MORNING OF MAY 15, 2010
It seemed at first like I was at some sort of comic book/sci-fi/anime convention. I had some samples of my artwork there. I also had "tickets" or "passes" to some event that was to be held later that evening. I was going to raffle away my extra passes in some manner that would also help sell my art. I remember setting up a table/booth to feature these things but, before I was finished, I had to go ask my friend Eric a question.
Eric was in a room that looked more or less like a bedroom. There was a shelf full of all sorts of random collectibles, and he began to show me some of the cool things he'd found (collecting random knick-knacks like this is not very Eric in reality). I wish I could remember all of the things he showed me, because they were so strange. One of them was a brass Tiger with gold-painted trim. While the tiger was an individual piece, it could be nestled into the hand of a sculpted female idol of some sort.
At one point I suddenly remembered my half-set-up table on the convention floor, and was afraid people might be stealing the things I'd left unattended. But before I could do anything about it, our friend Zach joined us and he and Eric and I went into the living room of my grandmother's house and turned on the TV.
We watched a pizza commercial during which my grandmother entered the room and commented on how loud it was. Then she asked what we wanted to eat. Zach reminded me and Eric that we'd really been wanting to try this new (fictional) pizza place called "The Stuffed House". We agreed we should go get some.
There was some other dream during the night in which I was walking through a mall and ran into a girl I used to like in my teenage days. We walked and talked together for a bit and it was nice, but I had to remind myself that it wasn't my teenage days anymore, and it was too late to do anything about it. Then Hermione Granger from the Harry Potter books was suddenly there as well, and she was friends with this girl. (Hermione looked like a hybrid of the actress who plays her in the movies and the way I've always imagined the character in my head when reading the books.)
Saturday, May 15, 2010
Monday, May 10, 2010
The Affair
MORNING OF MAY 10, 2010
Disclaimer: The subject matter of this dream has no basis in any realistic situations. It's as entirely silly as most of my dreams, and was probably largely inspired by the episode of The Office I'd watched that week.
My boss was having an affair with a younger woman. She was a good bit younger than him, but only very slightly older than me, probably in her late thirties. A very attractive brunette who seemed to dress in sensible business attire. For some reason I had to attend some kind of dinner meeting with the two of them. They for some reason seemed to be fine with my knowing their secret.
The thing was, at this dinner, the woman flirted with me any and every chance she got. Eventually the two of us became physical and ended up an item (my boss was just suddenly out of the picture at this point).
Then I was back at work and I saw both my boss and this lady again. My boss explained that corporate had found out about the affair and fired him. The woman suddenly looked older--significantly older than me now--and I couldn't remember what the attraction had been between us (she no longer showed any signs of it herself, either).
Regardless, my boss still encouraged the two of us to do things together. He said there was some kind of "animation forum" being held nearby, and that we should attend. We kept shooting each other looks as though we agreed we were unwilling but didn't know how to tell him. This is pretty much all I remember.
In a different dream I was at the zoo. I saw a hippopotamus wading in a pool and it suddenly starting performing all kinds of unlikely tricks. No trainer was nearby--nothing was provoking it at all. It's as though the animal was performing just for me. And so naturally I realized I had forgotten my camera!
Then, suddenly, the hippo was a gorilla. The gorilla was behaving in a similarly photogenic manner. I suppose I simply willed my camera into the dream, because now it was with me. But whenever pressed the shutter button, it simply washed a color filter over the image on the digital screen. It never actually snapped a photo.
Disclaimer: The subject matter of this dream has no basis in any realistic situations. It's as entirely silly as most of my dreams, and was probably largely inspired by the episode of The Office I'd watched that week.
My boss was having an affair with a younger woman. She was a good bit younger than him, but only very slightly older than me, probably in her late thirties. A very attractive brunette who seemed to dress in sensible business attire. For some reason I had to attend some kind of dinner meeting with the two of them. They for some reason seemed to be fine with my knowing their secret.
The thing was, at this dinner, the woman flirted with me any and every chance she got. Eventually the two of us became physical and ended up an item (my boss was just suddenly out of the picture at this point).
Then I was back at work and I saw both my boss and this lady again. My boss explained that corporate had found out about the affair and fired him. The woman suddenly looked older--significantly older than me now--and I couldn't remember what the attraction had been between us (she no longer showed any signs of it herself, either).
Regardless, my boss still encouraged the two of us to do things together. He said there was some kind of "animation forum" being held nearby, and that we should attend. We kept shooting each other looks as though we agreed we were unwilling but didn't know how to tell him. This is pretty much all I remember.
In a different dream I was at the zoo. I saw a hippopotamus wading in a pool and it suddenly starting performing all kinds of unlikely tricks. No trainer was nearby--nothing was provoking it at all. It's as though the animal was performing just for me. And so naturally I realized I had forgotten my camera!
Then, suddenly, the hippo was a gorilla. The gorilla was behaving in a similarly photogenic manner. I suppose I simply willed my camera into the dream, because now it was with me. But whenever pressed the shutter button, it simply washed a color filter over the image on the digital screen. It never actually snapped a photo.
Saturday, May 8, 2010
A Truly Epic Movie
MORNING OF MAY 8, 2010
Richard and Eric and I went to see a new movie that was supposedly based on an epic Stephen King novel. I wish I could remember more details of what we saw on the movie screen, because it was a trip. Here's what bits I can recall:
One of the main characters, serving as a sort of antihero, was Elphaba, the "Wicked Witch" from Gregory Maguire's Oz re-imagining Wicked novel (and yes, the play). Who or whatever the major villain was had in their employ scores of Star Wars' Storm Troopers. They would patrol the land, arrest, and harass people, etc. There was a cat, mostly CG animated, that behaved a lot like the Cheshire Cat from any given Alice in Wonderland adaptation, in that it seemed maybe helpful to the heroes, but its motives were unclear. There were other characters but, as I said before, I'm short on details beyond this.
In the final scene of the movie, Elphaba was corned in a castle by the Storm Troopers and was going to be captured. And then, rather than watching this movie like we had been, Richard and Eric and I were actually standing outside, looking at the actual castle from a distance. This was all located in the middle of a barren wasteland of cracked dirt and rocky terrain. We hid behind a rock and watched. The outside of the castle, too, was surrounded by the Troopers and you could tell a battle was going on inside. We didn't want to be noticed.
Suddenly, the "Cheshire Cat" character appeared--huge, slightly larger than the whole castle--and attacked it. The castle came down. An unseen, wind-like force (Force?) began blowing the Storm Troopers from the scene as they tumbled across the ground--in some cases leaving long trench-like rifts in the dirt as they skidded out of sight. The cat was apparently the hero. But were our heroes OK? Dd they fare any better amid the destruction than the enemies had?
I'll never know, because I woke up.
There was some other dream about being at a party. Some pretty girl in a casual, summery dress and yellow stockings was acting silly, wanting me to take pictures of her antics.
One of the main characters, serving as a sort of antihero, was Elphaba, the "Wicked Witch" from Gregory Maguire's Oz re-imagining Wicked novel (and yes, the play). Who or whatever the major villain was had in their employ scores of Star Wars' Storm Troopers. They would patrol the land, arrest, and harass people, etc. There was a cat, mostly CG animated, that behaved a lot like the Cheshire Cat from any given Alice in Wonderland adaptation, in that it seemed maybe helpful to the heroes, but its motives were unclear. There were other characters but, as I said before, I'm short on details beyond this.
In the final scene of the movie, Elphaba was corned in a castle by the Storm Troopers and was going to be captured. And then, rather than watching this movie like we had been, Richard and Eric and I were actually standing outside, looking at the actual castle from a distance. This was all located in the middle of a barren wasteland of cracked dirt and rocky terrain. We hid behind a rock and watched. The outside of the castle, too, was surrounded by the Troopers and you could tell a battle was going on inside. We didn't want to be noticed.
Suddenly, the "Cheshire Cat" character appeared--huge, slightly larger than the whole castle--and attacked it. The castle came down. An unseen, wind-like force (Force?) began blowing the Storm Troopers from the scene as they tumbled across the ground--in some cases leaving long trench-like rifts in the dirt as they skidded out of sight. The cat was apparently the hero. But were our heroes OK? Dd they fare any better amid the destruction than the enemies had?
I'll never know, because I woke up.
There was some other dream about being at a party. Some pretty girl in a casual, summery dress and yellow stockings was acting silly, wanting me to take pictures of her antics.
Thursday, May 6, 2010
Making Up, a Garbage Disposal, and a Puppet
MORNING OF MAY 6, 2010
For some reason I was in the apartment of an ex-girlfriend. We ended up talking and in no time it seemed sparks were flying and we were back together again. For real life context: Like any relationship, the one I had with this ex has its pleasant memories, but it's not a relationship I long to--or ever would--go back to in real life.
Even in the dream it felt weird to be back together. Something felt "off". I wish I could remember the story in the dream. Instead I just remember vaguely spending time with her and talking and just generally being together. I do remember going to some outdoor event along a riverbank in the early evening. We were walking, along with many other people, along a pier. All the while I kept wondering why I was doing this and telling myself not to. But I was having fun.
At some point in the dream I ended up in what looked like the kitchen at the place where I work. In the cabinet under the sink a large, square contraption that I recognized to be the garbage disposal took up most of the space. Unlike a real garbage disposal, this unit was not manual. It was timed to go off every so often, whether any garbage was in it or not.
For some reason my family's geriatric dog, Einstein, was with me. He crawled into the garbage disposal box and went to sleep. I tried to coax him out but he wouldn't come. It was impossible to physically reach him in there, so I ran to get help. My goal was to find someone who could turn off all the power to the building until we got Einstein out, to insure the disposal wouldn't start up while he was in there.
I ended up in some kind of auditorium where a lot of people were gathered in seats facing a stage with a podium, as if waiting to listen to a speaker of some sort. There was actually a walking track encircling the upper level of this auditorium, and that's where I was, looking down on the rest. Suddenly I realized I had a Kermit the Frog puppet on one arm.
I can do a passable Kermit voice, so I began talking like Kermit while circling the walking track. The audience below began to watch, and they were very amused. I remember one point on the track had a patch of broken glass. It was obvious it came from broken decorative Christmas balls. I had to remember to skip around it every time I reached that area on my laps, because I was barefoot.
So my "Kermit" show went on for some time, until I suddenly remembered I was supposed to be telling someone to turn the power off for Einstein's sake. As soon as I remembered this, I took off running back to the kitchen area. I even remember running right through the broken glass on the track in my efforts to get there.
When I was finally back in the work kitchen, my mom there was for some reason, eating a meal at the counter. I asked her if she knew if anyone had turned off the power yet, and then explained why. She jumped up and looked in the cabinet and proclaimed, angry and upset, that Einstein was now dead.
The horrible guilt and sadness woke me almost instantly. I had slept through my alarm and was late.
For some reason I was in the apartment of an ex-girlfriend. We ended up talking and in no time it seemed sparks were flying and we were back together again. For real life context: Like any relationship, the one I had with this ex has its pleasant memories, but it's not a relationship I long to--or ever would--go back to in real life.
Even in the dream it felt weird to be back together. Something felt "off". I wish I could remember the story in the dream. Instead I just remember vaguely spending time with her and talking and just generally being together. I do remember going to some outdoor event along a riverbank in the early evening. We were walking, along with many other people, along a pier. All the while I kept wondering why I was doing this and telling myself not to. But I was having fun.
At some point in the dream I ended up in what looked like the kitchen at the place where I work. In the cabinet under the sink a large, square contraption that I recognized to be the garbage disposal took up most of the space. Unlike a real garbage disposal, this unit was not manual. It was timed to go off every so often, whether any garbage was in it or not.
For some reason my family's geriatric dog, Einstein, was with me. He crawled into the garbage disposal box and went to sleep. I tried to coax him out but he wouldn't come. It was impossible to physically reach him in there, so I ran to get help. My goal was to find someone who could turn off all the power to the building until we got Einstein out, to insure the disposal wouldn't start up while he was in there.
I ended up in some kind of auditorium where a lot of people were gathered in seats facing a stage with a podium, as if waiting to listen to a speaker of some sort. There was actually a walking track encircling the upper level of this auditorium, and that's where I was, looking down on the rest. Suddenly I realized I had a Kermit the Frog puppet on one arm.
I can do a passable Kermit voice, so I began talking like Kermit while circling the walking track. The audience below began to watch, and they were very amused. I remember one point on the track had a patch of broken glass. It was obvious it came from broken decorative Christmas balls. I had to remember to skip around it every time I reached that area on my laps, because I was barefoot.
So my "Kermit" show went on for some time, until I suddenly remembered I was supposed to be telling someone to turn the power off for Einstein's sake. As soon as I remembered this, I took off running back to the kitchen area. I even remember running right through the broken glass on the track in my efforts to get there.
When I was finally back in the work kitchen, my mom there was for some reason, eating a meal at the counter. I asked her if she knew if anyone had turned off the power yet, and then explained why. She jumped up and looked in the cabinet and proclaimed, angry and upset, that Einstein was now dead.
The horrible guilt and sadness woke me almost instantly. I had slept through my alarm and was late.
Tuesday, May 4, 2010
President Obama the Art Critic and Batgirl Merchandise)
MORNING OF MAY 4, 2010
I was at my job, but I was working on a personal art project with my cartoon characters. President Obama and his entourage showed up. He was touring the station and for some reason I just stayed put, working on my comics.
Eventually he entered the room where I was and began looking at what I was doing and expressing great interest. I gave him one of my cards with my website info on it, and a copy of the "Jennifer & Bueno" art book from a couple of years ago. He asked a lot of questions and seemed really eager to check out more of my work. I figured he was just being fake and politician-like in his expressed interest, but it still was cool that the President of the U.S. said nice things about my crappy comics.
There was another dream in which I was was in some sort of comic or pop-culture-heavy store. I saw a really cool Batgirl T-shirt that I wanted. It's hard to describe the image here, except that it was a more classic version of Batgirl with just sort of a nondescript, design-y background. I really loved the style of art in which she was drawn here.
There was also a statuette in the store featuring several Batman characters. It was actually several little statuettes, each depicting different scenes, but all connected together. It was supposedly titled something like, "The Batman Family Through the Years".
The first statuette was of the very early Batman and Robin. Each subsequent one had Batman, Robin, Batgirl, and other characters as they appeared over the decades. I remember one statue had Batgirl tied to railroad tracks. Another had Nightwing, from the era in which he apparently wore a bright red suit.
Even though I don't closely follow superhero comics these days, I guess the Batman characters still hold a place in my heart, and I found myself really wanting this statue. Naturally, being of such size and detail the price was way out of my range (around $300, I think).
I was at my job, but I was working on a personal art project with my cartoon characters. President Obama and his entourage showed up. He was touring the station and for some reason I just stayed put, working on my comics.
Eventually he entered the room where I was and began looking at what I was doing and expressing great interest. I gave him one of my cards with my website info on it, and a copy of the "Jennifer & Bueno" art book from a couple of years ago. He asked a lot of questions and seemed really eager to check out more of my work. I figured he was just being fake and politician-like in his expressed interest, but it still was cool that the President of the U.S. said nice things about my crappy comics.
There was another dream in which I was was in some sort of comic or pop-culture-heavy store. I saw a really cool Batgirl T-shirt that I wanted. It's hard to describe the image here, except that it was a more classic version of Batgirl with just sort of a nondescript, design-y background. I really loved the style of art in which she was drawn here.
There was also a statuette in the store featuring several Batman characters. It was actually several little statuettes, each depicting different scenes, but all connected together. It was supposedly titled something like, "The Batman Family Through the Years".
The first statuette was of the very early Batman and Robin. Each subsequent one had Batman, Robin, Batgirl, and other characters as they appeared over the decades. I remember one statue had Batgirl tied to railroad tracks. Another had Nightwing, from the era in which he apparently wore a bright red suit.
Even though I don't closely follow superhero comics these days, I guess the Batman characters still hold a place in my heart, and I found myself really wanting this statue. Naturally, being of such size and detail the price was way out of my range (around $300, I think).
Saturday, May 1, 2010
My Dinner with Neil and Spider-Dwight
MORNING OF MAY 1, 2010
Somehow I had ended up visiting author Neil Gaiman's house. I think there were other people there with us, but details are very vague. My clearest memory is that it came to be supper time and none of us knew what to eat. We went into his kitchen and were discussing things we could cook for supper.
There was some other strange dream that featured Dwight K. Schrute from The Office TV series. He was in a bedroom with lots of Spider-Man decorations (bed sheets, wall posters, etc.) discussing Spider-Man lore. He had Jim Halpert on the phone. Just to egg Dwight on, Jim was arguing with him about Spidey's villains and which one was the greatest threat to Spidey.
Somehow Jim tricked Dwight into agreeing to something that he didn't really believe regarding Spider-Man lore, and it made him very angry when he realized he'd been had. Jim hung up on him as he ranted. Pointless dream.
Somehow I had ended up visiting author Neil Gaiman's house. I think there were other people there with us, but details are very vague. My clearest memory is that it came to be supper time and none of us knew what to eat. We went into his kitchen and were discussing things we could cook for supper.
There was some other strange dream that featured Dwight K. Schrute from The Office TV series. He was in a bedroom with lots of Spider-Man decorations (bed sheets, wall posters, etc.) discussing Spider-Man lore. He had Jim Halpert on the phone. Just to egg Dwight on, Jim was arguing with him about Spidey's villains and which one was the greatest threat to Spidey.
Somehow Jim tricked Dwight into agreeing to something that he didn't really believe regarding Spider-Man lore, and it made him very angry when he realized he'd been had. Jim hung up on him as he ranted. Pointless dream.
Sunday, April 25, 2010
Navi, Crazy Ladies, And Scary Vets
MORNING OF APRIL 25, 2010
My dad decided he wanted to see the Avatar movie, and it was apparently still playing in a theater that we chose to go to. (For real life frame of reference, I think that movie was watchable, but ridiculously over-hyped. It offered some interesting aesthetics and little more.) When we got to the theater there was, for some reason, a long wait before the show would begin.
My mom eventually showed up to join us. This was doubly odd because not only does my mom NEVER go to a theater, but she would NEVER choose to watch a movie like Avatar under any circumstances that I can imagine.
While we were waiting for the movie to start, some woman, probably in her 40's or early 50's, approached us. She apparently was an old family friend we hadn't seen in several years. I didn't recognize her. The lady was astonished at "how I'd grown", because apparently I was still a kid or teenager the last time she'd seen me. Her reaction was more than a realistic reaction to such a thing--it's like she literally couldn't comprehend that I had grown up over the course of several years.
Then she asked me where I worked. I told her, and she just went silly. She was like, "No! Not there! That's crazy! Why there!!??" and began rolling around on the ground and kicking! There was a curtain or something on the wall, and she pulled it down and wrapped herself up in it as she rolled around in her fits. It's not as though she thought it was BAD that I worked where I did, she just, for some reason, couldn't conceive of it (believe me there's nothing hard to conceive about it). Somehow it all caused this violent reaction in her, which concerned everyone around.
At some point I noticed I had to go to the bathroom rather badly. The movie still hadn't started, so I excused myself. There was no bathroom in the theater, so I went down the street to another business. Only inside it didn't look like a business, but like a school or something. It was empty because it was supposedly the weekend. I kept trying to find the bathroom in this building and couldn't.
I ended up in a classroom that was obviously for young kids, judging by the decorations on the walls and the size of the desks and such. By this point I could no longer hold out. I had to go, and NOW. There was a sink in this empty classroom. Ashamed, I did what I had to do.
I went back to the theater. The movie still hadn't started, but now some of my friends were there, gathered around a table. They were having some kind of debate. I sat down and asked, "Aren't we supposed to be watching a movie?"
At that exact moment, the movie started playing, already in progress. The main female Navi character from Avatar (google reminds me the name was Neytiri) had a baby Navi she was carrying on her back in a sling. She was running at some sort of hyper-speed, as though being pursued. She moved so fast that she could even run across the surface of water when she came to it.
After a few moments, it became apparent that she was running across the entire surface of the earth, every ocean, every continent. It was just to show how awesome the Navi were supposed to be. Suddenly she was confronted by some supposedly evil Navi in a cloak. I woke up (not surprisingly, given earlier dream content, having to go).
There was some other dream in which my parents asked me to take our geriatric family dog, Einstein, to the local vet. I "remembered" that there was a girl (a fictional one) at this vet that I used to have a crush on, but never really had a chance to talk to.
Conveniently, I saw a TV commercial for the vet, and this girl starred in it, narrating the promotion of the clinic. It was so bright and cheery; a typical, cheesy local commercial. The girl was very pretty, though.
When I actually got to the vet with Einstein, it was a weird and scary place. It seemed to consist of narrow concrete halls painted sea green and lit by flickering fluorescent bulbs. The pretty girl from the commercial led Einey and I down one of the hallways to his room. She was very rude and stuck-up, and I couldn't believe I had thought she was so pretty. I also felt scared to leave Einey in this place.
My dad decided he wanted to see the Avatar movie, and it was apparently still playing in a theater that we chose to go to. (For real life frame of reference, I think that movie was watchable, but ridiculously over-hyped. It offered some interesting aesthetics and little more.) When we got to the theater there was, for some reason, a long wait before the show would begin.
My mom eventually showed up to join us. This was doubly odd because not only does my mom NEVER go to a theater, but she would NEVER choose to watch a movie like Avatar under any circumstances that I can imagine.
While we were waiting for the movie to start, some woman, probably in her 40's or early 50's, approached us. She apparently was an old family friend we hadn't seen in several years. I didn't recognize her. The lady was astonished at "how I'd grown", because apparently I was still a kid or teenager the last time she'd seen me. Her reaction was more than a realistic reaction to such a thing--it's like she literally couldn't comprehend that I had grown up over the course of several years.
Then she asked me where I worked. I told her, and she just went silly. She was like, "No! Not there! That's crazy! Why there!!??" and began rolling around on the ground and kicking! There was a curtain or something on the wall, and she pulled it down and wrapped herself up in it as she rolled around in her fits. It's not as though she thought it was BAD that I worked where I did, she just, for some reason, couldn't conceive of it (believe me there's nothing hard to conceive about it). Somehow it all caused this violent reaction in her, which concerned everyone around.
At some point I noticed I had to go to the bathroom rather badly. The movie still hadn't started, so I excused myself. There was no bathroom in the theater, so I went down the street to another business. Only inside it didn't look like a business, but like a school or something. It was empty because it was supposedly the weekend. I kept trying to find the bathroom in this building and couldn't.
I ended up in a classroom that was obviously for young kids, judging by the decorations on the walls and the size of the desks and such. By this point I could no longer hold out. I had to go, and NOW. There was a sink in this empty classroom. Ashamed, I did what I had to do.
I went back to the theater. The movie still hadn't started, but now some of my friends were there, gathered around a table. They were having some kind of debate. I sat down and asked, "Aren't we supposed to be watching a movie?"
At that exact moment, the movie started playing, already in progress. The main female Navi character from Avatar (google reminds me the name was Neytiri) had a baby Navi she was carrying on her back in a sling. She was running at some sort of hyper-speed, as though being pursued. She moved so fast that she could even run across the surface of water when she came to it.
After a few moments, it became apparent that she was running across the entire surface of the earth, every ocean, every continent. It was just to show how awesome the Navi were supposed to be. Suddenly she was confronted by some supposedly evil Navi in a cloak. I woke up (not surprisingly, given earlier dream content, having to go).
There was some other dream in which my parents asked me to take our geriatric family dog, Einstein, to the local vet. I "remembered" that there was a girl (a fictional one) at this vet that I used to have a crush on, but never really had a chance to talk to.
Conveniently, I saw a TV commercial for the vet, and this girl starred in it, narrating the promotion of the clinic. It was so bright and cheery; a typical, cheesy local commercial. The girl was very pretty, though.
When I actually got to the vet with Einstein, it was a weird and scary place. It seemed to consist of narrow concrete halls painted sea green and lit by flickering fluorescent bulbs. The pretty girl from the commercial led Einey and I down one of the hallways to his room. She was very rude and stuck-up, and I couldn't believe I had thought she was so pretty. I also felt scared to leave Einey in this place.
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