The Dream - Again

For some reason I've been sleeping very deeply lately and dreaming, vividly.

Last night I had "the dream" again. I was back in the hospital where I was educated and where I worked after becoming a nurse - an education and a job I didn't really want, so it haunts me in my dreams.
In this version of "the dream" I'm lying in my bed but I'm in an office in the hospital. I get myself out of bed, fully dressed in nurse white (do any nurses wear that these days?) and take another nurse (also in white) on a tour of the hospital. We talk about the hospital and mention names of nurses from my past and names of people from my present.

It was more than surreal - it was very real.

Lately Morgan and I have been doing some definite planning for my retirement - even beginning to plan a simple wedding ceremony. Can this be why "the dream" has returned? Will I regret retirement and that I'm no longer "a nurse"?

And the big question:
Once I do retire, will I still be "a nurse" in my nighttime dreams and never "a writer"?

NOT Funny, guys

From Gilbert Gottfried to a coed on YouTube, it seems that there's a new way to deal with tragedy: humor.

Gottfried, once the voice of the ALFAC duck - he's since been fired, tweeted some very non-funny things about the disaster in Japan. Tweets can be read by anyone, including Gottfried's AFLAC bosses. It seems that AFLAC does most of its business in Japan. They were not amused and Gottfried was terminated- quickly.

A blond buxom (and it looked like deliberately buxom with an obvious push-up bra) coed posted on YouTube a video of herself ranting about the "Asian" students at her college library who were using their cell phones and disturbing her studying. She went on the mock their language and also "guessed" that the reason was they were trying to find out about their families.  Can you say, "Ugly American"?

There are other examples of Americans mocking what's happening in Japan, but I cringe when I think of them...let alone write about them here.

What would we have done or felt if people of other countries had mocked and made jokes about September 11. 2001 or Katrina?  Well, it wouldn't have been pretty.

What makes us, as Americans (it seems to be only Americans making these remarks), think this type of humor acceptable? Have we lost our sense of humanity? Is our hubris so grand that we think we're the only ones who can feel loss, pain, tragedy? Therefore, we negate these problems in other countries.

Devastation in Haiti or Japan is as bad as devastation in New Orleans.

We are all human. In fact the dog sitting in the midst of the tsunami debris, guarding his injured canine friend seems to be more human than some of us.

We are all united in this tragedy.
And it can happen here.

Another Rant

Sorry but I have to get it out of my system.
I just saw a quarter-page ad in Lehigh Valley's Morning Call newspaper for nominees for the best blog. There was an "arts" category, an "entertainment and nightlife" category and several sports categories but NO literature or "book" category.
Yeah, that's right. I was going to nominate my own www.witchlit.blogspot.com (I may be a lot of things - shy is not one of them). But there was no category!
Now would it fall under "arts"? Does "arts" include arts and crafts, painting, poetry, theater, origami and everything else that could be contained in that broad category? If so, my little blog about trying to read/listen to 100 books in a year may fit but get lost in the shuffle.
I do read for entertainment and do most of my reading at night; however, I doubt if my blog would fall under "entertainment and nightlife" - or "nightlife and entertainment".
So, I'm ranting again.
I'm a square peg and can't even find that round hole