Thanks for the dream, Sunshine.

I'm blaming Sunshine today for a totally whack-o dream I had last night with none other than Big G. Ok, to be honest I only blame her because SHE had a good dream about him and I went to bed wishing with all my might to have a dream about him.

The only good part was that he wore maroon and denim...not yellow and black. He was Big G the man and not Big G the Wiggle.

First, let's set the stage, though. In the past hmmmm....6 years I've had back pain. I'm almost always fine during the day but when I wake in the morning (and sometimes before I wake) I have horrible, can't-ignore-it, back pain...which makes me get out of bed, which just makes me grumpier about it all. Usually when I'm just going to bed, I have no pain and can fall asleep in complete cozy comfort and get some good hours in before "the attack."

Well last night I was getting ready to go to bed just a little past 9, which is a miracle. I haven't been to bed that early in...well...can't remember the last time. But when I got up from the sofa and started to go to get ready for bed I felt pain in my back starting to come on. It wasn't sharp but I could feel it...all around the lower end of my rib cage. I tried to do some twisty-stretches to relax it all, but that hurt like the dickens, as my Meg would say. So I popped a couple extra-strength tylenol, downed some agua and went to bed. It was hard to find a painfree position but after quite a while I got one and I froze. Ahhhhhhhhh, don't...move...a muscle. And I fell asleep hoping and praying and praying that the pain would go away.

I've been in this battle to get on top of life (and on top of my house) for...forever...and was finally feeling real excitement at the thought of a productive Saturday. I haven't felt like that for...forever, either. So I thought, go to bed at a responsible hour, which I haven't done in like...forever, either. Then get up at a decent hour and get going with my day...and just WOW myself. And my heart was feeling great heaps of thankfulness to God for feeling this way again.

Okay, so I fell asleep, thankful, and really hoping for a good dream, lol. (So sad...I want entertainment while I sleep, please...or maybe I want to live vicariously through my dreams.) Anyway...zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz. Around 5am I woke with just too much pain. I could NOT sleep like that if I tried. So I got up. It used to be that getting up and moving around made the pain *POOF* go away. So I got up. There was no way I was planning to stay up because while I wanted to be productive, it IS Saturday and I'd like to see daylight before I dig into my day. But I got up, ran to the loo...okay, gingerly stepped to the loo...and went to the fridge for a good guzzle of cold water. And I headed back to bed, still in pain.

I struggled for some time to find a position that was painfree and ended up settling for just less pain and fell back asleep. But this time...along came the dream.

I dreamed that Big G (as Sunshine so creatively deemed him) and his family and his deceased mother in law came to visit my parents' home, where my children and I were living with my parents...both mom and my own deceased father. So at present count we have two families...only two people who have ever met (Big G and I) ... two people who are deceased ... and an extra five people who are there by association.

Now, unfortunately my deceased father never made an actual appearance, but I knew he was there. Big G and his family were just spending a day or two at the end of their vacation before heading back to Australia. And the whole time they were there, I don't think Big G and I even said "hi." I kept trying to be in the same room, near him somehow, but he never spoke. (It was much like being in high school and having a crush who never saw you.) I kept trying to do something stupid on my computer and going back to being somewhere near him. Finally it came down to the final morning they were there. They were packed up and getting ready for us to take them to the airport (which seemed a whole lot more like a bus stop, but whatever). Big G was in the bathroom showering and my parents' room was right next to it. My mom was in there with the door open brushing her teeth wearing only a teeshirt and underwear. I went in to "advise" that she shut the door or put clothes on. She informed me the "underwear" were not underwear, but her pajamas. O...kay. I had shut her door as I entered to offer my sage advise. When I opened to go out, the bathroom was vacant and Big G was on the loose. So of course I started working my way through the house and found him doing back stretches on a big bed that was in some sort of common room of the house. (Aren't you glad to be reading this? It's a gift, ain't it?) According to my dream, Big G's diagnosis hadn't been orthostatic intolerance; it had been back pain that caused the same symptoms. O...kay. So he was stretching for his health, people! He finished up and moved on to the living room where everyone was sitting and stretching. I was in pain (yeah my back was invading my dream) and just hoping to get to at least give Big G a hug before he left...to say SOMETHING. But he kept ignoring me and I was not feeling real happy about that. Then Deceased Mother-in-law offers me some of Big G's medication. She asks if I'd like some. I refused, saying how much HE needed it and how I couldn't take it. She tells me to let her know if I change my mind and she'll send me some...and winks at me. I thank her, smile, and turn to walk away. Then she tells me how he took it and was cured. I had been walking away but when she said that I stopped. No more back pain? I could go for that. So I turn and ask if it's a muscle relaxer or just a pain killer. She says it's a muscle relaxer. So I ask if I can "just have one." So she digs in her purse (and despite her shiny bleached blond bob, she becomes something very reminiscent of an old Italian grandma) and she finds the medicine. Then she finds some Dentyne gum, too and asks if I'd like some of it. I tell her no, that I already have gum in my mouth. Then she acts real fast and shoves something in my mouth. I'm thinking "what the heck was that??!," thinking she had just forced her Dentyne upon me. Then I realize she'd stuffed the pill in my mouth. What am I, a dog you have to trick a pill into??? So I go get some water to wash it down properly...and I woke up.

Never a word with Big G. Never a hug. Nothing. A total disappointment and now in pain, too.

So Sunshine, if you don't mind...could you send me a GOOD dream with Big G?? No dead people. No back pain. And no snubbing on the part of Big G.

Now I've got to go. I've got to try to move around and see if I get to breathe painfree today or not.