A Winter Dream

As snow falls on my surroundings they become first obscured, then hidden. With the strip malls and office buildings out of sight I’m free to paint my own strokes on this new white canvas. I can dream a winter dream, for in no other circumstances would this dream come to me.

In my dream I’m living in a city that I never feel estranged from. I have no car, and no need for one; I experience the city on foot. The climate is wet and green. The rain is frequent, but it plays counterpoint to days of idyllic sunshine.

In my dream I live in a small apartment – not as small as the one I live in now, but small. My mattress lies on bare floor. In the kitchen there’s an aging gas range and a comically large pair of food and water dishes for a dog. These are necessary because in my dream I live with a comically large dog. This dog occupies a fair portion of the mattress on the floor for much of the day and almost the entirety of the mattress when I attempt to sleep there. I am good-natured about this because the dog is my constant companion.

In my dream I wake up to no alarm clock. I rise when I am ready. I feed the dog, but not myself, because in my dream as in real life I do not particularly like breakfast. I cull the stack of emails and news that have come to me while I slept. Then the dog and I go for a run in the warm, sporadic rain. We take in the smell of the city. It smells good.

In my dream I work all afternoon and into the early evening. I work mostly for people I’ve never met face-to-face. I write code, and I write news, and I write articles. Maybe I’m writing a book. I write a lot. I spend several of these late afternoons per week in a coffee shop where they let my dog sleep at my feet while I work. Then I take the dog home, promise that I’ll be back later, and walk to a small bar where I mix records for the patrons off my laptop. I am paid with good bourbon. When I return home, the dog punishes my abscence by refusing to move, having already sprawled out on the entirety of the mattress. I sleep good-naturedly on the couch.

In my dream I wake up the next morning and decide to go for a long walk instead of a run, because the weather demands it. I’m walking through a park when my dog is approached by a beautiful woman. When she’s done complimenting the dog she strikes up a conversation with me, and soon I realize that the routine I’ve become accustomed to is about to change.

I’ve never had this dream asleep.