Helicopter in the Chandelier

I was at a party, something like a huge wedding or ball. There were enormous hallways with three- or four-story high ceilings and a huge ballroom. I was walking around with Alicia because some of her friends were mad at her. At one point, Courtney walked up to us and yelled at Alicia for some reason. Alicia was super sad. I was walking around with my arms around her in a hug to protect her.

Alicia was gone but I was still at the ball. I saw Marc S. and went over to say hi. He put his arm over my shoulders and we chatted. There were tons of people there, he knew some of them. There was a group playing duck-duck-goose or something nearby and everyone was super raucous. Marc and I started to wrestle on the ground, even though it was a fancy event. We were having fun but I told him he was drunk (his breath smelled like beer) and he got mad and turned into a cake.

I tried to apologize to the cake and tell him I was sorry, but I did truly think he was drunk. The cake was small and round with chocolate frosting and sparkly blue and green jewels on it. I picked it up and took it with me as I walked to the main ballroom.

The cake was no longer Marc, it was now just a cake. I sat down in a corner of the ballroom by myself away from all the people and ate the entire cake. Even in my dream I thought that was a fat ass thing to do. The ballroom was filled with people and the ceilings were very high just like the rest of the building. There were massive glass chandeliers in the ceiling.

A helicopter flew into the ballroom from one of the entrances. It had people partying on it; we were suddenly at a high school event (maybe our reunion?) because all the girls on the helicopter were from my class in high school. They were having a great time and hollering as their helicopter barely missed the main chandelier. Someone told me that the group of girls on the helicopter had paid $80,000 to fly it through the ballroom like that. I thought that was insane.

Soon another helicopter of party people came through, though this one totally looked like it hit the chandelier. I guessed that it didn't as it flew through unscathed. I think one more came through that same entrance after that.

Then another helicopter came through another entrance. The woman flying this one didn't look very sure of herself. She yelled down, "am I going to hit the chandelier?", and I said I didn't think so. She kept flying very slowly forward but suddenly the propeller stopped and they froze in mid-air for a split second.

Then the nose of the craft took a dive and the plane (it was a plane now, the kind with an open top like from the '40s) went straight into the ground. There were four girls in the back of the plane seated in two rows of two and the pilot was in the front. They crashed such that the front of the plane back to where the pilot sat was through the floor. The other girls lie in a bloody mess still in the plane which stuck up vertically out of the floor.

Everyone in the room just froze and stared. I yelled out for someone to call 911 but no one moved. I ran over to the plane and got out my phone while trying to clear the debris off the girls in the back of the plane. They had bloody faces (though they were face down so I couldn't actually see their faces) but I thought they might still be ok since they only fell from about 30 feet.

I could not figure how to dial 911 on my phone. I couldn't get to the dialer screen and it was super frustrating. Everyone was still frozen; no one helped. I yelled for Kane to throw me his phone since it's the normal kind with actual buttons for numbers (mine is a touch screen). I dialed 991 twice before finally dialing 911. An answering machine picked up and I had to listen to a menu and dial a number for the correct department. I couldn't pay attention to the menu and was extremely irritated that they would have a menu on the 911 line!

I finally cleared one of the girls from the plane. Laying on the ground she was a magazine though, not a girl. I felt her heart beat (yes, the magazine had a heart beat) and it was strong but erratic. I knew if we could just get an ambulance she would probably be ok; they all would. I woke up before I could get help.

Party at Todd's

In this dream Kane and I were staying the night at Todd's house, this guy I knew from 7th and 8th grade. We had driven up from San Luis Obispo and had stayed one night and were now packing up to go home. I had packed my suitcase and folded up our tent (why? no idea) but the whole time Todd and his family were trying to convince us to stay for one more night. It was a holiday weekend and we didn't really have to be back home until tomorrow.

We had decided to leave when people started trickling into their home; it was a party! Suddenly it was actually Scott R's house (another kid from middle/high school days) and all the people were from Highland/Brett Harte/Hayward High. I actually knew quite a few people, but mostly in a "I remember them from 2nd grade" sort of way rather than actually knowing them.

Kane was playing console video games with some guy on a couch and said we could stay if I wanted to talk to some of these folks and hang out tonight. I said ok.

Alicia was there, and I was so thankful to actually know someone for real. After hanging out with Scott R for a while, I went over to talk to Alicia. She was talking to a couple other girls I didn't know and I stood with them for a minute but they were deep in conversation. I felt like a 3rd (or 4th) wheel so wandered off. I realized that even though I remembered a lot of the people, they didn't really seem to remember me or at least they weren't talking to me. It was awkward.

I noticed that people were dividing into groups in one part of the room so I went over to see what was going on. It was a scavenger hunt; I was assigned to "Group 3" immediately. I thought it would be fun but it turned out that we were looking for really stupid things and couldn't find a single one of them. The only things on the list I remember were: a girl in a swim suit, a garage full of duffel bags, and a "real" lamp.

I thought I came close to finding a "real" lamp when I stumbled upon an antique collection in one of the rooms; I was thinking we were looking for an oil lamp, though I wasn't sure. But there wasn't one, so I remained disappointed with the game.

Later we drove over to laser tag with everyone, but the facility had completely changed and was now super quiet inside. No music, no video games, and the employees briefed the players in the lobby before the game so everyone had to keep really quiet so people could hear. It was odd.

Run from the Bees

We were at my mom's house, but my mom lived in Max's house next door instead of her real house. The floorplan was all jumbled around (not matching my mom's real house or Max's real house) but, as usual, I didn't seem to mind or notice. It was like old times when I was a kid and families were out in the court chatting, skating, biking, and playing. It was an oppressively hot and Costco-bright sunny day.

I was outside walking around in the front yard and talking to neighbors/family who were also milling around. It was a nice atmosphere. Suddenly a swarm of bees came through the court and everyone was scared. This actually happened once when I was a kid (remember, Alicia?) and we had run inside to escape the bees. They were gone after five minutes. In my dream it was, of course, not that nice (or simple).

The bees were mostly flying by up high, but many of them swooped to check us humans out. They didn't seem to be stinging but they were flying around people's heads, arms, and legs and everyone was swatting and running around. I decided to run a loop around the block so that no bees could land on me but it didn't seem to help much. I ran down the hill, gliding on one foot at a time as though I were on skates, and then back up again with bees landing on my legs and in my hair the whole way.

As I ran I was alternating brushing my hands down my legs, arms and over my head to keep them away. I finally got back up the hill and realized my tactic wasn't really working but that it was making me quite tired from all the running in the sun. I ran into our kitchen through the garage (it was the same kitchen but mirrored and re-arranged somehow) to escape the bees and it seemed to help since they hadn't gotten in the house yet.

I think it was the type of dream where I was twitching (or at least tense) like a doggie in my bed in real life.

Work Exercise Day

Dreamed Saturday Night July 11

Yep, I had two dreams this night. Well, probably more, but two memorable ones. I went back to sleep after Murderers, below, and had another vivid dream straight after. That's the way you do it right there.

This time I was back at work at my Australian engineering firm, BHS, and I was on site at a job with my boss, David. I don't remember it all now, but we were inspecting the concrete piers and columns at this particular site and, though I was having my classic eyelids-constantly-falling-shut affliction, I noticed a huge blunder by the builder.

To summarize using engineering jargon (sorry): the drilled piers were installed and the columns were poured but were done separately, like precast elements. The columns were supposed to sit directly above the piers with continuous vertical reinforcement, but the contractor was instead just setting the precast columns on top of the piles. Without the continuous reinforcement the columns would have no lateral capacity at all and, basically, this was a massive mistake that we needed to call attention to.

I was trying to tell my boss David about it but he was just walking away obviously trying to overlook the error (which is very unlike him, I might add). Anyway, I followed him into the building trying to talk to him about it, but it was apparently exercise day at work. A few times when we worked at BHS (in real life) we played company basketball at lunch with the six or so of us who would play. It was fun.

So we were supposed to get dressed for basketball or swimming or some sport to play together. Alicia was there and she was all nervous about playing sports with us, which I found odd since she posts to an exercise-based blog almost daily (which I read) and I would think she would love to play random team sports. Nevermind that I have no idea why she was at my engineering company in Australia. Shaun O'neil was also there to hang out and play with us. No idea why completely random people end up all smooshed together in my dreams.