SLEEP!!!

The other night (Tuesday)I slept for 12.5 hours. 

It.was.glorious!

That is more sleep than I have accumulated in 2 weeks.

It felt so good to have the pain at this level that I could fall asleep.

I felt sleep coming on at 7:15pm. Rick was sitting on the stoop with the dog.

I opened the door and I said, I am so very tired and I think I could sleep now so I'm heading upstairs. He said he'd be inside in a few minutes.

I went upstairs, put stuff on my face that isn't helping a single wrinkle, and slowly crawled into bed. I felt like I could watch jeopardy for a bit and then fall asleep. 

I propped myself up with all the bed pillows and slowly got in a comfy position. 

I recall answering a jeopardy question and then it went to a commercial.

That is all I remember until 7:30am.

Rick came back into the house and he came directly upstairs to see if I needed anything and I was already out like a light. He went back downstairs like a normal person at 7:30 in the evening.

Rick came back upstairs just shy of 10p with the dog and they both watched the show Transplant in bed. I slept through it all.

But allow me to share with you how great 12 hours of sleep is when you haven't been able to sleep. I even got up once to use the bathroom and on my way back to bed I thought, oh boy, please let me get back to sleep. Yeah, no problem, just put my head down and I was out like a light again. 

It was tremendous. 

Sleep never meant all that much to me until I couldn't get sleep. Insomnia had been a side effect of everything for me it seems. I don't think I appreciated sleep enough before. 

I used to work at the airport. My shift was 5:30am - 2pm. I never slept. 

I normally got home around 3pm. I also had a 2nd job 8 months of the year. 

But let me tell you when there was something I wanted to do, sleep went by the wayside. There were many a day where I'd get home at 4am and set my alarm for 4:30a. I'd sleep for a full 30 minutes, shower, fix face and hair and drive to the airport, and be on time. And do it again. That is where your age makes a difference. As someone over 30, I can tell you that when I was 30 and doing this it was so damn easy but as an older woman, I can no longer do this and sure as hell don't want to. Now sleep is like money. I want it all!

Another tidbit - It seems you all thought my spinal injection was for the issues I have been dealing with Mold. (CIRS) Nope.

You see I've had a few back surgeries over the years. This is an issue that sometimes happens after this many with scar tissue and in the area of which this is located. I was dealing with the issues but as I have mentioned I have someone coming to my home next Friday. I did not wish to be hunched over, unable to bend or sit or to have fun in general. So I had the injection to relieve the pain and to be able to be upright when they arrive. It takes 2 days to 10 days to have the full effects of the shot. I am doing so much better but it is still not 100%.  I hope it continues.

In 1979 I went to Toronto to go to the CNE (Canadian National Exhibition)

Sue and I went to this yearly. We both enjoy Toronto and this was always fun for us. We always drove home with a treasure trove of goodies we bought and had to claim in customs. Our last night was a concert at the old baseball stadium or Exhibition Stadium I think it was called.   

I had been there for many a ball game but this was the first concert I was seeing here. It was Burton Cummings, the lead singer of the Guess Who from back in the day. 

We got to our seats and we watched one after another fall on the concrete steps that were wet and there was no railing. Just before the show was to start I decided I should go to the bathroom. Sue said, "be careful"  

I should have removed my shoes and gone down the wet steps in my bare feet.

But instead, I kept my Candies on. Remember Candies? Rick calls them Dolly Parton shoes. They were wood and clog like except with heels. (I've seen them on that 70s show worn by Jackie...LOL)

I got to the end of my row and as I stepped out my feet went straight out in front of me, I bounced on my tailbone. I sat there for a minute. It was instant pain. A security guard came up the steps to help me. I thanked him and hobbled to the restroom. I got inside the stall and just cried. I pulled myself together and sat uncomfortably through a concert. 

I drove to Canada but I knew I couldn't drive at the end of the concert. 

I was hurting. I tried in the parking lot but to extend my right leg was painful. I begged Sue to drive. She could not drive a standard.

I had a 1979 Datsun 280Z. Remember those? Yep, a 4 speed that no one could drive but me at this moment in time. I explain to Sue that if she put in the clutch when I yell "clutch" I'd shift. We practiced in the parking lot. We made it back to our hotel. We had a fridge and I grabbed the chocolate out of it. She grabbed the wine. I was wearing my T-shirt and panties. When I bent over she shrieked to go look at my backside in the mirror.

It was dark purple and black. Yep, it was bruised and I hurt. Pour that wine!

In the morning it was far worse. 

She drove us home to Erie PA from Toronto. Only 3 hours thank heavens.

We had a great system down. We only needed to shift when slowing down or when we went through customs etc. Otherwise driving 65 and higher on the highway, she was fine. She has decided at this point she loves my car and she can do this. What a way to learn to drive a standard. She was now clutching AND shifting without me. A few jerks that were painful after customs. She jerked, stalled the car, and the young man who had interviewed us said, "you know how to drive this car?" 

Sue laughed and batted her beautiful eyes at him and told him he made her nervous and he accepted that answer with a big grin. We laughed. 

Sue was tall stacked blonde with the most gorgeous green eyes that everyone mentioned to her. She was a big flirt as well. She would use her eyes to get whatever she wanted. She would turn to me after asking for something that was not allowed and wink and by God she'd get it. She used to say, with your boobs and my eyes, we've got it made. I just couldn't be as free as her back in those days. Today, yep. But too late the cute is long gone!

Nothing fun would have happened to me for years if I hadn't lived with Sue. We became best friends in 6th grade and even today if I call her it's like no time has passed and we laugh like hell and our husbands just shake their heads.

She was always making me do things I would never do. Or as my parents said, "She is a bad influence on you" HA. She was where I learned the facts of life. She is the one that convinced me pot wouldn't kill me. She was the first one to have me take a sip of Cold Bear wine. (oh my god it is putrid!) She was the one that convinced me to not die a virgin. She had sex and couldn't understand why I was such a hold out (I was only 16 for Pete's sake - she was always ahead of me) When we lived together she would say, c'mon let's just go to the concert, the rent will work itself out. Yep, I was afraid of everything and she allowed me to soar. She hated books, I always had my nose in one she claimed. We couldn't be more different. But it worked.

Today she turns 65. 

I called her last night to wish her a happy birthday and of course say, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, you're older than me! 

We talked for a long time. We laughed a lot and bitched about old age.

I've been friends with her since I was 11. She got me through my mom's death at age 13 and for years later. She has always had my back and she still does.

I don't know a lot of people I can call in the middle of the night and with no questions asked and who will just come to help me. We should all have at least 1 friend like that in our lives. I've been blessed to have a few. I wish they all lived closer to me.