I had the strangest dreams last night.

I was going to college in Manhattan and it was Christmas Eve and I hadn't yet bought any Christmas presents for my family. Snow was gently falling and I was walking through the streets with my scarf trailing behind me as I clutched bags trying to hail a cab. I stopped at a chocolate shop because I wanted to buy my mother a bundle of chocolates in an elaborate porcelin box, but the chocolate shop was empty and I realized I didn't have enough money for the chocolates, let alone a plane ticket home. I started to cry to the clerk, telling her my problems, when the clerk suddenly turned into my father. He said not to worry and that we would go to F.A.O. Schwartz to look for a present for my little sister.

Then I woke up.

In the next dream I was on a ship looking for Moby Dick with Ishmael. My sister was there, and we were huddling in the hull of the boat because we saw Moby Dick's enormous shadow and feared he would capsize the ship. Finally the boat docked by an island and we saw mermaids bathing in the sunlight.

No, I don't make these things up.