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I saw Wide Awake, a film by Alan Berliner last night when it aired at 12:30pm Central Time in a supposed “Night Owl Insomniac Special”. Given the fact that I was awake another four hours after the film ended, this is clearly a subject near and dear to my heart. For me insomnia is something that comes and goes, but it’s always looming in the background, threatening to come out and wreak havoc with my sleep patterns.

For me, the most interesting part was comparing his insomnia with my own. Many of his experiences and struggles are very familiar to me, but then many are completely different. The first, and I think probably most important bit of common ground is that we both see sleep as a waste of time. There are so many more useful things to do with our time. I can be more productive and get more things done if I simply don’t sleep as much. Five hours and I’m done, why would you want any more than that?

The biggest difference between us is that Alan seems to be a worrier. He has a very anxious, almost obsessive type personality. This is the exact opposite of me. I’m one of the most relaxed, easy going people you’ll every meet. Another difference is that once I’m asleep, I’m out for the count. Very rarely do I wake up in the middle of the night. I’ve also never taken a sleeping pill in my life, while Mr. Berliner has been taking them for years.

One of my favorite scenes is when Alan drinks his first cup of coffee in years. He is visibly jumpy and jittery as he takes us on a tour of his film and photo archives(which are very impressively organized). I may not drink coffee, but I am definitely addicted to caffeine, so it’s odd seeing how this drug works on people who aren’t used to it.

If you can’t tell, I really enjoyed the movie. Now I just wish I could get some sleep…

I forgot how much I really do love the mountains. The rivers, streams, snow capped peaks – i love it all.


I’m starting to run out of clean socks, so I guess it’s time to start heading back towards Texas. But first, Colorado and more mountains.

In Seattle now after hanging out in Portland earlier today.

Here’s the video that I couldn’t upload yesterday…

It has now rained three days in a row. I like the Pacific Northwest, but I’m not sure if I could handle this much rain.

I’ve spent the last two days driving up the Pacific coast of Northern California and Oregon. It’s a beautiful part of the country – even with lots of rain on both days.

I find it hilarious that the hotel tonight costs about the same as parking for one night in San Francisco.

I put together a small video of all the clips taken with my cellphone, but the wifi here at the hotel isn’t allowing me to upload to vimeo or youtube. I’ll try and get it up the next time I find a decent connection.