How long....

until this work day is over?!?!

While I'm sitting here contemplating how little work I can do without actually falling asleep, I thought I'd write a bit. It's so cold up here, if I write, maybe I'll manage to stay awake.

This moment's topic: Dreams. I used to have dreams about my car being stolen, back before I traded in the Accord for the Jimmy. Sometimes I'd get stolen along with my car, sometimes I'd be hiding a safe distance away, and once (when I dreamed that K's car got stolen when I'd driven it instead of mine), I was in a building and didn't know the car was gone until I came out. In all of them except the one about K's car, I never could scream, never could defend myself, never could do anything to change things or stop them. Funny, after I traded in the Accord, those dreams stopped.

I've only had one car dream about the Jimmy - no, wait, make that two. In one, I was driving with someone else (not sure, but I have the impression it was my mother), and I suddenly lost control of the car. The car went into a spin and went onto a large, open, grassy area on the side of the road. I distinctly remember the grass being that combination of brown and green you get toward the end of summer/beginning of what passes for fall here. I also remember thinking, "Steer into the skid," and I did, and the car righted itself and I drove back onto the road. Whoever was with me (my mother?) told me what a good job I'd done getting things straightened out, and that things would be OK.

And the other car dream: I was going into a parking garage, and there were cars behind me. I found the car sliding backward, I couldn't get it out of reverse, and the brakes didn't work. People behind me were really pissed that they had to get out of the way. That's all I remember about that one.

The other big category of dreams I tend to have: school dreams. I'm back in college (or worse, high school), and it's time for finals when I realize I misplaced my schedule some time back and haven't been to any classes all semester. I know nothing, yet somehow I'm supposed to take and pass final exams. I'm understandably panicked, and I usually wake up feeling a bit frantic.

Strangely enough, I usually don't dream about people I know. Most of the people in my dreams are either just random people, or a type (i.e., a high school friend, but not any specific friend I had in high school). Every once in a while someone I actually know will be in my dreams. Like last night - I dreamed about R. I was going to lunch with a big group of co-workers, and for some reason he was there, too. Random.

OK, it's got to be colder here in my office than it is outside. I'm FREEZING. I think I'll go downstairs and see if Starbucks is open - I don't have much $ at the moment, but if I don't get something warm to drink, I'll turn into a block of ice. I think preventing frostbite or death from hypothermia is worth $5, don't you?