A Nightmare On Mason Avenue

Yesterday evening was so great! A few friends came over to play Texas Hold'em, we got a sugar rush from eating the GINORMOUS bowl of Valentine's Day candy from our students, and Dan and I just watched t.v. for a bit. By 11:00p.m. we were ready for a good night's sleep. We did not have work this past Friday or Monday, which meant that last night our very long weekend came to a raging halt.

Anywho, don't you just love those those nights when you're just so tired that you know you're going to pass right out when you crawl underneath your covers? I don't seem to have many of those nights, but Dan does. Well last night, I thought both of us would be snoozin' in no time at all...but no, not me. As we're laying in bed, all of the sudden I can't stop thinking about the movie "Final Destination 3". Dan and I recently saw parts 1& 2, and went to the movies to see the third one this past weekend. Anywho, I told Dan that I was really creeped out because I started thinking about the movie. He told me to think of our wedding, which is always his way of trying to comfort his infantile wife when she gets scared at night. Fifteen minutes later, Dan was out like a light. Well, fifteen minutes of wishful sleeping isn't so bad, right? A half hour later I'm still scared and by this time have imagined my death and dozens of other unpleasant images a million times. I got out of bed to use the bathroom and ran back to our bedroom whispering, "Dan, Dan, are you awake?". Clearly he was not up, but I was hoping for a response anyway. I just crawled back into bed and eventually ended up dozing off. However, I definitely did not sleep through the night, and felt as if I never really slept.

The only reason I know that I fell asleep for periods of time last night is because I had awful nightmares. Although "Final Destination 3" is what triggered my sleep deprivation, I did not dream of that movie. Often when I have bad dreams, the devil/some kind of demonic figure or ghost is the source of my terror. Maybe that's because my grandmother used to tell my siblings and I stories of how the devil appeared to children in Mexico when they were bad boys and girls. Last night in a dream, I saw a shadow of the Blessed Virgin praying, and it started to bleed all around the silhouette, with evil noises mimicking in the background. I remember going to touch the silhouette of Mary and then pulling myself back...that's all. I'm sure it doesn't sound too scary to you, but believe me, it was. I had a few nightmares last night, but can only really remember that one.

A few months ago my nightmares used to get so bad that I would actually wake Dan up in the middle of the night on the verge of tears. He would hold me for a while and I would fall asleep saying prayers in my head. That folks, is the reason why I try to stray away from scary movies. After I saw the movie. "The Exorcism of Emily Rose", I was also very much freaked out. (And that is a religious movie, so imagine those dreams.) I'm twenty-four years old, but whenever I watch a scary movie to this day, the blinders come out. The blinders are my hands and I still watch scary movies through the separation of my fingers. Even though scary movies have negative sleep effects on me afterward, a part of me still likes watching some of them.

Needless to say, when the alarm clock sounded at 6:10a.m. this morning I was already half-awake. A whoping forty-five minutes earlier, I had to use the bathroom, and before that it was broken sleep almost every hour of the night. Oh how I longed to hit snooze and snuggle under the blankets and try the whole sleeping thing one more time...but no such luck. I looked over at Dan, as I did all of last night, and wished I was sleeping as peaceful as him. Tonight I'm hoping to pass right out, since I didn't get much sleep yesterday. Wish me luck and a good night's sleep. ;) Hopefully these scary thoughts and nightmares don't follow me into my dreams tonight.