All I Want Is a Good Night's Sleep

I've moved through the house like a zombie since I got out of bed this morning. Lack of sleep has rendered me so sluggish and dull-witted that I'd be hard-pressed to carry on an intelligent conversation--yet here I am, trying to write a coherent blog post. We'll see how that works out.

There were guests in my bedroom last night. Kim's away from home this weekend, so Lucy and Oliver, who usually sleep with her, spent the night with Levi, Gimpy and me instead. It's common for all four dogs to be on edge the first night Kim's away. They expect her to come home any minute, so they're hyper-vigilant and it takes a long time for them to settle down. By the second night (tonight), if history repeats itself, they'll have the situation figured out and will all sleep peacefully.

Last night, though, the three males barked time and again at noises I couldn't even hear, each time moving to the indoor gate and waiting expectantly for the front door to open. Lucy didn't join the barking boys because she was too busy rearranging Gimpy's bed to match her idea of comfort. Throughout the night she alternated deep snoring with frantic bed-pawing activity.

Ollie, once he gave up waiting for Kim, decided to curl into a tiny ball at the bottom left corner of my bed, the corner that didn't have my feet on it. Levi and Gimpy, who aren't allowed on my bed, looked pointedly back and forth from Ollie to me, telepathically urging me to make him get down in the interest of fairness. I didn't. He's little, he was finally quiet, and I was too tired to fool with him.

That turned out to be a mistake. Who knew I turned over so many times during the night? And who knew Ollie was sleeping on the exact spot where my feet would come to rest when I turned over? I attempted to slide Ollie over with my feet, but he hugged that spot like a rock. No, not a rock, a boulder--a compact-car-sized boulder that had rolled or been blown there when the asteroid that killed all the dinosaurs hit the earth and hadn't budged since. That's why all the turning over I did last night involved waking up and scooting around to find comfortable spaces for all my limbs.

Another thing that kept me awake was the music in my head. With every toss, turn or unusual noise, I'd wake just enough to realize that the tune I was thinking--same tune every time--was a song I'd never posted here and that it would make a good Saturday Song Selection. I was worried I'd forget it by morning, so I tried to wake up enough to write down the title, but I never did. Maybe the melody acted as a lullaby, soothing me back to sleep each time.

Anyway, it's a beautiful song and I'm glad I thought of it--just wish I hadn't thought of it so many times in the middle of the night. Press "play" and listen if you want to. I, on the other hand, as soon as I press "publish," am going to shut four dogs out of my bedroom and take a nap.

The song is "All I Want" by Kodaline.
Thanks to songlyricslion for posting the video and lyrics on YouTube.