Nocturnal Reality

I've always enjoyed hearing about other people’s dreams; analyzing, looking for hidden meaning in every detail and nuance.  My children would agree that one of the first things I asked them every morning was, “Did you have any good dreams last night?” My friends BZ and Janet share their dreams and ask for my advice and analysis and my kids still call to tell me what they dreamt about.

Which brings me to today's story . . . I work with geniuses, every one I support is a PhD., MD, even PhD./MD combined – they’re all brilliant. Weekly we have an all-company meeting where one of the scientists present their latest work and today’s speaker was the VP of Chemistry whom I support. He has been described to me as a rock star in the world of chemistry. When he attends a conference scientist surround him, hanging on to his every word, soaking up what he has to say, his seminars are packed by fans. He reminds me a bit of Doc from Back to the Future; he is eccentric, unconventional, funny, colorful and did I mention, brilliant?

Last week he was scheduled to speak at a conference and was presenting a poster. He was very last minute in getting the file to me and it was my responsibility to get the poster printed. Kinko's kept screwing it up and I had to run back and forth trying to get it right.  I literally gave it to him as he was leaving for the airport. Needless to say it was a huge headache and very stressful.

Back to today. . . Just as he was getting ready to speak it occurred to me that he had asked for an easel to display the poster at the all-company meeting.  I rushed up to him and to my boss who happened to be sitting next to him and said, “Peter, I forgot to get you an easel!” He looked at me puzzled and said, “Easel?” And I said, “Yes, for your poster, so you don’t have to hold it up, do you still want me to get it for you now?” He said, “Why would I need an easel, I’m not going to show my poster today,” as both he and my boss looked at me baffled. It was at that moment that I realized I had only dreamt that he had asked me to provide him with an easel and not based in any request from him.

I have no analysis for this dream other than the poster must have caused me a great deal of stress, enough to dream about. What I do know is that Peter now knows that I am really goofy and I confuse real life with nocturnal life. What can I say, it’s a gift.