Disaster!; Alien 4; Flowers; Map

1/27/10

Preparing for a disaster. I'm over at M's place, writing, and we're also casually talking about some impending war. He's also having girlfriend troubles. We climb into a bed together to sleep before disaster hits and start having sex.

Seeing something like the fourth Alien movie where there are lots of mutant failed versions of Ellen Ripley's clone. They don't seem that distressed, though.

In a kitchen with friends of M's. His girlfriend is there too. I tell her the bouquet on the table is beautiful. It's green and white flowers.

Looking down at a map/ alat a map that's also a landscape. It's a terraced green mountain.

White Rose; School Theatricals; Shopping For Glass

1/6/10

Going on a trip. Bundling kids into a van

Visiting a boyfriend at the cafeteria of a big business or college. I don't recognize who the boyfriend was, but he was nerdy. We have lunch with two friends, British brothers named Tom and Sam who think I'm funny. Go back to bf's house and kiss but when it's time for sex I insist on a condom. He's holding a white rose. I'm not sure if the rose is intended for me or if he's in love with the rose himself. He refuses to have sex and I'm terribly upset. I go upstairs where he has a row of old boom boxes.

In a class. I look at an old picture of grade school. We're in a school theater--makeshift out of the cafeteria or something. Student groups present skits. They're wearing beautiful clothes from a costume box. Old tablecloths and curtains with beautiful patterns are folded into tunics and robes. I am watching myself in a skit. It's about a time traveling black kid.

I babysit my niece. She wants me to read Where The Wild Things Are.

I go to a big department store. It's like a cross between a sketchy discount store like Ocean State Job Lot and H&M or something. The front is a grocery store and I compare the price of broccoli raab. In the display is a tiny Christmas tree decorated with a sparkling boot. I wander into the clothing section and go to try on a blouse when I find I've taken off my pants. I manage to get them back on and abandon the clothes for a section of the store that's a junk shop. I find boxes full of bottles made of Roman glass and old boxes of film.

This dream had some anxiety but the colors and patterns were very beautiful. At the end, the Roman glass was the most spectacular. It's old glass that's semi-melted or something and has an iridescent sheen to it.

For some reason, when I dream of school, which I do a fair amount, the students are always middle school aged black kids. I used to teach at a non-profit and while my students were almost all black, they were my age.

My Family Goes To The Races; Tea Shop Catastrophes

12/29/09

The first half of the night all I got was the word "diverticulitis" which is from reading the very stupid Millroy The Magician by Paul Theroux before bed. Stick to travel writing, Paul.

My grandmother B, my aunt T, and my grandmother's farm manager J all came to visit New York for a racing event. They were staying at Columbus Circle. I hurried down from work to meet them. They're in a rented house surrounded by flowering catalpa trees. I see J, who is very dressed up in a red shirt and purple jacket. I wait at the house with my brother S while everyone else goes to gamble. My mother comes back giddy with triumph at winning. She's holding a bouquet and someone hands her another little one full of peonies. She takes them and puts the stems down the front of her shirt and arranges the blossoms so they make sort of a collar around her neck.

S shows me the game they were playing. It's like a pinball machine. Anthropomorphic greyhound characters bowl through a maze. It looks stupid and I'm scornful.

My cousin is there and throws a tantrum as he's being put to bed. We're all mortified.

We go to Aqueduct on a bus. I look at a map that shows Brooklyn connects to the south of Manhattan and Aqueduct is right at the top of Brooklyn, marked in a big yellow triangle. The bus is taking forever and J is getting nervous. T suggests that we charter the bus and go straight there but the bus driver is scornful. Again, we're all mortified.

On my way home, I stop by a coffee shop for a music show and wave at the friendly scruffy male baristas. I make friends with them and they say they'll bring me tea. One of them hands me a tea bag. It's like a little flat sponge that you toss into the water and it expands. When it touches my hand it starts growing and the feeling of movement surprises me and I scream. They reassure me. I feel close to them and they say that both of their parents are dying. I feel awful and don't know what to do. I hold both of their hands. They look at me like, big help.

A pest control advertisement. A cartoon of bedbugs being driven to smaller and smaller chambers in between layers of wood until the fat queen is crushed. It's gross.

This was a very good dream, all the parts interconnected. I even saw the bedbug ad on television in one of the places in the dream.

I liked the artificial map and game. I'm pretty pleased with my brain for coming up with that.

The emotional temperature of the dream was mostly anxious and weirded out but with an appreciation for all the beautiful things I was seeing. J did in fact come visit a few weeks ago and stayed at a hotel in Columbus Circle. We went and saw Wicked and talked about racing at Belmont. My grandmother doesn't actually raise racing horses and I've never been to a race. I think the reason my dream was set at Aqueduct (we didn't actually get there) was I was talking to 3 who is a racing fan and he had recently been there. I don't have a big craving to go see racing.

I think the anxiety from the dream centers around my aunt. She's a difficult person to be around.

I suspect the coffee house dream comes from my anxiety about having too many male friends in general, and wondering especially if 3 has anything like the interest I have in him. The coffee house itself was very beautiful. I loved the sponge tea bag. That was a neat detail.

Tree Reading; Deli Scam

I was at the office working on a book about a mystery taking place at a bourgeois wedding. For some reason while I was reading it I was scaling an enormous coniferous tree. The bark was very thick and someone had carved holes in it big enough for my feet. I would thrust my feet in and climb up, my body perpendicular to the tree. I was pretty far up when my boss came out and asked how the book was. I described it and she wrinkled her nose and said there were a lot of wedding mystery books out there. Then we went to her garden and picked vegetables together. I remember some leafy green and lots of dill.

I was part of a pack of homeless children. It was my job to con deli men. I went in and started weeping and asking for sandwiches. He winked and said if he sold me the bread and cheese separately it would be cheaper. I was touched by his kindness. An older lady came in and rudely pre-empted my order and asked for an elaborately decorated cake ("Put a picture of a swinger on it, you know like a man of the world and then the edges should have violets with stems. And some fresh fruit.") The deli man pointed out my suffering and I looked in my purse and found a flower made of pineapple and strawberry.

I was in my high school theater and we were doing a show. I was mostly watching. It was a blast.

Well, except for the tree and the vegetables, that's pretty much my job. I think the vegetables might be related to an incident when I was about five. My boss's daughter was my best friend in kindergarten and we went to their country house and my friend showed me dill plants. I'd never had dill or bagels before. I'm not crazy about dill, but I loved seeing that enormous plant and my friend's excitement.

The deli scam reminds me of the book Homecoming. It's a YA book I only read this year because my client said it was a lot like her book. Which it is.