Lately I've been struggling with the notion that I've lost my ability to dream when I'm sleeping. Or lost my ability to REMEMBER my dreams at least. One or the other. Somewhere along the way the wiring in my brain that controls dreaming short circuited or something.
But last night, I had a minor breakthrough.
Sometime in the middle of the night, I found myself at a rock show with the sound of Angus Young's guitar screaming in my ears. The venue was packed with people jumping up and down and rockin' out. Lights flashing everywhere, bass kicking in. The crowd chanting along with the opening "Ah wah ah wah wah waaaaah ahh" of Thunderstruck over and over again. And I was right in the middle of it... just like I would have been back in the day when I used to rock out like that... except here's this goofy 33 year old man thinking he's half his age.
The song kept building and building up. I always got a kick out of that song intro, and when the White Sox made it their pregame theme song at Sox Park a few years ago it brought my affection for AC/DC all back. "Ah wah ah wah wah waaaaah ahh! THUN-DAH!"
At one point, an unidentifiable dude standing next to me yelled "Why do they keep playing the same thing over and over again?" But I didn't care. "Who cares? THIS ROCKS!" I was jumping up and down, fist pumping in the air, wrapped up in the moment. I didn't notice that the song kept stopping at the same point and starting over again, never actually reaching any lyrics or chorus or anything. Just that same killer guitar intro and all that "Ah wah ah wah wah waaaaah ahh! THUN-DAH!" of the band and the crowd.
But suddenly the crowd was gone. The concert lights were all unplugged. The band had disappeared. I was in the middle of a dark room by myself, and the stacks of amps that were just pulsating with the sounds of AC/DC were almost silent, except for the sound of Thunderstruck coming out of a tiny speaker about 10 feet away from me.
As it turns out, a while back I made Thunderstruck the ringtone on my phone. Here it was, 3:30 am on a Tuesday morning, someone was dialing my number a few times (you... out there in 847... know who you are, dammit) until they either realized that it was the wrong number or finally given up trying. But not soon enough where it was able to sleep through it all... Their last attempt woke me from my slumber and ripped me out of the rock show.
And as hard as I tried, I could not slip back into rocking out when I went back to sleep.