But then we dropped the remote, realizing that this segment did indeed apply to us. We've been having a variety of sleep issues lately, from nightmares to old-fashioned insomnia. Both usually involve us bolting up in bed like a particularly alert jack-in-the-box. And it's no picnic in the morning, either, when we try to distinguish dreams from reality. "Did you see the weather yet this morning? It didn't...snow last night, did it?" and "You didn't hold an elementary school hostage on your way home from work, did you? I can loan you the money." These things are hard to slip into casual conversation unnoticed.
And so the Today segment told us a lot of what we already know: no television in the bedroom, maintain a regular bedtime, keep the room at a comfortable temperature. So our spouse recommended something almost unimaginable: Wake up before 6 a.m. and go exercise with him. Exhausted, we agree.
In the meantime, though, we go to Schnucks in the hope of finding something sleep-inducing. Past all the constantly advertised pills — ones with glowing moths, pills rocking back and forth to a metronomic beat, cartoonish demonstrations of a medicine's time-release formula — we found it. A giant, shimmery moon in a deep purple sky: Boulevard's Lunar Ale. Tonight we'd reward ourselves for getting up at dawn with a six-pack.
It's the night of the full moon, and it's huge on the horizon. We grab our morning-person spouse head out on a mini urban trek, shlepping the six pack of Boulevard and a Simpsons bottle opener — which we promptly lose — to Art Hill (the bottles turn out to be screw tops, but you can never be too safe). The moon is just coming up over the trees.
The night is beautiful. We sit on the grass, watch the fountains glow in Forest Park's Grand Basin, and marvel that we'd never done this before. Boulevard's Lunar Ale tastes earthy on account of its wheat malt, not unlike breathing in grass and soil after a soaking rain. It was a little bitter for our tastes, though, and we found more relaxation and enjoyment in our surroundings than in the bottle.
And while we're not implying that it's on account of the Lunar Ale, that night we did enjoy the best sleep we'd had in ages.
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