I've felt like this for a really long time now - at least six months or so, and it's getting worse and worse. Everyone knows that I'm sorta permanently sick, but this isn't something that goes along with that, as far as I know ... I can't stay awake for more than about 8 hours without being completely exhausted. Right now, I've been awake for 9 hours, and I'm completely out of it. I know there is some sort of a brain malfunction that causes this in some people, but I haven't done any research on it yet. It's really affecting my capabilities to function on a daily basis. I'll give you a good example. This morning, I woke up at 10am. I got up, talked to a friend for a few minutes, had a shower, had something to eat, and that took every ounce of my energy. That was after about 7 hours of sleep. I actually fell asleep after that for 4 more hours. Now I've been awake for 9 hours, prepping this essay-exam for tomorrow most of the time, and I'm struggling to stay awake. I actually have motivation to do the work - if I score a low-80 in this course it will boost my average huge and I'll be back on the dean's list, which I really want (once a problem from last summer is cleared up I'll be back on anyways, but that's a complicated detail). I'm here at UW on full scholarship, and I can't afford to lose that. I'm going to have to see a doctor to find out if anything can be done about this, but I really don't want my life to go back to seeing 5 different doctors every week, and I don't want to take any more medication than is absolutely necessary. ironic note: I received a mailing from OHIP today basically saying 'did you REALLY see that many doctors through the month of december, or is there fraud going on here?' heh. ah, the woes of getting old ... Oh and on the though of getting old: I was talking to my best friend Julie tonight, who I met in kindergarten and have been friends with ever since. We're talking about life and so forth, when she mentions that she is going to be 23 in June. Then she starts talking about how she expected to be married by now!! We're both sitting here going 'there's no way we're going to be married before we turn 30.' For me that's because I have a lot to accomplish (well, I can see myself married around that age), and for her that's because she just can never find a guy that she can be with longer than about a week (LOL). It just really hit us tonight - like OH WOW we are here, we aren't kids anymore. We both also agreed that we need to grow up sometime soon, instead of continuing to 'party like it's 1999'. Ah wells, all will happen soon enough ...