Last night, for the first time all week, I managed to get to bed by 10:45, intending to enjoy reading some of Arkady Martine’s wonderful A Desolation Called Empire before bed, then conk out, wake early, get a head start on some work.
At 11:00 PM, the fire alarm in our building started ringing.
It was an error. Possibly caused by … flooding? Somewhere? Nothing has been confirmed.
What is certain is that the fire alarm — a sound designed in all particulars against the human capacity for sleep — kept intermittently sounding, for long intervals, between the hours of 11:00 PM and 2:00 AM.
Whether it stopped for good then, or whether my body shut down from exhaustion and learned something about how to ignore fire alarms — definitely not a problem in the longer term — I am not sure. I dreamt I was in a big beautiful house trying to keep Hocus Pocus style witches from coming in from the many, many doors until they learned to ask nicely.
At 8:00 AM, I woke to the sound of drilling being done on the balconies.
This is a longish way of saying: I am exhausted and have all the brain of a damp dish rag. Please tell me something good and nice and heartening. Or subscribe to Max Gladstone’s new Substack! His brain is very good.
Argh, accidental fire alarms are no fun! Our family stayed in a hotel on the way back from eclipse viewing; we got there late, and we were all exhausted from the long travel, so of course the fire alarm went off in the middle of the night, and we had to leave the building without using the bathrooms....
We ended up going for a drive (because it was hot, and at least the car had AC) and finding another hotel that would let pajama'ed guests from another hotel use their lobby bathroom. (They laughed at the expense of the other hotel, but were kind to us, for which we were grateful.)
I am glad you got sleep eventually, and hope you get to nap today. :)
Auggh, what a crap night! I'm sorry and I hope you get some rest soon.
My good thing is that the SNOW IS GONE in both Animal Crossing and in real life; it's supposed to get cold again this weekend but I was able to enjoy our three sunny days in the 60s in the middle of a shit shit week.
Thank you! And also, oof, my extreme sympathies. We've been having gas main work on our street for... weeks? They generally don't start before 8am, and it makes for great Richard Scarry-toddler TV out the front window, but not so good for afternoon naps. I hope you get some rest!
Oh Amal that sounds awful! I sympathize very much with the sound of drilling, as soon as it gets warmer, suddenly it feels like everyone wants to blow up their house and build a new one from scratch :/
Good morning Amal!
We think Amal is amazing and hope you're able to find rest soon.
I am hoping to send you another postcard tomorrow, which is probably the good news that I have.
I’m so sorry you had a rubbish night. Maybe not a relaxing listen, but I recently wrote an article on Emergency Population Warning Systems for Fortean Times and compiled a playlist to accompany it https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLFtFKdMhiXoX-8jLYb9w5xbl19e_GXSQ5
In other news, my contributor copies of my collection have just arrived and I still can’t quite believe THERE‘S A STACK OF MY BOOKS BEHIND ME!!
Ooof, that sort of thing takes me back to the days of uni accommodation and all its joys; I hope tonight goes much better!
Argh, accidental fire alarms are no fun! Our family stayed in a hotel on the way back from eclipse viewing; we got there late, and we were all exhausted from the long travel, so of course the fire alarm went off in the middle of the night, and we had to leave the building without using the bathrooms....
We ended up going for a drive (because it was hot, and at least the car had AC) and finding another hotel that would let pajama'ed guests from another hotel use their lobby bathroom. (They laughed at the expense of the other hotel, but were kind to us, for which we were grateful.)
I am glad you got sleep eventually, and hope you get to nap today. :)
Auggh, what a crap night! I'm sorry and I hope you get some rest soon.
My good thing is that the SNOW IS GONE in both Animal Crossing and in real life; it's supposed to get cold again this weekend but I was able to enjoy our three sunny days in the 60s in the middle of a shit shit week.
Thank you! And also, oof, my extreme sympathies. We've been having gas main work on our street for... weeks? They generally don't start before 8am, and it makes for great Richard Scarry-toddler TV out the front window, but not so good for afternoon naps. I hope you get some rest!
Oh Amal that sounds awful! I sympathize very much with the sound of drilling, as soon as it gets warmer, suddenly it feels like everyone wants to blow up their house and build a new one from scratch :/
My heartening thing for you is this video of different dogs woofing inside! https://www.reddit.com/r/WatchDogsWoofInside/comments/l3t7zu/the_poor_golden/ -- hope it's not too much loud for you :)
We are having rain in Southern California. My tough terriers turn into delicate flowers at the thought of getting wet.
Very simply: it’s been sunny and Spring-ish here in the far North. It’s like my entire being is finally reconstituting after the long dark.