Fish

Fish are strange creatures. Larger fish eat smaller fish. People eat fish. Sometimes fish take a bite out of people But humans, in general, are intriqued with the underwater beasts.

Some adventurous folk get very up close and personal with fish. They slap on a mask and and breathing tube and funny looking webbed shoes and snorkel about observing them in their own habitat. For the type A personalities, they are much braver and get special certifications to wear very odd looking skins and tanks and tubes and dive to great depths to get a closer encounter with coral, sharks and other sea animals.

Then there are the people in my immediate family. They rather enjoy purchasing a small tank, filling it with bright pink gravel, artificial plants, a rubber duckie and just a few tiny fish. It is absolutely a "girly" fish tank. The pink gravel makes quite a statement!

The entire purpose of this fish tank was for Adina's 12th birthday. I never wanted fish. It is just another "thing" that needs maintenance however, I agreed that if Adina was 100 percent responsible, she could have it. In addition, we didn't buy the fish. We insisted that Adina use her money to buy the fish so that she understands that there is value and responsibility attached to the care of her new pets.

Once the tank was set up (and you would have thought it was a national holiday the way we made such a fuss over the preparation which, of course, I recorded with my camera!) and placed into Adina's newly cleaned room (a full-day job that Joel and Adina attacked this past Sunday), I had to admit, it was pretty. Not only was it pleasing to look at, but it has a calming effect.

However, Grace (our cat), is not so calm. She sits on Adina's desk and stares intensly at the tank. I wonder how she will do when we are all out of the house during work hours? Oh well. Only time will tell. Joel thinks that Grace thinks it is the TV. But then again, that is another story!

Of course Adina made us name the fish! So we have Optimus Prime (one of the transformers' names from the movie), Bruce the shark (from Finding Nemo), Prince (the Kissing Gourami), Mac and Cheese, and Hoover the sucker fish!! We had fun with the naming game!

So here is to a new era in the Leshinsky household! Fish . . . up close and personal!

Dreams

People, on the average, dream four to six times during their sleeping hours. But we can also dream while we are awake. Perhaps when we are sitting in class and our attention drifts away from the speaker and our thoughts turn into an actual dream. We also have dreams of what we might want to be when we grow up or what we would like to be instead of the choices in life we have made.

But all in all, dreams are very real to us. Studies have shown that we are usually the main character in the dream and when we are telling someone about our dreams, we are actually recalling a memory.

Lately, I have been dreaming extremely vivid dreams. They aren't bad dreams, or for that matter, that aren't outlandishly wonderful either. Instead, when I wake up in the morning, I remember the dream and if Joel is awake, I usually try to tell him what I was dreaming. It helps me to remember the dream later in the day.

I noticed that this started to occur after I had the telephone encounter with the medium. I don't know if the two events are connected or not, just a basic observation.

In order to dream, we need to enter REM sleep. My only guess is that I am sleeping more soundly at night, therefore entering that REM phase and allowing me to dream.

I do wake up feeling very rested. It is a very good feeling. I didn't really realize how tired I was until I started to get to this more restful sleep.

Maybe I have resolved some of my frutstrations. True, we haven't solved our current problems at home, but we are actively working on it. We have the restaurant up for sale. Joel is applying for jobs on a weekly basis and I am helping him with the application process too. He has irons in many fires and he has decided that nothing is more important than his family. That could be part of the reasons that I am feeling more relaxed, less stressed and less tense.

I have been taking more yoga classes, at least two and sometimes three times a week. I feel physically stronger, challenged in class and then look forward to the mediation and relaxation at the end of the class. My state of mind is much more clear. I can concentrate more at work where about month ago I was an emotional wreck.

I am going through a battery of tests at the internist, the OB-GYN and an Endocrinologist. They have taking vile after vile of blood to see if it is menopause (it isn't). They did see something related to my thyroid (completely fixable with medication . . . if that is the issue). And tomorrow I go for an ultrasound of my thyroid. So answers will come. But each doctor has stated that these are symptoms of stress.

So, I guess I have learned how to control the stress by actively doing something about it and then the end results . . . better sleep . . . more rest . . . more dreams.

I like the dreams. It adds a dimension to life because everynight is like a new episode and a nice surprise to wake up to. So dream on!