January 24

Insomnia really sucks. I woke up at 3am and was never able to get back to sleep. I still feel fine here at the office, but I know that at some point later today that the wall will come crashing down on me and I will need to sleep or force myself to stay awake. I wish that there was some method of controlling this malady, but I have yet to find it.

I am at the office early, as usual, and have gotten things ready for my meeting later today. I am supposed to attend a friend's military retirement party this evening, that will probably happen because I don't want to deal with the unpleasantness that will follow if I cancel at the last minute. Honestly, I am not really looking forward to it because of the types of people that will be there. Even though I also served in the military, I find that I just don't have that much in common with the people that will be present this evening. Probably the fact that I was enlisted and this friend is an officer has a lot to do with all this. Whereas an enlisted retirement party is nothing formal, this event should have been staged by Spielberg! The amount of time and money that will be invested in all of this is truly staggering, but from all I understand, not that unusual amongst the officer class.

The main thing that will make me go is the free booze and food as well as the relief that I will not have to deal with the attitude if I failed to attend. Remarkably I still have a job to do here today although the actual retirement ceremony will take place late this morning. I already had to make it quite clear that I was unable to attend the ceremony, and to deal with the resulting disapproval of my friend and his officer buddies, both active and retired. I will find solace in alcohol at the party this evening, and I will try to avoid any conversations that involve politics. This will be rather difficult since the people that will be there are all of the RWNJ persuasion. So long as I have a drink or food in my mouth I can get by with nodding and avoiding any real interaction with these people.

As one can tell, I am not really looking forward to this evening at all. It is a necessity that I deal with the friend since he is also a co-worker. Were it not for that, I would have found a plausible excuse to avoid the party in the first place. The booze had better not be watered down at the party!