Basically a Big Party

I was in a coffee shop with Anna, ordering lattes. When we got them, they were like giant chocolate milkshakes, but runny, which is perfect because sometimes milkshakes are too cold for my teeth. We turned to sit down at a table when I saw an old friend of mine out of the corner of my eye. He wore a white lab coat and disappeared around a corner.

"Namir?" I called as I followed him. He peered out from a doorway and replied "Yeeessss??" while at the same time, my cousin Laith peered out from a doorway across the hall, also wearing a white lab coat and saying "Yeeessss??" Laith was also pointing at his head insistently. He had shaved it bald. He smiled like a damn fool.

They both faded out and my guitar teacher appeared. He was wearing an adorable yellow bowtie and a black porkpie hat. I got excited and started to say to him "You look so nice..." but then I realized he was wearing a white sweat suit as well, so I finished with "...from the shoulders up!" The sweatshirt and sweatpants had two different colleges written on them; one was written in blue and one in black. He then put on a suit over the sweatsuit. The suit was black with pinstripes and was giant.

I returned to Anna and drank the rest of my latte milkshake. It had weird chunks at the bottom which I drank as I thought to myself "I may regret this in a moment."

I began singing the song "Nasty" by Janet Jackson. When I sang, the entire song came out of my mouth, drums and synth and voice and everything. As I sang, Anna and other people in the coffee shop started dancing. As I danced, I realized Will Smith was dancing right behind me. I kept singing and we formed a sort of demented conga line, just the two of us. When I got to the verse of the song, I somehow switched into "Rhythm Nation," which I didn't realize until I got to the chorus. I tried to do the Rhythm Nation dance, but my hands were full with a a giant box full of firecrackers. Here's what I missed out on:

Lost My Car in a Dark Garage

I was at Anna's sister's wedding. Anna was the maid of honor, and as I watched her walk up the aisle before her sister, I grabbed my camera to take pictures. It was running out of batteries, so I kept turning it on and trying again, and I got a few mediocre shots out of it.

As I was taking the pictures, I remembered that I was supposed to play a song for the wedding and I didn't have my music with me. Since my music was at my parents' house and the wedding was just a few blocks away, I thought it would be fine for me to leave and run back to their house to get it. I assumed I'd get back to the wedding with no problem.

Then all of a sudden, I was in a giant high-rise parking garage. It was dirty and dingy and dark and scary with a million stairwells, several on each floor, so I couldn't keep track of where I was going. I held my keys tightly in my hand and kept pressing the lock button, which makes my car's horn honk. I could hear it very faintly in the distance. It was very high-pitched. As I climbed the stairs, the sound got harder and harder to hear, so I figured I should go back down. Whenever I got inside a stairwell where I'd be going down the stairs, I was able to jump down the whole thing with my fingers just lightly grazing the handrails. It was sort of like flying, but more so jump-falling in an organized fashion. Make sense?

I searched and searched everywhere, but I could not find my car. I did come across a man wearing a busted up tuxedo. He looked like some kind of cartoonish magician or the villain from an old movie. Crooked mustache, wilted flower in his boutonniere. He was digging through piles of junk, boxes of random things. He implied that he could help me find my car. I searched through the piles with him for a few minutes, turning up some of my own belongings. Then he led me to the base of a stairwell where three other people sat; two grown men and one little girl. "Stay here for 15 minutes," he told me. "Whatever you're looking for will show up."

I sat on the dirty floor and realized the two men and little girl were about to watch a movie. I thought it was probably be too scary for her. I also realized that the tuxedo guy was the owner of the fancy hotel that the parking garage was suddenly attached to, and I wondered how he had time to search through garbage when he had a fancy hotel to run.

Eventually I ended up in the lobby of the hotel, all dirty and standing out in the light of the giant chandeliers. I had not found my car or my music, and I was sure the wedding was long over, but Anna was there and still very nice to me. Hey, thanks for being a good friend, Anna!

Bathtub of Boys and Beans

My hub Mike (M1), our friends Mike (M2) and Andy & I were chilling one evening and M1 & I suggested that we all take a bath together.  It was super casual in my dream world, like asking if we should have a fire in the fire pit.  I think the idea was basically a poor-man's hot tub.  So the boys get down to swim trunks and I'm in a bra and undies and we're wedged in our tub together, all in a row (M1 in front, then me, then Andy, then M2 caboose-ing it).  How sad.  Andy said he'd like to make some beans for us to share as a snack.  He had this dehydrated bean mixture (like a packet of oatmeal) and planned to pour it into the tub, expecting that it would hydrate into a nice little floating pile of refried beans.  I didn't think it would work out this way and before I could warn him against the idea, I saw M2 behind him with dehydrated bean mess floating around everywhere.  It was gross and the end result was the four of us steeping in a tub of refried beans.  The end!

Now is Not the Time, Ozzy Osbourne.

The other night, I had a really long-seeming dream. I meant to write it down last week but I forgot, so here are some of the details I remember:

I was with my cousin Tony's wife, Jill, and she was driving a van in the neighborhood of my work. She and I and a few other people kept trying to get somewhere, but we seemed to just stay in the same area, still driving. At one point, she brought us to her apartment in Madison, which was very long. She also had two dogs that were blonde and furry. As I looked at them, I thought to myself, "they're just like ____ (in my mind, a combination of bears ad pigs), but much fluffier!"

Later, I was back in the van with Rob, who I know here in Madison. We were with a third person who I didn't know at the time. The third person said he needed to make a stop. We pulled over near these condos on the same street on which I work and he got out. Rob and I were talking, but out of the corner of my eye I saw the third guy standing outside the condos. It was Ozzy Osbourne! He was wearing all black with round, black sunglasses, and he was aiming his remote car starter at a window on the 2nd or 3rd floor. I immediately recognized that as "the sign" for buying pot. Specifically from this guy who's a concert promoter here in town. "Hey!" I yelled indignantly. "He doesn't get to buy pot now! I've got to get to work!"

I was in a hurry to leave, so I figured I'd get out of the van and walk the 8 blocks to work. As I left, Rob gave me a gift - a tennis ball covered in rainbow-colored confetti and streamers.

A Shot of Crystal Meth

The other night I had a dream that I was with my friend Wendy, standing on the front stoop of somebody's house. This guy I know cam up to us, looking all shady, and held out a tiny silver shot glass. It was "a shot of crystal meth" and Wendy and I were supposed to share it. I decided not to take it, since I had to go to work soon. I'm so boring...

reception and flying

mike and i were at a wedding reception, i think, with our favorite band and their girlfriends and crew.  they were guests, too.  we were all dressed up, sipping cocktails in a giant, old ballroom, having a grand time.  good ol' friendsies. 

the next day i was snooping around the venue and was in a large office-y storage area.  it was all white with lots of windows wrapped around it and some desks and boxes scattered here and there.  somehow, i realized that i could fly.  i sort of leaped off something and soared by curving my spine and arms.  i believe this was based on a real-life experience where i tried one of those sky-diving simulators and you bend and arch and such to speed your fall or slow it down. 

the large room had those weird, white ceiling tiles and i accidentally soared up too quickly and bumped into the ceiling which caused the ceiling tiles of the whole room to shift off the grid.  i felt sheepish and quietly left before anyone could come and notice.

when describing this dream to mike today, two uncanny things occurred.  first, when i was trying to compare the ballroom to one he could reference, i couldn't think of the name of the damn eagles ballroom in oskhosh.  he blindly guessed "the eagles?" and i was all, "yeah!."  that was only a little uncanny.  but then!  he said that he had a dream about those white ceiling tiles, last night, too.  ooooooo.  something about installing them.  so we were laying right next to each other dreaming about ceiling tiles.  but i could fly and he couldn't. 

and now, here's a video of my favorite band, state radio.

Greasy Hair and Tiny Paper Airplanes

I was with my friend Christopher in some kind of outdoorsy camp. We walked into a building that looked just like the basement of the old Arabic church we used to go to. He sat on one couch and I sat on another. A wrestler or boxer or something sat on the arm of the couch Christopher was sitting on; he wanted to show us how greasy his hair was. He took off his hat and shook out his hair, shaking grease everywhere. Some landed on Christopher's yellow shirt, in little spots. He stood up, pissed. I knew there was about to be a fight...

Or so I thought! Both men stood up, facing each other, eye to eye. The wrestler/boxer proclaimed that he would be the one to decide what the "challenge" would be. So it was to be a challenge rather than a fight! This is much better...Anyhow, Wrestler/Boxer decided they'd do a competition with paper airplanes. They'd each stand across the room, facing each other, and one would throw a paper airplane at the other, who would then have to catch it. If he caught it, he'd win. That was that.

"This'll be easy!" I thought to myself. Until! You know there's gotta be a catch. Wrestler/Boxer got to pick out which piece of paper he used for the paper airplane! He walked towards a crowd of people and picked a tiny post-it note off the wall. The crowd oohed and aahed as Christopher and I looked on, worried. He was a daring and cunning foe, this Wrestler/Boxer.

With a sly look upon his face, he folded the tiny post-it into an even tinier paper airplane, and the two men took their places. My stomach flipped over and over, and for some reason, a movie played on an old television on the floor. It was all of a sudden understood that the paper airplane would be thrown as soon as the end credits of the movie were over. Suddenly, the credits were over and the lights dimmed. Wrestler/Boxer threw the miniscule airplane and it spiraled out of control. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Christopher dive for it and land behind an old brown couch. Silence filled the room as he emerged from behind the couch, a crumpled paper airplane in his hand. Cheers erupted and I went to hug him. We immediately headed out of the room, arm in arm. He was wearing my red sweater.

Living With My Friend's GIrlfriend

I dreamed I was standing in my apartment in Madison, only it was a different apartment than I live in now. It had a big, old looking, wooden bed with a quilt on it. The quilt looked like something you'd see in a real "American" bed and breakfast or something. Sort of like this, but not such a big pattern in the middle:



I was with my friend and his girlfriend, standing in the apartment, when I realized that this girlfriend was moving out of this apartment. I didn't even know she lived there! SHe had packed up most of her things already and would be gone that day.

I looked at her and my friend, and looked back at the bed, and wondered where she slept. I couldn't remember ever having shared a bed with her. "Did you ever sleep here?" I asked her. She smiled, but didn't answer me.

I also wondered where she put all her clothes, since I have both closets full of clothes and shoes and purses and junk (this is true in real life; I have two regular sized closets that are totally full). A door opened to another room I'd never before seen. It was like a dressing room and had all her clothes and a sewing machine inside. Off of that room, there was yet another room that had a giant furnace in it. For some reason, when I looked at it, I exclamined "We have laundry in here! I can't believe I didn't know that!" I was so excited because of the convenience, but then I immediately felt lazy since I did have laundry (just like in real life), it's just down in the basement. So lazy!

The Hell's Satans

I don't remember my dream very well, but I know I was hanging out with some friends from high school. At one point, one of them said he thought I hated him in high school. I hugged him and said no, I never hated him, I was just socially awkward. We had a slumber party. One friend brought an inflatable water bed. At 9:30 in the morning we got drunk on vodka tonics to the point where I spilled mine. He looked at me and said, "Normally I'm not self-destructive like this." There was a tone of judgement in his voice.

Then we went to a tavern with a group of friends, some from college. We wanted to see the band play, and then suddenly it was beautiful classical music in a fancy music hall. One of my friends, J, who I have not seen in several years brought in a sandwich from Subway. She took off the plastic wrap and it was REALLY LOUD and crinkly, and everyone stared at her until she got kicked out. She was extremely upset, so I walked her and her baby (who suddenly appeared) home.

When we were walking home we passed a few guys who looked very tough. Lots of tattoos. They were very scary. Okay, in real life I wouldn't see a biker with a lot of tattoos and get scared. But in my dream they were terrifying. I knew they were white supremacists, violent, and evil. Something happened when we passed them, I can't remember what, but it pissed them off. So I knew they were after us. They were going to kill us! I looked them up online and their "bike gang website" proved how evil and violent they were. I was in a panic, making phone calls, gathering belongings, we had to get out of there!!!! I can't remember how it ended.