Staying up all night and sleeping during the day is old news. Only I didn't sleep today, either. This isn't the longest I've stayed awake. Once, long ago, I stayed awake for three days straight. When I started hallucinating that the walls were crawling up and down in alternating strips I decided I probably needed sleep. It was strange. I had the same hallucination when I was given morphine after an operation. The only other hallucination I've had was when I took some medicine called Cogentin. That was a doozy. I thought people were in my car, trying to steal it. Also, I couldn't find Lyra. I called Jeff, her daddy, in a panic because I couldn't find her anywhere and it was dark outside. She was, of course, safely asleep at his house where she had gone, as usual, for the weekend. And it was about 3 a.m.
So I went back to worrying about the three people I could see sitting in my car. There was an elderly woman wearing a coat that had a wooly collar in the passenger seat, a little boy wearing a striped shirt in the back seat. He looked like he might be about 5. A youngish man, maybe in his 20s, was in the driver's seat, but he kept getting in and out of the car. He looked frustrated
Of course, none of them were real, and I knew that. I even went out to the car and saw for myself that no one was in it. When I went inside I felt better. I went to check on Lyra, but she wasn't in her bed. I looked everywhere! In a panic, I called poor, patient Jeff and asked him if he knew where Lyra was because I couldn't find her. I was frantic. He calmly said, with a little less patience and a little more annoyance, "Lyra's safe. She's here, asleep." Then he added, "Have you thought about calling the police?" And I said, "I think I'd better."
So the police, who seemed just a tad lost as to how to handle a call from a woman who thought invisible people who she knew weren't real, but she could describe, were trying to steal her car. They took me to the hospital. I probably just slept off the remnants of the medicine and then never took it again. What a flabbergasting adventure.
Oh, did I say that was the only other time I had hallucinations? Not exactly true, though I only took peyote once. I was 19, it was the late '60s. You know.
On a completely different subject, remember how I said the only way I could meet Mr. Right in this place would be for him to wander into my room? Guess what! He did! He was lost, of course. The aides started to lead him away and I reached my hands out toward him, saying, "No! Don't take Mr Right away! Bring him back!" They took him anyway. I later heard what a brave adventurer he is. He went, wheelchair and all, right out the front door and when they found him he was going to different cars, looking for one to make his escape in. He has a head full of gorgeous silver hair, all in cute curls. I don't know. A man who still has all his hair is quite a catch around here. Never mind if he has dementia and doesn't make sense. I'm adaptable.
Could be I'm a little giddy from lack of sleep. I'm about to drop. Why do I only stay up for hours and hours on the days I get my bath? Looks like I might miss another one. Oh, golly, I'm tired.
Nite y'all. Stay away from the Cogentin and Peyote. That stuff will make you hallucinate.
Flowers for your hair. Peace and love, fellow travelers.
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