Pieces of my mind

• I was thinking of the phrase “peace of mind”….or is it “piece of my mind”? Guess it could be either. Can you think of any other phrases that have the same sound/words, yet totally different meanings? Neither can I, but I didn’t really try.
• While I was walking to my car this morning, which happened to be at around 5:50am, I saw the Moon above the Western horizon. It was full, or nearly so, and was hypnotizing. What is it about the full Moon that makes it so captivating. It seems bigger, more colorful and just different. I know there’s scientific explanations as to what makes it appear different, but it’s nice to just look and wonder.
• Speaking of walking to my car early, I heard someone’s alarm clock buzzing in the distance as I tromped out to my car. Isn’t that the most annoying thing? It always seems to happen when someone in your house leaves for the weekend or goes on vacation. You’re laying there, sleeping like a baby, then out of no where you hear that high pitched, electronic screeching that was scientifically invented to make sure that any normal human can not possibly sleep through it. You’re half asleep, but awake enough that you are thinking of going into the next room and strangling your roommate, only to realize the horror that your roommate is gone and that alarm is not going to be put to silence. You lay there thinking, “Maybe I can sleep through it”. But just as you drift off, your brain wakes you back up, since that alarm sound seems to be instinctually embedded as a fail safe so you won’t be late to work. The back, subconscious part of your brain is screaming to the other areas to “WAKE UP! Don’t you remember the last time you slept through the alarm and almost got fired!? GET UP!” So it goes, and you keep waking up, getting angrier every time, then you start to wonder if maybe it will automatically turn off after an hour. Then you start watching your clock. But, more likely than not, it doesn’t go off after an hour, and you start planning out how you're going to get over to the other room, turn it off and get back in bed without waking up fully. The only way this situation get worse, is when you’re in a hotel or apartments with thin walls and the whole thing happens, and turning off the alarm is not even an option.
• Speaking of alarms, that reminds me of when I would visit my cousins when I was younger. When I had a moment alone in their room, I would pounce on the opportunity to change the alarm on their clock to 3 or 4am and would silently have a laugh. The only downside was not seeing their face when the alarm sounded while it was still dark out.
• Don’t you hate it when something goes wrong and you have no one to blame except yourself? As soon as something goes wrong, such as leaving something at home when you were supposed to bring it with you, you brain instantly fires through anyone and everyone that could possibly be to blame. You think of the others and you start rationalizing why they caused this mistake, trying to have a reason to be mad. But eventually, hopefully, you dismiss all others, let out a sigh and conclude that you’re the one to blame and your only release is pure frustration at yourself and the situation.
• Watched “1408” over the weekend with my wife. Movie was ok. Was about a haunted hotel room that a horror writer stayed in, trying to debunk the claims of ghosts and ghoulies inhabiting it. It reminded me of a similar happening in my life that apparently I had never told my wife about. It was the summer of 1980-something, and I was in Vegas to attend my cousin’s wedding. It so happened that my best-friend and neighbor, Jeff, and his family were also invited and were staying at the Circus Circus Hotel with my family. Being that Jeff and I were underage for gambling, we had to find other ways to entertain ourselves. After playing soccer in the halls got old, we noticed something interesting about the room numbering system in the hotel. Every room started with the floor number and then with an ascending number for the specific room. So, the eighteenth room on the fourth floor would be 418. I guess it’s not all that interesting, since I’ve discovered that almost every hotel uses this system, but we just figured it out on that weekend. We also noted that there were at least 80 or so rooms on every floor. So, we did the math and figured out that the sixty-sixth room on the sixth floor would be an interesting door to look at. I don’t remember having a plan of what we would do when we got there, but just the idea of such a room was enough to tingle the spine and spawn a curiosity to see it with our own eyes. I’m sure each of us had ideas swimming around in our heads of how the door would turn into a giant monster-mouth with teeth lining the frame and the floor would start to incline in such a way that we couldn't help but slide to our untimely doom at the Circus Circus before having our nightly buffet. So, we got on the elevator and pushed in the six, watching it illuminate. After the elevator came to a stop and opened, we looked over the signs on the wall, and trekked off, following an arrow to the right leading our way. Once we got in the hallway, off of the elevator lobby area, we saw that it was long! There seemed to be almost sixty doors just in this hall alone. We started our march, 618, 620, 621, 623, 622, 624, watching the numbers gradually increase, along with our sense of dread and anticipation. I noticed that the even numbered doors were on the right side of the hallway, odds on the left. As our journey continued, we started to ponder if the room in question was even at the end of this hallway that stretched forever. However, even though it seemed like a horror movie in which the hall stretches farther the faster you run, we realized our progress as we neared the end. With only a few pairs of doors left, we could start to mentally tally the numbers up and figured out that the dubious door would be the last one on the right. Of course. I remember our pace slowing as we got closer, both of us trying to let the other go first without letting each other know that was our intention. We were about four doors away, close enough to see the door, but still not read the identifying plate bolted on. Then... it happened. Hmmmm, I guess that’s enough of that story until the next post. Trust me, it has an ending and it’s not…”then nothing happened and we went back to our rooms”. But I have to keep you interested enough to check back every now and then. Cheers!