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05/13/2004 Entry: "Dream a dreamy dream"

Christine has a really bad cold, and when one of us is sick, I usually volunteer to sleep in the guest room so one of us won't infect the other.

I'm not used to sleeping alone. It's okay, but kind of depressing. I recall on comedian stating that when you start sleeping together, immediately stake your claim for the side of the bed you want to sleep on for the rest of your life because you'll never be able to switch back. And that means if you sleep next to the door, you'll be the one asked to get up and investigate that noise, or be the first eaten by the monster who comes in through the door. At our first apartment, she slept to my right, but ever since then, she's been on my left (for a little over 13 years).

I got sick anyway. I am fighting it off, but it's started deep in my chest which usually means there's no way I will win this. I hope I don't get pneumonia because all my bouts with pneumonia started this way, this quickly. I'd say there's a 50/50 chance for pneumonia, so I am rooting for the healthy 50%. I am taking a lot of echinacea, which usually tips the scales in my favor.

When I am down in the guest room, I have a lot of weird dreams. I had two this time around, although I can only remember the first one. I was with some nondescript friends and their 4-year old daughter. An ex-husband had ordered 3 tigers and a lion as entertainment, and while they originally came with two trainers, the ex took them to a local bar and got drunk. The big cats were pretty cool, but not very manageable; they were huge and heavy and kept sitting over your lap, knocking over things, and so on. Then two of them got into a fight, and while we did our best to keep them apart, the tension just got to be too much, and so they finally went ballistic on each other, and all the other cats joined in. The cats weren't fighting us, just each other, but they were so big and dangerous, we were terrified of getting hit by accident, and they were destroying everything. We fled the house, but then realized we left the 4-year old in there, and we had to go get her. Luckily, the girl was unharmed because she hid behind the couch. I had to call 911, but couldn't get the cell phone because Christine was using it to take pictures of the cats fighting "for evidence." When I finally got to call 911, the operators told us to stay outside in the car, and they would send firemen and animal handlers. While we were waiting, we kept talking with the 911 operator about what a jerk the ex-husband was. That's when I woke up.

I think I remember the first dream because I recall I read somewhere the only way to remember your dreams is if you wake up before they are over. I think that's true, because almost none of my dreams ever have a neat ending, and I don't recall anyone else's having any sort of "story flow" to them, either. I remember some of my "Teen counseling" teaching that had a "dream exercise," where each student tells the group your last dream. You did this for several reasons. Most people will actually tell real dreams, which you can usually tell because they have some awkward flow with logical impossibilities like, "I was at a lake, but it sometimes was a pool, and I was sitting down at this green chair... I think. I was standing, too. I can't remember." Most people's dreams are like that, and you see a lot of fumbling as the logical part of the brain says in their head, "Wait ... that doesn't make sense...!" Then you'll have the person who will make up a dream, and those are pretty easy to spot because they'll have a logical flow to them, often with a moral ending similar to the end of a sitcom. The person tells you this because that's what they want you to hear, either to conceal something, or draw attention to a subject they want to talk about. The trouble is determining which one it is. Then some people never have dreams, or at least claim that, which doesn't mean they are lying per se, but some may also be trying to conceal the horror that is their vulnerable sleep period or maybe they just never get enough sleep and don't ever get into an REM cycle.

Cicada update: Saw partial squashed head of one covered with ants on my driveway [sound of unimpressed party horn]. There were a few more at work, almost all of them are dead. I think the geese we have in our ponds at work are eating them, because their poop has turned from light green to light brown. I am also curious to see how all the upheaval of the recent housing and office developments have affected the last swarm. I recall they sprayed for them, and then we have had all this construction since 1987 around here. In my local area, I think 60% of the woodlands have been turned into housing in just the last 4 years. In one of the Baltimore Sun articles, they mentioned that all the suburban development might have changed the number that will come back, but those that do manage to lay eggs and burrow will find suburban lawns (wide grassy areas under trees) will be a positive ideal environment for the next batch in 2021.

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