late nights? try months.

It is officially 1:16 in the morning and three months of no sleep is catching up to me. "Three months?" you say, "That's impossible!"

No, my friend, it is not. But I don't recommend it. Thai Ngoc, born 1942, claimed in 2006 to have been awake for 33 years or 11,700 nights. I don't want to begin to imagine what kind of coffee that man needed by year one.

How did this happen, you ask? Well, it all started with theater tryouts. That's my mark because I can't remember anything beyond that. That was on September 3rd. It was wonderful being back on stage; intoxicating. Rehearsals lasted until the day before Halloween. Now, on Halloween I should have gotten sleep. However, I was preparing for NaNoWriMo and waiting for the midnight bell to chime (quietly, and figuratively at that) So I could start writing. I stayed up every night in November and brought coffee to school every morning with a caffeine filled soda in my bag for back up.

You'd think I'd be sleeping right now. But you're wrong. Oh, are you ever wrong. Now I am not only editing and revising my novel, but I am catching up on schoolwork (memorizing scripts, reading Les Miserables) and working on scholarships (holocaust essay, davidson fellows scholarship.) That should keep me busy until new years eve until--guess what?

January novel writing month begins. Hooray! Which means editing will take place in February and the last play of the school year will begin tryouts in march. If it goes like the last play, that will keep me up until...the end of April, which will be my birthday. Guess what? I turn sixteen. You know what that means. A job. Less free time, more late nights/early mornings. And in August? The summer national novel writing month.

Oh, I forgot to add the national novel editing month, March, and national script frenzy month, in April. September will be for editing. October 2009: sending my novels for publishing and getting ready for NaNo in November. It's a vicious cycle. I can see now how Thai managed to stay awake for 33 years.

But it's not like I get no sleep. I take cat naps at school when I can catch them and chill on the bus in the mornings. Who knows? I may even take a weekend off just for sleep.