Looking forward

Spent 11 hours in bed, slept 8.5. It's driving me nuts!! There's nothing more I can do except get through this next week and sleep in without an alarm. I keep waking up with horrific nightmares (more than usual) -- like, the kind that give you a pounding heart and fear even after you wake up. I don't know what's going on! That happened at least 4 times last night. There's no explanation for it, yet. I'm not doing anything differently...EXCEPT being extremely anxious about next week. I'm going to go with the probability that they are night terrors caused by strain in anticipation next week's events. Even though I'm doing everything well in terms of sleeping (going to bed at the same time, feeling tired when I go to bed, not thinking about bad things before bed, reading before bed, not having caffeine after noon, etc.), these are still occurring. My only hope is to get through the next week and keep trying to avoid thoughts about next week until it is over.

One of the escape strategies (or reward, as some might call it) that I had been using was to get excited about what I could do when this is all over. I will reward myself with a vacation. I had been thinking a lot about where to go and have decided that I will go to one of these places:

Mexico

Santa Barbara, California

In Mexico, I can get ocean-front rooms for the price of renting a room with a view in someone's house in Santa Barbara. Not sure though where exactly I'll go -- I'll have to see how next week plays out before making final decisions and booking the trip. I'm very excited though. I have enough money for a pretty luxurious week-long trip, which I deserve. :)