Too much fun, My brain is broken, I'm Lazy and Guilty

Yesterday was busy and fun with the wedding. See this Villa Vie Residences video about the wedding. It was SOO cool!

It also meant we ate and drank late, including wedding cake. That gave me acid reflux and I slept horribly. 

We docked in the port of Acajutla where one could take an excursion to Mayan ruins, but I just didn't feel like it. Besides, it's geek newsletter time. I made a valiant effort, sitting at my new desk in the room, to work on newsletter. Then our room Steward, Heidi, wanted to clean the room so I schlepped my laptop up to the business center for a couple hours but couldn't get my brain to stay focused on any one thing for more than 10 minutes. I bounced between making a fun with photos for Monday, to starting the newsletter, to answering email, to reading Facebook ... Like the ball in a pinball machine, I would hit on all these different things, back and forth, and finally packed it up, grateful that it was time for lunch!

We had a nice conversation at lunch with Craig and Cindy Who we learned were truck drivers. And Craig bought and developed the property in West Broward county that became Kings Manor where Jim once lived! Also at our table was Alicia, always fascinating. This time I learned that Alicia's home is Fairbanks Alaska! 

By the time lunch was over, I decided to give in to my laziness and go to our room to read my book. I'll get the newsletter done sometime. As for my guilt for not getting off the ship, I let myself off the hook for that too - we've just begun this new life, we'll figure it out sometime. We spent the last couple days opening up the boxes that were delivered and putting stuff away, setting up the room. I'm really quite impressed with how it's working out. We even both have a computer desk. I do think working in the room is more conducive to getting things done.

The most important thing is to take care of myself. I'm skipping dinner tonight and just drinking water - no wine. Clean the  brain. Get good sleep.

The older I get, the more important sleep becomes. My watch tracks the quality of my sleep and there is one metric called sleep fuel. If I didn't get any sleep fuel overnight, my brain simply doesn't work the next day. Just like a car that's run out of gas, she just doesn't go. That was my story yesterday. I would sit down at my computer to write and, like the ball in a pinball game, my brain would just bounce around. I couldn't stick to one thought (or one tab on my computer) for more than 1 minute. Note: I am writing this post a few days later after I did get decent sleep.

I watch that metric 'sleep fuel' and one other 'readiness' closely and try to connect the dots between my activity the day before. Here's what I find:

• the later I eat (the closer to going to sleep) the worse my sleep fuel rating
• the more wine I drink, the worse my sleep fuel rating
• the more water I drink, the better my sleep fuel rating
• the more I exercise, the better my readiness rating

If I want to function at the highest level, I need to get plenty of exercise, eat very little and eat early (skipping dinner altogether is good), don't drink wine (especially at night) and do drink lots of water.
But, what fun is that?!