Virtually anything wakes me up. Any human or animal activity. Mechanical sounds. A pin dropping. A dust mite sneezing. Whatever. But very seldom, if ever, am I woken up by a song. I have, however, been kept awake by various songs, sometimes for many hours or even for most of the night. This is a truly horrible experience, akin to being in musical hell.

The Carpenters' "Close to You" is a deadly one. Anyone who thinks of it is doomed unless they can pass it on to someone else.

"Why do dogs roll over and die...every time...you pass by? Just like me, they dread to be, close to you..."

Yeah. Anyway, last night I was woken up by a dream. I was in some American city in a tall apartment building or hotel, and there was this incredible wind that kept shaking the building. Every now and then it would sort of lurch sideways in a loose, nasty way, and I thought "This building is going to fall!" The gusts were so strong that you could feel the cold air coming through tiny openings around windows and it was howling in the floor vents.

For some reason my 2 American cousins, Karen and Stephanie, were there (I seldom give them much thought). I kept thinking I should head for an elevator and go down to the basement, but for some reason I couldn't decide to do it.

Then the building gave one more lurch...and didn't recover, but started a long slow fall to the right. I could see the lights of the other skyscrapers appearing to angle over the other way. My cousins and I all held hands, and I said "I love you." It seemed like the most appropriate thing to say, since there was simply nothing that could be done at that point. It was very frightening, but at the same time I felt a sort of calm resignation, and waited for the shock as the building continued to fall. I figured "It should be a painless death..."

I didn't notice that we weren't sliding to the down side of the floor (dreams are weird, but you don't notice the weird parts till afterward), and the building kept falling for the longest time. Just about the time I figured it would hit the ground, the lights in the other buildings all went out...and I woke up.

It no doubt means something, but I have no idea what.

- LH