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Mostly-sleepless night
Dec. 30th, 2010 10:49 amFor a long time, I've known that my body has a particular reaction to stressful events: it won't let me sleep. I've long come to expect that the day before I start a new job, have an important interview, or whatever, I won't be able to sleep for most of the night. Even "good" stressors, like moving into my own apartment, cause a similar reaction.
I didn't think GMing would do it.
Today I'm co-GMing a Paranoia: High Programmers game. It'll be the first time I'm GMing since my Dawson days, where my entire career as a GM lasted two sessions of a particularly ill-fated Lord of the Rings game. Since then, I've been content to play and let other people run. But when my friend Eric mentioned the prospect of co-hosting a Paranoia game, I was hooked. We've got a good story (mostly shamelessly stolen from the book), good props, a timeline... everything should be a ton of fun.
Yet my body decided that this was a stressful enough event that it kept me up all night. I went to bed at 12:30, *nearly* got to sleep, and then was awake. I looked at my clock -- 2:30. Marc came to bed around 4:00. He'd been sleeping in the other room and hadn't wanted to disturb me. We talked a bit about my new character until 4:30, when I realized I was absolutely not tired, not even a little bit.
I got some warm milk, read some Neil Gaiman. Still nothing. Finally, I resorted to taking a shower and lay down in the guest bedroom around 5:30, having reset my alarm to 10:00. I think I finally fell asleep somewhere around 6:00.
And now I'm awake again. I get the feeling today will be a day where I require caffeine in a form stronger than tea, which really doesn't happen very much. Bring on the cappuccino! (Random thought: mixing Tim Hortons hot chocolate and French-vanilla cappuccino -- brilliant or folly?)
Edited to add: And 30 seconds after posting, as I'm pulling out my bagel for breakfast, the building's fire alarm goes off. Turns out my down-the-hall neighbor "has a cold" and couldn't smell the smoke. It's out now. Yay, morning excitement.
I didn't think GMing would do it.
Today I'm co-GMing a Paranoia: High Programmers game. It'll be the first time I'm GMing since my Dawson days, where my entire career as a GM lasted two sessions of a particularly ill-fated Lord of the Rings game. Since then, I've been content to play and let other people run. But when my friend Eric mentioned the prospect of co-hosting a Paranoia game, I was hooked. We've got a good story (mostly shamelessly stolen from the book), good props, a timeline... everything should be a ton of fun.
Yet my body decided that this was a stressful enough event that it kept me up all night. I went to bed at 12:30, *nearly* got to sleep, and then was awake. I looked at my clock -- 2:30. Marc came to bed around 4:00. He'd been sleeping in the other room and hadn't wanted to disturb me. We talked a bit about my new character until 4:30, when I realized I was absolutely not tired, not even a little bit.
I got some warm milk, read some Neil Gaiman. Still nothing. Finally, I resorted to taking a shower and lay down in the guest bedroom around 5:30, having reset my alarm to 10:00. I think I finally fell asleep somewhere around 6:00.
And now I'm awake again. I get the feeling today will be a day where I require caffeine in a form stronger than tea, which really doesn't happen very much. Bring on the cappuccino! (Random thought: mixing Tim Hortons hot chocolate and French-vanilla cappuccino -- brilliant or folly?)
Edited to add: And 30 seconds after posting, as I'm pulling out my bagel for breakfast, the building's fire alarm goes off. Turns out my down-the-hall neighbor "has a cold" and couldn't smell the smoke. It's out now. Yay, morning excitement.
