To sleep: perchance to dream

"If a man could pass through Paradise in a dream, and have a flower presented to him as a pledge that his soul had really been there, and if he found that flower in his hand when he awake - Aye, what then?" --Samuel Taylor Coleridge


Sleep is so very elusive. It's crazy how something so important can be so difficult to obtain. Like nice guys or jeans that fit well. I know all three of those things are hanging out together somewhere laughing at me. At all of us! But that's neither here nor there.

As it happens, this blog was born several years ago to loving parents, Insomnia and Boredom. My freshman year, I would stay up until around 0500 every night. Rarely did such a night involve homework. Usually it involved nothing productive whatsoever... unless writing this qualifies as productivity... Unlikely. Anyhow, my brain simply did not want to rest until the night was nearly over. Then, all of a sudden, I got a job that allowed me to work graveyard shifts. Ever since, I have been making money for doing exactly what I did that first semester: Nothing. Brilliant.

These days, sleep eludes me other reasons. I live in a four (4) bedroom house with EIGHT (8) other people. This situation, as you may have guessed, is not conducive to falling or staying asleep.

Example: We have a piano.

My room is right above it.


*Face-palm.*

Being the lightest sleeper known to human-kind doesn't help a lick. (I once woke up because my roommate was twirling her hair too loudly. What does that even MEAN?) All that to say, I get most of my REM when they're on the radio.

This totally SUCKS because who would argue that dreaming is quite possibly the coolest thing ever? Luckily, on the rare occasion that Mr. Sandman decides to be a nice guy and crawl out of the woodwork where the rest of them are hiding, I remember my dreams. I've documented the ones I found most significant (read: f*%#ing creepy) in the link up there. ^ I am letting you read through those at your discretion for one easy installment of $FREE.99. Must be your lucky day...

I've been told that my dreams are incredibly bizarre. But I say, "compared to WHAT?" They seem more like accurate representations of a bizarre reality. After perusing through a few, one might realize they sound kinda similar to some of the anecdotes mentioned in this blog. To me, the waking world appears equally crazy if not craziER than my brain activity while dozing. I should seriously start carrying around a totem. 

Even though they seem to accurately capture the feelings of absolute insanity that I am overcome with in the waking world, there is something so surreally spiritual and, for lack of a better word, trippy, about dreaming. I mean... I don't understand how sleeping isn't putting the psychedelic hallucinogen people out of business. Honestly.

"I know I'm awake but it feels like I'm in a dream."
-- In Bruges