Randomness of Sleeplessness

            The real trouble with not getting enough sleep for me is the crazy half sentences that start to form in my head. For instance, as I was walking toward my train station this morning I saw a very short woman holding a very long umbrella. The umbrella was almost as tall as this woman. I thought to myself that I should write about this woman and her umbrella. Perhaps she is a Third World Mary Poppins bringing spoonfuls of water purification tables to the underprivileged children with song. Then I thought that was sort of dumb and probably a little insensitive to my large Third World fan base. So I tried to empty it from my head.

            But Third World Mary Poppins is still lingering in the back of my mind, singing a ballad, on a Spanish guitar. “Sólo una cucharada del azúcar ayuda a la medicina a bajar.”

Which just makes me chuckle.

            I moved on in my thoughts to my family’s ability for mimicry. My mother, sister and I are adept at picking up accents and the speech patterns of others. When we speak with someone with a Southern accent, we cannot help but to start speaking the way they do. I think we all can copy a British, Irish, Cockney, Indian, Michael Caine, French, Polish, and German accents. (Dare is such a fing as a Michael Caine accent). We pick up the nuances of the speech and replicate it. It’s quite a gift we’re all blessed with. However, our actual use of a foreign language is very limited. I think we all took Spanish in High School, but retained very little of it.

            My thoughts then turned to my own sleepiness. I started thinking about Sleepy of the Seven Dwarves. I almost wrote something about him today. But due to my more than usual tired nature I couldn’t really come up with anything interesting to say about him. Other than I really can relate to the poor guy. I feel very tired today and could easily doze off in my cubicle mine shaft. But his issue was far more serious. I mean, he clearly had an illness that the Dwarf Miner’s Union clearly wasn’t able to diagnose or provide proper medical care for. I wonder what the Dwarf Miner’s Union dues were. Was there a mobbed up Dwarf Mibner’s Union President? A Jimmy Hoffa type Dwarf pulling the strings of puppet dwarf union leadership?

            On a personal note, I must say that the sudden death of James Gandolfini at 51 years old from a heart attack was very sad this week. As an actor I thought he was phenomenal and as a person he seemed to embody someone who really loved their craft. As far as I’ve heard in the news, he was a very nice and pretty regular guy. His presence will be missed. Luckily we have a library of his work from the Sopranos to his early work in True Romance to sate our appetite for heavy nose breathing. 

            It seems like it’s time for another cup of coffee to try and ward off the sleepiness that is teasing the edges of my brain. I hope I get a second wind soon and straighten out my… my…. (Sneeze, sneeze, sneeze)… oh, excuse me. Sleepy sneezes.