3:22 a.m.

The cat threw up a hairball at 3:22 a.m. I heard it happen, got up, cleaned it up and went back to bed.

I was wide awake at that point, so I laid there thinking. I had been having a dream before the hairball incident. In the dream, I was having a conversation with someone about a knitting bag. It was a complicated conversation, but I couldn't remember any of it.

I just couldn't get back to sleep at this point, and thoughts started popping into my head. My brain literally felt like a popcorn popper with random thoughts flying about. Here is a sample of the things that were flying about in my brain:

My daughter will be ten soon. She will likely only live with us for eight more years. Geez, that makes me sad. I need to do more stuff with her. Mental note to self: Make time to paint ceramics with her soon. Didn't I just bring her home from the hospital? (Then the theme from "The Way We Were" started playing in my head.) Geez, "The Way We Were" was a great movie. A young Robert Redford . . . insanely good looking. Of course, Robert Redford is still good looking. What was that movie he was in with Michelle Pfeiffer? That one had a good theme song too. I don't remember the name of the song, but Celine Dion sang it. Hey, Robert Redford was great in "The Sting". Another good movie song. I wonder how many Robert Redford movies had hit songs?

Then I heard my husband's Blackberry chiming in the kitchen. I wondered who was emailing him. Probably someone half-way around the world. I wondered where they were. I wish I knew someone half-way around the world. If I did, I would get up and send them an email, and then they would wonder why I was up in the middle of the night sending emails to them.

It was then that I started drifting back to sleep only to be jolted awake by the cat who decided to profess her love for me by purring and cuddling up next to me. I looked at the clock. It was 4:12 a.m.

Then I laid there thinking about the Olympics and Canada. I wondered what it would be like to live in Canada. Are they that much different from us? I wonder if I could pass for a Canadian if I learned the words to "O Canada" and started putting an extra "u" in words like "favourite" and "colour". I might have to learn about hockey. I think maybe the Canadians would see through me. They seem like a smart bunch. I really like Canada. That's where William Shatner is from after all. Captain Kirk was my first crush.

And somewhere in the middle of Canada, Captain Kirk and the Olympics, I managed to fall back asleep for a couple of hours.

I see that the damn cat is sleeping peacefully right now. I'm going to go wake her up just for spite. I wonder if cats dream? If she were dreaming, what would she be dreaming about???

I need to find an "off" switch for the random thoughts that make their way into my brain.