Dream interpretation is something I've been interested in since I was fifteen, when I went through a period when I suffered from fairly intense panic attacks and briefly ended up seeing a therapist who was very big on having me write down my dreams so that we could discuss them at the next session. But over time, I've realized that I'm less interested in literal interpretations of dream-symbols (losing your teeth means that you're worried about your appearance; snakes mean that there's a hidden threat in your life; spiders suggest that someone in your life is manipulating you) than in using these "classic" meanings as a jumping-off point, and then relying primarily on my feelings about the symbols that appear in my dreams to unravel what they're actually trying to tell me.

Step 1: Write It Down

On line at the supermarket yesterday, I was paging through a magazine and came across a feature on "building the perfect stocking." It included things like seventy-five dollar bottle openers and cashmere socks and little ceramic cubes to keep your drink cool. It looked great. It also looked like virtually the opposite of any stocking I have ever personally built, ever.

Every year when I was a little girl, my dad would realize on the afternoon of December 24 that he'd completely forgotten to get my mom anything for her stocking, and he and I would run off to the drugstore on Ninth Avenue in search of things to fill it with. It was fun, and exciting, and always turned out way better than expected...because drugstores are absolutely full of cool things that you never really notice when you're running in for some floss and then running straight back out again.

I'm pretty good about preparing for Christmas well in advance, but I still believe that stockings should (at least mostly) come straight from the shelves of CVS - there's just something fun about running through the aisles on a shopping spree, picking up all those slightly odd and unexpected (but still useful) things that you always kind of want to buy but never do.