Power Sleeper And Worrier

Jennifer was a power sleeper. A trait she inherited from her father. Over the years I spent many a hour waiting for my sleeping beauty to rise and shine. I am a person that if I wake up I am usually up. Not Jennifer, she could easily roll over and go right back to sleep. She always said that was because she had a clean conscious and that I must have a guilty conscious.

Maybe she was right. My mind just gets to racing as soon as I wake, making it tough for me to get back to sleep. So I usually just get up and start facing the day. She on the other hand could just go back to sleep, even if she got up for a bit.

I can however go to sleep fast. Some nights I will be out as soon as my head hits the pillow or I can read one to two paragraphs and fall asleep. That used to puzzle her. She usually had to read for a bit before she could fall asleep, but once she was out she could sleep like a champ.

Jennifer was also a power worrier. She would be burning bridges before she ever got to them. Over the years she lost many hours of sleep worrying about one thing or another. We had some knock down/drag outs over the years over her worrying about something. I don't know how many times I would tell her "We will address the issue when we get there and to quit burning the bridge before we had a chance to cross it". Of course that was most often not taken well and a "God damn it Joe" would follow and the fight would be on.

Well it's my turn to worry for the next few days as I prepare to get her home and placed in Butte's hallowed ground. I believe thanks to a lot of help from family and friends that things are pretty well set up and that things will go OK. We will just roll with the punches and try not to burn the bridges before we get a chance to cross them.

Also FYI Jennifer's obituary is in todays Montana Standard.