I've previously documented my seemingly decreasing threshold of tolerance for the extraordinarily heavy footsteps of my otherwise perfectly lovely upstairs neighbour. (I didn't realise I could string together that many $10 words this early in the morning!)

It is 6:00 a.m. OK, that's nothing really to howl about. Except that I've been UP since 4:00 a.m. and awake since around 2:45 a.m.

And it wasn't the storm waking me up or keeping me up. It was him. Evidently, he had some "personal emergency" around 2:45 because I was jarred awake to the THUDTHUDTHUDTHUDTHUDTHUD of him rushing from his La-z-boy to the bathroom. Now, given the general sound and rhythm of the recent seismic activity in the Oakland area, when my ears hear THUDTHUDTHUDTHUDTHUDTHUD, my brain registers "EARTHQUAKE!"

OK, so for about 30 minutes or so I deal with processing that little surge of adrenaline through my systems...no biggie. Except he kept getting up. THUD THUD THUD THUD THUD back to the bathroom. A few minutes later THUD THUD THUD THUD again. I finally gave up when it was THUD THUD THUD THUD THWAEEAKK! on that one very squeaky floorboard that happens to be right over my bed.

So at 4:00 I said, "fuck it" and got up. I ended up melting some glycerine soap and making a complexion bar with tea tree, spearmint, rosemary, geranium, lavender, rose water and lavender water and vitamin E. I also made a couple of bars of "Icon" soap...now, if you're a longtime Lush devotee like I am, you'll remember Icon. It was the most wonderful scent they made, IMNSHO. Bergamot, Orange, Myrrh, Sandalwood...and to that I add Patchouli, Lemon and just a couple drops of "Ingredient X" which actually swings it closer to their "Blue Skies and Fluffy White Clouds." While I was at it, I made a new bottle of Icon fragrance, since I'm just about out of my first batch and the new batch needs to sit in the dark for 6-8 weeks.

So anyway, getting jarred out of bed wasn't a total loss. I'm working my way through a pot of chai tea and I gave the cats 1/2 of their brekkies at about 5:00 (poor furkids get so confused when the routine is upset...they couldn't deal with me being "up" and them not eating). And I'm listening to the storm outside. Lots of wind.

And he's still up thudding around every 20-45 minutes or so...feh! I guess I'll just finish this cuppa and go take a shower.