Midnight Madness

Oh, what a night. Evening, actually, but I couldn't resist the song reference!

I fell asleep on the couch in the sitting room last night about 8:30. Mom was asleep on the couch in the den at the back of the house. At 9 o'clock, I open my eyes and she's standing over me, bent at the hips and about a foot from my face. What was she doing? I don't know, and she couldn't tell me. She shuffled off and I went back to sleep.

Fast forward. I return to semi-consciousness when I hear David Letterman on the television. I watch for about 5 minutes and after I decide that the couch isn't quite comfortable, I get down on the floor and lie in front of the space heater. Mmmm, warm. It's so cozy I fall back asleep quickly. I wake up and open my eyes. Mom is over me, bent further at the waist and rubbing my back. I think she thought I was dead!

Okay, so my sleep is interrupted again. I get back on the couch. A half hour later I'm up again. Mom is rattling out in the kitchen. She's doing the dishes. I tell her to go to bed and that I'll do them in the morning. She comes out into the sitting room and falls asleep in the chair. She must have gotten up in the middle of the night and went to bed.

This morning, I see the dishes in the sink and realize the she was really out of it. Washing dirty dishes is one activity that she is compulsive about doing. But when she's in a daze, she forgets the step of actually washing the dishes. So the dish drainer is nicely arranged with dirty dishes. I'm on my way out now to re-do them. If she finds them dirty, it will serve as a reminder that she doesn't know what she's doing and that makes her frustrated, sad, and upset.