Wednesday, March 28, 2012

Improv Castle

MORNING OF MARCH 26, 2012

Ashley and I were attending a performance by one of the local improv comedy troupes that I regularly go to see in real life. I vaguely remember sitting through a portion of the performance. Later, for some reason, I was called over to the side of the venue where I was interacting with one of the performers.

My last memory is of being on the stage with the troupe, only now it was more like a play than an improv comedy routine. There was a large, two-dimensional set piece that looked like a medieval castle. several of us were positioned behind it, as if peering out from its windows and turrets. I had lines I was supposed to recite, but was having trouble remembering them.

Sunday, March 25, 2012

Basically It's About Hendricks

MORNING OF MARCH 25, 2012

I was in a big house with a lot of people, including family and friends and some general fictional dream people. Somehow I'd obtained a new kitten, and everyone wanted to see it.

I was in one of the upstairs rooms letting people pet the cat when someone from downstairs called us to supper. At this point Christina Hendricks came out of an adjoining bathroom wearing a bra and panties! The underwear was of the "everyday" variety as opposed to lingerie, but still made for an alarmingly sexy site.

None of us could believe she was going to go downstairs to dinner in her underwear, but she didn't seem to think much of it. Once downstairs, however, the woman who was serving (and had obviously prepared) the food took great issue with it! Christina changed into jeans and a T-shirt.

At this point the dream sort of changed so that Ashley and I were both having dinner with Christina Hendricks in a nice restaurant. Someone asked me about the kitten, which I suddenly realized I'd left at home with no extra food or water (I'd apparently been gone for a few days).

Finally I remember being back in my apartment to check on the cat. My dad was here and explained he'd already brought it some food. Upon closer inspection we realized the food he'd bought was only for adult cats, so we still needed to go buy some for kittens.

Saturday, March 24, 2012

Gift Certificates

MORNING OF MARCH 24, 2012

Somehow I ended up receiving a $1500 gift certificate for a men's clothing store, and through events I no longer clearly recall, two other individuals gave me their gift certificates as well. So I ended up with $4500 I could only spend in a particular men's clothing store by a certain expiration date.

I decided I could use a suit or two, since I don't really have one that really properly fits me or suits the most up-to-date styles (I seldom have occasion to wear them). Even with the gift certificates, I wasn't interested in owning an outlandishly expensive suit, so it would take quite a lot to use the money I had access to. My solution--which seemed brilliant in the dream--is that I'd buy $4500 worth of moderately priced suits, keep one or two of them, and then promptly return all the others for cash.

I remember walking through the clothing store, which seemed almost as big as a mall. The general decor was very peculiar, and the place did not seem as "nice" as one might expect a store that specialized in suits to be.

I discovered the entrance to a large bookstore at one end of the clothing store. Somehow, moments after I began browsing the bookstore, I ended up signed up for some type of art class, which the dream immediately began to focus on.

I was in a room with probably 15-20 other students, each of us standing behind our own easel. The teacher explained that she'd be assigning us each a different art "challenge". My challenge was to take a photograph of a grasshopper that she'd handed me and "draw an animal that isn't a grasshopper, but that bears traces of this grasshopper, as though it may have transformed from it"! I think I drew an elephant/grasshopper hybrid.

For some reason my friends' daughter, Cailey, was suddenly there with me as I worked on my art assignment. She pointed out to me a really nice watch featuring the Disney version of the Cheshire Cat. I really liked it, but it was a little pricey, so I decided I could buy it with part of my gift certificate money later on.

My last memory is at the end of the class period. Each student had to go to the front of the room and reveal what their finished piece of art looked like. One very cute girl was showcasing her painting, which has pretty overtly erotic themes.

Thursday, March 22, 2012

Loner Zombie, Snarky Doctor, and Doctor Who's New Foe

MORNING OF MARCH 22, 2012

I was in the front yard of the house I lived in as a teen. Everything seemed pretty peaceful, until I noticed a man lying in the grass on the opposite side of the driveway, near the neighbor's property. I couldn't tell if they were even alive!

I cautiously approached the body and soon realized it was a zombie! It had been quiet and still, but it roused when it saw me approaching, stood up, and came ambling after me.

Since the zombie was slow and seemed to be entirely alone, my sense of panic was surprisingly measured. I rushed into the garage in hopes of finding something with which to kill it. I found a shotgun and shovel, but was unsure which to use. My internal debate was that, given my total lack of knowledge about guns, I might actually miss if I used the shotgun, or use it incorrectly altogether...the shovel, on the other hand, required a closer kill, and would be much more disgusting. All the while, the zombie continued its approach...

My next memory of a dream found me walking into some type of seedy-looking hospital or clinic. I only needed antibiotics for a sinus infection (something I actually had several weeks ago), but most of the people in the waiting room--and there were a lot of them--seemed terribly ill. I felt badly for them, but at the same time was afraid of catching something. Not to mention the fact that this facility seemed to be rather filthy was a matter of concern itself.

Eventually I got to see a doctor. She was a middle-aged woman, and she kept trying to run all kinds of tests on me. I kept explaining to her that I just needed to get some meds for my sinuses, but she seemed to ignore my requests. Eventually we got very snarky and sarcastic with each other.

And finally, I had a dream that Ashley and Eric and I were all watching the series 7 premiere of Doctor Who! I remember an opening scene in which the 11th Doctor was sitting in a booth in a old greasy spoon diner, talking to some character I can't remember.

Even though I was clearly aware that I was watching this on TV, I seemed to see everything from the point of view of the other person sitting in the booth with the Doctor. I remember being impressed with how especially funny this scene was. The Doctor's quirkiness was on full display.

The rest of my memory is a blur, though I remember a villain was introduced. The actor who played him reminded me, even in the dream, of Freddie Mercury. Everything ended on some kind of cliffhanger, and then Eric and Ashley and I discussed how unfair it was that we had to wait a whole week to find out what happened.

Somehow we received a magazine or brochure or some sort which had pictures and description from the next week's episode. We saw that the Freddie Mercury villain had strapped Amy Pond and Rory each into a cruel metal device of some sort. The device held them in an "on all fours" position, and their mouths were pried open. The villain's plan was to kill them by force-feeding them to death through giant funnels! It was fairly disturbing imagery, didn't strike us as seeming very Doctor Who-ish, and it's the last thing I remember before waking...

Wednesday, March 21, 2012

He Listens to Jazz

MORNING OF MARCH 20, 2012

Real life background: I'm currently taking a level two improv comedy class, which is a follow-up to the first course I took a couple of years ago. Our final class session will be an actual performance for whatever friends we choose to invite, which was the case the first time as well.

In my dream, it was the night of the final, only instead of taking place in our classroom, it was taking place at the Alabama Theatre (an historic old theatre in downtown Birmingham). I only vaguely remember the process and the nerves of performing in the amateur improv show.

My clearest memory of the dream comes after the show was over. My fellow classmates, our instructors and I were standing backstage talking. My friends who had come to see the show on my behalf were also nearby. As everyone was chatting amongst themselves, I distinctly heard a woman's voice say, "Wait til they find out he listens to jazz!"

The voice was so real, so nearly audible, that it woke me up. I have no idea to whom or to what the phrase referred.

Monday, March 19, 2012

Forgetting Leads to Frustration

MORNING OF MARCH 19, 2012

I was supposed to go film some type of concert or event for work. It was to take place in a fictional strip mall, which is where I had driven to at my first memory in the dream. No sooner had I arrived and spoken to the obese middle-aged woman who was in charge of the impending event than I realized I'd left all the necessary equipment back at my workplace.

The remainder of the dream mostly consisted of me driving back and forth from my workplace to the venue...because I always forgot some necessary item, every time! It was so frustrating.

Sunday, March 18, 2012

Adolescent Ghost

MORNING OF MARCH 17, 2012

I was in an average-sized, one-story house. Someone had told me it was haunted by a little girl, and I was exploring it. The bedrooms in the back hall of the house were all furnished like school classrooms. I stepped into one of these and called out for the girl's ghost.

The face of a young girl, probably around 11 or 12, sort of materialized in the air and spoke to me. I can't remember what she was saying, but as she spoke, her entire body eventually materialized. It was a translucent, blue-ish shade and was floating above the floor, much like ghosts often appear to be in movies and TV. She was wearing a girl's school uniform.

I started trying to take pictures of the ghost, and, as I did, the ghost of a boy about her same also appeared, and they began dancing together in the air. I suppose this scene should have been creepy and freaked me out, but for some reason I was only concerned with capturing it on film. Every picture I took failed to clearly record their images. Just a random, motion-blurred arm or leg--nothing that concretely looked like an actual apparition in the picture.

Eventually, I actually asked them to hold still and let me photograph them, which I think made them go away. Then one of my friends who live in Florida showed up out of the blue, announcing that she was a Ghost Hunter now, and she wanted to find these ghosts as well!

Thursday, March 15, 2012

The Audition and the Cats

MORNING OF MARCH 15, 2012

Eric and I were on a road trip to audition for parts in a skit on Conan O'Brien's show. Apparently it was a contest of some sort that was being held for fans. We stopped on our way at what looked like some old, country convenience store.

Inside the store we found, among various and sundry items, a kennel full of cats for sale. One of the cats in particular really caught my attention. It was a sort of Calico, but it also seemed to have some large areas of grey...it's tough to describe it in the waking world. Anyway, for whatever reason, I really wanted this cat.

My next memory if of Eric and I actually being at the Conan audition event. There were many other fans forming many lines outside of some small buildings. It was a bright, sunny, hot day. At one point Andy Richter walked by.

Later, I was back in the store with the cats. I think I had decided to actually buy the Calico and take it home. Before I bought it, I noticed a large cage full of especially large, especially fat cats. The store owner explained to me that they were Maine Coons (I don't really know a lot about that breed, so I don't know how much the dream-cats actually resembled them).

I called the Maine Coons to come up close to me, and they all acted as though they wanted to be affectionate and receive petting--but they were so fat that couldn't really move. They just rolled around and mewed fairly pitifully.

Sunday, March 11, 2012

Nerdy Names for Cats

MORNING Of MARCH 11, 2012

Ashley and I were visiting the home of some fictional family who had a house near a river. They had several daughters, ranging from small children to young teens. The daughters were explaining to us that the family had recently acquired several cats to take care of a mouse infestation. Their reasoning for this had been that it would have been to expensive to buy mouse traps.

Later, Ashely and I were discussing all the cats the daughters had shown us, and we were trying to come up with names for them, which we could share with the family. In real life Ashley and I had just watched several episodes of Doctor Who series six on Blu Ray that evening, so in the dream, we decided that some good cat names would be "Doctor", "Pond", "Rory", "River", etc.

There was some other part of the dream in which I was standing on pier near the water on the property this family owned. It was a beautiful, moonlit night, but I can't really remember what was happening. I think some people were actually walking around in the water.

Saturday, March 10, 2012

Bedsheets

MORNING OF MARCH 10, 2012

As I was getting into bed last night, I had the thought that it was about time to wash the sheets again. The only dream I remember had a lot to do with bedsheets! I only vaguely recall the first part, which had something to do with spending the night at my parents house, and the specific kind of sheets on the guest bed there.

Later in the dream, I was going through a pile of old papers and throwing out the stuff I didn't need. I found some old wall calendars of mine from previous years. I decided I could thrown them away, but first I pulled off a small, colorful square, not much bigger than a scrabble tile, that was attached to certain ones of them. These little squares, it turns out, could unfold into full sets of bedsheets! The pattern on the sheets reflected the type of pictures on the calendar they came from. One had a pattern with birds, another with leaves and flowers, etc.

So, yeah...bedsheets! That's about it!

Tuesday, March 6, 2012

The Couple in the Diner

MORNING OF MARCH 6, 2012

I was sitting in a diner of some sort, talking to an older man and woman who presumably ran the place. I was supposed to be filming footage of the couple and their restaurant as an assignment for work.

I was explaining to the couple that I didn't need to actually interview them for the segment, but I did need to get some random shots of them sitting in the diner. The man asked, sincerely, "Would it help if I was doing something like this?" Then he proceeded to stand on his head, just briefly. I told him that was great, and asked if he could do it again while I had the camera on.

For some reason, once I started trying to film the man, we were interrupted by someone in a mediocre Spider-Man costume. He began doing all kinds of acrobatics and performing for the camera. I was a little annoyed that they wouldn't just let me film the senior couple like I was supposed to, but I kept shooting anyway.

From this point I vaguely recall more things happening in the diner. The place seemed larger, more like a big chain restaurant at this point, but I'm unclear on the specifics of what was going on.

Saturday, March 3, 2012

A Snippet of Who

MORNING OF MARCH 3, 2012

I remember watching and episode of Doctor Who. It seemed very detailed on my dream, though it's very vague in my memory. Somehow the Doctor (Matt Smith's version) and a single Dalek were floating around in the vacuum of space, having a discussion. Of course the Dalek wanted to destroy the Doctor, who was saying something to the effect of, "Of course you want to destroy me--but you don't realize that if you do, it will destroy the whole universe..." and so on.

Then I think a lash got into my eye or something, because I was rudely awakened with a stinging there...

Thursday, March 1, 2012

Batgirl

MORNING OF MARCH 1, 2012

In real life, roughly a year ago, I sold some of my old Batman collectibles on eBay. In my dream, I was only just now gathering that stuff to sell. A person game to my house to look at one particular item--a Batman and Catwoman doll/action figure set. The odd thing was, the guy was dressed up like the Joker.

Not long after the Joker guy left, a girl stopped by. She was in a Batgirl costume. It was designed much like the one Yvonne Craig wore as Batgirl in the old 60's TV series, but the fabric was metallic and shiny in a combination of light blue and silver patterns. The girl herself had wavy brunette hair and striking blue eyes.

I assumed she was there to look at some of the Batman items for sale, but she explained that she was there for the "photo shoot". We then set things up for me to photograph her in the costume, which I found to be both a source of excitement and anxiety.