Sleep Talking

I woke up this morning promptly at 5:13 am. This is the routine. I have the alarm set for 5:25 but I usually wake up before it alarms. My problem has never been waking up, it's falling asleep that troubles me. I've been taking Ambien since 1998. It's a pretty safe bet to say that I'm addicted to it.

Ambien, it works for me. I used to keep it in the kitchen. That stopped once I started having problems navigating upstairs to bed. My girlfriend insisted that I move the pills upstairs to the bedroom. Thanks Sue, good idea. So now, when I go up to bed, I turn on the alarm, take the drugs, turn on the tv, set the sleep timer and usually within 20 minutes or so I'm fast asleep. Sometimes, I watch some tv before I take the drugs. And sometimes I fall asleep before I take them. Last night was one of those sometimes nights.

I wanted to watch Trial by Jury, so I postponed the Ambien. Woke up at 5:13. Go to the bathroom, go back in my room, make my bed, put my glasses on and downstairs I go. As I'm coming down the steps I see the light flashing on my phone. So, who called? I pick up the phone, no message. I look at the caller ID and it says my ex-wife called at 11:07. Ok, I have no memory of the phone ringing, no memory of speaking to anyone. Missed most of Trial by Jury.

I have to explain my ex-wife comment. Her name is Terri and she is the mother of my "step-children". Terri is my ex's ex-wife. Our history is another whole story, for another time. She's actually a good friend now and the ex-wife referral is a term of endearment. Our children share a father. I'm convinced that I spoke to her because she would have left a message otherwise.

I wake Anthony up at 5:40 and ask him if he heard the phone last night. He says no, who called?
I tell him Terri, but I have no idea what she wanted because she didn't leave a message. He informs me that I must have talked to her then. Yep, I know, I just don't remember. I'll wait till a decent hour to call her back, she works afternoons and there is no way she'll be up at 6 am.

At 9 am I call her and leave a pathetic message, Hi Terri, it's me. I see you called last night, I don't have a message, so I'm guessing that I talked to you. Please call me back when you wake up and tell me what we talked about. I need to know everything is ok.

I had an appointment in Youngstown and when I returned there was a message waiting from Terri. Call her back, leave her a message that I'm home. I make another phone call and because it was long distance I didn't answer the call waiting. When I finish that call, I call her back.
Yes we spoke, nothing is wrong, just wanted to see how you were. Thank God that's all it was.
The moral of this story is, don't call me after 10 pm, apparently I sleep talk.