We all have had a lot of training in being anxious about exams?

I actually showed up for my English Lit O Level having read only the first few chapters of Great Expectations, and pulled an A out of my ass by finding two life-changing events for Pip in that brief space. So having lived through it, I'm surprised it still haunts me.

Anxiety dreams: mine usually take the form of murderous villains/creatures chasing me or discovering I'm pregnant and not being sure what kind of creature I'm carrying.

I showed up for my first Systems Engineering midterm with a pencil but no scratch paper or calculator and got the highest score in the class. Also went into a Russian History exam with no blue book and crammed my whole essay comparing and contrasting Lenin and Stalin (I still remember the question because when I read it I laughed out loud that he was asking such a broad question - people turned around and looked at me) onto the white space of the one sheet of paper that the question was on. Got a B++ on that one. Prof Davis couldn't bring himself to give me an A after I made him read my tiny scribbles trying to fit everything in. But I had done all the reading.

Sue and Juliana, I'm so sorry about the cats. Pets shouldn't go so soon, it's just wrong.

I haven't had an exam since 1997, but yeah, I still get test anxiety dreams.

Went out for a great dinner with a friend last night, and we killed a bottle of wine, which made this morning's run particularly slow and painful. Then I went shopping for a party top with my niece (she talked me into my first real pair of skinny jeans), took a nap, and then visited Dad, fixed his kindle, and set up his tiny Christmas tree.

Dinner was some over-salted kale chips, and a small apple. I've been eating too much rich food already this holiday season.

Now I need to vacuum and email the dog-sitter and watch some television, I think.

I wonder if the anxiety dreams of more rural cultures revolve around losing livestock that you were supposed to be watching.

That makes perfect sense to me, Connie.

Also: forgetting to feed your sourdough starter; forgetting to milk the goats; forgetting to plant things at the right time of year; neglecting to put out a dish of food for the brownies/spirits/little gods; worrying about whether the salmon will run this year; and so forth.

My anxiety dreams are all financial. Which, could be sadly prescient as opposed to just anxious.

or they involve neverending or suddenly ending staircases.

I completely sliced my finger on a cardboard box. That was at 1:00. It's still vaguely bleeding if squozed.

t, did you guys have to bring your own blue books? How did that work?

I dread the "I totally forgot that I signed up for classes, never went, and now I am going to fail" dreams. Mine usually have the added bonus of not being able to find the registrars office or figure out the procedure to withdraw.