March 27, 2001
Sam Walton's massive photo project
I was going to Sam's (Wholesale Club) with Jon. He didn't have a card, so we went to the membership desk. They had a card with his name on it and two pictures from when he was a kid. They also had a card for Greg, Jon's best friend in seventh grade. It was quite creepy, and I told Jon that it was part of Sam Walton's massive photo project: to get a picture of every person in the United States. Jon then vanished, and I was shopping with two women in Wal-Mart, possibly Mom and Grandma. I was a little upset that we weren't at one with a grocery store, but I wandered nonetheless. Of all the Wal-Marts I've been in, it was most like the Blackwell, Oklahoma Wal-Mart: like Newton's, but more claustrophobic and dirtier. Anyway, I saw long baby pink and baby blue spandex skirts that I thought about, but decided against. I picked out three pairs of corduroy pants until I noticed they were $35 each: out of my price range. It was then that I stopped and wondered what I had become--I was looking at a corduroy, a fabric I swore I'd never wear again after failed slide attempts in third grade--and thinking about buying clothes . . . baby pink spandex skirts even. I shuddered, put the pants on the rack, and went to find Mom and Grandma. Tom F. had gotten in an argument with Grandpa, so I screamed at him. "How dare you insult him," I yelled, "He's done more good in the world than you can even comphrehend. You, of all people, should have the decency to leave him alone." I could tell Grandpa didn't really care what Tom F. had said anyway (not that I really knew, beyond a vague "he was mean to my grandpa, that bastard" sense), but I also sensed he was proud. Then Grandma and I looked at some miscellaneous items. I was still furious.
(This is the first "normal"--meaning nothing related to death--dream about Grandma I've had since she died in August.)