Dreams

One benefit of my drinking hiatus that I'm really starting to enjoy is having a normal sleep cycle.  I figured this would be one of the perks when I placed myself on leave from the weekend wars, but I had no idea that I would experience such a dramatic difference so quickly. 

 

I'm not sure when it started, but at some point my weeks began to fall into a distinct pattern; drink a little on Friday, drink a lot on Saturday, recover all day Sunday, toss, turn, sweat (occasionally have nightmares) while getting maybe 4-5 hours of actual sleep on Sunday night, sleepwalk through Monday, feel moderately normal and occasionally struggle to fall asleep on Tuesday, and spend Wednesday through Friday afternoon feeling 100 percent.

 

Lather, rinse, repeat...

 

 

Since I somehow allowed that routine to became such a part of my life, I was never really able to step back and realize how absurd it was to constantly put myself through the ringer like that.  What really hit home was how easy it's been for me to sleep now that I've been walking the straight and narrow path of the Shirley Temple. 

 

Not only have I been regularly having nights of uninterrupted sleep, starting roughly a week into my challenge, but I've also been having really vivid, mostly awesome dreams.  I even had a dream last night in which I was drunk!  How weird is that shit?!  I was riding the metro home with my buddy Will at about 2am, and, as I've done so many times, decided to serenade my fellow passengers with a song and dance routine.  I broke into a classic from "Rob and Big" by Rob's alter ego, the one-hit wonder R&B sensation "Bobby Light", called "Dirty Girl", and had the train clapping along to the beat.  Suddenly, 2 large black gentlemen with big bushy beards approached me.  They rolled right up on me, which was a little intimidating since they were both easily 350 pounds.  They removed their beards to reveal they were none other than Christopher "Big Black" Boykin and his buddy Bam Bam.  I wasn't sure how they'd react to my rendition of "Dirty Girl", since they co-wrote the song and rap on the track, but they immediately joined in and finished the song in style, dancing and booty-shakin' up and down the aisle. 

 

Freakin' sweet!

 

I was thinking about my recent run of good dreams, and the only thing I can come up with is that they're my body's way of thanking me for giving it a break!  I buy that explanation just as much as any physiological evidence.

 

I'm going to be nicer to my body from now on...it may be funny looking, a little too hairy, and rather pasty, but it's the only one I've got.  I may run a few pints through it from time to time after this is over, but I'm only going to be a "Weekend National Guard Reservist" after a 13 year tour as a weekend warrior*

 

*with the occasional call-up for "active duty"

 

 

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