One of those crazy ol' nights

We have them, now and again, in our household.

I'm sitting here having breakfast with my eyes hanging out of my head (great things, WIFI and a laptop - one can blog during ones breakfast, though Mirielle Guiliano would not be impressed).

It started when I crawled into bed. I was lying there, drifting, and then a paragraph of unparalleled brilliance started unveiling itself for my next column. I debated on whether I should get out of bed and put pen to paper, or whether I'd remember it in the morning, and decided that it was such a good paragraph, surely I'd remember it come morning? Usually I forget, but this time, such was the paragraph, I was sure I'd remember. But, as it is now morning, and I can't remember a thing, it seems that that was a bad call.

So, off to sleep I went, content in the knowledge that the paragraph of brilliance was firmly lodged in my memory, only to wake up with a start for an unknown reason at about (ok, fine, exactly) 11.18pm ( ... wee insight into the rather bizarre habits of the Ginger. If I ever wake up with a start in the night, I always check the time (and for some odd reason, always remember it come morning) in case someone, somewhere has been murdered at that exact time and what woke me was actually a scream or a gunshot or a car crashing or some such thing, and I need to give the time to the Police).

Off back to sleep I go.

2am, Vodafone, in its infinite wisdom decided to finally deliver to my mobile phone (which I keep next to the bed at night when Al is at work - in case of emergency) a pxt that my mother in law had sent me during the day. 2am! Argh!! Of course, being who I am (an anal, obsessive compulse freak), I had to get my phone and look at it, didn't I? I couldn't receive a pxt, know I had a pxt, and not look at it!

Off back to sleep again.

Somewhere around the region of about half 3 - 4am, Jack woke up howling. He does this every now and again, though not often thankfully. Ever seen on Discovery or a movie, wolves howling at the moon? Exact same noise. He wakes up, sits up in bed, lets out an almighty howl, and then curls up and goes straight back to sleep. I, meanwhile, am sitting bolt upright in bed with my hair standing on end, and my blood somewhat frozen in my veins. It's a hideous noise anytime of day, but in the wee small hours? *Shudder* This morning though, he didn't go straight back to sleep. He curled up and whimpered. Poor doggy had had a bad dream. Cuddles were necessary, so I half fell out of bed, gave him a big cuddle, and then all was right with the world again.

Off back to sleep for the third time.

5.30am I wake up to Jess pacing the house ... Grrrr Grrrrrrr Wuff wuff wuff .... BOOWWWOOOOOWWWOOOOWWWOOOOOO!!! (Her, not me, though it was tempting ... and that's about as close as I can get imitating her bark via blog, so don't mock) AARGH!!

I managed to get in one more brief snooze before acknowledging morning, and that my alarm was not going to stop bleeping.

And that, my dear friends, was that.

It'll all be just fine though, as soon as this coffee kicks in ... and if that fails, some very loud Linkin Park on the way to work should do it.