Submitted by Clayton...
I differ from Jenn in many many ways... There are many tangents here I am fighting off. I am talking about dreams. As in her post below, she remembers hers, I don't remember mine at all. The only thing I ever remember is the moment when I first wake up and remember a bit of a dream that I really, really want to remember, not just to tell Jenn, but also just to try and actually remember a dream for once, so I can cross this off my bucket list once and for all.
I did have a moment like Jenn talks about in her post where you wake up but still visualize your dreamworld and the real world. I woke up as Jenn was coming to bed and I sat up fully awake and was surprised to see what I believed was a Cambodian Hooker skulking alongside Jenn's side of the bed. I have no recollection of ever knowing anything about Cambodian Hookers but here one was and no matter how much I checked with myself that I was awake she kept skulking along. I rubbed my eyes, I squinted and I spoke to her. Jenn spoke back to me and I recognized her voice to be Jenn, but she still looked like a Cambodian Hooker! Jenn can keep her crazy dreams, I'll keep not remembering mine thank you very much.
Dreams can really mess you up / Dreams change lives;
My best friend in high school hated an opinionated classmate until he had a very hot encounter with her in a dream. After that he was fascinated and smitten. The fact that he and this girl had always disliked one another was very common knowledge in our school and had been for years, but because of an erotic dream, their paths changed and eventually they dated (for a whole week, until reality set in again and she got out of his car in the middle of traffic - another story for another post.)
Is amnesia just like long dreams?
In college I had a friend who rolled his borrowed truck when he went away for the weekend. He was physically well, but he had hit his head and couldn't remember a significant portion of his life. He went home but then returned to school; his parents hoped returning would spur his memory. He remembered nothing but parts of his childhood. He was back in the dorm but didn't attend classes for obvious reasons. There were noticeable changes in his personality and the things he enjoyed changed. Being guys we had discussed who we liked, who we didn't and this friend had told me that he was not interested in a girl from our sister dorm that several of the guys were fond of. I had had a conversation with him where he explained that although she was the nicest girl around, there was absolutely nothing he found attractive about her. (For all the girls out there reading this, if you want to get the attention of the guy that won't give you the time of day - get him really drowsy before you send him on the highway.) My friend stricken with amnesia was now head over heels for this girl. He would go out of his way to catch a glimpse of her because he thought she was the hottest thing since... (he couldn't remember what). My friend wandered around campus for a month before returning home with little more memory than he had left with. I'm not sure how he is doing now, but I hope he is well.
Anyhow dreams are not a subject I can speak with much knowledge about, well adult dreams (the age group not the content) at least. Night terrors in children I have a little more experience with. That however is another conversation.
Clayton
Sunday, January 30, 2011
Saturday, January 29, 2011
The Inner Workings of My Mind
Submitted by Jen...
I am a chronic sufferer of nightmares. All of my life I have been plagued by nightmares and it leads to some pretty strange goings on in my bedroom late at night. Last night was no exception...
The beginning of my dream was what could be described as odd, but not terribly upsetting. I was on some kind of boat and my adopted Chinese son came up to me to tell me that some other kid had stolen his toy. I thought it was weird that I couldn't really remember this kid's name, but I decided to go and investigate the toy situation anyway. So I went up to this other kid and said,
"Hey, did you steal what's-his-name's toy?" and he said,
"Yeah, I put it up on that shelf over there".
So I headed over to the shelf, and what I found there was a dead goldfish on a plate of rice. At this point I thought,
"You know, I really should hang out with that kid more and learn his name...and maybe why he considers a dead goldfish on a plate of rice a toy".
Then the dream changed and I suddenly found myself on a very overcrowded train. In the dream, I knew several of the people on the train, but they weren't people that I know in real life. So I got into a conversation with one of the people and I was telling them what it feels like to have the life sucked out of you (because, you know, if you are a chronic nightmare sufferer such as myself, this has happened to you...), when Wham! It starts happening AGAIN! I thought to myself,
"Ugh, not again!"
Then I was in my bed, having the life sucked out of me, and I felt myself being grabbed and dragged out of my bed...but I didn't hit the floor, instead I was being dragged suspended three feet off the floor, out my bedroom door and down the stairs. Now this is what tips me off that I am having a dream...never mind the neglected Chinese kid that I adopted but never learned his name, or the being dragged suspended in mid air, it's the fact that I don't actually have stairs outside my bedroom door that clues me in to the possibility that I might be dreaming!
Now over the years I have become so accustomed to having nightmares that I believe I have developed some defense mechanisms to deal with them. I don't know why, but there is usually a point during most of my nightmares at which I realize I am dreaming, and I have a standard test that my brain immediately employs to gauge whether or not I am awake. It is whether or not I can make sound. Inevitably, if I am dreaming, I will try to yell and won't be able to make the sound come out...and when this happens, I know that I am asleep and I start willing myself to wake up!
So there I was, being dragged down the stairs that don't exist, and I decided to yell for help. My first attempt, difficult but definitely audible. Uh oh! My second attempt, clear as day...this was the point where I became convinced that this was really happening! I really was being dragged suspended three feet off the ground down the stairs outside my bedroom door that don't exist...this truly was a predicament! So I decided I better get some help and I yelled again!...and then it happened,
"Jen!",my eyes shot open and I exhaled a deep breath...in my bed...
"you were having a bad dream", Clayton said from beside me.
But my mind wasn't done playing tricks on me yet, I barely heard Clayton because I was too preoccupied watching a gargantuan spider work it's way across the ceiling from across the room and onto the wall over my head.
"Is there something on the ceiling?", I asked Clayton as calmly as I could.
"Uh...no...", came his reply.
"Are you sure?", I was not at all convinced.
"I think you might still be dreaming", he said.
I sat up and looked at the clock, huh...I feel awake. I looked back at the ceiling, couldn't be sure, so I put on my glasses and looked again...nope nothing there.
"Were you dreaming about bugs?", Clayton asked me.
"Oh no, my dream was way scarier than bugs!"
Jen
I am a chronic sufferer of nightmares. All of my life I have been plagued by nightmares and it leads to some pretty strange goings on in my bedroom late at night. Last night was no exception...
The beginning of my dream was what could be described as odd, but not terribly upsetting. I was on some kind of boat and my adopted Chinese son came up to me to tell me that some other kid had stolen his toy. I thought it was weird that I couldn't really remember this kid's name, but I decided to go and investigate the toy situation anyway. So I went up to this other kid and said,
"Hey, did you steal what's-his-name's toy?" and he said,
"Yeah, I put it up on that shelf over there".
So I headed over to the shelf, and what I found there was a dead goldfish on a plate of rice. At this point I thought,
"You know, I really should hang out with that kid more and learn his name...and maybe why he considers a dead goldfish on a plate of rice a toy".
Then the dream changed and I suddenly found myself on a very overcrowded train. In the dream, I knew several of the people on the train, but they weren't people that I know in real life. So I got into a conversation with one of the people and I was telling them what it feels like to have the life sucked out of you (because, you know, if you are a chronic nightmare sufferer such as myself, this has happened to you...), when Wham! It starts happening AGAIN! I thought to myself,
"Ugh, not again!"
Then I was in my bed, having the life sucked out of me, and I felt myself being grabbed and dragged out of my bed...but I didn't hit the floor, instead I was being dragged suspended three feet off the floor, out my bedroom door and down the stairs. Now this is what tips me off that I am having a dream...never mind the neglected Chinese kid that I adopted but never learned his name, or the being dragged suspended in mid air, it's the fact that I don't actually have stairs outside my bedroom door that clues me in to the possibility that I might be dreaming!
Now over the years I have become so accustomed to having nightmares that I believe I have developed some defense mechanisms to deal with them. I don't know why, but there is usually a point during most of my nightmares at which I realize I am dreaming, and I have a standard test that my brain immediately employs to gauge whether or not I am awake. It is whether or not I can make sound. Inevitably, if I am dreaming, I will try to yell and won't be able to make the sound come out...and when this happens, I know that I am asleep and I start willing myself to wake up!
So there I was, being dragged down the stairs that don't exist, and I decided to yell for help. My first attempt, difficult but definitely audible. Uh oh! My second attempt, clear as day...this was the point where I became convinced that this was really happening! I really was being dragged suspended three feet off the ground down the stairs outside my bedroom door that don't exist...this truly was a predicament! So I decided I better get some help and I yelled again!...and then it happened,
"Jen!",my eyes shot open and I exhaled a deep breath...in my bed...
"you were having a bad dream", Clayton said from beside me.
But my mind wasn't done playing tricks on me yet, I barely heard Clayton because I was too preoccupied watching a gargantuan spider work it's way across the ceiling from across the room and onto the wall over my head.
"Is there something on the ceiling?", I asked Clayton as calmly as I could.
"Uh...no...", came his reply.
"Are you sure?", I was not at all convinced.
"I think you might still be dreaming", he said.
I sat up and looked at the clock, huh...I feel awake. I looked back at the ceiling, couldn't be sure, so I put on my glasses and looked again...nope nothing there.
"Were you dreaming about bugs?", Clayton asked me.
"Oh no, my dream was way scarier than bugs!"
Jen
Thursday, January 27, 2011
The Name Game
Submitted by Clayton...
There is a lot to consider when you find out you are pregnant. I believe that is why God gives us 9 months of Woah! time. If you've ever been on a big roller coaster, those nine months are much the same as that first big climb up the tracks. You can't go back, you've got lots of time to think about how scary it is and some people vomit.
One of the things that you will keep in the back of your mind for the whole nine months is what are you going to name your peanut? You keep thinking that it is something to think about and then all of a sudden it's weeks away and all you've come up with are the names you hate. Now you add your husband or wife and it seems like opinions will never jive. Eventually you both will have a short list and it will look something like this;
HERS
Braidennn (it's got to be spelled uniquely of course)
Benji (she's loved since she was a kid - good thing her favorite show wasn't "the littlest hobo")
and Patrick (as in Dempsey although she pretends that is coincidental)
HIS
Bono (it is a perfectly acceptable name)
Romeo Montague (you have to set him up right)
Harley (as in Davidson, you can't argue with cool - well apparently the wife can)
There will be lots of angle shooting once the lines in the sand are drawn. I know when Jenny and I were choosing names, she was like coo coo clock that says no in regular intervals. I tried to bring up my very favorite choices when she was eating chocolate or when we were having a particularly good time at dinner. The throw away names I would bring up regularly to wear her down for the good ones.
None of this worked. If she had a name, I would give it the appearance of serious consideration, before agonizingly saying "I'm not sure about that one, I'll have to think about it some more."
Then it happened. Jenny suggested a name I liked. "Jonah" she said. My brain loved it and my mouth said "Why, because he came from the belly of a whale?"
My son's name is Zach.
The problem with pointing out something hilarious about a potential name is that the joke is the main association the name holds from then on and you can't unjoke it.
Whatever you finally come to name your your child, they will fit the name. In hindsight all the other possibilities you considered will feel wrong because just as Jonah became associated with the belly of my wife, your child and all his personality will become associated with his own name, so that any other name will sound fishy.
Clayton
There is a lot to consider when you find out you are pregnant. I believe that is why God gives us 9 months of Woah! time. If you've ever been on a big roller coaster, those nine months are much the same as that first big climb up the tracks. You can't go back, you've got lots of time to think about how scary it is and some people vomit.
One of the things that you will keep in the back of your mind for the whole nine months is what are you going to name your peanut? You keep thinking that it is something to think about and then all of a sudden it's weeks away and all you've come up with are the names you hate. Now you add your husband or wife and it seems like opinions will never jive. Eventually you both will have a short list and it will look something like this;
HERS
Braidennn (it's got to be spelled uniquely of course)
Benji (she's loved since she was a kid - good thing her favorite show wasn't "the littlest hobo")
and Patrick (as in Dempsey although she pretends that is coincidental)
HIS
Bono (it is a perfectly acceptable name)
Romeo Montague (you have to set him up right)
Harley (as in Davidson, you can't argue with cool - well apparently the wife can)
There will be lots of angle shooting once the lines in the sand are drawn. I know when Jenny and I were choosing names, she was like coo coo clock that says no in regular intervals. I tried to bring up my very favorite choices when she was eating chocolate or when we were having a particularly good time at dinner. The throw away names I would bring up regularly to wear her down for the good ones.
None of this worked. If she had a name, I would give it the appearance of serious consideration, before agonizingly saying "I'm not sure about that one, I'll have to think about it some more."
Then it happened. Jenny suggested a name I liked. "Jonah" she said. My brain loved it and my mouth said "Why, because he came from the belly of a whale?"
My son's name is Zach.
The problem with pointing out something hilarious about a potential name is that the joke is the main association the name holds from then on and you can't unjoke it.
Whatever you finally come to name your your child, they will fit the name. In hindsight all the other possibilities you considered will feel wrong because just as Jonah became associated with the belly of my wife, your child and all his personality will become associated with his own name, so that any other name will sound fishy.
Clayton
Friday, January 21, 2011
The House Was Blue, Let it Go
Submitted by Clayton...
I'm not a Doctor, but I stayed a Best Western once.
My wonderful wife is brilliant in many subjects, but in the spectrum of colours, she is green, (and this makes me blue). groan.
I believe the most semi-educated junior high student would quickly explain to Jenn that she is actually afflicted with a condition known as tritanopia. Explaining this to her might also reveal a further condition known as stubbornacia. I had set up an account at a local bank where donations could be deposited shortly after we came to realize this, several years ago now. We never did get any donations, although I attribute this to a failure in my e-mail campaign as I believe we were using dial-up at the time (remember dial up - yuk). Despite the hardships that followed, we managed to stay together. Yes there were tears (mine were blue, hers - green) and some harsh language (hers was blue and mine was not). But I digress.
It was really odd to know that the person next to me who had the same shared experiences, had built all her memories with a totally different house. It made me wonder what other things did we see differently?
No, she didn't see stop lights as Red, Yellow and Blue.
No she didn't think the American flag was red, white and green.
No she didn't think our Christmas tree was blue.
No she wouldn't answer any more stupid questions.
It is strange to see that people do have a different views of the world. Not just our interpretations and our judgements, but the very basics like colours too. (I'd thought as a society we could all agree on colours once we hit grade one.) I guess its really not so different than differing tastes when it comes to food. I hate peas and can't understand how people would like them (the green variety of course).
Anyhow the truth is, the house is blue. My 3 year old KD confirms it, and she is pretty awesome when it comes to colours.
Clayton
I'm not a Doctor, but I stayed a Best Western once.
My wonderful wife is brilliant in many subjects, but in the spectrum of colours, she is green, (and this makes me blue). groan.
I believe the most semi-educated junior high student would quickly explain to Jenn that she is actually afflicted with a condition known as tritanopia. Explaining this to her might also reveal a further condition known as stubbornacia. I had set up an account at a local bank where donations could be deposited shortly after we came to realize this, several years ago now. We never did get any donations, although I attribute this to a failure in my e-mail campaign as I believe we were using dial-up at the time (remember dial up - yuk). Despite the hardships that followed, we managed to stay together. Yes there were tears (mine were blue, hers - green) and some harsh language (hers was blue and mine was not). But I digress.
It was really odd to know that the person next to me who had the same shared experiences, had built all her memories with a totally different house. It made me wonder what other things did we see differently?
No, she didn't see stop lights as Red, Yellow and Blue.
No she didn't think the American flag was red, white and green.
No she didn't think our Christmas tree was blue.
No she wouldn't answer any more stupid questions.
It is strange to see that people do have a different views of the world. Not just our interpretations and our judgements, but the very basics like colours too. (I'd thought as a society we could all agree on colours once we hit grade one.) I guess its really not so different than differing tastes when it comes to food. I hate peas and can't understand how people would like them (the green variety of course).
Anyhow the truth is, the house is blue. My 3 year old KD confirms it, and she is pretty awesome when it comes to colours.
Clayton
Thursday, January 20, 2011
The Blue (Green) House
Submitted by Jen...
A little over a year after we were married, we bought our first house. It was an older home, definitely what could be described as a starter home, but it met our needs for a number of years. It wasn't until we were expecting our first child that we decided to sell that house and move into something a bit bigger and more functional for a family. Now to clarify, we lived in that house, together, for almost nine years. Two, or so, months after we moved, we were having a conversation one day in which it came to light that we did not agree on the color of that house! All that time we were living in a green house and Clayton thought it was blue!
This has become a symbol for our relationship, and the basis for this blog. Quite often we see things very differently and what better way to share our experiences and our lives with you than from our own very unique perspectives. So, let the hilarily ensue and let's see where this road leads us...the truth of the matter is the house was green! What do you think?
Jen
P.S. The truth of the matter is I don't look like this anymore...
A little over a year after we were married, we bought our first house. It was an older home, definitely what could be described as a starter home, but it met our needs for a number of years. It wasn't until we were expecting our first child that we decided to sell that house and move into something a bit bigger and more functional for a family. Now to clarify, we lived in that house, together, for almost nine years. Two, or so, months after we moved, we were having a conversation one day in which it came to light that we did not agree on the color of that house! All that time we were living in a green house and Clayton thought it was blue!
This has become a symbol for our relationship, and the basis for this blog. Quite often we see things very differently and what better way to share our experiences and our lives with you than from our own very unique perspectives. So, let the hilarily ensue and let's see where this road leads us...the truth of the matter is the house was green! What do you think?
Jen
P.S. The truth of the matter is I don't look like this anymore...
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