lastnite: a dream journal

A new fearlessness

Here's the dreams since I last updated:

10/30: We were in a little town like Red Bud, Illinois. Mojo Nixon was supposed to perform at the city hall.

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10/31: I was with Mom in a historical museum in Williamsburg. There were cutters in the line with a Godfather's membership card. There were creepy interstate interchanges, like the northbound access ramp being at a 90 degree angle.

I had the phrase "Japan is showing a new fearlessness in aiming" stuck in my head.

I was running around a huge Macy's with Caryn. I went upstairs to the CD section and thought briefly about joining Ken on the couches and asking where Jeremy was, but I didn't. I went back downstairs, found Caryn, old women in high heels, etc.

John McCain was on my thesis committee.

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11/14: Last night's dreams were weird, but just as I type this sentence I have forgotten them. I hate that. Last week, I dreamt that Vanilla Ice would not leave my living room. He was sitting there with some goateed friend, eating my food, watching my cable, and being completely annoying. I ended up yelling at him, even using his real name--that's just how angry I was. "Robert Van Winkle, you get the fuck out of my house this instant."

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11/15: A dream fragment from last week (and perhaps the most mundane dream ever): I was picking the lint off Tucker Carlson's navy blazer while he was asleep.

As I awoke from uneasy Nyquil sleep, I was struck with images from the night's dreams. Leila was getting married in Wesley Medical Center to some guy named Eric: it wasn't her boyfriend, just some guy she knew fairly well. It was, according to Leila, a "pretend marriage." After setting up the desks in rows, I had to go to the bathroom. I wandered to where the restrooms should be, but instead I had to go into a small, dark elevator to get to the restrooms. I was incredibly claustrophobic: I couldn't even stand up and there were boxes in the elevator, so I barely fit. After being trapped in an elevator for thirty minutes, I knew I had missed Leila's wedding. And I was so excited that she was okay (I haven't heard from her in years) and then I let her down. I went down one floor to where my grandfather was having surgery. I waited there, but they made him spend the night. I wanted to go home, but I also needed to have my parking lot stickers validated so I wouldn't have to pay. One lady asked me to come back tomorrow; another said she only did that sort of thing on the weekends and wouldn't be able to help me. I went down one floor to see if anyone could help. The lobby looked similar to the basement floor of Twin Lakes. Rev. Al Sharpton, dressed in purple and gold, was standing there. I chased after him, calling out "Reverend! Help!" He turned around, and I asked him to lead me in a prayer for patience. I got down on my knees and help out one hand, face up. He started with begging me to repeat after him, "Hey, Lord." I did that, then my mom came up and started calling the Rev. "Pinky."

Another dream snippet: Matt and I were getting onto I-35 from Harry heading north. We got off around downtown, which was built more like downtown KC around the Plaza than Wichita. We went up a flight of stairs around "Central & Douglas" (two streets that don't intersect in reality) and was led into a restaurant's welcoming area. We didn't want to eat there, so the host was very peeved when we walked out. It wasn't our fault that the only staircase up led right by his business' door. Instead, we went to Dairy Queen, where I was about to get a kid's meal because I didn't want to get too full.

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11/16: Last night's dream involved me agreeing to teach for WSU again. I had an African-American student who wanted to prank call his former teacher from my office. I said he could, but he had to tell me who he was calling. He said, "Jon K." I said that I wanted to talk to Jon after he was done. The student said something about "get that raisin off your nose," or something to that effect. I then got on the phone, and Jon didn't know it wasn't his former student, so I just said, "bye," and hung up.

Also had a dream where Mom chastised me for complaining about my old job in front of my old boss, Margaret. I asked Mom, "Who do you think is more of a bitch: Margaret or Katherine Harris (Florida Secretary of State)?" She had no comment. We were walking down an aisle of parked cars on a rainy night.

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11/20: Last night I dreamt that I had to go on a road trip, but it was more like I had to leave the state. I didn't want to go to Nebraska--I knew that much. I eventually decided to go to Paris, Texas. I mean, what the hell. I also decided to go ahead and pay for an oil change just to get my tires aired up.