lastnite: a dream journal

Three brief encounters

Last night I continued the obsessive movie watching that has thrilled me so these past weeks. Yesterday's movies were the last half-hour of Buñuel's Diary of a Chambermaid (that I had fallen asleep to the night before), Brief Encounter, Les Diaboliques (a French film that I stayed awake through), and most of Pierrot le fou. I finished Pierrot le fou this morning while remembering my dreams.

All three variations were based on Brief Encounter at least in theme. Variation one involved Matt calling me from Japan and asking me to move with him to Okinawa. Variation two was a close friend moving away. I told this friend, "I can't believe you're leaving me." I knew that leaving wasn't the right word, so I hesistated, then added, "Well, not leaving me, but at the very least abandoning me." Variation three was the most interesting one. Our preschool program director, though married with children, fell in love with a roller-skating teenager and the two of them were going to run off together. He was in the oil business, and they were headed to the Persian Gulf, I think. It might have been Okinawa or Iwo Jima, but that doesn't make as much sense. Rebecca and her lover would simply roller-skate around the city park, hand in hand, while I had to look after three very sunburnt preschoolers. Stephanie came up behind me and asked where I find a new director. I said I didn't know, that I was having problems grasping it all, and that it was so unlike her. Then I got that filmic narration voice in my head and starting making grand statements about love and romance. "Oh, if she follows her heart, all the rest will fall into place." The roller-skater reminded me of an old friend, so I was nostalgic already, and watching Rebecca roller-skate continuously in circles was both uplifting and heartwrenching. Tres melodramatique.

I also dreamt that I was an invalid. I had a terrible sinus condition (I even woke up in the middle of this dream and did notice my stuffy nose, although it was much more exaggerated in the dream) and was unable to do much of anything.

Personally, I'm just a little disturbed that it took me this long to have interesting dreams again, especially considering the amount of cinema that I've taken in recently.