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July 22, 2005

Michele: Things That Go Bump

1am: 7-11.
2am: Reading.
5am: Pacing.
7am: Driving to work, bleary eyed, wired and on edge.

On Williams Street, a small kid runs in front of her car. She slams on the brakes, jumps out, ready to scream at the careless child. She sees only a garbage pail on the ground, thrown there by gusting wind.

Good old insomnia hallucinations. She laughs nervously, drives away.

On Porter Street, the wind kicks up again. Another garbage pail flies in front of her car. This time she hits it, and she curses her sleep-deprived reflexes.

Wait, she thinks. Garbage pails don’t scream.

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Comments

During one of my many bouts with insomnia, I had a similar experience with the garbage pails - I thought they were kids running into the street. The mind does weird things to you when you don't sleep. I hit one of the pails and was relieved when I realized it wasn't a kid. But two blocks later, I decided to turn around and go back just to make sure that I wasn't hallucinating that children were garbage pails.

Ah, insomnia. It's better than LSD.

Posted by: michele at July 22, 2005 4:55 AM · Permalink