Monday, April 02, 2007

Perusing the produce aisle...

So last night I was trying to fall asleep, and I found myself in that strange in-between sort of consciousness – you know, when you’re not quite asleep, but not quite awake, either. In fact, if I hadn’t realized I was occupying this particular area of awareness, I’m certain I would’ve been well on my way to REM sleep. But last night, as I startled myself back to the cool darkness of my bedroom for no apparent reason whatsoever, I realized my mind had still been churning – still thinking, still forming thoughts… perhaps the beginnings of a dream were balanced on this fragile precipice between wakefulness and slumber. As I briefly opened my eyes and wondered why my mind chose that moment to snap into alertness, I realized there’d been two words passing between my synapses, borne on the surreptitious back of some random neurotransmitter:

Honeydew melon.

What? Honeydew melon?? This is what I’m thinking about as I drift off to sleep? I was so confused by this fact that I couldn’t STOP thinking about honeydew melon once I woke up. I patiently waited to be overcome with sleep once more, wondering if my dreams might be dotted with images of random fruits for the remainder of the night. But no… apparently “honeydew melon” was merely one of many, many thoughts rattling around in my brain. Fruit never even made an appearance in my nocturnal world. Neither did vegetables. But it made me wonder what my brain is doing, exactly, as I’m falling asleep. Why does it choose to wander to certain images? Why would it haphazardly point at a word or phrase that has nothing to do with my everyday life, and latch on to it just as I’m slipping into a state of unconsciousness? It’s as if, right before I fall asleep, my mind spins a giant wheel of unpredictability – whatever it lands on, that’s what I think of. And my mind’s wheel landed on honeydew melon last night…

But, like I said, I didn’t dream about fruit. I did, however, have a dream that I’d been sentenced to death for some sort of minor infraction. (Gee, seems like fruit would’ve been a lot less morose…) And I was quite adamant that my punishment was NOT befitting of whatever crime I had committed, and therefore I was planning on writing a long letter to a judge to explain why my life should be spared. Eventually, my lawyer (who was a curiously overweight yet highly sympathetic man) told me he’d found a loophole that should free me from any punishment. I was strangely calm throughout this entire dream, as if I knew I would eventually be cleared of any wrongdoing – or as if I had faith that someone would realize whatever I’d done wasn’t that bad at all. Someone would understand before it was too late…

It was a strange dream, and certainly miles away from honeydew melon. But I can pretty much pinpoint a reason I may have dreamt such a thing – I mean, just yesterday I was talking about how my dog is studying to be a lawyer. So it’s not so strange that I should have some sort of litigious dream. But it IS strange that I should fall asleep thinking about fruit, and wind up in a dream world where I’m an ill-fated, poorly-sentenced criminal. It’s interesting how seemingly random and nonsensical my brain can be. But it does make for unusual dreams. Never a dull moment inside this crazy cranium…

Does anyone else have a sudden craving for honeydew melon?

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