I have technology insomnia.

You see, I sell electronics, so in some ways, I'm on the cutting edge. A few months ago I shut off my house phone. So, my cell phone is always on. The only time I shut it off is when I accidentally drop it and the battery pops out.

The majority of my family lives over 700 miles away. My mother and sisters live closer to 1500 miles away. My children are with their father 50% of the time, so like I said, my cell phone is always on.I'm very close to all of them, and I can't imagine there being an emergency and I miss the call because my phone was set on "alarm only" as to not interrupt my precious sleep.

I will never forget that when I was a child, three of our family members were in a horrible an accident in a big rig. We've got a lot of truck drivers in the family. Thank God everyone survived but they were severely injured and the accident left my aunt with a metal pole down her spine for the rest of her life. When this happened, the call came in the middle of the night.

So, now my heart firmly believes that if there is a family emergency, the call will come in the middle of the night. Even though, when my sister attempted suicide, the call came in mid day... As did the call when my 20 year old cousin passed, and when my Grandpa had a heart attack. Still, I can't let go of the feeling that family emergencies happen in the middle of the night.

Here's the problem. I wish you could turn off just the damn text messaging portion of your phone, because I hate to say it but my friends have absolutely no consideration! Oh, they won't callme in the middle of the night, but they'll sure as hell send me a text message! Even my friend John, despite the fact that I spoke to him yesterday about not texting me at 6am.

I wonder how that conversation seated in his brain. 6am, no, but 1:45am -- ya baby!!

I should also mention I'm a text-a-holic. I'll text people in the next room, or even sitting next to me. I don't even bother checking the number of texts I go through in a month. If I did that I might have to get out of the land of denial and get in a program. Do they have meetings for text-a-holics?

So, with my text-a-holic affliction, the chances of my not reaching up and grabbing the phone when it goes off at 2am are virtually non-existent.

I sit up.. consider not replying, but then he texts me again. Damn it! Shoot him a message. "gotta sleep now".

At this point my dog sees me sitting up and starts running around like a chicken with her head cut off. I can actually hear her thoughts overthe sound of her toe nails click clacking like crazy against the cheap vinyl flooring "are we gonna go outside? lets play! lets play! It's just me and you, mommy! The kids and even the frickin' cats are asleep. PAY ATTENTION TO ME!"

So, I put on my boots and we go outside for a smoke. I'm hoping this will get me drowsy and back to bed, as now I'm wide awake. A ridiculous bedtime ritual, I know. Let's smoke a stimulant so we can go back to bed. What am I thinking?

Walk back in and take a swig of Mt. Dew. Oh, I'm also hooked on Mt. Dew. Liquid crack as my ex boyfriend has called it. That was a fun conversation. "ahh.. baby, I can't sleep, damn it!"

"You think it has anything to do with that liquid crack you drink right before you go to bed?" he replies.

"shut up!" I snap, not being able to hide the laugh behind it.

I lay on the couch wishing for sleep- amped up on texting, nicotine and liquid crack... when my newest addiction creeps in.

I slowly lean up and look over at the light on the tower of my computer. Light is on! I didn't shut if off earlier. My head spins with ideas for new hubs and I know from last nights experience that if I don't write them now... I won't write them.

I slam my head back down on the pillow. No! I have to get up at 6am! 6am wasn't even quite early enough this morning as my satellite DVR (digital video recorder) called out to me and I ended up spending a good 45 minutes watching TV before leaving for work.

Technology insomnia... or maybe it's addiction insomnia! Ahh, damn it! What's a girl to do? I'm sure they don't have 12 step programs and group therapy for this sort of thing!