• Lucid Dreaming - Dream Views




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    1. Doing Local MSing Leads to Bomb Site in NY, Smart Werewolf Girls

      by , 06-27-2017 at 11:48 AM
      06-25-2017 -- Couple of short fragmenty bits tonight, but writing them down anyway. The second, right before I got up for the day and in less than an hour of sleep, I'm out mystery shopping, perhaps one of the four shops on Okeechobee (though it also has a certain feel of the shop area that is right down on Euclid, near Kevin's house, except that it is a couple hours out of town from other dreams). I've just finished the shop, in part by buying an entire tank of gas, which I am mad at myself about, because now how am I going to fit in all the rest of the gas I have to buy? Anyway, I'm trying to squeeze my car out around other cars and hit the road.

      I somehow find myself on a freeway, heading away from my next stop (that is probably right down the road) so I am trying to get off and turn around, just to find myself on the same freeway heading back the other way, when I suddenly find myself in New York, and I am approaching another gas station, but it is on top of a hill, and is surrounded by debris, and there are construction vehicles and stuff, and I realize it is the site of a terrorist bombing attack. I am considering taking a picture from the bottom of the hill, but even though there has been a lot of damage, I can see there are lots of regular people walking in and out of the place, so it looks like the store is still open.

      Since the drive is blocked off, and I am not physically up to walking up the hill I don't know what I'm going to do, but luckily I can see people riding their bikes up and down, so I pull my bike out of the car and use it to ride up the hill to the top. The pump area is gone, and the store is mostly surrounded by scaffolding, but there is a small area under an awning with a few jewelry-type display cases sitting in front of it, where a very small amount of things are being sold. Unfortunately, everything looks very expensive, and any time I catch a glimpse of something cheap, it seems to have vanished before I can reach it. One thing is the small candy in a yellow and black checker pattern rapper (something like Zazu?) but it's gone as I approach it. Another is a lollypop wrapped in a plastic and cardboard thing that would be hard to get it out of which is being advertised as the largest really fast lollypop, and again is too expensive. Finally I grab what I hope is a Charms blowpop, but instead it turns into just a piece of wrapped gum.

      One of the store employees is wandering around commenting on things to people, and I am just waiting to make my small purchase, wondering if I will have to suggest a hand-written receipt, when I hear him saying something about Uber or Lyft drivers causing him problems by hanging around, and I have to resist making a comment. Then I hear the three young girls saying something about Son of Interflux, and I have to say something, but can't find a way to jump into the conversation. Somehow it is mentioned that the girls love reading and are very smart, and there is a little boy who looks much like Anikin, who is playing with a small box that he then causes to warp into a model of a space ship that then flies to a shelf and puts itself away, while it is somehow revealed that the three young girls are werewolves, but they are well-treated by their family. Very strange mix-up.
    2. Trying to Stop Security Guard's Theft by Beating Him to It

      by , 06-13-2017 at 07:49 PM
      05-29-2017 -- Two from last night that struck me as kind of interesting. In the second, I seemed to be back working security, or at least kind of. But there were some special guest stars. Somehow it seemed someone who used to be one of our guards was 'caught' with four copies of his old security reports, which led us to believe he was planning to come back and do some kind of stealing or bothering people there or something. So we were in the process of making plans to stop him ... by staging our own robberies at these places. (The idea being that he wouldn't hit something that had just been hit, but that as soon as things were over, we could return what had been stolen. Well, it made sense in the dream.)

      But it was kind of a cross between security and mystery shopping, which was odd, and the whole thing was strange. At one point the bad guy seemed like it might be Steve G., but at another time he seemed to be one of the ones working with us. Another one working with us was Jaqueline Smith's Angel, except she was going by the name of Jill Monroe, which of course was Farrah Fawcett's Angel. But I have to admit, it was enjoyable working with her.

      On another of the cases, the site was one of the hospitals I have both worked security in, and been wandering through or picking up medical specimens in, in dreams over the last few years. So I was taking medicine (including for hbp) before having tests done, while trying to protect the staff, and trying to explain what was going on, without leaking anything important enough to allow the bad guy to catch what was happening if he heard anything, while the staff was thinking I was still working there, when I hadn't actually worked there in several years.

      Then there was one of our guys doing his robbery at gunpoint, waving around his fire-arm (some sort of machine gun) while talking to us, and explaining how he'd got caught, but still managed to only get something like 3 days of jail time for the event. Or the fact that one of the patients in the hospital was Lita (wrestler) who stopped by to visit or pick up or something her little boy. It was just odd stuff, all around.
    3. Shopping the Four Close Gas Stations, Run into Tennent/Sanderson

      by , 06-13-2017 at 07:16 PM
      12-28-2016 -- Am out doing gas station mystery shops in an area down near Miami that doesn't correspond to any real locations, but that I have dreamt about several other times, in the last few years. This is a sort of blend of the four stations behind each other, and a more spread out area of shops that I have dreamed about. Anyway, I have reached the station (the first of this trip), and am considering what order to do the shop in. For some reason, I am considering doing some of the picture taking before doing the actual mystery shop portion, but I have to remind myself that would be bad.

      So I am in the outside portion where they always have tons of signs around, and I am amazed to see that this time they don't have a lot of signs, and I am thinking maybe they will get a good score, this time. But then I notice all the litter on the ground, and am thinking, maybe not. The manager comes around, sweeping things up and glaring at me, and I move inside. The counter is very long, and has an L-bend to it, so that it takes up half the store, and the employee makes a suggestion of a possible purchase, and I say no thanks, which causes the manager to start yelling at me that if the CSR suggests a purchase, I am supposed to accept it, when there is no such requirement.

      I move back outside, and am trying to line up my pictures, showing the limited signage and the lots of litter, when I see someone walking out of a tube station, and I glance at them unbelievingly for a minute, then realize I recognize them. The actual image that I am looking at is David Tennant, but who it is supposed to be is Brandon Sanderson. I'm talking to him for a few seconds, and try to let him know how much I continue to enjoy his books, and he is asking what I am doing, so I briefly explain the mystery shopping thing, then he wanders off to whatever it is he is here to do.

      I go back to trying to take pictures, but the manager is making an ever larger fuss, and there are a couple of punks hanging around who seem to be trying to steal my equipment. I've had enough of this shop, and am trying to pack my stuff (seemingly several still and video cameras) into my backpack, but in the process I leave my printer sitting there for a few extra seconds, and they try to run off with it, so I have to argue and wrestle a little bit to get it back.

      I am just zipping it into my backpack, and planning how to avoid having anything more to do with the punks, when I spot Tennant/Sanderson walking away, and chase after him, down into a bit of a subway station, just to try and talk a little more. I am asking if I am correct in thinking this is a regular area for him, and mentioning that I thought I'd seen him here three months ago when doing the shop, but couldn't believe it. I also mention having read the three books kind of offered on his web site, but not (at the time) published.
    4. More Mystery Shopping at the Four Stations in a Row, Problems

      by , 12-01-2015 at 05:06 AM
      11-28-2015 -- It must have been four months, because I am doing another APEC shop at the area I have dreamed about several times in the past with four (or sometimes 2 or 3) stations kind of hidden behind each other. Usually the first couple of stations are horrible, with tons of problems, and staff who yells and screams and threatens, trying to keep me from doing my job, but the back two stations are fairly good, and friendly.

      This time, I start at the back, beginning with the very first station, and nothing goes smoothly. There are problems in pumping the gas, and the people working there are fighting with me, and trying to say I have no right to report on how the station is. I'm actually rather surprised, because this station almost always gets really good reports, with only the occasional problem with too many signs, but they are acting like the place is a disaster area, and I am going to get them fired or something, when really it isn't bad at all.

      So I'm running around trying to take my pictures, and there are too many signs, and some litter in the landscaping, but again, it really isn't that bad, and they are still going to get a pretty good report ... which is why I don't understand all the hassle. I'm trying to explain this to them, but they just don't want to listen, and I'm really confused. There is also something with a cute dog or two around, but it is nothing but problems.

      These four stations right next to each other ought to take less than no time, but instead it is hours and hours of being yelled at for no reason, and watching the time waste away, and simply being miserable at how badly this is all going.
    5. Renting a Car for a Trip, Nobody Has Any, Fight with Punk

      by , 12-01-2015 at 04:09 AM
      11-30-2015 -- Can't remember most of the earlier parts. Might have been a touch of mystery shopping stuff, and at some point there was something about a diner, I think, but very little that I can actually remember. The first thing I really do remember, I am going on some sort of trip and need a rental car, so I've stopped by the downtown Enterprise office.

      The problem is, they are out of cars and don't have one for me, so they are sending me to one of the other offices to get a car, and drive me over there in a golf cart. So now I am standing in the other location office, and am trying to repack my stuff. Somehow I am laying out shirts and pants and the like, and then folding them into a couple of pieces of wood, to where they are somehow compacted down into a folded up piece of 2x4. Very strange.

      Meanwhile, this location doesn't have a car for me either, and say they will send me back to the first location (which now supposedly does), except they keep getting busy with other customers, and are having problems getting me back to the downtown branch.

      Eventually the guy who is supposed to drive me pulls out in a sort of a cross between a tractor and a golf cart (think of something like what pulls the Disney parking lot trams) and is ready to drive me back ... except that he doesn't want to wait for me to get on, and just starts driving to the edge of the driveway, ready to turn onto the road. So I am running to catch up, and jump on the end of a transporter type of trailer, which had a spot at the end where there are no handholds or anything, but the thing simply slopes down to meet the point where it is hooked up to the part he is driving, and I'm trying to not go too far and slide down that and fall into the street.

      Meanwhile, the driver and a guy in another vehicle are sitting there and kind of sword fighting with each other from their seats with long boxes, using them like swords. Weird stuff. Meanwhile, there is a black guy who looks a lot like that guy talking about aliens on one of the theoretically more educational TV channels who is objecting to something I am saying, claiming that I am racist, and I can't say that. Thing is, nothing that I am saying has anything to do with race, or blacks or anything.

      I tell him I will say what I like, and he pulls a knife and tells me we're not going to have things like that going. I give him a good bit of a knock down, and throw away his knife, and tell him I don't have any problem with blacks, but nobody tells me what I can and can't say ... and anybody who pulls a knife on me is going to get their butts whooped.
    6. Melting Pot Shop Goes Wrong

      by , 10-07-2015 at 10:17 AM
      10-01-2015 -- So I didn't write this down, and am putting it on computer a day late, so don't know how well I will remember this. It seems I am out doing a dinner mystery shop at somewhere that may be a cross between Miller's Ale House and Texas Roadhouse, and it is my assignment to eat a lot of courses, and I'm having myself a really good meal. The problem is, I'm not completely sure what I need to order, so I excuse myself for a few minutes to go out to my car to get my paperwork and check it to make sure I am doing things right.

      So I get out to the car (the silver Lexus) and grab the paperwork, but almost immediately am attacked by a punk who is trying to take it away from me. He looks like the blond punk from the original Karate Kid movie. I won't let go of the paperwork, and we are wrestling for a bit, and he is warning me that I am really going to regret this, but somehow I manage to get free, and return to the restaurant. When I get back in, they are slightly upset with me, because they thought I'd run off without paying, but I explain I simply needed to get something, and now I am back, and need to order dessert.

      I am trying to order some sort of special I'd seen advertised on a sign earlier in the meal, which was some sort of seven scoop sundae, but a different advertisement is showing now, so they are trying to put in an order for the wrong item. It's a bit confusing, and I just can't seem to get what I want to get, which is annoying. So soon I find myself getting ready to leave the place, but I seem to be leaving in a dream or a day dream or something, where I walk out into the parking lot, and approach my car to find that the punk and his gang have really done a number on it. They've stolen the tires, broken the windows, stolen everything from inside, removed the bumpers, and more. I'm left with a car that is just a somewhat mangled frame.

      And yet, I haven't gotten out there yet. I'm just imagining what could have happened. But then I walk out into the strip mall parking lot, and am looking for my car, and it is parked a lot closer than it was, and the gang is at it, doing the kinds of things I had imagined, but they are still at it. I had just seen a security guard, so I am calling for help, while taking pictures of the main thug with my new video camera, and he is just smirking at me, and warning me 'You just don't get it, do you?' And I am left with a bit of an impression that the local cops are corrupt, and will ignore his crimes, and that there is a good chance that instead of getting him in trouble, they may arrest me, even though they have no reason to. But I still need to pursue this, so I am wandering along the strip mall, past the comic book store, and the Melting Pot (which is what the restaurant I was eating at has turned into), looking for the police station.
    7. Fragments: Security, 10 Cent Bookstore, Rithmatist, Buffy on Hickory, GHR Performing and more

      by , 12-24-2013 at 09:20 AM
      [Old dream from somewhere in October or early November, for some reason forgotten when it was dreamed, and remembered in fair detail a month or two later.] I find myself driving around a very new gated community, have no idea how I have gotten here for the moment, but I can remember working security here a few months (or perhaps couple of years) previous, controlling access in and out while the various construction trucks were building the place. Now I am back, and I seem to be driving around in a car that is kind of turning into a golf cart (and eventually into a go kart) as I putter around the area, admiring how nice the grounds and things have been landscaped since I was last here.

      Unfortunately I eventually run into the security guard who now is monitoring the area, and he doesn't know how I have gotten in, but is very mad at me, and has no interest in extending any professional courtesy, or cutting me any slack because I used to work in his position. In fact, he seems to be afraid of me, or jealous of me, and he decides to hassle me and start chasing me around. Since he refuses to open up the gate and let me out, I end up driving my golf cart over a small landscaped berm (think of the planter Greg Jones drove his car over at the Buena Park Little Caesar's many years ago) to escape the complex.

      It feels like I am somewhere up around Lake Mary, perhaps in or right by the Heathrow development, and I end up driving south, heading down toward Orlando on my golf cart, but unfortunately the security guard has decided to challenge me, and is now racing me in his own golf cart, but since he has the finances of the entire development company behind him, he has a faster, newer, more built up kart, and also has people driving diesel trucks and trying to run me off the road to ensure he wins. On the other hand, I am a better driver, and know the area better, so I am holding my own as we race back to Orlando.

      ---

      11-19-2013 -- I am at a house which is a cross between the Pageant house and Rosemary's place, and there have been some issues with having rent. Oddly, however, I seem to be the person who collects rent from everybody in the house and pays it to Rosemary, and since I haven't been here in a while, everybody is behind, and trying to collect it all means that my not having my part is somewhat hidden, and doesn't seem to be all that big of a deal.

      Somehow Keith and Melody are here, and they are chatting with me, and the place also feels like the three story apartment complex that I frequently have visited in my dreams. We are chatting away, and one of them mentions something that makes me flash back to a visit to Walt Disney World last week where I ran into Graham Murphy doing some streetmosphere, and somehow I find myself sitting in my car on my cell phone, having called him up to tell him how good the schtick that he'd been doing was. Problem is, I had only been passing by, and he didn't even know I was there, and now calling him to mention it, he is afraid I am stalking him or something, so it just feels weird, and I regret making the phone call.

      But I find myself missing Disney, and thinking how long it has been since I've been there (never mind that I was there just last week), and I end up hinting at Melody and Keith that if they need a good idea for Christmas gifts, tickets or an annual pass to Disney would be a great idea! Soon the dream shifts, and I find myself walking into a bookstore that is half Waldenbooks, and half the bookstore from the 10 cent sale dream that was posted here. It is pitch black, and late in the evening, but as I walk in the light comes on like I triggered a motion sensor. There are two or three employees at the register area, and I kind of say hello as I start to wander to the places in the store where I found the new 3 Investigator books and was looking for the comic strip books. As I approach the back of the store (where in the other dream the store grew into several different buildings) things shift to where I am in a library with Giles, finding myself one aisle over from where I want to be, while talking with Giles about a fantasy novel for Buffy or Willow, like out of another recent dream.

      Soon things shift again, and I find I am in the middle of a security shift at a cross between the House of Imports and Orlando Paving. Oddly, I have been here since 9 pm and it is now 3 am, and the staff has only just left. I am hungry, and plan to run down the block to 7-Eleven to get some food, but first figure I ought to make a call-in to the office. Problem is, the line that would usually be a machine, where I leave a message that all is well, is answered by a person who instantly assumes I am calling to say I am done with the shift, and is marking me off, when that is not what I am doing!

      ---

      11-22-2013 -- In a strange, kind of dark feeling house, walking around with my laptop computer. Several people are here, and they are doing Rithmatist-like drawings that they bring to life ala Sanderson's books, and they can use a kind of code to set commands for the chalklings. I have a sort of breakthrough, and have chalked out a few simple commands that are so powerful that I don't have to actually draw out detailed chalklings, I just kind of stutter my chalk on the ground ......... and I have created 10 or 20 chalk bullets that fire off at all of my opponents. They can't defend against them or oppose them, it is just too quick and too powerful.

      Since I've just reached the point of being able to do this, and I have no desire to kill people or anything, I just keep firing off 'bullets' long enough to tear through their chalklings and tear down their shields and expose them, then I stop so that they lose, but are unharmed. Though I can't point to anything in particular, there is a sort of an English feel to the whole thing, though whether in location or accents or what, I can't say. Anyway, as this is going on, I am in my underwear, and am walking around trying to find my clothes. I step into the bathroom long enough to get dressed, but am really trying to hurry because I need to get out of the bathroom so that my mentor can use it.

      ---

      11-23-2013 -- [Very short, but quite clear and detailed scene, which made it kind of interesting to dream, even if not exciting.] I am walking through the Buena Park Mall parking lot, right by the auto repair place. I am kind of in a group of a bunch of people, and we are all getting ready to jaywalk across Dale, but many of them are in a hurry, and just run into the road while there is all kinds of traffic, causing people to slam on brakes and swerve and stuff like that, while I wait, walking along the street until all the current cars have passed, and there is a significant gap in the traffic, then I jog across in complete safety.

      Once I have crossed the street, I continue walking down Dale to Greenleaf, then cut across to Hickory, heading home. There is a lot of water in the gutter, and yet you can only see it from certain angles, and I detour a couple of extra feet into the street so that I can splash through water that is only about a half an inch deep, rather than having to get soaked in the stuff that is three or four inches deep, then I make my way onto the sidewalk, and continue walking home. I give a wave to a couple of neighbors, including Marie, and perhaps the house next to Ted, walking down the block. When I reach the Goodwins, they don't seem to have anything to say to me, but I think they may be gossiping about me, so I may have ticked them off somehow.

      When I reach the Hickory house and step inside, I find several people there, including a bunch of people from two or three television shows, though I can't now remember all of them. The only male (beside me) is Angel, and there are two others from Buffy, perhaps Cordy and Willow, and several attractive women from other shows, though not any of the Charmed ones. Somehow a coffee machine has been possessed, and has started sliding around the table, and then slowly other inanimate things start sliding around as well, and it is kind of spooky. Angel is revealing that it is probably because of him, he thinks he is losing control of his vampire nature, and is really, really down about it, and the others are starting to get mad at him. I remind them that if he is starting to lose control, then he hasn't lost control yet, and there is no reason to be mad at him yet, though we should be watching him to make sure we can keep people safe if he does lose control.

      ---

      11-24-2013 -- Can't remember almost anything of details, and only remembered even that the dream happened right before I went to sleep, but suddenly recalled a dream where I was back at the Golden Horseshoe Revue, performing again. Got the job performing there here. Can't remember any details, but was wandering around on stage or in the audience, singing and dancing, while making my way around the servers. Though there are no details, I still enjoyed the return to the dream.

      ---

      11-25-2013 -- Somehow Dave D. and I are sitting somewhere listening to BC, who is going on and on to a girlfriend of hers about how Keith T. was a dirty old man going through a mid-life crisis and trying to hit on her, but she wanted nothing to do with him because he was so ridiculously old, and we are cringing each time she says this, as all four of us (Dave, myself, BC, and KT) are just about the same age, but she is making us feel old and worthless. Anyway, BC is turning into my sister, Melody, for some reason, and is driving me around. Not quite sure why, but she eventually decides it is time to stop. We are parked across the street from a hotel that is several stories tall, and that I have dreamed about before. For some reason we are going into this hotel and getting a meal at a restaurant inside.

      I start to cross the street to reach the hotel, but Melody just turns around and walks into a hotel across the street. I am confused, until I look up. They seem to be sister hotels, and every three or four floors, they have bridges running between the two hotels, so you can go up in either hotel and cross to the other. The bridges seem to cross at a bit of an angle, though, connecting floor four of one to five of the other. Eight on one to nine on the other, and then another connecting maybe floor 14 to 15. I get into one of the elevators, which is huge (like the elevators in the Haunted Mansion, except they actually move, instead of just the ceiling stretching.) Eventually I am getting to the place that I want (I think floor 17), but oddly enough, the floors skip a bunch, and it is like floor 18 is the only upper floor the elevator goes to, and I want floor 17. It's doubly weird, because there literally aren't any floors between about 9 and 17, and it is just a really strange pair of buildings.

      I get out of the elevator, and make my way to the restaurant, and Melody isn't here yet. I wander around looking for her, and catch no sign of her, but I do find a lot of people who work in the restaurant, and who are just standing around gossiping with each other. Then I turn a corner, and my eyes pass over a redhead before snapping back. Wait a minute, I know her. It is the female cop from Kindergarten Cop who is supposed to be the teacher until she gets sick, and Arnold S. has to take over as the teacher. I have dreamed of her in this hotel before (though whether I really have or not I can't really say, it might just be within this dream) and we seem to have hit it off and been on the edge of a relationship, until my vacation ended. So I casually walk up to her (knowing she could be on a stakeout and not wanting to give her away) and say I just got back in town and thought I would say hello. Before she can reply, I wake up again.

      ---

      11-25-2013 -- I am in a police station, reporting that I had a car stolen (instead of it breaking down) about 15 months ago, and how I have been unemployed since then, because nobody was willing to hire me. I am almost ready to start my CDL class, except I need to have records showing how the car was stolen, keeping me from working for over a year, and I am having to explain how I have a vehicle to drive, but it isn't in good enough shape to use for mystery shopping or courier work, and the cops seem to be accusing me of things until I can explain enough of what happened that they decide to believe me, and to start looking for my stolen car, though after this much time they will almost certainly never find it. [Very close to real life, except in real life it broke down, and there were never any police involved. But my cars are always being stolen in my dreams.]

      ---

      11-25-2013 -- [A bad night for sleeping. Waking constantly, and my dreams are short and disjointed, and I think I am only talking in my sleep, not even realizing I was dreaming until I wake again and realize I can't do that stuff in my bed. Very disjointed, and not worth much as dreams. A whole night of almost nothing but fragments.] I am working a mystery shop at one of the Chevrons hidden behind another gas station or two, a place I have often dreamed of before. This time through, it is a family owned place, kept clean and managed well, and everybody recognizes me and knows I am there to mystery shop them. They are asking me how everything is, and if everything is OK, and I am saying it all looks great, before remembering this is one of the places that always has more than four signs in the windows. I glance at the windows, and neon signs galore.

      I start to backpeddle, commenting on the signs, "but you don't care about that, do you?" knowing I will have to report it as I do every time I do this location, but nobody seems to let it worry them. I spot them unwrapping several brand new pumps, and though they are not ready to actually put them out and hook them up, I have to ask them to roll one of them out by the others and set it next to one of the old ones so I can get a required picture to send back to the company. Nice people, they don't have any problems with this.
    8. Freeway Problems and the Lauderdale Accident

      by , 11-13-2013 at 07:53 PM
      11-10-2013 -- Driving in an area that is a cross between Downtown Orlando and I-5 in California. It is one of the dreams in the busy freeways / construction zones category that I often have. I was heading north for a few minutes, approaching Downtown Orlando, then turned around and found myself heading South, just to find I was on I-5, approaching the Anaheim Plaza exit. There is a train track running parallel to the freeway, and I am somehow pointing out places where the tracks would switch, and theorizing on how the switchings would affect freeway traffic. (Since they are parallel, but unconnected, in real life it would have no effect, but this is a dream, after all.)

      I wave to a cop on the freeway shoulder who is a friend, and am listening to Z88.3 on the radio. Soon I continue on the road, and I-5 has turned back into I-4, and then (as I am still heading south and I-4 runs more east/west) find myself on the Turnpike, instead. I am heading far south, though I am not sure if I am doing mystery shopping or delivery work. Soon I find myself down at an automotive shop next to a gas station around Fort Lauderdale or so. I am puttering around this seemingly abandoned shop, and come across a bag of some kind of chemical that is used in repairing cars, and since it just seems to be sitting there, I stick it in my backpack.

      I wander around a little bit, and find myself on a slight hill, looking at a short (about four feet tall) fence separating me from a gas station with another auto shop as a part of it. It is a station where I have often been in dreams before, and I have also had work done there before on my scooter. I try to climb over the short fence, though my knee is giving me troubles, and I also get a little too close to a kid in a red baseball cap, which seems to make the adults in the area (his parents?) a little nervous. But I ignore them and move on. As I approach the gas station, I find out that they are working on my scooter once again, and are warning me that they probably won't have it ready until tomorrow. I have no money, and no other transportation, and I'm thinking to myself that I guess I will be spending the night sleeping in their parking lot. The guy then tells me "And you can't stay here!" Darn! But on the other hand, my car (yes, it is now a car) is ready.

      I guess I am half driving it to the payment counter, and half making a delivery, because I pull up to a spot that is not a parking space (like the diagonal white lines that aren't a parking space, but mark off extra space next to a handicapped spot) because I am only going to be here for a moment, either making the payment, or making a delivery, but the guy goes nuts, and tells me I am not going to park there, even for a moment, and he doesn't like my attitude, and they probably won't use our services any more because of this! He's really mad, and it is ridiculous overkill. For some reason, Graham Murphy is standing there, and is agreeing with him, and I'm figuring I guess Graham isn't really a friend.

      I say I will move the car, and am walking toward it, but the guy won't allow me to. He is now searching through my backpack, and finds the bag of chemicals, and claims it is his, and is now after me for stealing, as well. Graham, meanwhile, has taken my car keys, and is moving my car, himself. I call out to him and tell him that he doesn't have my permission to do so, and he just took my keys, so it could be considered grand theft auto. Not going to have him charged, of course, I'm just saying .... Finally, I have had enough, so I push past the guy and make my way to my vehicle, which now seems to be a cross between an ice cream truck and a Mears handicap van. Graham is sitting in it, I guess I am driving him back to Orlando. The kid in the baseball cap is also here, and is asking me for a ride to where he is going, which is a bit north, probably around the West Palm Beach area. Graham explains he isn't really against me, he was agreeing with the jerk because he didn't want an argument, and was just trying to get us out of there quicker. How do I get into these things?

      So I am heading north on the Turnpike, until I suddenly find myself driving in a mall parking lot, wondering how the heck I got here, and why I am here ... I should still be on the Turnpike until West Palm Beach. I drive to the edge of the parking lot and turn on to the street. I am approaching the light, and right on the other side of the light is the entrance to the Turnpike. Problem is, the light turns red. I put on the brakes, but they are kind of soft, and I come much closer to the car stopped right in front of me than I would like ... on the other hand, I do manage to stop on time, so it's all good. Problem is, the car that is in the next lane over. It is also trying to stop, and going too fast, and in trying to stop, it clips the car in front of me, and sends it into a spin, and while it is spinning, it hits me. Graham gives out a curse, angry about more delays. So we have a three car fender bender, that was in no way my fault.

      I get out of the van, and am getting out my digital camera to snap some pictures of what happened, but Graham immediately begins to drive the van through the intersection and out of traffic. What was the entrance to the Turnpike is now a small, out-of-the-way cul de sac. Now understand, I planned to move us out of the way, but wanted to get a few pictures, first, to help make it clearer what had happened. So now the three damaged cars are all sitting in this little cul de sac, and I am taking pictures while waiting for the cops to show up. Another guy tells me not to bother, because he is taking video footage of the whole thing, but I still plan on taking my own pictures. One of the cars contained a lady and a kid, and they are leaning against their car (I think the one that got clipped) and there is an elderly couple who were in the car that started the whole thing.

      I glance back at the intersection, and find that there has been another accident, and this one is really bad. There are some severely mangled vehicles, and I can see them stuffing bodies in body bags as cops direct traffic, and fire trucks and ambulances drive off. I tell the people around me that it may be a while before the cops can get to us, but remind them at least none of us got hurt. Meanwhile, the side of my van shows an advertisement for coffee machines and supplies, and there is a lady standing there that wants me to come in to her place of work an install a coffee machine right now. I'm wondering about a company that does both courier work and coffee services in the same truck, and trying to explain I am not a part of the coffee side of the business.
    9. The Restaurant and the Impound Yard

      by , 09-11-2013 at 02:23 PM
      09-11-2013 -- Can't remember too much of the earlier parts of this, but I find myself down in the Lauderdale/Hollywood part of Florida, probably doing some mystery shops. I am tired, hungry, depressed, and I don't have much money. I think I need to find somewhere to sleep for the night and continue with the shops in the morning (happened frequently when I had a lot of shops in the Miami area, back when I had gas stations, banks, restaurants, and Kinko's locations all on the same trip) but I just don't have the money for it, and nobody seems to want to help me in any way.

      Finally I end up sitting in a restaurant, eating a meal, half falling asleep, and there is a bartender who is bringing me a huge bottle of whiskey, and seems worried I am going to get drunk or something with it. He shouldn't worry, as the shots I am pouring are very small. But I am just feeling very down and put upon.

      Soon I've stopped with the boozing and walked out of the place with a friend, and it might have been Keith, though I am not completely sure. The area is kind of a cross between the dog track in the Hollywood/Lauderdale area (which I know from doing gas stations and other mystery shops in the area) and the parking lot at (and across from) Pleasure Island.

      We're wandering, going somewhere that Keith has promised to lead me, and soon, even though I am still walking on pavement, it is kind of half walking in a shallow body of water, and a decent sized motor boat is near us, and we are trying to get close enough to climb into it, and Keith has arranged for a little sailing. The funny thing is, the person running the boat seems to be Brian Keith (Parent Trap, Hardcastle and McCormick) who I just watched about a week ago dressed as Sherlock Holmes in a couple of episodes of Murder, She Wrote.

      So we go for a small sail, which in dream time only lasts a minute or two, but probably represents an hour or two. Then we're dumped back in the parking lot. Keith has things to do, and is getting ready to leave, Brian Keith is heading off, and I am being just kind of dumped, still no money, nowhere to go, and I finally give up, nobody wants to spend a lot of time with me, or help me out too much, and I figure I should just get in my car and head back to Orlando. So I start walking through the parking lot, trying to remember where I parked, and even what I am driving.

      So I keep looking for my car, and cross the street in what seems to be the overflow parking, and I can vaguely remember I may have parked here ... but I look around the section of the parking lot where I think I would have parked, and can't find any car that feels like mine. Of course, since I only got the car about two days ago, and parked it there yesterday, I can't quite remember what kind or color of car it is, anyway.

      So I keep stumbling around, slightly tired, trying to find my car, when I start to notice the no parking warnings, and I begin to think there may be a good reason why I can't find it. As I look around, I find that this seeming 'overflow' parking is actually located in the parking lot of a police station or possibly a jail, and I see some cops talking, so decide to go speak to them and try to find out if my car might have been towed.

      I reach where the three cops are talking and joking at a sort of podium, but they largely ignore me, so I keep trying to speak and get their attention. But they are kind of loud and boisterous, and I have almost no voice, so it takes a while for them to notice me. Then two of them walk off, leaving me talking to a female cop with wild blondish hair (think a slightly heavier Alex Kingston) to speak to me. I ask about finding out if my car has been towed, and she says she'll check, and wanders off for a fair amount of time.

      She eventually comes back and tells me that, yes, my car has been towed and impounded. It is inside their facility, and I will have to go inside and pay a ticket or fine before I can get it back. Unfortunately she indicates that the entrance is on the other side of the building. I am on the northern end of the east side of the building, and I cannot tell from what she is saying if the entrance is on the south side or the west side, but I am hoping it is the south side, since it is a large building.

      So I start walking around the building. The part I started at was kind of like a small loading dock, and I walk a fair distance to reach the south side of the building, and though I find emergency exits and the like, I cannot find an official entrance, so I have to keep going to the west side. But as I reach the southwest corner, I find all kinds of traffic control devices in use. Gates that seem like railroad crossing gates, which drop down at high speed if you try to walk through the areas and don't belong there, and at least one steel mesh gate (think roll-up gate at a mall store) that comes down with great speed and could minorly crush someone.

      I'm almost running around trying to dodge these things, and not wanting to be forced to walk a long way around to get out of the parking lot and onto a side walk to bypass them, as it would mean a lot more walking, and I'm a big guy who is already getting kind of tired. But luckily I find one set of the crossing bars that are kind of short, and there is a gap of perhaps five feet between two of them, which is more than large enough for me to make it through, so I continue on walking through a very large warehouse-like loading dock area with many big rigs, and continue on until I find the entrance to the facility on the west side.

      I walk up to speak to a few cops at the entrance, and explain they have my car, and a bit about my situation (including having enough money to get gas back to Orlando or pay a small fine, but probably not both, and one of them takes pity on me, and tells me he can help me get my car back, and he'll make sure I can afford it. Unfortunately, he leads me all the way around the north side of the building, and then the east side on the outside of the wall, so I not only have to walk the entire east side outside the wall, but then have to walk almost the entire east side again, inside the outer wall, to reach the point I started from.

      But things have changed a bit since the last time I was here, and now, rather than being just a big, open parking area, it is more fenced in, with more of those dropping gates and train crossing-type gates, and I find myself at a place where I am kind of climbing out on a ledge, wrapping my arms around a pillar and trying to find my footing around it. The cop just walks past me and opens a door, not risking life and limb, and I look at him and say something like "even better." I swing back around the pillar and start to step through the doorway when I wake up.
    10. Mystery Shopping, Security, and a Medieval Fantasy

      by , 07-20-2013 at 02:16 AM
      07-17-2013 [Long, detailed, and fun. Sometimes I love my dreams.] I seem to be doing some sort of mystery shop at Circle K, and it seems to involve buying a slurpee which is poured into a cone-shaped cup. The problem is, the slurpee almost immediately freezes solid, making it impossible to drink, while at the same time it somehow slips out of the bottom of the cup, leaving the customer to only get a sip or two before it is gone. I go to get a refill, but they jump all over me, telling me that isn't allowed, which annoys me, as I want more of the green apple slurpee. Instead they throw me out, and I am thinking they're going to get a very bad report this time.

      I stalk back to my car, past some guys on a football field, and as I reach it, I find that I have been working security with Pedus again, and for some reason was using one of the furry bomber jackets as a sort of a car bra, but large parts of it have been ripped off. I find one of the nearest football players with a couple of pieces of it, and he grins kind of sheepishly and gives those pieces back to me, but one of the other players has more pieces, and he refuses to give them back. I notice he is wearing a Boone High School jersey, and figure I'll try to report him to the school to see if they can do anything about it, but then I glance at some of the other jerseys, and at least four teams are represented here.

      I ask who's playing, and one of the ruder players explains that the season is over, nobody is playing, they are just celebrating the end of the season ... and I'd better get out of there if I know what's good for me. I back off and start moving toward my car, but then all the cheerleaders start pulling off their uniforms, and underneath they all have body paint in team colors that do nothing to really hide their jutting nipples and neatly trimmed pussies. I enjoy a nice look as I slowly climb into my car and start to drive away.

      I seem to be driving somewhere further south on a mystery shopping trip, down around West Palm Beach or maybe Lauderdale. I'm trying to figure the best route to get home, or maybe to my next shop, just driving along making turns, but things start to slowly change. The busy highway is turning more and more to a wooded path. The car is turning more to a horse, and then to me walking along the path, as things start to greatly resemble a generic fantasy novel.

      Soon I find myself facing a Confucius-like Oriental wise man who is telling me to guide my thoughts, and to go backward to go forward, so I turn around and head back down the path I'd been on, looking for others involved in my quest that I might be able to help. I come across a guy who is working to fill a very tiny chest with 'valuable silver' (actually just quarters and fifty-cent pieces) and I am really not impressed with the treasure. The tiny chest is maybe 4" x 8" X 1" and I was expecting it to be more like 6" deep, and filled with gold, rather than fake silver. With such a small chest and such limited content I am thinking the 'treasure' is rather worthless, but they assure me it is still enough for the bad guys to kill us over, and send me on my way.

      Soon, while walking through the woods, I come across a sexy young Oriental fighter who is on my team, and turns out to be the daughter of the wise man, though she isn't sure she believes he is all that wise. As I am talking to both of them, my very nice, very sturdy hiking boots kind of dissolve off of my feet, and I find myself standing next to a very beat up pair of leather sandals that most closely resemble a pair of flip flops. They seem to expect me to be upset about this, but I try to tell myself there might be a reason for this, and just slide on my new (to me) sandals. My acceptance seems to impress them.

      There is some sort of very handsome but powerful beast that suddenly turns violent, but thankfully it mostly seems to ignore me, and attack the bad guys. Soon I am 'told' to concentrate strongly on a number, something like 4,600 or 46,000, in my mind, and it turns out we are passing someone or something that can read minds, but if I only seem to be thinking about the 'inventory' we are carrying in our merchant disguise, they won't have reason to press any deeper in my mind.

      I am carrying only a very small box, and am acting sort of weak and unimpressive, but they tell me to act strong, but like dumb muscle. So I approach somebody struggling with a larger box and swap with him, then a yet larger crate, and a few moments later, I take over the lifting and pulling of a fairly large cart loaded down with huge logs, really showing my strength as I pull it up the hill to the city we're infiltrating. It has a sort of Pirates of the Caribbean vibe to it, with lots of wild folks running around the place, carousing.

      Though it is not Pirates, there is a slight hint of 'jumping' the cart/boat into a slightly different 'flume' that takes me closer to where I want to go, but that sense soon vanishes. I drop off my huge load, and am paid a $5 bill, and trying to play my part, I try to act proud and excited to have 'so much' money, ready to defend myself against others who might want to steal my pittance, while laughing inside about the whole farce and just carrying on.

      Now we are carrying much smaller, more valuable cargo to show to the big wigs. I think I am carrying a small but valuable snack cake, something like caviar or truffles, but a decadent dessert. The person next to me has something like compressed apples or something, really good stuff, but the big wigs are ignoring us and acting like we and our products are nothing, and nobody is buying anything. This is really annoying the guy next to me, and he suddenly throws one of his compressed apples into the water, where it causes a huge blast and shows just how good an explosive it is. He's thinking that'll teach them not to ignore us, but I just think it'll make them mad. I'm right, and soon we're all being chased again!
    11. SciFi Travel Methods and Star Wars Models, A Shift at House of Imports, and Mom does Mystery Shops

      by , 02-07-2013 at 08:18 PM
      02-07-2013 -- [Three dreams tonight, don't know if they would be long enough to have their own posts, but am putting them all in one post anyway. Going in last to first order, just because.] Am out driving somewhere, when the Jimmy starts acting up. It is close to stalling at stops, and the check engine light is coming on, and I am really worried the thing is going to die on me, and wipe me out again, as far as something to drive goes.

      Soon I find myself at Hosanna Printing, and it must be around five or six, because Marli takes a few moments to talk to me, but not much because she is in the middle of locking up. This means she is pushing me out the side door so she can exit via the back door while activating the alarm, then walk around the building locking the side and front doors after the fact. Strange.

      Next thing I know, I am just arriving home at the Hickory house, or some slightly distorted semblance of it, collecting the mail as I enter the house. There are lots of letters, packages and the like (as usual in my dreams) including CDs from record clubs, past due bill notices and all kinds of other stuff. A lot of the stuff is for mom, so I pass it on to her, except she seems to be a bit of a composite of four people, mom, Barbara (Jeff's mother from next door), BM, and even a little bit of Marli.

      We're talking about bills and things, and a little bit about the print shop, and all kinds of random stuff, but then 'mom' opens one of the envelopes, and finds it is a check, payment for her first ever mystery shop, and she is halfway freaked out by the fact that the company is owned by Jeff, and that she is now getting paid from a company that is owned by somebody so young. I don't bother pointing out he is almost as old as I am, which in this dream is over 40.

      I start to head outside and find myself in a kind of a large parking lot, though I have no idea where it is at. I am pulling a somewhat small suitcase, and am heading to the 'new' (new to me, but fairly old, overall) car that I have been given. It is a white Continental, probably from the 60s or 70s. Part of the time it seems to be a convertible, and it has one of those trunks with a really small opening, so I am having slight difficulties getting my suitcase in it, and as I am trying to close it, the handle causes the back window of the car to fall out. Thankfully I am easily able to get it back in fairly easily.

      As I am getting ready to leave, I find I am parked right next to the GMC Jimmy that this car is replacing, though somebody else has parked so close to it that nobody could get to the door. A lady who seems to have been the one giving me the Continental is asking me about the Jimmy, because she is considering buying it from me. I am explaining about the check engine light that might require some work, and the oil leak which means it frequently needs a quart added, and the low MPGs, but she is still interested, so I may get not only a new car to drive for free, but also get paid a little for the old one. Cool beans!

      ---

      I find myself working another security shift at House of Imports, though it has probably been at least a couple of years since the last time I worked a shift here. I am in the showroom, which seems much like it used to, except that where the receptionists used to be during the day, and security at night, the receptionist area has been elevated a little bit more, and security now has a slightly lower counter right in front of the receptionist desk, and we're not supposed to ever get in their space. (Of course, our desk being in front of them means nobody can ever approach them, because our desk is in the way, but the dream never covers that.)

      It is past closing time, but as usual the sales staff is still staying late trying to sell cars, and the place is still very busy. At one point, one of the sales people drives a large van full of people into the showroom, itself, which means he must have driven in the east doors, because that is where the ramp is. I wander out those doors, and in the east lot area, I find an almost carnival-type atmosphere, and a clown who looks a lot like Trixie Chick (but isn't) is doing balloons or face painting.

      I end up picking up a balloon animal (perhaps a bear) to look at it, and as I glance at it, it changes into more of a beanie baby-sized stuffed animal, before I set it down in the planter, and head on to the front door. So I am back in the showroom, and find I am working with another security officer, and I try to ask him about the scheduling. I ask if they always have two guards working at the same time, now, and what the shifts are going to be.

      He kind of indicates that there is just one shift a week with two guards, and the rest of the time it is only one, and I am trying to explain about the 28 hour weeks I used to work here in two days (a 16 hour shift, then a 12 hour shift), but as I am trying to talk to him, he just kind of fades away and disappears. Soon I am walking down the four or five stairs that lead to the short back hallway where three of the salesmen's offices were.

      Though I am dressed as a security guard, there are some crooks who think I am some kind of evil wizard who is working with them to plan some kind of crime. Since the crime has nothing to do with robbing the House of Imports, and since these are dangerous individuals, I do not feel responsible for trying to stop them, but after they spill most of their plans to me, I do have to tell them that I think they've confused me with somebody else, and am hoping they don't decide they need to kill me or something. Instead, they just get out as quickly as they can, and I'm just working on clearing everybody else out of the place, slowly but surely.

      ---

      [Most of this one was long and interesting, but not the kind of thing that you could remember in great detail. First dream of the night, and the earlier parts were very choppy, so perhaps while the body was only starting to get into REM sleep or something. Cool stuff, but not all that reportable.]

      Long bits of interesting search / chase / explore kinds of stuff in an odd cross of science fiction / dream powers kind of world. Its hard to explain, but its like there are little points of light scattered all about, and you kind of grab one in your mind and create a beam of light between you and that point, and kind of travel that beam of light to get there. (Kind of the light ships from the original Tron movie, but without a ship.)

      So I'm creating large networks of these beams of light, traveling between lots of different light points, and going all over the place, and it is really neat. But that is only one of three or four areas and methods of traveling. Others involve creating floors of interlocking tiles (probably hexagonal), again, just by concentrating on willing them into being, and even other methods of traveling around. Wish I could remember more of this part, because it was really cool stuff.

      But at one point I am chasing a kind of cute lady (no idea why) but the trying to create new connections and light to follow her isn't working. So I figure I may need to use one of the other methods. I am trying the create the hexagonal tiles to follow after her, but it is very hard, very resistant. I can only manage to force a single ring of tiles around the platform I am on, and even that requires a huge amount of effort.

      Up to this point, things have been very science fictional, but of a real life sort. But here it starts changing into more a real life version of a sort of video game. The hexagonal grids are turning into a sort of game surface. Though there are no hexagonal grids in Risk, it is taking on a Risk sort of feel. There are several different teams of human players wearing Tron-like light outfits in different colors.

      You have to take over territories, and fight against your enemies, but you can pass through empty territories without claiming them or having fight for them, moving quickly to get to areas where your enemies are. And it is people moving around this landscape, which has hills and valleys and trees and ridges. But when they have battles and manage to win them, they receive ships that seem to be out of Star Wars, kind of. These are detailed models of ships like the Millenium Falcon or an Imperial Star Destroyer (though in my dream it was called something like a Rigelian Battle Cruiser or something), and they are like two or three feet long, so people can carry them around, though they are sort of bulky.

      The models are incredibly detailed, sharp, and realistic, really quite amazing for something in a dream. So we're running around these hills with hexagonal grid lines all over them, and I'm dodging other players who are mostly ignoring me, as I don't seem to be attacking anybody, when suddenly one of the little figures in the model I am running around with seems to use some sort of small fighter or escape pod or something, to blast out of the ship.

      I'm trying to go back for him, fearing he'll be killed or injured and taken prisoner or something, but instead the thing seems to be enlarging and growing until he pops out and becomes a real person, running around like the rest of us. Soon we're in a large library or something, with lots of people sitting around talking or reading at lots of tables. I'm following this guy or maybe he is following me, and I think he is turning into Joe Simon (friend from Disneyland), though I am not sure.

      I soon find myself looking out a window at one of the hills we'd been running around, and it is now covered with snow, with some light tracks from where people have been sledding and the like. I decide I'd like to sled down the hill, and am heading out to do so, but by the time I get outside, instead of snow, the hill is covered in corn or wheat or something. But I am still getting on a sort of round sled-like thing, and going down the hill, knocking down stalks and leaving trails in the corn.

      As I get to the bottom of the hill, Joe is there, and he is talking about how much he loves the show I introduced him to, but is trying to remember the name of a character. He starts to describe somebody with dark hair and a dark mustache, and I know the show is Doctor Who, and I recognize the character as the Brigadier, but whatever I am calling him is neither the character name nor the actor name.
    12. The Get-Rich-Quick Meeting

      by , 01-02-2013 at 06:01 PM
      01-02-2013 -- This one seems to start almost as a gas station mystery shop. I am at the pumps at a gas station, getting ready to maybe pump some gas, and also looking around at outside displays, thinking to maybe get some oil. I suddenly realize I brought oil with me, and it is already mine, even as I am pulling it off the display, and am hoping I don't get in trouble for using my own oil, because it sure doesn't look right, the way it is going down.

      Soon I stumble into a sort of meeting of an organization that seems to be kind of a get-rich-quick thing. You know ... the various real estate gurus who advertise buying property with no money down and making a fortune. There is a sort of feeling of some kind of scam going on, and though no characters appear, there is a strong feeling of something connected to Psych. The guy leading things seems to be Alexandre O., a pastor I knew from my days at Hosanna Printing.

      My cell phone rings, and I am asked to turn it off, as they want no recording of the meeting. My phone quickly turns into a small hand-held cassette recorder, and though I try to turn it off, the wheels keep turning and the tape keeps moving, so I think it is still recording. They don't think it is a problem, though, since that is what everybody else's recorders are doing. (Just how many people are recording this thing when they aren't supposed to?)

      It is a longish meeting, and there is a lot going on. It goes on for quite a while, but not in any detail I can put down here, except in a few small scenes. At one point they give a small, meek, slightly Oriental girl (think Amy from Futurama) a lot of money, several thousands of dollars that they collected from the rest of us at the meeting, and she is insisting that it is too much. The guy in charge interrupts her, and demands she tell us her name, and this shy girl who has barely spoken to us, and has identified herself as Amy in a whisper speaks out loud and clear, and gives her full name in a forceful manner. His point? Money has a large effect on a person's self confidence.

      They bring a pizza in, and ask me to try the first piece, and I could swear it was the pizza that was made in my last dream (see Harry Potter, Voldemort, and the Pizza). It looks like the pizza from Aldi's, as it did, and is also fairly mangled. At one place, the crust has bubbled up, but instead of just a bubble in the crust, it bulges up and almost looks like a small planet on a column rising up from the crust, and I am really not sure about eating it.

      Soon the meeting has been thinning out, and I have been asked to do something to show some sort of talent or skill that I will use to make something of myself. I grab a rather basic and simple guitar and start to try and play it (rather badly, as I have no idea how to play the guitar) and one of the other people takes it away from me. They somehow kind of unfold it into a much larger string instrument like a bull fiddle or something, and start to play amazingly on it.

      I am embarrassed, but I start to sing along as they play. I have a lovely voice, and sing really well, but very softly because of my throat. [I have had no voice for about five years.] Soon we have moved away from the hotel we were in for this meeting, and Alexandre has turned into what almost looks like Peter David, and I find myself actually kind of whining about how I'm not actually good enough at anything, as we are trying to cross a really busy street to get back to the hotel.

      The street crossing was fairly realistic, except for trying to dodge into too small of gaps in the traffic, when we can see much larger gaps a few seconds away, and would have just waited for them in real life. As we finish running across the street, Peter David has turned into Dale, and he has accidentally run behind a fence which separates the street from the sidewalk, so he has to back-track to get around the fence. I expect to beat him to the hotel because of this, but he still gets there first.

      We head inside, and I note in passing that it is a nice hotel, but when I push the button for the elevator, and the doors slide open, they don't open onto an actual elevator, but onto a hallway containing the elevators. Weird. I glance at our room number, which is something like 5641 or some such, and hit the button for floor five, but that's not where we want to go. The rooms are not numbered by floor, but sequentially, and we have to read a sort of chart to figure out which floor our room is on.
    13. La Nouba (Cirque du Soleil) Performer Keeps Attacking Me

      by , 11-06-2012 at 12:11 AM
      11-07-2012 -- I am walking up Crescent, just before Dale, on the side of the street where the church is located. Oddly, as I walk along, I am pulling the metal core from a wire that is still strung up on the poles [like Don DuFour used to do] and it seems to have gotten caught or tangled on a transformer or something. I'm kind of shaking it to get it to come loose while trying not to electrocute myself.

      For some reason, Petey the Clown is walking with me, and is accusing me of being selfish or a bad friend or something. I am just about to cross the street and start walking down Hickory, when some guy from the last house on the block comes out and also starts berating me. He is angry because I am removing the core of this wire, and is afraid somebody will lose power because of it or something. Oddly, he looks like the strongman character from La Nouba [Cirque du Soleil show at Disney World, I just saw a video of it for the first time two days ago.]

      As I approach my house, he seems to be kind of stripping my bones out of my fingers as punishment. It doesn't hurt as he does it, oddly enough, but a few seconds later it starts to sting really badly. Then when I reach my house, he starts to remove the screen from the windows on my car, and I am really starting to get ticked off. I start cursing him rather severely, and tell him to stop hurting me and my car, and the generic neighborhood kids are very impressed because he is an adult and I am a little kid like them.

      I head toward the front door, planning to enter the house, and just suddenly find myself back on Crescent, across Magnolia from Peter Marshall, walking toward the school. Just as I step into the street I am kind of attacked by a large crate with eye holes that I know contains the strong man character, and has my name on it. He gets loaded on a truck or something, however, and is gone for a bit. I am also being attacked by a very La Nouba-looking clown who has no hair and a solid orange face.

      The only way I can stop this clown is to wrap my arms around her and pin her arms to her side, and as I grapple with her I realize it is Petey in different make-up, and she thinks I don't know her well enough to recognize her, but I do. She is still pinned in my arms and I carry her into the office at Peter Marshall and then set her down. The other office workers start celebrating her birthday, and I walk off, leaving her thinking I may not be as bad a friend as she thought. [Petey's real life persona does work in a school, but not a grade school, and not in California.]

      I start to head home again. Maybe I'll make it there this time. I am walking through a crowd of several girls who seem to be talking about Halloween costumes and/or playing Bloody Mary. Between the school and La Reina (a very short block) there are five gas stations that I can remember mystery shopping at other times, though today I am not doing any shops. By this time the strongman character has gotten free of his crate and is bugging me again as I walk down the street.

      As I turn on to Hickory Drive, I'm muttering about killing the strongman character, and I suddenly find myself running into a bunch of older politicians (Reagan, Nixon, perhaps Margaret Thatcher), and they reveal the rasping strongman is actually some sort of spy or agent, and I am expected to ignore all of his harassment because of his diplomatic mission to the Middle East. I'm thinking his mission is no excuse for his being an idiot.

      I actually manage to enter the house this time, and I find myself sorting through a lot of mail in my name. Mom is there and is being a bit of a pest, but I am trying to ignore her. I enter my second bedroom through the kitchen door, and I find the room is huge. In real life it was probably about ten feet by fifteen, but here is is more like 20 x 30. I find that mom has gone against my wishes and has rearranged my room, forming a sort of wall of bookcases surrounding my bed in the upper right corner of the room, leaving the other 3/4 of the room mostly empty. [Actually I never had a problem with my mom rearranging my room against my wishes, but it is something my current landlord is kind of threatening to do.]

      I am so angry about the rearrangement, I am about to tell mom off and move out, except I am out of work, broke, and worry I won't be able to find anywhere else to go. Then I wake up.

      Also a brief fragment somewhere in the night where I am trying to get some sort of computer layout job and am talking about being asked to do photo essays on the Hornet newspaper overnight to fill in pages that others didn't bother doing, back in my college days.
    14. Bad Meal at the Melting Pot

      by , 09-02-2012 at 01:05 AM
      09-01-2012 -- I decide to have dinner at the Melting Pot (fondue restaurant). I don't have a mystery shop scheduled, but I hope I can find a way to turn it in to one, as I would be able to get my money back after the fact. I'm sat at a table and start looking through the menu and figuring which courses I may want. But I eventually realize I may be hampering myself as to mystery shopping by not waiting to let the server suggest something.

      Anyway, she comes up and asks what I would like, and I indicate I want the four course meal (supposed to be cheese fondue, salad, surf and turf, and then a chocolate fondue for dessert) and she agrees, and asks if I want deviled eggs or fried zucchini. What? There aren't supposed to be either of these on what I ordered. But I figure maybe they're being offered as an appetizer. So I ask for the deviled eggs.

      There's a manager sitting at a table perhaps 10 feet away, and he seems to be keeping an eye on me, so I think he may suspect I am a mystery shopper. I still continue to occasionally take brief notes on timing. It takes forever, but they finally bring me a big platter of deviled eggs. Then the owner (female) comes up to me and asks how long I waited. I say about a half hour, and she seems satisfied. When I actually calculate it out, it is about 32 minutes, which I think is too long.

      The eggs are tasty, but I don't eat too much of them because I am leaving room for everything else. I set most of them aside, planning to take them home. The wait for the next course is incredibly slow, and I find myself getting more and more sleepy. I almost trip on a small table next to mine, and end up pulling it under my table and pushing it to the back so it is out of the way. I'm getting more and more annoyed, and more and more tired. It's been more than an hour, and they still haven't brought the second course.

      Eventually I fall asleep, and I guess they just leave me there, because I wake up in the restaurant, nobody is there, and it is something like 8 in the morning. I look around, and not only did they never bring any more courses, but they came and took away the rest of my deviled eggs, and I'm really rather annoyed. I stumble out of the restaurant and climb into the Jimmy (my new car, only had it a couple of weeks) and start to drive toward the parking lot exit.

      But I realize I never paid the bill in any way, so I decide to go back inside and see if I can find anybody. Unfortunately, some idiot has a truck with which he is pulling two trailers, and he has parked so that he not only takes up two parking spaces, but the driving spot in between them, so I have to turn around and go another way. Idiot.

      CAR | CAR CAR | CAR
      CAR | CAR CAR | CAR
      CAR | CAR CAR | CAR
      VERY STINKING SILLY LONG TRUCK
      CAR | CAR CAR | CAR
      CAR | CAR CAR | CAR
      CAR | CAR CAR | CAR

      I go back in the restaurant, and though they aren't open yet, I can get in, and I approach my table, where I manage to hunt down the bill. They are charging me $31.66 for a drink and an appetizer, when they never brought me the rest of my food. I call a manager over to try and complain about things, but he never slows down and shuts up enough for me to tell him most of what went wrong. He just makes change for me, and gives me a side order of fried zucchini, which I have no interest in at all.
    15. Mystery Shopping and Toll Problems (With Aliens)

      by , 08-29-2012 at 05:32 PM
      08-16-2012 -- [Three dreams from this night, since I have entered one, I am going to enter all three. Though this one I may not have woken well enough to fully write down, because I can't make the greatest of sense out of it.]

      There are hints of the Doctor and Amy Pond, though I can't remember any actual details with them (guess what I watched 6 episodes of, right before going to sleep?) I seem to be doing some kind of mystery shopping rounds that involve aliens that are swelling up like some odd sort of balloons. I have to take them to two specific places, and then they start to deflate and become safe.

      These two places, one is a fair distance to the north, the second is a fair bit to the south, and it overall feels like some of the BankAtlantic bank routes that I still dream of mystery shopping. Soon I choose a new second stop, one that is to the south, but much closer. Because I had been going much further south, after I make my second stop I head further south, rather than north, like I should have, and I soon find myself looking for a place to turn around.

      I try to turn around at a toll road on-ramp, and though I have not passed through the toll booth or gotten on the toll road, they charge me a $3 toll anyway. I am upset about this. The toll collector looks like the head vampire from the Doctor Who episode the Vampires of Venice, and she is listening to the radio which seems to be playing Randy Stonehill's "Who Will Save the Children" which she doesn't like because she doesn't like any music from the 70s.

      I go back to my car and try to turn around, and unfortunately I hit the curb. This really badly mangles both of my back tires, but they are holding together and still somehow retaining their air, so I drive off. It is Sunday, and a holiday, and I am really hoping they continue to hold together, because there is no way I can get them replaced today. I think this while driving through a closed automotive garage.
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