Beautiful Dream, but Odd

 

I am still completely in a state of feeling "wiped out" pretty much every waking hour.  Fortunately, all the student's research talks ARE up-to-snuff.... but a number of teams are excessively nervous and want MULTIPLE practice sessions with me (at this late date).  So, I have a variety of other commitments as a professor (teaching, exam prep, and all the usual.  So I listed available times I could "Zoom" with my students to let them practice their talk with my guidance.  I have running Zoom sessions all afternoon, and have three scheduled between 11:00pm and 1:00am tonight as well!

I chose Zoom meetings for this all week, as the students are all the hell over the place in different locations across most of the day.  Some are nearby on campus, others are off in the field somewhere doing other things. And, of course in the latter part of the week we are all traveling to the conference.   

And, even though I originally stated the couple of openings I had for EMERGENCY NEEDS ONLY on Thursday (I am part of the Executive Board of this conference and it meets in the evening Thursday), I already have TWO of the three "Emergency" late night spots taken on Zoom as well.  (sigh).  

A dark, heavy, robust IPA (or perhaps two) will be damn pleasant at the end of the day, Friday.

BUT.... onto my very entertaining DREAM!!!!!  It was quite odd in many ways, but still it was wonderfully fun:

For some reason, which I do not recall, I was in Puerto Rico.  I have NEVER actually been to Puerto Rico, but I have always thought it would be a fun place to visit.  My wife and I were staying in a beautiful condominium apartment that was way up high, perhaps along the 10th floor or something.  It had a beautiful, expansive balcony.  

In my dream, I was running one of the mornings we were there, and I was running on a path along the beach.  And, from looking on my phone that morning, I had found that Puerto Rico had only ONE pipe tobacco shop (although it did have dozens of cigar shops).  I ran by the street the pipe tobacco shop was located and decided to go from the trail to the street to go see what the shop looked like.  I ended up finding the shop when I was back in the middle of the "downtown" area.  I went inside, and apparently the shop was just opening for the day, as I was greeted by the owner who was rather loud and boisterous.  He greeted me with robustness as I entered.  He sported a very dark, bushy mustache and was tall, and round as a barrel.  He was wearing a wide brimmed hat.  

I was in my running clothes, and was sweaty as hell.  As is my norm, when I am running, I have my phone in an armband/pouch that I wear on my upper arm.  This allows me to use the gizmo earplugs that I can wear while running and listen to music (most of the time Gregorian Chants or other Catholic Music as I am typically praying the rosary during my run) or listen to a Capuchin Mass.  

But, for whatever reason, not logical in the least, In addition to my phone that was in this armband/pouch, I also had one of my Peterson pipes, and I pulled it out and showed it to the fellow.  He laughed, and looked at it and then reached into his breast pocket and pulled out the SAME MODEL of Peterson pipe as mine, just with a darker walnut bowl color compared to mine.  

We laughed.  

But then, with this dream being disjointed in a lot of ways, suddenly (I did not seem to dream through (or at least did not remember) the details) I had agreed to help the guy out and run his pipe tobacco shop for a month while he was working on and finishing his new cigar store that was on the other side of downtown.  He had a scheduled opening date 5 weeks out and was so far behind, that he had to devote all his time to getting the cigar shop up and ready to open.  He had agreed to pay for my condo for a month and to provide me a reasonable wage as well. 

I was excited and yet nervous about the news.  I was running back to the condo, trying to figure out in my mind how to tell my wife this sudden news when the damn alarm woke me from my dream.  

It was a nice dream, but very all over the map in timing, and in focus.  It was odd.  Maybe I ate too many types of salsa on my taco salad last night?  I actually put four different types on it..... salsa Verde that I had made (and froze) from our garden's tomatilos , Pace traditional, a Fresh Market, sweet onion salsa, and another Fresh Market pineapple/jalapeno salsa?  Maybe the too diverse array of flavors added to the chaos of my dream?  

 PCS - 8..... I am stuck here it seems, at the high range.  

Contentedness Score - 8.... I can FEEL the end of this week approaching and it feels good! 

PipeTobacco