Dreamscape

John Scalzi's Weekend Assignment #110: Strange Dreams

Ever have that dream where you're at home, only it's not your home, and some creepy thing is coming at you and you try to run but you just can't move? Or, alternately, you have a dream where you're conversing with Angelina Jolie, and she suddenly turns into a pelican and eats your collection of rare tropical fish? Then this Weekend Assignment will be right up your alley: Weekend Assignment #110: Recount a strange dream you've had recently. Any sort of strange dream is fine except the really explicit sex dreams. Because, you know, we're running a family show, here. Otherwise, they can be as weird as you want them to be. Extra Credit: Name a favorite song with the words "dream" or "sleep" (or some variation of those words). Your turn: Pull up that strange dream you've had recently and write it up in your blog or Journal. Come back here and leave a link so we can all read what's going on in your head. Sweet dreams!

Dear John,

It be dreams you're seeking then, is it? Aye, there's the rub. And a fine kettle of fish you've landed me in. For I am one of those poor souls with a life unexamined, who's dreams are lost in the ether, never to be known. For lo, these many, many years, I have truly slept the sleep of the dead. Each and every night I died a little death, and we aren't talking le petit mort, darling. No, I be having true little deaths, apneas and hypopneas they be; if not careful, the death of me.

Back, back in the mists of distant past, I recall waking, gasping, clawing my way up a slippery black slope after the immobility imposed by the mother ship and her ghostly crew as they released me from another round of (ahem) their nocturnal anal probing and other tortures too gruesome to recount (save to remind you not to squeeze my paw in greeting, the stitches are still a mite tenuous). I recall their appliances – a gleaming black gold reflecting the green gleam of their carapaces, the grotesque odor of their exhalations and my own fecund, frightened contributions to the common atmosphere. Light the full color of the visible spectrum and others I suspect I only sensed unseen, floated as motes across my eye, my retinas burned by their intensity.

And the noise, John, the most terrifying snarls and guttural utterances accompanied their labors as I lay on my side, flopping like a mackerel, newly landed to the bottom of the dory. They force a cringe from me still, years after they ceased.

I have been blessed with the diagnosis and treatment of my obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) symptoms; I breathe all night long and no longer be I plagued by visits from the medical ghouls of the mother ship, freezing me in position, then probing against my will. By I am at a loss for dreams my friend, as I truly sleep the whole night through, hardly stirring, awakening rested, but not dreamily.

My best wishes to you and your lovely family. May your sleep be full and restful; may your dreams be untroubled and fulfilling. As Mama Cass once sang, “dream a little dream of me.”

wil

The Mamas & The Papas

Lyrics: Dream A Little Dream

Stars shining bright above you
night breezes seem to whisper
I love you
Birds singin' in the sycamore tree
Dream a little dream of me.

Say "nighty night" and kiss me
just hold me tight and tell me
you'll miss me.
While I'm alone and blue as can be
Dream a little dream of me.

Stars fading
but I linger on, dear,
still craving your kiss
I'm longing to linger til dawn, dear,
Just saying this:

Sweet dreams til sun beams find you
sweet dreams that leave our worries behind you.
But in your dreams whatever they be
dream a little dream of me.

Stars fading, but I linger on, dear,
still craving your kiss.
I'm longing to linger til dawn, dear
just saying this:

Sweet dreams til sun beams find you
sweet dreams that leave our worries behind you.
But in your dreams whatever they be
dream a little dream of me.

Tags: Weekend Assignment, Dreams, Scalzi.