Sleep is a good drug

Finally, a good night's sleep. I used to be a dependably sound sleeper, difficult, in fact, to wake up if need be. When we were living in the apartment on Folsom St. Cris was out with her sister and I went to bed a little early one night. When she lost her key and was trying to get in, nothing would wake me -- not the phone, not the doorbell. Finally they got worried enough that they climbed over the fence to our downstair's neighbors' garden, came up the deck stairs, and started banging on the window by my head. Even then it took a minute. Now I seem to wake up with every little thing.

I had one of those complex dreams you can't remember half an hour after getting up -- I worked at a school, I think. When I woke up I really didn't want to get up, but I'm in the show at church this morning. Then perhaps I can go to the ballgame afterwards. It's vs. the Rockies, and "good seats are still available."

Oh, here's a near-classic San Francisco story. After working as a professional dominatrix for several years, a woman got a straight job in a government office where she ran into a former client.

When she objected to the salacious advances, Peacher says, the manager manipulatively became her direct supervisor and downgraded her performance evaluation. When she complained to higher-ups, coming out of the closet about her previous line of work, she says she was retaliated against and given little to do.

Rather than sit idly at her desk, Peacher spent her time studying workplace harassment and labor law. She also accumulated an arsenal of damning evidence: phone logs, e-mails, documentation of encounters with her alleged harasser.

Last month, Peacher, 45, reached a settlement with the government, which did not admit liability or fault. She will receive $35,000 in compensatory damages, $25,000 in attorney fees, a job transfer, approval to work at her South Bay home one day a week, and the restoration of almost 800 hours of assorted leave.

The only reason that's not a full classic SF story is that no one was killed somewhere along the line. But it's pretty close.