Tender

Here is something I've realized: when I don't get enough sleep, it's like I'm drunk. I am terribly MOVED by everything. I once sat at a work lunch after about four hours of sleep, and sat listening to two co-workers talking about BLUE JEANS. I looked at them, with what I imagined was the look of a droopy-eyed Saint Bernard, and said, "I am so tired that I love EVERYBODY." They laughed, thank God!

This morning I came into work feeling like if anybody so much as looked at me the wrong way, I might break like a big sand castle left out in the sun to dry. I kept asking myself, what's wrong with you? Why is the world so TENDER? Then, I remembered I didn't get very much sleep last night. That would explain the tunnel vision and the sudden DEEP AFFECTION for the soft spring air that confronted me as I ascended from the subway. Oh, dearie me, my eyes welled, I do SO LOVE the Empire State Building guilded with the morning light!

I feel like a sailor on shore leave, his arm around his buddies, singing "My Funny Valentine" and thinking it is the most tragic of all songs and that life is so beautiful that it is hard to take.

Some people do fine without sleep. Apparently, I do not. I am not a pretty drunk, people. I am a TRAIN WRECK.