Batch

01-28-2014 -- [As usual, first part is not as detailed as it should be.] First thing I can remember, I am out somewhere, discussing potential mystery shops down in the Palm Beach or Lauderdale area. I am talking to a male scheduler, but the type of shop has a strong feel of the recent Circle K shops, stuff where the pay has gone down or they have limited the number of shops or something like that. Something has gone on that has caused me to quit, and say I won't be working for that company any more, and this has ticked off the male scheduler a bit. But then it turns out one of the shops is right next to where we are having our discussion, and the closeness balances out whatever has me ticked off, so I try to un-quit, and say I won't mind doing that particular shop.

The guy says that particular shop is only doing a shop-by-mail shop, that month, but it turns out all I have to do is mail something to them, and remark on any response I get, and that is even simpler than the usual shop, and pays the same, so I am quite happy with it, and am trying to get to necessary envelope together. Problem is, as I am trying to get things together, I actually start to drop stuff, and as I do, Joe S. and his little sister show up, and start pranking me. I am carrying a bunch of sheet music for choir, and as I am picking up other stuff, Joe's sister has grabbed my sheet music and dropped it into a file, while Joe has grabbed some of my other stuff, and started moving it. I have already had the hassles I have been mentioning with the mystery shopping company, and I just don't have the patience for their games, so I make as if to stomp off.

Joe's sister gives up on teasing me, and starts pulling back out sheet music and handing it to me, but now I find myself with two or three copies of various songs, rather than just the one I need, and as I try to separate out the extras, I just start dropping more and more, and scrambling for it. Meanwhile, I also have four toothpicks I have to keep track of, and keep safe (possibly in connection to the by-mail shop) and they are scattering on the floor as well. As I keep trying to pick things up, the scene shifts a bit, and I am standing next to my car at a toll booth, right before where you pay the toll, the door open, still trying to pick up sheet music and toothpicks.

The problem is, there is another car approaching the toll booth coming the other way (doesn't make sense, but there it is), and he may plow right into me. So I pick the entire car up, and set it just off the road on the other side of the toll booth, and then hurry out of the way, myself, so I don't get run over by the car, then finally manage to finish picking up all my toothpicks and music. Problem is now that I don't want to get in trouble for not paying the required tolls, so I again pick up my car (which has an e-pass in it) and kind of swing it over the toll booth on a sort of swinging platform (like the ones in Sonic the Hedgehog that sometimes swing you over spikes or fire pits) so that it registers. Problem is, I don't stop quickly enough, so it swings over a second time, and registers again. I just hope that the toll organization will be smart enough to realize they should only charge me one of them ... meanwhile the car keeps swinging back and forth, so now I have to hope they will disregard two of the three tolls, and I get the car out of there as quickly as I can.

Then things shift again, and I find myself in Manhattan (or a cityscape that looks fairly like it) surrounded by skyscrapers. I find myself watching a movie being filmed by real superheroes. The Incredible Hulk and the Green Goblin are in the middle of a big fight, and Tobey Maguire's Spider-Man comes swinging into the middle of it, and I can hear the Hulk muttering and complaining about how it is a mistake to let Spider-Man get involved in all this, because he is so wild, and improvises so much. And sure enough, Spidey swings into the middle of things, coming around on a web at high velocity, and nails the Hulk with an incredible drop kick that sends him flying about a half a mile, outside the city, where he lands on his back, sliding through a field on the edge of a lake. He's the Hulk, so he's not really injured, but he now has a slightly painful case of something like road rash on his back, which he is muttering about as he climbs back to his feet and starts to leap back toward the fight scene.

But the scene is now changing again, and Tobey has been turning into Harry Potter (or perhaps Daniel Radcliffe) who is standing on what almost seems to be a float, along with Hermione/Emma Watson, who is feeling rather down. For some reason, I am standing there trying to tell her how very beautiful her character is, being as sincere about it as possible, to give her morale a boost. But they have to get back to filming. (Like the superheroes before, they are making a movie, but they actually have the powers of their characters, so it isn't technical movie magic being used to make the scenes.)

I am in a sort of an alleyway, out of the way of things, and some sort of late-teen black princess (dressed in a fairly fancy purple gown) is approaching the alleyway I am standing in to get out of the way herself, until her scene is ready to begin, and she sort of glares at me, so I back up further to give her more room to sit down. Harry Potter goes flying by on a broom mounted to the front of a magic carpet where all the camera equipment is mounted, filming over his shoulder as he flies, and he passes the mouth of the alley, then flies a sort of arc before heading past the alleyway again, heading the other direction. By this time the black princess has moved on to do whatever her part is, but there is a little black girl (probably ten or eleven) riding up on a bike, looking forward to watching her sister film her scene.

And somehow the little girl and I in our alleyway, get sort of sucked on to the flying carpet in Potter's wake, so now we're flying through the air behind him while the film company films these fabulously expensive scenes. They must be adding the sound separately, because the whole time Daniel is muttering and complaining about how there is a fabulous peanut-shaped blimp flying high up in the sky, but they didn't know it was going to be there, so they couldn't plan to include it in the filming, which bothers him, because he thinks it is neat. The problem is, all the sheet music that I had been trying to carry has now turned into large, flat (unassembled) cardboard boxes, and the wind rushing by as we fly along has pulled them out of my hands, and they have been sucked in front of the cameras and have ruined the scene. Daniel goes ballistic, and starts screaming at me for ruining the scene, and mentions now they will have to refilm it tomorrow, but I am not available tomorrow, and you know what? He's glad I'm not available tomorrow, because after ruining the scene, I don't deserve to be in it, so hah! I don't remember what I actually have to do tomorrow anyway, but I say I can reschedule if they want me to, and be there, but he tells me that I am not wanted. Rather depressing.

[Just interesting information ... though I have not read it in some fifteen or twenty years, there was a very early Spider-Man comic book that had Spider-Man and the Green Goblin filming a movie in a desert somewhere (Spider-Man thinking the Green Goblin was only an actor, and not realizing it was the real Goblin) when the Hulk stumbled into the middle of things for a huge fight.]

05-04-2013 -- I am back working a shift at the Mercedes dealership I used to work at, and the other guard is hassling me because I can't seem to open my eyes ... literally. I can hear everything that is going on, but I can't see it because I can't wake up ... or maybe because I haven't fallen deep enough asleep. Anyway, he is also complaining that I am in the reception area, because they have changed policies, and they no longer want us in that area, even though that is where the security monitors are. I'm thinking if they want to make that big a fuss without actually bothering to tell me, they can fire me!

I've just come on, and the dealership is filled with hundreds of people ... far more than are ever here normally, and there seems to be a sort of party going on, with tons of people, including some lovely ladies, but I can't actually see any of the sales staff anywhere, so I have no idea what is going on. At least I can see, now.

Decide to go downstairs to use the restroom, just to find the doors to both restrooms have been kind of wallpapered over, so they are unavailable. I seem to remember some kind of employee restroom a little further back in the corridor by the parts department, so go to check there, but get distracted and return to the main showroom floor.

Where I find myself watching a fight between Spider-Man and the Green Goblin, and they are really going at it! At one point, the Savage Dragon jumps into things, as well! This can't be real, can it? I know super heroes don't really exist ... are they filming a movie or something? That may be it, because every time they turn to look our way, we duck out of sight, and get really quiet! "No," the costumed villain crouched next to me tells me, "We aren't staying out of a movie ... I just don't want to be beaten up."

Spider-Man scores a good punch on one of the bad guys, and he flies across the room to the lower level of the lobby (which was only a single story in real life ... but in dreams ...), and I decide it's all just too weird tonight, and I'm getting proof, so I whip out my trusty digital camera and start taking pictures. Soon after I start downloading them into my laptop when a Chinese guy starts to berate me for using the staff's computers. He looks like a cross between Charlie Chan and Mr. Fuji. I explain it is my computer and he's like "Uh ... ah ... well all right, then."

I start to descend the stairway from the reception desk down to the reception desk (hey, dream ...) and the crowds are getting ever thicker. The dress is also getting a lot more formal, and is starting to look like wedding party dresses or prom dresses ... something really nice. A nice looking, older blonde (40s), very professional looking, is a few steps behind me on the staircase, and she drops a present she is carrying, and it bounces down to me, so I pick it up and decide to carry it down for her. But when I get to the bottom of the staircase I find it blocked by a wall of presents, perhaps four feet deep and six feet across, completely blocking it. I drop the present on the stack and start to climb back up, explaining to the lady as I pass her, and fighting through the ever-worsening crowds, at times even climbing over small children to do so.

When I get back up near Janna's office (and it -is- now Janna's office, not a warehouse with super heroes fighting) I find myself staring at a little oriental girl, perhaps 8-10 years old who is obviously in the middle of a potty-mergency (thank you, Animaniacs) as she dances around. Suddenly an older Chinese woman who reminds me of a non-animated version of Cookie Kwan from the Simpsons walks up and tells me it is my responsibility to guide the girl (and 9 or 10 others) to the restroom. I try to refuse, but give in gracefully after a few seconds, and start to lead them to the short stairway down to the restrooms and parts.

Men's room no longer blocked, but it is being cleaned. The woman's room is still wallpapered over, so we continue on to the parts department, and this time I manage to find both men's and women's restrooms there. The kids use the restrooms. They also use the parts door leading outside, climb on the flower beds, and fall off. Thankfully the party is interesting enough that when they fall off they decide they aren't hurt.

I herd them back inside, and back up to the main showroom, and the crowds are worse than ever, so I try to get away slightly by stepping out onto the 'porch' by the main stairs up to the showroom, and just kind of look around, but even here it is crowded. As I stand there, Keith Thompson comes up behind me and demands to know why I have been avoiding him. I try to tell him I haven't been avoiding him as he searches through my (suitcase? gym bag? backpack?) and takes back the Kuya Kano CD he'd loaned me. He glances at it and sees there are a bunch of scratches on it, and demands to know what I have been doing with it, before he realizes the scratches just might be the music tracks.

I'm trying to explain I'm not avoiding him, things have just been hectic, when a couple of young Chinese guys say something that is probably slightly insulting, and Keith turns around and responds to them. The look of shock on their faces is great, and I just burst out laughing. It is Hiro and Ando from Heroes (yes, I know, when awake, Japanese, Chinese, different ... asleep, not so much). "I love that! I love the faces people make when they realize ..." Ando interrupts me "You know language!" I just keep laughing.

I start to turn back to Keith, only to discover he has stalked off, still angry, thinking I am avoiding him. I am about to go after him when I am distracted by a potential budding incident. Down at the base of the stairs there are three guys sitting there chanting. It seems to be a cross between Arabic and the chanting that 'Padulla' (Bubba Smith) did in Police Academy 4. Surrounding them are several white bread white guys praying in English. This is getting weirder by the second. They all seem to be working together at something, and again I pull out my camera to try and get some odd pictures, but another person on the stairs asks if I have permission to take photos, saying he doubts they want their fight captured on film. That comment is all it takes for it to start to turn into a fight, rather than working together.

I am starting to get worried, when everything changes. Across the street (where there is supposed to be a freeway) is a stadium, and there is a serial killer in the stadium who's weapon of choice is an air cannon (t-shirt gun) he loads with some sort of orange goop that kills anyone it hits. He shoots at 10 or 12 people in the stadium, and in the process turns an entire section of seats orange, before he turns his attention to us and starts firing our way.

Almost seems like he is trying to miss, like he is giving us a chance to scatter and run, but there are several people who are commenting they aren't going to run or back down, and they look like people from my choir. I'm kind of in between. I'm not going to run away, but if a shot comes my way, I am sure going to dodge.

BLANG! A shot hits the window next to me and coats it orange, then I feel a tiny sting and hear a loud clattering, and I turn to look at the staircase I'm standing on, and there are thousands of jelly beans or gum balls or something of the sort rolling down the stairs. I look around carefully, and find a dumpster where the flowerbed should be, filled with four or five people wearing bird mascot costumes. For some reason they are here to throw candy whenever the serial killer shoots his goop.

As far as I am concerned, anybody who wears a giant bird mascot costume in public has already consented to have their photo taken, so I am pulling out my camera to try to get some pictures, but suddenly it won't work. The camera won't focus. I keep bumping the wrong buttons, I can barely even hold the camera, and suddenly it is falling to pieces!

03-24-2013 -- A barely remembered fragment about an underground hospital and being sent to the morgue to collect somebody or something, then I find myself walking on Crescent Avenue, headed toward Dale. I am just walking past the nursery when I run into two friends from the Tampa, Florida area. Let's call them TJ and TJ. Male and female, they are a couple, and they seem to be talking about a street they are referring to as Luther, and talking about all the crazy drivers.

I get involved in the discussion, and ask if they are talking about Martin Luther King Jr Avenue over in St Petersburg, also known as Highway 19 [Actually, it is located a few streets over from Highway 19, but dreams ... what can you do?], and they say they are. We discuss the street, and how it is made up of a bunch of streets that were originally separate, and then grew together, and all the bad drivers and accidents and stuff that happen there.

Part of the discussion is about how they keep doing more and more construction, adding overpasses and off-ramps that are slowly changing this surface street into more and more of an actual freeway [true thing that is happening with Highway 19 in St Petersburg area], and somehow as we are talking, the female TJ has traveled over there, stolen a hot sports car, driven it up and down that highway, wrecked it, and gotten back to where we are talking, all in a minute or two.

Unfortunately, she has been followed by the person she has stolen the car from, who is a rich millionaire playboy with criminal tendancies, kind of a cross between Bruce Wayne, Tony Stark, and a mob boss. He and his enforcer (who looks like the Obadiah Stane from the Iron Man movie) have come to find us, determined to kill TJ.

She accepts responsibility for her actions, and makes no excuses for what she did, but she does not plan to let them kill her without a fight, and she has this very cute guilty expression, and a very hot body. Between her looks, attitude, and acceptance of responsibility, I am really falling for her. Her boyfriend, the other TJ, runs off, and the Obadiah character pulls out a needle, now planning to drug her and have nasty sorts of fun with her because she dares to resist them.

The boss doesn't really care all that much about the car, he just can't let people be seen to walk all over him. He also wants me to come to work for him. But as the Obadiah thug threatens TJ, I can't help but get involved. I grab the thug and toss him a few feet to keep him away from TJ, and tell the boss that I have no problems with him, and could work for him, showing incredible loyalty ... but only if he leaves TJ alone.

The thug doesn't like it, but the boss doesn't much care, and seems interested, but first he is trying to finish up a phone call. In the meantime, I have stuck TJ in a kind of a shield or cage that keeps her safe from the thug, and under control. The boss has finished his phone call, and we are just reaching to shake hands when his daughter (who looks just like Thea from Arrow) comes running up.

She screams that this isn't right, and I can't do this, and I ought to be with her, not TJ, and throws herself at me. I shove her back a couple of feet, but she throws herself at me again. I shove her more powerfully, and she is right back at me. This time I grab her arm, and spin her around myself three or four times, building up more and more momentum until I throw her against a wall maybe 20 feet away. She collapses, but struggles back to her feet and comes at me again. I turn to her father, who seems bored and unconcerned, and asks him how long it will take her to get the message. He tells me another twelve to fifteen times of throwing her against the wall, and she might get the message! Dang!