On Sunday morning I woke up in a strange mood. I don’t know how to explain it, other than strange. It wasn’t necessarily a bad mood, and it wasn’t a good mood, either. The mood wasn’t a result of what had happened before I fell asleep, nor what happened in the moments after waking up, but rather the time between.
I’m pretty sure everyone experiences this from time to time, but it still amazes me how much of an effect dreams can have on my mood after I wake up. Even after I’m fully awake and come to grips with the fact whatever I had dreamt was not real, the resulting mood can stick with me for as long as a day sometimes. But, why does this happen?
Through my research of Oneirology, the study of dreams, I learned that dreams spur negative emotions more commonly than positive ones, with anxiety topping the list. That was definitely the overriding emotion I felt Sunday morning, so I was on the right track. I already knew that dreams were associated with Rapid Eye Movement (REM), and that sleep-deprived individuals often fall into REM very quickly and have very lucid dreams. I learned the average human spends six years dream, and that was pretty interesting, but still didn’t answer my question of why I couldn’t shake the emotions after I was conscious.
I also learned quite a bit about all the different kind of dreaming, such as reoccurring dreams, which I’m sure everyone experiences, dreams where we seem to have control and can change the outcome, dreams where we think we are awake, dreams that wake us up at a critical point, dreams that incorporate noises we are actually hearing, etc… The overriding lesson I took away from my research, however, is that nobody really knows that much about dreams. Some believe them to be spiritual or prophetic – I hope not since I’ve dreamt my own death, – others feel they are a subconscious manifestation of our true desires and fears. There are a lot of theories on how we dream, why we dream, what shapes content, why they can be so weird, and how to interpret them, but no one answer has be collectively agreed upon.
There is, almost literally, endless information about dreams on the web, including everything from people asking or tell about their dreams, to “experts” stating their theories. I didn’t find an answer to my question, but at least I can rest assured – no pun intended – that I won’t ever find myself in a situation like the episode of “The Simpsons” where Groundskeeper Willie is killing students during their dreams, resulting in their real-life death…right?
Monday, April 6, 2009
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
It ain't easy being green... except today!
This morning my fiancée proudly announced to me that she had remembered to wear her green in honor of St. Patrick’s Day, and therefore would not have to endure pinching as a result of not dressing appropriately for the occasion. This came as shock to me. I had never heard of being pinched on St. Patrick’s Day for not wearing green. If someone had pinched me without this prior knowledge, I likely would have had some choice words for them – she saves me yet again. I don’t know whether I’ve been living in a pinch-free bubble my entire life or she just has strange friends, but it inspired me to dig a bit deeper into the Irish-inspired, green-beer-soaked holiday.
We celebrate a lot of holidays throughout the year, many of which have taken on a whole new meaning than originally intended (i.e. Santa-centric Christmas), but we often know little about the origins. St. Patrick’s Day isn’t even an official holiday here, but we celebrate like it is! When I think of St. Patrick’s day I think of the color green, beer, shamrocks, and funny little Leprechauns doing a merry jig to Irish flute music. Don’t let those happy little Leprechauns fool you, though, some are evil, as evidenced by the Leprechaun films of the 90s! But I digress...
Similar to Christmas, St. Paddy’s Day, or Lá ’le Pádraig, started as a religious holiday in Ireland, and has transformed into so much more. Over the years it’s gone from a holy day of obligation for Roman Catholics in Ireland, to a reason to get drunk on a weekday. What was once the humble celebration of the patron-saint of Ireland has now become a suitable excuse to wear a t-shirt proclaiming to be Irish for a day or asking strangers to plant one on you. The original use of the shamrock was to explain the Holy Trinity, now the word shamrock inspires in me a Pavlov-like mouth watering zest for those delicious limited-time mint shakes at McDonalds. I don’t care what anyone says, adding mint flavor to a regular McDonalds shake is just not the same!
I must say though, despite our complete misconstruing of what the holiday actually meant when it was originated, I sure do enjoy the opportunity to put back a green beer with friends while wearing a green shirt and planning my next trip to get one last Shamrock Shake before they are gone for another long year. But what the heck, McDonalds is kind of an Irish name, right?
We celebrate a lot of holidays throughout the year, many of which have taken on a whole new meaning than originally intended (i.e. Santa-centric Christmas), but we often know little about the origins. St. Patrick’s Day isn’t even an official holiday here, but we celebrate like it is! When I think of St. Patrick’s day I think of the color green, beer, shamrocks, and funny little Leprechauns doing a merry jig to Irish flute music. Don’t let those happy little Leprechauns fool you, though, some are evil, as evidenced by the Leprechaun films of the 90s! But I digress...
Similar to Christmas, St. Paddy’s Day, or Lá ’le Pádraig, started as a religious holiday in Ireland, and has transformed into so much more. Over the years it’s gone from a holy day of obligation for Roman Catholics in Ireland, to a reason to get drunk on a weekday. What was once the humble celebration of the patron-saint of Ireland has now become a suitable excuse to wear a t-shirt proclaiming to be Irish for a day or asking strangers to plant one on you. The original use of the shamrock was to explain the Holy Trinity, now the word shamrock inspires in me a Pavlov-like mouth watering zest for those delicious limited-time mint shakes at McDonalds. I don’t care what anyone says, adding mint flavor to a regular McDonalds shake is just not the same!
I must say though, despite our complete misconstruing of what the holiday actually meant when it was originated, I sure do enjoy the opportunity to put back a green beer with friends while wearing a green shirt and planning my next trip to get one last Shamrock Shake before they are gone for another long year. But what the heck, McDonalds is kind of an Irish name, right?
Monday, March 2, 2009
A Means to a Beginning
Wedding planning is a funny thing. Some people choose to go big, some small, some elope, others welcome the opportunity to gather family and friends.
No matter how you choose to enter matrimony, though, the one constant is money. I knew going in that weddings cost, but until you’ve worked on planning one, you can’t appreciate just how much.
The big costs are easy to indentify, dress, flowers, music, food, drink, etc... But there are so many more small costs you forget to take into consideration. I’m lucky enough to have fantastic support family and future family, but I can’t imagine not having that. For me, the most important aspect of the day, besides getting to say I do to the best person I’ve ever met, is getting to share it with my family and friends and that requires money.
As I pondered that thought, I began to wonder whether there are people actually postponing their weddings due to the economy. What if the future bride or groom, or brides parents lost their jobs? Or, what if there wasn’t a lot of money to start with and now there’s just not enough to pay for even the basics of a wedding.
The economy is starting to affect aspects of life I never would have imagined in a million years, and the longer it goes on, the more parts of our lives it will affect. I saw an idea a journalist was working on that revolved around finding couples who were planning to have a baby but holding back due to the economy. I can’t imagine planning to start a family and then deciding to hold off. That has to be a major downer, because that’s just an exciting time in life.
I know there are too many effects of what’s happening right now to even begin to explore, and I’m way off topic from where I started, but I sure do hope we start to see some positive economic signals by the end of the year.
No matter how you choose to enter matrimony, though, the one constant is money. I knew going in that weddings cost, but until you’ve worked on planning one, you can’t appreciate just how much.
The big costs are easy to indentify, dress, flowers, music, food, drink, etc... But there are so many more small costs you forget to take into consideration. I’m lucky enough to have fantastic support family and future family, but I can’t imagine not having that. For me, the most important aspect of the day, besides getting to say I do to the best person I’ve ever met, is getting to share it with my family and friends and that requires money.
As I pondered that thought, I began to wonder whether there are people actually postponing their weddings due to the economy. What if the future bride or groom, or brides parents lost their jobs? Or, what if there wasn’t a lot of money to start with and now there’s just not enough to pay for even the basics of a wedding.
The economy is starting to affect aspects of life I never would have imagined in a million years, and the longer it goes on, the more parts of our lives it will affect. I saw an idea a journalist was working on that revolved around finding couples who were planning to have a baby but holding back due to the economy. I can’t imagine planning to start a family and then deciding to hold off. That has to be a major downer, because that’s just an exciting time in life.
I know there are too many effects of what’s happening right now to even begin to explore, and I’m way off topic from where I started, but I sure do hope we start to see some positive economic signals by the end of the year.
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