484: Sleeeeeeeeeeeeeep!

If my husband would stop snoring, I could go to sleep...

*Insert sad face here*

483: Aha!

Maybe they were wearing magic glasses.

Who knew... 

Wear Sunglasses to See Better When Driving in the Rain

482: Thank God for yesterday!

Sometimes dwelling on the past is a good thing.

Today was a good example of such.

Around 3 a.m., my eyes were hurting so I figured it was time to turn off the telly and put the yarn and hook away. I also knew I had to be up by 10 a.m. latest, to get Baby Bliss to work on time.

Since I was already on the couch and Mr. Bliss has been working the No-One-Has-a-Clue-What-Time-He's-Getting-Off shift, I decided to sleep on the couch.

Which may or may not have been the root of the problem. The theory shall be tested soon.

When I woke up five hours later, I was not a happy camper.

*sigh*

Having bad dreams is such a bother. And it was a strange bad dream too. Not so much the details as the tone of it.

I'll detail it below and though I dabble in dream interpretation, I welcome any thoughts any one else has as well.

***

First, it had elements of several movies: Knowing, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Legion, The Happening...

It started with Mr. Bliss and I in an empty room on the ground level of a house or business.

The walls were white or very light colored and the room seemed empty except for he and I. We were naked (or almost), with my husband embracing me from behind. We were facing a door flanked by floor-to-ceiling windows.

I looked outside and saw a man in a truck. He appeared to be watching us. I asked Mr. Bliss if the man was watching and he said yes.

We decided to cover the windows. I found lots of light-colored fabric on hangers and picked it up. I wondered how I would hang it because the windows were high and I didn't have anything to secure the fabric with.

Creepy how the man from the truck (and I think another man) appeared in the room, behind us.

He began talking about a drug he wanted us to take, making it sound like it was something fantastic. We refused but he managed to give me some kind of shot with something from a tube (like the ones I've seen some indigenous people use with blow darts).

I immediately got angry and wanted to hurt him/them. I think I told my husband to detain the guy(s). I think I tried to fight the one who drugged me but eventually he/they left. Suddenly my husband and I were clothed and we left the building too.

We knew we had to leave the building.

We were standing close to the door of the building we left, which opened onto a big square like the end scene in "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" (the version with Donald Sutherland).

I noticed a huge pond in the middle of the square.

Then I noticed that people seemed to be dying by being slammed (or slamming themselves) against some kind of barrier (shades of "The Happening") but I could only hear it, not see it.

Suddenly I saw bodies appearing on the pond, which had frozen.

Once we stepped out into the street, men began coming from various directions to harm us (reminders of the men from "Knowing").

It became a lucid dream of sorts. I told myself it was a dream and tried to wake myself up because I began feeling very afraid, like if I/we was/were killed in the dream, something equally awful would happen in real life.

I think I managed to wake up for a few seconds because I have a vague memory of seeing a superimposed image of my real life surroundings. But I got sucked right back into the dream. It was like I was struggling against an invisible barrier while underwater. It was awful.

When the dream continued, Mr. Bliss and I managed to elude the men but then ordinary citizens began pursuing us. Not in a pack or continuously, but sporadically, like letting us know that even if we escaped we would never be safe.

There was an old woman, like the one in the early diner scenes in "Legion" who came at us.

At that point, I know I was in a panic. I don't remember having a conscious thought of "what the hell are we gonna do now?" but i opened my mouth and began chanting "nam myoho renge kyo".

The old woman began convulsing and was unable to continue towards me.

My heart sang as I realized we were safe.

I became a little frightened when I forgot the words but the people around me began to chant as well. The sound spread until there was a multitude of voices chanting in unison.

***

I don't know what the dream means but a literal interpretation would say it's time to start chanting again.

When I began studying the Buddhism of Nichiren Daishonin and chanting in the early 90s, the first thing I chanted for was a cessation of the nightmares I had had almost every night since childhood.

It worked.

My Buddhist practice and study has been dormant for a long time now. Maybe 10 years. I've had a few nightmares in the years since but very few compared to the number I had before I chanted.

Hmmm... I just had a thought.

Perhaps a metaphysical interpretation could be:  there's something I need to focus more positive energy on (represented by the chanting), in order to keep the negativity (represented by the scary/bad people and incidents) at bay.

Does this all bring me back to why I'm thankful for yesterday? It should, shouldn't it?

Yesterday was warm and sunny. Today was cool and rainy. Flood-y rainy.

It started out as cloudy but progressed to pouring in time for me to drive my daughter to work. When we were pulling off, I kept thinking how this was the first time all summer that we had to head out in such bad weather.

She only works three days a week but I'm thinking that in three months, at least once of those days should have been wet if not stormy. I can't recall either.

Today, visibility was dodgy and I drove slowly with my blinkers on. Folk were flying by as if they had magic glasses that allowed them to see through water and mist.

Worse, my side mirrors and the outside of my side windows were foggy. It was difficult to see drivers who didn't have their lights on.

The drive home was better. The rain was gone and the air was cleaner. Cooler too.

Despite yesterday's heat it was a wonderfully restful day, just as I planned.

Thanks God.

Today's bad dream coupled with navigating the deluge make yesterday a dreamy day of the best kind.

.

481: Life is Good.

Early evening yesterday, I was watching Family Feud and looking forward to watching Law & Order SVU followed by two episodes of Burn Notice.

But nature would not be cheated (as one of my exes liked to say). Steve Harvey's antics were not enough to keep me awake. It was time to add some zees to my sleep deficit.

When I awoke it was dark; The New Adventures of Old Christine was winding down.

Five hours had passed.

Waking up at 11:30 p.m. is disorienting but not unusual. My sleep schedule is... different. Learning to work around it has become my forte.

So I've been up all night, Facebook-ing and checking my favorite online news sources.

No plans for today since my daughter doesn't have to return to work until Friday and I've already gotten groceries for the week.

There are things to be done of course but isn't that always true?

Today I'm taking it easy and thankful to be able to do so.

Amen.

 .

480: More family ties.

The family tree grow-eth massively larger! (See this post for more details: family ties.)

I forgot to mention that my mother, daughter and I had lunch with a cousin from my mother's generation while we were home. He filled in a lot of missing info for us regarding my grandmother's birth father and the great uncle who raised her. Some of it fit in perfectly with info we already had. Some of it only confused us more due to several family members having same or similar first names and some only being known to our cousin by nicknames.

Either way, it was still good info and the stories he told about some family members were hysterically funny. A few times we laughed so loud, i thought we might be asked to leave the restaurant.

Since we've been home, I've been using Family Search to gather corroborating data where possible. It's both fun and frustrating.

.

479: Working it out once again.

One of my daddy's sisters is my favorite auntie. Lately she's been checking in at the gym on Facebook. So have lots of other folks.

One day my brain told me that I too could benefit from a lot more exercise than I've been getting. Especially now that we've moved to a smaller place.

Yesterday morning as I sat on the couch checking e-mail, I heard splashing and talking at the pool. I glanced out the window and saw one of the maintenance staff talking to a swimming resident. The pool looked very inviting and I had a thought to do my workout in the crystal clear water. However, by the time I finished my Facebook duties (I update our church's page), did a few necessary things in here, dug my bikini top out of the closet, and found a pair of shorts suitable for wearing into the pool, it was already hot out.

And though I love the ease of working out in the pool, taking a shower/to get dressed/to get in the pool/to workout/to come back in for another shower -- well, it felt like too much work to do, to get a work out.


So instead I decided to work out here in my living room, where it was cool.

I won't lie. It was hard. But I'm proud of myself. I was able to get in 27 minutes of movement using a combination of dance and exercise moves before I was too tired to get off the floor.

And imagine this: even with the air on, I still worked up a mess of sweaty sweat. My shower was heaven on earth.

After, I sat down to work and forgot to eat until a couple of hours later.   :(

Surprisingly, I don't feel at all sore right now. Let's see how I feel after a night's sleep because I plan to work out again later today.

I also plan to go out dancing with the girls Friday evening.

My fingers are crossed for swift alignment of mind and body because I can't let my exercise plan get in the way of a good time this weekend!

.

478: My my, how time does fly!

.
Has it truly been over a month  -- almost two -- since I've posted here? Not for lack of fodder, I assure you.

There has been lots going on, mostly mundane but a little excitement as well.

Thank you God for an interesting life!

Let's see...

Earlier this month, we traveled several hundred miles home to visit family and attend my third annual elementary/junior high school reunion.

We always visit my daddy and stepmother on the way up the road or on the way back down. They live a few hours before our destination. It's good to go to daddy's because we're heading home and not because he's in the hospital.

During our visit home, there was time for lunch with a long-time friend who I talk to often but hadn't seen in years. Lunch wasn't long enough but I was thankful for the time we had.

My daughter and I were blessed to spend a few hours visiting a cousin I hadn't seen since my (paternal) grandma's funeral 11 years ago. We also got to meet two of his children but sadly, his wife was at work so we couldn't meet her. :(    My favorite auntie was there too.   :)

I had a blast at my reunion. It was priceless to reunite with so many folks from back in the day and to meet the new folks too. People brought their families, our principle popped in, my 6th grade teacher came, lots of folks from the old neighborhood who didn't attend school with us were there, and I suspect some folks saw a party in the park and just dropped on in.  *chuckle*

It was especially wonderful to see friends from my class and the youngins from later classes who I'd met at the previous reunion.

Several people I expected to see were M.I.A. One of them I was really looking forward to seeing. He made it to last year's reunion, where I had up close and personal time with everyone except him. Which caused me a bit of anxiety later because he's one of those people who has a special place in my heart. My plan was to have a few kind words with him at this year's reunion but we know what they say about the best laid plans. Hopefully I can see him next time I'm home.

There are a few other people I wanted to see but time was on its own schedule. With the exception of the year my daughter and I spent the whole summer at home, summer visits are too short. I find this thought amusing because the thought of moving back up there is a teeny bit vomitrocious. I guess it's a sense of nostalgia mingled with the feeling that because we no longer live there, my hometown has become a vacation destination where everyone knows my name

There's talk of returning home next month for an upcoming neighborhood reunion but gas prices have gone up again. We'll see.

Any who, if we don't make it back up the road this year, I have good memories (and pictures too!) of our most recent visit.

And just in case, I'm planning all the fun I'll have if August finds us back on familiar streets.  ;-)

***