PHRASEOLOGY, DREAMS AND NIGHTMARES

Of late, phrases haunt me in my dreams, floating around, mocking and laughing at me. I chase them, trying for dear life to match them, which makes me an idioms matchmaker. "Tarde, mal y nunca" slides by, close to "dar el último adiós," at the heels of "in your heart of hearts"... and I try to capture "ahí es nada" with my "idiomnet"... as If I were Vladimir Nabokov running after butterflies in the fields of Massachusets, next to Lolita, waving his net. "A day late and a dollar short" flies by, while "dar el último adiós" does a headstand near "too little, too late." I wake up screaming and rush to my laptop trying frantically to recall and match all those phrases, idioms, giros, modismos which torture me at night. A losing battle that prompts me to despair, and pull my hairs (I have few left) and ask the gods for mercy.