iNecisito Dormir! (I need to sleep!)

There's an old saying, "The shoemaker's kids don't have shoes." I've also heard "the mechanic's car is broken" and "the plumber has a leaky in his spigot."

I've got a new one to add to the list: "The innkeeper doesn't sleep."

Seriously.

For someone in the business of making sure other people get a good night's rest, I haven't been getting any sleep. Whether it's people needing a plunger late at night or early in the morning or someone getting locked out of his room, it's always something. The TV doesn't work. I just blew power in my room. It's midnight, and the smoke alarm is chirping.

I'm just tired. I work a 9.5-hour split shift and am on call all night. I try to sleep at some point during my 4-hour mid-day window of being "off," but at that time I need to run Buena, eat, and catch up on personal stuff. I will usually lay down for a short nap, but I miss that deep restorative sleep.

I miss sleeping with windows open, too. I'll open the window to my cave-like motel room sometimes, but I usually end up regretting it. Cigarette smoke gets in my room, as does the noise from guests at their cars. And then there was the night, the one night, Circle D's music thudded against the west wall of the motel.

It was barely after midnight, and the sound woke me. I tried going back to sleep, but it was the kind of beat that just pings in your brain and says, Wake up, wake up, wake up!

I called the sheriff, and the overnight deputy answered. I'd probably woken him up, too. "That's it? A noise complaint?" He promised to get someone on it, but after 20 minutes, the music still pounded.

I got up and put on my boots. I threw on my jacket and picked up the phone. Walking over to Circle D, I redialed the sheriff's office.

"Hey, I can't sleep, so I'm just going to handle it myself," I said

"Oh no," the same deputy said, "we can send someone."

"If you were going to send someone, you would have done it by now. So... nevermind. I'm up. I can't sleep, so I may as well take care of it myself "

Approaching the bar, I surveyed the scene. A chunky white young lady sat at a high-top table, staring into her phone with both legs up on the table. Two workers stood inside the door, and the offender--a two-foot tall speaker--blasted music outward toward the woman staring into her phone.

The door to the restaurant was closed, and the two servers inside made no move to let me in.

"Climb over the wall," the phone-woman slurred.

I found a spot to climb over and approached the workers, a young skinny guy and a woman with a pile of hair jumbled up high. "The music is too loud. It's waking up guests," I said sternly.

"Okay, we'll turn it down. Sorry," said the hair-woman.

"I shouldn't have to even come over here after midnight.."

"It's just music," she said.

"Yeah, but this is Escalante," I said, implying the town rolls up the sidewalks by about 8:30 every night.

"True," agreed hair-woman.

"Yeah, but the Utes, the Paiutes, the Crow, and the Apache were here first," drunken phone-woman slurred angrily before turning to me. "You have no right to..."

"Hey, how about taking your white privilege and sticking it where the sun don't shine? I've got nothing to say to you." With that, I hopped back over the wall.

The drunken white woman spoke loudly, calling after me, "White privilege?"

She said other things, but I couldn't make out the words. I didn't care to hear her words. My one hope was that the drunken witch didn't come chasing after me. Or worse...had a gun.

I quickened my pace and redialed the sheriff's office. "The music's off, but now there's a drunken angry woman at the bar going on and on about white privilege."

That night, I couldn't fall back asleep until after 2 a.m. Last night it was someone looking for a room around midnight. (I'd forgotten to flip the sign to 'NO vacancy.') And this morning at a little after five, room 32 blew a circuit. I had to hunt down a flashlight, go upstairs, walk down the spooky hallway between the rooms, and restore power.

And, right now... ironically...I have to get in to work, so I'll end this post.