Falling asleep happy

I've been working on falling asleep happy for a while and the past two nights I was successful. I usually try clearing my mind of everything except for one thing that makes me happy. This thing is usually a whale or a wolf, and come to think of it, that's probably why I have so many animal dreams.

Two nights ago, I drifted off imagining myself under a fortress of blankets in a bedroom loft with stacks of books all around me and a flying shark watching over me while I slept. I'm a kid at heart and generally easy to please, so the news that I was getting a flying remote control shark for Christmas sent me over the moon, even though I won't be able to play with it until my return to Portland in May. My mind spins imagining all the crazy flying shark shenanigans I am going to have.

Then last night, I fell asleep on my friend Nomthi's couch while watching Werner Herzog's "Cave of Forgotten Dreams." She let me soak in her tub before that. The blissful sensation of being submerged in warm water made me feel at peace with everything and everyone. My friend Nomthi is my emotional support and the kindest friend anyone could ask for. The sad part of making friends in Korea is that our contracts end at different times so people are always coming and going.

I wish I could give a review of the Werrner Herzog movie, but I was alseep for half of it. I walked home at 1 AM with snow flakes falling on me, imagining I was one of my European ancestors 30 thousand years ago, wearing reindeer fur and that all the drunk men stumbling from one bar to another were dueling rhinoceroses and woolly mammoths. When I crawled into my bed, I fell into a fairly deep sleep, only being woken up a few times by drunk people in my apartment building returning home and someone sticking advertisements for take-out restaurants on everyone's door. I just imagined they were cave bears scratching on the walls and fell back asleep.