Cheese steaks and lozenges

Yep, I know it has been a while since my last post. But I have seen many of you since my last post--that is my young clergy group, many of whom I know are regular readers. I was in Philadelphia. It was great to be there and I saw my college roommate who also lives in Philadelphia. It had probably been seven years of so since I last saw him and 10 since we last really talked. The man basically has 3 full time jobs. Not because he is single mom supporting 3 kids, living out of of their station wagon just to make ends meet. No instead he is just someone who has to do that much. This is the same person who finished a double major in 3 years. It is amazing that we lived together for all three of those years since I think when it comes to the motivation factor we might be complete opposites. I am not going to be working 3 jobs. Hell, I'm barely working one.
While in Philly I had a cheese steak, of course. It was delicious. Although, we did not go to Pat's or Gino's, the most famous of the cheese steakeries. For two reasons, one Gino's is apparently racist. It could be Pat's so don't hold me to the first libelous statement. The way I know that one or the other is racist is that apparently there is a sign that says you must order in English. Which pretty much means if you are going to come to this country, i.e. from Mexico, you better learn English. The other main reason was that we have some vegetarians in our group and it is hard to find a vegetarian option at Pat's or Gino's. And you know even if there was a vegetarian option it would be cooked on the same griddle as the meat option. So instead we went to the Reading Market that has many food options including Mike's Cheese Steaks. Apparently Philadelphia is not very creative when it comes to naming one's cheese steakery, Mike's, Gino's, Pat's. (Don't you love how I've created the word "steakery?")
I returned to SF on Tuesday. And I was really tired. So I've basically been recovering ever since. Plus I came back with this raspy, sore throat. The sore throat is the real point of this post. I woke up Friday morning about 3 AM with a sore throat. It was keeping me awake. So about 4 I went to the bathroom and rummaged around in the cabinet for a sore throat lozenge. I put one in my mouth and went back to bed, eventually falling asleep. I had a dream that I was having a meal. And the waitress came to the table and asked if I wanted dessert. I said no and then she brought me a tray of drinks. I didn't order the drinks. I guess they were complimentary. I don't really know--but I'm not going to pass up free drinks. And they were speciality drinks and she explained to me that I should drink one before the other. Well the problem I faced in my dream was that I had a sore throat lozenge in my mouth and I could have a drink with that in my mouth. So in my dream I decided I would spit it out onto the tray that the drinks were on. Suddenly I'm awake because I have an icky sticky lozenge stuck to my cheek. My fear was that I was going to get up in the morning and find a red stain on my pillow case. But fortunately it was just on my cheek. Mary Sue said that perhaps the dream was because I needed to get the lozenge out of my mouth--my thought that perhaps I was choking. Regardless, note to self be careful when you go to sleep with something in your mouth.
I've also been waking up recently with a really dry mouth. And I've been having issues with a raspy throat and phlegm for a while--maybe 6 weeks or so, possibly longer. And I think one of the issues is that i've started sleeping with my mouth open. I know this doesn't make any sense, but I don't think I've always slept with my mouth open, but last night I did have this feeling that I was mouth breathing rather than nose breathing. As I now have written that it sounds ridiculous. But at this point it is the best explanation I have. I should have stopped at the story of the sore throat lozenge.

Let me know if you have any other explanations.

Peace out!