since there's nothing going on with the quest...

I had a bad dream last night. :(

Actually, most of my dreams tend to be really intense and strongly emotional. Some of the time this happens in a good way-- more often than not, though, it's bad. Bizarre huh? I'm sure part of it is because I'm an intense person. Another part is just the nature of dreams. I think dreams are the place where we sort out the tougher webs of thought that tangle up in our heads.

So tell me what this means:

I'm driving my car up a long flight of stairs. For some reason this was a major road-- there are many cars in front of me and a traffic light sits at the top of the stairs. Flashy neon signs are all around me. The light turns red ahead of me, and the cars in front screech to a halt. I'm forced to stop halfway up the steps.

As I'm sitting there I notice the incline is getting steeper. The steps are becoming taller and taller, by now reaching about a foot in height. The light turns green-- the car in front of me speeds ahead-- but I'm gunning the gas and I can't make it any farther up the stairs. It's still growing steeper. I'm starting to panic as I slide backwards. The slope is nearly vertical by this point.

In the reality of the moment, I truly believe I am going to die.

Then suddenly I'm out of the car, and in a crowded room under one of the neon signs lining the staircase. But there's no time to enjoy my sudden freedom.

A crazed man is brandishing a pencil and stabbing people with it.

Another person hands me a garrotte-- I don't know why this is happening-- and tells me to go strangle the killer. I'm terrified so I head around behind him and pass the garrotte off to another man who's got him in a headlock.

That's when the killer breaks free, stabbing the Good Samaritan in the side of the neck with the pencil. He sees me and sprints straight for me. I can't describe how petrified I felt at this moment-- I'm running in circles around a tiny room as a crazed killer chases me, while a full crowd of people watch impassively.

Warning-- this crazy yarn is about to get graphic.

Somehow a pencil got into my hand, and I decide it's time to "kill or be killed". I turn around and shove the pencil up THROUGH the man's face. The tip stabs through the roof of his mouth and explodes out straight up, right between his eyes.

The crowd bursts into wild applause as the killer seems to lose all aggression and becomes normal. That's right-- he just got a pencil through the face and he's not dead. But now the crisis is averted, as he has become a regular citizen with no malicious intent.

You know how people say they wake up "in a cold sweat"? I've never woken up like that-- but I have woken up in a very, very warm sweat. Yeah, that's how I woke up last night. Right after that little episode.

Again, it's hard to communicate the intense emotions I felt while all the craziness was going on... but trust me, it was very real to me at the moment. And this is actually not an uncommon thing for me. I usually dream like this.

After lying awake for a couple seconds of confusion, my first normal thought was: "WOOOOOOOOOOOW that was intense."

Followed closely by "I wonder if I can put that in a movie?"