Sleeping Meme

As I have been tagged (by Scraps) for this meme, I decided I might as well fill it out. After all, who doesn't love talking about oneself??? Btw, WHO RECOGNIZES THIS PICTURE??? Yay childhood!

1. How much sleep do you get on an average night?
Somewhere between 6 and 8, though usually closer to 6.
2. Is that enough sleep for you?
No. Nothing is ever enough sleep for me.
3. At what time do you normally go to sleep and wake up?
I usually go to sleep around 2 every night, give or take a half an hour. I wake up always around five, five thirtyish, go back to sleep, and my alarm wakes me again at 8. Er, I get out of bed sometime after that.
4. Do you usually fall asleep right away or have trouble?
It depends how exhausted I am. I tend to sleep better in school than at home (weird, no?) so at school, I fall asleep almost right away (especially if I'm reading). At home, I toss and turn a bit more and wake up more frequently during the night.
5. What size bed do you have?
Twin.
6. How many pillows do you use?
Two, and at home I also use a stuffed yellow dog as a sort of third pillow.
7. In what position do you sleep?
All different positions (I toss and turn a lot before I fall asleep, though I generally don't move around once I'm sleeping. I know this because I've woken up after eight hours with my hand still holding open a book). My favorite is all curled up in a fetal position, though.
8. Do you need it to be quiet or dark to sleep?
No way. If I'm tired enough, I can fall asleep anywhere. It actually unsettles me when it's TOO quiet and TOO dark, so I'm less likely to fall asleep in those conditions. I like low background noise and soft darkness (as in, a little bit of light but not glaring light). My favorite conditions for falling asleep, oddly enough, are in the early morning when natural light is coming in through the window shades, giving the room a cool, blue look. I also like it when it actually IS a bit cool. I fall asleep better in the cold than in the heat.
9. Do you use earplugs or an eye mask?
Never. Ew.
10. Have you ever used a sleeping aid long-term?
Nope.
11. Do you use headgear, a night retainer, or a biteplate?
Erm. I own a retainer.
12. What do you normally wear to bed?
T-shirt and light pants (or shorts, in the summer). Unless the heat is broken in my dorm room and it's utterly freezing, in which case I wear a t-shirt, sweatshirt, and sweatpants.
13. Do you frequently fall asleep in your clothing?
No, never, unless it's the middle of shabbat afternoon and I'm reading and fall asleep by accident. Otherwise, I DETEST sleeping in my clothing. Clothing is for being awake, pajamas are for sleeping. Sleeping gear may NEVER be worn while awake and doing things. Ew.
14. Do you prefer a heavy or light blanket?
Depends on how cold/hot it is. I prefer heavy to light, I think, because I like cuddling up under my blanket and it's easier to do that if it's thicker.
15. Do you prefer warm or cool PJs?
COOL.
16. Do you wear socks to bed?
Never, never, never. Your feet need to BREATHE, people! I never wear anything to bed that will make me wake up sweaty. EW.
17. What is your bedtime routine?
Check my email, take out contacts, get in pajamas, get a drink of water, get in bed, read until I fall asleep. Sometimes, if I'm too tired to read, I'll just take a book and have it to fall asleep with. Like, instead of a teddy bear. I don't know why, but especially when I can't fall asleep, that seems to help. It helps even MORE if I actually OPEN the book and hold it open while falling asleep, even if I don't read one word. I'm weird, sometimes.
18. Do you listen to music when you’re falling asleep?
I went through a phase in high school and Israel when I did that, but I stopped and I don't think I'd go back to it. I like to actually listen to the songs too much, plus having headphones in my ears while falling asleep isn't very pleasant.
19. Have you sucked your thumb in recent years?
Not in recent years, no. But as a kid - BIG TIME. I was a HUGE thumb sucker until about kindergarten, or even first grade.
20. Do you still sleep with your childhood blankie/teddy?
YES. But it's not a blankie OR a teddy. It's a yellow dog named Yellow Doggie. I got my naming skills from Adam and Chava so shh. Adam saw a dog, he named it Dog. I saw a yellow dog, I named it Yellow Doggie. SAME THING.
21. Do you snore?
Ugh, no. I suppose if I'm sick I might breathe heavily, but that's it.
22. Do you sleeptalk or sleepwalk?
I've been told I sleep talk sometimes, but not really. I definitely don't sleep walk. Sometimes I feel myself laughing at my dreams, though. I dunno what you'd call that - a sleep laugh? I'm usually about to wake up when that happens, though.
23. Do you wake up to use the bathroom often?
Not every night, but pretty often. Usually once a night.
24. What things inhabit your bed aside from a blanket and pillow?
Me, yellow doggie (when I'm at home, Doggie doesn't come to school because I don't want to have to wash him from Dorm Germs. He's too fragile), sometimes a book.
25. What kind of alarm clock do you use?
At home I have a clock radio, but in school I use an iHome.
26. Do you ever wake up before your alarm?
Almost always, unless I'm in a deep, well-rested sleep. I usually wake up about five or ten minutes before my alarm clock.
27. Do you frequently take naps?
Never. I hate naps. I hate sleeping during the day. It's disorienting and then I'd have to wash up ALL over again because I need to wash my face and brush my teeth every time I wake up, even from a nap. Also, I don't like sleeping in my contacts. Can you tell I'm rather anal about this sleeping stuff?
28. Have you ever slept ‘under the stars’?
YES! It's the best experience EVER. At a certain point at camp, I got sick of sleeping in the claustrophobic tents and spent every camp out sleeping outside. I love it. Well, unless it's raining.
29. Can you fall asleep on a bus, train, or airplane?
Yes, but I HATE it. EWWWWWW.
30. Have you ever fallen asleep and missed your stop?
Nope.
And last, but not least,
31. Over the course of a lifetime, the average person swallows six spiders in his/her sleep. How many do you think you're up to?
NONE. I refuse to acknowledge that I have been swallowing spiders in my sleep. YUCK, EW, GROSS!

I tag anyone who hasn't been tagged yet.

And seven are the days of the week

I was tagged by Scraps a while back to do this meme (is it me-me or meem?) so now that everyone else is doing it, I decided to be a conformist and do it as well. :)

The rules are something like link the person who tagged you, write seven facts about yourself, and tag seven people. Something like that.

In any case,

1. I am afraid of the dark. Or rather, I am afraid of being alone in the dark. If there is someone else in the room, I'm excited by it rather than afraid. You see, it excites me to be afraid. Wait, that's another fact. Back to the dark. I guess it really stems from a fear (and excitement) of the unknown, if you're going to be psychological about it, but yes, I do still need some sort of night light when I'm alone in the dark. And, oh, heck, I'll add it into this fact, being afraid excites me. It's like that line Little Red Riding Hood says in Into the Woods, "And it made me feel excited! Well, excited and scared" and then later, "and though scary is exciting..." Yes, that is me in a nutshell. I've always wanted adventure, I've always secretly liked dark and scary stories, because even though I get anxious about them, I find them exciting. Now, this is not to be confused with horror. I detest horror. But there's a difference between adventure scary and horror scary. Horror scary is usually grotesque, gory, disgusting, bloody, ghosty, and just generally ugh-y. Adventure scary creates feelings of apprehension, nervousness, determination, excitement, what's-going-to-happen-next-ness, etc. So basically, I don't like Tim Burton, I do like Steven Spielberg. I'm also sticking in here that I dislike sleeping with my back to the room, especially if I'm alone. I think I'm afraid of something creeping up on me while I'm not looking. If someone is sleeping in my room, I don't mind it as much, especially if that person is closer to the door, because I figure if anything is going to creep in, it'll reach that person first and I'll have enough time to wake up and run away. So caring I am! :P But really, it does make no sense because once I fall asleep, it doesn't matter at all which way I'm facing. But hey, when I'm asleep, I'm also not thinking about people or things creeping into my room so...yeah.

2. I don't like sitting near very heavy breathers either in class or in shul. I can't concentrate when all I can hear is breathe in...breathe out...huff...puff... I don't know why this is. No one else seems to have a problem with it, but I do. I just can't concentrate. It makes me jittery.

3. I really don't like the color yellow, especially pale yellow. It reminds me of banana laffy taffy which I think is nauseating (sorry to all those banana laffy taffy lovers!).

4. I have never read The Lord of the Rings. I used to pretend I had because I was embarrassed about not having ever read it, especially being a fan of fantasy, so I would participate in discussions with my friends about it (I have this amazingly useful ability to participate in a discussion about books I've never read). I have read The Hobbit and I loved it, but I was just never able to get through Lord of the Rings. Of course, now I'm moving away from adult epic fantasy anyway. I still love Young Adult fantasy, though!

5. I hate making salads. Other kinds of cooking is alright, but for some reason salads are just not my thing. I think it's because the vegetables are always so cold, especially after they were just washed.

6. I absolutely love snow. I don't like being cold, but I love snow. I especially love it when it snows in the night and you don't know and then you wake up in the morning, open your window shade, and - behold! A white world! This is what happened yesterday and it made me so very happy. Along with snow goes ice skating, which I love, as well.

7. I am anal about making my bed in the morning. The rest of my room can be untidy (though I always prefer it when it's neat, but I'm very bad at actually making it neat) but it makes me feel dirty if my bed is not made. I guess it comes from me feeling dirty when I wake up in the morning. I always need to rigorously brush my teeth and wash my face before I feel ready to do anything or even talk to people. This is why days like Yom Kippur and Tish'a B'av are so hard. It's not the fasting, it's not the long davening, it's the not being able to brush my teeth and wash my face! If I could just do that... But anyway, right after I'm done washing up in the morning, before I get dressed even, I must make my bed. I'm also anal about dirty things in general. I don't like it when anything is dirty, including cars with things all over the place, utensils that aren't properly clean, etc. etc. etc. I'm not obnoxious about this, but I'm very anal about it, all the same.

8. (okay, okay, it's really supposed to only be seven facts, but rules were made to be broken, weren't they? Besides, who created this meme anyway? If I want to stick an extra fact in here, I will! So there! Humph.) I have a problem with people who are sweet all the time. It's like when there's too much sugar in something and it just ends up tasting sour, you know? I don't value the opinion of someone who is constantly praising everything and never recognizes the bad. I mean, I know someone who was trying to prove that Iago was not the villain of Othello because she was so determined to see the good in everyone and every character ever. It really, really bothered me. I don't know why. I guess because it just doesn't seem genuine. I'm not going to trust someone who always praises me because that just isn't healthy. People need criticism as much as they need praise, perhaps even more. I'm not saying I like people who aren't nice. I'm just saying I like people who are genuine. It truly bothers me to the core when people put on an act. I guess this is more my own immaturity because some people truly are that sweet and really do believe in the good of everyone but it frustrates me when they can't see that there are things about me that aren't good, that there are things about other people that aren't good, that there are things about the world that aren't all sunshine and roses. I'm not a cynic and I'm not even a realist. I'm very much an idealist when it comes to other things, and I even do believe in the inherent good in people, but what I don't believe is that people are all good, that there are no flaws, and I know a particular girl in general who in high school used to turn everything into herself being generous and good and kind and...and you know when you get frustrated at old Disney princesses like Snow White or Cinderella that they're too good and too kind and too obedient? Yeah, that. Sorry, this number 8 was more of a rant than a fact, but I think it just needed to come out. Besides, it's still a fact about me. :P

Just for Fun

This post is merely to exercise all of our creativity. You can answer either the first, the second, or both of these questions:

1. If you could be any fictional character for a day - any at all - who would you be and why?

2. Which fictional character do you think you're most like?

I am also doing my very first real, live, in person interview today at my newspaper internship. Whoaness.

I hope you all have a terrific day!

Eight Things About Me

I was tagged by Chana so I figured I might as well :P

1. I still sleep with a stuffed animal that I've had since I wasunder a year old. It's a yellow dog (though not very yellow anymore, more, uh, dirty yellow) with large, floppy brown ears and a big black nose (but soft, not hard). It's name is Yellow Doggie, more fondly known as just Doggie. Incidentally, 'Doggie' was also my first word. =D

2. I had hepatitis when I was eleven and mono last summer.

3. I once lost my glasses in the Jordan River.

4. I am a clean freak, but not a neat freak.

5. I recently realized that I'm a very black and white thinker. That's why it's sometimes so difficult for me to understand politics in real life. In books, it's so often someone bad and someone good. In real life, however, everything is much more shaded in gray.

6. Although it's completely ridiculous, a very small part of me still hopes for something adventurous and fantasy-book-like to happen to me. You know, waking up one morning and realizing I have magic powers works wonderfully. I mean, there is the small problem of magic not being allowed by the Torah, but, er, we'd work something out...

7. I get nervous the day before a fast day, almost as though every meal I eat will be my last EVER.

8. Writing is my passion.

and, oh gosh, bonus number nine because I'd like to write this one, too: I love fantasy but I have never been able to get through Lord of the Rings.

Yes! Feels so good to admit that!

And I don't think I have eight people to tag so...I'll just tag everyone! You're all tagged!