Visit to Canada, I think...

Something happened with some cute little foreign girl (I think the little Indian girl that gets married in Eat, Pray, Love which I happend to watch this week) and a guy who seemed like her boyfriend/husband but I'm having trouble remembering that part.  Anyway, she got in an old car with me and we were talking about buying cd's (which I also happened to do this week - Lady Gaga for my Dad for Father's Day) and we drove to a flea market.  She said she'd never been to one and I told her it was fun becasue you could negotiate the price on everything.  She looked tentative so I told her I'd show her how it was done.  Suddenly there was a guy sitting in the car.  He had a cd and he wanted $25 for it and I negotiated him down to $5 which he agreed to if I would buy a frying pan from his booth.  I looked at them and they looked cheap so I jumped out of the car to grab one.  When I got to the booth and looked at the prices they were all $300 - 400 and I turned to tell the guy he was insane and it was Dan's brother Mark suddenly.
I felt kind of trapped becasue I told him I would buy one and now this was Dan's brother and I didn't want to insult him.  A couple of people showed up at the booth and he was talking to them so I started to look around at the other stuff there.  He had a whole wall of kitchen items and then a table with old records and I think some automotive parts and there was a podium where he sold beer.
At some point, the girl who plays Sara Marshall walks into the booth, which has now turned into a bar, and I get the idea that she is Mark's girlfriend or really wants to be.  She starts following me around and I get that she is really trying to make an impression on me for some reason but I can't really be bothered with her and I'm trying to just politely get away.  I finally get away from her but then I hear her saying something across the bar and she sounds really upset so I go over to see if she is ok.  She is at the podium where Mark was selling beer earlier in the dream but there is a huge bottle of wine with fruit floating around in it.  She is yelling from behind the podium at someone but the weird thing is that nobody is there.  I ask her what's up and she's pointing like there is someone right in front of us and yelling about "This guy won't...." something, I can't remember but he was bothering her.  I lean on the podium and pretend to yell at the guy and this seems to make her happy.
Then I hear cheering at the bar so I go back over.  The bar is essentially a square in the middle of the room and I look across the bar and there are two mountain goats sitting at the bar.  They are Dan's parents apparently (don't ask me, I don't know where this came from).  Dan comes over and sits near me and he starts telling his brother, who is bartending, that his band is going to play a gig later that night.  Mark asks if I'm going and I say "Of course, I'm Dan's groupie."  Mark laughs and looks at Dan who starts to confirm that and tells him that I put on a lot of cool make up and dress all sexy and I'm always right up front.  His brother is suddenly Eddie Izzard and is getting all worked up and asks if I dance and Dan says yes, a lot when I'm drinking especially and everyone laughs.
Dan's mountain goat Dad suddenly gets the attention of the bar and announces that he is retiring and everyone cheers.  He said that he sold a building on a piece of land and he made enough money to retire happily.  We all hang out drinking and laughing for a while when suddenly someone runs in (I think it was another animal) and tells Dan's Dad that he better come quick, there is trouble.  We all run out of the bar and up a hill and you can see a building that is partially destructed and on fire.  As we get to the top of the hill the person who came to get him said that he had an infestation of (some name I don't recall) monsters and they were eating the moss and mud he used to insulate the walls.  It looked like a video game and I'm having a hard time describing it honestly.  Needless to say, his Dad was upset and the final "frame" was him standing on the hill infront of the building being destroyed with dark storm clouds welling in the background yelling "Nooooooooooooooooooo!"
I'm not really sure what happend to my little friend from the beginning.

Wendy and the giant tooth balloon

Just for reference, there was a big tooth balloon in my dream last night and I was going to include a picture of one for this post.  I did a Google image search and came up with some good photots however I grabbed the one above but not because it looked like the one in my dream.  I'll leave your own imagination to figure out what this picture is for ;-)
On to the dream!
The point I remember it starting from (although I feel like it started earlier) was just standing outside in a driveway looking into a house door.  We had pulled a box and one piece of luggage from the car and we had the dogs with us.  As we walked toward the house you could see inside the entrance way and there were 4 or 5 cats swirling around in there.  The interesting thing about the entrance way was that there were stairs on three sides and a wall on the other.  The stairs were long, maybe 12 steps down, and wooden and there was a 5x5 square space at the bottom where the cats were hanging out and that was the first sighting of the tooth balloon floating around.  The cats were chasing the string around.
We went down the stairs and took the stairs to the left up into a living room.  It was a very comfortable, warm feeling room with wood floors, lots of plants, natural light and furniture that looked like it had been carefully chosen at some cool flea markets/vintage stores.  Across the room a man was just finishing working out and he had his shirt off and was quite the fine specimen!  Gorgeous six pack.  *daydream*  Anywhoooo...he put his shirt on and came over to greet us and said that Wendy would be right out.  Which she did.  She was dressed funky cute (like she always is in real life!) and gave us hugs and said something about she was sorry about what was going on at our house and that we could stay as long as we needed to.  She then told us that she and her boyfriend were going out and that she had to go finish up getting ready.  She smooched her man and headed for the back.  I went with her and went to go into the bathroom.  As I closed the door, there was a part of the wall behind and next to the door that was open like a window but with no glass and it looked out through the hallway we were in and out through a window to the outside where her boyfriend was.  I told her that he was super gorgeous and she giggled and said something to the effect of "isn't he?" and she was off. 
Suddenly I was in the living room routing through the box I brought looking for something to write on.  I wanted to leave a note for Wendy (for some reason) to let her know that she should continue on with life as if we weren't there and not to feel bad if she went out and we were home.  Just as I found some index cards she came out and plopped on a big overstuffed, green velvet chair and told us she was going to some sort of festival thing and that she was mainly going because of a company called Hard Candy and another place I can't quite remember.  Well, if you know me then you know I'm in when candy is involved!  The whole time we were talking about this I was fidgeting around with the tooth balloon and only really became aware of it in my hands after a few minutes of having it.  At that point I can remember thinking what a strage balloon it was.  It wasn't exactly white, it was more like someone blew up a tooth shaped condom.  And it didn't float up to the ceiling, it only floated about 4 feet off the floor. 
As I looked up at this point Wendy had changed from her cute self into a blah looking chubby woman with long red hair.  It didn't seem to phase me though.  She was searching through her purse for her keys and the last thing I remember was walking back down the strange stairs with the kitties at the bottom.  Strangely, I just thought about it, the dogs weren't in the dream at all except in the very beginning outside.
Fin

Oh...did you figure out what the picure at the top is for?
Balloontwister!

Former Employee Break In

I was laying in bed thinking to myself this morning about how disappointed I've been lately about the lack of dreams I've been having.  Then suddenly I had a flash of a face from a dream I had last night and it all came back to me!  Sooooo...
I was at work but we weren't in our current office.  It was a VERY swanky office.  Lots of black marble, jade and fountains and just exceptionally beautiful.  The room we were in had two long tables lining opposite walls.  I was sitting at one with my back to the wall with other people, including our current IT Manager, Rico.  Sitting at the opposite table were employees.  Rico and I were looking at and discussing one employee in particular who we knew was not happy and was being quite open about it to the other employees.  As we were talking, the elevator doors opened and in walks a former employee of my current company.  He was dressed in a long patchwork leather jacket and had a backpack on.  We watched in disbelief as he walked straight over to the unhappy employee and started badmouthing the company to him in a loud voice that everyone could hear.  Rico and I were stunned because apparently our office had multiple levels of super bad ass security and we couldn't figure out how he had gotten through it all.
Finally, I decided enough was enough and got up and walked over to him and told him he had to leave and escorted him back to the elevator doors.  However it wasn't an elevator yet.  It led into a large room with the elevator way at the end.  I remember being very kind to him and saying something to the effect that I knew he was unhappy with us but that he couldn't just come barging in like that and stir up trouble and asking him to please leave quietly.  I saw that he got on the elevator, I hit the button on the outside to make sure he got down to the ground floor and turned around and went back to the office.
I was walking back to my desk I heard a shout behind me and turned around to see the old employee running at me like a crazy person!  I thought about stopping him but I realized that he had somehow grown to be about 10 feet tall so I jumped out of the way and called security on my watch (Venture Bros style!).  Security sent up one tiny, busted woman who just tried to reason with him while he tore apart the office.  Finally Rico and I looked at each other and bummed rushed him and tackled him to the floor.  He continued the verbal tirade and I told him that he really had nobody to blame but himself.  We started to drag him to the door when he suddenly escaped and became Juliette Binoche in a cute little yellow bikini and chunky heels and I was chasing her up some stone steps at a beach that looked like it was in Europe somewhere.  Don't ask me, I don't control my dreams!
So, I chased her up the stairs and she was laughing and having fun; quite tickled about it all.  I finally caught her foot and dragged her down the stairs by it.  She wasn't too happy about that.  I dragged her down to the beach with her complaining but laughing still the whole way and when I stopped we looked at each other and laughed. 
And that is all I can remember!
Oh, and last week I had a very short recollection of a dream where my Dad was cutting my hair.  Analyze that!

What's up dreams? Shy?

Suddenly the dreams don't seem to want to be as showy as they have been.  I think it's stage fright.  Or it's that my brain is so full of work stuff, parents coming to visit stuff, wedding stuff that my dreams are getting pushed off the stage.
I woke up the other morning and realized that my dreams were actually thoughts...task lists.  All the things that need to get done on my ever growing list.  It was weird, but I laid in bed trying to remember if there was a dream and literally it was just words all night.
Last night was the closest I can remember to having dreams.  The one flash was of a big lady storming out of a crappy building in a big city and I got the feeling that someone was about to get their ass beat.  And that was all.
Then another one started to come back to me.  I was shopping for wedding dresses and I had a personal assistant/shopper with me.  She was a very tall and thick (not fat) woman with a blonde up-do and dressed in a green and yellow plaid skirt suit.  We walked into a two story building and went up the stairs and entered into a very cozy little boutique.  It was a little dark and gaudy but I remember feeling happy to be there.  My shopper girl approached the little desk in the back where an old woman was smoking and announced that we had arrived.  The woman said we weren't on the schedule and then there was some back and forth but she finally agreed that we could try on some dresses.  The old woman went to the back through a curtain to pull dresses and my shopper and I were talking.  I discovered that my shopper was like a Geisha (at least what I know about them from the movie/book Memoirs of a Geisha). 

She was "owned" by this old woman and was forced to do this work for no pay and lived in horrible conditions with others like her.  She was the best out of all the other women at what she did though.  I began to tell her that it was unacceptable and that she needed to stand up for herself immediately and tell this old woman that she was not going to work for her for free anymore and to demand to get paid or she was walking out.  So when the woman came back she confronted her and a big argument ensued!  I was standing behind my shopper, egging her on and supporting her.  The woman wouldn't give in and so I told my shopper "Let's go" and we started to walk out.  The woman stopped us and it was a movie scene, she paused and took a long drag off of her cigarette and considered us for a while and finally said, "Fine, you win."  Shopper and I hugged and then walked back and and started looking at dresses as if nothing had just happened.
The end!

A selection of Pablo Neruda dream poetry

I haven't had any discernable dreams the last few nights so I thought that I would post up some poems or quotes of poems from my new favorite poet Pablo Neruda for you to enjoy!

Sonnet XXI

Only do not forget, if I wake up crying

it's only because in my dream I'm a lost child

hunting through the leaves of the night for your hands. 

 

Cat's Dream - translated by Alastair Reid

 

How neatly a cat sleeps,
sleeps with its paws and its posture,
sleeps with its wicked claws,
and with its unfeeling blood,
sleeps with all the rings--
a series of burnt circles--
which have formed the odd geology
of its sand-colored tail.

I should like to sleep like a cat,
with all the fur of time,
with a tongue rough as flint,
with the dry sex of fire;
and after speaking to no one,
stretch myself over the world,
over roofs and landscapes,
with a passionate desire
to hunt the rats in my dreams.

I have seen how the cat asleep
would undulate, how the night
flowed through it like dark water;
and at times, it was going to fall
or possibly plunge into
the bare deserted snowdrifts.
Sometimes it grew so much in sleep
like a tiger's great-grandfather,
and would leap in the darkness over
rooftops, clouds and volcanoes.

Sleep, sleep cat of the night,
with episcopal ceremony
and your stone-carved moustache.
Take care of all our dreams;
control the obscurity
of our slumbering prowess
with your relentless heart
and the great ruff of your tail.

Sonnet LXXXI: Rest with your dream inside my dream

by Pablo Neruda, 1950

Already, you are mine. Rest with your dream inside my dream.
Love, grief, labour, must sleep now.
Night revolves on invisible wheels
and joined to me you are pure as sleeping amber.

No one else will sleep with my dream, love.
You will go we will go joined by the waters of time.
No other one will travel the shadows with me,
only you, eternal nature, eternal sun, eternal moon.

Already your hands have opened their delicate fists
and let fall, without direction, their gentle signs,
you eyes enclosing themselves like two grey wings,

while I follow the waters you bring that take me onwards:
night, Earth, winds weave their fate, and already,
not only am I not without you, I alone am your dream.

April 12th - Lots of Ice Cream and Cavernous Bathroom

Last night was a lot of just chunks of dreams but there did seem to be a theme to the second half of the night....waiting in line for ice cream.  I think there were at least 3 or 4 different situations where I was waiting in line for ice cream.  One line was very long but I was waiting outside and it was a gorgeous sunny day.  My friend Jamie was with me and she had a child with her that was about 2 years old and was adorable!  I got the feeling in the dream that it was her baby even though she is like us, four legged furry babies only.  We were having a blast talking and playing in line but I don't think we ever actually made it into the ice cream shop. 
The next dream had me in a mansion in a cavernous bathroom.  It was all gilded in gold with a ceiling that looked to be about 20 feet high.  As I walked into the bathroom I flicked a switch that turned on a light in a little alcove vanity about 10 feet away to the right so I walked over there and there was another switch.  So, of course I flicked that on one and it lit another little side space across the way.  This went on for a while and seemed like it was going to be never ending.  The entire space was never lit enough for me to see it all at once.  Then Mugan kicked me in the ovaries and I woke up.
When I went back to sleep I woke up in a beautiful kitchen standing at a butcher block cover island.  I was unpacking some bags and it was all massive amounts of vegetables.  Incredible vegetables of all sorts of colors and I knew they were from a farmers market.  I put a bunch of carrots with the soft green tops still attached on the top and a child came walking around from the other side of the table and was excited about the carrots.  Even though it didn't look exactly like her I got the feeling that it was my neice Jordan from when she was younger.  I asked her if she wanted some and she said yes but she wanted me to cut them up and cook them with butter for her.  I said I would and that dream ended.
Back to standing in line for ice cream!  This time I was in the shop but there were about 5 lines and the store was kind of a mess.  I got up to the register and asked for some chocolate ice cream and she got it, rang me up and the dream ended before I got to eat it.
Another ice cream store.  This time empty except for me and someone else who I was talking to and obviously there with but I never saw them.  I was looking at the menu and into the ice cream cases trying to decide what to get.  There was some flavor that had some name that had Cheer or something like that in it and it looked good to me.  I'm fairly sure looking at it that it was the Caramel Cone ice cream I had eaten just before bed.  I never decided and Dan came and woke me up for the day.


http://luv-2-draw1807.deviantart.com/



Catching up on dreams #2 - B&W Gay Boys

I'm not really sure how this one started and it's a bit foggy all the way through so I'll put it together as best I can.
The dream started out in color and I was sitting in/on what looked like benches installed in long, shallow closets that had the doors removed.  I was in a hallway but as I looked to the left down the hallway it turned into a room a few "closets" down and the benches were all full of people.  I realized that I was in a school.  On the bench next to me were 4 gay boys and the were discussing how to positively stand out as gay.  I leaned over and suggested they use fashion and wear clothing that was unique but that they all coordinate every day.  They liked my idea and the next deay they all wore white pants with black belts, black shoes and black and white floral print shirts and looked amazing.  At this point I realized that the dream had turned to black and white. 

Class started and I remember that something happened with the teacher but I can't remember what but he blew a whistle and in runs three female referees blowing whistles in time with each other and I looked at the boys and said, "Oh no, black and white battle!" and they got up all cool and walked into the classroom and I woke up at that point.  Intriguing...no??? 

Catching up on dreams #1 - Sharks at the mall

I'm at this gorgeous multi-story (at least 15 floors up) that is very narrow.  It looks like a hotel in Miami.  It has it's own beach outside that has tall concrete walls on the sides.  I'm standing a few floors up looking out the windows at the people on the beach below with a coworker (we'll call him CW019 for maybe unreasonable unfounded legal reasons).  Suddenly a giant shark comes rocketing out of the ocean and up the beach in a straight line snapping his jaws back and forth.  I remember not being overly shocked but more fascinated.  So I grab CW019 and we run down to the bottom floor of the mall and there is a huge crowd gathered at the windows looking out at what's happening.  We make our way through the crowd and realize that we can get out on a balcony over to the right of the crowd.  We sneak out the door onto the concrete balcony and there are multiple sharks shooting up out of the water onto the sand.  They are about 5 times bigger than any real shark.  One slams right into the base of the balcony we are standing on and we laugh as if it's fun.  A mall employee is yelling at us through the door that we have to get back inside becasue the people on the beach are trying to get in and they are locking everyone out.    Even though we argue with her for a while we end up going back in, completely unconcerned for the people getting mowed down by the sharks.  When we get inside CW019 grabs by purse off my shoulder and runs off with it laughing and the dream ends. 

Ta-da, dream #1 (b)logged!  I hope this picture doesn't influence my dreams tonight :-o

Ovid, Metamorphoses: If you haven't read it, you should.

Until I get a chance to post a few dreams up here, this should keep you busy.
"[Hera commands her messenger Iris to summon a Dream-spirit :] `Iris, my voice's trustiest messenger, hie quickly to the drowsy hall of Somnus [Hypnos], and bid him send a dream of Ceyx drowned to break the tidings to [his wife] Alcyone.' Then Iris, in her thousand hues enrobed traced through the sky her arching bow and reached the cloud-hid palace of the drowsy king. Near the Cimmerii land a cavern lies deep in the hollow of a mountainside, the home and sanctuary of lazy Somnus, where the sun's beams can never reach at morn or noon or eve, but cloudy vapours rise in doubtful twilight; there no wakeful cock crows summons to the dawn, no guarding hound the silence breaks, nor goose, a keener guard; no creature wild or tame is heard, no sound of human clamour and no rustling branch. There silence dwells : only the lazy stream of Lethe 'neath the rock with whisper low o'er pebbly shallows trickling lulls to sleep. Before the cavern's mouth lush poppies grow and countless herbs, from whose bland essences a drowsy infusion dewy Nox (Night) distils and sprinkles sleep across the darkening world. No doors are there for fear a hinge should creak, no janitor before the entrance stands, but in the midst a high-raised couch is set of ebony, sable and downy-soft, and covered with a dusky counterpane, whereon the god, relaxed in languor, lies. Around him everywhere in various guise lie empty Somnia [Oneiroi, dreams], countless as ears of corn at harvest time or sands cast on the shore or leaves that fall upon the forest floor. There Iris entered, brushing the Somnia (Dreams) aside, and the bright sudden radiance of her robe lit up the hallowed place; slowly the god his heavy eyelids raised, and sinking back time after time, his languid drooping head nodding upon his chest, at last he shook himself out of himself, and leaning up he recognized her and asked why she came, and she replied : `Somnus, quietest of the gods, Somnus, peace of all the world, balm of the soul, who drives care away, who gives ease to weary limbs after the hard day's toil and strength renewed to meet the morrow's tasks, bid now thy Dreams, whose perfect mimicry matches the truth, in Ceyx's likeness formed appear in Trachis to Alcyone and feign the shipwreck and her dear love drowned. So Juno [Hera] orders.'
Then, her task performed, Iris departed, for she could no more endure the power of Somnus, as drowsiness stole seeping through her frame, and fled away back o'er the arching rainbow as she came. The father Somnus chose from among his sons, his thronging thousand sons, one who in skill excelled to imitate the human form; Morpheus his name, than whom none can present more cunningly the features, gait and speech of men, their wonted clothes and turn of phrase. He mirrors only men; another forms the beasts and birds and the long sliding snakes. The gods have named him Icelos; here below the tribe of mortals call him Phobetor. A third, excelling in an art diverse, is Phantasos; he wears the cheating shapes of earth, rocks, water, trees--inanimate things. To kings and chieftains these at night display their phantom features; other dreams will roam among the people, haunting common folk. All these dream-brothers the old god passed by and chose Morpheus alone to undertake Thaumantias' [Iris’] commands; then in sweet drowsiness on his high couch he sank his head to sleep. Soon through the dewy dark on noiseless wings flew Morpheus and with brief delay arrived at Trachis town and, laying his wings aside, took Ceyx‘s [ghostly] form and face and, deathly pale and naked, stood beside the poor wife‘s bed. His beard was wet and from his sodden hair the sea-drips flowed; then leaning over her, weeping, he said : `Poor, poor Alcyone! Do you know me, your Ceyx? Am I changed in death? Look! Now you see, you recognize--ah! Not your husband but your husband‘s ghost. Your prayers availed me nothing. I am dead. Feed not your heart with hope, hope false and vain. A wild sou‘wester in the Aegaeum sea, striking my ship, in its huge hurricane destroyed her. Over my lips, calling your name--calling in vain--the waters washed. These tidings no dubious courier brings, no vague report: myself, here, shipwrecked, my own fate reveal. Come, rise and weep! Put on your mourning! Weep! Nor unlamented suffer me to join the shadowy spirits of Tartara (the Underworld).’ So Morpheus spoke, spoke too in such a voice as she must think her husband‘s (and his tears she took for true), and used her Ceyx‘ gestures. Asleep, she moaned and wept and stretched her arms to hold him, but embraced the empty air. `Oh wait for me!’ she cried, `Why haste away? I will come too.’ Roused by her voice‘s sound and by her husband‘s ghost, now wide awake, she looked . . . but found him nowhere . . . She cried, `. . . He is dead, shipwrecked and drowned. I saw him, knew him, tried to hold him--as he vanished--in my arms. He was a ghost, but yet distinct and clear, truly my husband‘s ghost, though to be sure his face was changed, his shining grace was gone. Naked and deathly pale, with dripping hair, I saw him--woe is me!"
-Ovid, Metamorphoses 11. 585 (trans. Melville)

The Oneiroi

THE ONEIROI were the dark-winged Daimones (Spirits) of dreams. They emerged each night like a flock of bats from their cavernous home in Erebos, the land of eternal darkness beyond the rising sun. The Oneiroi passed through one of two gates (pylai). The first of these, made of horn, was the source of the prophetic god-sent dreams, while the other, constructed of ivory, was the source of dreams which were false and without meaning. The term for nightmare was melas oneiros (black dream).

I feel like my Oneiroi have always been a little twisted but this year seems to be more active dream wise than normal.  Lately I've been waking up describing my weird dreams to Dan (my sweetie) and realized that it could be fun to log them and even share them so, here is the blog where I hope to find enough time to do so.  I hope you enjoy the trips my Oneiroi tale me on!