A very strange trip

I was on a road trip with Boyfriend heading to Six Flags in Vallejo when he turned into Q. We stopped in this little village where Q.'s family lived and he introduced me to all his family and friends from the town he grew up in. Then, he turned back into Boyfriend and we were sitting around a table with his family (I distinctly remember his aunts being there) and then I really had to pee, so I went to use the bathroom which I had to get to by climbing up several sets of stairs in hallways that looked like the stair cases in the frat of one of the guys I dated in college. The bathroom, once I got there, was basically a classroom with desks (you know, those desks that are attached to the seats) and a drain underneath each desk. Once I realized what I had to do, I aligned myself with the drain and took care of business. I was peeing for an absurd amount of time - I really had to go - when Boyfriend walked in and wanted me to finish up so that we could get back on the road to Six Flags.

When we got into the car, he turned into Q. again and Q. grabbed my hand and kissed me on the cheek as if he was trying to sort of seduce me (I was driving the car, but for some reason it was a European car so I was sitting on the right side). I said something like, "Wow, this is weird and a little past the point of relevant, isn't it?" He asked what I meant, and I explained to him that I didn't live and work in Texas anymore and I asked why was he trying to kiss me; his answer was that he was always attracted to me and he was trying to seduce me now because I didn't work there anymore.

Then, my viewpoint of the dream zoomed out and I saw the car moving down this very windy, steep part of the highway. It zoomed back in and we were kissing.

All of a sudden we were back in the village and I went back to the bathroom to see if I had used it correctly before and I saw a girl wearing a skirt using the bathroom, but she had a pillow behind her back in the classroom desk and it dawned on me that I should have done that when I used the bathroom - it would have been way more comfortable.

Two nights, two dreams

Two nights ago, I dreamt that I was a hybrid of Amy and Sookie from True Blood and I was alternately really giddy because I (as Amy) was getting married to Jason and comforting him (as Sookie). But I kept going in and out of character when I was Sookie, so sometimes we'd be acting and other times it was me and the actor who plays Jason, Ryan Kwanten, messing around when we weren't filming. High sexual tension. Can you blame me??

Last night, I dreamt that I was at work in my office, but I was barefoot and had to use the ladies room. All of the doors in my office, though, were like the doors of an elementary school - heavy, thick wood. I was running back and forth between the bathroom and my office when someone famous (I can't remember who now) was in the hallway looking for me. Also, I think I was trying to get ready for a party or get together of sorts, and all of a sudden the lobby where the elevator is in real life turned in to the outdoors, there was grass and several trees (maybe because I can't stop thinking about the scene from True Blood two weeks ago when Jason and Amy are running around outside on grass in the rain?).

Batman and my bicycle

There were four parts to this dream but I only remember the first and the last.

In the first part, I was in Blockbuster or Best Buy or some store like that, but it was a lot smaller than those stores are in real life. I had a band-aid on my face, near my chin, and I was looking for the movies Batman Begins and The Dark Knight because apparently they were now being sold together in a special edition metal case. The metal case opened up and had the Batman Begins DVD on the left side and The Dark Knight DVD on the right side. The cover of The Dark Knight had Heath-Ledger-as-The-Joker on it and the rest of the DVD box was green. I ran into some people I knew but I didn't want to because I had that band-aid on my face and I was embarrassed about it, but then one of them told me that if I waited a few more weeks, they were going to release an even MORE special edition of those two DVDs in a set with a metal case that was tinted green and had The Joker's silhouette on the outside front cover of the metal case instead of just on the DVD box itself. I waited in line anyway to have the store clerk confirm that this was true and then it was getting dark outside and I could hear some hoodlums gathering in front of the store so I was getting really nervous.

In the last part of the dream, I was riding bikes with Boyfriend in San Francisco (read: up and down lots of hills) and we had just gone up one street when Boyfriend stopped and pointed to a bike that was resting against a street sign pole on the left side of the street. "Isn't that your bike that I bought you?" he asked. And sure enough, upon a second look, it was my baby blue bike that apparently had been stolen from me weeks ago. There was a bike shop on the right side of that corner so I naturally assumed that they had stolen it when I noticed that the front tire handlebars and springs had been replaced with more comfortable parts. I immediately hopped off the bike that I was riding and ran over to baby blue and took her. I rode her across the street and down a set of stairs into the front entrance of the bike store, looking for the manager to tell him/her that I was stealing my bike back, but there was only a sales person in there who looked at me and put up one finger to tell me that he'd be with me in a minute. I left the bike shop and went back outside to find Boyfriend waiting for me with both his bike, which he was still on, and my other bike, which he was going to guide like you would a horse. We went to my apartment and I rode the bike into my bedroom, which didn't have any furniture in it at all and that's when I noticed that there was yellow paint on the front tire and I was tracking it onto the carpet. I didn't care; I was just so happy to finally have my bike back. I called 411 to get the number of the bike store so that I could call to speak to the manager and offer to pay for half of the improvements they made on my bike - my bike was stolen and then they did these repairs, I didn't ask for those things to be done so why should I pay in full, right?? - but no one picked up. I rode back up towards the bike store and ran into a girl I went to high school with and we rode around the corner where the bike store was, waiting for someone to come out, but no one did.

Partying in three countries

I was with my brother and we had to go to three places - Portugal, Spain and New York, which in this dream were all in the same state. I was confused, but it turns out that they were all just different areas of NYC so we ent to a bar in Portugal first. The beers were weird so he and I took a white mini van to go to Spain, but we had to sneak out because our parents were there and they wanted us to stay. I don't remember what happened in Spain, but once we got to New York, my brother went off to talk to some girls and then all of a sudden I was in some sort of college campus-type of courtyard and there was a big party going on. I searched for my brother but couldn't find him and when I started to freak out, some guy came up to me to ask if I needed help. I didn't know who he was so I was wary at first, but then he was really funny so I decided to let him help me.

As always, there was more to it than that but the combination of hitting the snooze button and pushing my cats off the bed (they were under the covers and on top of me at different points) has made me lose the images.

Dang it

Shopping with coworkers, traveling through the mountains/beaches... I don't remember much, mostly because I hit snooze for 40 minutes. I really need to get a grip on hitting the snooze button, it's driving me insane.

Vaccination in the city = bachelor party?

It was the week leading up to Nick C.'s wedding and I had to meet my brother in the city for the pre-wedding party. It was a bachelor party, of sorts, although obviously I am not a bachelor. I told my brother that I needed to get the car washed after work but before heading into the city on Tuesday, the night of the party, but he told me that I didn't have enough time and that I could wash the car later in the week because the getting to the party on time was way more important.

So, of course, I tried to get the car washed before the party anyway and I had to wait on a line in this area where there were power lines above me and I was really worried that I was going to develop a form of cancer from the radiation.

I also had to get some sort of vaccination once I was in the city - actually, I had to get a whole group of us, I think it was the entire party, vaccinated - and it was a struggle to organize it because there were so many people. The P.R. guy from Phoenix was the doctor that was administering the vaccinations and I would only get it from him because he was the only doctor there that I trusted, so I waited for him in the waiting room. The nurse drew some of my blood for testing purposes before the vaccination and then I was told to come back in a few hours, so i walked around the city - the doctor's office was in the city but not in the heart of it, so there wasn't as much to do in that area - and there was a river or sorts off to my right and I saw a killer whale diving in and out and all these tourists were taking pictures.

When I got back to the office, I asked for the Phoenix P.R. guy/my doctor but they told me I'd have to wait longer so I started to freak out, thinking that they were going to lead me to a different doctor, so I left.

Defeating the purpose of this blog

The past two nights I have had exciting and interesting dreams that I immediately forget upon regaining full consciousness in the mornings. Maybe it's because I hit the snooze button so much that it erases all conscious memory of my dreams, or maybe it's that my cats decide to jump on my head thereby knocking rational sense into my brain? Either way, for the life of me I can't remember my dreams from last night and the night before, although I know that they were pretty dang cool.

Better luck next time.

Pregnancy and strangers and people from my past

I walked around my neighborhood and went to this house that was a four-plex and it looked almost exactly like my apartment building except that it was a light green on the outside. I knocked on the door of apartment number 2, which was in the same place that my actual apartment is in, and when the guy opened the door, I explained that I was hoping to take a quick look at whichever apartment was for rent (as the sign on the front lawn indicated). He said he wasn't sure which apartment it was, but that I should ask the girl who lived next door. She came to the door almost immediately after I knocked and the three of us had a conversation about which apartment might be for rent since it wasn't either of theirs. Oddly, both of their downstairs apartments were one bedrooms, which, given the layout of the four-plex, seemed impossible in terms of space. I was looking for the two-bedroom apartment and since neither of them lived in a two-bedroom, I walked back to my apartment, but for some reason these two people came with me. I think they wanted to see what my apartment looked like since I'd told them that our buildings seemed to be identical.

On the way back to my apartment, I had a bird's eye view and there was an absolutely massive crowd that was surging in towards the middle of the city but I didn't know what the people were doing or where they were going.

Then, my apartment morphed into my house in New Jersey and my [clearly fictional] husband lived there with our [also clearly fictional] son, who was maybe about 5 years old. And I was pregnant. The three of us went for a walk and then all of a sudden I was at ARCO in a royal blue formal dress and had to wait on line to use the bathroom, except the line was really long and the people in front of me were people with whom I went to high school. They were all really excited for me that I was pregnant, though. For being with-child, I wasn't really big yet even though apparently I was really far along in my pregnancy, it just felt like my whole body was really taut, if that makes any sense. Anyway so it was finally my turn to use the bathroom and I took care of business and then walked out of the stall and one of the boys that I went to HS with was holding open the stall door, and I was wearing a long-sleeve t-shirt and jeans. I was really nervous that my water was going to break and when I went upstairs to the Police Department, I was walking around very carefully so as not to jar the baby out of my body. (Wtf?)

In the middle of the station, I ran into this guy who triggered a flashback type memory that I had of him for some reason. In this vision, the officer was having sex with this other guy who was dressed up in Native American clothing and then the second time they had sex, the Native American guy tricked the guy at the station and really hurt him, like that sin in the movie 7even. I came back to the present in the station and the officer walked by, kind of limping, and then I realized that he looked a little like one of my math teachers that I had in HS (but it wasn't actually him).

Lastly, my mom showed up and we went to go find seats in a movie theater or a playhouse (not sure) and as I was meeting her in the middle of our row, I began to get really emotional and started to cry and told her that I never, ever imagined that at 24 years of age, I'd be pregnant - it wasn't in the plan I had for myself.

I really need to stop watching tv shows just before I fall asleep

I was smoking with a new coworker of mine in a new office at my new job at some sports arena, I think it was a minor league baseball park (those of you who have worked in baseball know the difference between minor and major league stadiums). I didn't really want to be smoking and neither did she, but we had decided that it was the "safe" alternative to taking V (vampire blood, for those of you who don't watch True Blood on HBO). We tried to spray air freshener every time we puffed but a coworker finally poked her head in and said, "Ummm perhaps smoking in your office on the first day is NOT a good idea?" She said it nicely and I thanked her for pointing that out, and we stopped smoking.

Then I was at some new employee get together or something, but that's pretty much all I remember.

Row row row yourself through the airport line... then take some books out from the library

I was at the airport somewhere in California and Coach JB was trying to fly to Canyon for some reason, I think to look for a player and bring her back to help the team for next season. I seem to recall that this "player" was the actress who played the dying girl on this week's episode of "Private Practice," which I watched on abc.com just before falling asleep last night. Anyway... I had to draw a map of the Texas Panhandle for Coach JB so she would know how desolate the area really was... I drew a star on the map for Amarillo, a star for Canyon and a star for Lubbock. Then she wanted to know how long it would take her to get to a town that was slightly southeast of Amarillo and northeast of Canyon, but I didn't know and told her so. All of this was in the airport while everyone on the team was freaking out for some reason, then finally Coach JB gets in line to board her plane, puts her bag through the x-ray scanner, then gets in a row boat and rows her way around the terminal to the gate because that's how it had to be done.

Next I was with Anna in a house in Boston, she had just returned from being somewhere and I hadn't seen her in months. She'd gone to the library and picked up a few books that she wanted to "protect" (I don't know why that was necessary) and then we went to bed. I shaved my legs with one of those non-razor shavers and then Anners wanted to use it to so I cleaned it and gave it to her. While we were sleeping, this guy came into the house which really was a weird dream-version of my apartment - he worked at the library and was looking for the books that Anners had taken out so I pointed to them and he said "Oh okay, no worries, I just wanted to make sure that the books were okay." Then he offered to bring us the movie version of the graphic novel that Anners had taken out so that she could better understand the plot. As I walked him to the front door, I realized that it was wide open and I was really worried that my cats had run away, but then Raider and Diamond were just wrestling on the welcome mat just outside the door and I called them and they came back inside right away.

Then I was in the shower and realized that I didn't have to shave my legs because I already had.

I woke up and realized that in my sleep, I'd hit snooze four times and now don't have time to shower before getting my ass to work.

Only a vague memory

All I can recall from last night is that Amy's parents were getting a divorce and Bob was kicked out of their house, which looked nothing like their house in real life.

Maybe that's why Nancy wanted me to open that ginormous bottle of wine in my dream from the other night?

Can dreams from night to night be connected like that?

Race to a place that I can't remember

Nicole, me and Slynch (in that order) were driving in three separate cars on our way to a get together when Nicole and I made it through a traffic light and Slynch got stuck at it. Nicole and I decided to pull over to the side to wait, but we wound up being in front of this mansion which belonged to someone I knew, so we parked our cars and went inside to shmooze. We didn't stay long, maybe about a half hour, but then we realized that we were supposed to be leading Slynch to the big party so we ran out of the mansion to get back into our cars, and there were these boys outside trying to talk to us. We ignored them, though, got into our cars, and had to maneuver our way out of the mansion driveway because more people had shown up after us and had blocked in our cars. When we finally were able to leave, we sped along the road to the party and right before we got there, the road turned into this really narrow bridge. I was driving a huge silver pick-up truck that barely fit in the lane - which was delineated by a strip of metal that would have popped my tires had I touched it with my car - and then there was an obstacle course of sorts that we had to drive through in order to get to the party. The course was in the air, though, and we could defy gravity in order to pass through it. On my first try driving through the obstacle course, my car slipped off the road and I was slowly falling through the air (because of the whole defying gravity thing) when I reached out with my left hand, grabbed the side of the course and pulled me and my car - which was now much smaller than a pick-up truck - back onto the course. I started over and this time, I had to drive literally straight down over a bumpy road, but the first bump sent me and my car hurtling through the air, again slower than normal gravity would make me fall. This time as I was falling, I turned around and grabbed onto the wall facing the vertical bumpy road and I realized that there were ladder rungs that I could just climb down to get to the party. Since I was suddenly no longer in a car, I simply climbed down and met up with all my friends - mostly URSB - and Slynch asks what took me so long, and Nicole told me that I got there just minutes after she did.

I was waiting for Boyfriend to show up because he was supposed to meet me there and meet all of my friends but he was nowhere to be seen so I caught up with my friends and kept an eye on the door near where I had climbed down the ladder. Finally, just as the speaker at the party was about to begin his/her speech, Boyfriend showed up. I had to take him through the line of food (Chinese food!) so that he wouldn't be starving throughout the speech and the rest of the party so we got some orange chicken. One of my professors from UR (can't remember who) was in line behind us and chit-chatted with us.

Then, I was riding down an elevator to go to my car to wait for Boyfriend again. Not sure how he'd disappeared, but he kept calling me to tell me he was on his way over and that he'd be there shortly but I kept waiting and waiting in my car - which was now something like a Honda Civic coupe - in the parking lot. Finally he texts me and says "I'm at the pool" so I am LIVID and I get out of my car, hoping that he meant that he was at the indoor pool upstairs near where we were supposed to be and not by the outdoor pool downstairs in front of the parking lot, and there he is, jumping out of the pool. He was clearly hanging out with some shady people in the pool, but I can't remember who they were. Boyfriend is completely dry when he gets out of the pool, though, and I look him right in the eye then brush past him to get back to the elevator and go back upstairs. When I get out off the elevator on the ninth (or so) floor, the door to the stairwell opens up and Boyfriend comes out and is trying to talk to me and apologize for being late but I am really upset because he was so inconsiderate. I'd wanted him to be at whatever we were doing on the ninth floor (can't remember what) and he didn't even have the courtesy to tell me that he was running late, never mind the fact that he obviously didn't want to be at whatever event was going on in the first place.

I forgave him after a little bit and we went to sit down with the rest of the group on the ninth floor when Boyfriend said, "I'm hungry." So I took him over to this buffet table of pastries which was also selling books and he decided to buy the Gossip Girl book (there was only one Gossip Girl book in existence, apparently) for himself as well. I asked him why, because I knew that he didn't like that show at all, and he told me and the salesgirl that he has heard some really good things about it so he decided that he would check out the book to see if it's as good as everyone had told him.

There was another part of this dream that involved my mom and me being in some hotel-like room, but the more I try to think of it the more it escapes me.

Wine and dive

I know that there was more to this dream that what I can remember right now, but here's what I can recall now:

My family was having some friends over for dinner and each of my friends wanted a different kind of wine. One of our wine bottles was a screw-top while the others were all corks but some of the corked bottles had already been opened. I tried to find a wine that each person would enjoy, but some of the wines I had had chunks of fruits - mostly pineapple - in the bottom and I didn't think that they would like that. Finally I found a kind of wine for each of the people except for Nancy, who wanted me to open up one of those really large bottles of wine (you know, the ones that are in those absolutely huge bottles that I don't think are even meant to be opened... boyfriend has one at his house) but I didn't have a bottle opener that would work on that size of a bottle so I was in our kitchen at my house in NJ fretting about it and then my mom came to the rescue with a small bottle of the same kind of wine as was in the large bottle so that I could pour it.

I remember the next portion of the dream much clearer: I was trying out for softball on UR's field and everyone kept saying how great it was to have me back, but I don't remember where I'd been, why I hadn't been on the team. It was so different than playing ball for real because there was a mix of UR and Pingry people there trying out and some of the Pingry people weren't on the softball team in HS, they were on the other teams I played on (basketball, soccer). I kept going through the "lines" but for the life of me I couldn't field a single ball cleanly, even though I was diving and getting in front of the ball... by the way Anners was hitting the balls at us. Marg was also there, to supervise I think. Of the people trying out, here's who I can remember being there: me, K.Wiz, Jen Z., Amanda P., Anners (hitting the balls at us) and then finally I made a comment to Anners about how it just wasn't the same without J.Mo being there as we were shagging the softballs and putting them into gray plastic shopping carts (I dunno!!)... and then J.Mo shows up! Except - and get ready to laugh - she looked like she had a Weird Al wig on because she had this super thick, curly black hair and I was like "Wow things certainly have changed around here!" Hahaha anyway, so then this shady van - one of those brown ones with blinds on the windows - rolls up on the field and Amanda P. goes behind this little wall that was sticking into left field from the left field fence and she's going to change into some nice clothes. I've just missed another ball even though I dove flat out to try to reach it so I went to the back of the line and asked her where she was going. Apparently she was going to see "Grace" in concert, who I clearly recognized in the dream as a country singer. I was excited for her because I thought that it would be a great show. Then, out of the brown van, this guy climbs down and says that he's there to wait for K.Wiz to be done so that he can take her back to Buffalo. We go through a few more turns with lines and then we were scrimmaging all of a sudden and I was playing left field and I dove for this one ball that landed just inside the left field line in that spot where the left fielder, third baseman and short stop all run to get it but it just drops in. I'm super upset because I just barely missed making a great diving catch but I scramble to my feet, pick it up and there's no cut-off person for me to throw to so I throw it to home - one-hopper - because there was a runner rounding third, but then I just turned around and walked back to my position without watching to see if I made the play at the plate.

So long and thanks for all the fish

I was at some sort of Sea World type of place with my family and a few friends and we had to cross this rickety, wooden bridge to get to the next area of the park, but an absolutely ginormous Orca kept leaping over the middle the bridge and we were all nervous to cross the bridge. Finally someone who worked at the park came up to us and told us that it was perfectly safe to cross the bridge because the whale was trained to not land on the bridge or interact with humans. So we started to cross and of course the whale landed on the bridge right in front of me but somehow it didn't break the bridge, and I reached out and petted it. It seemed to like me petting it - it kind acted like my cats do when I pet their sides and bellies - and then it let us pass without any more issues.

Suddenly, I was at this huge banquet hall that was part of a basketball arena and I was looking for four extra tickets to the game because I'd promised a former boss, DOD, that I would get tickets for him and his family since he was so monumental in terms of starting me on my career path. But somehow I'd forgotten that I'd already promised the four tickets that I get as a member of the staff to myself and my immediate family. I was scrambling around last minute trying to find tickets but none of my coworkers had four extra tickets that they weren't using - they had one two or three tickets, but no one had four tickets together. As I was running around the banquet hall asking people if they had extra tickets, I noticed that there were sharks swimming around underneath us - yes, there was a see-through floor and we were walking on top of an aquarium. Finally I found four tickets and they were better seats than I'd gotten for me and my family so I thought about switching them, but I'd already given the envelope of tickets for my family to Will Call and although I could have switched them, it would have been a big production. Finally, I decided to give DOD the better tickets and just not tell my family that I'd gotten him tickets so that they wouldn't be upset that his seats were better than ours.

The last part of the dream was set in Australia - no idea how I got there - but I was there with some friends I guess but I was going to go on a hiking tour and none of my friends wanted to go so it was just me and the tour guide, who happened to be absolutely gorgeous. I couldn't stop staring at his mouth as he was talking to me about the tour and finally he stopped talking and so I looked up and into his eyes and he said "Can you please stop staring at my mouth?" He didn't say it rudely, he said it as tactfully as possible, but I still was very embarrassed and I went running away into a nearby bar - it was the middle of the day, mind you - and there in the middle of the bar was FL-J. I started to freak out because of all people to be there, I was NOT expecting him or his brother (not that I've ever met his brother in real life, but apparently that was his brother there in my dream) to be in Australia, in THIS bar. Anyway, he saw me and starting to walk towards me with a smile on his face and I tried to look at him as if I didn't recognize him, which obviously didn't work in the slightest, so when he started to say hello I brushed past him to go find my friends. I found them and had some drinks then decided to go to the bathroom, which was on the other end of the bar, and in doing so I ran into FL-J again only this time he was with my tour guide, apparently they were good friends! So I was doubly embarrassed because I thought that the uber-hot tour guide was going to tell FL-J what had happened while he and I were talking and I wanted to ignore the whole thing! So I finally reached the bathroom, I took care of my business, but I started to hyperventilate because I was really stressed about the situation. When I got myself under control, I checked my make-up and my hair, decided I was looking pretty dang fine (in my jean skirt, t-shirt and long hair that was somewhat curly... exactly what I was wearing when I went to talk to him after we'd broken up my freshman year of college except that in my dream I had a wicked tan), and steeled myself for the big scary bar scene... I opened the door and there was FL-J, waiting for me. I tried to walk the other way without saying anything to him but he grabbed my arm as I was trying to walk past him and he spun me around and pulled me into a hug. He said, "It's so good to see you" softly into my ear and I started to cry as I pulled myself out of his embrace. I looked at him and tried to find the words to tell him how NOT good it was to see him, how much he had hurt me in the past and how I was nowhere near ready to see him and talk to him even after all this time, but instead I just started to cry harder and as his smile turned to an expression of confusion, I walked away. I found my friends again, we were standing at one of those high, round tables, we all had some more drinks, and when FL-J and the tour guide walked by again, I didn't look at him although I could feel him looking at me, again with confusion, as he walked past our table and out onto the outdoor patio at the back of the bar. I turned back to my friends and overcompensated with a really loud laugh at something one of them had said that was funny but not that funny and as my fake laughter died down, I woke up.