This evening while trying to help my daughter fall asleep by laying next to her in bed I fell asleep. I don’t think it was for more than 10 minutes or so – but it was long enough for me to have a vivid dream.

I was laying in a dark, damp, concrete structure.  I could smell something I can only describe as a combination of creosote and fresh rain. I could here the rumbling and clanking of railcars in a nearby railyard. There was little bit of light coming in from a window high above me and it was illuminating a small section of the ceiling. It was obvious from the movement in the shadows that it was raining pretty hard.

I was really cold and wet.  I was looking around trying to figure out where I was and why I was so cold.  I tried to move but I didn’t have the strength to get up.  I felt something ticklish  on my bare chest and I looked down to see hundreds of small spiders crawling across me from the neck down.  I realized that while my back was cold, my chest was relatively warm and it struck me as odd. There was a flash of lightning and I saw that the spiders had formed a large circle around the room.  It crossed over my body, went up the wall to my right, across the ceiling, down the wall to my left and back to me. The lightning flashed again and I realized that the floor, walls, and ceiling where the spiders were walking was red and wet. With the third flash of lightening I registered a new smell and realized the spiders were leaving a trail of of blood around the room – and that’s why my chest was warm.

It was at this point that I decided the dream needed to end. I didn’t wake up right away or at least it didn’t seem that way.

This kind of dream is relatively common and I’m thankful that over the years I’ve been able to “arrange” 90%+ of my dreams to end or alter while still asleep.  There are times when I’ll rewind the dream, change a decision or event and let the story unfold on it’s own again. There are other times where I will consciously attempt to repeat or replay a dream. The really cool ones (can’t get it to happen as often as I would like) are the one’s where I can continue a story arc. Kind of like watching a television series. Characters will be the same but the plot & setting of the dream is different – consistent – but different.

The odd thing about this one was the fact that it happened so quickly after I fell asleep – I am use to them happening in the middle of the night. The other odd thing was my desire to get up and listen to Spiders by System of a Down.  I think there is a story in this dream somewhere, just not sure I’m the right writer.

Not even pretending to try and write – or care that I am not.

As soon as my daughter goes to bed – so am I.

Okay that’s not really fair to myself. I did come up with some interesting ideas.

Went to a five year old’s birthday party today at a place today that has a shrunken down town complete with a rail crossing, working red light and bunch of buildings lining the eight to ten streets. The kids road their bikes around feeling “big” cause the buildings are half to a third the size of normal. The buildings are sponsored by various local and national companies such as Wells Fargo and McDonald’s (which even had a drive thru).

Not really doing a wrap-up – nothing to wrap-up.

Daughter wants me to take her to bed cause she’s scared to go upstairs by herself – don’t think I’m coming back down.

Still more typing, still no writing.