Batch

11-11-12 -- I am attending a class or lecture or something on dreaming, perhaps in London or France, or maybe in Denmark, I'm just not sure where. As we enter the classroom we're told to take our seats and start reading the first chapter of our textbooks, while the instructor is talking about how he has never held a candle before, and how interesting it feels.

They start pouring hot wax into very thin paper containers hanging from the walls in order to make candles for us all, and soon they are spinning around and small bits of hot wax are escaping and splattering against me, but it's no big deal. Problem is, though they keep trying, they can't get the new candles to light! Eventually they realize they have them on the wrong setting. When they switch from the 'cat' setting (no idea!) to the 'dragon' setting, the room is suddenly filled with a nice, cheery glow.

I've finished reading the chapter, and am waiting for everybody else to finish. As I wait, I glance around the room and find there are several people here that I know. I see termite and Anthony, and one of their little ones from the GK forum, and I am pretty sure I also recognize Stephanie W. and Chris T. from high school. I also hear others talking, and discover that Sarah H. from the GK forum is here, and hope there won't be trouble.

I am amazed that so much time has passed and everybody is still reading. I must read even faster than I realized! Somehow my chair to the far left of the second row has disappeared, and I find myself searching for another among the tiny kids chairs stacked up around the corners of the room while the instructor tells jokes and quotes sayings to his various assistants, sometimes even telling dirty stories.

Finally we seem to be ready to move on, and the instructor is preparing to have us make some kind of paper turkeys for thanksgiving, or maybe lunch sack puppets. I don't know what they have to do with dreaming, but maybe it is about the creativity or something. I walk up to the instructor to claim my supplies for making the turkey, and he starts asking me all kinds of questions I don't know the answers to. It turns out I misheard, and we were supposed to read the first seven chapters in the book! D'oh!

I say that I'll catch up, and return to my seat, going back to reading. Anthony is sitting in front of me, working on his project, termite next to him. Then they disappear, wandering around the room and mingling with people. Soon it is lunch time, and I manage to meet Anthony face to face, and we do one of those supposedly cool multi-part handshakes as we introduce ourselves. Unfortunately termite is off talking to other friends, so I still don't get to meet her in person.

Dale shows up, and is also behind in his reading, which is not as big of a surprise, since reading puts him to sleep. We're all feeling utterly exhausted, and since the event now seems to be in Australia, I'm blaming it on the time change, and am not surprised.