Counting Sheep
I am a scary person, and I say this only because I have "sleep activities". Maybe my mind and soul are wandering, even at rest. Ooh, that sounds creepy!

Since I was little, I would sometimes have these "sleep activities". Of course, I wouldn't even know that I was doing them because I had my own room -- there were simply no witnesses. That is, unless I sleepwalk ... and sleepwalking (somnambulism) is another creepy topic that I can relate to, but something I would much rather not discuss, only because I am such a scaredy cat!

Okay, the "less scary" activity involves talking in my sleep. Yes, talking in my sleep! I discovered that I was talking in my sleep when, in my teens, my brother, Junjun, once shouted to me at night, asking me what I was telling him (my brother and I have a door between our bedrooms, and we usually leave it open). That's when he realized that I was just sleeptalking. Seems harmless and funny, right? But not funny when you sleeptalk AND sleepwalk at the same time, another creepy thing I can relate to! Again, focus on sleeptalking! ... Moving on, moving on ...

When I got married, I had a full-time witness to my sleep activities. And boy, did Joey hear a lot -- from senseless statements (when did sleeptalk chatter ever make sense?) to scary shrieks. I feared driving him away with my sleeping disorder, especially since he would sometimes see me talking in my sleep with my eyes open!

I always tell Joey to take me for a ride whenever I talk in my sleep -- engage me in conversation, and see where it leads. He never did this quite successfully, never got to squeeze anything out ... until last week:


MARIFE : "Pare-pareho lang yung design!"
JOEY : "Anong design?"
MARIFE : "Yung t-shirt ng mga fish!"
JOEY : "Anong fish?"
MARIFE : "Yung sa PDA!" (referring to our "Fish Tycoon" game in our respective Tungstens)
JOEY : "Wala namang t-shirt yung mga fish dun, eh."
MARIFE : "Meron!" (indignant)


I couldn't stop laughing when Joey recounted the conversation -- I seemed so pleased with how ridiculous it sounded, happy that he was able to keep it going with a few lines here and there.

Thank God, I no longer sleepwalk -- my last episode was in my teens. But despite my long-running sleeptalking or somniloquy (which, Joey says, happens whenever I don't meet my "number-of-words-spoken-in-a-day" quota ... yeah, yeah, very funny!), I am hardly alarmed nor scared out of my wits. Don't hold your breath, Marife -- wait until you say something incriminating, and Joey is there to hear it! Then you'll want to cure your sleeping disorder!