Well. That was interesting. I had some very pleasant dreams. Wedge + feather pillows + heating pad + goodNite iPhone app + duvet + another blanket = sweet dreams. I don’t know how long that will last (do the challenges keep increasing?) but I’m glad I got at least another night of good sleep.
Also, not being completely afraid to go to sleep helps.
The Overcow is still snuggled under my arm, and I worry a bit about durability, but she is a Gund, so has a good pedigree.
… I actually want to take her to work with me, but if I left her there, I would be so sad this weekend. I guess having an Overcow at work will need to wait for OVERCOW-2007 to arrive next week.
Or I find the location of our team’s mascot plush. One day I found it, and ended up sitting with it in my lap through a coding session… and through a team meeting… and through an informal cube meeting… and at some point the senior engineer of our team said, “Why do you have a stuffed animal in your lap?” and then I stopped.
I feel better with the Overcow right now (I don’t remember if I did back then, but there must have been a reason it was in my lap for so long). Especially this morning sorting through my emails, some of which I allow websites to send me ’cause I like shopping, and it’s been rather… triggery. I want to hide my eyes from all the mentions of, you know, the F-word, but not the 4-letter version. Also the D-word. And anything mentioning That Date.
When I hold the Overcow tight (very tight) whilst reading the email, I feel better. Also when re-reading yesterday’s posts on the blog with the Word That Has No Logical Reason to Trigger Me But Does. I don’t know why any of this is, and when I try to google for “why do people like stuffed animals” I get nothing useful.
Anyways. Have to prepare for the day, somehow. I want to go back to bed, it was quite nice.
Spontaneous ∂erivation 
People like stuffed animals because we’re mammals. Our hindbrains are hardwired to like soft, fuzzy touch and find it reassuring, same as our fur-bearing mammal ancestors responded to their companions’ soft, furry skin. It’s a milder version of the soothing effect from snuggling with people or pets.
Most people surround their babies and young children with soft, warm things precisely because we’re hardwired to need it. Even baby monkeys, in animal-behavior experiments, were calmer and more confident when they had a soft snuggly blanket than when they were in a bare cage.
I like the idea of your team having a mascot. My computer’s guardian stuffed animal is a little white-and-pastel rabbit.
Most people surround their babies and young children with soft, warm things precisely because we’re hardwired to need it.
Ah. I thought it was mostly because kids need to be kept warm. Perhaps that’s why I’ve always been rather attached to my duvet (a present from friends. I almost always blog and write from underneath it).
Our team has multiple mascots, only some of them soft and furry. I’m the only one who has, in public, played around and held one of them.
The Overcow is so adorable! Also all the other grownups coming out of the closet about their stuffed friends. A few years ago, I was cleaning out my attic and put the word out to everyone who ever lived here that if they didn’t rescue things by a certain date I was getting rid of them. I got a *ton* of responses saying “I didn’t leave anything in your attic but if you find my Wubbie (Dougal, Rosaliejerrylinmonica, Dodo) please don’t throw it out!
on a slightly wirier note, I wonder if a filter that blocked emails with those words in them might help?