Today was the title of this post. That is to say, it was a
strange day indeed. I’m not sure
why, as by most empirical and external measures it was fairly standard. It was just that, for the majority of
the day, well, from the moment I woke until the drive home from work, it felt
as though there was a curtain hanging in front of my face, if that makes sense.
The accompanying mood was somber. Immediately, I diagnosed the problem. Immediately
thereafter I was proven wrong. It was not
a lack of caffeine. After 3 cups o’ joe the curtain stood unmoved. Nor was it
boredom. Nor lack of conversation. Nor food. Nor the weather. Nothing I could
quite put my finger on.
Then it hit me. You know how sometimes during the course of
the day, something will happen, or you will see some image or object and the
next thing you know it brings to mind your dreams of the previous night? That
is exactly what happened this afternoon.
I saw one such trigger object and suddenly remembered the upsetting
dream I was having when I woke up to this morning, and that I had forgotten
about in the shower. It must have
stayed with me slightly behind my consciousness all day.
I thought that once I established the root cause, the
playmaster in my head would give the order to remove the surrounding veil and
let merriment commence once more. Wrong again. This was beginning to annoy me. I had identified what was
bothering me, but no obvious solution presented itself.
But then it did.
Exercise. Running and Yoga. Brilliant combination. I don’t
often do yoga, but the idea was planted in my head when discussing the subject
at last night’s Wet Wednesday (literally and figuratively named). So I did. Ran
three miles from Hell’s Kitchen to St. Marks, Yoga’d for an hour, and ran three
miles back. And would you like to know the result?
Blissful calm. But it came at a price: I was made fun of
mercilessly by the Yankee fan of a roommate I have when I told him what I had
been up to. Small price to pay for peace of mind (also, Peace of Mind by Boston
was the Pandora station I was listening to while running. Excellent choice).
Now I find myself laying in bed, exhausted and about to pass
happily out, ready to ward off any untoward dreams should they have nerve to
come again. Lesson of the day:
Exercise is like butter. It automatically makes everything it touches that much
better.
On that happy note, I bid you goodnight! Until next time,
Ian
