It is exactly 6:29 a.m. here in Minnesota, and I've just returned from our fair capital city, where I dropped my mother off at the airport. She's going to New York to visit my aunt and grandma, and since Dad had to work at 4:30, it was up to me to navigate the van (okay, okay, with the help of our Garmin GPS) through city traffic and ridiculous airport ramps.
The actual driving was okay (see previous parentheses), but I had some issues getting out of bed at 4 a.m.
It may have had something to do with me only getting two hours of sleep, or maybe I was still in a semi-dreamlike state, but for whatever reason, when I put my feet on the floor my legs collapsed under me and I fell. I tried again to stand, and once again found myself in a heap on my bedroom floor.
Maybe it doesn't sound too strange now, but this little clumsy incident felt incredibly strange at the time. I've never experienced anything like it before.
I think that when my alarm went off, I jumped out of bed before I was even awake. My body reacted to the alarm before my brain was actually functioning.
Even now, the whole incident is really fuzzy, like it happened in a dream. And who knows? Maybe it did.
I think if anyone had been watching my 4 a.m. struggle, It would have looked a little bit like the evolution of man (you know, slowly creeping up from the primordial ooze of messy bedroom floor). My muttered curses could have been mistaken for caveman grunts, my sleepy dullness matched that of an early, small-brained human, and my morning hair probably looked just about right for that period, as well.
Conclusion? Sleep is weird. Dreams are weird. Waking up from sleep and dreams is weird. I wish I knew more about how it all works; we briefly covered the topic in high school psychology, but unfortunately I don't remember a whole lot. Nevertheless, I have a prodding suspicion that we are more ourselves when we dream than we are at any other time. Because we dream about the things that really matter, right? We cut right to the chase, whether we want to or not. Our unconscious takes orders from no one. Not even ourselves.
Well, I'll be going back to sleep now (ironic?). Blessedly, I can squeeze in about six hours before I have to wake up again to get ready for work.
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