Green Boots and a Flashlight

Dreamed Night of Feb 4, 2010

My aunt Jane and I were on something like a pier on a lake next to mountainous terrain. It was similar to the coast of central California with cold air, big green evergreens, and pretty, steep hills. There was no beach; the sea just lapped on to the foot of the hills and the dirt and forest began abruptly.

I left Jane briefly and took a jet ski over to another dock on the lake; the lake was as rough as ocean. I docked and ran up some stairs on the hill to meet my Grandmam at a rustic cabin where she was apparently staying. It think she owned the place in the dream, though she owned no such place in real life. I don't remember talking with her, but I think we exchanged pleasantries and then I went back to get Jane now that I knew where we were to go.

I offered Jane the jet ski this time (it only held one person) and I hiked the dirt path that wound through the hillside forest to get back to Grandmam's house. My way would take a lot longer, but that's ok.

As I started up the hill, a voice called out from entrance to the forest. I could see someone was tucked away into some of the rocks to my right, but I could not see their face because they were fully shrouded in a black cloak. Plus it was getting dark and I could not see well in the tree cover. I think the man had a dog (German Shepherd?) with him too. It was creepy but not so scary that I felt threatened or felt like I had to turn around.

This hard-to-see man told me that I will need a flashlight and that he would loan me one. I said ok, but he said it's too early and that I had to wait. I already had a flashlight, so I went ahead. I realized a few minutes into my hike that Jane will not be able to see where she's going in the dark on the water. I hoped she had a light or at least was doing ok since there wasn't much I could do now.

As I hiked, I noticed a little plastic track that was about two feet wide adjacent to the trail that the weird man used to transport flashlights to people who were already walking the trail. Not only did he give them a flashlight...he would also send a pair of green boots. I watched as a pair of green boots and matching green flashlight hovered about an inch off the track and flew down the track, assumingly to meet their new owners. It was strange.

About halfway down the trail, I found a small village that was exactly on the trail. As in, the trail led into the buildings of this village - dead ended right at a door to a house which was unlocked. Somehow I knew that I was supposed to go in the house to continue on the trail.

I went through door after door going through every house in the village; I thought it was a rather invasive way of traversing this town. The last room had a bed with people sleeping in it; that was a bit awkward.

As I continued down the trail, the batteries of my flashlight started to falter and the light became dimmer and dimmer. I was hoping that my flashlight and boots would arrive on the little track soon so that I wouldn't be left in complete darkness.

I either woke up or my brain moved on before I ever reached my destination or found out if Jane got to Grandmam's ok.

Lost in the Lava

I woke up with labored breaths. My heart was racing. I had just lost my car to a volcano.

It started out great: I had gone down to San Luis Obispo to look for a birthday present for a 3 year old girl. I don't know who the girl was, but I was invited to her party and I was going to go to the toy store to look for a cute present. I bought a cup of coffee and took off my shoes and walked all around town in the sunshine. Of course the town wasn't actually SLO, but still.

The toy store had moved and SLO had gotten an Ikea! How'd that happen!? I saw Jon along the way, he was picking out a weird spiral wicker shelving unit with some girl at a furniture store. He was very torn over whether it was the right piece of furniture for him. I moved on.

I was browsing through presents and moving from store to store when I saw my sister's friend Kevin M. He wanted to take me to the upcoming dance. I said ok, but Jenny showed up and really didn't want me to go with him; I think she liked him. I told Kevin that I'd like to go with him but if Jenny didn't want me to then it probably wouldn't work. He seemed understanding. Jenny informed me that Scott Taylor had also expressed interest in taking me to the dance. I said I'd think about it.

I started to walk back to my car through a strip mall. The sun was going down and I thought I should call it a day. The parking lot at the mall ended and a dirt lot started; my car was at the very end of the dirt lot. As I walked the dirt lot, some of the ground started turning to lava. It wasn't flowing off the hills like real lava, it was like coming up from the ground and was in spotty areas all over the parking lot. I ran for the coffee shop at the end of the lot in my bare feet and saw my car in the last spot on the way. I was safe in the coffee shop so just sat down for a breather. When I looked out at my car, it was halfway underground sunk into lava. I freaked out and ran outside but it was clearly too late.

As I got closer I saw my sister in the front seat of the car and I yelled to her to get out. She did and I asked her if anything important was still in the car that I should run for, but she said she didn't have the baby today so not to worry. I tried to think if I had anything else important in the glove compartment or anything, but it was too late and the whole car went under. My sister had lent me her black flip flops for a second, so I gave them back and we walked with my mom back to the coffee shop.

It was an odd "oh well" feeling, because there really was nothing I could do about losing my car to volcano lava. I watched as men came out and shoveled gravel onto the lava spots in the parking lot to drive their cars out; mine was the only car lost. Apparently everyone else knew what to do in case of lava. Dang.

But, it was a good thing that Shaquille O'neal told me later that the brand new Porsche that I wanted was only $34,000. Shaq's got my back.

Angel Back in Time

I had a dream that when I ate this purple squash-looking fruit, I went back in time to when I was 14. I was still my older self, but in my body from that time. I was in a parking lot in the daytime hanging out with my Planet Lazer friends Melissa and Angel. They are about four years older than I am, so they would have been about 18, though they looked younger in the dream. We were just hanging out and talking and they were saying the dumbest stuff. I was wondering if we always were this dumb when we were this age, and I figured we probably were, I just hadn't realized it at the time.

I went forward in time again to the present and told my mom about how stupid my friends and I were. Then I tried to convince a lady at the grocery shop that this particular squash really did take me back in time. I'm not sure why I wanted her to believe me, but I think she lost interest. Plus, I'm not sure what happened to my body in the present when I went back to the past after eating the fruit, so I'm not sure what I was even trying to show the lady. Ah, the paradoxes of time travel don't even escape my dreams.

Dry Swimming

Many dreams occurred last night, Japan sleep is quite restless so far. I had two memorable dreams, the first was about the swim team in high school. I hate swim team dreams, they are never good. This was no exception.

I was not in high school, but no one had shown up for a swim meet and they wanted me to compete just to get a full relay team going. And by full relay team, they apparently meant me and one other girl (Sandy) who used to be on the swim team with me. We alternated in the 200 Medley relay, which is not actually allowed with 2 people in real life: she kicked it off with back, I did breast, she did fly (though I had to remind her that was what she was supposed to do) and I finished up with my standard contribution of freestyle.

The only problem was that there was no water in the pool, and really, no pool. We just wiggled on our bellies on a flat concrete surface, not unlike the smooth surface of a garage in a house. We mimicked the motions of the strokes as best we could on our bellies and it was both difficult and embarrassing. And I noticed that the other team didn't even have anyone competing, so it was our coach just cheering Sandy and me on. So ridiculous.

The second dream involved a wedding where I forgot to invite my friends, Adam was all mad at Jane, and I wore a horribly uncomfortable and inappropriately tight and short dress under my full dress that was more like a robe. We were supposed to play laser tag at the reception, but the employees of the facility never showed up. Wah. I hate wedding dreams. :)

No Love

This was the night before our big flight to Japan, so I knew the dreamin' wouldn't be good. At least no more planes crashing though. In this dream I didn't get into UC Berkeley. It was sad.

I think I was in high school still, because one of my classes got out early and I had to stay for my final class (I guess that could have been college too then). Either way, I remember going into one of my teachers' classrooms and looking over the essay I had sent to Berkeley. It was just one essay (as opposed to the many I sent in real life), and it was like a story. It was terrible. I was thinking, "no wonder they didn't let me in, this sucks".

I also remember wondering why I didn't get help from my teacher on the essay. He was an English teacher and I think he could have helped me a lot, but I had been to stubborn to ask for help. And now my essay was crappy and UCB didn't take me. Good work, me.

Well, it was a downer for sure, but I woke up realizing that my real-life essays kick ass and if they don't let me into Berkeley it's not because my essays are crap, that's for sure. Slightly re-assured.

Another downside - I woke up with Rod Stewart's Maggie May PAINFULLY stuck in my head. I hope it goes away soon. Now, off to Japan.

Missed Flight

So maybe I am more nervous about our upcoming trip than I feel. Now I am, at least, after this dream. I had a dream that Kane and I had a trip to Europe planned before our Japan trip. Nevermind that our Japan trip is in 2 days; somehow we were squeezing a Europe trip in there.

I keep saying how we haven't prepared much for Japan, but in the dream we hadn't prepared at all for Europe. I'm not even sure we packed. We just arrived at the airport and were going. I was looking at our itinerary and we were flying direct to Stockholm. Our hotel bookings, however, had us booked somewhere else the first night (Scotland?) which was not within a reasonable distance of our arrival destination. I saw that we had all of our hotels booked, but that they weren't going to work because we couldn't get to the first one on time, so they'd all be messed up. I was wondering if I should call them all or if we should try to catch another flight once we got to Stockholm to try to salvage the reservations.

We boarded the plane and it started to take off. We took a sharp turn and I could see the ground out of my window. I hate when they do that. Then I saw something fall off the plane down to the ground. Apparently the captain had meant to drop whatever it was, but we were still on our way down fast after losing it. We crashed with nothing more than a thud, which surprised me. We weren't going anywhere anytime soon.

They de-boarded us and showed us to a temporary camp area with little cabins. I'm not sure why I couldn't just go home or stay in a hotel, but we were in the cabins. All I wanted to do was call Alana to tell her that our plans were going to be all messed up now (mixing the fake Europe trip with the real Japan trip now) and figure out how we were going to meet. There was no internet and I didn't have her phone number.

I walked around our little encampment area at dusk and had a look at all the food stalls they had. It was sort of like a tiny county fair with all the hot dog stands and people selling jewelry and stuff. It was very informal, but I guess some of the stuff was free for us since we were still waiting for another flight. I asked for an orange juice and the man handed me a sangria. So much for service. I drank it anyway.

I wanted to ask how long it would be until we could go, but I didn't want to bother the staff since I'm sure everyone else had already asked. I needed a bathroom and followed a sign to one under a nearby overpass. It was dark and the toilets were hollowed out chairs in rows up on pedestals. Some were kitchen chairs, some recliners, etc. No doors. I had to pee badly though, so I went anyway (but didn't go in real life, thank goodness). The roll of toilet paper was a roll of tape; I had to ask someone to grab me some real toilet paper from another chair.

Then my grandpa came up and yelled at me for wandering off alone. It was night time and I had gone to the overpass bathroom alone, and that wasn't safe. I said sorry and let him take me back to the camp.