This is not my story.  It was told to me by a dear, dear friend.  I’ve been mulling over my place in the universe.  I’ll write my thoughts on that soon. But as I thought about the fact that I’m not where I expected to be, I’m still here, I thought of this cute anecdote. Enjoy.

My friend’s daughter, Amber, travels a lot on business.  I mean A LOT. And she goes to really cool places like Berlin, Turkey and China. Sometimes she takes her family with her; sometimes she leaves them at home and my friend helps babysit.  She’s the grandmother of the year.

When Amber went to China, she decided to take her five-year old, Beth, with her. It was the trip of a lifetime and she wanted to share the experience with her daughter. Hopefully she was old enough to make some memories.

But she was only five and we all know that traveling long distances with a small child can be trying.  So, Amber did some research and decided to give Beth melatonin for the long plane ride.  It’s natural, right?  A milk derivative.  Not exactly an ambien, but hopefully effective in shortening the trip for little Beth and making the red-eye more pleasant for the rest of the people in their cabin.

She explained to Beth that they were going on a long plane ride and that it can be difficult to sleep on the plane.  That she was going to give her a pill to help her sleep and that when she woke up they would be in China.  Beth was excited about going on a trip with Mommy and if taking a pill was part of the deal, she was on board. Being the thorough, prepared mother that Amber is, she did a test run of the melatonin before the trip, making sure that Beth tolerated the supplement and that there were no adverse side effects.

The morning after taking the melatonin at home, Beth was not her usual, cheerful self at breakfast.  Amber and her husband watched her closely for any signs or symptoms and thought maybe the pill had had the opposite effect, keeping her awake all night.  They asked her, “Beth, honey, did you sleep all right?  You seem a little bit out of sorts this morning.”  She looked at them with absolute disappointment on her face. “It didn’t work.  The pill.  It didn’t work….  I’m not in China.”