Batch

01-27-2014 -- [Weird, and can't pull up all the details. The 5-HTP last night seems to be making my sleep worse, and my dreams less detailed.] Working in some strange sort of cross between a shopping mall and a call center, trying to sell something over the phone, but the company's policies make the actual selling more and more difficult. I've gotten to be on pretty good terms with one of the customers, and am hoping for a sale, but in the process I end up flying with them somewhere.

Soon we are in an airport, changing planes, and I find out that somehow I am now being asked to pilot the plane. The client is inviting me out for a drink, but there is a company policy (which actually makes sense in the dream, though it sure doesn't make sense now that I am awake) that we are allowed to drink while we're at other airports, preparing to fly back home, but not at our home airport. Since we're at the home airport, I have to turn down the drink, and in the process, lose the sale.

Instead I find myself back at the call center, which has now turned into a warehouse that does long-haul courier work of hundreds of extremely small loads in huge big rigs across the country. It is my first day on the job, and I have a package to take to Massachusetts, and have just watched as they loaded the last package on the truck. For some reason, my job is to sit on the back of the truck and make sure everything is all right, but the driver who has started the truck up never closed up the back or raised the lift gate, and as he starts to drive, one of the crates falls out of the back and lands in some other crates. We have no method of communication established, so I am trying to think of what to do, then start beating on the roof of the trailer really loud, and make enough noise that he hears me and stops. He peers at me in the side mirror, and asks what is up, and I explain we have a small problem and a potentially larger problem.

The small problem is he forgot to close up the back of the truck and raise the lift gate, the potentially larger problem is the crate that fell out, and if it was breakable stuff, may be problems. He assures me that the crate isn't a problem, and starts to get it reloaded. The things he is saying also kind of indicate that it was probably all a test to see if I was paying attention, and I may have done well. As they are reloading the crate, I run off for a quick bathroom break, and when I come back I find the truck is gone. I missed it while going to the bathroom. I am almost to the point of weeping, figuring I am probably going to be fired now, and I am convinced I don't have any idea what I am doing.

But then the female supervisor comes up to me, explains I handled the situation with the back of the truck and the crate just right, and while I did miss my truck, it is my first day on the job, and I won't be in trouble for it ... but can I think of what I might to differently to avoid the problem? I say I would probably tell them that I was running to the bathroom, rather than just assuming I can make it back quick enough, and she responds with something along the lines of "There you go!" I finally conclude I don't need to quit or be fired, and that I will only get better with a little time and experience. "Now you're getting it!"

08-04-2012 -- Started with just bits I can't really expand on, but gets better near the end. Somehow I am walking between a couple of buildings, heading to a place where I should be investigating something, except there are a bunch of cops who won't let me into the area. So I walk around the building trying to come at it from another angle, but they block me there, too. Eventually I find myself driving down a road where I see three or four Del Taco locations (fast food chain I know from CA, but there are only two of them in this area that I know of) and I am thinking it is kind of nice they are building more of them.

Soon I am in an office signing up for something, and Tammy is the receptionist. [Tammy is really the receptionist for the company I currently work for.] Some kind of mafia-type organization, and I am waiting for paperwork about something I have been asked to do, before I can go out and do it. As I turn and look around, I spot Calvin from my high school, and I recognize him because of the yearbook pictures Steve has just recently posted on Facebook. I think it is nice Steve posted them, because otherwise I never would have recognized him now. [Funny thing is, the dream version I only recognize because of the pictures of the now version looks exactly like he did in high school.] He turns and recognizes me, as well.

I am just about to leave, but the shelves of the office are loaded with boxes and boxes of candy, and as I glance over, I notice one of the candies they have is Wacky Wafers. They have them in a package containing six different flavored wafers, and I grab one. Somehow, as I try to open it, the one turns into six (that is six packages of six wafers each), and I end up eating all six of the watermelon wafers at the same time. Very tasty! I'm thinking about how I am going to have to post this on some of the lost candy forums on the internet, and how great it is that one of these old favorites has finally been brought back. I try to pay Tammy for the candies, but she is busy trying to put the hands back on a clock that lost them in an explosion. Finally she turns back to me, and tells me they are 86 cents each, and both of us are trying to do the math for six of them. As usual in the dream, math is difficult.

Soon I find myself watching some sort of reunion on a cruise ship of the cast from the Love Boat television show. Oddly, though, even though it is a reunion show of actors, they are all being treated as off-duty crew, and expected to keep out of the way of all the passengers who have come to see them. I spot at least Stubing, Vickie, Isaac, Doc and Julie, not sure I see Gopher anywhere.