The Bachelor

Some stuff about my house and the deck

I was in a group of other people, and we were all competing against each other for the affections of an affluent, famous man. There were all kinds of other people in the running, teams and solo players. There was someone else in the game that I knew. I’m not sure if she was competing or not, but I knew her and she knew I was competing. There were different events that we had to complete like cooking. I’m not sure what I prepared, but I remember looking at everyone’s entries and thinking that I needed to be different. Instead of the fancy offerings, I decided to make something homestyle and hearty. We all had to leave while The Man was judging things. I took the opportunity to move my things to the dorm area set up for the contestants. To do that I had to navigate a swampy water area with crickets and such. It was dark there. Some stuff happened, then it was time for another event. I’m not sure what happened, but the gist of it was that this event was the final bid for The Man’s attention. Something huge and big. I was at a loss at what to do. I strolled through the dark, swampy place by myself, skipping a handful of tiny rocks. I noticed that every time I skipped a rock a small fish died, so I started catching them in the convenient net/strainers I was carrying. It would make for good eatings later. My coworker/familiar person came over to me as I was doing this. We talked about something, and I woefully explained that I didn’t know what to do now that it was the final bid. Eventually, I made my way out to a parking lot. It was after hours, so the lot was mostly empty save a few straggling cars. That’s when all of the sudden an idea struck me. It struck me HARD, and I knew that it was going to work! They hadn’t given us much direction for the final event, just that it had to be something exceptional that The Man would like. I started pulling and placing a huge set of barrier fences around the parking lot, the quickly diminishing sun still giving enough light for me to at least place the border of my grand scheme. By the time I was done, I had the “perfect” boundary and setup for my ultimate goal. The only thing standing in the way was an old Windstar minivan. Since it was there, I just incorporated it into the plan. That’s when a man started walking over to the van and to me. He seemed surprised and impressed by what he saw, even though I hadn’t even started yet. Curious, he got to talking to me, and I explained excitedly what my plan was. He was really down to earth, calm spirited, and easy to talk to. That’s when I realized who he was: he was The Man himself. No one had met him thus far. That Windstar was his. I immediately felt nervous, but tried not to let on that I’d realized who he was. He told me that my plan was super original and that he was looking forward to seeing how it turned out. It felt good.

Neighborhood, Cora, Police, Bored

I was walking Cora through my neighborhood. She wasn’t on a leash, just trotting happily by my side. For some reason we were walking through the center of the 4-way stop when another dog walker with an offleash dog walks by. I don’t think much of it until I realize which dog I’m with and immediately grab her collar. It’s a good move even though I grab some fur and skin more than her collar because she’s growling, hackles up at the other dog, body tense. I tell her to knock it off, and the other dog leaves. When she does quit, I go to praise her and she’s suddenly rambunctious to the point that I fall over the top of her, tucking into a roll, and laughing. As I stand up, I realize we’re still in the middle of the road and that a police SUV cruiser is driving by slowly. I guide her over to the sidewalk to go home trying to signal that it wasn’t a fight, we were just playing.

Except I didn’t go home. I continue down the sidewalk to the other neighborhood where I see 2 men. A different police cruise comes by, and an officer yells out the window for everyone to stay put. He gets out and addresses a female down the road near a house. The other 2 guys with me stand, waiting, and I start to leave, but one of the men tells me that I need to stay. The officer turns around and I point at myself, asking if he meant me, too. He smiles, nods, and explains that it has been incredibly difficult to track me down. Oh. What? Why? I eventually get a piece of paper explaining why the police are looking for me. I can’t remember exactly why now, except that it is for something benign like I forgot to do something, or they want me to fill out a report on an incident from before that I know about. The officer turns his attention to the other 2 men who are on first name basis with the cop. Seems like they have some history. I listen and wait for my turn.

Before I know it, the entire place is crowded with people. The officer is gone and replaced by a panel of people. They’re talking about budgets and plans for future events of the group, explaining that each member of the governing body is going to be dressing up as a different character from some anime or show. They’re going to build 2 rows of fish aquariums in the meeting space and decorate the walls with Asian-inspired deco. The words go on and on, and not only am I bored out of my mind, but there are no chairs. Everyone’s standing and listening intently. I don’t belong there and the cop is gone. I’m contemplating if it’s rude of me to leave, but can’t bring up the courage to do it, so I sigh and squat down to alleviate the exhaustion in my legs. I see that a few other people start doing the same thing and smirk a little. I guess even people in the club are bored, too. The thought of just marching out grows more and more appealing as the words just keep coming, and I remind myself that I have nothing to do with these people. Just as I stare towards the exit and muster up the courage to straight up leave-

-Cora literally wakes me up. She never does that.

Bathroom

I had just had a great vacation/trip with my family, and it was coming to a close. I was commenting on the best aspects of the trip (the fact that there are so many places to eat, so many varieties of food to choose from) and lamenting that now that it’s back to normal, I find it all depressing. It was the last day in the house before heading back. The place was really dark, and I sadly went into the bathroom to take a shower. The bathroom was huge with lots of space in the middle for who knows what. I have a fear of public bathrooms to begin with because I find them gross (especially small tile!), but at least this one we’d been using for a week. When I get in there, I see my coworker G. The understanding arrives that the bathroom is so large because there’s more than one shower. OKAY, so one person is not the end of the world. I start carefully taking off my clothes, trying not to step on the floor with my bare feet if possible. That’s when another female comes in, one I’ve never seen before and am unfamiliar with. She’s tall with an athletic build, brown hair pulled into a ponytail, and exudes confidence bordering arrogance. She immediately strips and starts taking a shower while I try not to look. I hadn’t even realized that there was a shower right next to the door. Out of the corner of my eye I notice that it has a glass enclosure. No wonder I hadn’t noticed. I’d taken off my pants when I realized that I’d forgotten a towel. No biggie, I’ll just go grab one. It’s still early, it was dark, no one would be awake yet.

I walk out the door pant less, and holy cow the place is HOPPING with unfamiliar people. No backing down now! I put on as much bravado as I could muster and strut out to look for a towel… except I can’t find anything. Everything I think is a towel is actually a folded up blanket. My fake courage is starting to unravel quickly the more people stand next to and pass, excessively aware of my lack of pants. I worry that the underwear I’m wearing is stained or holey, or both. Finally finding one, I rush back into the bathroom and shut the door. My relief is not to found because the bathroom is now busy, too, and it really is a public bathroom. I head over to an open shower stall, trying hard not to look too closely because the pink, small tile is freaking me out, and I think I see algae and mold on stuff. I get in, noting all the people around, and turn on that water to get it warm. There’s nowhere to put my towel, so I have to hang, naked, out the door to struggle with the clothes hangers there, and hope that it doesn’t slide off. I try to kick off my shoes, but they’re not coming off without a fight, and now I’m aware of young boys and all manner of other people milling around other showers. I can’t believe I’m having to endure this, but I do, and hurry on with the shower. I close the door which is just some wooden slats with a few missing. I straighten up in the warm water and realize that the shower stalls are only high enough to reach my armpits. Can this get any worse? Why did I ask that? My neighbor is a female my age with brown hair in a bob. She exudes a coolness vibe. Just as I take her in, a male pops his head up on the stall next to her. He smiles at her while she frowns and tells him to stop staring. He apologizes, the smile never faltering, and tells her that he really likes the products she makes and wants one, too. Seeing a business deal, she starts talking shop, though never looking at the guy. All I can think is that I’m so glad he’s not over here staring at me, and hurry on with the shower, my head cold, but the rest of me warm.

I don’t know what happens next because I wake up feeling super cringey.

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…

Animals, People, Tattoo, Target

Some stuff about animals near the ocean with a lady who was taking the animals in her care out for some “nature” time. There were sea creatures, land creatures, small creatures… She was taking her “Oyster mites” out for some wild time, too, dropping 3 of them into the sand near the lapping waves. I turned to whoever was with me and whispered that there was no way she’d be able to get those back, let alone any of the other animals.

Then I was in a group of people! It wasn’t clear if we were all prisoners or refugees, but each person was assigned a “booth” inside of a large open place reminiscent of an airport. Each booth was cordoned off with fabric and metal. We got our assignments and were expected to reside in them. You were allowed to choose the type of items you wanted and had 3 choices. For some reason I was walking around talking to people instead of sitting in my booth. Perhaps I was a higher up? I was checking in on the others to see if they were doing okay. They all seemed annoyed to have to exist in the booths, but otherwise no overly negative feelings around. One guy on the corner only had a bunch of baby carrots. Many others had chosen carrots, too. One girl wearing all white had chosen a bunch of items instead of food. I told her while watching her begrudgingly open things that it’s okay, because I had made sure to send her food. I eagerly watched as she opened my package, and she smiled when she saw the things I had thoughtfully packed for her (I guess I was an official after all). I moved around to the different folks checking in and making sure people were overall okay. Even my coworker/friend was there. Although I knew the conditions were not ideal, at least I could help make everyone’s lives a little more bearable.

Then I was at an amusement park kind of place. I watched this guy try an interesting game/ride a few times. Basically, he was strapped to a long line which he held onto, could pull slack as he’d like, and would use the slow descent from the line to leap off the tight walls until he reached the end. It was a wall-jumping game, like Shinobi-style. He tried it twice, hesitating because he was scared, but I wanted to try, so I did. It was a lot of fun, and I didn’t get dizzy! I got to the end, touched down and exited the door. The attendant who had been watching me on the screen exclaimed to my sister that I had done a really good job and I’d almost landed a record for time. Oh. I hadn’t realized there was a time to beat! I wandered around a bit looking at things before finding my sister at a table getting a tattoo. She saw me, finished and left. I went over with a voucher for a free tattoo (won it somehow). The guy was excited to be able to do a tattoo for me. He showed me a few pictures in his little book and after pretending not to see the obscene choices (which was about 90% of the images) I chose a cartoon cat. He then started prepping the equipment, and while I waited, I started realizing the gravity of getting a tattoo. It’s permanent. Things were going too fast! He was preparing to start when I stopped and asked two questions: one what would happen if I was allergic, and two, could I request a different, custom tattoo since it was going to be a permanent thing. He brushed off the allergy question but asked me what I was thinking on the custom tattoo. I knew that it was a free tattoo, so I didn’t want to burden him with anything insane. While I explained that I wanted a Cora face tattoo, I was trying to search for my own artwork depicting that, and trying to decide where the heck I wanted it. I couldn’t find it in my phone anywhere, so I tried to draw it for him, but had to try like 20 times and still couldn’t get the line drawing right. He, however, had seen what I wanted and already had his own version of it drawn out. He was ready to go, and I was still trying to stall…

Then I was going into Target. It was cloudy and gray outside. The store was really small and very crowded. As I picked my way around the leagues of annoyed shoppers, the workers kept loudly telling me about the major fights I’d missed yesterday. Apparently, that was the reason for the extreme security measures they were exercising then, which is why everything was so slow. I hid myself in the corner of the store looking at items just to get away from everyone.

Bathroom, Work, Stairs

I was driving and my mom was with me. It was rainy outside, and we drove down several roads to a small town. We decided to stop at a convenience store/gas station though I didn’t need any gas. There were a bunch of people there we knew, so we stood around a bit. I watched the people, thinking about how I both needed to go to the bathroom and was hungry. There was this unfamiliar guy who was taking orders for the people there. My mom started walking across the street, so I ran after her. She wanted to see what was on the other side and it wasn’t a big deal with me because I wanted to stretch my legs, too. I did make her wait for the crosswalk light despite the other people down the way jaywalking. The motel across the street was not only empty but possibly abandoned. Done with that, we came back over on a crosswalk that had 224 seconds of time!! For some reason we made it just in time for the countdown. By that time, my sister was carefully looking over the food order. The guy then jaywalked across the street to the Little Cesar’s. I really needed to go to the bathroom at that point, AND there was this drunk/high lady who was teeter tottering along with him, so I ran after her, wrapped an arm around her waist and guided her in safety to the Little Cesars. The restaurant was like none I’d ever seen. We waded through the massive crowd of what appeared to be junkies and other low-lifes. Neither of the people I was with seemed bothered at all by them. I was extremely aware of my different race, but the junkies didn’t care about that. Inside the place was not a pizza place, but a department store! Jewelry counter, nice clothing, hardware… there were 2 floors. The only crowded place was the front with all the junkies. The lady disappeared somewhere and the pizza ordering guy quickly headed off to the back of the store. I walked all around looking for the bathroom. The first one I found saw one lady bawling on the phone while wiping down the floor and the door exclaiming that she hadn’t meant for it to happen at all! I didn’t want to use that one, so I kept going and eventually found the lady I’d been with. She seemed happier because she had just finished using the bathroom herself. I asked her where it was and she showed me a shell looking device, I tried to get in but couldn’t and she cackled and pushed me saying that only the chosen ones could.

I woke up for real to use the bathroom, then back to sleep.

Then I was at work. As usual, it was dark, and crazy with the schedule. The version of me doing work was doodling on and making lists for patients. Then I left because I didn’t want to be there anymore. I stopped to talk to my coworker on the way out (in a different office), and then proceeded to use the elevator. The way it was acting looked like it was going to break, but I used it anyways. There was a sign at the bottom of the door saying that it was programmed to bypass the first floor because it was going to malfunction, so it would let out on the basement level which still had outdoor access. That was annoying, but I remembered that I had already done this before in a previous dream where I’d managed to acquire or make a map of the convoluted maze. As I exited into the basement, a pretty-looking lady was frustrated and scared. Immediately, I recognized that she was lost, so I had her come with me as I searched for the exit. Although I pretty much remembered the map from the last time, I tried to pull it up on my phone anyways just in case and to inspire confidence in the frazzled lady. We went around turns and bends not following any of the other lost people until I saw that familiar part. Took a right which led us down a long hallway, another sharp turn and BAM. Outside was the grocery store which meant that we just had to go around the outside of the building to the parking lot. She had pulled up her car locator on her phone and was so relieved that we were close. We broke off from each other and I headed towards my car.

All of the sudden, I realized that I needed to get back to work, so I entered a door near my car, knowing that there was a staircase nearby. Inside, however, things were not as I remembered. There was a long line of people standing. I asked if they were waiting for the bathroom, and they were, so I cut through them to where the stairs used to be. Someone else wanted to use the stairs, too, but I couldn’t figure out where it was. I was just about to travel a good distance down the hall to use the other stairs, when someone gave me a spatula with something on top of it. They smiled at me with what initially seemed innocent. It changed and I got a bad feeling, but it was too late. The “stairs” required floating and traveling through the walls and building like a ghost. There was no time to think about anything, but I knew I was super scared. You can’t be scared when you’re dealing with spirits. I could not help it. A spirit met me inside of the wall and I could see “stairs” all around me leading here, there, nowhere, and upways, sideways, diagonal-ways. It seemed to be a rather bothersome, irritable spirit. I tried my best to at least exude calm even though I felt nothing close to that. It kept saying things to me that I didn’t understand, then get angry at me. It forced me to “fly” through a videogame-like flying obstacle course still holding the spatula thing. I knew if I lost that or let go, that I’d be stuck in the place forever. It tried multiple times to trick me into giving the thing up or letting go or whatever other ploy it had. I came close a few times. However, I made it and it was so angry I thought I’d be sent to a different dimension and imprisoned there.

Nope. I made it to my workplace. I hurried into my operatory where my patient was still waiting (apparently time moved differently in that realm). The list I’d started before I’d left was still there, so I finished it up, adding stickers and other things to it. The patient was really happy.

Arestin, Shower Walls, Toy Store, Group

I was in a toy store looking for presents for my nephew for Christmas. The place seemed like a Big Lots or someplace similar, large but messy. Most of the items in the aisle were either on the ground or simply gone. I was looking at a few things and wandering around without being able to make a decision.

Then I was in a large group of people. It was indoors and there was a line set up in the moderately sized space of tables with food on it. I was at the end of the snaking line, walking by the tables and being served food by event workers. People didn’t seem to be wanting much, so I decided to get some hand food. The ground was littered with what appeared to be confetti, but maybe trash?

Then, there was a young female with straight brown hair. She was lying on her side on an operating table, and I was working on her naked form as a medical practitioner. She seemed to be in discomfort, and it was up to me to figure out why. I was working at the level of her butt, using my probe (that looked exactly like a dental probe) to measure the hole there (I think it was her anus, but it sure didn’t look quite right anatomically). The orifice was not within normal limits, the inferior portion highly inflamed compared to the rest of the sphincter muscles. My probe readings skyrocketed, not surprisingly, at the inflamed portion, and she groaned in discomfort as it started bleeding. There didn’t seem to be any obvious debris or foreign matter, so I told her that it’d be best to place some local antibiotics (Arestin) there to try and clear it up without going systemic. Unfortunately, the Arestin I was using was quite large for the area, and the patient wasn’t having it. I enlisted help to hold her down as I inserted the Arestin tip into the area I was trying to treat, but she was squirming, moaning, and yelling, causing the area to bleed in a way that would prevent retention. I was getting really frustrated and just needed to get it done, so I braced her butt with one arm while firmly positioning the syringe tip against the interior of the sphincter into the pocket of inflamed space and injected the little pellet. My part had worked, but it was up to her to try and keep it in so that it could resolve the issue. I realized after it was done that the entire process seemed really erotic, in a way, I didn’t feel that way at all, and moved on to the next patient.

Then I was in the basement of a house and checking out the bathroom. It was a huge bathroom, with a massive shower. As I touched one of the many clear wall panels, one came off. Oops. I anxiously tried to reattach it, but it wouldn’t stay, so I set it aside and left quickly.

Marriage, Running, Dog, Grocery Store

There was a strong feeling of emergency. My group and I desperately needed to escape, fast, but especially me and another female. In preparation, the two of us needed to get married, so we hurried to the courthouse to do just that. There were lots of other people there, too, and I played my part, holding hands with her, smiling fondly with what I hoped was love, and reciting our vows in front of the officiant and crowd. I don’t remember if we kissed or not, because it jumped forward to the two of us and other people hurrying along a sidewalk, almost running but not quite.

We went into a grocery store and was trying to buy some work gloves and something else. My head was almost bursting with desperate fear that we’d get caught. We had to hurry! However, the people inside did not seem very LGBTQ+ friendly and I rushed from cashier to cashier until I saw not only face that wasn’t scowling at me, but a familiar one. She smiled broadly and I sighed in relief. I only had the pair of work gloves. Unfortunately, she was in the middle of checking out a customer. The customer was nowhere to be found, though, so she was about to accept my exact cash payment when the manager showed up. He asked if she was intending to aid theft. She was afraid, so I stepped up with a response, started making a scene about some made up sob story and he finally caved. Relieved, we ran out of the store and continued to the escape point.

We were back in a group hurrying along the sidewalk of a city. There was also my dog running off leash with us, but not a dog I’m familiar with. It was a small, Chihuahua mix, blonde and rather chonky with a small scarf around her neck. As we rushed along, my mind wandered, thinking about what I’d just done. I’d just married a woman I didn’t even know! We had similar ideals and goals, but that’s all I knew about her. The thoughts continued as we wove around people and buildings, making me a bit uncomfortable… Married? Would… Would we have to consummate the marriage…? Act lovey dovey? Otherwise it wouldn’t seem real and our cover would just not be believable. Also… Would I know what and how to do it if/when it came down to it…?

By the time I focused back into reality, we’d arrived at an underground elevator. We’d descended many metal stairs to get to that point and there we were in an underground garage, the concrete hard on my feet and the darkness in the distant corners. A new fear suddenly struck me. My dog! Where was she?? I anxiously watched the staircase, aware that the elevator was coming and I needed to be on it. Finally, I saw her running down the stairs. She started barking towards the darkness. I tried to stop her and pick her up, but she was upset about whatever was in the shadows. Also, I guess I was carrying something in my other hand because with my free hand eventually I was able to grab her and get into the elevator.

I don’t know what happened next because I woke up.

House, People, Wandering

The inside of a house regarding my relatives and photo albums?

Then there was something about house schematics, trying to fit a house plan into a small lot.

Then there was a house. I set about immediately trying to decorate it with my Christmas lights and other decorations. It kept swapping back and forth between decorating for Christmas or Halloween. I’d set up most of it by the time the house was full of people. I think they were visitors for the housewarming. I’m not sure whose house it was, but the building itself was very nice and in a nice neighborhood, too. I walked through the crowd of well-dressed, happy people eating and drinking, searching for the last of my decorations. I couldn’t find them, so I decided that I’d need to go buy some. I was planning on going to Target and one other place. As a courtesy, I mentioned out loud that I was going to go and asked if anyone would like to come. Some younger people who are definitely NOT my relatives by blood perked up. A young girl with blond hair, and a guy in his 20s volunteered to come. I could have sworn there was another one, too, but he never spoke up if there was. I hadn’t expected people to actually come with me, but that’s cool. I told them that we’d have to leave right away because it was already late in the 9 o’clock hour and I literally don’t go if it’s too late in the morning because there are too many people. We left immediately.

We were running down the stone stairs to the city giggling and yammering and excited to be out on the town without the adults. I guess I was the adult there, but it felt like old times when we went off and did things on our own. The path was blocked with large obstacles, and so we leapt over them. I was slower, trying to be careful, but “glad” that I had been working out. We made it down to the Ford dealership. I asked the lady there if they rent out vehicles because I could have sworn they did that not too long ago. She said, nope. Not at all. I don’t know if it’s because she thought we were kids, but dang. So we walked out into the streets of the city and decided to go to the nearest car rental place. We were walking along still excited when we came across a small cafe. I hadn’t been there in a long time so in we went and our eyes all immediately landed on the same thing: dippin dots. Awesome. I was 100% getting some. The female was eager for that, too, but saw something else that was better in her eyes: dried turkey in wafer form. I came back with a container, and she was freaking out about the turkey. She even gave me one to buy. OKAY, I would, but was more interested in my dippin dots. Somehow, I had a huge container and basically took the entire stock they had there. It was time to pay, so I went to the counter which was full. No one was checking out, so I went to one cashier who rang me up for $1.10. Wow. I fished out some cash and told her to keep the quarter. She didn’t seem impressed and even tried to give me the wrong item. Then she got mad when I pointed it out. I went to leave the crowded cafe to wait, but then the other side of the place was an eatery where you could eat your purchases. I sat there going to town, and my groupmates slowly joined me. We had completely forgotten about our end goal, but….food.

Prince, City

Stuff happened

I was in a heavily wooded area off the main road. Outside the window of the building I was in, I excitedly watched 2 ambulances race from the main road down a gravel path nearby. Right afterwards, 2 cops barreled down the same road with sirens and lights on. I was super interested, but at that moment, I got an alert on my phone from the local authorities warning of a missing prince. A few minutes after that, a rescue engine and another ambulance went the same way. OKAY. I was intrigued. An undetermined amount of time later, I decided to walk the dog that way, just to see if I could see anything. The gravel road was apparently a shortcut over to a large, newer, multi-story office building, with lots of pavement and concrete in front of it. The parking lot was largely empty with it being the weekend, and by then it was later afternoon. It had recently rained, with small puddles in what was otherwise dry concrete. I noted large, ornate statues near the building, but my eyes were drawn immediately to a young, handsome man crouched on the concrete while wearing a multi-colored windbreaker. I (now dogless) rushed over to him, recognizing him as the prince that was missing, despite his attempt at a disguise. Unfortunately, it wasn’t just me, but people that I assume were after him. He raced into an elevator that happened to have a female inside that he was very familiar with. It clicked in my head what was happening: those two were a couple and clearly unsanctioned by his country/parents. They both started hitting the buttons desperately, and I just missed them as I reached the elevator. I could hear commotion behind and around me. The next time the elevator opened, I ran in, but wasn’t alone. A female was with me, and as we rode the elevator, I wondered if we were supposed to be attracted to each other as part of the story. I didn’t have to wonder for long, because we both got out and ran around the building looking for the prince. Eventually, we spotted them in a glass elevator, glumly surrounded by big men in black suits. Oh man. Busted.

Cut to later, and somehow the prince was with us. We fled into the city and ran across the busy road to some high rises, trying to come up with a plan about what to do. Some yelling at each other ended with us running BACK across the road to a construction site. Something happened with some big machinery.

Then it was nighttime. That whole situation was done and over. It was very hot, and I wandered around in Asian Town wearing a tight tank top and shorts. I was looking for someone. People kept staring as I wandered around looking for whatever I was looking for, aware that the area was not a safe place. I wasn’t worried. I could hear people talking one lady even said jokingly to her boss that they should hire me to guard the store and that if people came to heckle them, that I would scare them off, and then scare them even more when they found out I wasn’t a man, but a woman. Ignoring this, I continued on, but with a cognizance that I was intimidating, so I added a bit of a swagger to my walk. It worked. I worked through the really dangerous areas, only eliciting stares and no more. I went through the many rooms in the community building, seeing that people were enjoying their evening in varied ways, but never finding what I was there to find. I left and went to find different clothes.

Walking, work, bakery, driving, cleanup

Some video game/hero stuff involving dark, apocalyptic skies, jumping up and down tall buildings. Quests, buildings, sim-type acquisitions of factories with the little money I had only to bleed money thereafter trying to improve it, replaying levels, pickpocketing, etc.

I was walking through the neighborhood I grew up in. As I got past the long stretch of road and towards the houses and streets, I saw a commotion involving some men. Curiosity threatened to drive me off-track, but I persisted and ended up at an unfamiliar house. It was hot, oppressive, and I was tired.

Inside the home was my boss. I guess it was time to work, but instead of doing any real work, I kind of just walked around the house looking at things. I ended up in an office on the upper floor where a patient? was sitting in an office chair. My boss said something to me, but I wandered around some more and then left.

Some stuff about houses and possibly spiders.

Then I drove to a bakery because I needed to make a pickup as instructed. It was a nice place, busy. Three workers were doing worker stuff, and one guy asked what I needed. I told him I was there for a pickup. It must have been the only pickup because he didn’t even ask my name. After looking at all the wonderful treats, I stood in line to wait for my turn to pay. A line soon formed behind me. Eventually, one of the workers called me up. I explained that I was trying to pay for a pickup and had chosen a small cake slice for myself despite being tempted by everything. She spoke jovially to me, and the guy came over with my pickup. He had a funny face and I suddenly realized that maybe I was supposed to wait for him to check me out? Ooops. Either way, I was talking with the clerk helping me out. We really got to talking and I found out that she was, too, a person who did some blogging online…except now it was about 15 years ago, and the internet wasn’t anywhere like it is now. I was shyly telling her about my content, and she was super interested in it. I wanted to say I was interested in hers, too, but she seemed so much more mature and cooler than me that I was afraid she thought me some upstart kid.

At this point I kept waking up because of possible muscle cramps, it was stuffy and hot, and Cora was really acting up probably because she was, too.

Then I was driving. I was sitting in traffic, so close to home. I could see from my vantage point that a lady was backing her van up. Even though we were all in cars, we could easily all communicate with each other. I asked what was going on, and the lady yelled that we all needed to back up!! Now! Obediently, everyone did, and she explained that there was a large accident ahead. As I was busy backing up, I heard someone say, “Oh! Wow that tractor trailer was really smashed up!” Yeah, it seemed traffic would be snarled for a while yet. Since I was in the far lane, I let everyone else go around me. It was only me and 2 other people left. At this point we were “driving,” which was really no cars. Something was hurtling down the road our way very quickly, so I shoved the younger lady next to me over into one of the turn lanes. She fell over and was a bit annoyed, but I did manage to get her out of the way of whatever had been charging our way. Then the turn light changed. I’d been picking at my finger thinking about how tired I was and wanted to go home and go to sleep. I was slow to start, setting off the ire of people behind me. Then I smashed it, annoyed with myself for not paying attention. As I raced along, some other car cut me off making me madder. So, I tailgated like I never tailgated before, and then swerved around, and smashed the pedal to go around them. I was going SUPER fast. So fast, in fact, that I missed my turn altogether and was lost. Huh. Where was I? I made some impossible jumps and leaps into water and off leafy ravines. Made it back to the road, got my nav system working.

When I got to my destination, I was late! I was supposed to either be or team up with Lincoln from the Loud House to help his friends clean up the school facilities. I was trying to empty the bathroom trashcans, but it was really gross and I didn’t have gloves. I tried anyways and things got everywhere. Who puts a load of popcorn in the trashcan that sits inside the toilet tank???

Lottery Ticket, Dental Assembly

I had arrived at a place that looked really rundown. It had been clearly abandoned, the empty, sad houses full of solar panels. Every home had many panels on their roofs. A man was there, definitely a developer, looking around. A woman and some other people were voicing their concerns, saying that they didn’t want the place to be developed. The man was nodding and said that there would convene an assembly to decide the fate of the property location in a short time. A short time later, I found myself wandering around in an official building. I noticed lots of healthcare workers arriving, all wearing lab coats and/or scrubs. I didn’t know what it was about, or really cared. I, myself, was wearing scrubs, having just come from work. I walked around the place looking at the signs and plaques on the wall. The group seemed to be convened around the desks, and I happened to wander by just when one of the women wearing surgery scrubs motioned towards me, and said, “–and it creates very good abdominal muscles!” She indicated that I should pull up my scrubs and show off my abs, but first off all, I wasn’t in whatever meeting that was, secondly, I wasn’t about to pull up my shirt in front of all these people, and third, I had no ab muscles to speak of! Just flab. When I wasn’t forthcoming, she spread her arms around and asked all healthcare providers with strong abs to raise their shirts and show them to the assembled. Basically, everyone in healthcare uniform except for me, stood up and raised their shirts, flexing and showing off. I sat down and patted the flab around my belly self-consciously while those assembled oohed and aaaahhed

Later, I was with a male that went unpictured. We were on a mission to find a guy. Well, we found him. My henchman and I bound him and dragged him into a corner of the facility we were in. A dark, quiet place. I rhetorically asked where my heat gun was only to see it where I’d left it last time on a desk, and then laughed. As the guy fought and begged, my partner held him still while I pulled out a lottery scratcher and a roll of green translucent tape. I think the idea was that the tape would be wrapped around an object and then when heat was applied, it would shrink wrap. I started smugly wrapping the tape around the lottery ticket, making sure to keep the pieces flat so they wouldn’t bubble or get pinched. The man was afraid! So afraid! I wrapped it carefully around the scratcher, all the while laughing inside that the man would finally get his due! That’s when I remembered that I would need to record the number on the scratcher in order to be admissible in court. I went to take pictures of the scratcher with my phone.

And was in my house at the dining table. My grandma was there, too, with my mom. It was nighttime. My grandma was saying something about how the person down the street was a dentist, too. I wasn’t paying attention and went to take pictures of my scratcher on the table. It was hard to get a decent image of the numbers because the overhead light was glaring in different places.

Townhouse, family, shopping, haircut, trash, work, balloon, patient

I was sneaking? around at nighttime. There was a car I was talking to and lots of people around. Workers, I believe around a street of townhouse units. I was supposed to be either hiding from or gathering intel or something like that. No one was supposed to see me.

Then night ended and it was morning. I walked towards my townhouse (not familiar) and saw to my utter surprise that the worker crew that had been there changed EVERYTHING. Instead of the normal pathway from the street to the houses, my next-door neighbor had somehow and for some reason paid for the crew to pave one “sidewalk” smack in front of everyone’s houses leading to the street in a perpendicular fashion instead of the original pathway through the properties we owned (the townhouses had front yards not backyards). I was too surprised to be mad, just a bit irritated. The pervading thought was how the HOA was going to take all of this. There was no way they’d stand for it. As I inspected everything, I realized that the pavers making up the path were those from everyone’s houses. They hadn’t gone out and bought new ones, they just used the ones from people’s properties. Not only that, but the more I looked, the more annoyed I got: My house which sat on the highest elevation had been dug out to make the path and now the path/stairs to the physical house itself was super-duper steep. WTF. Furthermore, since they cut through all the yards, they’d moved all the trees I’d planted into the newly proportioned property lines. They had replanted 3 of my trees, but other people received the other trees I’d just planted.

I didn’t really have time to deal with things because not only was it still early in the morning, but my relatives were there, too. The townhome units suddenly became a series connected homes/apartments/rooms and we were at the shore. There were wrap-around balconies/porches that while at first didn’t connect all together, suddenly did. I crawled around with the excitement of a young person all around the place. In each room were my relatives. My cousins were small again and everyone was in great humor and spirits. It was so fun and nice.

Then I was in a grocery store, shopping with my mom. It was dark and crowded and small. As I wandered around looking for items to get, a man asked me where to find a certain cereal. I directed him back a few aisles because the later aisles we were in had been super combed through. My mom and I reunited and were concerned because there just weren’t a lot of things to buy. As my mom looked around, I watched the cashiers checking people out.

That’s when I walked down an aisle and realized I was at a convention for healthcare providers. It was bright and crowded now. I went into one of the showrooms along with some others of different healthcare fields. We were all nurses of some sort. That particular room had sphygmomanometers–new types. It was all there for us to try, so another guy and I were busy trying them all out. I got an urgent message that I was needed, so I rushed away.

Some stuff happened

Then I was wandering around the shopping area near where I live. Walking, driving, roller blading…I was doing it all as I traversed the area. There was some commotion near the entrance, so I made my way there. As I made my way through the sidewalk system, I heard an alarm, and a bald man stalking towards the entrance of a building saying, ” I will NOT be responsible for taking care of the alarm again!! If they disrupt my proceedings (court, I assume), then they will hear from me! I might have to call S to deal with it (my coworker)!” And then he disappeared into his courtroom. I went over to see what was going on with the next door building and the alarm. There was a group of us, actually. At first, I thought it was supposed to be a martial arts dojo that had just opened. The group actually consisted of people who wanted a haircut. We all went in and saw, to our surprise, that there were unwanted people eating food at the tables inside. They clearly weren’t supposed to be there. Perhaps they were homeless? It was tense! I didn’t know what was going to happen, as it felt like sitting on the cusp of getting violent. The men went to confront the people to get them out. I could tell they needed some help, so I stood up from what I was sitting on and walked over to support the effort. For some reason I was much taller and brawnier than anyone there. As soon as I showed myself, I could feel the energy in the room shift. The interlopers begrudgingly left.

Done with that, we had to then clean up the place. I went to the back to investigate the trash situation and found that the building had never ordered any trash receptacles! Some people had already tried to throw stuff in other people’s trashcans, only to draw ire from those establishments. I decided that the people would just have to take the trash and recycles home to our own homes and dispose of them there.

Then I was outside, and it was dark. I was at work, but work was outside? I made my way down the scenic path to get my next patient and looked up in the sky to see the clothes that an old patient who had passed away fly up. I was getting emotional when I looked down to see the man’s wife! She looked up, too, and was starting to cry. I gave her some comforting words and set off some fireworks in his honor.

Sister, Car, Coins, TV, Stuffed Animals, Dog Poop

I was on a beach that was very crowded. The sky was kind of cloudy and the beach had massive rocks along with very strong waves. I’d just arrived and as I walked towards the water, this crazy looking woman came and offered me a coin. Being new to the beach, I declined it, thinking it was a scam. She moved on to the next people, a few of whom accepted the coin. A part of me kind of wished I’d taken her up on the offer as I walked around watching things. There was some commotion, so I followed the crowd there and saw that a contest of sorts was happening. There was a coin on the ground, so I swooped to pick it up. It looked suspiciously like a Pirates of the Caribbean coin, skull and all on it. The man standing next to the coin was looking at me pretty hard, so I handed it to him. He seemed glad to have it. Then he ran forth to the contest. What you had to do was place the coins into the indents in the slab. He was one short, so I ran forth with one I magically had. He placed them all in there, and suddenly a giant squid erupted up out of the water.

Then I was inside a house. It was my house, though unfamiliar. I had won something from a game, and the package had arrived. My cousin L showed up and I wasn’t super eager to deal with her, so I decided to go upstairs to open my package. Inside were several VHSs! I had no idea what was on them, so I went over to the TV console set next to the bed. There was a VCR, a Blu-ray player, a modern TV, but apparently also an old box TV, too! What luck! As I was busily hooking up the wires (or trying to) my brother wandered up, probably not wanting to deal with my cousin, either. The box TV worked! The movies were about the CareBears or something similar.

Bored of that, I went downstairs because Cora wanted to go outside. To do that, I had to make it down the townhouse stairs which were all kinds of jacked up. Eventually, I made it through, but I’d never been in the basement and the backyard needed all kinds of work, too. I wandered down and gingerly made my way to the sliding glass door. I called for Cora because she had come with me, but I couldn’t find her. Eventually, I saw her stuck behind some seriously thick cobwebs. She managed to push hard through them, though I was terrified that the clearly massive spider that made those would be close by somewhere. I opened the door and stepped out. Cora ran around the rather large townhouse yard. It was in some serious disrepair. It had pavers, random pots and vases, scattered debris, weeds, etc. My mom had come out, too, and advised me that there were lots of dog poop that needed to be picked up. I agreed that it should be done, so I picked up the scooper. My mom had come prepared with gloves and was helping me dump some of the stuff out. Somehow Cora had managed to poop a few times in a tall, metal vase. My mom picked it up to dump into the bag and somehow got poop all over her arms. I could not stop laughing!

Then I was in a strange building, like a dental office? An office in general? But it was mine. Or maybe not. The location was in a small town. I was in a car with 2 other people, not driving, though. Our group was following 2 females in another car, escorting them back to town. All of the sudden a flaming school bus barreled down to the hill perpendicular to our road. Both the other passenger and I screamed at Mr. Seville (yes, from the Chipmunks) to floor it! FLOOR IT! He did, and we barely made it past the flaming battering ram which crashed on the center median only mere feet behind us. I remember feeling the intense heat behind me.

Out of the car, I hurriedly ran into the office where my sister was already lying in the bed I had upstairs. She was one of the girls in the car we had been escorting, and clearly one of the targets of the enemy. I sternly told her that she needed to hide, because they would surely come looking. I pulled a blanket over top of her, pulling upon all of my childhood hiding skills (I actually did scenarios like this as a kid, and also, it works really well during hide and seek) and instructed her to be as still as possible, to breathe as shallowly as possible, all despite the discomfort because her life was on the line. I carefully and strategically placed stuffed animals all over her to make it look like I was simply some freak with liked stuffed animals. Unfortunately, she kept moving, pulling her face out of the blankets to look at her phone. It was making the all the stuffed animals fall. Super frustrating, but I kept at it, knowing the bad guys were well on their way, and trying to think of a place for myself to hide, too.

Bathroom, people, mall

I was in a house with a guy and a girl who were my friends (unfamiliar). It was the guy’s house which was massive. He was a gay guy. We were talking in the hallway next to the stairs and I told him that I really needed to use the bathroom, except that it should be a bathroom that other people don’t use often…he laughed and pointed me to the far end of the house. I made my way through several hallways and ended up in a rather rough looking place–a stark difference from the rest of the opulent house. It was totally fine with me as I was going to be blowing it up anyways. LOL. I walked into the rough wooden door and found it to be a very large place with many interconnected but closed off stalls or varying combinations of toilets and showers. It was dead quiet, and I wandered through the maze of stalls searching for a toilet I wanted to use. As I was about to settle on one, I had the feeling that I wasn’t alone and sure enough I looked closer at the stalls and saw lots of people just sitting against the stall walls on the benches, but almost invisible as they were the same color as the wooden stall walls. I ran out of the bathroom, spooked, and went back to the gay guy. He kind of just rolled his eyes, then handed me a towel. I think he may have directed me to one of the regular bathrooms, assuring me it would be totally fine to use them.

Then I was in a mall. I might have been a security guard. As I patrolled the place, it was about time to close the building. Most of the people were gathered at the entrance. That’s when I was informed that I needed to find a guy and fast. He was about to commit suicide! It was someone I knew, a guy I went to school with but was currently a dentist. I ran through the empty mall in its maze of halls. I used one of the escalators whose top level was capped by a door, like a trap door. I guess those got closed off when the building shut down. I pushed my way through it and not finding my target on the upper floors, ran down to the basement level. I came upon a room where many students were having a night class. After sitting there and listening in for a little, I continued with my task. My target was in a far room with a window facing the plants otside. The sun was about to rise.

I don’t know what happened because I woke up.

Driving, Parking, Ruins, Enemy

I was in this world with rolling, verdant hills, dirt paths, and interspersed with small forests. With me was a band of people. We were coming up a hill and not quite up yet, trying to figure out what to do next. The enemy was only growing stronger, and we needed to stop them! To the immediate left were some ruins that looked familiar to me. There was a flashback in my mind of when a trusted mentor showed me the secret tunnels there. I was brought back to reality, though, when a movement in the distant citadel caught my attention. I pointed my comrades to watch as the pillars in the front changed from its normal to something new…something sinister. My vote was to head into the ruins and uncover the secrets there, but for whatever reason, we went back the way we came.

Something about office spaces. It was dark in there with lots of doors and hallways.

Then I was driving. It was dark. I was supposed to be picking up my mom in a store and to my excitement, the parking lot there was mostly empty! Yesss. I pulled into the middle of the empty lot so that the chance of someone parking near me was as low as possible. I pulled in, was busy trying to see how well I parked and just as in dreams, I wasn’t able to control the car well. No biggie, I backed myself up and went to correct except I suddenly noticed that someone had decided to park their pickup right in front of me. WTH, with all the space, they had to choose that one? I pulled in, annoyed and managed to accidentally bump the trailer they had towing behind the pickup. Unfortunately, a man was walking by and stopped, waving his arms at me. I backed up and recorrected again and pulled in. Then I jumped out just as the owner of the pickup came out. The passerby immediately tattled on me. I shook my head and advised that I only bumped it by accident and that if you looked on both sides, no damage was sustained. However, I did apologize sincerely for my error. The man, who was Latino, nodded and said something like, “You know what they say about times like this?” We all waited, me getting more nervous about any potential demands. “Let’s all go home and forget about it!” he exclaimed with a big smile. I laughed out of relief and the passerby grumpily left. I turned around to head into the store to get my mom and realized that because of the pickup in front of me, the entire bed of my pickup was sticking out of the parking space. The spaces around us were still vacant, so I just left it. Annoyed.

That’s when I returned to the prior adventure! That other direction didn’t pan out at all, so I headed to the ruins I wanted to go to in the first place. There were no companions with me this time. I went in and saw to my disbelief that my comrades and other familiars to me were all laid out or preoccupied with little knickknacks and trinkets. What was happening! Analyzing the situation, I made a beeline for the hearth in the middle of the room and threw aside all of the rugs stacked there to find yet another underground passage. I’m not sure if I went down or just reached in and found something, but I finally understood what was happening. The artifact there, likely what the enemy searched for, or was the key to defeating the enemy, was a double-edged sword if an individual didn’t understand it. When held, it would give you your most pressing desire. That’s why the people were all mindlessly playing with whatever in their possessions. I was showing this to a female, who seemed to be the main heroine or someone important. I was apparently given a paper towel because that’s what I felt I needed most at the time I came in contact with the artifact. The female nodded seriously and ventured into the hearth to retrieve it. I was getting a bad feeling about what was about to happen.

Then I was driving again, and it was around dusk time. There were two lanes on the road and suddenly everyone started merging to the right. I went left and knew that my turn was about to come up. On the way, I looked over at the shopping center and noted to my delight that there were some new Asian bakeries or eateries there. I’d have to let my family know! I think I might have been trying to pick up my mom again. When I got to the destination, I walked around a small store and saw my targets. I told them I needed their shopping cart. They seemed familiar with me and let me have it, but I asked them to take their child back. They begrudgingly did so, grumbling that the girl could go with me, but I didn’t want that kind of responsibility. I made sure the little girl had her snacks and then rushed off with the cart. I pushed it outside to a backyard park-like area and was about to get to my destination when…

…I woke up. Late.

Muscles, Hallmark, Work

There was a short bit where I was looking at myself in the mirror. My body was pretty large and when I flexed my biceps, they were larger than my head! I’m not sure if I was proud or horrified.

Some stuff

Then I was shopping and ended up in a Hallmark store. Initially, I was interested because the owner had a Great Dane in there. He was young with interesting markings, laying in his…container? The owner said that he wasn’t allowed out because it was not yet time. The store had just opened. I started browsing after that and was sad to see that there weren’t many things there at all! Almost as if the place was either about to be closed down or renovated. Another customer had arrived and after looking around praised the owner for going against corporate’s will by not stocking what they demanded she stock. Even though the customer was confident in that, the way the owner was reacting proved the real reason for the sparse and strangely stocked store was definitely not what the person thought. The owner seemed nervous. By then lots of people had arrived and browsing. I was definitely amazed to see products not befitting a Hallmark store like leather armor, helmets, and other such things. There was a person hiding some Halloween cookies.

A sudden commotion caught my attention. A small group had gathered around the owner. Some were sympathetic while others were worried. The owner was fearful but steeling herself for something important. Together, they left out a back door after a messenger came to say that it was time. The customers were all still happily browsing. I decided to follow. By the time I made it way down to where the group was, things had already occurred. The place was under a cover, but it was outdoors…though the sky was a terrifying swirl of evil-looking colors: green, orange, gray, white, black. I looked down to see a disgustingly colored bundle on the ground. Right away I knew that to be the owner of the store. She was encased in a mucous-flesh-looking shroud with metal studded around her neck area. It was over for her. Her entourage were being addressed by the council before them. One person fearfully approached their podium, reached the empty seat, and hit the button there. Everything started glowing. They were inducted into the council. I returned up to the store where some remaining workers were putting out cookies and other treats. Apparently, they had already heard the news and were setting up to celebrate the new owner.

Then I was at work. The schedule had fallen way apart, but I didn’t really care that much because I was super-duper sleepy. My boss was mad but pushed us all to the back. There, my coworker ST was already there. I kept drifting in and out of conscious thought, being so tired. She lamented that the boss had called us all in at 2am because the office needed to be cleaned out. Everyone else got to work sorting through all the junk in the cabinets. I only did so slowly and eventually just sat back and watched everyone else go to town since they had a plan. There’s no reason to get involved only to have the others complain about your ideas. Eventually someone called me out on my laziness, and I sort of pitched in again, but once again, was too tired to argue with what was happening. Bored, I went to check out the schedule and was annoyed to see that somehow they’d managed to fill it up with lots of people. Laughing inwardly, I saw that the 2 patients that I’d pulled over to my schedule were still there…patients I knew had already cancelled. Returning to the cleanup effort, I found that they’d done it: Things were looking organized. I started throwing stuffed animals in a game from one side to the other before heading towards my op to get to work.

Then something about driving to an amusement park which happened to be Disney. Some dumb people didn’t read the instructions and didn’t know where to go despite there only being one path to the place. I walked through the lobby to the machine, scanned my pre-paid ticket, and then swiped the credit card I’d be using as payment in the park. It spit out a wristband and then I waited with the rest of the people to be let into the park.

Ugh. I hate work dreams when I had to go to work when I wake up.

Driving, Waiting, Work, Yammer, Bosses, Stairs, 90s, Slow

I was driving on the highway and then got off to my destination. It was a parking lot, and the cars were supposed to line up. I’d been there before, because it was the visitor center rest stop on the way to the beach. I went to go line up, but there were some construction workers standing around and I’d gone in the wrong entrance anyways. Since I was early, the parking lot was empty, so I went and did some elaborate methods to turn myself around in order to park my car in the line area. It was nonsensical and unnecessary, and, lo, when I finally made it to the line area, there were already 4 other cars there because I was taking so long.

Inside, I sat on a chair in a small antechamber with about 5 other people. The group before us had gone in already. I recognized the people around me despite never meeting in person before. There was a pleasant familiarity in the room, although no one was talking, because I recognized these people as the same people that are always driving when I go to the beach. Even though I was very late this year, there they were! Not everyone, but some of them. As we waited, we could hear the brat before us screaming and yelling inside of the room. We were all on our phones.

Then I was working. It was super bright (for once) and time for me to go home. I had just finished seeing a patient and was in the middle of cleaning up the room. While doing that, my boss had come ask me about my trip and I yammered on and on and on and on about how cool it was that even though I went so late in the year that the same people were taking the same trip! Then I started calling out some names of (actual) patients and my boss was surprised. Then my other boss came up and the two of them started making out right in front of me. I realized, then, how young they both looked. He looked the same, but younger, and she looked young, long hair in pigtails, braces, a devious energy. It was like, full-on making out, tongue action and all, and there was me with front seat view. It was like, inches in front of me while I’m still yammering. I exclaimed at them, “Good gracious, you two! Get a room!” They laughed, continued, and I wandered off to put my tray away. The plan was the leave for home, when I realized that I never cleaned up my main operatory. I fought through the other hygienists who were standing around waiting for the next shift to start. Finished, I left down the stairs.

And ended up in a convention center type of place. The events were closing, so I went to leave like the rest of the people there. Apparently, I’d had a good time, though. As I walked in the crowd, the going-down stairs were so crowded, so I went upstairs instead. That was crowded, too, with slow people, so I followed behind this super obese guy wearing a red shirt. Interestingly, he was moving quite fast for someone so large, but still not fast enough for me. As I walked behind him, I found that he was this weird quirk about taking extra little steps on each stair–almost like he was a chihuahua or something. It was bizarre. I didn’t know if he was trying to be cute or if that’s just how he was. Either way, I was really annoyed at all the slow stairs people.

Finally, I was able to go around him, and I ended up walking by a small group of people centered around a minor stage. I continued on down a much less crowded hall (most people were gone by this point),and recognized several people from my elementary school years. That’s when I realized what I was wearing: some basketball shorts that were super popular in the 90s. As it turned out, I was at a 90s convention! A few people were hanging around talking, so I exclaimed at everyone in the area to look at my clothes! The popular basketball shorts, with a grey tank, and basketball high tops. Then I yelled that back then everyone pulled their socks way up (maybe it was just me back then…), and proceeded to pull my socks as high as I could get them. Instead of being impressed, the people around me gave either weird or pitying looks and went back to whatever they were doing. Happily, I descended some now-empty stairs, and went for the one staircase that would get me out of there.

Much to my chagrin, it was full of people–people carrying large, bulky items. Even slower than before.

Driving, Cabin, Bathroom, Crowd

Stuff happened

I found myself at the body of water at the cabin vacation site I’d gone to earlier in the year. With me, I had a net or a net sock that I was dipping into the water to examine what I could pull from the water. Pulling a big heavy load out, I dumped my findings on the bank. Inside I found fuzzy little balls of something, there was a headless fuzzy animal thing that I took 3 pictures of with my phone, someone’s jacket with a suspicious smear of red on it, several towels with very dark red fluid on it, and some other things. I threw everything back into the water with my tongs, and then turned to signal to my mom that we should proceed ahead to the cabin. She hopped into the giant utility truck while I walked up the hill to make sure the way was clear. Wow. It was so crowded with other large trucks, and someone had annoyingly placed a bunch of small obstacles like stools in random places. I was worried that she wouldn’t be able to maneuver the large vehicle through the space, but she did. We went the rest of the way on foot and as we approached the cabin there were more and more people. There ended up being a massive crowd and that’s when I remembered that check-in wasn’t until 4pm. I checked my watch. It said 12pm exactly. Wow. How had we managed to undershoot so badly? I was a little desperate because I suddenly needed to pee pretty badly.

The outside area was no longer outside, and we were standing around inside a large hotel or dorm building. The event showed no signs of ending, so I threw out there that we could just go into town and wait it out with lunch. No one wanted to do that, so I began stalking the rooms to see where a bathroom was. Surely, they wouldn’t mind if I used a bathroom. Unfortunately, there were no bathrooms, just toilets inside of rooms that were occupied. I walked all around the place searching for bathrooms and managed to find a urinal, a men’s toilet, and a handicap toilet. I returned to my family and found other people also waiting for the event to be over. I told them my findings and some women just went to use the stalls in the men’s bathroom. An attendant overheard us and came to say that the bacteria situation was not good. That’s why we shouldn’t use the toilets in the main event area. I decided that I would continue to hold it, even though my bladder was fit to burst. Soon, most of the event-goers were gone, but some still remained. 2 hours had passed. At some point a different event was done, so I decided to go help the staff move things around. I had nothing better to do. They employed me to lift and carry tables, and I worked with the picky supervisor who wanted each table to look perfect!

Revolution, Teacher, Ants

Something about darkness, a house, and large, large bugs.

I was not myself, but some other female. With me was another female along with 2 or 3 males. Everyone was young. We were in a building that seemed dated and like either an Academy or an orphanage repurposed for groups. One of the males in the group was hurrying to put on a red blazer. I was struggling to get mine on, too, but my shoulders were too large and I had trouble getting my arm into the second sleeve. We were discussing the fact that we were the revolution and the red blazers stood for that. Youth against monarchy or something similar. Either I or someone else was questioning the use of the color red because it stood for something else. The scene changed to night where I woke up in our very tight quarters. The room was only big enough for several beds crammed together on one side and a little bit of sitting room on the other side. I was sleeping next to another male, the other males scattered around the beds and room. The other female was moving around and that had woken me up. I followed her out the room trying to be silent. We both had to use the toilet. She went to one side of the hallway while I went to the other bathroom. Technically, it wasn’t “our” bathroom, but I really had to go. While there, I was worried and trying to hurry because I could hear some of the competing groups talking. I didn’t want to get caught. Hurrying back to our room, we both climbed into the bed again. Thankfully the males hadn’t woken up. When the next morning arrived, we all sleepily sat up and the female was saying something to the male next to me about how the males had children to care for in the future. I followed her out, again, wondering who was pregnant and how our faction was going to have kids. Was I pregnant? How? By whom? The males? Were we trying to create a settlement? Or were the males pregnant?

Anyways, she led me to the cafeteria. It was a large, nice place with trays of food behind the glass. It smelled wonderful and it wasn’t crowded. I walked up to admire the food, and a very friendly, very old lady started talking to us from behind the glass. She was so very enthusiastic and mentioned that she was so grateful they let someone of her age work there. She went on to say that she wasn’t very good at her job, but she was happy to be there. Then she proceeded to pull something out of one of the food trays and started using it to wipe the glass. It was a glove. Inside of the food. I looked at the other female who was laughing. She continued the conversation while I walked away down the line to see what other food there was. Some people were starting to line up with trays, and I vowed to choose food that was clearly free from foreign items.

Then it changed and it was dark, and I was in a different facility altogether. It seemed to be underground. I was checking all of the items and fixtures for loot before making my way to the eating area. It was small, maybe 6 tables in total. Some people I knew were there, and I sat down to eat my food spread (which was a lot). Someone came to sit across and to the left of me and I realized that it was my old orchestra teacher, Mr. K! I was taken aback at first, staring as he ate his food there. We didn’t say anything at first and then we struck conversation. He was easier to talk to than I remember and happily leading the conversation. He asked about what I’d been up to, and I told him about the orchestral program I was in before. Apparently, in the more present times, they required auditioning or a class or something before you could get in, and I relayed my horrible auditioning experience (real story) all those years ago. He shook his head both in amusement and irritation for how it turned out. I wanted to ask him how he was doing, but then something happened, and I was given a lucky envelope by some New Year’s animal. It had some money in it! I rushed over to tell my coworker/friend about it, and she immediately started looking at her phone. Mr. K was gone at the point.

Some stuff happened again, and I was trying to leave the facility. I had been there a while, but I was scheduled to go home the next morning. As I was looking over the space and my items, I found an invasion of ants underneath a metal pail I’d stored some food in. My brother-in-law was peering over my shoulder as I was busy spraying them with water or some liquid solution.

Then I woke up because it got boring.

Zombies, Fight, Old Lady

I was preparing to defend an area from a known zombie/infected attack. I traveled up and down the hallways, clearing out rooms so that traps could be set for the incoming invasion. I was with a small team of defenders. While they cleared, I armed and set the traps. As each room cleared, it automatically turned on the overhead lasers. I would quickly draw a target underneath so that we would know where to divert the attackers so that they would be hit by the lasers. I managed to arm the 5th room/hallway when they started the attack. Things were going well and they were being beaten back. I rushed ahead to see if I could help, the halls and rooms mostly cleared. I came upon an older Asian lady probably in her 80s, short and chubby. She was one of the citizens of the compound and definitely infected. I lured her over to the laser and waited triumphantly for the beam to take her out. Turns out, it took a good amount of warm up–time that wasn’t useful on the battlefield. I needed her to stay put on the limited space there, but then she started questioning why I had her just standing in one place. Panicking, I put my hand on her face and told her that she was beautiful and that I’d fallen in love with her. Just as she asked, “Really?” and I smiled my confirmation, the laser fired, blowing a hole through her head and down her body (it was mounted on the ceiling pointing to the ground). Except. She didn’t die. Instead, she was so happy and ecstatic that I had “professed my love” that she was crying. HOW?! The worst part was that there were many other citizens there to witness my proclamation and they were all gaga with the idea.

The attack was over, we’d defended the place. All the weapons were disabled and taken down. I was sick to my stomach with this new relationship I had somehow gotten myself into. The old lady disappeared back into her house as she “wasn’t feeling well.” One of the nearby men, a higher up, left a letter on the table before he left. My coworker/friend found it and showed me. It said that he was so very happy and warmed to hear of our nonconforming relationship and he supported us all the way. Others had crowded around to read it and there were “awws” throughout the group. He’d even written it in what I originally thought was Korean but was actually Japanese underneath the English one. The lady must be Japanese. I was still at a loss for words, my eyes wide open in horror at this turn of events. My coworker/friend just stood staring at me with a strange look on her face. My mind was racing with ways to get out of it without running afoul of the community that clearly had this sweet old lady’s back (that I had just tried to kill, too…I mean, clearly, she was not human to have survived that laser beam). Everyone was acting like I was going to get married to her even though it had been…what…minutes? Hours? Since my “proclamation.” I tried to busy myself in the coming days with looking through a used goods store’s trinkets and vintage items, but I simply could not shake the awful feeling sitting in my stomach. Maybe I was hoping to find some time machine or something there. In the end, I decided that I needed to call it off. I had to explain to the old lady that it wasn’t working out. Pulling out my phone, I texted my friend/coworker for help, and some other people, but no one would respond or help me out. I was going to have to go visit the old lady and somehow put her down slowly. The truth? But then that would make everyone else angry at me. I didn’t want her to be sad. What a weird and uncomfortable situation to be put into!

Post-apocalyptic, alien women, survivors

I had just arrived at a foreign land/planet with 1 or 2 other teammates. We came out to a hot, dry landscape. Things appeared to be a barren wasteland. No animals about. We did see a few humans or humanoids trudging around, but they all looked emaciated, their skin a sickly gray color. They looked upon us with disinterest and continued their slow ways. It was hard to tell if they were humans or aliens. We continued across the landscape, and I eventually came upon a town of sorts. At one point it might have been a bustling city, nestled within the crescent shaped mountain range and surrounded by what would have been water from the waterfall…except that it was all dry. Only a trickle fell from the once mighty waterfall. I entered the most prominent building in the middle and found a few people inside. Right in the middle was a beautiful female. Where the others were clearly ailing like the ones outside, the one in the middle seemed quite radiant. In fact, she was being advertised as the marvel, the Dolly Parton: timeless and ageless. Everyone in the building seemed to be a bigwig, and while the others were not healthy looking, they were several leagues above the ones outside. As I looked around, I realized that they all seemed to be female. I wanted to talk to them and find out what the devil was happening on this world, but I ended up watching some events unfold instead. Another seemingly unaffected being approached the healthy one (I think it was me? Kept jumping in and out of 1st person). The others in the room didn’t approve of the newcomer but were busy with their roles of crisis intervention. I/She immediately hit it off with the beautiful one and was told that the reason she was unaffected by the ailment was that she was one of those with the rare Boktai gene…and…the newcomer also had said gene. The illustrious one reached down to caress the newcomer’s face, and now in 3rd person, I realized that these beings were like the Asari in the Mass Effect games. Genderless but appearing matronly. The two of them meant to procreate in order to help foster population regrowth and possible spread of this special Boktai gene that was impervious to the illness ravaging them. In my mind, as they were preparing to reproduce, I worried about how they would raise children in such a time where sustenance was difficult to come by.

Then, I was outside of the building and some time had passed. Something started happening and it wasn’t long before all of the main players had escaped to a different safer area. I was left behind with 3 others. We were directed to get into the nearby control unit. I didn’t understand what was happening, so I half jogged over despite someone yelling at me to hurry up. That’s when the water pump station expoded and collapsed. I ran into the control pod and there were only 3 seats to our 4 people. We crammed in there anyways and started up the machine. Too late, though, and soon we were falling through the ground. The pod protected us and we spilled out after everything settled to find ourselves in an underground cavern. I looked around incredulously because it all seemed very familiar. We were in the Natural History Museum?!?! The old artifacts were intact where the ceiling hadn’t caved in, the old signs preserved perfectly. I laughed aloud, thinking to myself that I’d made it home after all! After all this time away from the planet, I’d made it to the location I’d grown up in! The 4 of us pushed our way through the underground area and stumbled upon an underground survivor base full of humans. Unlike those above ground, there seemed to be mostly men, older, middle-aged. The caves were small, and it was loud with everyone enjoying food. The atmosphere was lively and fun despite the conditions, another far cry from those above ground. After a time there, I was feeling the cramped lifestyle, well, cramping my lifestyle. I wanted out. Perhaps these humans were used to how they were living, but I wanted more. More freedom, more adventure. I gathered all the younger, able-bodied people to one table and set about discussing the possibility of starting a new colony with them. They were mostly young men with a select few women. One 11-year-old girl clutching a stuffed animal was very eager to be with us, but I told her she was too young for a dangerous enterprise such as starting a new colony. As I was explaining the idea to them, they all left except for the little girl and 2 others. My proposal hadn’t gone well, and it looked like I would have to do it by myself and my small team. So much for adventurous youth!

Man, Gold Bars

I was wandering around in the back alleys of this city. Everything seemed so very dark — not just the sky, but the situation, everything. I navigated around a multitude of stacked boxes, homeless people, and other things, and came upon an open area that looked like a museum. Someone else went in, so I went in, too. The person I followed was a young female dressed in skin-tight all dark clothing. The only other people in the building were a man and a woman. The woman seemed to own the place, and the man appeared to be a guard. They noticed us and so gave chase. We ran around the other side of the wall and right up to the back area. We were after the large sack of gold bars hidden there! The man and woman caught up to us, and I looked to the young woman/thief I followed for the next move. We were all staring at each other, and I asked the guy why they were guarding the prize. Turns out that the exhibit was about the woman’s home country, and they were using the opportunity to house the bag of gold bars there. I was on the verge of convincing the guard to let us have it. He gave up that the sack was right behind the curtain. While I talked to him, the thief made her move. In a split second, she’d reached behind the curtain and dragged the heavy bag out. I was amazed to see that she could even heft the thing, it was bursting with thin, gold bars. She ran for the door, but the man caught her, and she dropped the sack. I snagged it and ran, without thinking, but then, all of the sudden many other people started rushing in. I also dropped it, and a few bars fell out. In the confusion, I snagged one and ran for the alleys. There, I found myself joined by the young thief. I showed her the one bar I’d taken, and she opened up her shirt to show me that she’d taken 3. We disappeared, and next we heard, the sack of gold bars had changed hands many times before being recovered. What was next was to figure out how to cash them. Some time passed and I was with a group of people who had gotten their hands on some. We were entering a mall to see what we could do with it. I wasn’t so certain that I wanted to try that early in the game, but the others were eager. I let them go first, strolling around, and looking at the stores. There was one glass enclosed office where a lady was using the rented space to work on her computer and was playing with 2 retrievers. I saw some stores that could have been useful to get an appraisal, but I didn’t have the guts to do it. Soon, a male walked up to us saying that we needed to be careful about the gold bars. We were effectively looking for black market dealers that would stay quiet. Those gold bars were high on the international wanted list, and anyone caught trying to appraise them or exchange for money were being investigated and put on trial. I knew it. He was offering information into black market dealers, but I was suspicious that he was a secret agent/investigator.

Then I was in the neighborhood I grew up in. I was taking a walk up the hill our street was on and talking to someone. I pointed out some houses and mentioned that those particular 5 houses knew me well because if I was feeling poorly, I’d just knock on their doors, and they would come out to take my temperature to confirm if I had a fever. The person I was with seemed impressed and I went up to one door to prove it. Weirdly, the door had a bunch of wedding invitations dated 3 years prior on there. One, Kevin Mount was marrying a young woman at a wedding in the mountains. I knocked on the door, but then felt subconscious because the whole strangers taking my temperature thing was weird has hell. I decided to leave. However, I kept thinking about how perhaps Kevin Mount hadn’t been home in all those years? The house seemed to be in good condition, though. I walked away, but changed my mind and came back. This time, though, there were people there: a woman and a man investigating. It seems that he was in the house after all but refused to wake up. I’d arrived in the middle of the investigation where they’d pulled him outside. He was a younger guy, reddish brown hair and an unshaven face. They told him he needed to wake up, but he kept squirming and trying to go back to sleep. I helped and he did eventually get up. He said he enjoyed sleeping upside down, so let him be. I told him he needed to cooperate because his young wife was missing. That got him up. I started telling him he needed to remove his clothes. He complies, removing his shoes and socks, his pants, and shirt until he was just in his boxers and an A-shirt. I told him he needed to remove the handkerchief around his neck, too, and everyone seemed to be astonished that I needed that, too. I was fully intending to get him to strip but stopped with his underwear. The point was that he needed to have his health evaluated because clearly something was wrong.

EV, Girls, Amusement Park

I was in the neighborhood I left before coming here, and things were much more grown as it should be since it’s been several years. I had just gotten my EV, a smaller, very sporty sedan a bit larger than a Miata and similar to a BRZ. I was super excited and drove it to work. The speed was indeed very nice, and it actually had an engine sound which was a higher pitched kind of whine that may or may not have been fake sounds. While it was fun to drive, I found myself feeling a bit disappointed and missing my Maverick. I got home and was telling my brother that I might not like it as much as I thought and think that I’d like a plug-in hybrid a lot more given the circumstances. My brother started excitedly telling me that he told me so and that he’d been looking at plug-in Legacys. I wanted to submit an order for a plug-in hybrid Outback but clarified to him that I’d only had the EV one day so far and would continue to give it a chance, to feel it out. Another really big reason for my disappointment was that I passed the same car at least once every 5-10 minutes of driving and I hate having a car that everyone has. It just bothers me. Plus, what was I doing with such a low-lying sporty car when I don’t even like sporty cars, rather rugged cars???

Then things moved on and I was at this brick building. I was sitting inside a studio office that appeared to be a library or small museum, or an office within one of those. There were small displays and books everywhere. The young female that worked there, who couldn’t have been more than a few years younger than me, was very friendly and instantly made me feel at home. We chatted about this and that while I waited (for what, I’m not sure). I wandered over to look at her displays when the chatting ended. Then she looked at the time and led me over to the next room which looked more like a lounge room. There was a round table with multiple chairs in the middle, one of them taken by another young woman. Soon, a few more joined in, and I started to feel a little uncomfortable because I don’t like being in larger groups. Small, intimate numbers is more my thing. As it turns out, these women were a group of not only friends, but roommates with professional ties. Everyone had their own unique ability and knowledge and field (with looks to match). It was a very well-balanced set of skills sitting there. They invited me to sit with them when I was very much thinking about leaving, and even though there were some awkward moments where I knew not what they were speaking of, it seemed that they wanted me to either join the group or at least enjoy the company. All of the sudden there was a flurry of activity, and an extremely exuberant dog raced into the room. I immediately recognized, despite never having met him, that it was my uncle’s new dog. Not wanting him to be a general nuisance because some people aren’t comfortable around dogs and now here was the unbridled excitement of big puppy, I stood up and ushered him out into the hall and into another room. While playfully pushing him out, I was vaguely aware of my uncle yelling at him. Both the dog and I ignored it, and when we got into the next room over, I managed to push down and hold (playfully) this many-pound dog, giving him belly rubs while more importantly calming him down to prevent his excitement from growing worse.

Then I was driving on a highway and excited because I had rented a hotel room so that I could spend 2 days at an amusement park! Sadly, the sky was cloudy, but I didn’t care and was eagerly looking at the water slides. It was very early when the park had just opened, and I was determined to take advantage of the low crowds. The water ride I was eyeing turned out to be a kid’s ride, so I decided to venture away, but then it turned into me looking through several old albums while noting who was in each picture throughout the album. I was writing down and tallying the score, then it was me working in a very poorly lit place with dark brick and wood interior of the practice. I was working on a patient in a wheelchair. Then I went to go get something in another room when the person who came with the wheelchair patient followed me. The end of the hall room was a large, long one usually there for either lab work or large cases. The person ran in and started going off about how the wheelchair patient needed to be seen there next time because it would be easier to maneuver them around. I tried to play interference, noting that it just seemed bigger, but it really wasn’t once you factor in the wheelchair. Plus, it wasn’t set up for seeing regular patients. The person didn’t seem happy with the answer and seemed ready to take it up with the doctor. I left the room, because it was not my problem.

Driving, food, bathroom, people, wall

I was driving around in the countryside and turned into a parking lot. Then it happened again. I turned into the parking lot and this time went to go park. I was driving my Outback. I found a spot, but, of course, because it was a good spot, not only was pretty much everyone suddenly walking there with their carts and families, but then 2 other cars showed up wanting to park there, too. I was trying to be patient with the people until, thankfully, another spot opened up on the other side. I pulled in and went towards the store, a grocery store. I was simply parched and briefly looked at the drink machines. $1.30 on one of them and $1.70 on the other. Wow! I decided to just go looking inside the store for something much cheaper. In I went and perused the hot food section. At first I was miffed because all of the stuff was lobster, but then on the other side of the display were the foods I could eat. Unfortunately, I saw the worker guy who was trying to fix the display use the same utensils from the shrimp stuff on the regular stuff, so, no, I wasn’t going to get any after all. My brother and I found a video/arcade game to play and when we beat one of the levels, I looked forward and saw that even though we’d beaten 5 levels, there were at least 10 more. Then my mom called us to leave, so we left.

Stuff happened and then I was at home with a new Xbox and it had old-school 360 wired controllers. I was trying to give myself a name, but had to borrow my brother’s wireless one because otherwise it would take forever to type the name in using the wired one.

Then I was back to being in a car. I was a passenger in the back this time with several others. We passed an old-timey hotel/inn and the sign said something I found hilarious, like “we focus on stress” or something similar to that. I laughed aloud, making fun of it, and literally no one else in the car laughed. It was awkward. Then we got stuck in traffic, but we were also no longer in a car, but waiting near the entrance of a tunnel in a large group. I looked up at the brick wall there which had a half-finished mural consisting of 7 windows with people in them. I was in one of the mostly finished windows. I turned to my friend H and asked her how she did that. She would have needed a crane to get that high up. She said that it was with the permission of a famous country singer, but that she doesn’t plan on finishing it and wanted to just erase it. I was about to tell her not to, but then the graphic started to change. I thought she was doing it with her phone somehow, but she seemed as perplexed as I was. That’s when a ball bounced around the screen destroying everything in the flavor of the old Windows game Bricks Smash. We both realized it was one of her ex’s hacking in to deface her mural. Good thing she hadn’t planned on finishing it.

Then I was in the hallway of the house I left. I was hurriedly trying to pack my bags because the huge group I was with were trying to go to the beach. My sister was there, my mom needed to be picked up. I had thus humongoid duffel bag and was rushing around jamming things into it. Everyone else seemed ready to go which left only me and my sister. I desperately needed to pee at the point, but my sister was in there. Finally, she got out and I ran in to use the toilet which had somehow flooded and was grossly wet. I didn’t care and just used it, but no pee came out. Damn. I threw open the under-sink cabinet and realized I hadn’t packed any swim suits. I also had no idea what would fit me at that point. Taking my best guesses, I just smooshed some into the bag, thinking I could just buy some when we got there. Then I realized I’d forgotten to bring toys for Cora. I wanted to have a small one to distract her in the car, and then a few for the destination. The bag was bursting at that point and very heavy. Somehow someone mentioned that one of the women I was traveling with had been a marine. Her husband said he had no idea she had been a marine and seemed bothered by it.

Stuff happened and then I was outside in the dead-looking trees that inhabited the swamp that surrounded the high-walled settlement. There was a female warrior or her ghost on the other side of the large gate. I wanted to get to her to see if I could help or save her as she’d been guarding that post for so long. I had Cora with me and we needed to get inside, but the gate was locked and the walls incredibly high. The only way would be to either fly or teleport. I picked her up in my arms and raised her above my head, concentrating. We made it almost over the wall, but I 2nd guessed myself and we were back in the ground. Trying to clear my mind, I attempted it again. We were in on the walls!

And then I woke up.

House, movie filming, garage, friend

I was inside of a house, touring it. It’s unclear whether I’d just bought the place or just looking, but my brother and I were wandering around it. I made my way to the garage and mentioned something about how the roof had been redone a few times. Then when I turned around to look at the garage door from the inside of it, I was appalled to see that the previous owner had a display of sorts showing all of the different roofs that had been on the house. A red one, a orange tile, a black one, etc. It was weird. All I had been trying to decide is if it would be hard to install a garage door opener to the single garage, given the vaulted ceiling of the garage…kind of like it had been an add-on. My brother joked about making the vaulted part an attic since the main house didn’t seem to have one, and I rolled my eyes because making an attic in the garage wouldn’t help the main house at all. Then we were going over the windows, the floor, etc.

When I had wandered back to the garage area, there was then a bathroom sink/cabinet setup set in the middle of the place with lights everywhere. People were present, too. It was a movie set. The story went something like a young wife had been abused by her young husband until one day she sold the house and moved, except that no one could figure out what happened the husband. She had told everyone he just left one day. I was supposed to be the new homeowner who had some friends over to help with the move and check out the new place. I was with a male and we were checking out the house, thinking about repairs, when I saw something underneath the panel above the sink. I reached up to touch it, when it fell open and the body of young husband tumbled out. I screamed and we both took a huge leap backwards, horrified. I ran out of the room. That was the end of the scene, and my co-star followed me as I walked from the set. He told me that the director wanted us to do it one more time. I complained because he had just told us it was perfect, but I dutifully trudged back to do it again. Set, Action! And then I left again, though this time I walked to where the crowds were.

There was a group of young people who were there for another scene. I went to meet with them. I think we had just filmed the scene because there was one kid I didn’t recognize. One of my old friends A was there. I was discussing with someone why we had the new kid when he wasn’t in the script. Then we discussed more deep matters and things got a little spooky. A and I were talking about how things weren’t supposed to happen the way it had. The body tumbling out was a quirk in time. Then the presence of the new kid made sense because this wasn’t a movie set at all, but the real deal disguised as one! The group suddenly left and I followed behind. The others disappeared inside of an auxiliary room which only left me and A. It was a small office with a desk and a pile of black trash bags, some full. Clearly that’s how we were supposed to travel. I plopped on it and A sat down next to me. Except…we didn’t go anywhere. I tried to concentrate really hard, but all that happened was the bags got a little see-through. We needed to hurry before we got caught, but I knew that I needed to concentrate and think of myself melting into it with a destination in mind. I shut my eyes, concentrated, tried to ignore the panic, and let myself drift off to sleep.

It worked. When we opened our eyes, we were in a dark, damp dungeon type of place. I heard noise and so we crawled low around the wall. I pointed out a bug on the floor for A to avoid and came around to see that there were lots of chairs with children in them, the clearly bad guy, and the other members of the group secured to other chairs. A slid up behind an empty chair, but one of the brats called us out. It was the start of the battle. Stuff happened, my teammates got out, we saved the children, and I’m not even sure what happened to the baddie.

Cheeseburger, driving, gun, chase, time rewind

I was at a school. College. It was busy, but I didn’t drive through the main driveway like everyone else because I wasn’t a student. I was either security, police, or some other law enforcement agent. My partner and I drove around on the grassy hills looking for something or someone. Over at an outlying building away from the main campus we saw a shady individual trying to get in. We hopped out and rushed over, making entry. Turns out it was an important office building to the school and busy with workers. My partner and I looked around for the shady guy. No one else seemed to have noticed anything strange, but we quietly approached a door. I was carrying a cheeseburger as I was half opening by the time we had seen the guy. As we were looking to breach a door, I was opening my burger because dang it I wanted my whopper. My partner opened it up and we rushed in to see that it was a bathroom with no one in it. That’s when we heard the suspect ordering someone in the hallway around. He was armed. My partner and I froze in the bathroom, trying not to clue him into our presence. Unfortunately, I just really wanted my burger, so while I was trying to be quiet, the paper was crinkling loudly in my hands. The guy saw us and ran for it. Looks like surprise was not on our side anymore.

I shrugged and took 4 large bites out of the burger before throwing it away because duty called. What a waste! My partner and I ran out of the room and entered an elevator. Inside we talked to an informant (an ex-con we knew well) who directed us with more info. At that point I realized that I had lost my sidearm. I didn’t know if it had fallen outside or if I had thrown it away with my burger, but I no longer had a weapon. Instead of the long gun like my partner had grabbed from our vehicle, I had taken my cheeseburger. I told him I’d lost my Stinger somehow and so he handed me his whole holster. I took the pistol and stuck it into my pocket, ignoring the holster.

We ran around a lot, looking for this guy and informing security along the way. One more person joined us and as we stood around in an office planning with the informant, the gravity of the situation caused me to pick up my gun, turn off the safety and pull the slide. My teammates saw this, and that weight settled into everyone. They primed their weapons, too. It was go time and the stakes were high.

Some stuff happened, more running around.

Then time seemed to reverse itself and I was entering an office building. I saw the guy I was after and walked right up to his desk. He was laughing and smiling with the other coworkers AND he was a security guard for the school. I approached him, placed my hands on the desk and addressed him by his name. He kind of laughed, indicated that I had the right person, and I told him he needed to come with me. Surprise filled his eyes.

More stuff happened and then a whole team of my group’s agents were filing into a very large, crowded area that reminded me of an airport. The guy we’d been going after was there with us in the group. I assume he had spilled the beans and we were going after the big crime syndicate/terrorist. We sat down to await orders. Things were tense. Then that ex-suspect got everyone’s attention and started riling up the crowd. The civilians quit feeling so tense, emboldened by this man’s words of unity. I was still very skeptical of him, but he was indeed helping keep the people from panicking.

Then I woke up because Cora kept smacking my bed trying to get me up.

Bathroom, School, Embarrassment

I was wandering around a school because I needed to use the bathroom. From my classroom I went down the stairs with the key because the women’s bathroom was on the 4th floor, not the 5th. I walked over to where it was which was right outside of another classroom. Unfortunately, I was not the only one there who wanted to use it. 2 more girls from that classroom were lined up. When it was my turn, I saw that the teacher in the room was giving me a dirty look and I got self-conscious. More girls were lining up behind me. I reached down to the boombox looking thing that was the bathroom (this one was red). The idea was that you had to really concentrate to get inside of it. I reached down to touch the port, but could not concentrate with everyone watching me, so I left in search of another bathroom with less pressure. I wandered all about until I thought that class would then be in session so I could use it in peace. When I arrived there, I found the bathroom missing altogether. As it turned out, the male teacher in that room was so annoyed that students were using the bathroom instead of being in class, that he banned using the bathroom for females altogether. I was filled with righteous anger and took the problem to my own teacher (whose class I’d not spent any time in at all). They were sympathetic.

Later, I ran into that male teacher again who seemed sorry for what he had done because he hadn’t understood the benefit of using the bathroom and blood pressure and all of that. I explained the bodily need and benefits to him, and he promised he wouldn’t prevent his female students from using it anymore. I walked over to his classroom to see students using it again and nodded in approval.

However, I still needed to find one, so I wandered off again in search of a, well, not-so-diminutive bathroom. I came upon the library, which was bustling and massive, and had an “ah-hah” moment where I remembered using a bathroom there at one point! And the best part was that it was large because it was public and had to support the entire school and public population come, say, some event. I happily hurried off to the large “female” sign and went in to find that it was unbelievably full! I even grabbed a cart for some reason and pushed it around until I remembered I was there to pee. I made it all the way to the bed section before realizing, with dismay, that the toilet section was supremely small and limited. Doubling back, I found, indeed, that there was only ONE female toilet. There were 6 total, but 5 were for males and they were full. Now, it wasn’t like stalls with doors or anything, it was more like a barn, though the dividing walls were perhaps 6inches tall at most. I waited for the 2 females in front of me to finish before tamping down my embarrassment and swallowing my pride. I made my way down the lane of the “stall” if you could call it that, noting the dirt/clay flooring with hay on the edges up to the stone walls. My need to pee was so strong. I struggled with the belt on my pants, ever aware of the young, blonde male within arm’s reach of me. Looking down at the “toilet,” I was flabbergasted to see that it looked almost exactly like a cordless phone and dock. There was also no obvious drain hole anywhere. Emergency measures called for emergency lack of care, so I set the “phone” aside and debated quickly about how I was going to do this. In the end and in light of the young male next to me (who was trying his best not to look), I decided to squat, pull open my underwear and slide the “toilet” inside and tried to aim for the “hole,” all the while hoping for the best. As logic and physics would have it, either the “toilet” couldn’t handle that amount or perhaps the rate of excretion, but it went everywhere. Sadly, even flowing over to the guy next door who looked at me in horror. I remember the urine itself being strange in consistency and having a funny smell, both like hamster pee (which is funny because I had hamsters well over a decade ago). I gave him an apologetic look, pulled up my now-shorts, and high-tailed it, just happy to have my bladder relieved.

I caught up with the friend I was with (male, I think), and explained matter-of-factly that I desperately needed to go home and take a shower and not to touch me. We made our way through the crowded school almost to the entrance, when a group of friends I went to school with years ago jumped on us and wanted us to come with them and have fun. I explained my need for a shower and change of clothes and everyone seemed to completely understand my dilemma. That made me feel much better. We made it outside. It was dark and we got to a fence where entering the space in between them would send me home. Somehow, I botched it up so that large pieces of a flying vehicle rained down upon my hometown. Ooops.

People, Family, Fat

I dreamed of people, lots of people.

First, there were the supernaturals. I was in this cabin and it was nighttime and I was with around 8 or 9 beautiful women. They were werewolves and there was some sort of anxiety and conflict regarding the vampires. Which were 8 or 9 gorgeous men that also entered the cabin. Both sides stared each other down with me in the middle, sitting at the wooden table with paper in front of me. The atmosphere seemed volatile, but the leader of the vampires, an exceptionally handsome man (they all looked young but were likely not), stepped forward with an earnest expression on his face. He said a few things and it seems they were trying to come to an accord with the were-women.

Then I was at a mall. I was wandering along outside walking to a different entrance. I was with people, family, I think. As I walked, I saw a car drive by and glanced over to see my dad’s oldest brother driving it (an old sedan) and my grandma in the front. The windows there were down in the front, but the back windows were not. They asked something and I pretended not to see or hear. The person I was with replied and I decided to walk more quickly ahead. As I neared the entrance to the mall, I saw my aunt putting something in the trunk of her equally old sedan. Her oldest daughter was with her though was extremely young which meant the younger daughter was there, too, somewhere. I saw the car with my uncle in it parking, and I knew I was stuck/caught. So, I stood there and then basically a ton of people from my dad’s side all gathered there on the walk. I saw my dad, but he never turned around and all I saw was his back. My grandma, aunts, uncles, and cousins. Not all of them, but the ones I spent the most time with growing up. Someone mentioned that I got fat (I had migrated to the back of the group), and I laughed and said that I was bulking up to prepare for the New Year when I’d be working out with zeal. My grandpa whom I’d not noticed was standing right next to me, wearing a brown plaid tweed sport jacket and brown fedora. He heard this exchange, and turned towards me, smiling and nodding like it was an acceptable and good idea. He seemed quite happy to be surrounded by his family.

Then I ended up inside the mall. This time I found a bunch of people from work and past people from school. Some stuff happened and then I walked over to my boss who was looking at her schedule and planning trips with her family. She was doing something on the floor and that’s when someone mentioned how big and fat I’d gotten. I tried to say the same thing about bulking up to prep for working out next year, but I was getting more and more self-conscious. I decided to walk and look for someone and I realized that perhaps I was indeed much more fat than I thought. Walking seemed difficult and my pants just felt too tight around the waist. I kept trying to adjust the band so that it wouldn’t cut into my flab so much. Eventually, I decided that I needed to do some work. I walked into the lab and there was this female who was supposed to be the lab tech/assistant. I was with Q my coworker. The female wore glasses and seemed young, but I’d been warned that she didn’t speak much and couldn’t. I was completely weirded out less because she seemed to not be wearing much in terms of clothing, just something around her loins, but more that there was what appeared to be very thick strands of green hair growing out of her shoulders and back and down her arms. Q touched one and it fell off. It was grass. I turned around and left.

Soon, I decided to take a walk to see if I could lose some weight, too, and was walking with an old college acquaintance. He noted that there were many critters that could harm us, and I started seeing a bunch of them on the dirt path of the forest. Horned toads. And other things. There were SO MANY OF THEM. We turned around and went to tell the lab assistant who wasn’t there, but then I saw that she had pickedup a large vacuum and proceeded to vacuum the offending animals up. We left and went somewhere, and my supervisor told me to go find the assistant because they wanted to talk to her. I went to find her, and she was in the small office of the lab. Wearing clothes this time. I walked in and told her that the boss was looking for her. She responded in perfect words and left. I was like, what? I thought she couldn’t talk? It felt kind of good that she decided to talk to me, so I busied myself inspecting all of the animal cages in the place.

Then some stuff about skateboarding and running away from someone or solving quests for more people. Just lots of people everywhere I didn’t know or recognize.