You wanna hear about my awful day?

I awoke this morning at 1 am, to the sound of my doorbell ringing. Confused, I grabbed at my phone, my alarm clock, and my pager, trying to get the sound to stop, before I realized that it was coming from my front door AND it was 1 in the morning. I stumbled around, got dressed, turned on all of the lights in my house, grabbed my cell phone (and dialed 911, with my finger on the button to press send) and opened the door.

No one was there. The street was absolutely deserted and quiet.

Of course, I was freaked out. I stood in my kitchen, breathing hard, heart pounding, trying to get myself to calm down. I was almost convinced that I had imagined it (except that I don’t hear my doorbell ring all that often and it’s a pretty annoying sound). I turned off the kitchen light, moved to turn off the lights in the living room, and it happened again, with me standing right next to the front door.

I’m surprised I didn’t scream.

This time however, it rang continuously as if someone had their finger against the bell. I cautiously crept up to my front window, parted the curtain a fraction…. and no one was there again. My doorbell apparently decided to malfunction.

I stripped the batteries, but of course, I was way too agitated and nervous to sleep, but I managed to convince myself to go back to bed. I “slept” with the lights on in the rest of the house and even this morning getting ready for work, I was spooked, scaring myself with the shadows and reflections. I know most of it is silly paranoia–my house is old enough that everything creaks when you walk, so it’s not like someone could sneak up on me and my neighborhood is generally safe, but then again, I do live in the city with the fastest growing crime problem in the nation.

Then Chris called at 6 this morning to tell me that he was coming to “Milwacky” today to see the Body World exhibit. Of course, I’m on call. I was so frustrated (and sleep deprived) that I almost started crying in petulance. Because this is probably the easiest rotation I’ve had yet, with afternoons and weekends off except when I’m on call; I’m almost going mad in boredom. This sucks. He says that he’ll try to come by the hospital and say hi, but that likely won’t happen, because knowing my luck, I’ll get hit with a code and ICU admissions and not be able to break away.

I’m really tired right now. I wonder why. Maybe there’s a chance I’ll get a nap today.