Lately I’ve been having trouble getting to sleep. I finish reading, turn off my light and close my eyes… then some rebellious part of my brain hears “PARTY!” and gleefully begins to list all of the things I need to do. These wild worry-happy neurons are willing to let pretty much anything in:
- things I should have completed but haven’t
- things I need to do for school
- things I need to do for my family
- things I need to do in the morning
- things I need to do before I die
- things I don’t really need to do but, you know, I might as well add to the list
Any self-respecting 50-year-old working-parent-brain knows how to handle an unplanned fret-festival: paper. I live by the mantra on the paper is out of my head, and I keep a pencil and post-it notes next to my bed. I like using the little ones because they imply that my lists are somehow manageable. I also like to pretend that I won’t fill up three or four or five…
Things usually look more manageable in the morning, even if sticky notes litter the cover of my book. But Monday, I woke up to this:
Um, y’all… I don’t know anyone named Charlie. And who is the questionable person who goes with Charlie? What activities do they need? Was I planning them? Do I need to plan them? I have no idea.
I spent Monday dutifully crossing off most of the things on this list, but Charlie lingers. What does Charlie need? Who is Charlie? If I didn’t know better, I’d say that my list-making brain was playing a practical joke on me. I suppose the only solution is to go upstairs and read for a while and see what I put on tonight’s list… Maybe I’ll wake up with things for Charlie to do.
Persistence and Pedagogy 
This is hilarious and disturbing, I say as a person who also writes to-do lists when I can’t sleep. I hope you figure out who Charlie and Eric are. Maybe it’s the beginning of a new story?
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“I finish reading, turn off my light and close my eyes… then some rebellious part of my brain hears ‘PARTY!’ and gleefully begins to list all of the things I need to do.”
😂
Haha! I have the same sleep subverting internal partier.
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Oh goodness! Too many things on the brain. I just spent a few minutes looking at your Notes, trying to figure out if Charlie could be something else. It will come back to you! So smart to get that all out of your head!
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Oh, how I hope this post will have a sequel so we can find out who Charlie is, too. And if the mind party persists, try gratitude journaling before bed; that’s helped me sleep better for decades.
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I thought I was the only one who wrote notes to myself that I couldn’t figure out later. Hopefully, Charlie, will no longer trouble your sleep since he seems to have no counterpart in your real life! Love your mantra, on the paper is out of my head.
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And now I can’t sleep wondering if you ever figured out what this note meant??
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I never did! Poor Charlie is out there with no activities whatsoever…
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