Narcoleptic Knights

Sunday, April 19, 2009

Fabulous Friends

I continue to struggle with my energy, but I had a great boost today. Even though the early afternoon was filled with drizzle and clouds, I found sunshine in a Perkins in Edina! Four of us met there today to do some MOONS planning. While I had many other things that needed doing, I know I made a great choice today. Seeing my friends from the MOONS group made my heart soar. Even better, we actually got somethings done. Typically, we banter and chat so much we rarely get anything decided.

Today, we generated ideas for some social gathering. We also decided to vary our meeting times. In an interesting irony, when MOONS-MN first started, most PWNs present wanted to meet at 10 AM. While that seems crazy to me (and the other planning folks - we barely make it to the meetings on time), we wanted to serve the group. Lately, though, we have heard that some would like a later meeting time. Thus, we will still meet at 10 AM on May 30, but our meeting on September 12 will begin at 4 PM. The plan will then be to alternate between the two times. It should be fun.

As for the "social" ideas, we are hoping to have a yoga session (that could become a PWN yoga class), a bowling event, a family picnic, and another movie session. All of the events should be great, but the best part is that we are striving more and more to provide opportunities for PWNs to gather with each other and to share stories about this crazy condition. I also love that we spent time thinking about bigger issues, including suggestions for both Narcolepsy Network and for physicians who treat people with narcolepsy.

Still, the best part of the afternoon was spending time with friends who honestly understand the difficulties and frustrations of this disease. It is so hard to explain to people why I seem to be dragging or how hard it is to form a thought at times. With my PWN friends, we don't even owrry if someone drifts off, and we all regularly ask to have things repeated because we missed them. One of the strangest realizations of my day is that I "knew" none of the people I met with today one year ago. I still marvel at how much has changed in just 365 days!