Dreams

Sleep has been weird lately. I’m dreaming again. Off the top of my head I couldn’t tell you if there has been any significant changes to my lifestyle, but I’m definitely dreaming on a nightly basis - something that hasn’t been a factor in my life for years. Granted it’s been a long time since I considered myself part of the “regular sleepers” club, there is something about these dreams that stands out to me as something that can’t happen to many people…they’re about work. That’s right. I work in my sleep.

For those of you who don’t know, I work at a number of Starbucks’ in and around the Reno area. I’ve been with the company for about a year now and consider myself lucky to have found a job that fits so well with my personality. It may not be the most lucrative position as it is hardly a step above fast food, but I’m happy to say the least.

I am predominantly what we call in the Starbucks world a “closer” - meaning that I do nothing but come in late in the day and tend the store until closing time where I am responsible for washing all of the dishes and preparing every nook and cranny for a smooth transition to the next morning. This means that I work late. It also means that having been an early-to-bed-early-to-rise kind of guy my whole life I’m usually dead tired by the end of my shift. After coming home, it’s not long before my pajamas are on and I’m relaxing in front of my computer or book until I decide to hit the hay in hopes of catching up on enough sleep to make the next day more bearable and minimally yawny. Lately, however, this hasn’t been the case. Instead it’s gone a lot like this:

/Spend a couple of minutes rolling around in bed trying to find the perfect location for pillows and locate a warm spot in the blankets./Yawn./Close eyes/…drift away into warm, relaxing, and much needed nothingness/”YEAH, CAN I GET AN ICED QUAD VENTI HALF DECAF 2 PUMP SUGAR FREE VANILLA SOY EXTRA EXTRA CARAMEL LIGHT WHIP CARAMEL MACCHIATO?”/

Cut to me. I see all of this through my eyes as if I were really living these sequences. I take the order, watch my hands write down the order onto the appropriate cup and continue to craft said beverage. I then call out the order and repeat the process for apparently an entire six-to-eight hour shift until I wake in a sour mood. I’m not rested like I need to be and I know for sure my day is going to turn out just the way I imagined it: yawny, redundant, and full of me wishing I went to bed earlier.

I’m not quite sure what dream folder to file these under. I don’t think anybody in their right mind would consider these nightmares. It’s never a vampire or zombie ordering coffee or me in my green apron being chased by a towering caramel bottle. I don’t suddenly wake up in a cold sweat and therefore couldn’t possibly compare these to the kinds of dreams that put people in mental institutions. Maybe I ought to just find a more sleep related profession. A mattress salesman might do the trick.

/…drift away into warm, relaxing, and much needed nothingness/”…yeah. This mattress feels really good. Why don’t you go ahead and lie down and take it for a spin.”