Writing Under the Influence. Of Exhaustion.

When I was 12 or 13, I tried to write a letter to a friend. I had stayed up the entire night before and was completely distracted and exhausted as I scrawled what I thought were complete sentences across the page. Fortunately I had enough sense to read what I had written before sending it.

My school and church activities have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil.

Yes. I wrote that. (The latter half is a segment of a memorized Bible verse.)

I didn't send it. I have no idea who I was writing to, but if you're out there, still awaiting my correspondence, know that I tried. But the words stopped making sense. And I couldn't remedy the situation with anything but sleep.

I did it again tonight. Not in a letter, but in some quickly jotted research notes.

With a hint of Australia.

It should have said "hint of raspberry."

If I ever send you something written in a state of exhaustion, don't get too attached to those words. I may be unintentionally quoting you a movie line or government statistic. Or telling you what I had for dinner when I really mean I love you. Or, more likely, vice versa.