Emotional Hangover from Dreams?

No longer bound to a medication that makes me sleep like the dead, I've been dreaming lately. Last night, I remember dreaming a lot. Which is weird. I remember even getting up to let my dog out and returning to sleep to dream some more. This is particularly weird for me because, for years (eh, 6 to 8 years maybe) I just really haven't dreamed very much. Or I have seldom had any memory of having dreamed. I finally asked my doc about that, and he said usually I'm sleeping too deeply to dream. But the medication completely solves insomnia and really helps manage other issues, so I'd just live without dreaming.

I've been taking a new form of the same med. And I've been dreaming. I've had lots of dreams about the house I grew up in. Except it hardly resembles that house. We moved there when I was 18 months old. It was my 'home' for 30-odd years -- the place I always went back to. In these dreams I've been having, there are hidden areas in the house. Other people know about these places, but they don't bother to go there. There's nothing really of value in these labyrinths and rooms. But I enjoy exploring. Sometimes, it's pretty creepy, and in my dream, I'm talking to myself about how yetis don't really exist and how the boogieman wouldn't waste his time down in these hallways where nobody goes. What's funny to me (funny weird, not funny ha-ha) is that the same secret areas return dream after dream. Really... if I'm going to create new rooms and hallways and such, why not go all out and re-create Narnia?

The other dream that I remember from last night was surreal in its own ways. But it concerned a friend whose birthday was today. It was a positive, friendly, good dream. (Except when I went into a frantic mode of "Why do I keep spending all my money?! I need to save this money! Still, overall it was a lovely dream.) I don't remember any dreams in which I was running for my life, my pursuer never tiring. None of that! Just reasonably decent dreams. But today, when I woke, I was unspeakably sad. I just wanted to cry and lie in bed. It felt that it was related to dreams... maybe at the time, I had a better memory of some troubling dream. Who knows. What has stuck with me all day, though, is that sadness. Not that I've been sad, just that I've remembered how powerfully heartbroken I was when I woke. Very odd.

Birthday, birthday, birthday

As my mother was eager to point out, I managed three (yes, three) birthday celebrations this year. But hey, it's not my fault that the larger familial gathering got split into two different dates. Tonight was the final family event. This event was dinner and a birthday cake, so it's not like I got three piñatas or anything. What's WAAAY better than three piñatas?!? A birthday with your 4-year old and 23-month old nephews! Woo-hoo! Nobody can make a birthday hat look better than they can. Nobody can have you laughing randomly quite so much as adorable kids. And who else would be able to convince you to give up candle-blowing rights?! Nobody, that's who. We sang "Happy Birthday" 3 or 4 times, in Spanish and English, the candles got blown out and relit. Good, good times. My brother did a great job with grilling salmon. My sister-in-law made some kickin' broccoli slaw. It was a dinner tailored to my fave foods. Love it! Earlier in the week, from Mom, I got her orange-raisin sauce with ham. (I had asked why we only have it once a year! I mean, c'mon!) Maybe I'll blog more about the birthday. I just wanted to get something down tonight. As my older nephew would say, "Wakala!!"