Napmare

After driving across the great state of Pennsylvania twice, consuming no less than 384 beers, and trying to keep pace with the two finest ladies that the Juniata class of 2005 has to offer – all in the course of one weekend – I’ve got to admit that I’m a little tired.  It didn’t stop me from going to work today, but I did call it quits after only 8 hours.  I couldn’t wait to come home and take a nap.

Today, most people didn’t go to work because the Reverend Doctor Martin Luther King Jr. had a dream.  It’s sort of fitting then that the Reverend Doctor Matthew Bochman King Jr. had a nightmare during his nap.  It was one of those times when you dream that you’re sleeping and wake up…but you know, wake up in the dream, so it’s fake.  I have these dreams often, but they never fail to screw with my head.  This one was a little different though.

Today, I dreamt that I couldn’t wake up.  I would struggle toward consciousness, only to “wake up” and realize it was still a dream.  This cycle repeated several times until I “woke up” and came into the living room.  Mala and someone else were here asking me how I was doing, and I just collapsed onto the floor.  That’s the point where the nightmare really became lucent.  I finally realized something was wrong.  I was dreaming again that I was asleep, in my bed, and I couldn’t wake up.  I started to scream.  I don’t know if I was doing this out loud (you know, in real life now), but I could barely do it in the dream.  My body refused to cooperate, and even my dream scream was muffled.  

To tell you the truth, I might still be trapped in my dream-within a dream-within a dream-etc if Christy wouldn’t have sent me a text message right then, setting my phone off and waking me up for real this time.  I’ve never been so happy to be awake after a short nap in all my life.  The nightmare disturbed me so much that I had to immediately warm up and eat a piece of baked ziti to reassure myself that I was back in reality.  For some reason, consuming Italian food seemed like the only way to confirm this.

I was hoping to write about my weekend today, but the nightmare screwed me up so much that it’s going to have to wait.  God, I hope I can sleep tonight.