"I can't read while I'm asleep!"

Last night I dreamed that I was in a stage production of The Sound of Music and had to sing "My Favorite Things" (though I was not, as far as I know, playing the part of Maria). I had a script that I was supposed to be learning the words from, but was having some trouble, since (as per my blog entry Not a post about Batman) the words kept changing every time I looked at them. I was getting a bit panicky since I had only a few hours before the performance, and I couldn't get the darn words to hold still.

Instead of "When the dog bites" it said "when the time warps." I remember thinking that was rather odd (and anachronistic), but when I looked at it again it said "When the gems warp."

"Ah!" I thought, "I guess that makes a little more sense." (Not.)

I believe there was also a line about Barbra Streisand's nose, but I don't remember how that one went.

Finally, very frustrated, I took my script to the lady in charge, jabbed my finger at the offending passage, and asked, "Could you just read this part for me?  Out loud?" 

She asked, "Can you read it out loud?"

And I, in great exasperation, exclaimed, "I can't read while I'm asleep!"

I guess declaring myself to be sleep must have trigged something, because then I woke up.

Following dreams = bad science, annoying earworm.

Last night I dreamed that I was cutting up apples to put in a blender (for reasons which seemed perfectly clear at the time, as dreams do). Someone mentioned to me that apples are monocots, and I (I swear I am not making this up) started singing, "A blessing on your head, monocot, monocot."

So this morning I had to look it up. It turns out that apples are not monocots after all. They are dicots.

Take that, randomly-musically-firing neurons!

Not a post about Batman

There was an episode of the animated Batman series in which Batman was being held in a matrix-like dream state, and figured it out when he tried to read a newspaper and discovered that he couldn't. The reasoning is that dreaming is a right-brain activity and reading is left-brain. Or something like that. I didn't actually see the episode but my brother told me about it. We discussed the idea at some length, both being readers and vivid dreamers. It seems like there's a lot of right-brain involved in reading, too, if you create the images in your head as you read. I do read in my dreams sometimes, but I've noticed times when I try to really pay attention to the words and they start shifting around and don't make sense. The other night I had a dream where I was not just reading but typing. Googling, actually. Apparently I was looking up Oklahoma! lyrics for some reason, because the phrase I was googling was "With isenglass curtains you can roll right down, in case there's a change in the weather." But then the words started shifting around before I could hit return to find out if I spelled "isenglass" correctly. (Looking now, it seems I didn't.)

This topic was the subject of this thread on the Straight Dope forums, where people reported various experiences with reading in dreams. (The thread is pretty funny, but gets a language warning.) Makes me wonder if professional calligraphers dream about doing precise, correctly-spelled calligraphy.

*****

Mimi (in the comments on this post) asked me five questions for another blog meme, so here they are:

1) Are the rest of your siblings also named after family members?

I'll have to check with my mom, actually. I think most of them were. Barb is the only girl in the family with a middle name--Nell--which I know is a family name. I think Betsey was named for the biblical Elizabeth.

2) What novel do you find yourself rereading often, and why?

I've been on a prolonged Vorkosigan kick (Lois McMaster Bujold's series), some of which I've read 4-5 times. She's definitely got a way with words, but it's really all about the characters. She does the "flawed hero" thing so well. There's also a YA novel called Lifter, by Crawford Kilian, about a guy who figures out how to fly, that I read every couple of years or so. The ending is a bit of a let-down but it's just a good fun read. I love the "voice" it's written in.

3) Do you hope to take Kate to Korea at some point?

I would love to take Kate to Korea! Koreans love kids. I think it would be a great way to connect with people. When Doug and I were there we did often get complete strangers approaching us (I told Doug it was all his years of working as a reference librarian--he has an invisible sign over his head that says "Ask me anything!") but I imagine it would happen even more if we had our cute little girl with us. It would be a hoot to kick back with the Korean moms and watch the kids play.

And, my two stocks -

4) Who is your favorite Beatle, and why?

My initial reaction was "Uh... whichever one's not dead." I can honestly say that I don't have a favorite Beatle.

5) What is your favorite song by an artist/band you usually dislike?

I've been mulling this over and I can't think of anything. There are songs that I like where I don't know any other songs by that artist, and there are artists I know who sings songs I like and songs I don't like, but I can't think of anybody who sings just one song that I like.

And, a bonus 6th question - did you go see Great Big Sea at the Zoo recently? I thought of you every time I heard the advert.

We didn't! We thought about it. We did go see them in Seattle about a year and a half ago. That was fun. Very loud, but fun.

*****

I finally finished up everything for the "Hey Nonny Nonny" kit--I got to do all the packing up and the previews, too, which was a ton of work. Glad that's done. Whew! My sister Betsey is here now, visiting for two weeks. We went to the zoo yesterday and then went to I Love Bento for dinner. We love I Love Bento.

Stay away from those giant mutant alien worms!

I had a dream the other night where I was in a play that involved these giant mutant alien tubeworm things. The alarming part was that they were using real giant mutant alien tubeworms, waving menacingly at the front of the stage. There was one scene of the play where I had to pull one of these things out of its tube and wrestle it or something. I remember I was ranting to somebody in my dream about how irresponsible it was for them to use these dangerous creatures, and somebody could be killed. I said, "What happens if these things go running through the audience?" I was quite put out.

I seem to recall that I was also upset because I hadn't learned my lines properly.

I have weird dreams.