Up Periscope (Dreaming of the Queen)

I hit theoffice at 5:44 this morning after passing out around 9:45 the evening before.  I finally put a quilt on the bed to supplement the pretty butporous summer blankets and slept more comfortably than I had in a longtime.  From 2:22 to 3:33 I dreamed about preparing a speech for theBritish Parliament concerning my professional experiences during therecession.  Although I tried to keep things as “light” as possible byleavening my somewhat lengthy remarks with jokes and funny (I thought; Caroline said many of themseemed bitter) stories, they were trenchant nonetheless and the audience, who Iwas at that point only anticipating in my head, seemed rapt.  As Ienvisioned them, they looked like one of those monolithic Loony-Tunesbackdrop cartoon audiences who don’t  breathe and are visually one flat undifferentiatedmass.  

 

The Queen came by to attend my drafting and was very nice –interested, concerned and sympathetic.  My brother-in-law and formersister-in-law, whom I was surprised to see, paid close attention also. Jane was excited about the trip to London.  Although I am a nervous publicspeaker, I always try to be thoroughly familiar with my material and topractice a lot.  The fact that I would be using teleprompters wasencouraging.  It was difficult settling on a title or a short descriptionof my subject. I was undecided among  Human Nature, Human Nature and ItsShortcomings, Human Nature Is Horrible or You Wouldn’t Believe What I’veLearned About Human Nature.   

The Queen was very helpful on thisscore and you could tell what an experienced person she is.  It’s 5:55now.  (Jane and I often joke about my peculiar waking and sleeping times,the joke currently ending on variations of waking up at 6:66.)  Becauseit’s still baseball season and a game is sometimes on when I fall asleep withall its numerals going, I wonder whether the game is somehow setting me like analarm clock, which makes you wonder who is setting the game?  My ensemble,incidentally, for my Parliament speech includes a stiff blue-grey militarytype jacket with braids on the sleeves.  No epaulets.  I need to keepworking on the speech.  I need to find a way to end on an optimistic note.