Walking Ghost

I'm caught up in the story. I can't shake the “off” feeling...the feeling of not really being here at all. As I walk down the sidewalk, my brain's in another world: a world where characters from television exist, motives run deep, and every moment is fascinating and electric.

This is how I get sometimes, and it happened again yesterday for the first time in a very long while. It starts with boredom. (Doesn't every interesting, crazy thing start with boredom?) In this last case, it was my professor's lecture, which was by far not the dullest speech in history, but in my defense, I was very tired. I knew that I would never be able to concentrate on it, so I did what any self-respecting slacker college kid would do: I stopped trying to listen. Instead, I purposely started a daydream to keep myself awake.

I'll admit that I frequently borrow television characters for this purpose, as it saves time and lets me get right to the action. Fortunately, my sole daydream audience is me, and I forgive my copyright infringements.

I enjoyed my waking dream for a while. Class ended, so I got up to leave. Daydream over, right? Wrong. My brain wasn't letting me give up that easily. It kept me in a daze during the entire walk to my car (which is saying something, considering the parking conundrum at CU). Even after I got home and told my mind that we needed to work on a paper due the next day, despite my pleading, it was insistent. I was wheedled into progressing the story.

To my shame and my brain's victory, I couldn't work on my paper again until after eleven that night. Instead, I was forced to search extensively for music to match the literary mood, sit for long periods of time to simply think, and studiously type up the entire cumulative storyline. Nine hours later, and what did I have? A class paper that hadn't been touched, an entire day gone, and more than a page of, basically, fanfiction. The crazy thing? That I think it was worth it.

I guess this is why I'd love to be a writer.



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Do you ever daydream obsessively? Dwell on fictional characters much more than what's healthy? Love Fringe as much as I do? Comment about it below.