Chapter 2: Gorgonzola

What follows in the second chapter of Cheese Dreams are the notes of a pseudo-pseudo-scientific experiment wherein I consume different types of cheese before bed to test the Cheese Dreams theory. (See the first Cheese Dreams entry for further information on background, hypothesis and protocol.) The format of this post reveals a few key personal details: a.) I have been at this experiment a while, signaled by the fact that it has spanned the life of one relationship, thus far and b.) I’m a 33-year-old women who keeps a stuffed toy dog named Shirley on her bed.

Chat History — 9:57 AM on Monday

[then-boyfriend]: I’m still waking up…you sleep ok?
[me]: don’t remember…other than my dream about the ticks on me and the stuffed animal of my old dog Max from when I was a kid that I found in the fire and then he turned into the real max and we went outside in the snow to cool him off. he was in the fireplace! at my parents house…just remembered that. weird.
[then-boyfriend]: what?!
[me]: he was just a little stuffed animal in the shape of my old maxie dog and he was found in the flames and I pulled him out and there were embers in his fur and I kept saying “mom don’t blow on him or he’ll burst into flames!” we brought him outside and as he cooled off he got bigger and turned into the real max! there’s a lot of metaphor here I think.
[then-boyfriend]: whoa….Cheese dream!?
[me]: I did have blue cheese with those apples. only a few pieces, and not right before bed but pretty close.
[then-boyfriend]: hmmm
[me]: I suppose it’s possible.
[then-boyfriend]: you want a doggY?!?!
[me]: it was gorgonzola.
[then-boyfriend]: i think you may want to write that one down…
[me]: yeah i will. I think it’s a metaphor for a desire to reignite and make manifest the core joys I learned in childhood — in the example of a dog. that and we left shirley on the floor all weekend.
[then-boyfriend]: oh no!
[me]: everyone at work is talking about alien isolation video game and it makes me want to got jump into the pacific ocean.
[then-boyfriend]: speaking of video games…
http://www.sfgate.com/style/article/Do-any-grown-ups-actually-live-in-San-Francisco-5828105.php

Interpretation: The funkier the cheese, the funkier the dream-induced metaphor.

Johanna is a writer, editor, professional Googler, and arm-chair sociologist who arcs towards proper adulthood in the Mission District of San Francisco.