Extreme Lack Of Sleep

Before I decided moving in to Jakarta, I knew it wouldn't be easy as it said. But that's not the main reason why I suffer from what I called: extreme weariness.

In purpose of tightening my budget, I currently registered as a regular occupant of my cousins house. For that I have to accept certain conditions, in which one of them is: sharing room with my sophisticated niece, Mira⁽¹⁾.

When a normal seven years old girl wakes up at 5:22 a.m., she sneaks downstairs and, with well-honed stealth shared only by jungle-cat predators, she quietly proceeds to adorn the kitchen with dirty dishes and spilled batter. However, my roomie is just NOT a normal seven years old. She does not do anything quietly – especially not forget to leave some bruises after stompping on me at 5:22 a.m. Which she did this morning ... again. And that leads to these symptoms:

Grumpiness. Let's face it, after several nights of minimum sleep, people really get on edge. Just like me, plus the pain I had to suffer every morning. We're like Tasmanian devils fighting over a black-pepper steak. Then before you know it, our conversation could develop into such an intelligently sophisticated dialogues as:

"Are, too."

"Am not"

"Are, too."

"Am not."

"Says who?"

"Says me."

"Oh yeah?"

"Yeah."

"Oh yeah?"

"Yeah."

"Bhrhrthrpt."

Clumsiness. Which means it is probably unwise to stand at the top of the stairs while distracted by an argument with her or ... or ... oh no, WAAAAHH ... boom... OUCH! ... bump... YIKES! ... crash.

Well, at least I'm not at the top of the stairs any longer. I suppose it could have been worse. I could have been carrying a bucket of razor blades soaking in nitric acid.

Poor judgment. Which often can lead to really, really, really bad decisions. The kind that keeps you up all night worrying if you should have hired a repairman to fix the air-conditioner instead of asking Mira to read the Troubleshooting section on the guide book.

All this staying up all night worrying is perfectly in sync with the extreme weariness I agonized. They say you better start the day with joy, I say how could that be? I never had a decent sleep. Thanks to the barbarian...

Luckily, I rarely had a chance to drove my way to the office by myself. C'mon, with all these tiredness, being behind the wheel would most likely plays out like this:

Level one, grumpiness. "Hey. Who do you think you are? You don't own the road. My car got here first. Get outta my way!"

Level two, poor judgment. "Oops. Maybe I shouldn't have pulled so tight in front of that truck. Hey! Why's that guy hitting the brakes so hard?"

Level three, clumsiness. "Yikes! I'm gonna hit that electric pole."

Level four, more poor judgment. "Yes! I missed the pole. I missed the pole. I missed the ..." CRASH!

Level five, more grumpiness. "Hey. Who do you think you are? You don't own this living room window. My car got here first. Get outta my way!"

Level six, a black eye and many broken bones.

Sleep is important. We all know that, but too many of us figure we'll catch up on our sleep sometime in the future. In the meantime, there are alternatives. Don't drive. Move into a house with no stairs. Sell your kids, in this case, the barbarian one. And above all, don't carry a bucket of razor blades soaking in nitric acid.

*Yawn*

I think it's time for a rest. Thank God Mira is always sleeping when I got home late. Hopefully she didn't find those roller-shoes to stomp on me for.

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⁽¹⁾ To get a picture of her, she's the resemblance of Elmyra from Warner Bros' Tiny Toons and Darla from Disney & Pixar's Finding Nemo.