I'm not sure how much more I can take.  I've had this serious bout of insomnia the last four or five nights.  Sleep deprivation seriously like demolishes me.  It's like any capacity for enjoyment or even concentration is just gone.  Monday evening, I decided I'd try to get to bed early, and as I was getting ready for bed, I realized that my alarm clock wasn't working properly.  I thought, "No problemo--I'll just use the alarm on my cell."  But I couldn't get that to work either.  I wanted to get up at 5:00 (ish) the next morning and couldn't figure out what to do.  When sleep deprived, I tend to blow things out of proportion.  Oh wait, I do that anyway.  Finally, I reconciled myself to coping with no alarm--this was only after a somewhat frantic phone call to my father.  Rationally, he suggested that I get in the car and go buy a clock.  Of course, I promptly disregarded this perfectly reasonable solution.  My mom talked me into it though.  My trip to Walgreen's ended in tears--the prospect of shopping for an alarm clock was just too overwhelming.  Anyhow, at the time this all seemed of monumental proportions.  This was, at least in part, a result of sleep deprivation; of that I'm certain.

But then, Tuesday morning, on the way to work, I found out that a coworker had been murdered several days before.  Kinda makes alarm-clock-gate seem pretty minor, right?  I mean, I don't know how one is supposed to respond to this kind of thing.  I'm shocked and horrified and saddened and angry and afraid.  And I didn't know her well at all.  But still.  Needless to say, I didn't sleep again last night.  It's all oddly surreal, you know?  FIY:  Her boyfriend has been charged with her murder and is scheduled to be arraigned today.