(Strange Dreams: I had a very long and vivid dream about spending the afternoon

(Strange Dreams: I had a very long and vivid dream about spending the afternoon with Putin and a few other men over a game of cards. And while I can disassemble the dream into the day’s events that fed into it, what I am still struck by is the believability of the imaginary character. I have a recurring set of dreams that mix different universities, academics, and conversations into a set of related contexts that approach an alternate reality – usually where I am struggling to finish writing a chapter on one topic or another. This time we were in a hotel at a large rustic conference table, looking out at a snowy small port scene. )