Nightmare on Upham Street

My boss wandered by my desk this morning and stopped to crack a joke, as he is wont to do. Then he got real serious and said, "You look tired." I had to think about it for a moment. I was tired. I had a miserable morning, and, in fact, I arrived ten minutes later than I had intended.

It dawned on me I had experienced a miserable nightmare last nite, one that I now recall waking up from shouting and, I think, cursing.

Janet and Benjamin spent the night at her father's last evening to give him a little company and some comfort. I spent the evening playing World of Warcraft and having a sandwich at around midnight. I retired around two o'clock in the morning -- an hour that, while late, really isn't very unusual for me. I went to sleep with the TV on, as I often do when Janet is away. The last thing I remember was the closing credits of a Twilight Zone episode.

The next thing I remember was beating flailing around and shouting and awaking from a terrible dream. In the dream, I was driving down the road with a passenger. Suddenly, from behind two poles on either side of the street, two police officers literally jumped out and called me to pull over. I did. They informed me that I had run through some sort of safety zone without stopping. Confused, I walked over to the sign and poined out that it did not require me to stop. That didn't matter, they said. They claimed that they were holding stop signs themselves, which they then showed me. My argument that they were hiding behind two poles as I approached did not seem to interest them.

The rest is a blur. But I do recall threats against me, a scuffle, demands, and a promise that my insurance would become so expensive, I'd have to sell my house to drive. I finally figured I had nothing left to lose and I went all "Bruce Banner" on them.

That's when I woke up, angry, crying, and flailing around pretty violently. I was a mess. I shut the TV and remembered thinking that I'd never get back to sleep. I did, and apparently pretty quickly. But I guess I'm still carrying the exhaustion around with me today. At least I know why I'm tired now.

I hate dreams like that.