So: I dreamed that I was taking a seven day vacation from all my hard work and that I was sitting in the front row on a plane flying west (across America) toward California. So, high up in the sky the plane takes a sharp right dip and I feel wind.

A small blond boy is sitting in the row across. He is the pilot's son. His dad has opened the window so they can look out at the clouds and the land below. We're flying low and I feel the wind in my face. The landscape through the open window is lush farmland, very American. But looking out front (there doesn't seem to be a pilot's cabin but just a front window) the light is golden, like a Max Parrish painting. And to my left, with the window closed, it is so bright and golden it hurts my eyes.

We are flying low and there is a sheriff's car, bright red, below. "Let's buzz our friend the sheriff" says the boy and the plane swoops down, drops thousands of feet on its side to pratically graze the sheriff's car with one wing.

"No, no, let me off," I say, "this is too nerve-wracking," and I somehow manage to jump out of the plane and I start walking to California.

The landscape changes and I'm walking down a pathway (always westward, to the left) rimmed with hedges. I begin singing "Carry me back to ol' Alabamy" (I know the song is ACTUALLY "Virginny" but I wasn't singing that in my dream). It's quite peculiar as I'm actually walking AWAY from Alabama. But the walk is long. I find myself on a hilly path descending with an industrial city below. At first I think I have already reached California, but I don't think so now. It's a bit discouraging.

A car pulls up. It's the pilot and his son. "Get in," the pilot says, "We have to catch up with the plane." (Defies all logic but it's a dream. I imagine it's on autopilot, circling low.) I get back in the car and I'm suddenly on the plane again.

And I'm thinking, I didn't pack my laptop. I left behind the attaché case with my laptop in it. I was planning to work on a new novel during my holiday, but now I can't. Why am I even on vacation? Should I go back? I start to panic. This is where I woke up.