I got myself hopped up on some pretty strong drugs yesterday evening, and it made for a night of strange dreams.

Before I left work yesterday afternoon, I washed down a couple of day-time cold pills with a can of diet soda. For dinner I had more diet soda — much more.

I'm not sure what I was thinking, but by the time bedtime came around, I was a bundle of nerves. I was a ball of energy. I was fidgety, agitated, nervous. Kris and I tried to sit down to go over the different bids for the bathroom remodel, but I couldn't sit still in my chair. I tried to take notes, but the paper became a mass of scribbles and stars.

"You're driving me crazy," Kris said.

She went to bed, and I stayed up to watch a high-definition documentary about beavers. (Fascinating, really. I hadn't realized that beavers were so industrious. When they dam up a river, it can have shocking effects on the area upstream. And the sheer quantity of wood they're capable of moving is mind-boggling.)

When midnight rolled around, I forced myself to bed. Under normal circumstances, this would mean only about five hours of sleep, but since I'm getting up two hours later while Nick's in Italy, I figured it would mean decent rest.

I hadn't counted on the dreams.

You may recall that caffeine, for whatever reason, plays the role of psycho-active chemical for me at night. If I consume caffeine in the evening, I'm sure to have vivid dreams. Last night was no different.

I dreamt that I was seated in a vast auditorium with thousands of other people. Seated in front of me was a woman I loved (not Kris — sorry), though I didn't know her. She loved me. But we both knew we could never be together. We exchanged meaningful glances. We whispered to each other, but this annoyed the rest of the crowd. We passed notes. Eventually, we both left for the lobby where we exchanged a tearful farewell.

I dreamt that I was a botanist in a vast savannah, strolling among the lions, gazelles, and giraffes, calmly plucking peacebloom and silverleaf and earthroot. I had a satchel at my side (very similar to the Filson satchel I purchased recently), and it was filled with plant samples. The animals paid me no mind, but let me pass unmolested from plant-to-plant: mageroyal, bruiseweed, and, in the ponds, strangekelp. (This last segment is hilarious because it's actually me dreaming of my game; in World of Warcraft, my secondary profession is herbalist, and I am always harvesting plants.)

I dreamt that I walked from the savannah into a vast, piney woods where I transformed into a beaver. I swam and swam against a raging current, but made no progress. I tried to build a dam, but my hands would not work, and I did not like to use my teeth. "I'm not really a beaver," I said, but the other beavers refused to listen. I could not fell a tree because my teeth were too small — human size. I was chased by a bear. I didn't want to eat the saplings in the lodge; I wanted meat of some sort. Eventually, the other beavers ostracized me, and I wandered away alone.

I dreamt that I was teaching school, teaching a photography class. My students were of all ages and types. Mostly, we laughed and laughed, but sometimes we took pictures. "Let's go outside," I said, and so we walked from Portland to Bend, stopping now and then to make photographs. Kim and Kristin and Sabino and Jeremy were in the class, and the five of us kept taking photos of the same rhododendron someplace on a wooded hillside.

Then we were in Bend, at the house where we'll stay in a few weeks, and...

And then the alarm rang.

On this day at foldedspace.org

2004 — Roth Family Forum   Hidden in a small, dark corner of this vast internet is the top-secret Roth Family Forum. I'm sad that others don't get to read the little gems that are posted there. Today I'm going to share my favorite bits from the past few weeks.

2003 — True Enough   It's impossible to please everyone; sometimes it's impossible to even please myself.

2001 — Linux and Pain   I'm enjoying Linux on my laptop. Also, my shoulder hurts.