Sunday Scribblings #52 - My Nights

How long has it been that I've been remembering my nights?

A perfectly square Kodak memory of my twin sister and I huddled together in a arm chair is my first memory of night.
She in her Ernie hoodie, and me in my Bert hoodie were fan-clubbing a special Sesamie Street episode from the warmth of our togetherness.
Were were maybe 4 or 5 years old...

When I was about 6 years old, giant Holly Hobby's wallpapered around my room haunted my nights.
The magnitude of Holly and her clones came to life in my dreams and were too real for my little brain to handle.

Nearing the pre-teen years, there were the sleep-over nights.
Those times that we smoked newspaper "cigarettes" in the basement,
and then in the summertime snuck out of backyard tents and got caught by Mr. & Mrs. Doudiet.

When that got boring, there was the sneaking out at night to go to the donut shop,
put some money in the cigarette machine, and take a first stab at inhaling tar and nicotine.
Thank god that didn't last...

Then the nights of "I'm sleeping over at Lori Day's house" when really
there were rendez-vous in the making (as I recall, I did get caught for that!).
Thank god contraception was involved...

In my early 20s, the obsession with academic excellence filled my nights.
I'd fall asleep studying, hoping to solidify the day's learnings through my dreams.
Days turned into nights and studiousness was a full-time job...

In my late 20s and early 30s, the obsession with exercise robbed my nights.
I'd will myself to wake up at the prescribed 3 or 4 am (depending on the day).
Careful not to disturb my love,
I'd wear a stop watch with a day-glo light
That I could draw towards my near-blind eyes
to ensure that I wasn't cheating my body of precious work-out time.
Thank god that also didn't last.

And now, in my mid-30s.
My nights are filled a frenzy of work, email, face-booking and reading.

That, in combination with my sleep disorder (Peridodic Limb Movement Disorder) mean that my supine time (i.e., in bed) is not the most restful. And that is why I cannot sleep with my beloved,
and why we have now resorted to a Ward and June Cleaver type of sleeping arrangement.

My nights through the ages.
There they are.

India - Wrap Up Post

Here I am back in Canada. I arrived back on Monday (March 10) after 2 sleepless flights spanning about 18 hours in total.

I think a combination of things prevented my sleep.

Firstly, I had mixed feelings about leaving India. The struggle between simplicity and complexity of being there is really quite intriguing. Because of how complicated EVERYTHING is, when I'm there I'm forced to live life paying more attention to necessities and priorities.

Even though a homicidal instinct kicked in each time someone:
~ pulled out their carbon copied note pad to write down my order or purchase in triplicate, or
~ the power went out repeatedly at the end of an unsaved email, or
~ the guy who made my business cards promised to have them ready in "an hour" for days on end,

I learned.

What I learned was to be patient. Here I seem to have no patience. The world whirls around me and sparks this anxious furor to get more and more and more done. So I need to call on my memory of those times to bring myself back to the humour of life.

Secondly, I couldn't sleep so well on those flights because of my issues with Periodic Limb Movement Disorder (PLMD). What goes along with that is something called Restless Leg Syndrome (RLS). So, not only do I have this flinging limb issue (PLMD), but the RLS gives me this feeling in my left leg as though there is something crawling inside. It's a really uncomfortable and bothersome symptom. For some reason, even Gravol and the free booze courtesy of Air France couldn't dull this annoying sensation.
So is it any wonder that I felt more than just a tinge of envy as Trixie slept soundly beside me, almost the entire way?!

Needless to say, the last few days have been a bit topsy turvy. Adjusting to the time zone, weather and cultural changes has really challenged my mind, body, spirit and emotions. Luckily, I have my Nia to keep me going. Thank God for Nia. It is medicine for my being.

There are a few more pictures I wanted to share with you. Here's one of the family home that we stayed in while we were in Mysore. Truly I felt like I was living in a palace. Outside of their gate, we were in India, but inside those gates, it was heaven on earth! Marble floors, HOT water, really inspiring conversation partners, a fully working kitchen (stove and fridge!), and a beautifully manicured garden.


On our last weekend we took an overnight trip to Kushalnagar (District of Coorg, state of Karnataka). We stayed on a Mango Plantation, but can you believe that because there wasn't enough rain in December, there weren't any blooms to turn into mangoes? Gawd, how disappointing...
Nonetheless, I got to spend time with elephants on my birthday!
We went to Dubare Elephant Camp and I got up close and personal with a few massive fellow mammals. Our photographic quests seemed to agitate not only the elephant groomer, but at one point the elephant got startled and started to get up. Hence I was ready to make a quick exit. Trixie was fearless, though, as always!


And finally, I had to include some snaps of my Bollywood Dance teachers in Mysore (at Granduor's Institute of Dance on N.S. Road). Suresh and Prabhakar (whose name sounded like 'Rebecca' when he said it..) were excellent teachers, even though we had no common language other than body language to communicate with. The moves that came out of these brothers was inspiring and if I ever return to Mysore, I'll be spending some serious time at their studio! I came away with some refreshing ideas about how to play with beat and rhythm along with some funkafied new music to play with.

Check out Suresh's "Ladies moves". Too funny!

Jai, Jai India (celebrate India).