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!

Reykjavik, mostly

I was at an event where a large group of people were dancing some martial arts style dance.  I was somehow nominated to choose a team of dancers from the group so I had to pay attention to each person and it was a lot of pressure.  Then I was with a group of people from college, at a friend's wedding reception.  Everyone was split up into small rooms and "the cool crowd" was jam-packed into a room.  I decided to boycott the cool crowd because it was so overcrowded and competitive to get a drink and the bride & groom's attention.  I was a little bit pouty about it.

Then I was with a large group of friends and we found out we were going to Reykjavik, Iceland in a few hours.  It was a ridiculous idea but no one wanted to miss the opportunity.  So we got packed up to go.  As we flew over Iceland, I asked "Is this real?" because we were in small planes, the size of about 3 rollercoaster cars.  It was beautiful - clear skies, mountains, a lush green landscape below.  I kept thinking of Bjork and how it made so much sense that she was from here.  It was strange that there was no sign of volcanic ash in the sky and that we were cleared to fly.  I actually thought maybe we were on a 3-D ride at Disneyworld because these planes or helicopters were so small and rollercoaster-like.  They were so small that we were even able to zip through Reykjavik downtown and see shops, restaurants and cobblestone roads.  It looked like a great city.  At the hostel, our group bustled around finding our rooms and settling in.  Reem was there and wanted to watch a Cameron Diaz movie.  She kept asking others if it was a good movie, as she was really skeptical.  But she really wanted to watch it.  I remember thinking how lame it was that I was dreaming about a Cameron Diaz movie instead of dreaming of exploring Reykjavic on account of Reem.

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.

Wedding Party

Recently I was at Mark and Alexa's wedding. In my dream I was at their wedding but it was different. No one danced, and it was stiff and formal. Then I realized it was Andy's wedding. I don't know who he was marrying. Then it was back to Mark and Alexa's. I gave a gift - a "bouquet of balloons" - each balloon was inflated a little with some water, fish, and crickets. Unfortunately, I forgot about them for a while. So by the time I was giving it to Andy, the fish and crickets were dead and it was really gross. Also I gave the DJ 5 cds to play. The first song was a Guns and Roses song which "pumped up the group" and helped the party be less formal. I left the party. Then I was upset because I realized I left my cds. Besides the Guns and Roses, I also had contributed X and The Muffs. I don't remember what the other 2 cds were. But I got a text from Andy saying, "Did I tell you I already have The Muffs' cd?" - basically implying that it was an unnecessary contribution. That along with the dead-cricket-fish-balloon-bouquet and I kind of felt like I didn't do so great.

Polly Wolly Doodle

I dreamed that it was Layla's wedding day, and I was supposed to play piano during the service. Layla had previously asked me to play five songs - I can see the way they were listed on the program, numbered with roman numerals. The first song was "Here Comes the Bride," the second was some folk song that I think maybe was "Polly Wolly Doodle," and the third was a Bach Prelude (for those of you who are curious, it's the Prelude in C Major, the one that's played under the Ave Maria).

The "church" looked more like a community center with long rows of pews. There was brown carpeting and some bulletin boards along the walls. It was noisy and unorganized, and people were walking around, even when the wedding technically started. Layla had told me to find a woman who would give me the piano music that I was supposed to play. She was late, but she eventually found me and handed me a thick folder. I opened it, expecting to find sheet music, but instead, found a huge stack of children's artwork. There were large piece of felt covered in glitter and glue, all in red and yellow and other bright colors. No music to be found...

I stopped Layla right before the wedding was about to begin and said "This is just the rehearsal, right?" She replied "No, this is the real thing." I instantly got worried and said to her "You didn't even invite my parents!" She assured me that it would be fine, and the wedding began, amidst the people milling about and the background noise. I had a very hard time doing Polly Wolly Doodle by ear - I kept messing up the left hand chords, but I did okay with the melody in the right hand.

Married to Myself

I had a really weird, long, kind of depressing dream last night. I dreamed that it was the day before and the day of my wedding day. The day before, I was at the mall with Sara and Emil, and different people kept appearing and helping in preparation for the big day. Here are some of the things that happened:

-Mom gave me a little cup in which I was to provide a urine sample. "I just peed four times in the last hour, Mom!" I exclaimed. "Why couldn't you have asked me earlier?"

-Lauren O'Flynn showed up to help Sara make all the beds, at my parents house and at the mall

-I went to a wine store and bought two bottles of wine (one "cherry" and one "sweet apple") only so that I could use their bathroom, but then I was carrying too many bottles to actually use the bathroom.

-I had to go to the second floor of the mall to find a specific painting

-There was no parking, and I had to run through the parking lot for a long time in silver glittery high heels that look like a headband I have

Throughout all the adventures, I was really excited about getting married, but then I realized...I had no idea who I was getting married to! It wasn't until cousin Layla whispered to me "I'd be too embarrassed to do what you're doing...all those big moments!" that I realized I was going to marry myself. All of a sudden, anxious thoughts regarding those "big moments" flooded my brain. Who is my first dance going to be with? Who's going to stand up in front of all those people with me? Who am I going to cheers my champagne with?

That's when it got really sad and depressing, especially since, earlier yesterday, in real life, Sara and I had been talking about sad things like being alone and not having people around and all that. The idea of marrying myself really made my heart sink in my dream. Ugh.

One hilarious part was that I had laid out my entire outfit, which consisted of the following:

-white tights
-a really ugly white bra that totally didn't look big enough
-boring white underwear that I usually wouldn't even wear on laundry day
-a white men's undershirt
-a black half-slip
-a white wedding dress that's skirt was the same as my awesome purple skirt (that I wore on the last 2 Halloweens), all ruffles
-the silver glittery high heels

I was pretty concerned about the black slip...I thought it might show through and that, for some reason, people would judge. Jerks!

Also, there was yet another bathroom moment where I was in the bathroom in my parents' house, the one near the kitchen, and I could hear my sister was telling my father that he should have shopped for my wedding gift earlier and I was trying to pee (have you all guessed by now that I had to pee in real life?) and I was holding my dress up, all bustle-y and ruffle-y, trying not to let it get in the toilet.

This dream seemed to last all night. I woke up sad and exhausted. Yuck. If I ever say I'm going to marry myself, please stop me.

Beach walk

[I must second Sara's excitment on recalling the dreams as I have been drinking my dreams away for months.  Being invited to this blog brought me to not drink last night, and I even ate chips and salsa at 3am to try and induce wild dreams (as hot food in my sleeping stomach riles the psyche); also it must have been five years since I became near-lucid in a dream like this. Synchronously intriguing.  Enough about me, onto the dream:]

I find myself walking down a beach i've never been on before.  There are thin, long barrier islands running along the beach not too far out, but there are still giant waves crashing.  The islands are covered with overgrown jungle.  This thick greenness is over-colored with the sunset's burnt oranges, but they are not colors that I have ever seen in the waking world and their brightnesses are in odd patterns and rows of light -- but there are no clouds in the sky.  These perplexities and the waves crashing onto the shore when the islands should be stopping them give me pause.  I feel a slight jolt of consciousness but it slips away. I fall back into the dream.

I find myself walking again.  I come upon beach chairs where my ex-wife and her best friend are chatting.  The ex- looks up at me and nonchalantly asks if I am here for the wedding celebration.  This question slices the veil completely open this time and I know I am dreaming, which lends me some semblance of control of what I 'say' to 'her,' "I am not going anywhere with you ever again.  We have agreed to let go of one another's life.  You no longer need be here."  This I think towards her figure as gently as I can because I know its not her, and yet she's in here with me.

I surround her in a thick white light -- and am waking from the dream as I do so -- and she glows into a white silhouette and melts/lowers into the ground, leaving in her place a hovering image of Jupiter (the planet) which is collaged together from the same oranges the trees should not have been able to reflect...