Hell with this. It's 4am, and I can't sleep. Been laying awake for the last two hours. The war within my body rages, but I think the forces of good might be starting to win.

Feeling utterly unable to sleep, I curled up under the blankets and read Dime Store Magic until midnight, when I finally put the book down and determined to sleep.

Feeling cold to the point of shivering, I piled on the extra blanket I had brought from home. Eventually, I drifted off into a tormented dream state. A mixture of sorcerers, never-ending ringups at the register, and thirst populated my thoughts. Thirst. My water bottle was empty, and I had felt too tired to refill it before bed. I woke up a couple times wishing I had some, but I had consumed the last drop, and I didn't want to leave the warmth of the bed.

At 2am, thirst overcame the desire for warmth, so I went upstairs to fill my bottle. Reverberations of a dream echoed as I traversed the stairs. I had been dreaming of doing this exact thing minutes earlier -- going upstairs to refill my water -- but in the dream, when I reached the kitchen, a demon had blocked my passage in the dark. Real life, no demons. I drank the water.

Back in bed, the sheets had cooled off. It took a while for them to warm back up to the point of being comfortable again. Even when they did, I couldn't sleep. Tossed and turned, thought about watching a Xena episode off DVD, but didn't want to get up, and the glow might have hurt my eyes anyway.

After over an hour of this, I began to feel overly hot, and reduced the blanket cover. Now my headache is less intense, but I still can't sleep. But maybe I'm getting a little better.

I'm hoping this thing will subside enough by afternoon that I can at least limp into my 3 hour shift tonight. If need be, I can sleep most of the day.

Another thing -- possibly due to the sickness, or possibly the result of ingesting so many toxic foods over the past few days: My urine smells absolutely putrid! Usually, it might smell a little bit, but every time since yesterday afternoon, it's been utterly foul. Maybe it's just going to take a few days to flush the accumulation. I'm tempted to put myself on an all-organic vegan diet for the next week, but I don't know if I'll go that far.

Yes, I do have this strange tendancy to bounce back and forth between extremes. A wise course of action would probably be to steer myself in the general direction of better eating. I don't want to swear off gas station food altogether, but instead remember that even though it's free, it should not be thought of as a staple. A snack, occassionally, but not a constant way to keep myself stimulated through every monotonous day.

At this moment, the evil forces inside seem to be in retreat. I think I'll try the bed again.