Odds and Ends

I was repairing an interior wall corner's joint tape this afternoon, re-taping and patching and re-painting (and no one should inspect the results with any critical opinion, unless that one should want to belly up to the spackling bar and do me a re-do of the re-do.)  There I am, in my element (or not), and the College Boy Graham remarks to me from in the kitchen, "It's not even close to Christmas, you know."

Huh?

Oh, my.

I was singing Jingle Bell Rock.

September 8th.  

Jingle bell, jingle bell, jingle bell rock, 
Jingle bell ring and jingle bell swing...

I had no idea I was singing.  Much less, singing a Christmas song.  Obviously (to me, anyway), my subconscious was somewhere besides late-summer rural Kansas.  My mind was off in Snowsville.  Winter Wonderland.  Holly-jollying it while I edged the joint compound onto the walls.  Visiting the Littlest Snowman with the Red Candy Heart.

Our minds: interesting things, no?  I was listening to NPR or BBC yesterday, and heard an article about an American para-Olympian swimmer who just last year had lost his sight in Afghanistan.  One thing he said really gave me pause to think: he said that he dreams and in his dreams he has sight, and then he wakes, and realizes he is blind.  What is a sad reality.  Very sad.

Our brains, our minds.  Such interesting organs.  I have studied several languages.  One of my college majors was German.  And having lived in Egypt, I studied Arabic and became conversational in it (as long as I was talking to the trash man or the ironing man or the stable owner or whomever I met on a regular basis.)  And before life in Egypt, and upon returning from Egypt, my jobs were airlines: Flight Attendant.

So, know now, that some of my BEST dreams entail flying (never bad dreams, but always exciting take-offs and landings from places in Europe that I have experienced), and occasionally, the dream is "auf Deutsch" or "bil Arabi".

Who knows why my mind goes to those places.  They are always pleasant dreams.   

And so - Jingle Bell Rock?  I am thinking: Simply, subconsciously, looking forward to winter.

Oh, yes.  Walking in the Winter Wonderland...