Monday, June 6, 2011

dreaming

I've been really run down lately.

Moving Shannon into her apartment wore me out... the drive, the night in a hotel (I can never sleep in hotels), the late start moving because the previous tenant had not vacated, the intense cleaning that had to be done. I will have you know, I got that kitchen and that bathroom spic and span.



I was so tired on the way home, it hurt to breathe. So I writhed around in my seat in the van, and Shawn and Lulu both took turns driving. Lulu had gone along to help with the cleaning and to mastermind the decorating. She did a good job and stayed upbeat the whole time. This is one of the many reasons why we are so thankful that we have her.



We arrived home at midnight on Monday (Memorial Day), and got to bed by about 1 a.m.

The remainder of the week was a blur of exhaustion. I don't even remember what all was going on, but each day had busy events that kept me from being able to sleep in and rest up. Each day I meant to take a nap, but each day I failed to complete that particular goal. By Saturday night, I went to bed before the rest of the family, regardless of the fact that they were making noise and might quite possibly leave food out on the counter all night. Lulu is home now, so there is at least one other person who would put the milk into the refrigerator if she walked through the kitchen and saw it out. And I was so tired, I fell into bed and sank into a comatose state from which I was slightly roused once by loud voices, but at that point I was so tired that even loud voices jolting me awake could not keep me awake. My adrenals were blessedly dead.

On Sunday I took it easy. We did, of course, get up and go to church. But other than that, the only thing I really did was take a walk. Jonathan grilled hamburgers (delicious hamburgers) for a late lunch after church, and Shawn took us for an early evening drive out to the country to watch the sun set over our land. Then he bought us ice-cream for dinner on the way home. That was not good for me, I'm sure, but I haven't done it for a long time. I tried to reset my body by having a grapefruit and a glass of water before bed.

This morning Shawn needed to leave for a trip to Baltimore. I intended to get up with him, but after I got up with Jonathan, I went back to bed and had a terrible time trying to relax. I wasn't sure what Shawn needed me for, as he had packed the night before, and DJ was going to drop him off at the office to meet a colleague who was driving, because DJ had to get to his lab this morning. I did not have an overwhelming sense that Shawn really needed me. So when I was finally able to relax again, I allowed myself to drift into a nice, deep, morning nap.

I dreamed that we were at Sunset Beach and I was delightedly exploring our beach house, which had an interesting bathroom with two bathtubs, a big one and a little one with a flexible, adjustable shower apparatus. I was in the bathroom washing the sand off my feet (which is something you have to do quite often at the beach, but usually you do it with a hose underneath the house before you go in). I was washing my feet in warm water, and I heard Shawn come into the beach house to get his stuff ready to leave for Baltimore. I went out of the bathroom to see him, and I tried to talk to him, but he was not responding to me in any way.

It was then that I noticed he was wearing a red jacquard satin cape and a plush, stuffed gorilla-head mask. The pillowy mask obstructed both his vision and his hearing as he placed final items into his suitcase for Baltimore. I said to him, "So! You thought you were going to play a joke on me! Well, I think the joke is on you!"

And then I woke up.

2 comments:

Hope T. said...

That sounds like a fun dream and the beach part must have been very soothing. Morning dreams (after the sun is up) always seem to be the best ones.

Ruth said...

Morning dreams, for me, are definitely the most graphic and memorable. However, usually they are terrifying. Sometimes I avoid falling asleep when the sun is bright for that very reason. But this dream was so funny I have been chuckling to myself about it all day.