Gutter Punks and Street Art

During an odd little 30 minute morning nap, I dreamed of laying on a blanket in a field of high grass with a friend. We were watching gutter punks build and spray-paint a giant metal structure to our right. More and more people kept arriving and adding different facets to the art piece. I balanced my camera on my friend's knee to do a high exposure shot. I think this is the first time I've actively used my photography knowledge in a dream.

I just had a dream this morning where I was still with my ex-boyfriend, and I was trying to figure out how to tell him I really didn't want to be with him any more. We were at some awesome place that was dark and vacation-y and full of people we were having fun with, but I was also solving some mystery or taking care of some exciting business. I felt challenged because sometimes I would think "Well, he's really not that bad..." and then other times I would think "I really have to just cut this off ASAP." I was not able to convince him that we shouldn't be together, which is very similar to what happened in real life. And then I woke up. But at least I tried to tell him to his face in the dream, instead of just handing him a letter and running away like I did in real life.

Lots of Guts

I had a dream that a friend who is living abroad came to visit me. It was a surprise visit. I owned a house and it was the middle of the night, I think I was cleaning my bathroom or something. And he showed up and I said all disheveled from cleaning and said something like "I'm a hot mess" and he laughed like it was the funniest thing he'd ever heard. In my head I was like, how has he never heard that phrase before? Then there were some long embarassing parts with some making out and long embraces. . . and another friend showed up with someone else, not sure who. My other friend was dressed as a cowboy and was trying to get us to go out somewhere. He left and we went inside and my dad was there. He asked why I had all these dead cats hanging from the ceiling. We looked up and there were dead black cats hanging from the ceiling, with guts hanging out. I said that someone had been putting them there to scare me and my dad removed them and put them outside. I don't remember anything else.

I later had a dream that I was a zombie and that I ate someone.

There ya go

Cult Classic

I had two different dreams about being in a cult.

I walked into an old house with me ex. I am not sure why we were at the house, I think it appeared to be some sort of boutique. We were invited to sit down at a big table with 4 other people. We were all chatting when I started to get a really weird feeling. Something just felt off about the people. They were dressed like they were on soap operas from the 70's. One of the women had big poofy blonde hair and was wearing all purple. I started to feel like I wanted to leave so I went to the door and called my mom. The people were not happy that I wanted to leave so I waited for my mom to get there. My mom and sister arrive and somehow I was able to leave, but my ex wanted to stay. He said "I'll be out in 2 minutes, it will be really quick." As we were leaving there were protesters outside the house, teenagers wearing all black with black eye makeup. They were yelling, "It's a fucking cult!" and holding signs. My mom, sister and I got in the car and started to drive away, but I said we couldn't go far because we needed to pick up my ex. We decided to drive around the block and we'd quick pick him up as we passed the house again. As we were driving we say my ex running. I couldn't tell if he was looking for us or just running. He was acting really strange, though. He would stop and kind of twirl and move around like maybe he was dancing? I kept watching him from the car as my mom was driving farther away from him. He had almost zombie-like dance moves. We drove out of his view and my mom announced that she was almost out of gas. Then the car stopped right before East Wash (in Madison). I was nervous about how close we still were to the house and my ex. We started discussing a plan of how to get gas.
And then I woke up.
When I woke up this morning I remembered both of my dreams really vividly, but now I can't remember if I just blended them into one or forgot the other one completely. But I remember waking up thinking it was really strange I had two different dreams about cults.

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:

Mike Rowe sells me an F150 & a paid work bathroom

My work third floor bathroom has issues at the urinals in real life. Either men at my work can't aim at all or there's a slow leak or both. The point is, for a corporate 4 story building in a business area, it's really not up to snuff.

In my dream, however, to make matters worse, the urinals require a quarter to operate. The apparatus looks exactly like a video game slot. Even with the orange glow.

Shift forward sometime in my sleep, maybe even directly after leaving the smelly restroom. I'm in the middle of a vast field, it's overcast and the weather is moderate. And Mike Rowe is making a hard sell for me to buy som crappy merchandise that I can't recall for the life of me. But the hook was this shiny maroon F150 that we were standing in. Not only does it include one, but two of said crappy merch for a low,low price! Two, crappy plastic, whatevers and you also get entered to own this beautiful truck. Thanks Mike.

'Sup, says Obama

I dreamed that I was chosen to interview President Obama at Beloit College, where I went to school. I don't know why I was picked, but it was mostly because I was an alumni and I had some connection with a professor. Unfortunately, I didn't prepare any questions, so I was scrambling to come up with something within the 20 minutes before the interview was to take place. I also couldn't find any blank sheets of paper - the notebook I had was full of paper, but every page had writing on it. I also had a lot os loose papers stuck in the notebook, but they were all written on as well. I did have two pens and a pencil, though.

I showed up on campus - drove my jeep up a windy road on a hill as it rained and I looked for an umbrella. Campus looked different from how I remember it, more like the campus of the school where my sister went to college. I was surprised that I didn't have to go through any type of security.

I stood in the lobby of Eaton Chapel, where the interview was to take place, and where I took all my music classes as an undergraduate. While we waited for Obama to show up, I gave a tour to an older woman. I can't remember who she was, but she could either be one of my old professors, or a member of Obama's family. I showed her around the building, and was trying to show her the dark staircase in the back of the building that comes up backstage (I had this idea of us coming out from backstage and her being met with a beautiful view of the chapel from the stage) but it was pitch black and there were heavy cords all over the ground, and I was convinced she was going to trip.

Then I was back in the lobby and Obama showed up, walking casually through the door by himself. "'Sup," he said to me, and moved on. I didn't tell him I was going to interview him.

We moved up on to the stage and sat at a small table where we'd do the interview. I still searched frantically for paper. One of my old professors, Ian, sat to my side, just like how a page turner sits next to a pianist. I think maybe he was going to turn pages for me...

I brainstormed some questions to ask him, all the while realizing that I had no idea why kinds of questions to ask. I thought I'd ask him about music, about Iraq, and about his daughters. Sarah whispered in my ear at some point, "Ask him about eating chicken and being a Veggie." Before I got to answer any questions, the people in charge started moving us to our next location. They'd just been taking pictures all along. I hoped I looked good.

Ideal Band

I was watching a band play in the far end of the parking lot across the street from my house. They sort of seemed like a noise band which is weird because I'm definitely not into noise, and I was really into this band. They had posted a "rule" on a sign behind them: nobody is allowed to wear masks in the audience unless they were sick or were afraid of getting sick or they were going to an amusement park where they might get sick. I thought of those blue paper surgical masks.

This band was scheduled to play here from 7 pm - 8 pm, and then they were supposed to play at The Inferno from 8:30 - 9:30. I planned on going over there, but I must have taken too long because when I was finally leaving my house, it was already 9:30. I decided to go anyway to check out the second band.

Thank god I did. You know who it was? Effing Axl Rose and Slash, backed up by The Bitter Tears. Basically, this combination makes my favorite band ever. I watched them in a room with only about 20 other people, and got a great view right up front. During their last song, Slash and Axl stood in the center of the stage playing music while the four members (Alan, Mike, Tony, and a girl with glasses that I'd never seen before) did organized, choreographed dances in a square around them. The Bitter Tears rotated places every 4-8 bars of music and faced inward, towards Axl and Slash. They did a lot of grand movements with their hands, and they were able to play their instruments at the same time. Their eyes were all very focused on Axl and Slash.

At the end of their last song, Axl ran into the "back room" where apparently there was an audience of about 200, so I decided not to fight my way back there. Some guy announced the next band, which turned out to be the band of Toby from The Office. That was a sold out show, so I didn't even have a choice in whether or not I wanted to go. Good job, Toby.

Nerdy Shark Spits Up My Bones

I don't know if I was watching something or if I was actually in the situation because everything that happened didn't affect me. I was in the water, right next to a wooden dock. There was a shark swimming circles around me. It was saying "darn! darn! darn!" over and over again. I thought that was pretty nerdy so I laughed. The shark promptly swallowed me whole and laughed, but I was still alive and outside the shark somehow. It then spit up "my bones," which was a silver metal oven rack.

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!