Welcome to Non-Humans R Us

My muse has a nasty sense of humor.
She dispatches a plot ninja, who goes out and scours the world until s/he finds something that I might want to write about. Then s/he sneaks up behind me, ties the message to a throwing star, and whips it at the back of my head. (Severe, repeated head trauma...is it any WONDER I have issues?) Then the ninja vanishes, only to show up at random times and repeat the process. Meanwhile, my muse sits in the corner and laughs while I rub the back of my head and try to figure out how the hell I'm going to make THIS plot work. Then she keeps me up until just about the time the alarm's supposed to go off for me to get up for work offering idea after idea after idea. And when I'm thoroughly exhausted...that's when the BIG ONE hits. The unifying theme that takes the story from a hopeless mishmash of unconnected ideas to a fully realized plot. And there goes another 24 hours of sleep time.