You know how you have those dreams that wake you up in an instant that they feel so real? You're lying there � or, when they're really good � sitting there, tense and rigid in bed, eyes open and you can actually see what it was in the dream right there in front of you in the room.

I had one last night. I went to bed around 12:15 after getting sucked into my new Xbox game, Simpsons Hit & Run � which, by the way, is fabulous. Think Grand Theft Auto, only with Simpsons characters in Springfield and no controversy and cries from watchdog groups about the portrayal of Hatians or Miami or anything. I imagine all the slack-jawed yokels in middle America might find the mission where you have to help Cletus collect the tomaco harvest by speeding around in his dilapidated pickup with Dukes of Hazzard-ish banjo music in the background a little prejudiced, but not much else.

Anyway, at 1:15, I bolted awake, convinced there was a giant spider web hanging over Casey, with a huge tarantula or something in the process of killing a rather large wasp or hornet or something. I mean, these things were HUGE � like the size of my hand. The "web" was anchored on the wall behind our headboard and the wall on Casey's side of the bed. Half-awake, I sat up in bed and actually reached out to the space above her, I guess to swat away the insects or something. Don't know why I'd want to grab them. I think I might've even said something out loud, and I know I sat there, upright, for several moments afterward until I realized it was all a dream.

I suspect this image was sparked by two things: we watched Sex and the City last night, and the scene where the mouse walks across the pillow into Carrie's hair freaked me out. And I used to be an exterminator. I just have this thing about things sneaking up on me when I'm in bed, and at my most vulnerable. So I think the mouse may have somehow led to the spider in my dream. The wasp/hornet came from the aforementioned Simpsons game, the main plot of which involves Mr. Burns spying on all of Springfield with these mechanical hornets with cameras. Or maybe they're wasps. As an exterminator, I didn't have to differentiate the bugs. I just killed them all.

Well, it continues to be cold here, and everyone continues to talk about it. I read today that it's been 13 straight days in New York where the temperature hasn't topped 32 degrees. We're expecting a storm tonight that could leave us 5-10 inches before it's done. Snow was so much more fun when school would be closed or, at the least, I didn't have to drive anywhere and could enjoy a walk to class on the quiet, frozen campus.

I think I've come up with a decent idea for a book, a memoir. It's inspired by an author who's had a few movies made from his novels in recent years and I think it would have a fighting chance of garnering some interest if I were to follow through with it. I do plan on sitting down to start hashing out an outline and perhaps pulling together some of the background I'd need, so we'll see where this goes.