Last night I dreamed about a master vampire who was tolerating my presence, but from whom I needed to escape. However, it's not easy escaping from vampires. After all, they can fly.

I've always liked vampire lore, and enjoy watching vampire movies just to get the different take people have on them (where they came from, how they act, etc.). I remember the first vampire movie I saw, back when we lived in Pennslyvania, which put it somewhere in grades 4-7. That movie was set in the Old West, and the vampire was ultimately killed by a silver bullet. I'm sure it was a cheesy movie, which is why I've not heard of it since. But I found it interesting.

Later, there was the TV show "Night Stalker," which I really liked. More recently there was "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and "Angel," two shows that Pam and I watched with great devotion. And many vampire movies have come out in recent years, including one I saw (most of) on a recent Saturday morning, a really really bad vampire movie staring Jon Bon Jovi as the slayer.

So it's not strange that a vampire should show up in my dreams. In this particular dream, the vampire was distracted upon discovering a barn filled with victims, and that's when I chose to make my getaway, with the help of someone with a boat. This person, in arranging my getaway, broke into a lengthy Broadway-style song and dance which was quite spectacular. The choreography was superb, and I awoke with the tune and words (they rhymed, too) still in my head.

This part of the dream, no doubt, relates to having watched the musical "Rent" that night. I'd been looking forward to seeing this movie for a long time. However, though it had some very good moments, I was disappointed. Beyond the opening song, nothing struck me as worth listening to a second time (unlike the wonderful "High School Musical"). Plus, there were two homosexual couples and only one heterosexual couple, and I wasn't all that crazy about that.

Frankly, I think the song my subconscious mind dreamed up was as good as anything in the movie. And I tell people I'm not any good at writing songs!