I was at home, I think, with a tube of peanut butter toothpaste I bought on a discount sale. It was a blue and brown tube with a flip top; the kind that stands on its own; made and marketed for kids by Colgate or one of the popular toothpaste companies. I was relatively excited about having it in my possession, not so much because of the cheap price I paid but because peanut butter is one of my favorite flavors and I’ve never used peanut butter toothpaste before.
There I stood, holding the tube in my hand, as I suddenly realized I was having a dream. Instead of waking-up immediately, I took that opportunity to hold on to the tube tightly, with both hands, anticipating the fact that it would be one of those disappointing moments in which I’d wake-up holding onto a cherished object that doesn’t exist. “I still got it,” I said aloud to myself, still excited, as the experience began to fade. Sure enough, I woke-up without it.
2012 January 06