I've been slightly off-center all week—tired mostly, and taking cat naps when I can get them (and the wasps [1] didn't help matters at all today). I've also been having “disturbing” dreams and what's worse, I can remember these “disturbing” dreams.
Now, while I consider these “disturbing” dreams as nightmares, I don't think most would actually consider them “nightmares” per se—to me the stereotypical nightmare is one you are being chased by a fire-accident victim in a cheap sweater with nine-inch finger nails or [Screeeeeeeeeeech!] [2] being subjected to the friendly advances of rednecks while being serenaded by banjo music in the backwoods of the Apalachian mountains. I could only wish to have such nightmares. No, the “nightmares” I have, the reason they're disturbing, is that the situations are so frighteningly normal. Think of The Stepford Wives [3], or Invasion of the Body Snatchers [4]. Things seem normal, but there's this undercurrent where things just aren't right and even in the cases when I can pin down where things aren't right, there isn't much I can do about them, like the dream where the trust-fund frat-boy scion of a powerful family is placed into a position of absolute power.
Oh wait … that isn't a dream.
But it does give you an idea of just how “disturbing” my dreams are (if only Donald Sutherland [5] would screetch at me … ).
[2] /boston/2004/02/12/Donald.Sutherland.Screetching.jpg
[3] http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0073747/
[4] http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0077745/
![[2] /boston/2004/02/12/Donald.Sutherland.Screetching.jpg](/gemini.conman.org/boston/2004/02/12/Donald.Sutherland.Screetching.jpg){kind=link}