Patient, Ex Co-Worker, Game

I was at work and dealing with a couple of different patients. One that I’d been seeing for a long time was there, LH, and she was talking to me. I guess we had finished our appointment. The office (unfamiliar) was busy with other people seeing patients, as we stood around talking. I don’t know what we were saying, but all of the sudden, LH lost her temper and shot me a pretty scathing comment. I took it in stride, as I’m apt to do at work, and said something neutral in return. Her hand immediately flew to her mouth and without replying to me, turned and left the office. I was left confused for a moment, then what happened processed in my mind. I ran to the door and shouted down the staircase at LH’s retreating back that I wished her a great summer and that we’d see her again soon. Back in the office, I sought out my coworker with whom I’d just been discussing this patient and was super excited to tell her that I finally found that inexplicable undercurrent that usually ran underneath the surface when dealing with LH. In a way, I felt that her outburst was the real her and that in the future, our relationship as patient and clinician would be stronger, even. She always tried to appear super calm and happy, but there’s always something under that.

Then I was visiting a house that turned out to be the home of my old ex-coworker who had moved to Texas. She looked quite a bit different, bundled up in a robe and looking rather stressed out. Her son was running around and being a bit of a pain. Normally, she’d be pretty strict, but it seemed that she was going through some sort of depression. I tried to make things as warm and casual as possible to try and cheer her up. The house seemed extra messy and cluttered. As we sat around in some blankets on the couch talking, there was a big bag of termite bug killer on top of another bag of some sort. I watched with fascination and amusement that the top bag, full of termites, were busy picking up the opposing ant faction and dropping them off the side of the bag cliff. Then there was a large green spider trying to get in on the action (usually, spiders don’t like either termites or ants due to formic acid) that kept spinning webs that would break every time I’d move. We ended up on the deck outside which was also extremely cluttered. My family was with me at the point sitting around a grill. I was still trying to cheer up H, and was drawing some images in my sketchbook. A convulted set of events started and ended up with me sharing the images with the others while starting the grill so that we could eat something good.

Then, I was with 2 other people, and we were escaping a building that looked like either a school or an old office building. I ran to a stairwell with a window and quickly pulled it open enough for us to squeeze out. When the last person came out, I closed the window, and we jogged over across the street. The male I was with was tasked with dealing with the puzzle that was there. I’d already attempted it in the past and was not eager to do it again. It was nice to be the observer and not the doer for once. I knew what was going to happen, so I walked around taking in the scene from a different vantage point. On the other side of the wall was a busy electronics store housing a convention with famous people. I walked around taking it all in and ended up in front of display. In a short time, there was going to be a very famous person holding a class and everyone was abuzz with anticipation. I thought about what I was supposed to be paying attention to and then-

–I woke up just in time to get up. So sleepy…