(Thanks, Spaceprince72!)

Have you ever been hit in the brain by such a vivid dream that you wake up and think whatever was in that dream actually happened? Or worse, you woke up the next morning or at some point during the day to get dressed and go somewhere that doesn’t exist? Yes, that sort of happened a few days back and I wasn’t going to write about it, but this sort of thing happens quite a lot to quite a lot of people, I hear.

Anyway, I had a dream about empanadas a few days back that had me about to take a bite of one of the dozen I bought, then waking up and wanting to head out to a take out place somewhere in Harlem, if the dream was correct. Well, my brain’s GPS placed the restaurant there and as I’d lived in that area for a few years, I thought I knew exactly where it was located.

(Thanks, ScreamFactoryTV!)

I have no idea why that dream jumped out and bit me, as I’ve neither made empanadas nor know anyone who makes them save for a person I dated who once asked me what’s the best way to ship them because her mother was asked to make some for someone. But that was a long time ago. Maybe I need to go write that person and ask in her mom is alright in this pandemic or something? I’ll go do that after I post this, as dreams can be both total brain clearing nonsense egghead scramble yet eerily accurate in their predictions.

But I don’t take them that seriously, as I used to dream sometimes very vividly for years that I was levitating while walking a few miles in NYC. Except that I wasn’t actually levitating in those real life walks. I was a poor guy and to save money, walked almost everywhere, sometimes 14 or more miles from the Bronx to Manhattan when I had stuff to do or even work in the city. I sure wished I could have levitated back then, thus the many dreams I had. Those were the days, I guess.

(Thanks, gamus100!)

Anyway, I bet you’re curious as to what sort of empandas were in that dream, and yes, I still remember most of them. Let’s see now, there was a mashed potato with chili and corn, a few chicken and beef variants, pork and vegetables marinated in a brandy of some sort, a few cheese types (I think the Mexican type of Manchego or Oaxaca cheese ones stood out the most) and even a cactus-filled one. I recall waking up and still not fully realizing we were still in a stay the hell at home stage, started getting dressed to go to that fictional place until I realized that my brain had uploaded that dream and yes, I wasn’t going anywhere except to the kitchen to put on a pot of coffee. Well, at least I had some cake in the refrigerator to go with that.

Now that I think about it, a few years back I saw a woman who was walking down a street here pushing a cart with homemade empanadas and other fried food on it and I was definitely curious to try something. but I didn’t. I also thought of the time I went to see a friend in Brooklyn, but he was a bit late getting home, so I wandered the area until I found, to my surprise, a Jamaican restaurant that had quite a few fantastic-looking dished and guess who had a dream that night before about chicken roti and who had never had that before? Yup. Ant that’s what I ordered when I walked in the door, too. It was great, save for the chicken bone the cook warned me to look out for (that wasn’t in the dream, but, hey – that’s where you pay attention to reality, right?

(Thanks, BreadCrustCouncil!)

Oh, and wear a mask, please. Your dreams may thank you for it.

-GW