Wake-ing up

You said, "Wouldn't it be a shame if I knew how great I was five minutes before I died. I'd be filled with such regret before I took my last breath."

And I said, "You're willing to tell me this now and you're not going to die any time soon."
-- Alanis Morissette

Woke up really suddenly this morning from a dream in which I was invisible and sitting among my friends at my own wake (thus the art from The Wake).

Everyone was sharing what they thought of me.

"She was a good listener," one friend said.

"She was such a hardass editor," said a woman I didn't even know, pulling out a piece of paper covered in red. I tried really hard not to laugh; nobody could see me, and I was pretty sure they'd freak out if they heard me laughing.

"And she always had such a clean car," piped up one of my coworkers. My boss was crying.

I guess a dream like that is meant to remind me of the way I want people to remember me -- the legacy I want to leave behind. And I am a really good listener and a thorough editor. But I do not, by any stretch of the imagination, have a clean car -- inside or out. Nor would I really care if someone brought that up at my wake. ^_^

For a very brief moment this morning, I was all freaked out. As I recall, Abraham Lincoln foresaw his own death, right? But after I started thinking about it, that car comment is so random and, well, untrue that the dream is in no way foreboding.

... But don't expect me to be washing off that dirt any time soon.