Sleeplessness can cause people sometimes to think of the strangest things. Tonight for instance, I have been yawning for almost 4 hours, but do you think I can go to sleep? NOPE! Lying there in my bed, looking at the ceiling, 1000 thoughts running thru my mind. That is probably why I can sleep. I can’t stop thinking. From
Wikipedia,
Insomnia is most often caused by sleep disorders, but other causes include fear, stress, anxiety, medications, herbs and caffeine. An overactive mind or physical pain may also be a cause. Gee, why didn’t I think of that! STRESS and caffeine! I have both. Sometimes, I sleep so little and work so much, I feel like a dead man walking.
This week, I have had a lot of time to think -- even with all of my overtime and such -- about life in general. Sometimes I wonder what I am even doing here. What purpose am I serving? Then my mind just drifts from there. I go on to wonder what I will amount to in life, what I will be remember for (or as) in life when I am gone, all kinds of things. The song from Metallica Struggle Within has lyrics that go like this:
Reaching out for something you've got to feel
While clutching to what you had thought was real
There are times when I don’t know what I should feel. I think I know what I feel, but sometimes, it just like a dead-zone. Empty. Nothing. I am sure I have said it before somewhere along the way - some days are better than others.
Last night went to a wedding for a friend of mine from work. It was a beautiful ceremony. Actually the 2nd wedding I have been at in that church. Afterwards, the reception was at Stadium View, which is a nice reception hall. One thing about weddings, being a DJ, maybe sometimes it is POSSIBLE that I may from time to time critique the DJ a little --- rough. I guess I know what my skill level is. I mean, I even spun a few tunes and got the crowd going at my friend RJ's wedding, and yeah, sometimes, I get a little "critical". Last night was no exception, except I didn’t have Michelle there to tell me to stop (she usually tells me ahead of time to be nice to the DJ). One of the things you need to do as a DJ is get the people to notice you...get them involved in the ceremony. Then there is something called FLOW! For example, if you are playing Fishin' In The Dark, you wouldn’t follow that up with something like "The Chicken Dance" (yes, this was the DJ's transition) -- oy! I was like WTF!! Now by this point, I already 7 mixers and 2 beers, so I am still fine. So I sat there for a bit with another TP and he asked me "Is it me, or is this guy all over the place" -- I agreed. There was no flow. After his 2nd "changing the earth's rotation" switch in genres, I called it a night. By that time, I had seen enough, and just wanted to come home and veg......so I did.
Sometimes the emptiness I feel inside comes from things I cannot control. Sometimes, it is the stresses of everyday life, and I eat to relieve my stress. Then I feel empty inside because I allowed myself to get to the point I am today. Like right now, typing this blog, I am sitting here eating Lay's potato chips stacks, and drinking a Dr. Pepper.....why?? Sometimes, I just am empty with the thoughts of what my life is. Not with my kids, because my kids make me feel good. I love my kids.
This feeling of emptiness is something that is with me a lot of the time. Almost overpowering at times. I know it makes me moody, distant, and unwanted. I don’t know why Michelle has put up with this as much as she has. Honestly, I am surprised she is still with me. Nobody knows the pain I feel inside because of what I have let myself become. I see pictures of years past, whether it was at a family function, friend's parties, playing sports, whatever, and the only feeling I have is sickness. I just want to give up...wait, maybe I already have, and just have never admitted it. Maybe I don’t want to be here anymore, living this sick life in a sick body feeling sick about what I have become. This is the struggle within for me. Struggling to live, struggling to survive, struggling.....
A friend of mine wrote recently (I am sure he won’t mind the steal):
what will tomorrow bring
what mirror in which i will look
and see
what is and has become of meI don’t think I could have said it any better myself. What has become of me is lack of ambition, lack of energy, and lack of drive. I have also become depressive, substituting stress with food, making myself undesirable, unwanted, and unappreciated. Ii have substituted my humor to hide my internal beast. I don’t allow people in to see the real me anymore. Every time I have in the past, I have been burned. The marks are starting to show. I don’t even know the real me anymore....that is what sad. I have even suppressed me to myself. I don’t do anything that I used to do in prior years. I don’t golf anymore. I don’t bowl anymore. I don’t play racquetball anymore (I know the glass appreciates that). I don’t fish anymore. I don’t DJ anymore. I don’t do anything. I work, I come home. I work, I come home.
I am not a superficial person in the least. Could be part of my problem. I never look at myself and say "god I look hideous"....well, I do, just on the inside....adding to the pain. Then, I use humor to mask the pain, and hence starts my vicious cycle of hiding the pain.
I don’t know where I intended of going with this one. Usually I have points...this time, just releasing what is inside.