Art, Wine, and NCIS

I had two dreams last night. The first was that I was planning a party with two people I knew in HS. One friend, Kim. One foe, Reinhardt. I can't remember why we were together or what we were planning for (probably Thanksgiving given its proximity and Anthony's phone call yesterday). I just know that we went back to Reinhardt's new house and the three of us were planning a dinner party for the next day.

It started off as dinner, then an art exhibition got thrown in. I wasn't sure how people were going to create beautiful works of art to share overnight, but that's what Kim wanted. I was particularly worried about my ability to create something since I also had to go shopping. And when we were coming up with our shopping list, I also became worried about my ability to pay for all of this. I kept saying, "I can't spend more than a couple hundred dollars. I just don't have it."

So dinner and art became wine, snacks, and art. I was going to buy the snacks. I had a list, but then at the end, I decided it would be better to consult the internet what went best with wine. I had Doritos on the original list. They were Nacho Cheese, and cheese does go with wine, but still...

That was pretty much the end of that dream, though I did notice people started showing up for the party before we had even finished planning it. They were all outside on the deck and suddenly I thought the Hip Hop they were probably listening to wasn't appropriate for wine. Suddenly I began searching for classical music.

The next dream began in a hospital. I was Abby from NCIS out with Gibbs and Dinozzo trying to catch the bad guy (which is weird since Abby isn't an agent. She's in the forensics lab). I don't remember who we were trying to catch, I just remember walking into a bathroom where a stall was sprayed almost from floor to ceiling in blood. Then I was going down the stairs carrying my big brown blanket and my dog, Abby (weird, huh?), when I bumped into someone coming up.

I looked at Dinozzo....somehow...through a wall...and he told me the guy was an arsonist, but he wasn't the guy we were looking for so I shouldn't worry about it. As I came out of the stairwell, though, everyone in the  pediatric unit was running out screaming about fire. I yelled up to Dinozzo, "The babies! He's in the babies!"

I joined everyone else in a special fire exit stairwell, and we all stood around outside looking for the guy. I was the only one who had gotten a look at him (though we had turned our backs to each other in the stairwell for some reason), so when I spotted him among the nurses, I ran to get someone with a gun. I couldn't find Gibbs or Dinozzo, but I found the balding cop guy from CSI: Miami.

He ran up and shot the guy in the right shoulder. Gibbs yelled at me for not telling him instead of the CSI guy, and I think they all went to subdue the guy. For SOME reason, I decided to take off into the woods then. I ran through fairly thick trees for a while until a came to this snow patch, with yellow in it - supposed to be flowers, and I jumped in there. Supposedly this marked the border to Colorado, and I was free.

Unfortunately, the arsonist was right behind me. Despite my staggering lead, he tracked me and found me pretty quickly. I tried to get away, but somehow I just fell into the tangle of vines and couldn't open my eyes. The arsonist started to tell me how that was the waste of people, among other crazy things, and I fought my way out.

We came to a house in a snowy clearing just past where we were in the trees. It was some sort of daycare. I begged the man not to destroy it. He seemed like he would oblige me until he read some sort of religious sign on the door. Before I could see what happened, I took off again.

I thought maybe if I was more careful this time, he wouldn't be able to track me. Then I realized, who was I kidding? I didn't know where I was, and I was no ghost. Not to mention, I didn't really have a head start this time, so all I had was my speed to try to get away.

I don't know how that ended/would have ended. I started waking up and realized I actually was alone, which made the dream all the more real. I was barely awake, but I think I made the decision to wake myself up more rather than continue being chased in a dream.

I'm sure I could have gone into more detail with these, but there was so much to get down before I forgot. I'd also like to include why all of these things came together, but I'm hungry. Maybe next time...

Crusty Bread

I had yet another dream about being in HS again the other night. It was probably the least remarkable of them all, though - the only unremarkable one, so I didn't remember it well enough to post. I DID have a postable dream last night. So before I forget...

This may be out of order, but the gist of it is that I was trying to register for classes, conversing with Bassett over the internet, talking to my dad, and ordering Chinese food. The details...

My dad had a girlfriend. In real life, he's still married to my mom. But in the dream, he had a gf. And for some reason, when ever I tried to talk to him, he was only in his boxers so I had to talk to him through a door or through this girlfriend. That's the particularly disturbing part of the dream.

Then there was registering. I kept having to try again because something would go wrong. I wasn't going through WINGS, it was some other site where I just picked my program from a drop down menu. Maybe all of the errors dealing with grad school registering have replaced my dreams where I'm sent back to HS because I didn't finish. Either way, I'm not impressed. I've already registered for all of my classes, and I'm set to graduate. So there better not be any more screw ups.

And then there's Bassett. I think I was emailing him back and forth (the only way we communicate other than the phone) about the registering and all of the problems I was having. During this process, I told him I was ordering Chinese food, and that I'd be happy to order some for him as well. He lives in FL.

I went online to check out their menu. Only, going online was strangely like teleporting my dad and I to the restaurant for a moment. It had one of those giant picture menus like you see in mall food courts. There were pictures of all the standard Chinese dishes - corn on the cob with french fries (appeared to be one entity), a fried chicken wrap, crusty bread...oh it makes me laugh. Crusty bread was a particularly big deal, but I can't remember why now.

Anyway, my dad deemed this acceptable, and we were teleported back to our original location (not sure where that was). I was explaining to him that it would be better if he went to pick it up because he would have to run out to the shipping store anyway. I started thinking of my options again, and suddenly a courier service came to mind. That would be much too slow, I decided...way slower than FedEx who gets it there magically, of course, without the slow driving of a courier.

Aren't dreams fun? My dad protested that sending 'Chinese' food to FL wasn't the best idea, but I insisted. And I sent one last email telling Bassett that I hoped his food arrived warm. I'm not sure if it did...

Pickles

I haven't posted in about a month for a number of reasons. One dream I remembered vividly was about my old dog and it made me sad, so I didn't want to remember it longer than necessary. Others I've either not had time to write down before I forgot, or was too tired to get up and write them down before I forgot. The latter is almost true this morning. I had the dream, woke up, and chose to go back to sleep for a bit, so I don't remember all of it in great detail, but I do remember two things: pickles and the street band. Also, another cream just flashed into my head. The one about my mom living in a hospital/hotel. Maybe I'll write that one later. Anyway...

I think I was in Vegas. I say this because I kept thinking that I'd have to ask Mike if he saw the street band, and he's the one who went with me. It was strange because they weren't just playing for money, they were inviting people to come play with them. There was a violin, a steel drum-looking thing, and two other instruments I can't remember right now. I know a steel drum and a violin don't really work together, but they did here.

Actually, I can't remember hearing any music from them. I kept thinking about songs they might play, or songs I might play with them. And I watched them play; I should have been able to hear it. But I couldn't. Interesting. I remember watching one guy (audience member) play the violin in the middle of the circle with them. I made eye contact with the real violin player....wait I heard music then. I just don't remember what it was. I must not have recognized it.

Anyway, there was that and then there was the food part. This was also outdoors, but under a tent. It was top chef-esque and ingredients were constantly being wheeled by my bleachers. For some reason, this girl I went to HS with was sitting to my right, and I really disliked her. I don't remember seeing any food made, but there was a lot of food rolled by us, and this chick started bitching about the pickles. It was time to clean up or something, and she didn't want the pickles wheeled by her again maybe. I can't remember too well. In any case, I went up to the pickle bowl and grabbed a huge stack to eat before returning to my seat next to her. I took a big bite out of all of them, burger style. Juice ran everywhere. I let it drip next to her. I started to eat the pickles one by one and this point, but was surprised that each one I ate already had a bite taken out of it.....and then I remembered why. I guess I was waking up again at this point, and that's why there was confusion.

That's all I have for this dream. Maybe I'll do the hospital dream later. It's sort of funny about the sensory details here considering our recent class. I know they could be better, but still.

Terrorists in the UN

First, two nights ago I had a disturbing dream, which I chose not to include here. It wasn't one of those dreams where you wake up crying or shoot up in bed gasping for air. I killed someone in the dream, and I was so shocked by it, I didn't remember the actual event in the dream. Then I was attacked by two others who knew the deceased (who magically reappeared later in the dream. "I'm getting better..."). It was one of those very real, very scary dreams, so I decided not to recount all the details.

LAST night, though, I had a pretty special dream about trying to stop terrorists. I dreamed that I was back at my HS, both teaching there and attending classes. I've had dreams like this for years - "Yes, you've got several degrees and you're able to teach, but while you were here you missed that one class you needed to graduate. So now you have to take it to make everything you do valid." Very weird.

Anyway, I was back at LA and attending classes. After a day or so of them, I found out there were terrorists in the UN. I think I was hanging out in the office before first period one day, and with three quarters in my pocket, I came up with an ingenious plan to sneak in and kill the terrorists. I don't remember why the quarters were important, I just remember checking over and over to make sure two of them were there.

So my ingenious plan was to enlist. With the UN. I kept saying in the dream, "I didn't know you could do that." And yet I was trying. And one of my students/classmates was trying with me. She told the front desk man that her husband was overseas and he couldn't call her, but maybe she could call him from there. I don't know why. Maybe this was a distraction technique. The problem was that she had to go back to class because we were late to first period and Mr. Etter was going to be mad.

I couldn't get in to see a recruiter that morning, so I had to make an appointment for later and hope that my plan had not been suspected. It may have even been the UN recruiters who were the terrorists. I'm not sure now. The armed forces (plus UN) recruitment offices were on the HS campus, btw. And my "married" student/classmate was a teenager...I think.

After I failed there, I walked back to class only I got lost. I ended up going to the trailers where my second period class was. I had an orange and a red plum and gave them to my teacher when I realized my mistake. As I Was running off to the right class, I yelled behind me that she could have either but only half because I promised I would split them with my boyfriend.

I made it to the right class, and thankfully someone had told Mr. Etter why I was late, so I didn't need a tardy slip. He told me I needed to find someone to pair up with to do the assignment. I looked at the first girls work and didn't understand what was going on. It was just a list of series of numbers in parentheses. For some reason I didn't want to work with this poor girl in the front (I still feel bad about that), so I found another girl in the back to work with. I woke up before I had to figure out what the assignment was thank goodness.

Film and Driving School

So last night I dreamed I was in film school. I had to make two short films. The first was a drama, I can't remember exactly what about. I remember there were 3 of us at a table, and things were being slammed on the table. Also there was a random long smooth shot of the equipment room, which we could see through a glass panel. I wondered why someone had included that shot in there since it had nothing to do with the scene and it made us look like such amatuers.

The next film was about race, somehow. It's hard to remember the specifics now, but I know I wasn't in it. I wrote the script but couldn't be there when they shot, so I didn't see it until class. It told about the life of a black mother, I think. And at one point in the dream I thought we had the real woman there, but it turns out it was just my partners mom with different hair.

Between making these movies and screening them in class was the weird part, though. Out in the parking deck there was some sort of driving school. Maybe. I just remember getting in an Eclipse on the bottom level and some older instructor type asking if I remembered how or was up to the challenge or something. I had to accelerate all the way to the top and change gears at every floor change. I sped, squealing tires around support structures for five floors. At the top, I had to stop suddenly because there was a group of people up there that I didn't want to hit. The guy in the car with me turned and told someone in the back, "Yeah, that's how you do it."

So we sat in the car on the top of the parking deck for a while, but at some point in the dream the car turned into a bed and the parking deck turned into a room at the back of the theatre room where we screened the movies. I end up sitting on the bed in this room wearing pajama pants with a tshirt that doesn't match. I also had my UGA cheerleading shorts on the floor along with a few other articles of clothing that added to the absolute tackiness that was my outfit.

As I was sitting there watching other people's movies through the doorway that connected the two rooms, and every so often feeling as though I was in the back of church, I got a text message about my movie. I needed to stay for the end of class because they were going to show mine. Suddenly I shot out of bed and started layering all of this clothing, and the person in the room with me asked why. I told them it was because I didn't want to be pulled on stage to talk about my movie, especially looking like that.

Somehow, though, I ended up convincing myself that we were going to win an award for the movie, and my partner had already left. So if I left too, there would be no one to accept the award, and they might not play our movie. So when my name was called, I walked slowly down the aisle extending my arms and pushing them up the way people do when they want applause. Everyone seemed to know me and yelled out funny comments about my attire. I took the mic and joked back before we watched the movie.

While I was watching it, I kept being amazed at the quality. The sound wasn't hard to hear like our first one, and there were no random equipment shots. There was even a professional actor in there...I know this because every time he came on screen, there was some sort of caption indicating we had paid him to be in it. He looked a little like Chevy Chase when he was younger, and I wondered how we could afford to pay him.

When it was over, I think I talked a bit more to the audience, but the dream basically ended there. I think I was too awake at this point and the dream had already been fading out. As for material origin, my boyfriend is in film school, and there were some references to his movies in mine, but I'm not sure about the car bit. I'm also not sure why I had this dream about a week after he showed me his last film either.

Wallpaper on the ceiling

So I was worried I might have to take an old dream from an old blog to fill the assignment, but then my good ol' subconscious came through for me last night. It isn't the most fantastic of my dreams, but it will do. Here it is:

Last night I dreamed that I had taken my dog back to Macon to see a friend. She and her sister were living together for some reason, and at first they had been at Michelle's house. However, on this occasion they wanted to order pizza, and they could only get pizza delivered to her sister's house, so they were staying there. Michelle gave me a tour of the house, detailing everything she hated about it, as her family ate.

The house was old and rundown, but her most memorable complaint was the wallpaper on the ceiling. It didn't cover the ceiling, it looked more as though someone just didn't cut it at the top of the wall, so it ran over. In one room, the paper was sort of an 80's green. Not too olive like the 70's, or too forest like the 90's, sort of a pale sea mix - where mold may grow unnoticed. It had a strange 80's floral pattern as well, and it looked like it was coming off the walls...and ceiling. The corners were peeling back in places.

Before returning to her family, we stopped in one of the old restrooms. It was washed in a muted pink, but what's more, the floor was carpeted! I remember this because to my horror, I looked down to find my dog peeing on it. I cleaned it and apologized before taking my dog down the stairs that led straight from the bathroom to a bedroom. It was there that I found another little Dachshund! It looked just like my Abbs but with short hair. I knew it was Michelle's dog, but I plotted to steal it for my Abbs (Michelle does not have a doxie in real life).

Toward the end of the dream, Michelle's mom started walking around with us and scolded her for being so harsh on her sister's house. Like a sullen teenager, Michelle pouted back that they wouldn't even be there if it weren't for the stupid pizza delivery man. *And end scene*

Now, because my dreams are often much crazier than this, I try to figure out where they came from or what they mean. There are plenty of dream interpretation websites out there and you can comment back what they say this means, but I'll give the easy explanation.

This dream is the result of too much Facebook (Michelle), too much HGTV (all of the design shows), and my dog peeing on my bed last night! She hasn't done that since she was a baby!!! (And ooooh was I pissed.) Oh, and also my guilt over not having a friend for her to play with.

I've never met Michelle's family, so they didn't have distinct features in my dream, and not too much attention was paid to them. Things like the puppy and the interior scheme, things I've seen before, were much more clear.