maboroshi

Good morning, everybody.

Dream #1

I was walking outside with my mom. Everything was dark blue with early morning light. My mom and I had been walking outside all night long. We were now finally heading inside. My mom may have been planning to take me home, or to the airport so I could go home.

My mom was talking to me about an idea she had for making the roads and walkways in old cities such that old buildings could be preserved. Apparently this meant making more walking and biking space and less space for cars.

My mom and I may have been walking through an old city or a college campus that looked like an old city. We walked past a stone building that was really big and circular. It seemed to stand out by itself in some kind of plaza or between lawns.

We walked down a stairway along the side of the building. The stairway led to a doorway in a small space the floor of which was maybe five or six feet below ground level.

As we went down the stairway, my mom told me, "I might have you write a report on my project. The paper doesn't have to be long. Only four pages. But I know you can do that before you have to leave. Then I can take you home."

I felt really inconvenienced. My mom and I had been out all night, doing something for her. Now I had barely any time before I had to focus on getting back home. But my mom wanted me to take time to write a report.

I didn't even know anything about the subject. I'd have to do some research. I was rushing through my thoughts, trying to figure out the fastest way to take care of everything.

Meanwhile, my mom was opening the doorway. There wasn't a door: the doorway was actually just sealed with a huge, marble slab, which my mom struggled to pull open. The slab seemed really heavy, but my mom pulled it aside. I was amazed. But later the slab may just have been a length of sheet rock or cardboard.

We walked in through the doorway. We were inside what looked like a fire escape stairway. The staircase zigzagged up. The light in the stairwell was a cold incandescent, and the walls were peach-colored.

My mom was already a few steps up the staircase. I followed. My mom told me something like, "I know you're doing a lot for me. And I'll pay you back for it."

I suddenly had a vision in my mind's eye of my "payback." There was a pretty girl, visible only from the neck down. She was totally naked, except for a pair of black, knee-high nylons. I thought it was kind of disappointing that my mom thought she could pay me back for work by finding some girl for me to have sex with.

But I was already trying to figure out how to attack the research for the paper, so I could get it over with. I was trying to think of two cities with a good amount of old buildings that needed preservation. My two thoughts were London and Paris.

I was now trying to figure out how to begin the paper, talking about the old buildings. I then figured I'd do some research about the general conditions of the buildings in London and Paris. I then thought I'd do research on the effect of smog from cars on building surfaces.

I may also have thought I'd look into towns that had implemented extensive biking programs. I knew there were some. I'd see what I could find out about the condition of buildings in those towns.

I was now in a train station with my female friend H. It was daytime. The train station was very new, nice, and clean. H and I were the only ones in the train station.

The train station's waiting area was large, full of long, wooden benches. It was indoors. But the roof was metal, lined along the top of the walls with clear, clean windows. And the front end of the waiting area opened directly to the train platforms. So the waiting area felt very open, with a lot of light from the outdoors.

H worked for the train station. I had done something good for her, put a lot of effort into helping her out with something. Now she was going to pay me back, she said, by paying for my train ride somewhere (maybe to Philadelphia).

I walked up to the ticket booth at the front of the waiting area. The booth was glass walled, with four or five desks for workers. But it was completely empty. Nobody was there. It was too early for any of the booth workers to be here yet.

My friend H said something like she wasn't really going to pay for my ticket. What she meant was she was going to give me good hints on how to sneak onto a train, so I wouldn't have to pay. Since H worked for the train station, she was taught things like this, so she could have free train rides as a perk.

I didn't see H anymore. It was like she was ten or twenty meters away from me, somewhere in the rows of benches. I heard H's voice in my head, too, not out loud.

H told me what I had to do. I took off my backpack (? - I don't have a backpack IWL) and lay it on the ground. I then crawled along the ground, right in front of the ticket booth, until I got to the right side of the ticket booth. There were something like subway entrance turnstiles.

H told me that I had to be very careful, and that I couldn't count on making it, because the booth workers were very attentive to anybody who might try to cheat them. But I felt like I was a pretty good sneak and that I could make it.

I'd gotten past the turnstile. I wanted to take the first train I could get out of town. I didn't want to wait around. I looked up at an LED sign saying when the trains were leaving.

One train, which may have been labelled "Manhattan," was leaving at 11:11 AM. It was leaving from track one, which was two or three tracks down from me, about fifty meters away. I may even have seen the train.

I jogged a little, just in case I was cutting the time close. I looked up at a motorized clock, the hands of which indicated that it was either 2:10 or 11:10, even though I assumed the hands indicated it was 11:10.

I knew that the old motorized clocks in all the stations were all slow, and that it was probably 11:11, if not later. I broke into a run, to be sure I'd catch the train.

I noticed, as I approached track number 1, that there was a wide alcove with some kind of snack bar or express restaurant off to my right. I felt kind of hungry, but I kept running.

But I looked off to my left and saw that the train was already pulling away. By the time I stopped running, the train was already long gone.

I knew I'd have to wait for another train. But this didn't seem so bad to me: I felt like another train would probably be here in half an hour.

But now I wondered if this "hint" H had given me on how to get onto trains was any help, after all. Now that I was remembering my train rides, once I was on the train, I'd always have to show my ticket to the conductor, who would walk past all the seats with his ticket-stamper.

I may have snuck past the turnstiles. But once I got onto the train I wouldn't have a ticket. I'd get kicked off.

I may have tried to justify this. But it didn't make sense. I knew there were stations along the route with no turnstiles. Anybody could just walk onto the train. The only way the conductor would know if you paid was if you had a ticket.

I wondered if I could just get onto a train, sit down, and ask the conductor himself if I could pay him for a ticket.

Good morning, everybody.

Dream #1

I may have started out on a subway train. Eventually I was hanging on to the outside of a train as it rode above ground. It was daytime, and the sky was clear blue. The train eventually ran through a weird sort of tunnel, which was nothing more than iron beams creating a frame where a tunnel would have been. The tunnel seemed to run through and over a body of water, which seemed to stretch off to the left forever.

The train became a series of black, chain-link, metal fence cages. The cages were each big enough to hold one person comfortably, although I think I saw a few of my "friends" (random dream characters?) in one cage-car. A lot of the cage-cars may actually have been empty.

I found out somehow that the train was powered completely by electricity. This was supposed to be really great and innovative. I was really excited about this innovation -- electric trains. But these cage-cars (I was still "riding" by hanging on to the outside of one) looked really shoddy and worn-down. I was afraid that the electricity powering the train would travel along the outside of the walls and electrocute me.

I saw the train speeding away, apparently with me still on it, as if my view had left my body.

Dream #2

I was in an office. The office space was kind of small, drab, and grey. I sat in some corner of a wider space like a common area for three or four private offices. Across from my was a receptionist's desk. The receptionist's desk was big and made out of wood. Whatever I was sitting in felt very small -- almost like a plastic chair and desk for a little kid. I saw from a very low angle.

A female co-worker of mine from two jobs ago, AC, walked into one of the offices. My female friend H was in the office. AC gave H some work to do. It had to do with the companies Research in Motion and Red Hat, as well as a couple other mobile communications companies. H was now going to be working on getting information about these companies.

AC walked out of the office with a female co-worker. She told her co-worker, "I always thought ----- (some name that may have had the word "Bubble" in it) was one of my favorite companies. But it doesn't look like it's going to be a success, at least not for a while."

AC and her co-worker left. I wondered how it was that H had managed to get a job doing my old job. (It must actually have been my old boss' job, since she was sitting in an office, not a cubicle.)

I was now outside with H. We were standing outside "her car," all the doors of which were open. The car was full of junk, all kinds of paper stuffed in the front and back seat. H was panicked and complaining bitterly about how she thought she wasn't going to make it in school, and how she wasn't going to get her Ph.D.

I told her that she had nothing to worry about. She was doing a lot of great stuff with her studies. And she had a steady job. So even if she didn't make it in school, she'd have a steady income. I couldn't figure out why H was complaining so intensely all the time.

Good morning, everybody.

Dream #1

I was possibly in a classroom. All the desks were arranged in a circle. The room was lit with kind of dull, greenish, fluorescent light. The class or meeting had ended, and everybody was headed out of the room. The room was empty as I left it.

There was a boy somewhere behind me. He was blonde, well-groomed, with a kind of effeminate bearing and voice. He had said something in class, and now he asked me, "Was I rude when I said that?"

I wanted to say yes, but I thought that would be wrong. So I said, "Well, you work so hard that nobody would think you were just plain rude. But people might think you were defensive."

Dream #2

I was walking along a sidewalk in a residential part of town. It was a sunny day, but there was snow on the ground. The snow had been cleared from the sidewalks and streets, but it was still piled up around the curbs and the grassy areas between the sidewalks and curbs. The snow piles were all wet and slushy from the sun.

I was apparently heading to a dance class (?). But, as I crossed a street and then walked past a glass-walled bus stop, I felt a bad headache and decided not to go to class. The headache was like a hard, concrete-like feeling in the back of my head. My eyes also felt sunken in, and I had a real drop in energy.

But I also felt like if I didn't go to dance class I would teach my teachers and classmates a lesson, as if they had done something to insult me and now I was paying them back.

I was apparently walking a few blocks, up a mild slope, to a train stop, possibly for one of the red trains, maybe the 2-train. I walked past either a college campus with red brick buikdings or a block of very nice, red-brick houses. There were tall trees shading the sidewalks.

A couple of tall, young, beautiful people were walking close behind me. The neighborhood may actually have been moderately busy with people overall. The people were joking about something they had done to a friend or colleague of theirs. They had taken something of his. When he got upset about it, they wondered why he could be so sensitive.

I passed another (or the same?) glass-walled bus stop. I now had in my left hand two bags from fast food restaurants. The first bag was from Dunkin' Donuts. It was a coffee. The second bag was from somewhere else. It was food, maybe even a donut.

I was getting close to the subway station. But suddenly I was in a vehicle like a big minivan. I was in the van with a few other people who acted or looked like subway passengers. The van was driving down concrete ramps that looked somewhat like ramps connecting different platforms in a subway station.

We kept going down. The area we were driving through looked like a mix between a subway station and a mall. There were stores like department stores and drug stores all through the corridors.

A big, muscular, kind of pale, white man who looked like a soldier sat somewhere across from me. But he also seemed, at times, to be driving this vehicle.

He told me and a couple other passengers, "When I'm driving a train, and they tell me we have to be delayed, I let everybody know exactly what's going on. I tell them, we'll be here for 28 minutes, and I countdown, and so on. That way people know.

"Some people like to keep passengers in the dark about what's going on. I think dispatch does, too! But I don't. When people don't know what's going on, they feel like the train will never start running again."

The man stopped the vehicle. We were really deep down by now. I saw the subway train off to the left. The front of it had a side door, like for a semi truck, which was swung open. I understood that the man was going to conduct the train.

I jumped out the left side of the van, but I landed outside on the right side of the van. For some reason I was worried about whether I had jumped out fast enough. I thought if I was too slow, the soldier would be impatient with me.

The area down here was also like a mall, and there were a lot of people lounging around like they would in a mall. I saw two big drugstore-like stores, one of which may possibly have been a bookstore. I thought that I might need to go to the store before I got on the train.

Good morning, everybody.

Dream #1

I was in something like an atrium, at the foot of an escalator, with a big crowd of people. The atrium was gigantic. The walls were made of glass, and they let in the deep blue sky and sunlight, though somehow shaded, maybe because the glass was tinted slightly. The escalator was also enormous.

Bill Clinton stood near me in the crowd. We may actually have been walking near each other as we had gone down some corridor to get to the atrium. Clinton was wearing a pink polo shirt and kind of pale blue jeans. As we stood before the escalator he said something historical about the atrium, and possibly about the bridge outside the atrium. The bridge was likely the Brooklyn Bridge.

I thought the stuff Clinton was saying was pretty interesting. I tried to stand closer to him as we all went up the escalator. But I felt like I was being annoying, so I kind of backed away from him. We got up to the top of the escalator. There was a small landing and then another, smaller escalator. I think I took the opportunity of this landing to back even farther away from Clinton, to be less annoying.

Somehow I ended up out on the Brooklyn Bridge. The bridge was colossal. I could only see portions of it as I traveled under it, either via car or subway. The road was covered in dark shadow.

I was then on a subway train that was running above ground. This eventually turned into a bus. There were only two other passengers on the bus: both were male friends of mine. We, or they, also knew the bus driver. He was driving us through a kind of quiet part of town, like some area far out in Queens or farther out on Long Island. The sun was shining orange-yellow like it was early morning.

The guys and the bus driver were talking back and forth with each other. The bus driver finally asked me, "Hey, should I be dropping you off at the college with these guys?" I couldn't think of any reason why I'd be going to the college, but I didn't want to disappoint the guy by saying no. I may have been really curled up in a seat, so that my knees were against the back of the seat in front of me.

Dream #2

I was in a department store with Oprah Winfrey. We stood at the end of a bunch of clothing displays, at a wall which was a window looking down at some other section of the building of which the department store was a part. There were maybe one or two other people around us.

We finished watching some event down below. I turned to Oprah and thanked her forf inviting me to this event. She was very friendly, but I don't think she said anything. She was gone.

I walked away from the window. I was probably heading out of the store. I saw a black woman looking through some clothing.The woman's back was turned to me. But, for some reason, I thought she was Oprah. So I walked up to her and said, "Oprah, I just want to thank you again for reminding me about this event. If it hadn't been for you--"

But now the woman turned around. She was really short and round. She had very dark skin, and she wore dark sunglasses. She looked pretty mean! She wore a pale denim jacket, jeans, and hat. She yelled at me, "Why are you calling me Oprah? Just because I'm black, I have to be Oprah?"

I was scared, and I backed off pretty quick. I didn't know how to respond. I kind of forgot whether I'd thought the person I'd thought the woman was was Oprah or my old friend and co-worker, CL. I figured it must have been CL, even though I couldn't remember her name. But she didn't look like the mean woman either.

I had walked back to the window I had stood at with Oprah. I think I had figured out that CL had reminded me about this event, and that I had met Oprah there. I figured that if I really wanted to thank CL, I could write her a letter. I either held a letter really close to my face or saw a letter in my mind's eye. The letter was on notebook paper, in pencil, and in really big, loose, scrawly handwriting. I may finally have seen CL's name.

Dream #3

I was in a bedroom in the dark. There was, for some reason, a towel rack right near the light switch. It was my blue towel. In the dim light I saw a bug crawling across the towel. The bug was either a smallish roach or a gigantic bed bug. I was really grossed out, and I wanted to see what kind of bug it was before I killed it.

So I stepped back and flicked a switch on a small wall a couple feet away and in front of the bedroom door. The bedroom light bulb flickered, popped, and went out. To solve this problem, I walked a little bit into the room and pulled a string from the ceiling to turn the light on. The only thing that happened was a little bit of plaster falling on my head.

So I went to the closet to see if I could find a light bulb or some other source of light. I flicked a light switch in the closet, but it didn't turn on, either. But then, somehow, I found some source of light. This light source became like a light bulb inside the closet.

I was looking directly into the top shelf of the closet. There were a lot of lamps, all arranged as if in a shop. The lamps were all small, wooden, on a square base, with a candle-like, wooden cylinder running up about 8cm and ending in the metallic fixture for the bulb.

I grabbed a couple of these, figuring that if I placed these lamps strategically, I could get decent light in the room, though not so much light as I'd get if I had the ceiling ligjht working.

I then saw behind the lamps. There were all kinds of canned foods -- things like SPAM, cocktail weiners, and corned beef hash. I might have seen other provisions. I suddenly realized that whoever had put this room together had put it together as a kind of shelter in case of some kind of disaster, possibly including nuclear war.

Dream #4

I was sitting at a table and eating with my friend H. The table and the lighting of the room remind me of a fast food restaurant or a cafeteria in a place like a school. We may have been eating something like fries and mayonnaise.

H said, "You talk about -----'s (can't remember) movies so much, as if you were such a big fan of Japanese film. But when was the last time you actually went to the theatre to watch a Kurosawa film?"

For some reason I kept getting ----- confused with Ozu. But this director was much more recent. But I also wanted to tell H that I actually had seen Kurosawa films lately. I may have had images from Ran and The Hidden Fortress in my head, though I couldn't actually get their titles correct.

I may have felt, in some way or another, like I was shrinking, or maybe hunching over more and more.