Behold: Peace and tranquility. Seriously, what could go wrong here? You know those people wherever they go, luck follows? I'm like them, except with bizarre craziness...it always finds me, even in my sleep I can't escape.
We spent our summer family vacation this year on the East Coast at Nags Head, North Carolina and nearly missed hurricane Arthur by a week. Jason's parents celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary, so the family got together and rented a beach house for 19 family members who were able to attend. So, as you can imagine, the house was always buzzing, but with 4 levels and outdoor decks the chaos wasn't too out of control.
At night, there were bodies everywhere. Cousins camping out on floors together, spouses in bedrooms throughout the house. Jason and I slept in a bedroom on the base level and due to our internal clocks being on Pacific time zone, were usually the last to go to sleep so we always heard the house go quiet each night.
Rewinding several years: Nathan used to sleepwalk quite often. It was always unnerving when I'd wake up in the middle of the night with a boy standing over me next to my bed. It was like a horror movie and I never got used to it. Once I got my wits about me, I'd gently guide him back upstairs. Those few months were some of the worst nights sleep because even if he didn't enter the room in the night, I'd dream about it because I was paranoid it was going to happen. So, when the door opened around 2 a.m. and lights flashed on in the beach house bedroom, I had almost become accustomed to thinking we had a sleepwalker entering. I asked Jason who it was, he said, "I think it was Dominique (my niece)." "What did she want?" "I don't know, maybe she was looking for the boys in the next room."
I kept hearing movement up and down the stairs, but drifted back to sleep. Later the lights flashed on again with the door open and someone standing in our bedroom. I gave Jason a push to nudge him out of bed to take care of it. Next coherent thing I remember was his voice raised, "Who are you??!" I can tell you, my adrenaline has never pumped so hard than when I realized we not only had an intruder in the house, but that an intruder was in my bedroom.
In Jason's defense, she did look like our niece had our niece been 45 years old with Botox and extensive face lifts. Here was a woman standing in a itty bitty pink nightie and barefoot arguing with Jason stating this was her house and she was looking for her husband who was upstairs. This is how opposite my husband and I are; Jason was trying to listen and rationally explain why this wasn't her house while I was in defensive protective mode without a shred of care for this woman and barked orders to Jason to "get her out of the house!"
After he gently forced her through the door and she finally gave up the fight and walked away is when my compassionate side kicked in. I realized, we just shoved a lady in her nightie and barefoot out the door in the middle of the night to face who knows what. Then I started second guessing myself- should I have helped her rather than be so callous? Jason decided to call the police and they went in search for her to ensure she got where she needed to be. Turns out, she was the neighbor. :-/ Needless to say, she didn't make an appearance at night or in the daytime the rest of the days we were there. Upon talking to our family the next day, it was almost comical of many, being in a sleepy state the prior night, all thought it was one of the kids who came in and flipped on lights in their bedrooms. We're so happy this woman didn't come face to face with one of the kids, yet how scary that so many slept through or didn't let it cross their mind that a stranger was in the house. My brother-in-law carries his gun and we talked of how horribly the incident could have ended.
This woman wasn't drunk, but was almost in a drunken sleepwalk stage. One word: Ambien. I've seen some of the crazy videos on youtube of Ambien users, but had yet to experience one in real life. I read some of the side effects under 'less severe': "Loss of ones sense of reality or identity" and "Hallucinations." If these are low on the severity list then what's severe? Dying? Being shot? Embarrassed for all of time? Reading the list was enough for me to stick with the old fashioned way of counting sheep. Unless of course I'm feeling gutsy- then instead of a Tupperware party, I'm game for an Ambien party.
How many of you have or know someone taking Ambien? Is this rare? Bizarre stories? Anyone?
