I’m going to buy a dozen donuts for the office on my way to work.

Another morning where instead of getting up at 6 I am suddenly, irreversably awake at 5.30. I had just had an interesting dream. I had recently been elected to the House of Representatives, where a bill had just been introduced to set up universal health care. Everyone was tired of debating it so it was decided that after two speeches, one pro and the con, a vote would be taken. I was chosen to make the “pro” speech. I was going to make the speech totally off the cuff, but there was some sort of recess so I found I had enough time to scribble down a few notes on a narrow piece of blue paper (it is sheets of this narrow blue paper that in real life separates the copies of my book before I assemble them).

The notes I wrote down basically amounted to:

–I’m a middle-class white man who doesn’t really “need” health insurance, but I still need it. We all need it.
–I respect the Senate but they’re never going to introduce this type of legislation. It’s up to us.
–We need to try it out and see how it works. There should be a built-in trial period of two years, then we can see how things are going.

There was a lot more I was going to say in my speech. Then the recess was over and everyone was assembling, and I remember I was going to ask the Speaker of the House if it was alright if we flipped a coin to see who would give their speech first.

The oddest thing in the dream was that the Chamber was actually a low-ceilinged basement room which had French doors opening onto a back yard. Like my parent’s house.

I can trace this dream to the Chicago Reader review of a coffeehouse in Old Town that I read last night. The review mentioned that the customers might include “the cop who lives across the street, a cutting-edge medical researcher, or a candidate for the U.S. Senate.”

Andy and I ambled down to HiFi Records to check out their clearance sale last night, and then we got a pizza at Renaldi’s. We were talking about one’s use of free time, wasting time versus relaxing, watching too many movies perhaps, the difficulty of getting home from work and having the necessary energy to do something interesting, etc.

I’d really like to check out the Grant Park Orchestra concert tomorrow evening in Millennium Park.