Scary Start to the Week

I dreamed I was called into the CEO's office. Instead of the slight, spritely, smiling woman, she had been transformed into a mix of Meryl Streep in 'The Devil Wears Prada' and Cruella DeVil. There were corporate winged monkeys at her side and she showed me a check with a lot of numbers written on it. 'This is yours if you'll leave by the end of the year and complete the Yentl Project,' she said. 'Otherwise, go now.'

I felt every single one of my vertebrae freeze. It's no exaggeration to say I was plunged into despair, neck deep.

Not again, I thought, oh, no. Never again.

I should have been updating my resume. Why didn't I work harder on the Yentl Project? Why wasn't I more persistent in getting requirements from Yentl? I should have followed up any lead on getting freelance writing gigs. What can I do? What can I do?

Well, I woke up.

I had to sit up, turn on the lights, and sit in the bed for five minutes before I managed to convince myself that it was a dream.

One big clue that it wasn't real was the bit about having the CEO talk to me and give me a big check. Usually, the Unnamed Co procedure is to boot you out that very day and send you money later, and that's only whatever tiny little bit they are required to do by law.

It wasn't just a dream. It was one of the worst nightmares I've had in recent memory.

This is probably just the result of fretting about Fireman Fred's ever-expanding empire and wondering about my place in it, from doing nothing yesterday except fall into a coma on the couch for three hours, and just generally lollygagging along without getting much done at home or at work.

I should have just gotten up then, but I went back to sleep.

It was not restful.