Once I reached my forties, I began needing lots of sleep. On work nights, I generally get 9.5 hours of sleep. On weekends, I’ll sleep 10, 12, 14, or even 16 hours. The longer sleeps are usually a consequence of depression rather than laziness. (This is not to say I’m not lazy.) My sleep this month has been inconsistent. I’ve been sleeping less and waking up throughout the night. I think this is largely due to work stress, and more recently due to a severe health scare we had in my family. As a result, I’ve felt tired all month.
I think I only read two books in September, which is less than I need to achieve my 52 book Goodreads goal for the year. Despite not reading or sleeping enough, I’ve been writing well and more than enough. Last month, I blogged that I had fallen to being only six weeks ahead of the MDT publishing schedule, but now I’m back up to eight weeks. I still haven’t reached the end of the second journal, but the ending is in sight.
Early in September, I was able to attend a film festival where they screened a short film written and directed by Laura Somers called Tough Enough. It’s a drama about the first female football player in Texas, 1947. (I actually received an executive producer credit on the film.) I met Laura in 2005 at the UCLA Professional Program in Screenwriting. Laura is the only student I’ve kept in touch with and the only one I know of who is still creating, so it’s always a pleasure to see her, and I got to see her at the film festival. I don’t think it’s just because of personal bias, but of the eight films screened at the festival, I liked hers best.
Today, near the end of the month, I was able to see my best friend briefly. I took her to lunch and then to the airport. Time with her always feels so valuable. And today it felt like a relief. I can tell her secrets I don’t tell my shrink. She’s also Ji’Indushul’s biggest fan.