it all happened one night..

My overactive imagination actually causes me more harm than it does good. I am such an advocate for "using your imagination" but for the most part, mine just leads me into dark and ugly places that encase me, and leave me feeling alone and scared. I woke up to the police at my door at 630 am this morning, inquiring about my neighbor. He left one of his dogs out all night (unlike him, and especially only leaving out one - as he has two and they are inseparable)They couldn't get him to answer the door, and so they started to worry, naturally. I don't know what ended up happening, but his mom is there now and the dog is inside. However, the point of this is - once the police left and I *tried* to get back to sleep I laid there, going over every scenario in my head of what might have happened to him. This is where my imagination turns sour, because I start creating terrifying and awful scenarios. I won't go into detail, but they always involve someone being murdered or raped or both. I would like to skip these thought process altogether, but the simplest thing can trigger them - as simple as a creaking sound coming from the basement. It really takes up so much more of my energy than I'm willing to spare - it's just a matter of mind over matter I guess. Regardless, I am now very sleep deprived because naturally once I could finally turn off my brain and fall back into dream world - the girls woke up and demanded my immediate attention. Now to bake a cake, get the groceries and get to shoppers to pick up medication. Oy vey - can't I just go back to bed?