leggy, redhead and one of our challenges is finding enough time to play Rolemaster.

[2] No food, no sleep, just THE GAME!!!!!!!!!

[3] For non-fen in the audience, that's 5 hours of sleep, 2 meals, and 1 shower in any 24-hour period.