ALF on the Barge

MORNING OF DECEMBER 27, 2008

This is definitely one of the more bizarre dreams I've had in a while, and that's saying a lot. It started with me rehearsing for some kind of play or production in which I was playing the character of ALF (yes, the alien from the 80's TV show). I was rehearsing with the actors who played Willie and Kate Tanner on the show. I did not have the ALF puppet in my possession, nor was I in costume...presumably I'd have something of the sort in the official production.

The set we were on looked like a kitchen, with "Kate" standing by a counter and "Willie" and I at the table. I can clearly remember having a script in front of me, and I had a line that was roughly a paragraph long. Since I can't imitate the ALF voice, I was trying hard to at least capture the cadence and inflections of his speaking. For whatever reason, I kept fumbling this particular line, and the other actors were growing increasingly impatient.

Finally, we took a break. I continued to sit and try to memorize my lines. At this point, Sarah Palin (yes, the governor of Alaska and much-ballyhooed Republican VP pick in the recent 2008 election) walks in with a boy about five years of age who was supposedly her son. It's worth noting that in the dream she was ridiculously attractive, much beyond her real life appearance.

So Palin, who is apparently a friend of mine, asks me if I can take her son on ahead to so-and-so restaurant that we're going to be eating at shortly, while she talks to the other actors about something. This is the first point in my memory of the dream that I'm aware that the set we've been practicing on is built on top of a huge barge that is floating down a river (I recognized the river as an actual nearby river, the Coosa).

The boy and I got into a little novelty pedal-boat and pedaled our way from the barge up the river a short distance to where the restaurant was located (it was on land overlooking the river). It seemed more or less like a kid-friendly place, sort of a subdued Chuck E. Cheese's or something. I got a booth for us and made sure the kid was good to wait there until I came back. Then I left the restaurant and pedaled my way back to the barge/set.

Shortly after my return, the entire barge began to bring the rest of us to the restaurant. Palin and I sat on the front part of the vessel with our legs dangling over the side, watching the river before us. It was around sunset, and was very peaceful. She was talking about something that I have no memory of.

It didn't take long for us to arrive at the restaurant and regroup with the boy (I remember I could see him watching for us from one of the windows when we first got there). As soon as we got in, he began asking Palin if he could have a quarter to get something (gum, a little toy, whatever) from one of those dispenser machines. She allowed him to do it.

We sat down in the booth and at this point I realized (with perfect acceptance and no shock) that it wasn't Palin but a girl I knew for a brief while a few years ago.