Sleepwalking can be a dangerous thing. I've heard stories about people who
sleepwalk out of their house and board trains to wake up hundreds of miles from
home with no memory of how they got there. Knock on wood, that's never
happened to me.

I have sleptwalked, though. It started when I was little. I would get up and
get ready for school, waking Mom up who would have to undress me and get me
back in bed because it was 2am. I used to walk out into the living room and
just start speaking gibberish, forcing Mom or Dad to take me back to bed. In
the morning, they'd tell me about my nighttime wanderings and I wouldn't
remember a thing.

A couple I do recall, though. Once, I got out of bed in a panic because my
gloves were too tight. It seems that I was dreaming that I was wearing fancy,
elbow-length gloves and they were so tight that they were cutting off my
circulation. I could really feel the pressure and it wasn't until Mom got me
back into bed and pretended to roll the gloves off of me that I was able to
relax and close my eyes again. What was wierd was that I could actually feel
her taking the gloves off! I think I was about 8 or so then.

Another time I kinda came to as I was walking towards my closet, thumping around
like one leg was shorter than the other. I opened my closet and started to
root about frantically. Of course, I was making so much noise that Mom came to
investigate. "What are you looking for," she asked. "My other shoe. I can't
find it and I need it to go to Rhonda's," was my answer. "Which shoe are you
looking for?" By now, Mom had learned to take my bizarre nighttime advnetures
in stride.

"Your old blue shoe with the buckle." When I was little, Mom had given me two
pairs of her old shoes to play dress-up with. My favorite pair were these navy
pumps with big buckles on the front. That's what I was looking for. In my
head, I had found one and had it on, hence the reason I was stumping around. I
had one heel on and one off! And I just COULDN'T go to Rhonda's without the
other. I seriously believed I was shoe-deprived! I could feel that shoe on my
foot - why didn't Mom understand???

It's been a while (that I know of) that I've done any sleepwalking like that.
I know I did it about three weeks ago, though. When I went to bed, I had a
glass of milk. When I finished it, I put it on the nightstand by my bed. When
I woke up that afternoon, the glass was in the bathroom. I'd like to believe
that a ghost placed it there for giggles but I know the truth.

I also tend to talk in my sleep quite a bit but that's best left for another
post!


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