Wednesday, December 28, 2005

This Must be a Dream


This morning as I stood at the elevators on my way up to my office, I noticed two women wearing black pants and shirts in the exact same shade of aqua. I’m used to the phenomenon of several people dressing in the same color or combination of colors on the same day in the office, but this was the first time I had experienced it at the elevators before even getting to the office.

This made me think of a conversation my sister and I had last weekend. I told her that sometimes I think the world is just a figment of my imagination like in The Matrix. She replied, “If this is all in your head, can you make me thinner?”

What do people dressing alike have to do with The Matrix, you might ask. In my warped and slightly deranged mind, I wondered this morning if the people at the elevators and in my office who happen to dress in the same colors on the same day could possibly be the result of a lack of imagination on my part in my self-created and internally imagined world?

Exactly what is consciousness anyway? How many times have you been asleep and dreaming and thought, “I KNOW this isn’t a dream,” but it was a dream? How many times have you been awake and thought, “I must be dreaming,” but you weren't? If a person is hypnotized, they can be made to think they have pain when they don’t or that they have no pain when they do or that they’re a chicken. The hypnotic state can be so real to a hypnotized person that the experience can leave actual physical evidence on their bodies.

There are also those times when I feel I’m the center of my own little universe. Often, when I think, “It would be great if someone would invent…,” two nights later, I'll see the item being advertised on late night television. I wanted a place to go similar to New Orleans but closer to home and I’ll be damned if someone didn’t build Crockett Street. I constantly complained about talkative disk jockeys and the fact that they talk about everything except the music and, BAM, someone came up with satellite radio.

For all I know, I could be in a coma right now from some surgery I had when I was eight years old and this has all been one big coma-related, drug-induced hallucination. At least that would explain the Sixties...and Michael Jackson.

19 comments:

Mommy said...

That's hilarious. It could be like that movie that I can barely watch these days, Vanilla Sky, and this is all a dream while I'm frozen like Walt Disney waiting for science to fix me.

Sometimes I give myself a headache thinking about the nature of infinity or conciousness or stupid stuff like, "Why is purple purple and not, say, orange? Maybe it *is* orange and we just call it something else. Weird, dude. Weird."

Laurie said...

Jen - Exactly! I think you and I have had this conversation before. We had to stop because we were freaking ourselves out.

Unknown said...

I used to think about this kinda stuff all the time - now I've just accepted the fact that there is no spoon and I'm a small particle in a molucle of water that is part of condensation on a pint of draft.

BTW - Galactic & Dirty Dozen are in town next week - taking people from office who have never heard either before - can't wait

Anonymous said...

I entertain these thoughts as well. Why is "orange" orange and who decided it to be so? Who decided that it would be a good idea to put pictures on "plates" (of all things), and why do people think it's a good idea to buy such things? Hummm. Much to ponder!

Hey, is Walt Disney really frozen?

Laurie said...

Al - I've never seen Glactic or the Dirty Dozen! If you post a review on your blog, leave us a comment over here. Have fun!!!

Anonymous - I think Walt's head is frozen or something. I'll have to check that out. Pictures on plates? Damn, something else to keep me up at night.

Tim said...

Laurie,

Have you ever read, "Now It Can Be Told" by Kilgore Trout?

DON'T!!!

Laurie said...

Tim - I've read Slaughterhouse Five, Cat's Cradle and Breakfast of Champions (Kurt Vonnegut) but I didn't know that there's an actual Kilgore Trout book out there. I can't remember if it was Slaughterhouse Five or Cat's Cradle that freaked me out the most.

Anonymous said...

My son's going to see Galactic at Tipitina's on New Year's Eve. I feel like I'm sending him off to college for the first time, all over again. :(

As far as the rest of the cosmic weirdness here today, you guys are scaring me! ;)

Laurie said...

Sophmom - He'll be okay, mom. I bet he's eager to go back.

Brian Dixon said...

I hope you never wake up, or I’ll cease to exist.

Laurie said...

Popeye - Oddly enough, that makes sense to me.

Brian423 - I am the great and powerful...

Zina said...

First of all is Galactic a band or a movie?

Second of all...what kind of drugs did you take in the 60's?

and finally, I use to think I was odd.....I am now feeling a lot better about myself.

Thanks cuz!

Laurie said...

Zina - Galactic is a funk band out of New Orleans.

Regarding the drugs, I didn't take any drugs in the '60's. Would you like to know about the '70's?

Anonymous said...

You are indeed in a coma, and you've been dreaming. I'm Dr Smith, it's now time for you to wake up. lol...

Anonymous said...

THINNER!! I DEMAND THINNER!!!

Baby sis

Zina said...

ok....
what did you take in the 70's??? Anything worth trying?


verify: zmaft

Laurie said...

Anonymous - You woke me just in time to celebrate a new year. This better be good.

Baby Sis - Talk to Anonymous Dr. Smith. He just woke me up. Sorry.

Zina - I don't remember. ;)

cindybindy said...

If life is a result of drug use in the 60's, there is a cure for that. Just keep taking the drugs! Love your blog. Davi got me hooked. (on your blog, i did the drugs on my own....hehehe)

Laurie said...

Cindy - Thanks! I bet Davie had a little to do with boths. ;)