Its one of those rare days. Long weekend, cold wind, warm fire. Been reading a good book, catching up on some corrections, watching mindless TV, even knitting a little. Paul had to go out for a bit, so it was just me and my doggies, snuggling on the couch.
Tucker spent a good half hour with his head on my knee, looking remarkably relaxed and serene. As I looked into his big, chocolate eyes, and listened to his steady breathing, I felt myself relaxing and drifting off; almost, but not quite, falling into a dream.
Why is it that just as we begin to drift away and let go of the tangible world around us, our thoughts become so disjointed and crazy and interesting? I wish I had a way to record those swirling ideas as I fall asleep. If I tune in enough to notice them, I pop back into consciousness, and they stop floating past like gauzy scarves riding the wind.
If I listen to one of those fascinating snippets, my brain clicks back into the “on” position, and I measure the thought, weigh its clarity or its accuracy or its practicality, and then file it away in one or another of my mind’s many drawers and cupboards.
I wish I could let them go and somehow have them magically transcribed, so that I could let them flourish without my interference, but still remember them later.
I bet they would make riveting blog posts! Maybe one or two would even prove to be the germinating seed of a story.
Of course, it’s just as likely that one or two would land me on the psychiatrist’s couch, but still! What’s life without a little risk, right?
So here are a few of the tiny threads that floated by as I almost fell asleep with Tucker’s nose as my focal point.
Little unexpected pleasures are better than long awaited big pleasures. Last night we had dinner with some friends and my very favorite dish, at any restaurant anywhere, was on the specials menu. I’m still smilin’.
There’s no reason why I shouldn’t try to bake a chocolate cake from scratch today. In spite of the fact that I don’t have the right ingredients, and the fact that the last thing Paul and I need to be eating is an entire cake. And the fact that I’m lazy.
Is it creepy for me to be picturing the kids in my class and wondering what they’re doing? Pathetic. Gotta get me a grandchild. Soon.
If you look at him just right, sometimes my dog looks like my Grandmother’s stepmother, a woman I haven’t seen in 40 years. She used to scare me to death. No explanation for that one……
My class should do a musical this year. They can write it, sing it, perform it. It will be fun. Ah, yeah. No.
I smell tanning lotion. Yankee Candle near my head; “Sun n’ Sand”
Just because the government tells me that I can’t speed on public roads, it doesn’t make me worry that they are going to take away my car. Shit. Back to the gun debate.
That last one woke me up for real, even more than the scary old Italian lady memory of Nanna.
Yep. Just another relaxing day on the couch. The mind is a terrible thing to control.
Empty Nest, Full Life 
I liked your thoughts on a class musical. 🙂
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Yikes! We usually try to put on a class play in June, but a musical???! Of course, we DO have a fabulous new music teacher…..
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Interesting!
“Of course, it’s just as likely that one or two
would land me on the psychiatrist’s couch, but
still! What’s life without a little risk, right?”
The mind seems inexhaustible in exploration. I really wished that there could be a record button for it’s escapades. From time to time, we would rewind, play and retrieve mind-blowing ideas and concepts.
Lovely post!
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Thanks! I just often find that my thoughts are hilariously slippery just as I drift off. Sometimes I wake up hours later and think…wait, WHAT?
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That got me laughing! I think I understand what you mean. Thanks.
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Glad you enjoyed it!
Does that happen to you, too? Those random little snippets of thought flashing by???
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Ofcourse it does! Creativity seems to come from catching some of them and either making some sense out of them or just pouring them out for humor sake.
The world of thought is another world and sometimes I completely engulfed in it.
It’s a beautiful place you know?
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Ah, if you can’t be weird as you fall asleep, what good is life? Your dog looks wonderfully content in that picture. Makes me want to scratch behind his ears.
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Come on over, Elyse; he’d love to have you scratch his ears!
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Give him a nice one for me!
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That is exactly why sleep is my fave thing to do, Elyse. So I have permission to be weird. Okay, weirder than normal.
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Is that possible? I mean isn’t that an oxymoron?
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Bam! you’re good.
And, oh yeah, it be possible. Scary thought, huh.
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Those are the moments when we connect with our unconscious. Like yours, my unconscious is a big fan of chocolate cake. Tucker is very handsome.
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Why thank you! Its another funny quirk of ours that Paul and I feel proud when people compliment our dogs’ good looks. As if are the parents!
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That is one happy-looking dog!
And like you, I tend to think my falling-asleep thoughts are brilliant…until I wake up and really think about them. Still, love that feeling of drifting, just before the eyes close for good….
Karen
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I love that drifty feeling, too! And I love how fabulous my drifty thoughts are, until reality come screaming in with the alarm.
One night I came up with an incredibly fabulous idea for a field trip for the kids. I planned the ENTIRE event in my drifty sleepy brain and fell asleep truly excited.
Woke up to think, “Oh. I probably can’t really take my class to Philadelphia from Massachusetts…..”
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Oh, I love these kind of posts, free-flowing, dreamlike stuff. Too funny. And I really need to get myself a grandkid too. Too bad it won’t happen for another 15 years or so. Sigh.
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I just nominated you for The Versatile Blogger Award. Check out the details here:http://wedelmom.wordpress.com/2013/01/24/im-versatile-who-knew/ Thanks for having a great blog!
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Aw, cool! Thanks so much! I do love this blogger community!
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What, as a school teacher you don’t think “packing heat” is one of the answers to a safe school environment instead of sensible gun control? (Can you believe that is something that was seriously suggested?) You can tell which one of your random thoughts resignated with me–that and making the chocolate cake. WW and I actually nixed idea that for the same reason you decided against it for you and your hubbie.
Random quiet thoughts are great and sometimes they do turn into stories. It’s where I get most of my leads. Thanks for the fun read.
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Thanks for reading, Eleanor!
And thanks for understanding why I don’t want to be packing heat…I swear, the next time I hear one of those NRA idiots mouthing off, I’m gonna wish that someone WAS packing…..
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