Random Acts of Awesome

I had a real nightmare last night, for the first time in a very long while. My nightmares normally consist of a perfectly normal dream that goes on for a bit, and then suddenly BAM!, nightmare scenario. And then I wake up, almost instantly. All too often those scenarios are me being suddenly attacked out of the blue, going from happy to sheer terror in a heartbeat, and I freeze. I never have a voice in those dreams. I never scream, I never fight back. I never get to, because my body always wakes me up right away. Last night, though... last night I played it all out. And it was fascinating. It was one of those dreams where you're actually pretty sure you haven't fallen asleep yet. Your body segues seamlessly from awake to asleep, the thought you had just before falling following you into your dreams. In this case, I'd been thinking what a haunted night it was. I was alone in the house, alone in my bed. The wind was howling outside the window, and there were constant litt...

I have a wild hair 'cross my fanny about this idea. I rather desperately want to do this, right now, at this moment. I can't get the thought of strolling across the country out of my head. I'd take so many pictures, and I'd talk into a microphone and record my progressively crazier and yet awesomer thoughts. I really could do this. I try not to think about it too much, because I'm prone to the obnoxious habit of getting the mental and emotional benefits of having talked about doing something while ignoring the physical benefit of actually having done something. So, I kind of skirt around the possibility, taking a moment to think of what shoes I'd wear, then quickly going on to something else. I imagine walking out my door, down the street, and just not stopping. And then my mind skitters off and I think about work. I'm going to do this someday. Someday soon.

I went stinging nettle harvesting yesterday. It was wonderful. Tramping through the tamed wilderness that is state parks in Portland. The place we went was less than 20 minutes from my house, with trampled down paths regularly traversed by every sort of person. In order to get to the best patches of nettles, we had to leave the trails. I can not TELL you how terribly satisfying it was to do so. Every now and then I'd catch myself looking around furtively, 50ft from the trail and bent over a downed tree, yanking tender young green things from the earth with my hands encased in black leather gloves, hearing voices in the distance coming closer, and debating hiding behind the stump. People walking past (and there were many) would look at us askance, shocked at our brazen breaking the unwritten (and sometimes written) law of STAYING ON THE PATH. One set of ladies dared to call me on it, looking at me knowingly and asking if I was picking moss. I held out my plastic grocery bag full ...

It really sucks, sometimes, experiencing a story in a moment. I met a man last night who broke my heart in 15 minutes. He was a young surgical resident, and he was very, very drunk. He was sitting at the bar all alone, drinking his beer and trying to engage the people around him in conversation. I sat next to him, but promptly pulled out my phone and set to ignoring him so I could drink my single beer in peace. He boozily leaned in too close, tapped me on the arm, and said "I'm sorry for interrupting, but if you could go ANYWHERE to eat right now, where would it be?" I replied with "You're totally NOT sorry to be interrupting, and I don't know. It depends on things. Like, anywhere in the world, or anywhere around here? Are you looking for a recommendation, or starting a conversation about things we love?" "NO NO NO NO!!! I mean, yes, you're right. I'm not sorry for interrupting. But c'mon. FOOD. No excuses. Where would you go??...