Not again!

Oh no, not again! I woke up from what can be considered another nightmare with my pulse skyrocketing but this time, I have a piece of evidence linking both experiences to each other - the almonds.

Both dreams were similar in construct, in that the story, while nothing dramatic, was incredibly vivid and it plodded along like a well-made TV soap and right before the commercial break, the plot took a wrong turn into hell!

This time, no more documentaries. Instead, it was some trivial drama focused on a few key characters. Like I said, nothing substantial but the dream was unusually consistent. There was actually a progression of the story, with teen drama themes like avoiding people we disliked, calling up friends to meet up, and so on.

Then, I remember, as I was walking home along a street at night, out of thin air, the plot decided to go mental! A squad car violently swerved in front of me, with two uniformed cops jumping out and pushing me to the ground. I felt one of them frisking my legs and puling out a gun! They handcuffed me roughly and dragged my sorry ass back to their car. It was terrifying! One of them began telling me the huge fine imposed on carrying unlicensed firearms and then I knew it was a setup.

I began pleading with them, waxing lyrical in the national language. At one point, I began appealing to their sense of righteousness, lamenting the sad state of public image of the local law enforcement. At this point, they got mad, or pretended to be! They made like they were going to call up reinforcements and both of them jumped into the car and took off. So did I. Then I woke up.

I lay there for some time, my body in full physiological reaction of a panic attack. But with understanding of what I was going through, I savoured, actually savoured the experience instead. My head spinning, my chest tight, my breathing laboured, but I managed to convince my brain there was no immediate danger. I talked down my limbic region from shooting more crazy signals.

And I frantically tried to replay every scene and image before they permanently evaporated from my short-term memory banks.

Okay, to be fair, there were other similarities between last night's nightmare and today's episode. For one, I slept really late, on account of not being sleepy. And I was hungry. So I decided to chew on a box of almonds (the almonds, not the box) and watch a movie. All of a sudden I'd suddenly get sleepy and drop off to bed. That's it. As close to original laboratory conditions as I could make it. Hmm...no stress. No repressed negativity. The funny thing is, I mentioned the almonds as sort of a joke, but now, it's the most conspicuous element of an investigative lead. Do almonds trigger nightmares? Care to find out?

Dreams 2

Oh, I just woke up with my heart racing! Could it be, in any way, due to the fact that not one minute ago, on the other side of existence, I was running my lungs out for dear life from three men trying to kill me?

My God, what did it mean? They were trying to catch me because I found their secret factory making prosthetics out of real human beings.

Okay, it started off like this. I was watching a Discovery channel feature about tigers that captured different sorts of animals and dragging them away. Next thing I knew, I was following these kidnapper (?) tigers back to a house in the woods! Oh, they be no cute furry 3-Bears-and-Goldilocks type of animals. They were real tigers. Up to the point where they shooed me away and locked the front door of their cottage!

So I started an investigation. Oh yeah, they were making prosthetic parts out of these poor creatures. I could not imagine what a tiger would want with a prosthetic monkey limb. I mean, in my dream, that was the dilemma!

And then, neatly enough, next door was a house with humans doing the same business, but kidnapping other humans. So I strolled around their office. Creeping and crawling, you know, doing my investigating bit.

At one point, I was caught in the open under the stairs with nowhere to run as a group of them descended. So I pretended to be a worker there, scrubbing the floor beneath the stairs. They walked on right by! How clever of me. I raced upstairs to a security-coded door. Just then it opened and this typical office guy walked out. I pretended I was just about to go inside. I said "Hold it, thanks". Well this schmuck closed the door and told me I can't go in without a code.

Well, I walked away and suddenly, he called me. I turned around saw the schmuck with one mean looking no-nonsense type and another scrawny guy, walking towards me with accusatory looks.

Well, what of it? I bolted. Out the yard, onto the tree-lined road. I ran and ran. I looked back and saw the schmuck and scrawny guy right behind me while the mean one was falling behind. So I ran some more. And then I woke up.

It surely wasn't those almonds I chewed just before I slept. Was it?

My dreams...

Being in love is like...

... a motorbike ride on a tropical island, along meandering roads through the countryside.
...the sun filtering through coconut tree fronds dotting the landscape, the salty sea breeze tousling our hair.
...her outstretched hands like a Spitfire, laughing; a happy smile plastered on my face.
...the feeling of exhilaration, our hearts soaring, our spirits free.
...my arms wrapped around her at the top of the hill, looking to the horizon.

How long ago did you last glimpse the horizon? Although, literally, as long as land meets sky gives you one, there's nothing quite like the majesty of the vast heavens stretching to infinity until it meets the sea.

Seeing the horizon stirs up emotions in me. No wonder people once thought the earth was flat and that a ship would sail right off into space. In school I learnt that on the horizon, you can see the mast of a ship rising above the horizon as it sailed towards you.

What lies yonder? What wonders to behold? You can almost see the passage of time as it flows towards the great beyond.

Time ... what a bewildering concept. How it stands still in moments like these. How it continues and exists, as surely as the clouds drifting by.

Standing there, holding her, feeling my heart beat against hers, seeing the endless sea and the sky...this is what being in love is like.


Ah, what I'd give to be in love again.