worst case scenario

i snore.

there's no getting around it. my nasal passages become inflamed, the flap dividing my sinuses from my throat loosens, my mouth agape, these conditions attribute to the rumbling wheezing guttural gagging freight train noise my wife attempts to sleep next to, every night.

i feel bad for her.

i take muicnex d
i use breathe right strips
i use breath right snore films
i use a netti pot

i still snore.

on rare occasion though, i sleep... a deep intense sleep. for four hours. then i wake up suddenly, very alert. my dreams on these nights are vivid. last night my dream was an combination of many issues... disconnection from my childhood home, past students i had taught, relationship issues, and zombies.

usually i'd say zombies frighten me more than most things... but in the mix of all that other stuff, i find myself extraordinarily unnerved.

i was standing in my brother's room at my childhood home... out back i was watching several men kill zombies in various manners, but they were taking their time, in no hurry... as they were feeling successful... i could see the white picket fence posts next door being knocked down by more zombies.

side note: okay... so white picket fences... i get it... american dream being destroyed by the empty shells of people who strove for the same thing... we had a split rail fence in reality...

the men in the backyard were not quite concerned about the on coming zombies.

now i'm in a bed, i'm not sure whose... but i am there in... in the backyard, the backyard is now my brother's room, the men are doing somethings but it sounds like they are trying to sleep... on my back, i can feel pressure, like someone pressing with thin fingers... in an a different context the pressure would be called, tickling; in this case, however, it is terror. i am laying on my stomach, i slowly turn to see a dog? a doberman... but the doberman is a zombie and i must destroy its brain. i slide small metal cylinders into the temples of the dog's head and it leaves... i now have a flashlight... i am able to turn it on... i am aware, as we all are, that zombies retain a scant sense of who they were, my light shines on Tony... Anthony... I cannot remember his last name... i taught him at Francis Scott Key High School 1996 or 97... he drove a sports car... although now, in my dream, he has lost that hair and put on some weight... he is wearing a tuxedo... blue shirt... yes, ruffles. he announces his plans to marry a zombie, she is not a full zombie yet, but she's getting there. I see them kiss.

i wake up... unable to return to sleep... my nasal passages jammed up...

grimm