Tuesday, August 10, 2004
Dream a little dream
Alright, I’m back to work here, and it looks like I have accepted my fate. I think that’s the stage I’m in – acceptance… since my dreams are dead!! Kidding.
I don’t mind my job, really I don’t. I wish it was more exciting, sure, and I wish it was more interesting, too. However, what I really really wish at this time is that I had a bit more to do that had to do with work. See, I’ve just spent about three hours surfing the ‘net, reading blogs, checking my bank balance, staring endlessly at the screen, and it’s making my head hurt. If I had more work to do (and really, I’m a pretty good property manager – most of my properties at the bad place were doing great when I left), I wouldn’t be tempted to fill the empty hours with surfing the ‘net.
I’m also a little worried because I think that if I don’t bring in a little more business, or start to be a little more productive, they’ll take me out back where the smokers hang out and have me shot. And that’s just not cool, not how I want to end up.
On another note, I had a strange series of dreams last night. I say “series”, because at one point, I was dreaming that I was dreaming. In this dream I was dreaming, I dreamt that I was on the run with several other people from a huge and bloodthirsty bear. Now, I know what you’re thinking – bears are nice, peaceful creatures and they’re all good as long as you don’t put silly hats on them and try to take close-ups – but remember, this is a dream, and I’m mortally afraid of bears. I dreamt that several other people and I were fleeing this bear, or maybe not the bear, but this demented individual who looked sort of bear-like. We were fleeing, to be sure, though, and we ran across a bridge, down a small hill, turned right and ran into the woods, where the demented savage guy was. He was bent over, naked to the waist, probably about 40 years old, covered in coarse black hair, and he ran using his hands in a sort of loping, clumpy stride, so he kind of looked like a bear. As we ran by, he caught sight of us and started chasing us around and around, and somehow, the other people and I ended up caught in between several trees in a row. As the demented savage guy was about to kill us in a horribly savage fashion, the real bear that we had been running from in the first place came barreling out of the woods and smack into the savage guy, ripping him to pieces. Then, all of a sudden, there were several bears all around, aiming to kill us and eat us, but they all had opposable thumbs, so it was kind of even stranger than usual. Just as I was about to die, I woke up in my old bed at my parents’ house in the basement. It was dark, and I was lying very, very still, caught in that dark place between sleep and awake, where you’re not sure your dreams aren’t reality.
I moved my arm very, very slowly over to the lamp at the side and touched it (it’s the kind of lamp you can touch and it turns on), only it wouldn’t turn on, and I started to get more afraid again, and there was an eerie red light coming in from outside my room through the cracks in the door and the ceiling (since the room in the basemen wasn’t quite “finished”). I heard my father’s voice and realized I was at home, and that I had been dreaming. I tried to turn on the light several more times with no success, and although I was reluctant to get out of bed in case there was really a bear somewhere, I finally got up and turned on the overhead fluorescent light, which didn’t work either.
I made my way out of my room in the darkened house, lit by the eerie red glow, and up the stairs into an equally eerily lit kitchen, only the light up there was kind of yellow. I started sorting the pots and pans in the kitchen, and that’s when I woke up for real. I had been dreaming I was dreaming, see, and that’s where I had gotten confused.
I’m sure this has something to do with the fact that The Matrix was on TBS the other day and I happened to see parts of it while I was unpacking and cleaning. Also, since I recently saw The Village, there’s fear lurking in my mind, too, and maybe it just manifested itself as a bear, since those Village creepies are kind of bear-like if you catch a glimpse of their claws in a certain light. Additionally, I watched the episode of The Dead Zone I taped while I was away, and it was all about Johnny Smith saving the people who had saved his life by donating blood, so he could see through their eyes, and maybe my brain interpreted that as some sort of waking dream, or dreamed-dream, or something. Regardless, it was pretty crazy, and kind of disturbing.
You can probably see where this is going… if I can dream I’m dreaming, then how do I know I’m awake? I mean, I’m sure I’ve dreamt that I’ve been asleep, but not necessarily dreaming in my dreams, so the line has suddenly gotten very blurry. The only support I have that this isn’t actually some dream is that this day has been exceptionally boring.
Another dream I had on the last night of vacation, while staying in the TraveLodge in Swift Current (not the best motel decision, as I've probably said before) was this: I was with my family at some sort of country club resort type thing, and we were going to get ready for dinner (it was VERY fancy). I was wearing a very nice long red linen dress (which should be a clear indication that it was a dream, because I don't generally tend to wear red of any sort at all). However, because the country club had some sort of problem, there were teachers protesting at it and they were a pretty rabbly crowd. Michael Moore was leading them, and as they approached, my family scattered. I hid under the furniture rather than run, though, and Michael Moore came right into the room with his throng of protesting teachers all around him chanting anti-establishment slogans and whatnot. I thought I'd get out of the room by just standing up slowly, and making my way to the door, chanting along with the teachers as camouflage. Michael Moore, however, spotted me and started looking for my Teacher's Union badge. In doing so, he kind of groped me, and I looked him straight in the eye and said "Excuse me!". He apologized, and I said "You can make it up to me by taking me for dinner!"
So there I was, standing there with Michael Moore, forcing him into asking me to dinner. He said I'd have to coordinate it with his social secretary, because he didn't have control of his schedule since he became famous. His social secretary was very displeased with giving me a dinner appointment, and I think he was gay, and kind of jealous because he might have been in love with Michael Moore, but nonetheless, I got the dinner appointment. I walked outside the building into the alley with Michael Moore, and he noticed I was wearing the red dress. He tackled me and said "You tricked me!" and I replied "Of course I tricked you. But I've still got it!"
Then he asked me why I'd want to go to dinner with him if I wasn't one of them (presumably, the protesting teachers, I guess), and I said because he was an interesting man, he'd probably be pretty interesting at dinner. And besides, I felt sorry for him. He asked me why I felt sorry for him, and I told him that I just felt so bad for him because he was always listening to the little guy's story, but when he felt sad and lonely, who listened to him? No one.
[editorial note: I don't really even like Michael Moore]
So I leave, to go and find my family at dinner, and get to the building where we're supposed to be. I have to cross underneath the building, which seems to be made of glass, and there are a bunch of guys standing under it, looking up women's skirts and shouting like they're strippers, which they do indeed seem to be when I look up too, so I book through there as fast as I can. I get to the restaurant, and find that my family minus The Mac are all in the bar, and my sister is being pretty loud. I tell them I'm going to find The Mac, and leave.
When I leave, I walk out onto the street, and find The Mac, who is running. He tells me to run, too, and we run to his house, which although it is in the same neighbourhood as his real house, it is not his house at all. Somehow, the NoodleDog is with us, and we're being chased by a leopard. An all-black leopard that had mutating properties, so it can shape-shift into whoever it wants. We lock the door, after getting the NoodleDog inside, and then the leopard starts flinging itself against the door. I say "that door's not gonna last long..." and The Mac agrees, so we go to check the other doors in the house. The back door isn't much better, and it seems there's a sun room or something and the leopard has gotten in there. It's trying to find a way out when we get to the room and close all the glass doors (they look like french doors, but the glass comes out, so they're pretty unstable). The leopard morphs into a blonde woman (wearing, coincidentally, a red dress similar to the one I had on earlier), and she starts flinging herself against the glass, which predictably enough comes right out again. So then she's in the house and The Mac and I have no choice but to be forced back room by room, closing and trying to lock doors as we go, but each room the leopard-woman gets to, she flings herself at the door until it breaks. Inside doors are a lot less sturdy than outside doors.
Finally, we're approaching the front hall, and I remember the NoodleDog is still inside, so I'm running around the house the other way to try and get him out, and the leopard is growling viciously at me, and I'm pretty worried at this point that she's either going to get me or the NoodleDog, and I'm sort of woken up to hear the Grumpaw snoring away on the other side of the room, which sounds a lot like the leopard growling. It was all his fault. He laughed when I told him about it the next morning.
And with that, I’m going to leave. Yes, it’s not quite 4p yet, and I probably could find something productive to do, but I just can’t stand it any more, and I want to go home. I want to give the NoodleDog and the cats huge hugs, take the NoodleDog for a walk with his favourite ball, and then cook something really fantastic for dinner. Hopefully, I have something really fantastic in the fridge or cupboard…
I don’t mind my job, really I don’t. I wish it was more exciting, sure, and I wish it was more interesting, too. However, what I really really wish at this time is that I had a bit more to do that had to do with work. See, I’ve just spent about three hours surfing the ‘net, reading blogs, checking my bank balance, staring endlessly at the screen, and it’s making my head hurt. If I had more work to do (and really, I’m a pretty good property manager – most of my properties at the bad place were doing great when I left), I wouldn’t be tempted to fill the empty hours with surfing the ‘net.
I’m also a little worried because I think that if I don’t bring in a little more business, or start to be a little more productive, they’ll take me out back where the smokers hang out and have me shot. And that’s just not cool, not how I want to end up.
On another note, I had a strange series of dreams last night. I say “series”, because at one point, I was dreaming that I was dreaming. In this dream I was dreaming, I dreamt that I was on the run with several other people from a huge and bloodthirsty bear. Now, I know what you’re thinking – bears are nice, peaceful creatures and they’re all good as long as you don’t put silly hats on them and try to take close-ups – but remember, this is a dream, and I’m mortally afraid of bears. I dreamt that several other people and I were fleeing this bear, or maybe not the bear, but this demented individual who looked sort of bear-like. We were fleeing, to be sure, though, and we ran across a bridge, down a small hill, turned right and ran into the woods, where the demented savage guy was. He was bent over, naked to the waist, probably about 40 years old, covered in coarse black hair, and he ran using his hands in a sort of loping, clumpy stride, so he kind of looked like a bear. As we ran by, he caught sight of us and started chasing us around and around, and somehow, the other people and I ended up caught in between several trees in a row. As the demented savage guy was about to kill us in a horribly savage fashion, the real bear that we had been running from in the first place came barreling out of the woods and smack into the savage guy, ripping him to pieces. Then, all of a sudden, there were several bears all around, aiming to kill us and eat us, but they all had opposable thumbs, so it was kind of even stranger than usual. Just as I was about to die, I woke up in my old bed at my parents’ house in the basement. It was dark, and I was lying very, very still, caught in that dark place between sleep and awake, where you’re not sure your dreams aren’t reality.
I moved my arm very, very slowly over to the lamp at the side and touched it (it’s the kind of lamp you can touch and it turns on), only it wouldn’t turn on, and I started to get more afraid again, and there was an eerie red light coming in from outside my room through the cracks in the door and the ceiling (since the room in the basemen wasn’t quite “finished”). I heard my father’s voice and realized I was at home, and that I had been dreaming. I tried to turn on the light several more times with no success, and although I was reluctant to get out of bed in case there was really a bear somewhere, I finally got up and turned on the overhead fluorescent light, which didn’t work either.
I made my way out of my room in the darkened house, lit by the eerie red glow, and up the stairs into an equally eerily lit kitchen, only the light up there was kind of yellow. I started sorting the pots and pans in the kitchen, and that’s when I woke up for real. I had been dreaming I was dreaming, see, and that’s where I had gotten confused.
I’m sure this has something to do with the fact that The Matrix was on TBS the other day and I happened to see parts of it while I was unpacking and cleaning. Also, since I recently saw The Village, there’s fear lurking in my mind, too, and maybe it just manifested itself as a bear, since those Village creepies are kind of bear-like if you catch a glimpse of their claws in a certain light. Additionally, I watched the episode of The Dead Zone I taped while I was away, and it was all about Johnny Smith saving the people who had saved his life by donating blood, so he could see through their eyes, and maybe my brain interpreted that as some sort of waking dream, or dreamed-dream, or something. Regardless, it was pretty crazy, and kind of disturbing.
You can probably see where this is going… if I can dream I’m dreaming, then how do I know I’m awake? I mean, I’m sure I’ve dreamt that I’ve been asleep, but not necessarily dreaming in my dreams, so the line has suddenly gotten very blurry. The only support I have that this isn’t actually some dream is that this day has been exceptionally boring.
Another dream I had on the last night of vacation, while staying in the TraveLodge in Swift Current (not the best motel decision, as I've probably said before) was this: I was with my family at some sort of country club resort type thing, and we were going to get ready for dinner (it was VERY fancy). I was wearing a very nice long red linen dress (which should be a clear indication that it was a dream, because I don't generally tend to wear red of any sort at all). However, because the country club had some sort of problem, there were teachers protesting at it and they were a pretty rabbly crowd. Michael Moore was leading them, and as they approached, my family scattered. I hid under the furniture rather than run, though, and Michael Moore came right into the room with his throng of protesting teachers all around him chanting anti-establishment slogans and whatnot. I thought I'd get out of the room by just standing up slowly, and making my way to the door, chanting along with the teachers as camouflage. Michael Moore, however, spotted me and started looking for my Teacher's Union badge. In doing so, he kind of groped me, and I looked him straight in the eye and said "Excuse me!". He apologized, and I said "You can make it up to me by taking me for dinner!"
So there I was, standing there with Michael Moore, forcing him into asking me to dinner. He said I'd have to coordinate it with his social secretary, because he didn't have control of his schedule since he became famous. His social secretary was very displeased with giving me a dinner appointment, and I think he was gay, and kind of jealous because he might have been in love with Michael Moore, but nonetheless, I got the dinner appointment. I walked outside the building into the alley with Michael Moore, and he noticed I was wearing the red dress. He tackled me and said "You tricked me!" and I replied "Of course I tricked you. But I've still got it!"
Then he asked me why I'd want to go to dinner with him if I wasn't one of them (presumably, the protesting teachers, I guess), and I said because he was an interesting man, he'd probably be pretty interesting at dinner. And besides, I felt sorry for him. He asked me why I felt sorry for him, and I told him that I just felt so bad for him because he was always listening to the little guy's story, but when he felt sad and lonely, who listened to him? No one.
[editorial note: I don't really even like Michael Moore]
So I leave, to go and find my family at dinner, and get to the building where we're supposed to be. I have to cross underneath the building, which seems to be made of glass, and there are a bunch of guys standing under it, looking up women's skirts and shouting like they're strippers, which they do indeed seem to be when I look up too, so I book through there as fast as I can. I get to the restaurant, and find that my family minus The Mac are all in the bar, and my sister is being pretty loud. I tell them I'm going to find The Mac, and leave.
When I leave, I walk out onto the street, and find The Mac, who is running. He tells me to run, too, and we run to his house, which although it is in the same neighbourhood as his real house, it is not his house at all. Somehow, the NoodleDog is with us, and we're being chased by a leopard. An all-black leopard that had mutating properties, so it can shape-shift into whoever it wants. We lock the door, after getting the NoodleDog inside, and then the leopard starts flinging itself against the door. I say "that door's not gonna last long..." and The Mac agrees, so we go to check the other doors in the house. The back door isn't much better, and it seems there's a sun room or something and the leopard has gotten in there. It's trying to find a way out when we get to the room and close all the glass doors (they look like french doors, but the glass comes out, so they're pretty unstable). The leopard morphs into a blonde woman (wearing, coincidentally, a red dress similar to the one I had on earlier), and she starts flinging herself against the glass, which predictably enough comes right out again. So then she's in the house and The Mac and I have no choice but to be forced back room by room, closing and trying to lock doors as we go, but each room the leopard-woman gets to, she flings herself at the door until it breaks. Inside doors are a lot less sturdy than outside doors.
Finally, we're approaching the front hall, and I remember the NoodleDog is still inside, so I'm running around the house the other way to try and get him out, and the leopard is growling viciously at me, and I'm pretty worried at this point that she's either going to get me or the NoodleDog, and I'm sort of woken up to hear the Grumpaw snoring away on the other side of the room, which sounds a lot like the leopard growling. It was all his fault. He laughed when I told him about it the next morning.
And with that, I’m going to leave. Yes, it’s not quite 4p yet, and I probably could find something productive to do, but I just can’t stand it any more, and I want to go home. I want to give the NoodleDog and the cats huge hugs, take the NoodleDog for a walk with his favourite ball, and then cook something really fantastic for dinner. Hopefully, I have something really fantastic in the fridge or cupboard…
