Oversleeping

Sometimes, I oversleep.

OK, I damn near always oversleep, but that involves hitting the snooze button a lot and reluctantly getting up when the clock-radio goes on for the umpteenth time.

But sometimes, I remain asleep when the radio is blaring.  And my mind, in a desperate attempt to remain asleep, tries valiantly to integrate the radio into my dream.

I first noticed this phenomenon when I was a kid, dreaming I was at Magic Mountain, and -- for some reason -- Rick Dees magically appeared and started talking to us.  (And I woke up when I thought, "What the hell is Rick Dees doing here?)

This morning, after I hit the snooze a few times, I fell back asleep (again) and stayed there.  The alarm went off and I -- while still asleep -- dreamt that the alarm went off.  (I even had a -- false -- memory that someone -- my aunt, for some reason -- had come in previously and hit the snooze, saying, "We should let her sleep.")  So I reached to hit snooze and shut the alarm off.  And it wouldn't go off.  "Two Tickets to Paradise" is blaring over the radio and I can't turn it off.  I reach for the off button and hit it repeatedly -- won't go off.  I get up, get on my hands and knees behind my nightstand, and unplug the radio.  Eddie Money is still singing.  I open the radio and check for back-up batteries.  There are empty battery slots.  I keep staring at this unplugged battery-less radio and can't figure out how music is still coming out of it.  I walk out into the living room (my aunt is there -- she was visiting) and I'm about to share with her this bizarre miracle of home electronics when I finally wake the hell up just as the song ends.