Still Sizzling

This is timely! I can complain in two languages now. The high today is supposed to be 98. Hey, at least it's under 100! Some relief.

Ouch!

The Dallas Morning News has the following posted on their web site: EXCESSIVE HEAT WARNING continues through this evening, and an Air Pollution Watch Level Orange is in effect for today. Dangerously hot weather will continue today. And only slightly lower temperatures are expected on Tuesday. Rain chance are slim to none. But we are keeping a close eye on Tropical Storm Edouard in the Gulf of Mexico.

Mercy! Please help us, Edouard!

Saturday night we went out to eat with my daughter and her friend. We managed to enjoy a lovely dinner and drinks, briefly forgetting that hell was brazenly flaunting itself outside, flames licking at the restaurant doors. After an hour or so, we ventured to our cars which could seriously double as moving ovens and trekked over to their house. After playing Rockband for a couple of hours we attempted to go outside on the patio to play darts. We all assumed that by 10:30PM it would be cooler. WRONG! A few rounds of darts and we scurried back inside, cursing the scorching, relentless Texas weather. Brutal.

Our dogs are allowed no more than 15 minutes to do their thing in the backyard. Izzy is so fair-skinned we worry about her getting a sunburn. I picked her up yesterday after she had been outside for just a few minutes and she felt hot, like I had just scooped her from a baking dish. I actually said, "Izzy, I almost need a set of potholders to handle you, girl!" I began to wonder if she could literally cook out there if left for any length of time. I won't elaborate on the horrible thought processes I allowed to run rampant for several minutes. My brain gets a little carried away sometimes with tragic thoughts :/

This morning on the way to work I passed an electronic bank sign displaying a temperature of 86 degrees. That's never a good sign at 8:15 AM, and definitely doesn't help motivate me on a Monday morning.

Ugh, I'm not sure how many more summers I can endure here.

ETA: Oh, the irony. My Italian word of the day:

A Very Jerry Springer Party

I had such high hopes for G's birthday party. Three weeks earlier, we all had such a great time for M's birthday, and I wanted badly to recreate that. M's party wasn't perfect, but overall I would give it a 4 out of 5 stars. In hindsight, the few hiccups experienced were mild compared to G's 28th birthday celebration on Saturday night.

In preparation, I bought 6 dozen tamales from Dallas Tortilla and Tamale Factory, a case of beer (big mistake), black beans, 2 new lawn chairs, 2 tiki torches, and Rockband. Well, I was going to get Rockband for Christmas anyway, but bought it early for G's party.

Things were going well for a while. M was doing a killer Mick Jagger impression, complete with protruding lips, arched back and jutting hips. My daughter was being her peppy, sweet self. She and her wonderful friend J made a delicious guacamole. G was happy that everyone was there to wish him a happy birthday evidenced by the grin on his face. He did, however, voice disappointment that his dad was late when he was always on time or early for everything else. Besides that, it was all going splendidly in my very small house with 6 dogs and 8 people.

I haven't sorted it all out in my head yet, but by the end of the night the highlights were:

• Leo (M's yorkie) jumping onto the table in an attempt to eat the cake;
• G forcing us to listen to hip-hop music, effectively clearing out the room;
• G getting angry because no one would give hip-hop a chance;
• my ex's youngest child taping down the sprayer nozzle at the kitchen sink which was intended for M but DD was the recipient instead;
• M and his dad (my ex) calling each other disgusting names;
• M spilling wine on his dad's shorts;
• copious amounts of F-bombs and shouting which caused Double D to go upstairs and hide;
• a cigarette hole in my new lawn chair;
• the patio littered with cigarette butts.

At one point I felt as though I was in the middle of a Jerry Springer episode, or one of those hidden camera shows where the host might jump out and say "You've been punked!" Seriously, I could not believe the level of chaos that evolved over 6 hours and a few beers.

This is the third event in a row that has not gone well and alcohol was involved. Therefore, we will go back to taking the kids out to dinner on their birthdays and no alcohol at family gatherings. I feel like a terrible mother for allowing them to drink in the first place. My mother warned me to not serve alcohol. Why is she ALWAYS right?

Happy Birth Minute!

Happy birth minute, my firstborn!

Happy 28th Birthday!!

Love,
Mom

Night Terrors

Ever since I was a child, I have had night terrors, or what some refer to as sleep paralysis with hallucinations. These episodes cause me such anguish that they stay with me for days.

It begins with a presence in the room, usually a dark figure at the foot of the bed. Sometimes the figure is right beside me or standing over me. It feels like a malevolent spirit holding me down without actually touching me. I am unable to move or make a sound, although I struggle desperately to do so.

Around 4:30 this morning, the familiar being appeared in my bedroom doorway. I tried to scream and although I could hear the sound in my head, I somehow knew that no sound was coming out of my mouth. Sparky moved to the side of the bed closest to the door to block the intruder and I became fearful for Sparky. Then came persistent knocking sounds followed by scratching noises, like someone was taking a chisel to my walls. This caused unimaginable distress since I was literally paralyzed.

Finally, I was able to shake the paralysis and take in my surroundings. My bedroom door was closed and Sparky was sleeping soundly on the other side of the bed. I pulled him close, panting like I had just run a race. All day I will be wondering if a spirit from the other side was trying to tell me something, or if it was an evil being trying to suck out my soul. Lately, I have done some things which I am not really proud of and wonder if God is trying to tell me something. I am very sensitive to these kinds of things.

First thing this morning I started googling and found an interesting article on research that suggests geomagnetic activity could be responsible for sleep paralysis. Excerpt: Recent studies have shown that reports of Sleep Paralysis, and Sleep Paralysis legends are more common in geographical hotspots such as Mexico City and all through-out the Pacific Ring of Fire, even the Hawaiian Islands are crawling with legends of Choking Ghosts. What most of these Sleep Paralysis hot spots have in common is geophysical activity, volcanoes, fault lines and the like. Evidence is becoming more and more convincing that Sleep Paralysis and some other paranormal activity seems to coincide with the geophysical conditions of an area.
Well, we don't have any "hot spots" in Texas that I'm aware of, which leads me to think that the Wikipedia version might be a logical explanation: Physiologically, it is closely related to the paralysis that occurs as a natural part of REM (rapid eye movement) sleep, which is known as REM atonia. Sleep paralysis occurs when the brain awakes from a REM state, but the bodily paralysis persists. This leaves the person fully conscious, but unable to move. In addition, the state may be accompanied by terrifying hallucinations (hypnopompic or hypnagogic) and an acute sense of danger. Sleep paralysis is particularly frightening to the individual due to the vividness of such hallucinations. The hallucinatory element to sleep paralysis makes it even more likely that someone will interpret the experience as a dream, since completely fanciful, or dream-like, objects may appear in the room alongside one's normal vision. Some scientists have proposed this condition as a theory for alien abductions and ghostly encounters.
I'd be interested in hearing other's thoughts and/or experiences. It really is quite terrifying.