Only A Dream

I’ve been having a hard time sleeping lately. I don’t have insomnia like I had before, but instead; I’m having restless nights of sleep. I’ve been having the most stressful dreams.

The first dream I had took place at my friend Cristina’s wedding. Instead of getting married on her lavender farm (which is what she’s actually doing) she decided to get married on a river boat sailing the Rogue River. I had the girls with me and I was also a bridesmaid, so I was juggling a few balls. On top of it, I got incredibly drunk, lost the girls, and somehow my cat Chillcat got on board and peed on Cristina’s wedding dress. You’re laughing now, but I can assure it, it wasn’t funny while it was happening.

The next night I dreamed that my friend Penny and I were on our cruise. (I haven’t talked about that yet, but I will below.) Anyway, we were boarding the ship and our families came to wish us bon voyage and the next thing we know, our husbands left and ditched us with the kids (in real life- we’re going sans kiddos.) The next thing I know, I’m off to find our cabin and when I open the door, I am thrilled to see it is much larger than the inside, lowest level, no window, economy cabin we actually booked. Instead, it is huge, has a balcony, and even a wet bar. The only problem is; it doubles as the ship’s Gap clothing store so people are continually going through our room to buy clothes.

Both these dreams rival the Brendan Fraser dream I had about a year ago where I was once again drunk and dressed like an orca whale, flying on an Alaskan Airlines flight having to pose as a stewardess so I could get home. Seeing as it was my first time meeting Brendan Fraser, he was not impressed by the fact that I was drunk, nor that my orca tail kept hitting him as I walked down the aisle serving people.

Sigh…

So, needless to say, these dreams have left me exhausted.

About this cruise. It all started when I thought it would be great for Penny and me to fly down south when this whole thing is over and see the Indigo Girls live in concert. Unfortunately, they have nothing booked on the west coast over the course of the next year, but they were doing this thing called “Cayamo” in February of 2011. It is a cruise on a cruise ship in the Caribbean with loads of musicians, including the Indigo Girls. It’s not your normal cruise, musicians such as Patty Griffin, Steve Earl, John Prine and numerous others are going to be on it, and every night, you get to see them in concert while during the day, they’re out mingling with the cruisers. I told Penny about it and she said we had to do it. After much hemming and hawing (mostly wishing and consulting with Addison,) I decided that one of the things having cancer has taught me, it’s to enjoy my life, enjoy my family, and enjoy my friends. Penny was my travel partner for two months as we backpacked around Europe in 1999 so we’re well attuned to each other’s traveling traits. I’m the plan-ahead mother hen and she’s the free spirited wild card, its how our friendship works and it works great while traveling. Since high school, she’s always been the one to get us on the edge of trouble, and I’m the one to get us out of it. It keeps things fun and interesting and I can’t wait to see what happens on our cruise. Taking a vacation like this with Penny is normally something I would only wish and dream about, so it’s really exciting to see this wish come true. And it doesn’t stop there. I am happy to say that Addison and the girls and I are planning a trip to Hawaii in March! I can’t wait to see the girls play in the sand while Addison surfs the waves. They’ve been through just as much as me the past few months, and they deserve some fun in the sun too. It seems a bit insane to take two frivolous vacations less than two months apart, but we’d been saving for a Hawaiian vacation for a few years, so I’m stoked we’re finally doing it!

Speaking of dreams and wishes, I told Addison that I know my cancer was never at the point of life threatening, and I know I’m not a young child, but it still would have been cool to be granted a wish through The Make A Wish Foundation. What would that wish be? My wish would be to be a guest judge on Iron Chef America- as long as their secret ingredient wasn’t sardines.