If there was some way to live in one of those floorplans and have a marvellous view of Chicago (or whatever city of my choice), I'd love it. But as a whole it doesn't look like a place where real people live. And obviously, real people don't live in Dubai. Fantasy people live there. I can't wrap my mind around the place, and I can't wrap my mind around a slice of it in the midwest.

I did not like the floorplans at all.

I don't know, I've always thought of the Boogeyman as a pretty childhood specific thing too. Though since I've been called upon by a neighbor to check for the imaginary prowler hiding in the bedroom closet of the locked apartment she'd been in for hours, perhaps it's only the assumption of otherworldiness that's left behind in childhood.

Though since I've been called upon by a neighbor to check for the imaginary prowler hiding in the bedroom closet of the locked apartment she'd been in for hours, perhaps it's only the assumption of otherworldiness that's left behind in childhood.

I'll confess this now, and you can all mock me if you like.

Before I moved in with The Boy, I lived in the same apartment for 7 years. For the last 3 years I lived there (possibly 4), I slept with the bedroom light on every. single. night. There's no explanation for the feeling of panic and dread I got when I turned out the light, but it happened every night. And I never slept very well, either, even with the light on. For 3 years.

Even when The Boy slept over, I had to keep the lights on.

Now I sleep with the lights out, and I sleep like a rock.

Otherworldliness in my closet? I doubt it. But I also don't know why, after being able to sleep with the lights off for the first 4 years of living there, I was incapable of doing so for the next 3.

Dubai kinda creeps me out, not exactly sure why. Anyone else here gotten the email of "this is where all your gas money is going" with all the Dubai images and future artist renderings? The person who sent it to me did not like my reaction which was to laugh and say - HELLO - LA? Las Vegas?

Dubai kinda creeps me out, not exactly sure why.

Michael Jackson lives there?

Marketplace did a series from Dubai. It was fascinating.

If it makes you feel any better, I don't sleep well in total darkness either. Though a TV or moonlight/streetlight through a window is enough to serve, I just need to be able to make out the confines of the room well enough to tell where I am.

Every so often I smell cigarette smoke around the house. My first thought is always that it's my father's ghost and I'm good with it. My second is always it's some creepy stranger lurking in backyard and I FREAK OUT until I can convince myself of some other scenario. So I guess I still do believe in ghosts. Then again, I might well be considered primitive, superstitious, and bat shit crazy.

My friend Jennifer says that if you see a ghost you should probably move the toaster or microwave. Sometimes your eyeballs resonate at the same frequency as other objects, and you have a visual hallucination. Since your brain is all about seeing patterns, it fills in blanks and you get an image you understand.