Gasping for air

Just woke up gasping for air after another job-related dream.

In the dream I was futzing around with stuff - I don't even know what - when I realized I had let time get away from me and I was going to miss slot (ie, not have the story ready in time) for the lead position at five pm.

It was a story pertaining to homelessness - a story which I had no hand in preparing, but which I was supposed to assemble from notes and unedited video tape shot by a different crew. It was almost five, and I couldn't find the tape.

I asked a producer to check the internet and bring me some local statistics on homelessness, but what she brought me instead were facts and figures about ambulance services.

The producer was already up in the control room, and I told someone else to call upstairs and tell him I wasn't going to be ready for five.

I looked up at the newsroom monitor and there was something going on with Lou Waters, who was a CNN anchor back in the eighties and nineties.

I finally woke up, gasping for air as I said, and it took about five seconds to get a grip on myself and realize I was dreaming and could stop worrying about making slot.

I guess that's what comes from 25 years in television plus churrasco misto for dinner.