The Times, They Are a’Changing
I’ve never been one to talk in my sleep but two weeks ago, I was sleeping on the couch after a night out, and Erica tried to get me to go to bed. She says that I woke up giggling and started telling her some inane story about some random friend of ours. I slurred at her for a second, smiled, then laid down and went back to sleep.
Then, this past week, after sharing a couple of bottles of wine with Erica and another friend, I was again sleeping on the couch. Deciding to just leave me there, Erica put a blanket over me and as she tucked me in, I woke up, unsnapped my leather bracelet, and thrust it towards her. “Honey. Make it do.”
“What? You want me to put it on the table?”
“Just make it do.”
“You want it on your wrist?”
“Make it do, make it do, make it do!”
When she couldn’t figure out what the hell I wanted, I snatched the bracelet back with a grunt, snapped it onto my wrist and went back to sleep. A couple of days later we were telling a friend of ours about how wacky I had been lately and as we discussed it, Erica asked, “You haven’t been taking Ambien have you?”
“Nope. But I have been taking Effexor.”
Now, on my bottle of Effexor, it recommends that you don’t mix it with alcohol because it may increase drowsiness, but there’s nothing about avoiding it completely so you don’t get all loonypants. My problem here is, I act all depressed and neurotic when I’m not on Effexor, so stopping that half of the equation isn’t an option.
So far, I haven’t done any traveling around at night or sleep eating, but we live in a duplex with a treacherous spiral so that could be bad news. Beyond the possiblity of breaking a hip on the stairs, the combination of alcohol and Effexor, for me at least, causes way more than increased drowsiness and I’m not interested in finding out what else might happen. So that means.
I’m officially dubbing myself a non-drinker. I know, I know. Everyone calm down. I’m not saying that I’ll never have another glass of wine or an unbelievably delicious old fashioned, but I definitely won’t be having three in one sitting. Does anybody remember back when I quit smoking? That was a hard adjustment, but once we all settled into it, I was still allowed to hang out with my same cool smoker friends. I just didn’t smell like them anymore. It’s gonna be the same thing with booze.
Any of you who knows me or who has spent any amount of time reading the blog might not believe it, but the truth is I’m kind of all right with not drinking. I already took a month off at the beginning of the year so I could adjust to the Effexor and I gotta say that I actually liked it.
Not only did I feel better because of the meds, I also felt better because I was never sluggish because of drinking. I started dropping weight, which always rocks, and let me tell you, there’s a lot to be said about 30 days without a hangover.
If it helps, I’ll wear a nametag until people recognize me without a beer.
February 14th, 2012 at 7:08 pm
You will always have the same perfect smile, be able to crack my ass up and beat me in spite and malice. I’ll recognized you;)
xoxoxoxo
February 14th, 2012 at 7:20 pm
….and of course I have to say “how do you make it do?”