(I wondered where that phrase comes from, briefly. What did we do before the Internet?)
Anyway, this morning I was awake before the alarm went off, and I thought to myself how tired I was going to be today. I hadn't slept hardly at all last night; I remembered just lying and staring at the darkness, glancing at the clock every 15 minutes, going over all the things we have to do before the holidays, reminding myself of calls I have to make, worrying about all those things that seem more worrisome at 4:00 AM., trying to sleep, failing, and watching the clock change again.
Then I realized that I didn't have any actual symptoms of sleep deprivation. My eyes weren't sandy, I didn't have that headache, ringing in the ears and slight sense of unreality that usually means I haven't gotten enough sleep. I wasn't even very tired.
So either I've ascended to a higher plane of being and bypassed basic human needs, or I just dreamed I was lying awake, staring at the darkness and worrying. Which is pretty depressing. I mean, dreams are limited only by your imagination. They're a chance to soar on wings of fancy, to go "quietly and safely insane every night of our lives." * And I dream about lying awake and worrying? I suck.
* Charles William Dement, who apparently said or did nothing else noteworthy (um, according to Google... man, my research has gotten lazy) unless he's the same as William Charles Dement the sleep researcher. Huh. He might be, this attribution places C.W. Dement at Stanford, which is where W.C. Dement is. So all the many, many attributions of that quote to "Charles William Dement" might just be wrong. This is the dark side of the Interweb, I guess; how misinformation gets propogated and quoted without examination. The foundation of the Wikipedia flap, basically.
This piece on one of Dr. Dement's (what a great name for a psychological researcher) colleagues is really interesting, by the way.
You really need to stop drinking so much first thing in the morning.
Crazy Fo'
Bne
Before the Internet, we all sat around with breadsticks hanging out of our mouths, wondering what "melba toast" was and whether we had to call Eight Fingers Larry to get some. Don't you remember those days? Back when, if you didn't know the origin of a phrase, you had to go around asking everybody you met on the street until somebody finally called the hospital or the police? I mean, you can still do that now, of course, but unless you have some REALLY nerdy friends, most people just say, "I don't know; did you Google it?" which always sounds vaguely naughty to me.
"No I didn't Google it, you sick fuck. I'm in PUBLIC, for God's sake. Honestly. Where do you people learn to talk like that?"
Okay, THAT actually draws mall security.
But that's not my point. My point is that in the days before the Internet, most of us asked you where phrases and words came from, and if you didn't know, we made it up!
Ah, those were the days.