Les Bonnes Choses

True story: last night, I was sleeping soundly, having a dream about hosting a party where some old dude just wouldn't take the hint that it was time to go home when we started cleaning up, when I was suddenly woken up by a noise. It sounded like Rebecca had knocked the bed frame or something like that. So anyways, I open up my eyes and find myself looking at what I took to be some dude standing near the foot of the bed on Rebecca's side. As if that weren't strange enough, the figure appeared to be illuminated by an orange or red light, kind of like what you would do with a flashlight in a tent in your backyard when you were a kid. The blurred vision (I wasn't wearing my glasses, obviously, and my vision is abysmal) lasted at least long enough for me to have the stunned consideration that there was someone in the room. Then suddenly, I didn't see it anymore.

Well, that was strange. And yet, I wasn't particularly troubled by it all, mostly because I thought it was an interesting experience to comment on. So I went to the bathroom, since I was already awake. I was able to get back to sleep without too much problem.

So some observations: First, odd that I perceived the details to be blurry, as if I was actually looking at the figure without the aid of eyeglasses (normally, when I imagine seeing something, I don't blur my mental image, just for the sake of authenticity). Second, odd that I wasn't particularly disturbed by this. I attribute this to not actually believing that there was something at the foot of the bed, and having a couple of other perfectly reasonable explanations. This is related to the third observation, which is that I can see how someone could come to be a firm believer in the paranormal. Sometimes you see someone on TV who doesn't otherwise sound like a crackpot going on about an alien abduction or somesuch. And you wonder how that happened. Now you know. Fortunately for me, I know I didn't see a ghost: We're the first owners of the house, and I have it on good authority that the house isn't built on an ancient burial ground.