A Bottle of Sleep

Well, here it is: tonight's attempt at a quick fix. I'm trying to work up the nerve to take it, because, you know, what if it tastes bad? It claims to be delicious, but what are the chances?

Shake-shake-shake! Open the bottle and do battle with a safety seal. Pour a capful. Blueberry-pomegranate concoction at the ready to wash it down. Here I go!

Well, except for the part where it overflowed onto my desk and my, um, skin, that wasn't bad at all.

I got it tonight at a vitamin and health food store, where the proprietor / clerk / whoever claimed that she takes the stuff, and that it's effective. We'll see.

Thanks to those of you who have offered advice and/or sympathy today with regard to my sleeping problem. I'll let you know how this works out! But yes, I realize it's just one small part of what I need to do.

Another piece of the puzzle is the coping at work part. Having read last night that caffeine can affect you for up to 12 hours, I didn't take any after 1:30 PM, unless you count a few ounces of Diet Cherry Pepsi. My main gambit for keeping alert today was to ask to tackle something other than this deadly dull project I've been working on for a few weeks, which consists mostly of writing the number 65 all over a bunch of UPS bills. There's more to it than that, of course, but not enough to keep the brain engaged. So I talked my way into doing something else entirely for a couple of hours. It helped a lot.

As I waited for John to pick me up after work, I noticed several butterflies (at least one yellow one, and two of the black-and-blue ones) zipping around the flowers behind me. Always curious as to whether I could ever manage a butterfly photo that's even a tenth as good as one by Carly or Steven, I made numerous attempts to capture one or both of the black ones digitally. Here are the best of the shots:

Extreme non-closeup

It seems a shame to have such a magnificent background and not show it off. But at this magnification, the butterfly could be anything from a large and scary beetle to a distant hawk. Zooming in on this particular shot doesn't help much, because he was moving and the focus isn't very good. Let's try the next shot:

Oh, it's a butterfly.

It's still not a detailed photo of the butterfly's markings, but at least you can tell it's not a bird or a beetle.

Aha! A flash of blue!

And here he is in flight!

Okay, I won't win any awards with my butterfly photography, but I had fun anyway.

Time's up! Good night - I hope!

Karen