Rabia

Yesterday, I made a rather stupid decision, which was to have three cups of coffee between the hours of 5 and 5.45pm. Foolishness, yes. Well, dear readers, I am paying for it now.

You see, caffeine in that sort of quantity, and after 6pm, usually (think severe effects were due to sheer amount consumed), doesn't keep me awake in the way it does with others. No, I get to sleep more or less fine. What I then do is wake up, every couple of hours, all night, finding it immensely difficult to get back to sleep. Which is, of course, exactly what happened last night. I was very sensitive to noise, so the thumping and bass from downstairs was particularly effective in waking me.

Yet the real impact of the sleepless night has only just surfaced. Right now. One of my real foibles is that I cannot bear to hear other people eating. I find it disgusting and irritating. This is not a ridiculous phobia--I don't think I'm the only one. However, I am extremely oversensitive; the day after very little sleep, unbelievably so. Whoever left the popping candy sweethearts in the office today is lucky I do not know who they are and that I do not have some sort of sharp weaponry (or, indeed, a tomato ketchup & mustard uzi). I have also developed an irrational hatred for someone I've never talked to, whose existence I was only made aware of on Thursday.

Today is one of those days that I really shouldn't be allowed to have contact with other living creatures.