All in a Day's Work

A strangely disturbing dream last night led to a very unproductive morning today. Due to my not being an unfortunate student of one of the most dreaded subjects ever - Physics (it would be a joke if I was, considering how every single one of my light diagrams in the Secondary Two Finals Science paper was awarded a zero), I didn't have to go to school this morning for a practical exam. So there I was, planning to have a fulfilling morning of studying (after two consecutive days of falling asleep on my textbooks), only this dream that I had last night somehow taxed my brain so much that after just an hour of staring at paragraphs and paragraphs of information on viruses, bacteria and fungi, I developed a splitting headache.

You know, it seems to me that most of my dreams are a jumbled up accumulation and combination of all the things that I see/hear/do/think of in a day, or maybe something that happened a few days ago, played out into what's usually a relatively coherent story, though rather ridiculous.

Take last night's dream for example. It was set in a huge open air field by a river (it was quite beautiful, actually), and in the middle of it, a large stage had been set up. Here's what took place in the dream, and what I think it may correspond to in real life:

1. The event was a singing competition.
Possibly inspired by: Singapore Idol talk all around town. Or perhaps the horrific clips on Disney Channel of the High School Musical sing-along party (if you thought this season's Singapore Idols were bad, you have NOT seen crazed kids who believe they can sing, and aren't afraid to prove their, er, talent either).

2. Li-Shan, Mei Yi and Jean were emceeing.
Possibly inspired by: I have no idea. Oh, but there was one part of the dream where Mei Yi was trying to retrieve the microphone from this little boy after he'd finished his song, and he snubbed her by handing it to Li-Shan instead. Haha!

3. My mother was in an Ah-Beng type get up.
Possibly inspired by: Be Yourself Day. (4GYians will know what I mean)

4. For my item (please don't even ask what in the blazes I was doing at a singing competition, because I know I cannot sing), I was deciding whether to wear the cheongsam I wore for Dramafest, or the one I wore for Chinese talentime.
Possibly inspired by: The sheer horror of having to wear a cheongsam more than once this year and resolving never to wear one again.

5. The pencil at the sign up booth was pink with weird cartoon characters on it.
Definitely inspired by: Someone's favourite pencil - it was exactly the same. Haha! Scary.

6. My mother had to sprint through an underpass leading to...I haven't any idea where...to - get this - raise $70 to fund my sign up for the singing competition.
Possibly inspired by: Overly dramatic Chinese drama serials or cliched Chinese compositions. Then again, it could be last night's run with my family.

To be honest, I'm so glad that my alarm clock rang just before I was supposed to get on stage and belt out whatever song I was going to be singing. Phew.

Well, this afternoon was Honours' Day. It was a little boring, because I didn't know many of the honorees, but kind of fun in a way, because it's probably the last time I was going to be ushering parents into the Shaw Hall! It did remind me of Secondary Four graduation last year, when I was doing the exact same thing, and it's quite scary when I think of how this year, I'm going to be one of the graduating bunch. Back to Honours' Day, since Drama only gets honoured during SYF years, we didn't get to storm up on stage this year - sigh. But what really makes me sad though, is that even last year, when we did get honoured, I wasn't around to receive my badge! I was one of those, who after my name was read out, was said to be "in absentia". And all because I was on the Hwa Chong Exchange Programme - something which definitely wasn't worth missing getting honoured for. I regret that.

Anyhow, tomorrow is going to be a superbly fun day at school! ACES Day, Teachers' Day and Be Yourself Day all in one! I'm really looking forward to going crazy.

It's amazing how as the time draws nearer and nearer to that impending graduation, I'm beginning to enjoy school more and more. And now I wonder why I even dreaded it in the first place. The irony of it all.