To my friends, thank you. I'm going to bed.

There's a line from the animated movie Charlotte's Web that always comes to mind when I'm lying awake in the wee hours of the night: "When your stomach is empty and your mind is full, it's hard to fall asleep."  This is a true statement.  I haven't been sleeping well.  Last night I forgot to eat dinner because I ate popcorn while watching scary old movies instead, so by 1:00 am my stomach was indeed empty.  And my mind was full because, compounded with the page-turner I'd been reading before I turned off the light, I was trying to plot the perfect murder for a script I'm working on.  Reading before bed usually relaxes me, but this book is having the opposite effect.  It wakes my brain up. 

Once I did fall asleep, I had some weird dream about living in a haunted house, but I chalk that up more to the creepy 1950s movie I saw earlier.  All this to say that I was worried about having the same problem tonight-- the falling asleep, not the weird dream.  Luckily, I have just discovered the cure for such a problem.  Have a bunch of good friends over, drink a few cups of hot mulled wine, watch a hilariously bad movie and laugh until your abs are sore.  You will be sleepy and happy by the time they leave.  Right now I can barely see through my bleary eyes.  Could be the mulled wine, but I thank my friends.

Your Catfish Friend

If I were to live my life
in catfish forms
in scaffolds of skin and whiskers
at the bottom of a pond
and you were to come by
one evening
when the moon was shining
down into my dark home
and stand there at the edge
of my affection
and think, "It's beautiful
here by this pond. I wish
somebody loved me,"
I'd love you and be your catfish
friend and drive such lonely
thoughts from your mind
and suddenly you would be
at peace,
and ask yourself, "I wonder
if there are any catfish
in this pond? It seems like
a perfect place for them."

-Richard Brautigan