laneys.info Beware of Yankees, drunks, and loose women.

I woke up this morning feeling more exhausted than I was when I went to bed.  After alternately sleeping through and snoozing the alarm for almost half an hour, I finally became conscious of Julie gently touching me on the arm.  I lay there groggily for what seemed like a long, long time and finally got enough energy to bridge a few synapses and make a profound statement:

* grunt *

"I think we have a couple of cogs in our wheel," she said.

* grunt *

"We need exercise and we need quiet time with God."

* grunt *

"I'll start getting my quiet time back when I start back to CBS.  That just leaves me with exercise.  But I'm really concerned about you.  I don't want you to just go through life like a zombie, which is what you've been doing lately, and if you don't start taking better care of yourself, I'm going to be very lonely for a long time when I'm older."

I'm not sure if I ever really responded to her statements.  Don't get me wrong; everything she said was 100% correct.  But 7AM when I'm still trying to remember my own name isn't going to get a very scholastic response.  About the only things I can do well under those conditions involve either my coffeemaker or that part of my anatomy that does its own thinking.

So I'm lying in bed after she gets up and I'm drifting in that hazy stupor that so often descends upon me while I sleep, when I start having this series of random thoughts that could just as easily have been induced by narcotics.  Finally, the thought pops into my head, "A Mind Like Water."

I first heard that phrase when I was reading David Allen's book Getting Things Done.  It was familiar enough that my brain could latch onto it and use it to springboard me into the day.  So now I'm focused on this phrase, but I'm clearly still not happy about being awake, much less that I should have to go in to work.  Finally, the grumpy side of me finds its inner voice:

"Forget a Mind Like Water.  I want to be a Mind Like Guinness: dark, bitter, and if you aren't careful, I'll kick your ass."

That made me laugh, and finally I got started into my day.  I wasn't grumpy anymore, and I certainly didn't have a Mind Like Water, but neither did I have a Mind Like Guinness.  Sometimes, I just have to find the words and say them, even if it's just to myself, before it all can evaporate.  And it still makes me laugh.