Sunday, October 26, 2008

Kneeling Girl *PLUS* Feathered Rogers

MORNING OF OCTOBER 25, 2008

First I remember being in a friend or acquaintance's apartment, but it was an entirely fictional location. They were giving me a tour of the place, and we eventually came to their balcony patio. They opened the curtains and the sliding glass door to give me a view, and I was shocked that there was a girl already out there.

The girl, a fictional character, bore a vague resemblance to Bettie Page (but definitely wasn't supposed to be her) and was wearing only a dark blue bikini. She was kneeling silently on the balcony, staring pensively into the distance. She paid us no attention when we stepped out, and my host ignored her as well. I, on the other hand, couldn't take my eyes off her. But I didn't know how to handle the situation--it felt like I shouldn't be the only one to say something about it, so I tried me best to kind of ignore the situation like everyone else was doing.

Eventually we came back into the apartment and moved on, but the girl stayed on the balcony. I found myself sneaking a peek out the window periodically to see if she was still out there. She always remained in the same spot, in the same kneeling position. I was a bit perplexed.

SECOND DREAM:

I was in a mall, just walking around with seemingly no real purpose for being there. Suddenly I noticed a man wearing a jacket covered with yellow feathers. The yellow feathers looked exactly like those of Big Bird from Sesame Street. But apart from the feathery jacket, he was in normal attire. When the man came close enough, I realized it was Mister Rogers!

"Isn't he dead?" I kept asking myself. But it had to be him! I kept following close behind him wherever he walked. I noticed other passers by were also taking notice of the strange fellow in the feather-coat--some just because of the outfit, but others recognized him as I did.

He seemed to be in his own little world, completely unaware of any of us. He just meandered along silently. I never caught up to him or spoke to him, nor did I see him ever interact with anyone else.

Tuesday, October 21, 2008

Big Motel Musical *PLUS* Surly Kids Musical

MORNING OF OCTOBER 21, 2008

Several of my friends, including Eric, C., M., and possibly one other and I were staying at a motel. It was a rather old facility, but also quite large, standing several stories high. Our room (or rooms, if that was the case) were located on one of the top floors. One could step out of the room on the concrete, open-air walkways, lean over the rail, and look down amongst all the other levels. At the very bottom level, you could see the old swimming pool in the center.

At one point I remember sitting in the motel room by myself in the afternoon. I had the curtains drawn shut and was sitting in the chair at the little table by the window and air conditioner unit. I heard some of my friends talking outside and peeked through the curtains. They were talking about going somewhere, and I was debating whether or not I should go out there and try to join them.

Then I remember being in the parking lot, but not with my friends, so they must have gone without me. But that's when Michael Scott from The Office approached me. He was giddy with some sort of mischief, and wanted my help.

I reluctantly followed him into the motel room, where he explained to me through restrained laughter that he was supposed to have a date this evening, but he couldn't stand the girl, and he had just figured out a way to get out of it. He was going to call her and tell her he couldn't go on a date because he was at a concert and couldn't leave. He was going to play a CD loudly in the background while he talked, and my job was to make noise as though I was the crowd. This way, he apparently thought, his story would seem more convincing.

I really wanted no part of this stupidity, and yet when he placed the call I made a few half-hearted crowd sounds. He was having so much trouble not giggling at his "cleverness" as he canceled the date over the phone.

Then I remember being back with my real life friends again. We were walking through some public square, having a conversation. Suddenly, it's as if we inadvertently stumbled into some police sting operation. Several officers rushed out and told us to "Move, move, move!!!!" because things were about to go down. They were surrounding a parked car, and ushered us away from it.

We watched from our safe position as a man in jeans and a pink T-shirt exited a nearby building and approached the car. I assumed that must be the suspect in the sting, but then my memory of the dream changes again before anything happens.

My friends and I were walking around the city streets again, talking about the police sting as though it were the distant past. Someone said something that reminded me of a song from the Avenue Q musical, and I started singing it...and suddenly I was joined by random passers-by, until everyone the city block wide were happily singing the song. Just like some corny musical movie!

This, naturally, is when I woke up.

SECOND DREAM:

I was having to film an interview with a former football player for work (an entirely fictional situation). The interview was filmed at his home, and after the interview he told me he'd take me out to get some footage of "the stadium". It turns out there was an entire football stadium built on to his house. (I'm not a sports fan. For even this little bit of sports to make it into my dream makes no sense to me.)

I was anxious to be done and get home, but the guy told me to wait while he turned on all the stadium lights. Then my bosses were there, and they ended up in conversation with the guy, and I was left waiting, growing increasingly anxious.

I eventually began wandering through the house. Then the scene changed to where it was more like I was inside a public venue of some sort. I found a stairwell, the door to which had a sign that explained that practice for "the children's play" was being held upstairs. I went up the stairs.

There, as promised, was a room where several children were in practice for a musical play. I sat and observed them for a while as the adult director instructed them in their parts. I was surprised and even a little disturbed that many of the kids were rather surly and uncooperative...almost malicious.

Sunday, October 19, 2008

The Journey of Dichotomy

MORNING OF OCTOBER 19, 2008

These dreams were had during a camping trip with friends (as I'd intermittently wake up, freezing cold, and then drift back to sleep). Most all of the dreams I recall had something to do with the actual group I was camping with and I doing things together, and this held true for this, the final dream.

All five us us were out walking in the middle of a cold night, only we left the woods and ended up on a busy highway. There were supposed to be three lanes of traffic all going the same direction. However, the leftmost lane was going one way, t
he rightmost the other, and the middle lane is where we were walking (there were no other apparent pedestrians). I was aware of how dangerous a position we were in to keep walking here.

I think a car in the leftmost lane had broken down and there was a lot of congestion there. Even though we were actually walking this road in a perfectly natural fashion, I frequently could see a bird's eye view of the traffic.

At one point the road turned into what looked like a subway terminal. As we made our way up a small flight of stairs within the station, I observed a crowd of people descending a flight of stairs to the opposite side. One guy, seemingly drunk, suddenly ran up, shouting for everyone to "Watch me!", and he tried to jump down the stairs. Naturally this only led to him falling down said stairs, and knocking down a few of the people who had been on them at the time of his heroic jump. It looked pretty painful, but I don't think anyone was severely hurt.

Eventually my group made its way out of the subway terminal onto a large, grassy lawn. It was now early morning. There was a military boot camp of some sort to one side. As we passed it, C. observed that it was about time for them to be doing their daily training, and shortly thereafter we saw them doing just that.

There were other people sparsely populating the huge lawn as we walked, each going about their own business. It was more or less like a park, except for being entirely devoid of trees, shrubbery, benches, or any sort of real scenery or landscaping. Suddenly we came upon two young, blonde girls, apparently twins of about 9 years of age. One was pulling the other in a red wagon. The wagon passenger was actually bound with ropes. If this distressed her, she conveyed no emotion to depict it (or to convey any feeling at all, for that matter).

The older sister just pulled the younger one around in that wagon, in a quiet and purposeful way, all up and down the lawn. It was actually a little disturbing. Then, the dream sort of changed to where it was a puppy instead of a little girl in the wagon. The other girl began to torment the puppy in some fashion, and several grown-ups in the park (including our group) went to scold her and put a stop to it.

One man had a pocket knife, and he used it to cut the ropes and free the puppy from the little girl. I felt relieved as it ran from her. The girl, however, was letting the man (and anyone nearby) know exactly how displeased she was with the situation.

Then it's like I was playing a video game on the Wii, and there were "Mii" characters of the two little girls in the wagon, and your goal was to send them around from place to place...highly odd.


NOTE: A friend later pointed out the symbolism of dichotomy that runs rampant throughout this dream...the traffic running in opposing directions on either side, the stairs going up and down in the subway terminal, the twin girls, one leading and tormenting the helpless other, etc. Interesting.

Sunday, September 28, 2008

Super Gas

MORNING OF SEPTEMBER 27, 2008

In real life, since hurricane Ike hit a few weeks ago, there has been a gas shortage where I live. It's very difficult to find a station with gas, and when you find one you often have to wait in line. That leads to a lot of frustration...so you'll see how this reality plays into parts of the dream, especially the middle part.

It was late at night. Eric and I were in my car and I needed gas. We found a station that was selling it, but you had to pay inside. We were both walking inside, and I noticed through the window that a couple of crooks were currently robbing the place at gunpoint. Eric didn't notice this, and before I could tell him, he started to open the door and enter. I stopped him before the crooks noticed us.

We rushed back to the car, but instead of calling the cops and getting out of there, we just waited until we saw the crooks flee the store, then we went inside to pay for our gas. And everything was just fine inside the store...there were even lots of customers.

There was a very young girl there with her dad, and when he wasn't looking, she grabbed a whole stack of these promotional coupons off the counter. She tried to hand them to the clerk, demanding he redeem all the coupons, and when he explained to her, "one per customer", she pitched a colossal fit.

Finally it was my turn to pay for gas, and the clerk explained to me that he didn't have any more regular gas, but he was expecting a shipment of "Super Gas" if I was willing to wait just a few minutes for it to arrive, and willing, of course, to pay a premium for it. I was almost on empty, and everywhere else was out, so I waited on the Super Gas.

Soon an 18 wheeler arrived and four men began unloading barrels of "Super Gas" from the back. They made me help them unload! As we unloaded they were telling me how Super Gas was somehow akin to jet fuel. I thought it was rubbish that I had to help them unload the stuff, so I pretended to have to go to the bathroom and went in there and waited until enough time had passed for them to be finished.

When I came back out, all the men were having a picnic around a picnic table outside the station (it was still the middle of the night). I joined them, and among the dinner conversation I discovered that the four of them were actually a Southern Gospel quartet and only delivered Super Gas part time. They were sharing their stories of traveling the road doing shows, and I soon lost the ability to even feign interest. As soon as I finished my food, I left.

I don't remember the series of events next, but I somehow ended up driving with my mom into some neighborhood that was partially destroyed. She said hurricane Ike had done it. Then we went into a place with a lot of other people, and while I can't be certain, I think it was a church.

Seated next to my mom and I was the waitress I actually had at Olive Garden in real life earlier this night. I wanted to talk to her, but then, naturally, her boyfriend came in and the two of them were talking loudly. Then the church service, or whatever it was, began and the two of them just kept on loudly talking. My mom got really annoyed.

There was some other little tidbit of dream where I was watching the news on TV, and they showed these giant monster-men fighting downtown, and they crushed a KFC restaurant. The news said this had upset a lot of people, but that it was revealed to have been an elaborate hoax. They were normal-sized men in costumes and the KFC was made out of cardboard...and yet somehow it had fooled even people who had seen it in person.

Al and Greg

MORNING OF SEPTEMBER 26, 2008

Recently in real life, my friends and I were discussing the Old Greg skit that has attained a bit of YouTube celebrity. In my dream (which I remember very little of), I found a new clip that featured "Weird Al" Yankovic interviewing Old Greg. The two of them were sitting at a picnic table in a park, and while of course it was all for laughs, it was played very straight.

I can no longer remember the specifics of the "interview", but in the dream I loved it and wanted to show friends. I was trying to pull up the link on YouTube to show them, but no matter what I searched for, I couldn't find it. At some point some clip came up with a girl dancing in black leotards, and I think Old Greg was involved in that one as well, but I was frustrated that I couldn't find the right clip.

Pointless.

Wednesday, September 17, 2008

A Movie at 10:30

MORNING OF SEPTEMBER 16, 2008

I was in some sort of mall among a huge crowd of people. I noticed some commotion in one area and went to investigate. It turns out there was a group of teenagers, and some girls from the group were fighting! I soon learned it wasn't a literal fight, but the girls were deliberately "wrestling" for fun. They were even often giggling while they struggled. Other girls were in a queue waiting for their turn. Entertaining though they may be, I will...erm...spare you further details.

All too soon, however, my attention was diverted when I was approached by a girl I once knew in real life. She was a terribly misguided crush from several years back. She was with some other girl who I believe she claimed was her sister. I had less than zero desire to talk to her, but felt obliged to be polite because she was being so polite.

It turns out she and her sister were on their way to get some food and then to see a movie at 10:30 (guess they like their movies late!). They invited me to go with them. I told them I had dinner plans with my friends already (which, in the dream world, was perfectly true) but maybe we'd meet them at the theater later. Then we parted ways.

Later I was having pizza with Eric and D. (haven't really seen D. in years). Eric said he'd already had pizza twice, but he didn't mind having it again. I told them about the 10:30 movie plans and they were OK with it.

Next, I was filling out some kind of papers. I don't know what they were, but they were official documents of some sort, and I was having to put my signature on most of them.

Then I was out on a lawn at night. Several other people were in the area, and I was still hanging with Eric and D. There were a couple of weird-looking toys in my hands. One of them looked like it was constructed out of various seashells glued together...straight out of a cheap souvenir shop in Florida or something. It's appalling tackiness made it somehow appealing, and I had set it in the grass to take pictures of it.

I was in the process of snapping pictures when the girl and her sister from before approached us. They canceled the movie plans and said they weren't going...they acted very apologetic, but I didn't even care, because I had never really been enthusiastic about the plans we'd made to begin with.

Then I turned my attention to another one of the strange toys in my possession. It was a very tiny baby doll, about three inches long, with a plush body and vinyl head. Someone told me it cried if you got it wet. There was a bucket of water conveniently nearby, so I stuck the doll in the water...nothing happened...so I completely submerged it, then removed it. Upon coming out of the water, you could squeeze the doll and water would spit out of it's mouth as it made an eerie crying sound. I thought it was the creepiest toy I'd seen in quite some time.

Monday, September 15, 2008

The Cult on the Meadow

MORNING OF SEPTEMBER 13, 2008

C. and I were going to meet the rest of our group for a movie on a Saturday afternoon. We drove out to a grassy meadow. It was a beautiful scene with the lush green grass and colorful flowers blowing in the breeze, occasionally overcast by the shadow of a huge, puffy cloud as it floated through the deep blue sky above.

The meadow turned up into a large, steep hill and there was a building at the top that looked not unlike a gothic church. This was supposedly our destination. We parked the car near the bottom and began to walk up the hill. There were several people peppered all around us, each one marching in the same upwards direction. They were all wearing their Sunday best and a blank expression.

It didn't take us long to figure out that the building at the top of the hill definitely was some kind of church, but it wasn't a traditional one. It was a bizarre cult, and all the people around us were marching in like robots. They wouldn't even respond if you spoke to them. It was kind of creepy, so C. and I immediately headed back down the hill, but this time on the other side of it.

There was a restaurant and some other businesses at the foot of the hill, and we decided to meet the rest of our group here instead. Once inside, it looked like a department store instead of a restaurant. I found myself looking at section of DVD's. Then some guy whom I supposedly recognized came up and was talking to me about them. Then the talk turned to CD's, and he asked me if I could burn a particular one for him. My last memory of the dream is attempting to burn said CD, but I was having a lot of problems with it.

Wasn't reading this dream a valuable use of your time?