There’s nothing quite like the feeling of waking up at 3:00am and not being able to get back to sleep.  You know that tomorrow is going to suck because you’ll fall asleep again just before the alarm goes off and you’ll stumble around like a zombie for a while.  Whenever this happens my brain just starts going when I wake up and I can’t stop it long enough to get back to sleep.

The only interesting part of it all is that these are usually the only times I remember much from my dreams.  This morning I was just settling into some REM sleep when the alarm went off, so I have a few memories.  I suppose it’s a good thing that I don’t remember them, because they’re often weird and sometimes frightening.  In no particular order (since they’re all jumbled together in my head anyway):

• There were angry pit bulls.  I had to shoot some of them, but I remember feeling bad about it (and angry at the people who had let them loose, forcing me to kill the dogs).
• Unfortunately, getting rid of the pit bulls didn’t lead to safety, because there were small velociraptors (!) stalking me from a corn field.  I found myself shooting at fleeting images as they ran through the corn.
• Interestingly enough I was at the edge of the field and as soon as I realized that I got in my truck and drove away.  Unfortunately, there were trucks and graders spreading fresh dirt on the road and I couldn’t get much traction.  And for some reason I couldn’t find the button that engages 4WD (or I couldn’t get to it).  It was one of those frustrating things similar to when you’re trying to run but just can’t seem to move.
• Next I found myself in a house with what seemed like way too much furniture and too many TVs (they were stacked on other TVs).  There were also at least six clocks, all of which were stopped or flashing.
• A couple of women came in carrying a new dining table and I had to help them before they fell over.  I realized that I was married (!) to one of them and the other was her mother.  At the same time I saw that the problem of too much furniture was just that it was all jammed into one room of this large, older house.
• Somehow I was in college again and there was some kind of exhibition going on and I was trying to get in.  I could see a couple of my friends through the doors, but they wouldn’t let me in.  They said something that implied they were allowing people in on certain days based on their housing status or something.  But what they really meant was that men were not allowed on this day.

I’m not sure what any of it means, as it was all so weird and disconnected.  I suppose it’s better that I don’t usually remember any of this crap.