So much for spring sunshine, I thought to myself this morning when I saw the coastal fog wrapping itself around the trees and streetlights. I saw it roll in last night at about two AM when I awoke on the couch worried about the day of work I had before me (a few tricky problems awaited solutions I have yet to uncover). The fog just wafted inland on its own, came up our street, floated over the new asphalt patch a few houses down, and then drifted in my wide open office window and found me downstairs on the couch, where I had pitched sideways in the middle of Dancing With the Stars and could not be roused. This drives my wife nuts -not because I can't stand Dancing With the Stars, but because once I fall asleep on the couch, I can't stand at all. There I lay until about 2 AM, at which point I somnambulantly stagger to bed.

I was pretty tired yesterday. All the Easter hopping about caught up with me, I guess. I was having a vivid dream I was on a snowy mountaintop with a group of skiers, who took off without me and caused an avalanche to chase them -like in one of those sporty, x-treme vids. I was without skies, so I just stood there with my video camera, waiting for the chopper to fetch me, but it never came. I ventured to the edge, thinking I could hike down, but every time I did an avalanche kicked off below me, and I knew I could never outrun it. Meanwhile, hikers were arriving at the summit to greet me -I guess going uphill didn't cause any snow to fall. One of the hikers was my yearbook advisor from high school. She said she was getting a divorce from one of the guidance counselors at my school and was working through the settlement. At one point she admitted she had done cocaine and that it may be something she'd have to pay for.

Fog's gone. I looked out the window downstairs and thought I should bring a sweatshirt to work. Went upstairs and looked out the window and it was blue skies to the horizon. Huh. It's possible it's going to be one of those days where the waking life is like a dream, with weirdness at every turn. There is weirdness at every turn, you know. It's just that some days you notice it more.

I tend to be someone who seeks it out, if only to entertain myself. A friend of mine, when he encouraged me to start this infernal blogthing, implied that I wouldn't have trouble with it because, as he put it, "I find your life much more interesting than mine." It's not, really. It's just a matter of enthusiasm and curiosity and an appreciation for the "Newness" in things -and the connections perceived between them. Life can be pretty boring if you don't regularly satisfy your interests. I try to have something to say about it.

But if nothing happens, there's always the dreamscape. So then this guy arrives at the mountaintop, someone who I haven't seen in nearly twenty years. An old high school chum. He points out the red shirt I'm wearing, heretofore unnoticed, that claims in bold white lettering how many feet up I've climbed. Knowing I'd taken a helicopter, he demands I give him my shirt. I refuse. I wake.

This guy was a good friend for a few months, way back when. I remember him being overweight and kind of nerdy, and our friendship didn't last too long. He had never had a girlfriend, but I remember him at one point saying that when he got married (optimistic!) he wanted me to be the Best Man. I demurred, and that moment alone may have led to the end of our friendship -which petered out, as I recall, with no conflict or event. Sometimes it happens that way. What's funny about the story is that about a year or two later he got married to this very pretty, tall, blonde, smart woman and we were all impressed. I wasn't even invited to the wedding! A year or two after that I saw them at a restaurant, a few tables over, and they were in the midst of a heated argument about I-don't-know-what. After dinner I went over to say hello and they both froze, smiled, and chatted with me -like there had been nothing going on. I'll never forget that awkward moment, the very human looks on their faces, and how it made me laugh how human we all are. I haven't seen either one of them since. Until my dream last night.

I heard they had kids! Man, those kids must be in high school by now. Probably the same high school we went to, with the same yearbook advisor. Life's funny, that way.

See?


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