ATTACK OF THE INSOMNIAC

OK, maybe the Italian Job isn't the best bedtime story... too hyper to sleep, so I guess I should make everyone else suffer from my insomnia.

2003 is almost over, and there are so many highs that it's almost bad karma to mention them all. I still have a job I like for the most part, got some new fun stuff that I almost can't live without, have friends I enjoy being around and got to travel some. So I turned 30, but 2003 wasn't all that tramatic for me -- until the last two months or so.

It started the day I got home from my cousin Amanda's wedding in San Francisco. I got up early that day, for no apparent reason, and was greeted by an IM from a friend of mine telling me of a bad crash at Indianapolis. Tony Renna, a guy I genuinely liked, was killed in the accident. The news hit me pretty hard even though I had only talked to Tony when I interviewed. I knew who he was, but I didn't know him.

Just when I recovered from that news, came the news that my friend Jack's brother was killed in Iraq and a few weeks ago I found out Abbeville football coach Dennis Botts had suffered a stroke. I prayed that he would recover, but sadly, Coach Botts had complications and he died a week ago. Again the news hit me pretty hard. This time it was someone I really knew. He knew my name and my face. I think Coach Botts liked me, and I know I really liked him.

Now I'm dealing with another punch to the gut. And this time it's hurts pretty deep down, because this time it's a member of my family. A member of my family was recently diagnosed with Multiple Schlorosis. I was probably the last of the kids to know.

M.S. used to be the thing I tried to read books for in elementary school. It was something the President had on the West Wing. But now it's hit close to home. I find myself reading about it in my freetime. I look up words I've heard on TV or that were mentioned to me in a story I did about a race car driver who also has M.S. I'm grateful that a diagnosis was found quickly, and that it seems to be treatable.

But at the same time, I'm also dealing with an extended case of the Mondays...