Something Weird

I had the strangest experience Monday morning. I wrote here before about having to work on Saturday night, then having to work only part of a shift on Sunday night. That turn of events managed to throw off my whole sleep cycle for the last couple of days.

I left the hotel a little after 0200 Monday morning. I wasn't really tired, despite having been up since the FOM called at 1600 the previous day. I gassed up the truck, then ran by the local Wally World to pick up a few items. I stopped back at the gas station, a Wawa, on the way home and picked up a flatbread sandwich and a milkshake. At home, I sat up with the internet for a few hours, then laid down to take a nap.

I've started sleeping with the television on. I never needed it before (in fact I haven't had a TV in my bedroom in years), but for some reason it's comforting to wake up to some sort of soft noise. Anyway, I tuned the TV to MSNBC and dozed off. I woke, briefly, a few hours later, and I'd swear that I heard the news anchor say that someone had just died. The person named was a celebrity. I knew the name, though I couldn't remember who they were at that time. I rolled over and went back to sleep, and didn't wake again until sometime in the early afternoon.

When I woke up, I ran over to the laptop and hunted for this person's name. Aha! Now I remember who this is. I searched the news for headlines. There was nothing. I couldn't pin down that person's location, but I became reasonably certain that it would've appeared in the news if anything untoward happened to them. As nearly as I can tell, nothing has.

Did I have a dream? Was I imagining that I heard the news of this person's death. Notice that I haven't once mentioned the name. I'm afraid to. I don't want to say their name aloud, even. I don't believe in curses, or any of that nonsense, but I have this preternatural fear now. Knowing the power of the interwebs, I might inadvertently create a meme. "So-and-so is dead." "Jaye killed So-and-so!" Maybe I just need to chill.