Drowning In My Sleep
03-27-07, 10:36 AM

Drowning in my sleep, I abruptly awake gagging and lurching to clear my throat or swallow but cannot, only to forcefully and painfully try again. My throat closes and fear fuels my heart as I'm drenched with sweat either from a fever or the thoughts of drowning in my bed. For two nights now, I've had to sleep sitting-up or otherwise find the same fate awaiting me as the Elephant Man.

Calling my boss to leave a message of my absence, Harbey Fierstein's voice now becomes mine. "Surely, my boss knows I'm not faking it now," I thought. Later in the day, I visit the doctor who believes in anti-biotics and Codeine cough medicine -- a score on both parts! In recent years, seeing a doctor was useless as my former physicians would not prescribe anti-biotics in fear of creating super-immune viruses/bacteria.

Give me drugs god damn it! I feel miserable! The gods granted common sense to my Doc-In-A-Box who prescribed, The Codeine. Sweet, sweet Codeine! My world is now tollerable and just...sweet Codeine, let me sleep in your comforting arms tonight.

One month to the day, is the eve of my wedding where I'll be eating a plateful of spaghetti in preparation of the BIG day!

"Why spaghetti? That's a strange tradition. Is it for the rehersal dinner?"

In part, I'm excited because Italian food is my favorite food and the following day I'll be committing to two of my favorite things -- running a 1/2 marathon race in the morning, then committing to my Woman, with a capital "W", in marriage. I'm finally getting excited about it as the day draws near. This week-end, I found a great sale and purchased my honeymoon clothes for the cruise and the following day, we traveled to Phoenix to buy my suit. Apparently, people do not wear suits in Flagstaff nor attend funerals or weddings, hence the suitless stores-- including the major department stores, except for JC Penny which carries a "washable" suit.

Man, do I love the Men's Wearhouse. Seriously, shopping there is so easy as once you pick-out a suit, the Sales Assoiciate begin to accessorize it -- ties, shirts, shoes, belts, etc. Seriously, they make shopping easy for the dumb, fashionless male, like myself. They make me look good -- a miracle for a jeans and t-shirt kind of guy.

Karen, I thought would be much more involved with the planning of the wedding. Maybe, I thought it was a gender thing where females have all the answers but, in her case, I don't think she took notes at the weddings she attended. I patiently waited for her to make-up her mind regarding music, attendants, procession arrangements, etc., but finally had to step in to nudge her along. Through such prompting, I'm seeing some of her weaknesses, such as thowing her hands up in the air to give-up while under pressure for a decision. Nonetheless, once a decision is made, she is happy again.

Combing through our CD collections to discover, or re-discover, music for our wedding, Karen would merrily and youthfully bounce to the beat -- something I like to watch. Now, if I could only recall youthful days when dancing was acceptable by peers.

Our first dance is will be Lyle Lovette's, "She's No Lady" -- a humorous song, rather than a sappy, love song. The reason why? Everytime she began to play a "love song", Karen would begin to cry. How is my suit going to remain clean with all those tears on my shoulder? The downside, we need choreography-- rather, I need to learn how to dance. Lessons begin, next Monday with "RANDY" but he spells with it an "i".

Yesterday - Tomorrow