The Ornament Girl

MORNING OF JULY 4, 2011

A few friends and I decided to take a last minute trip to Disney World (yes, another one of THOSE dreams). I know Richard, Jessica & Cailey were there, as well as Eric. We decided we'd fly there. I have no memory of the airport being on the plane, though I do remember flying...

My first clear memory is that were were each in a seat, as if on an airplane, though our seats were each independently flying out in the open air! We could see the Magic Kingdom before us, and we were just gently gliding in on our respective seats. As we got closer to the ground, we flew through a patch of helium balloons that had been released. We were each trying to grab at them and catch one. I remember narrowly missing a Minnie Mouse balloon that I thought I could have given to Cailey. I can't remember if I ever successfully caught one.

Once our seats landed, we went to our hotel, which was the Grand Floridian. There was still plenty of day left, but for some reason we just hung around the hotel for a while instead of hitting the parks. I remember sitting on one of the beds eating potato chips with Eric. Finally we realized we should leave the hotel room, so we began getting ready. Eric and Richard were using the bathroom mirror and I heard Eric start yelling because apparently Richard had stained his shirt.

After this I only have vague memories of going out into one of the parks. At one point I realized I'd only packed the clothes I was wearing, which was unfortunate as they'd probably get plentifully sweaty before our stay was over. We all just seemed stressed and distracted, and I began to think a last minute trip had been a bad idea.

Eventually the dream sort of morphed to where we were trying to plan a trip home, but there was some man who kept thwarting our plans, trying to keep us there (thought "there" by now had little to do with Disney World). In hindsight, the man was a little like the character Tywin Lannister from the "A Song of Ice and Fire" novels that I'm working my way through right now.

My friends and I kept researching ways to get ourselves out of there, rendting cars, buying plane tickets--even shipping ourselves on a truck, but the man kept thwarting them by hiding or destroying whatever information we came up with. We were very much in awe of how sneaky he was--always one step ahead of us!

In the midst of this crisis, I met a girl. She was a little younger than me and very cute, in a mousy/nerdy sort of way. She sculpted Christmas ornaments for fun. They were very, very well made, looking just as professional as the collectible Hallmark ornaments that come out each season.

I remember at some earlier point she'd given me two as a gift. They were based on characters from the old 90's "Animaniacs" cartoon. My last memory of the dream is that the girl approached us again as we were plotting ways to escape. She had just created another ornament, this one of a cartoony hedgehog character, supposedly from the same cartoon as before.

She asked the group at large, "I just made another ornament...who wants to have this one?" Several people, including myself, raised their hands, but she immediately walked over and gave it to me, even though I also had the other two. This is when I knew she must "like" me, which was exciting, because I definitely liked her.

My final memory is examining the detail of the ornament she'd made. It wasn't more than two or three inches tall, and yet each and every one of the hedgehog's quills had been finely and individually sculpted...it was so impressive, and I kept telling her so.