I haven't been sleeping well, so I took a hot bath around 10:30 last night with the hopes that it would help knock me out. My soothing bath was interrupted by an angry and persistant bat. My apologies to anyone who may have seen a scantily-clad woman releasing an agitated bat from a towel sometime around 11:00 last night.*

Playing naked hide and seek with an ill-tempered bat frazzled my nerves. The cold medicine I had taken earlier backfired, so I was nervous and exhausted but wide awake. I tried to sleep anyway. Dogs barked. My mouse would not get off of his squeaky wheel, except to noisily chew on his toys. Dogs howled in 3-part harmony. Bat-like noises were heard. My son alternated between crying beside my bed because he didn't want to sleep in his bedroom alone, and crying in my bed because he wanted to sleep in his bedroom alone. I ended up putting the mouse habitat in my closet for the night. Even though my closet is huge and as nice as my bedroom, I still felt guilty. I had nightmares about mice when I did manage to sleep. Huge vengeful mice with squeaky bat wings. Sad mice with tears running down their little mouse faces.

So today I am functioning on three non-consecutive hours of sleep. That might not be so bad, except that I haven't gotten more than 5 hours of sleep on any night in the past two weeks. I am beyond sleep deprived at this point. I really wouldn't be surprised if I do start hallucinating bats.

Today of all days, I was railroaded into having lunch with my Mom and four year old son. I love them both dearly and normally welcome the chance to spend time with either of them, but today was just not the day. They insisted on eating at Burger King, of all places. My son, who is usually an angel, was on his worst behavior. So was my Mom. They both took pleasure in pushing my buttons, which were admittedly easier to push today than they usually are. Hooray, temper tantrums and crappy food for everyone! I've never been so glad to get back to the office. I'm the only one working today, which is good, but I can't leave before at least 6:30, which is bad.

*Note to those of you with an interest in bat welfare: I tried to be very kind to the bat. I gently picked him up with a towel after he roosted on a windowshade. He tried to bite me, but I think that's because he was upset, not because I was hurting him in any way. He appeared to fly away unharmed when I released him. Bats get into our house all of the time, so any advice on getting them out safely would be welcome.