to sleep, perchance to itch

To sleep: perchance to dream: ay, there's the rub;
For in that sleep of death what dreams may come
When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,
Must give us pause: there's the respect
That makes calamity of so long life

I have a hard time sleeping. I always have. It's not that I have insomnia or anything; I'm just a very light sleeper and seem to wake up after every REM cycle most nights (about every two hours). It gets tiresome, and I always treasure those nights when I actually sleep for four to five hours without waking up.

A couple of months ago, I was watching a movie with my friends Dana and Kate. Kate offered me some vanilla almond tea, and it was absolutely delicious. I drank it, and ended up falling asleep during the movie. I think I left before we even finished it. I've been looking for the tea whenever I've thought of it since then, and finally saw it in the store this Sunday. I bought it and drank a cup right before bed. I slept like a baby (well, one that sleeps the night through).

On Tuesday night, I sat inhaling the wonderful aroma and drinking the tea again right before bed. "I'm going to bed early," I told Al, "but call me anyway. I like to talk to you at night before you go to bed" (we've been having these phone calls for about six years now, so going without one at night is heartbreaking). I was in such a deep sleep when the phone rang that it literally scared and confused me. I couldn't wake up enough to talk to him coherently, and fell right back to sleep when we got off the phone. In the morning, I finally realized, "Aha! The tea helps me sleep!"

There's a catch, though: right before I drank the tea on Tuesday night, I realized that there is soy lechithin in it. Sure enough, my stomach started to itch that evening and has been itching ever since. I'm allergic to soy. When I'm allergic to antibiotics (every one I've tried so far), I can take it for a few days and then I start to get an itchy rash all over my body. Next, I start to swell. Soy has never really bothered me in small amounts; it's just when I start eating/drinking/ingesting it daily that it starts to bother me. I was hoping to make it through the woods since I didn't have a visible rash, but on Friday, when I touched my bare stomach with my hand, it started burning. And last night, non-itchy rashes started popping up. I'm not giving up hope quite yet, though. I'm hoping to make my body adjust to the stuff by taking a little every day (or perhaps every other day, or every two or three days...). You never know--Westley did it!

"Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha! Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha! Ha ha ha--" (Vizzini sleeps, perchance to dream)