Friday, August 28, 2009

Sleepless in Manhattan redux

Lately my chronic insomnia has reached a new peak. Unless I take a pill, sleep is a four-hour deal for me, with another four hours spent trying to calm my panic about various worries. In the past when I've had a worsening of my night life, I've tried to rest my mind by focusing on something soothing, something going right in my life. But lately there is not a whole lot of that. Of course, it's all in how you look at things, but with two sisters-in-law with cancer (head-and-neck and uterine), a brother with colon cancer, a close friend with late-stage uterine cancer, a son with real estate woes, a daughter with a penchant for out-of-control spending and a lawless approach to curfews, frail parents (my mother just had a grand-mal seizure last night) a continent away, a job situation that looks direr by the day, cats that throw up and smear excrement—there's no place pretty to look. Except for Other, snoring peacefully beside me. If he would just stop snoring ...

3 comments:

Robin Amos Kahn said...

I can so relate. Sorry you're suffering too.

Robin Amos Kahn said...

Oh, I just re-read and saw that your mother had a grand mal seizure...wow, it's too much.

Elyse said...

At a time like this, I know what I would do if a genie suddenly appeared: wish all your troubles away. But do you think the genie would count it as one wish or several? Just in case there's a limit in this hypothetical situation, I want to save an end-to-misery wish for myself--for a future time when I find myself inundated as you are. I am so sorry. Hope that you at least got back to sleep.