Dream A Little Dream

Because I am supremely talented, I have somehow managed to get a cold following one of the hottest stretches of weather in Massachusetts history. Now, it is entirely possible this is not actually weather-related and instead having to do with whatever devil weed is currently in season, but the more likely scenario is that in an effort to counter-act the prolonged stretch of days with temperatures in the mid-90s my A/C was cranked a touch too high. I once read an article which pointed out that most homes in summer are chilled to a temperature they are never allowed to reach in the winter, so the idea I have made myself sick is actually quite feasible. But, it doesn't really matter how it showed up, the point is I have been laid out by this particular disease for the better part of a week now and I'm getting quite sick of it. I can't even nail down a symptom because they continue to switch up on me. The first couple of days I simply had a sore throat. The next day my nose was running like a faucet. The day after that saw me develop a cough which would make a pack-a-day smoker proud and finally I have a muted version of all three of those things combined with an energy level which would make you think I recently ran my first marathon. All in all, it has made me wistful for the snow of February, when I never got so much as a sniffle.

It has gotten so bad I even took the step of taking medicine, something I am loathe to do. It is not that I am one of those people who takes issue with medicine because I think God should heal me, quite the opposite actually. I think those people are crazy and ignoring the rather large hole in their belief where God could be trying to heal them by creating the doctor who came up with the cure for their disease. Also, I am not opposed to take medicine because I think it makes me a wimp - I will undoubtedly feel much wore willing to lift heavy things when I have the energy to do so. No, I don't like taking strong meds because they mess with my head. I know the cliche that even being half-Irish I should be able to hold my liquor and the liquor of everyone sitting at the table next to me but considering that I rarely drink and when I do I stick to beer, even if I take simple cough medicine it will probably be the strongest stuff I ingest that month. Taking allergy meds will often leave me in a fog which is not much better than I would be just dealing with the allergies themselves. I hate it when I feel like my head is underwater and I am a step slow to react so you know I had to be feeling pretty awful when I went for the big guns the other night and willing took some NyQuil before bed. Obviously, the good news is that no matter messed up NyQuil may make me feel I am usually unaware of it because I am passed out. I know I have the most vivid dreams when I am on the stuff but most of the time I don't remember them after I wake up. Most of the time.

The other night I had a very vivid NyQuil dream in which I was in charge of introducing one group of people to another. (I said my dreams were vivid, I never said they were exciting.) Anyway, in my dream things are going extremely well with the introduction, right up until I heard some tapping. It was loud and persistent, the same thing that happens when you hear your alarm going off in the morning but your brain refuses to acknowledge it and instead tries to meld it in with the story. The tapping kept getting loud, as if someone was knocking on my bedroom door. I know something was there because it was loud enough to snap me out of a NyQuil sleep, which normally takes a bomb going off. It was at this point in my haze I became extra paranoid that I was so out of it I had been talking in my sleep, introducing people to no one in particular. The only good news is that there was no one in my house to hear it, though that did raise the larger question of who was knocking on my door. It was so bad I actually got up and walked around my house in the middle of the night to make sure no one had broken into my house and then gotten worried when they heard me talking loudly in my sleep. I have to say, if this state of paranoid confusion is what being on drugs is like all the time I fail to see the appeal.

As a person who likes to be in control of himself at all times, I have to say that I didn't like the crazy dreams or the slow start I have to deal with in the morning but there is also no denying that after a couple of nights on the NyQuil I am starting to feel better. This leaves me with the question of whether or not to keep taking it before bed or have I gotten sufficiently better that I can now just suck it up and let my body take care of the rest of this cold on its own? (I'm going to go out on a limb and say the third option of taking it for so long that my body gets used to it is off the table because 33 is too old to start trying to up my tolerance for medication.) I'll probably give it another couple of nights because I would much rather be loopy while I am asleep rather than try and get work done while my head is in a fog during the day. I don't really know what I am worried about anyway because even if NyQuil is causing me to talk in my sleep it would hardly be the first time I ever talked to myself and it is not like there is anyone around to hear it at that time of night. (Still haven't gotten to the bottom of the knocking noise, but I am trying not to think about that and concentrating on the fact that if someone did break it my talking could very well be the thing that scares them away.) However, if I do take the NyQuil for a couple more nights I will have to strongly consider leaving a notebook on my bedside table because there is probably an idea for a kick-ass movie somewhere in one of these dreams.