I am really struggling to stay awake today. I haven't taken my Xyrem either of the last two nights and it's really affecting me today. I've stayed up too late the last two nights, and set my alarm to wake up and take the Xyrem approximately two hours after going to bed each night. Most nights I can fit in about 3 hours of regular sleep before waking up to take my single Xyrem dose - which gives me another 4 hours of sleep. Well, it seems that two hours into my regular sleep I'm sleeping so soundly that I don't really wake up when my Xyrem alarm goes off. Last night I finally woke up about an hour after my alarm started going off. I could have taken the Xyrem then still, but I chose not to because then I would have slept in an hour later than I wanted to. I'm regretting that choice now because of how tired I am. I just want to lay my head down and go to sleep! I'm working from home so I could probably get away with it, but it would be rather unethical so I'm not going to.

(Edit: Okay, apparently Plinky doesn't include the question with your answer - the question that this post is an answer to is: "If you were drafted into the military but could pick your branch, which would you choose?")

(This is the first time I've made a blog post with the help of this Plinky site - I may do it again if I see another Plinky prompt that interests me.)

I love airplanes. I've been dreaming of flying since my childhood days. If I was in the AIr Force the odds that I'd be a pilot are probably ridiculously low, but I'd like to think that I'd have somewhat decent odds of being assigned some job that involved airplanes (fighter jets or otherwise) on some level. That's why I would choose the Air Force.

Every now and then during my late teenage years I considered joining the military. Part of the appeal to me was the adventure that I thought was inherent in any military duty. Another aspect that appealed to me was that of serving one's country. The main reason why I considered military service is because I figured the military could whip me into shape. I've always been underweight and out of shape and never put any serious effort into changing either of those. I'd sort of try, but would give up way too easily when I didn't see quick results. I figured the military probably wouldn't help me gain any weight, but they'd at least force me to get into shape!

I chickened out though. I didn't think I'd make it through basic training (and that would be downright humiliating!), and even more than that I couldn't bring myself to talk to my parents about it. I really liked computer work so I figured I might as well just get a job in the computer field - which I did.

It has been exactly two months since my last post. Time to get this blog moving again!

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I'm still taking Xyrem every night for my narcolepsy. A single dose each night is enough to control my daytime sleepiness rather effectively. Taking the instructed two doses each night would be even better, but as expensive as Xyrem is I just can't bring myself to do that. I can stretch a one-month supply of Xyrem into two months when I only take one dose a night, and that makes the cost a little more bearable.

I'm still amazed at how well the Xyrem works. I haven't taken any of my stimulant drugs (Ritalin/methylphenidate) for over two months now. Two months!!! I used to be heavily dependent on them to just get through each day, and now I don't even need them! Xyrem truly is amazing!

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I've been underweight for as long as I can remember - pretty much just skin and bones. I've generally disliked being underweight and would occassionally put some effort into gaining weight, but never had any success. I had more or less convinced myself that it was impossible for me to gain any weight, no matter what I did or tried. A couple of months ago my fiancee really encouraged me to try again and to put serious effort into it this time. She said to strive to eat more food at each meal, and eat more often between meals too. I started doing that and before long my weight started to creep up, ever so slowly. I started out around 121 pounds. After a few weeks of stuffing myself with food I reached my first target weight - 125 pounds. I was very happy! I kept working at it and got to 127 pounds - and then slacked off quite a bit in my efforts and hovered around 127-128 for several weeks. I recently started working at it a little more and my weight is slowly climbing again. My next target weight was 130 pounds, and I thought for sure I would see 130 on the scale this morning, but alas, I was just shy of the mark, weighing in at 129.5 pounds. I've been working on eating a lot today and am really hoping to see it pay off tomorrow morning when I weigh myself.

The downside to all of this is that since I've been eating a lot more my stomach presumably stretched itself out and it takes more food to fill me up now, and I get hungrier much more quickly and frequently than before as well. If I loved to eat food this wouldn't be a problem, but I don't love to eat food so being hungry so much is rather irritating. I know I shouldn't complain - thousands of people would love to have the problem I do - difficulty gaining weight.