Have you ever had one of those nights where you just can't sleep? I'm having one right now. While the rest of the house is off in slumberland, I'm wide awake. Of course, it could have something to do with the fact that I slept until mid-morning. But then I did drink an entire glass of sweet tea just before normal bedtime. Well, normal bedtime for most folks.

In all honesty, I don't think it has anything to do with my late night tendencies and everything to do with Loki.

Yes, Loki. My muse.

He spends much of his time grazing. Occasionally, he'll lift his head and nudge me with that black nose of his. Of course, this rare occasion occurs as soon as I tumble onto the bed in sheer exhaustion. And it never fails, I open my eyes to find him gazing at me with his beady eyes. He doesn't even have to Baaaa at me. I know what he's thinking. He's thinking I should be writing instead of sleeping. I think he should go back to grazing, or whatever it is he does on most nights.

And since our thinking never meshes with the others, I toss and turn for hours on end until I finally see his way of thinking; I should be writing. Seriously, if I can't sleep any way, I might as well be doing something productive, right?

But wouldn't you know it, as soon as I fire up the laptop, my eyes cry out for Clear Eye and ten hours of sleep, and yep, you guessed it, Loki has resumed his grazing. He is most assuredly living up to his namesake.

All thoughts of perfecting scenes and honing my craft in the middle of the night fly out the window like an elusive firefly. It's like Loki has some sort of Clap-On, Clap-Off mechanism wired to my brain. And I know he's getting a big laugh out of the whole ordeal. He's such a trickster.

Why, oh why, did my muse have to be a nocturnal sheep? Any suggestions? I could really use some sleep. At night, not during the daytime when most 'normal' people are active. I've tried watching television until I fall asleep. I've tried reading. And yes, I've even tried counting sheep.