MY INSOMNIA GOES TO A SLEEP CLINIC

I don't like to talk about my various ailments- old people tend to do that, and it's a bore. But my insomnia is not a characteristic of old age. I can't remember when I slept all night, or even a sequence of four hours at a time. I've logged thousands of nights awake, staring at the ceiling, going over plots of old movies in my mind, playing my Walkman with late night talk shows, eating cereal in the kitchen at three a.m. But the insomnia intensified as I grow older and I am what is currently called "sleep deprived" to the point that it is worrisome.

What do you do? I believe in specialists. I needed a sleep doctor who I could talk to, and who could appreciate those long nights I was currently spending. For those bloggers who are familiar with the peculiarities of HMO's, it was not easy to get a referral to this kind of specialist. I decided not to try, and paid for a visit to a sleep doctor - myself. It was incredibly helpful to talk to him-- he understood. He prescribed a night at a sleep clinic affiliated with the University so that he could better understand my problem. I was excited. At last someone cared.


I reported with my night clothes to a little cottage, with a night light on, like a motel where you were checking in late. An attendant, who looked like a hospital orderly. wired me up . There were many wires, on my head and face, arms and legs. The bedroom was noticeably dark and totally quiet. It was cold. When he exited, the attendant said "You'll be hearing me talk to you with some instructions" and that was the last I knew. As soon as he shut the door, I must have fallen asleep and started snoring. So much for my insomnia! In the morning I was embarrassed.

Why did I sleep that night when I never do? I've thought about this a lot and I think it was (1) really dark, (2) really quiet, and Cool. I didn't hear any of those funny ominous noises the house makes in the middle of the night, or the coyotes howling. When I went back to the sleep doctor for his report, he wasn't dismayed that I had zonked out. He had a flow chart that showed a lot -- my dream sequence and constant kicking of legs and changes of position. They can monitor your brain while you are sleeping. He prescribed medication for "restless legs" but I don't think I'll take it. At any rate, I feel a lot better and my insomnia has really improved. I love the sleep clinic and I would like to go back again. Try it. You'll like it.

FRIENDS AND POLITICS

I take my politics very seriously. My husband and I had long since decided that people we knew who talked on the other side of things were not for us and we avoided them whenever possible. We considered them unintelligent and morally a little lacking and not worth our trouble. It was a relief to socialize with others who felt as we do, and have congenial political talk. That wasn't hard to do, since most of the people we know and like are political bedfellows. Dividing into these social groups based on political leanings is not unusual - all over the country people are doing the same thing, I believe.

Now what do you do when you have a friend whom you really like, in spite of her demented political leanings? Do you "drop her" as one of my children say, or do you soldier on and consider it a learning experience? It is a glimpse into how the other side thinks. She listens religiously to several of the radio talk programs I find offensive, she doesn't ever read a major newspaper because they contain nothing but "lies", she brushes aside what you thought were established facts as "that never happened". It's like never-never land. It is impossible to have a logical debate with someone like this, and I would never try.

Now what is this friend really like? I value the friends I make in my new status as "widow". There are not a lot of them because this is not my home town and I don't have a backlog of friends from the old days. She (I'll call her Elizabeth) has been very nice to me, thoughtful and sweet, fun to be with. We have much in common - we beonged to the same college sorority, we go to the early Rite I service at the struggling little Episcopal church, we dress alike and we even look somewhat alike. I love to hear about her Kansas hometown and what goes on there -its a perfect microcosm of the Midwest. She remembers my husband and went to his funeral service. She's fun, a good person. If she just didn't have this flaw.

What do you do in this situation? You can't change her viewpoint, nor will I ever change mine. Are we still friends? It's like the North and the South in the Civil War.

HOW TO COOK A POSSUM

I have been away from my blog a long time - I went to my daughter's for the Christmas holidays. She is, as she styles it, a Luddite who does not have a computer! I suppose I could have gone to a coffee house or somewhere and latched on to a computer, but I don't know how to do this. Certainly I couldn't take my laptop with me. T.he long plane flight to the east coast was gruesome enough without anything else to carry. I don't think I can take that kind of flight again by myself.

We did a lot of cooking and partying and that was fun. On one meal we were consulting that old favorite "The Joy of Cooking" and came across some wonderful recipes for wild game. Mrs. Rombauer had everything, together with some lighthearted sketches of skinning rabbits, and eviscerating squirrels. Apparently you can eat anything, although you must be very very hungry to do this. There is a how-to recipe for armadillo "porklike in flavor," woodchuck, and even a frequent visitor of mine, the javelina, or peccary. If you have ever seen a javelina I don't think you would want to eat it.

But my favorite is the instruction for cooking a possum, which begins, "If possible, trap 'possum and feed it on milk and cereals for 10 days before killing" This is followed by boiling and scraping and removing some ominous sounding small red glands. Serve with turnip greens. I can't imagine keeping this animal for ten days in a little pen and feeding it milk and cereal - one might tend to grow fond of it.

You just can't beat "The Joy of Cooking" . My own copy is long gone because the spine came off from years of use. I hope the new version is as robust.

Happy New Year!