Dream of: 28 February 1996 "Chess Game"
I was playing a game of chess with my brother Chris; he had the white pieces and I the black. Chris barely knew how to play, and in fact didn't even know how all the pieces moved. Once he tried to jump over my pieces with a bishop and I had to point out to him that only the knight could jump over pieces.
Nevertheless, Chris still had almost all his pieces, while I only had a few – among which were my queen, a rook and a knight. All Chris's pieces were still basically lined up on his side of the board. Even though Chris had most of his pieces, clearly I was just toying with him, and the outcome wasn't in doubt. I was just contemplating the fastest way to put Chris in checkmate. I wondered if he knew he could just knock over his king when he realized he was going to lose. To myself I wondered when it was appropriate to knock over the king – when checkmate was inevitable, or just when you were so weak that you knew you had almost no chance of winning?
While we were still playing, I stood up and started getting ready to go to work. It was early morning and I was still putting on my clothes. Carolina was in the room and she helped me find my black leather belt and handed it to me.
Suddenly something occurred to me: I had drunk some coffee and was now clearly feeling the stimulating effects of the coffee. I had been trying to quit drinking coffee and I hadn't any in a couple weeks. Having now drunk the coffee, however, I felt wide awake and full of energy. I was ready to start the day.
