Five days to go before we leave for Amsterdam! I'm bummed that we'll miss the Slow Fast Food exhibit at the Droog, and there's nothing that interests me at Paradiso or Melkweg while we'll be there, but I'm not worried for lack of things to do: on top of just plain old exploring the city we've got a daytrip to Bruges and a half-day windmill and cheese factory excursion planned, plus I'm armed with a list of sightseeing suggestions from Blue Room and his friend Becky. Thanks folks!

Now, the first thing any responsible overseas traveller does before setting off is giving their Ambien a test run. I popped my 10mg pill last night around 11pm, started to feel like an accordian around 11:30, I climbed into bed and that's the last I remember until snapping instantly awake at 7:45am. Blech. Synthetic sleep. Not very restful. Although I'd rather have fake sleep than no sleep at all. I asked my doctor for Ambien for the plane since I had such horrible flight to Paris: I didn't sleep a wink for nearly 20 hours, so I was basically psychotic by the time we got to France. So I don't want that to happen again. Still can't figure out why my doctor gave me a prescription for 30 pills however. 30! I nearly fell-over when she handed me the piece of paper. Totally unnecessary! Seems like doctors should keep a tighter rein on controlled substances that make people have all sorts of scary and dangerous hallucinations. Just as long as the seat backs don't start talking to me I'll be fine.

UPDATE: Well, there's more to this Ambien story than I was aware of. When I took the pill I layed down on the couch and watched TV. According to G, when I got up to go to bed I proclaimed: "Oh My God I shouldn't have layed down. I should have just gone to bed. I can't get to the bedroom!" He said it took me forever to make my way to the bedroom - I made a pit stop in the bathroom, left the bathroom light on and fell into bed with the bedroom light still on. So he thinks I'm still awake and keeps asking me if I want some popcorn and of course I don't reply because I'm passed out. I have no memory of any of this. I'd say this is two parts funny to one part scary. I don't like the idea of being unconscious of my surroundings on a giant airplane full of strangers. I guess I should sit on my wallet? Has anyone taken Ambien on an airplane before?