Confusion

I am so confused. Yesterday was a normal Sunday, filled with normal Sunday stuff. I made a hearty, sort of old-fashioned casserole for dinner and watched the final episode of The Amazing Race. Some of you may be thinking that is a dorky thing to do, but I love getting little glimpses of places and customs around the world that I might never see otherwise. So the evening faded into night, and eventually we were ready for sleep. I asked Trent if we had plans to go anywhere the next morning. I had been hurting and feeling worn out quite a bit over the weekend. If you've ever heard anyone say lupus is not your friend, or that fibromyalgia is not your friend, let me tell you this: having both of them together can be like a day at a cheap carnival funhouse...not very much fun.

After I confirmed that I had nowhere to go, I decided to take half of a prescription muscle relaxer before going to bed. In a fairly short time, I was a passenger on the Sleep Deep Express. No local; too many stops and starts. The name Sleep Deep Express is a bit of an oxymoron, I suppose. It might imply that the journey is over quickly. Hah! I slept for more than ten hours. I woke up and started to ease into my day. I picked up my tablet and checked out the activity on Facebook. It's a quick way for me to keep on top of what my friends and family are doing, and how they're feeling. I saw a post from Melissa, a friend that Trent and I both adore, saying that today was definitely a Monday. "What's up with that?", I thought, "today is Tuesday." Maybe Melissa had Monday off?

I moved on to Google+ where I follow a larger group of people than I do on Facebook. I saw a post about Muffin Mondays; some foodies like to post their tasty muffin recipes on that day of the week. Wow, I'm thinking, my girl Melissa isn't the only one who is a day behind. Then there were a whole lot of posts about today being the day that people really needed to have an extra cup of coffee, and right away. In between were posts by people who were commenting about overdoing it during the weekend. A lot of people were saying that they had simply taken on too many chores and fun and other runnings-around on those precious two days off. I started to feel like the world was totally out of sync. Why were so many people a day behind sharing their stories?

Finally, I said to Trent, "What day is it?" And while he was answering that it was Monday, I kept speaking, saying that everyone was posting Monday-ish stuff, and today was Tuesday. But it isn't. It is Monday. I actually had to backtrack what I had done and cooked and eaten the night before. Zounds! See what happens when you take (prescription) drugs, kids? You don't even know what day it is any more! 

Suddenly I was reminded of something that happened several times between me and Gram during her twilight years. She would take a nap in the afternoon and sleep very deeply, just like I did last night. When she woke up, she would be convinced it was the next day. The first time it happened, I came home from a movie matinee to a very angry but relieved Gram. "It's a good thing you came home. I was just on the phone with Liz, and she's calling the police to report you missing." Why?" I said. "I just went to a movie!" She went on to accuse me of leaving the previous afternoon and never coming home. She had gone to bed, and when she woke up, I still wasn't home. After quite a bit of convincing that it was the same day, she called Liz and told her that the police could quit their search, I was home safe.

There were a few times when she called me at work, panicked that I had never come home the night before. She had taken her nearly-coma nap, woke up and made breakfast, and fed the dog. But I wasn't there. Why had I not come home? Finally I came upon a small but brilliant way to make her realize that it was the same day. When she told me that she had put the dog out and made her coffee and breakfast, I asked the question. "When you opened the front door to see if my car was there, was the morning newspaper on the porch? No? That's because it's the same day, Gram. Everything is okay. I'll see you in a few hours. I love you."

I'm glad now that I was patient with Gram when she had those moments. She wasn't suffering from dementia or Alzheimer's or anything. She had just slept so soundly and thoroughly that she woke up feeling like she had slept all night. Hey, I occasionally lose track of what the day of the week it is even without the Sleep Deep Express, and have known other people to do it as well. We try to keep track of so may things it's no wonder we occasionally fall into a state of confusion. Now that my mind is clear and I know for certain what day it is, I think I will heat up some of my casserole for lunch. After all,  I slept right through breakfast. On whatever day it was...