We can do better than this

This is Miss September of the Desperate Librarians fundraising calendar.
Six librarians posed for two months apiece...the other six dropped out, and I can see why.

This angry librarian is much cuter and is tired of the frumpy librarian stereotype being perpetuated, especially by our own kind.


Librarianship_, Judgments_

Iberico

I'd like to think I have better things to do with my time than obsess on my own personal cheese study, but two nightmares in a row on two cheeseless nights have altered my original timeline.

The first wasn't a full blown nightmare, but it was close enough to cause a small dreamy panic attack. I looked in the mirror and noticed not only was my hair much longer than it actually is, but half of it was gray. The next night was worse. My molars kept falling out, many more than I actually have, maybe twenty or so, and it seemed like they were all coming from the left side of my mouth. I didn't know what to do, and I was sure I wouldn't be able to afford the dental bill to replace them.

I woke up at 2 with my heart pounding and couldn't get back to sleep. I checked out a couple of dream analysis websites only to find out my nightmare was a common garden variety. It has multiple interpretations. Either I am on the brink of change or experiencing anxiety.

Since I haven't felt particularly anxious lately, I'm choosing the brink of change interpretation. Not a bad end to a scary dream. But since I really needed a good night's sleep, I decided to continue on with my personal exploration of the impact of cheese on my dreams.

I hit Trader Joe's on the way home from work and picked out a nice Iberico, a Spanish cheese made from combination of sheep, cow and goat's milk. I ate a huge piece before I went to bed and had pretty trivial dreams about doing things like going out to breakfast.

Bon Appetit_, Dream On_

Cheese dream log: Feta

Yesterday I heard an interesting story on KUOW, an interview with a man who'd conducted a study on the impact of cheese on dreams. Apparently the motivation for the study was to dispel the myth that eating cheese before sleeping causes nightmares. The results: eating cheese before sleeping actually enhances the quality of your sleep, and the type of cheese you eat impacts the type of dream you have. Stilton causes bizarre dreams, cheddar lends itself to dreaming about celebrities, and women who eat British brie before sleeping experience pleasant dreams.

I was interested in the story, but then forgot about it until this morning, when I was remembered some odd dreams I had last night. In the first, I ran into identical twin boys that went to the school that I worked at six years ago. They were still nine years old and were wearing heavy eye makeup. They ran up to me and introduced themselves in what I found to be a troubling way. They had either switched names to see if I would notice, or said their names sarcastically enough that I wasn't sure they were telling the truth. I felt I was being tested.

Then the alarm went off. I hate it when I forget to unset my alarm on weekends. Fortunately, I was able to get back to sleep. I dreamed that I was dreaming. In my dream, my mother was coming home from Ireland and my brother I haven't seen in 5 years decided to surprise her. When she arrived, he fainted. I then woke up from the dream within the dream only to have that dream come true.

It was then that I remembered I'd eating a bunch of feta shortly before going to bed. Maybe there's something to this study after all. I'll test out another cheese later this week and share the results.


Bon Appetit_, Dream On_