On sleeping...

I really have no idea what's going on when I'm sleeping. The things I think are happening are really going on when I'm kind of awake and able to be aware of them. This is a frequent source of argument between me and my employer. Four out of five days of the week she'll greet me with "I haven't slept a wink since 2 am" or something similar. Doesn't she know that I've been listening to loud snoring on the monitor for over an hour? Was it the cat? I don't think so. Here in the motel room she calls the shots on what noise is allowed when she's trying to sleep and she is sure that she hears my phone vibrating with email notifications - because she hears them when she is awake. And why is it that I must tape, clothes pin and block every stray beam of light from the windows, doors and electronics when she can fall asleep with all the lights on as I'm getting her ready for bed? Some nights when I'm turning off the lights she says "you can put a towel on the floor to keep light from coming under the door" ( because I sleep by the door). I now tell her " no thank you, I'll just close my eyes. It's easier." And I'm thinking that she'd better close hers too.

Most of our hotels have a short hall as you enter the room with a bathroom door and a closet opening onto it. That's where I usually sleep, on a rollaway. And that name describes the only thing it does well - rolls away. It is not an aid to sleeping. The frame is most often made of metal and comes folded in half with a mattress and sheets inside. After you open it and remove the torn sheets from the metal hooks, you will never get it to go back with mere human effort. And the springs, if you want to call them that, are little more than a noisy, wire hammock that will only support a medium weight child,. The mattress might be ok, and I usually drag it off and put it on the floor. I've often marvelled about the floor part, because the floor in a motel is a lethal, dirty place. Anything of Scottie's that touches the floor gets thrown away (preferably) or washed.  Yesterday a few pills fell out of an envelope onto the floor and she said she was tempted to pick one of them up (the one that cost $5 a pill) so I scooped it up according to the 3 second rule and put it back in the bottle. This hardly. ever. happens. So, what does she think about me sleeping on the floor, in the hallway, with all the germs? I don't know.

Another noise issue is the room air conditioner. We give ac units a real workout, switching them from high heat to high cooling multiple times during the course of a night. I'm used to having to put pillows around them to direct the breeze away from her bed because she doesn't like to feel moving air, or so I thought. This motel has a fairly quiet unit that doesn't blow toward her bed at all and now she's having me put pillows to hold back the curtains so she can feel the air. And she's really pretty sure the unit isn't working because the condenser isn't loud enough and doesn't cool the air enough. Two nights now she has told me to keep the ac on when we go to sleep.  It blows right over me on the hall floor and don't I know it's working! Brrr... She is usually freezing and wears a stocking cap to bed. I can't figure it out.

Only one day left in Chicago and one day traveling home. We are beginning to get on each other's nerves, which happens regularly at the end of our trips. I'm used to it but it's not fun. She gets more critical and controlling, and has to dictate my every move. It helps me somewhat to write about it even if no one ever reads it. That's why I just have to say...