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As this semester has morphed into surviving instead of thriving, just a quick update so anyone who reads this blog knows I’m okay:

1. I genuinely enjoy being back in the classroom again. I felt so nervous about teaching 300 students at one time, and to my surprise, it’s my favorite class. Mostly because when there are that many students, I can always find one at any given moment who looks interested in what I’m saying. It’s good to have this enjoyment in my life because …
2. I am still searching for the right bed for me. The good news is that the bed I’m currently sleeping on is not causing me significant amounts of pain like the one I tried last month. The pain from that bed was similar to the pain I experienced when I was literally hit by a car in 1997.  The bad news is that I’m not confident my current bed is still the one for me because …
3. Sleep remains elusive. Okay, yes, it usually is. But if you had asked me if my sleep could get worse, I would have laughed and said I can’t imagine how (and that’s saying something because I have an excellent imagination). Since July 1st, I have not once slept more than 6 hours. Most nights, I wake up multiple times. And then right around 3am-5am, I wake up with no hope of going back asleep because …
4. When I do attempt to fall back asleep early in the morning, I immediately enter REM sleep (i.e., dreaming sleep, and one of the physiological signs of narcolepsy is that you enter REM upon falling asleep) and have incredibly stressful dreams. In fact, most nights I have stress dreams, and, since July 1st, I’ve had a recurring dream (six times and counting) that I’m taking care of multiple dogs, but I FORGET about some of them! In the dream, I either realize it myself, or I realize it once the humans come back. Heath says this dream means I feel like I’m not taking care of all my responsibilities, and he’s probably right, given my current goal of survival. I’m also a little embarrassed that I didn’t get that meaning from the dream myself. My therapist thinks there’s something important about the fact that my sleep immediately became worse once we moved into this house, and she’s wondering if I’ve been in such a state of stress since we left Norfolk in May 2023 with being on the road, having most of our stuff stolen, and looking for a job that now that I’m in a “safe” location, my body is trying to dump out all the trauma. She recommended looking into a therapist who does something called somatic experience or one who does craniosacral therapy. Fingers crossed, I can find someone who takes my insurance because a quick Google search found a whole bunch of somatic experience therapists in the area, but one charged $900 for an initial visit, and I thought, well, that’s not going to happen.

As I’m in the throes of grading 300 exams (I’m up to #231), I’m going to wrap up this post with some photo highlights from the past few weeks.

I met this dog named Fritz, but I think his name should be Winn-Dixie.

I found the most perfect red-splattered leaf while walking on CU’s campus.

Some of my students sang Happy Birthday to my dear friend Dottie, who turned 101(!) this past week.

And, one of my students from my past life at Benedictine University took me up on my offer to be a guest speaker in the General Psychology class, and we had a fantastic time catching up!

I hope everyone is doing better than I am! Also, a reminder that with the shifting sunlight, now is the time that Seasonal Affective Disorder pops back into our lives. If you’ve been feeling wonky, there’s a reason.

Until next time….