Living the Dream

Ever had a lucid dream? That's the dream where you mid-dream realize that you're asleep. You start messing with your mind by taking charge. I've had them. Usually, those dreams are job dreams. I'm doing something retail-like in nature in my Superman Underoos: giving a guy a Walkman, selling an elephant squirrels for peanuts, extending a twelve-year old's warranty on grandparents.
"You know, he's gonna give out some time. When he does, you bring him back, we'll replace him. Free of charge..."

In a dream, it's a living.

But it's not my living. I think that's why I usually wake up to the fact that I'm asleep.  I look down at my Big Boy undies and think "Weren't these Superman before..." They were, but Bob and his burger logo boxers are hardly my beef.  What translates my panties to a bunch is that I'm back in retail.

That's where I make my subconscious conscious effort. "STOP THIS!"

The dream freezes. 

That's better. "Bring me my laptop!" I yell. After all, if this is a dream job, I want my work tools. Out comes my manager: suit, tie, laptop in one hand,  strangled squirrel in the other, looking at me like I'm nuts.

"Stop that, squirrel!" The squirrel disappears and manager Shakira powers up my laptop. This is where I'm sure my dream is lucid: everything now makes sense.

That's how my SDSU experience felt. No, Shakira wasn't there, and six figures of amaze-balls contract bliss did not drop down my boxers. In fact, if there were a SDSU show and tell I wouldn't have much more to show than one  bright orange book bag.

But I do have a lot to tell.

Before this weekend, my life was a chaos clutter of writer adages.
"I write cuz I have to."
"Doubt kills more dreams than failure."
"To err is human, to blog about it is brilliant! Nobody's ever done that before."

It's so hard to form a clear thought from all my jumble word cliches. I know more than I understand   I might as well sell squirrels for nuts.

This year at SDSU, I saw people using the same nuts of knowledge I'd squirreled away. I can't explain it all. You had to be there, but you can't. This is my dream. Your dreams are your reality. If they're not, they should be.

That's one of the most important lessons I took from San Diego. Another is that a dream is just a dream until I wake up and take action. There's no such thing as sleeping in wait for the perfect dream. The only perfect dream is the one I shape. For that, I need to make a conscious effort in my dream now.

I'm taking my SDSU experience and I'm putting it into writing. That's my dream.