Up Periscope (Dreaming of the Queen)

I hit the office at 5:44 this morning after passing out around 9:45 the evening before.  I finally put a quilt on the bed to supplement the pretty but porous summer blankets and slept more comfortably than I had in a long time.  From 2:22 to 3:33 I dreamed about preparing a speech for the British Parliament concerning my professional experiences during the recession.  Although I tried to keep things as “light” as possible by leavening my somewhat lengthy remarks with jokes and funny (I thought; Caroline said many of them seemed bitter) stories, they were trenchant nonetheless and the audience, who I was at that point only anticipating in my head, seemed rapt.  As I envisioned them, they looked like one of those monolithic Loony-Tunes backdrop cartoon audiences who don’t  breathe and are visually one flat undifferentiated mass.  

 

The Queen came by to attend my drafting and was very nice – interested, concerned and sympathetic.  My brother-in-law and former sister-in-law, whom I was surprised to see, paid close attention also.  Jane was excited about the trip to London.  Although I am a nervous public speaker, I always try to be thoroughly familiar with my material and to practice a lot.  The fact that I would be using teleprompters was encouraging.  It was difficult settling on a title or a short description of my subject. I was undecided among  Human Nature, Human Nature and Its Shortcomings, Human Nature Is Horrible or You Wouldn’t Believe What I’ve Learned About Human Nature.   

The Queen was very helpful on this score and you could tell what an experienced person she is.  It’s 5:55 now.  (Jane and I often joke about my peculiar waking and sleeping times, the joke currently ending on variations of waking up at 6:66.)  Because it’s still baseball season and a game is sometimes on when I fall asleep with all its numerals going, I wonder whether the game is somehow setting me like an alarm clock, which makes you wonder who is setting the game?  My ensemble, incidentally, for my Parliament speech includes a stiff blue-grey military type jacket with braids on the sleeves.  No epaulets.  I need to keep working on the speech.  I need to find a way to end on an optimistic note.