Nightmares & Dreamscapes

As many of you know for several years (at least that I've known about) I have had on occasion extreme nightmares that often spill out of just my sleep and sometimes wake other people up. I just figured that all they were was nightmares. Then a month or so ago I was re-introduced (through facebook) to a person that I had known in my childhood. One day I noticed that she had joined a group about a sleeping disorder known as sleeping paralysis. I was curious, ended up looking at the group to see what it was about and then went on to explore other sleep disorders. One of which was something called Night Terrors. Most of the symptoms fit what happens to me, so on self-diagnosis I would say that this is something that I have.

One of the symptoms is that the dreamer usually doesn't remember what happened the night before in the morning. USUALLY.Sometimes though if woken up in the middle of the night because of the terror, they can remember small portions or impressions. A few nights ago, this was exactly the case.

Even though I wasn't fully conscious I knew I was out of bed and fighting for my life. As soon I was free from those trying to entangle me, I bolted out of my bedroom into the hallway only to spin around and face my bedroom when I reached the end of the hall. Bending at the knees and curling my hands into fists, I waited for the enemy to come boiling out of my bedroom door towards me! I was ready and waiting for them. My heart was pounding and I was sweating freely. As I waited, the fog started to lift and I realized that I was crouched in the hallway waiting for a completely imaginary foe. There was nothing in my room trying to kill me and there was certainly nothing that would be coming out after me. Even though I was now fully awake my heart was still pounding and I was breathing as hard as if I had just fought a real battle. Because of the reality of my feelings I grabbed a flashlight off of my desk and went back into my room to make absolutely certain it had all just been a dream. As I flashed the light around I saw that everything had been stripped off my bed and was lying tangled on the floor; sheets, blankets, pillows, all of it was strewn across the room. I remade my bed but was honestly to scared to get back in right away. So I tried to remember what I had been fighting.

I knew from past experience that if I didn't try and remember right then what I had been dreaming I would forget all about it in the morning. First was the overwhelming sense of evil and harmful intent, second was that they were soft and fuzzy. The more I thought about it the more I could piece together until I was able to mostly remember. The enemy I had been fighting were evil leech-like washcloths with tongues like frogs that they would shoot out, attach to me, (then using that pull themselves in) latch on to me and start drinking my blood. Needless to say a fearsome foe.

Finally after a few minutes I got back into bed and fell back asleep only to wake up a few hours later to my alarm going off and telling me I had to start another day.

The Real Story

All right, I admit it, I'm not a secret genius geneticist. I just happened to take a picture of myself the day after I had my top wisdom teeth taken out. That's all. Yes, last Tuesday I at last (after two previous attempts) had the operation. And it went swimmingly. What is it about going to the dentist that makes other people pull out all of their horrors stories, whether it happened to them or someone they knew. Is all of America dentaphobic? Well maybe I can do my bit to counteract all the bad stories and try to reassure people in the future. So that is it, no blood gushing- teeth wrenching- writhing in the chair story for all you fans out there. The swelling has even gone pretty much away, so I should look normal the next time any of you see me. Hey-- no smart comments!

Never Mess With Nature

The other day I, Professor Camerousky, was in my super secret genius lab when I had an amazing revelation. Wouldn't it be a wonderful thing to cross-breed chipmunks and humans! Think of all the possibilities. We wouldn't need luggage (just stuff your cheeks full) we could save water because we could just groom ourselves instead of taking showers. People might even finally learn how to store up and save! I went to work immediately. Unfortunately thus far, up to date, I haven't been very successful. The cheeks seem to be coming along nicely but nothing else so far.




Well that's it for today. Perhaps tomorrow I'll start working on the tail .

No, I'm not Dead

Unfortunately the title pretty much says it all. I've been feeling less than 100% this week, less than 50% actually so that has helped squash any sort of desire to get outside of myself and communicate. I am amazed every time I get sick how easily our bodies are taken down. Strong and incredibly versatile yet can be prey to invisible THINGS that we can't stop. Also even though I feel odd about putting this down in a public forum where others can read this, I am constantly reminded that at heart I am a selfish person who struggles to not interact with people just to get things out of them. Unfortunately I don't always come out ahead in that particular war. However I hope to be going sailing this afternoon with some friends, so that should give me something to write about, as well as some interesting stuff at work lately too. More than anything I think I just needed to sit down and get back into the habit of writing. Maybe I'll even get around to checking out some of your sites :)

Two Weeks Worth

Even though I haven't written anything in the last two weeks, doesn't mean that nothing has happened to me. As a matter of fact, several things have come my way. To start off with a story of what could be called incredible coincidence by many, but since I'm a believer in the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, I'm going to have to go with Just another example of God watching over us.

Last Monday(or sometime around then) after getting dropped off at my car I went to the nearest Walmart to pick up a couple of things that I needed. After finding them in the store (plus some extras) I started walking towards the cash registers. Not wanting to wait, I skipped the regular ones and went over to the self checkout registers. Who should I see but Aaron standing in line checking out items. Since he looked like he was mostly finished, I decided to say hi and stand next in line behind him. After finishing scanning his items he whipped out a credit (or maybe debit, I'm not actually sure) card and swiped it to pay. After signing the card reader, sirens and horns and light instantly went off scaring the bejabbers out of me! Well okay maybe not. But the light above that checkout did start blinking and someone came over to investigate what the problem was. Turns out he was using his mom's card to pay and when he signed for it, the reader saw that his signature was different and raised an alarm. After explaining the problem the employee said that she would talk to her supervisor and see if she could let it go. She came back and informed him that they couldn't accept him using that card. All this time I'm grinning my head off behind him, trying not to laugh out loud. I stopped laughing though when he mentioned that he didn't really have any other way of paying. I let him know that if necessary I would pay for it then and he could pay me back when ever. The employee, still being nearby, heard this and after verifying that I knew Aaron and that I could vouch he wasn't a smooth talking identity thief (though what kind of ID thief would steal a name of the opposite gender? I mean come on, a guy named Allison? ) she relented and let it go through. After saying so long and farewell, we parted ways and went on with our lives. It did however get me thinking and reminded me that the God we serve is interested and involved, rather than being distant and detached. Thank God for His Holy Spirit which He has given to us.

Another odd thing that has happened to me occurred on Wednesday. After work I had a couple of errands to run including getting my hair cut. I had gotten several comments that my hair was looking more grey than blue so I decided to was time to start eliminating some of it. I decided to try a new place, since where I usually go had gone up in price. It started out fine and normally but then near the end something very unusual happened. The hairdresser put her comb over my eyebrows and then trimmed off whatever hair poked through the teeth. I was shocked! Never in my whole life had anyone ever trimmed my eyebrows, I had never even considered it as something that was done! And then as I started to think about the idea grew a little bit more attractive in a very weird sort of way. She (the hairdresser) didn't say anything, acted normal, and kept on going like she hadn't done anything out of the ordinary. I'll admit that I've trimmed my eyelashes, and in between my eyebrows but never the eyebrows themselves. It got me thinking, however. Has anyone else ever had this happen to them? Or even done it to themselves? And do you think this is weird, or pretty normal? Let me know what you think.

Answered Prayers?

It is nice to have knowledge of a situation before you are in the middle of that situation, instead of finding it out as events unfold around you. For example, today I was supposed to have all four of my wisdom teeth removed. So I left work early, with plans of taking tomorrow off to recover, came home to clean up and left again for the dentist's office. When I got there I signed in and waited. A few minutes later I was called up to the desk to read and sign a release form. Now I did have a bit of warning before-hand of what to expect. I knew not to eat for eight hours before hand, and also that they required someone to take me home. They wouldn't release me without someone there to make sure I didn't try to drive myself. This I knew and had prepared for.

What I didn't know was that I wasn't supposed to have any water either. Or that the 'responsible adult' had to be in the office before they would take me in and start operating. Not the kind of thing you want to learn when you are waiting in the office. When the receptionist told the doctor how much I had had to drink (less than 20 oz.) the doctor immediately said, 'That's not going to work, we are going to have to reschedule for another time.' However, the learning didn't stop there. The surgeon still wanted to check me out and come to find out, my lower teeth (the completely impacted ones) are sitting on top of my nerve which made him very nervous about taking them out. So nervous in fact that he said it would be better to just leave them in.

So now I have another appointment in June to pull out just the uppers. I'm ticked that I have to arrange rides all over again and upset my schedule, but on the other hand, I just saved close to a grand. So I guess that makes up for it. And yes, this means I'll be working tomorrow, so I probably won't get to all of your blogs. Just the important ones :)

Just Grin and Bear It

I was going to post last week but it ended up being a really busy and tiring, so I'm doing it now before this week turns into the same thing. Several things have been going on, but the biggest one involves the title.

It had been a long time since the last time I saw the dentist and with my eating and brushing habits I was rather worried about the condition of my teeth. Also my lower jaw hadn't been feeling 100% so I wondered if something was up with my wisdom teeth. After looking around for a cheap dentist I called one up and got an appointment fairly quickly. The best part was, I didn't even have to miss any work. I went in, filled out some paperwork, waited and then was called into the back.

Thankfully I'm not a dentaphobe (do I really need to define?) so that made things very easy, especially where they were sticking all sorts of different things into my mouth and then taking them out and putting new different things in. The best part was the full set of x-rays. They stuck my head in an x-ray machine and then it twirled around shooting me full of radiation while making very electronic boops and beeps.

(Edit: I just spent half an hour reading stories that dentaphobes have written about their fears, and all I can say is, 'Wow.' I'm even more thankful now that I don't have dentaphobia.)

It was all very easy, painless and simple. After the x-rays, I saw one of the dentists and she gave me an examination while waiting for the developments. Low and behold I only needed one filling! I was expecting at least three, so this was very welcome news. Then came the bad news. My bottom wisdom teeth were/are impacted and my top ones, while not fully impacted weren't/aren't straight and are not growing out so at the end of April I will be having all four extracted. Since I don't have dental insurance this will be quite expensive. More than either one of my cars has cost. Still I would rather be poorer than have my teeth rot, or break, or split, or any of the other nasty things I've just been reading about.

That was Tuesday. Thursday I went in for the filling. Having half my mouth and tongue numb was really disconcerting but also rather fun. The best part was the numbness didn't wear off for several hours so I had something to occupy me during class. If only there was a way I could get my hands on some novacaine so I could do it when ever I wanted, heheheh...