The Dreamscape

Tuesday, September 9th

2008-09-10T07:40:00.000-07:00

We were in Disneyworld. Matt, my mother, Miranda and I.
We were riding one of the Splash Mountain logs. Matt was really, really hoping that he'd hear the "Brear Bear and Brear Fox are causing a commotion downstream" announcement. But he didn't. They weren't playing it.
To try and make it happen, though, he started misbehaving. He threw his hat off the ride and started standing in the log. Soon enough, an announcement came over the loudspeakers:
"Sir, please sit down."
"I want you to play that announcement."
"We're not going to."
"What if I get off the ride?"
"You can exit through that door over there."
"Fine!"

Matt (and Scott--where did he come from? Because he wasn't on the ride to begin with!) got off the ride and stomped off through a door on the side.
My mother commented that Matt was impatient. I agreed.

Thursday, July 31st

2008-08-01T07:05:00.000-07:00

A dream with multiple parts:

1. Mike Saxvik was suing me because I had insulted Matt Voorhees with a joke I had made about a toy robot I owned. I couldn't believe he would take me so seriously--he knew I joked often--but he was clearly and obviously upset by my joke. Matt didn't seem to mind as much. As a matter of fact he liked the robot and liked playing with it.
Mike couldn't even talk with me, he was so upset.

2. Zach and I, discussing the law suit drove into a coffee shop. It wasn't an accident, though. A lot of cars were parked inside the shop. We actually drove in through the door.

3. Zach and I traveled to Costa Rica. Mercedes prepared salad for breakfast and we laughed at the table. I had to go to work (or high school?) and Zach was just going to stay home. He wanted to be informed, though, and was reading the newspaper.
I had a little device that played videos on a screen. Miranda, Zach and I watched a video of a very funny opera by Bach. People were dancing around the stage wearing strange masks. The music was excellent.
Zach told me that he'd be spending a long weekend in New Zealand. I told him that we only had one weekend in Costa Rica--"how can you spend the one weekend we have here in New Zealand?"
He said his friend over there had invited him. He then turned on the radio and danced an Irish jig. Lots of people joined him in the dancing as I stood by and watched. He would run through a couple of steps and then stop and point at someone with both hands in the gun pose. People laughed and copied that.
I sat on the side, watched, and wished I could be as good a dancer.

3. I went to Disneyworld with my cousin Stephanie, my sister Marcelle, and my cousin Fernando. There, we ran into my aunt Carmen and my uncle Manuel. Something was off--maybe the way they were dressed? They pointed to a group eating at a nearby table and I understood: they were in the past. I was there, my mom was there, my cousins were there--we were all there, but in the past. Our past selves could not see our present selves. I was a young boy, my one cousin was still a baby in her mother's arms.
Then I understood: everything happens at the same time. There is not past or present. It all exists together.

Tuesday, July 29th

2008-07-30T07:59:00.000-07:00

I was in Pacayas (the house in the mountains).

We were getting in the car--getting ready to leave--when I noticed three huge crafts flying overhead (I seem to be having lots of alien dreams recently). I pointed at them, told everyone "You see! I told you they existed. Look at them!"

The crafts approached the house slowly and began their descent.

My grandmother was out in the backyard and noticed them landing close to her. She looked at me and widened her eyes. "What are these?" she asked.

The crafts extended their landing gear and touched down slowly. They remained closed up and I yelled to my mom to hurry to my side. She said she was coming.

A voice came from the spaceships: "Greetings. We have been observing you. We have decided that you are the best example of humans."
I was immediately disappointed. I was hoping they'd talk about how haunted the house in Pacayas was.

"We invite you to come with us and be our human specimen."

My grandmother turned around, back towards the house, and said something like "I don't have time to be bothered by this."
I laughed and turned to look at my mom who signaled me back to the car.

The spaceships opened up and laughed--it had all been a practical joke by the television companies! We were on candid camera!

Thursday, June 26

2008-06-27T07:10:00.000-07:00

I had moved back to Costa Rica. My cousins, who were at my grandmother's house building a car, asked me how I was. I struggled to get out of the car because I was in a little bit of pain: I'd just returned from fighting in Iraq.

They both nodded and showed their respect and went back to fixing their car.

I told my mom thanks for driving me and went inside to see my sisters. We were all going to play lots of board games.

Miranda was a little upset because the way she understood the games vs. how my mom and I understood them was a little different. She was crying and I decided to try one of the games out on my own to see if they'd like it.

It went like this: music was hidden around the house. People had to open things, turn things, look under things--all in an effort to find the hidden music. I found most of it and got ready to go get my mother and my sister.

What I realized next, though, was that my mother was dead. In a drunken fit, my father had killed her. Marcelle was next to her--hurt, but alive.

I took the shotgun from my father--he was crying and apologetic. I called my grandmother to wake her up. She didn't want to come out but I insisted. When she saw that I was holding a shotgun, she got out of bed.

She screamed at the scene. My uncle Robert came out of the closet he lived in and gasped as well.

I handed off the shotgun--I wanted nothing with it--and my Uncle Robert ended up shooting my father too. I cried and tried to save my mother. There was nothing to do, though.

My grandmother ate some of my mother's blood and then her body was dumped outside in a trash bin.
The next morning, when the cleaning people came, they noticed that my mother's necklace was gone. Someone had stolen it.

Sunday, June 22

2008-06-23T08:16:00.001-07:00

A war was going on. We had holed ourselves up in a house by the lake where we hoped the enemy would never reach us. Me and my cousins were looking out a window, keeping a lookout.

We saw lots of people outside--some suspicious, some not. There were a bunch of prostitute-like women who went into a house and came out dressed as geishas. We figured they were probably evil. A man wearing a top hat and using a fancy cane walked by. We figured he was evil too.

And just to confirm our guess, he turned towards the window and laughed maniacally. We all ducked as the man reached in through the window, winked at me, pushed a button on my face, and stole some sort of key out of my eye.

My aunt was worried--that was a very special key.

She warned me: stay inside. You've got a ticking time bomb inside--2 more hits from the enemy, and we could all die. I hid under a table, waiting for a) the thing to be removed from me and b) the war to end.

I went out fishing in the lake. I could relax that way and not worry about all the fighting. My cousins came with me and we sat on a boat that had a large pool in the middle where we could put all the fish that we captured.
The boat was so full of fish, though, that a lot of the fish that we were capturing were weighing down the boat and submerging it enough that they fish could just swim in and out. We weren't keeping anything.

I got nervous. A couple of sharks kept swimming in and out and I was getting ready to feel my legs get chopped off. I told my cousins we had to go back to the pier and they all agreed. I set the course and hid inside the boat's cabin in the meantime.

Saturday, June 21st

2008-06-23T07:48:00.000-07:00

In my grandfather's secret office there were 2 secrets: one had to do with the bible, the second with the kabbalah. I knew both of them were holy. And I knew I had to find them.

The problem, was that my grandmother would not permit entrance into my grandfather's secret office. He was dead, but she still wouldn't allow anybody inside.

I sneaked in through a hole in the wall and found exactly what I needed. I was leaving the room when one of the guards spotted me. She was an old lady. I knew I could outrun her, but I let myself get caught (I'm not sure why).

She led me into the punishment room where a panel of four or five judges were waiting to tell me what I had to do. I looked at all of them as they decided what the punishment would be. I was really nervous.

Then I realized, though, that there was nothing to be nervous about. These were nice people.

I started talking with them (especially with my captor who was really sweet), and ended up getting off without punishment. The other people in the room were thoroughly annoyed.

I got caught a couple of more times during the dream and ended up coming back and laughing it off with the judges.

Finally, when I found the books I was looking for, I realized my grandfather was sitting on a couch in his secret office, watching TV with my sister Miranda on his lap. He kept changing channels only to find nude ballets that he would quickly change so as to not show them to Miranda.

They kept watching TV, I looked through the text's I'd stolen, and I heard my grandma yelling at the fact that someone had sneaked in.

Wednesday, June 18

2008-06-19T07:05:00.000-07:00

A family gathering was happening in Chile. My aunt's house was decked out for the party. There were also a lot of pigs running around. Little piglets and large pigs were all over the house. My aunt kept asking us to hug them and love them--there was one in particular that was different and needed extra care.

At dinner, I stood up and introduced myself to everyone. Everyone was extremely nice and gracious. After dinner, at the end of the meeting, I stood at the door and shook everyone's hand goodbye. A lot of ladies whom I'd never met all shook my hand and told me what pleasure it'd been to meet me.

I went outside and as I was getting into the car I realized I'd left my shoes inside. I asked my dad if I should walk back and get them and he said he'd drop me off closer to the door.

We drove into the city, he stopped the car and said "you can walk from here, get your shoes, and walk back home."

I did.

On the way back home through the city, I realized that it was San Jose. It wasn't St. Louis. (I guess I've always lived in cities with Saint's names). I walked through the narrow alleys in between houses and made my way back to my aunt's.

There, a trial had been set up to punish me for what I'd done. I was shocked. I didn't think I had done anything particularly bad. As a matter of fact I don't think I knew what I had done. Why was I being tried?

Later, in the living room, I sat opposite my entire family (cousins, aunts, uncles). They sat on a huge, long, white couch, and I was on a smaller couch with my cousin Ignacio. They were all playing a game where they had to go down the line and each person had to name a type of law. There could be no repeats.

My mother had just gone as I sat down. She had named the "Bulk Law" (Ley del Tuco in Spanish). I'd never heard of this one and she explained that it was the law that encompassed all those kinds of adages and proverbs. My cousin complained that that was too vague and general. I agreed. She stuck to it.

The game kept winding around the room and when it came time for me to add my law I realized that all the ones I tried to say had already been said.
"Law of Airplane Models," I tried.
Already said.
"Law of Marriages."
Already said.

I don't think I ever got a good one. I was tried and sentenced before the game was over (though I can't remember my sentence).

Tuesday, June 17

2008-06-18T09:40:00.001-07:00

My grandmother, my mother, my sisters and I were all at a big theme park. One of the rides, my family swore, was good and would be enjoyed by my grandmother.

I was afraid for her neck.

But she rode--we rode--together on the same donut. The thing would spin and you'd see vistas of the mountains as you floated along. It had some dips. And there was some water. My grandmother was enjoying it, but she kept her eyes closed through all of it.

She didn't want to see what was coming.

Later, I taught my sister how to create an oracle by punching little holes in circular pieces of paper--about the size of my hand with outstretched fingers. If the holes were punched in the right places and the wheels were spun in the right ways, you could see many things.

Monday, June 16

2008-06-17T11:43:00.000-07:00

I was staying at my mother's. Miranda had already taken a shower as had Marcelle. I was waiting for my alarm to go off. When my alarm finally did go off, it was in the form of a telephone.

I picked it up. It was my mother. She wanted to know if I was planning on going to school with Miranda.

I told her I was.

"You're late, then. Miranda's ready to go."

I looked at my alarm clock. She was right. I was very late. I just wasn't used to the old school schedule. I told my mom I'd hurry in the shower. I jumped in and started the shower. I could hear Miranda downstairs eating breakfast and waiting for me to come down.

Sunday, June 15

2008-06-16T07:22:00.001-07:00

My friend Miachel came over and sat on my bed. She had 30 questions to ask me.

We started talking and she turned to the metaphysical: have you discovered any new powers?

I told her I hadn't. I'd been reading the Tarot lately, to try and increase my skills in that area, but I hadn't discovered anything completely new. I did remind her I could see ghosts and I pointed to some folds in the curtains and told her what I'd heard from that direction.

She then asked me what instrument her son should play. I told her I sensed something Chinese--a kind of synthesizer--but that I couldn't know exactly what instrument he was supposed to play.

She thanked me and hugged me and told me she wasn't interested in me sexually and said her goodbyes.

Wednesday, June 11

2008-06-12T07:01:00.000-07:00

I had woken up in my aunt's beach house where everyone was admiring the view. Not only could you see the ocean beautifully, but the jungle was amazing too.
I spotted a tree, and zoomed in on it with my own eyes, where about eight or nine owls were perched. The owl up top had its wings spread wide and was forming a kind of totem.
Suddenly, all the owls flew up and the leader dove headfirst into the jungle. I supposed he had found some food.

The next minute a flock of seagulls surfaced out of the jungle and headed towards the ocean. A sloth was riding the front bird and directing where it wanted to land. I was amazed--I didn't know animals rode each other. When I tried to point it out to my family, everyone seemed to think it was very normal.

In Disneyworld, I was working at a store for the day before my weekend of fun began. I couldn't believe I'd be spending the weekend having fun at Disneyworld, but I understood how hard it was to work at a store in the park.

In China, with my parents, we explored an ancient temple that had gotten re-built by the government. They had rebuilt everything so that even the town around the temple looked like it had very long ago. The temple, though, wasn't like regular Chinese Buddhist temples, it was much, much older and I knew that there was something very magical about the place.
I did get annoyed at the Chinese government, though, because in order to light up the place they had attached halogen light bulbs to stalks of bamboo and had made the whole place look a little tacky.

I ended up running out anyway because our plane was going to leave us.

Tuesday, June 10

2008-06-11T06:51:00.000-07:00

There was a huge parade of nations around my high school. Representatives from every country in the world were there. Some people wore graduation gowns, others wore their royal outfits, some even wore different military outfits. It was a huge, huge, huge ordeal. All students--after having marched themselves--were sitting in key positions on the field to watch the event.

I had marched and was now sitting somewhere in an auditorium waiting for the rest of the procession to end. I'd seen this many years and wasn't that impressed.

At some point I got the urge to get up and go get something. I walked down the auditorium and onto the field. People were still marching and the music was still going. Some kind of Swedish or Nordic delegation was making its way through the vaulted halls of my school (only in dreams). A soldier threw himself on the ground in ceremonial pageantry and the queen lightly jumped over him.

I saw some of my cousins waiting to march themselves. One of them (Floria) was wearing a crown. She was apparently part of some royal delegation. I was looking for my little brother (I don't have one, obviously) to try and see if he was enjoying all the pomp.

Finally I ran into him and guided him back to the arena where I was sitting. He could sit with me. He'd love all this, I was sure of it. He stopped at the gates and said his teacher had told him he had to turn in his ticket. And he said it in this little child voice that had a slight lisp and it was just perfect.

I told him nobody was taking tickets and to just go up and sit down. I was leaving because I wasn't in the mood to see all of it again, but I was sure he'd love it. He followed me out. I was on my motorcycle and he was on his tricycle. He headed out towards the street on the little gravel road. He was having some trouble on the gravel on the tricycle and I was still putting on my helmet and my motorcycle trappings.

A huge semi pulled up the gravel road barely hitting my brother. I was horrified. He turned around and smiled and said he loved me. He kept going, and I knew that he wouldn't be around for long.

Monday, June 9

2008-06-10T06:59:00.001-07:00

I was waiting for my friend Luisa. We were supposed to hang out. I'd try calling her and texting her but she hadn't responded. I'd decided I'd just drive over to her house, sit outside, and wait. So I did.

I had no clue where she was.

Soon enough, a horse approached me. He looked at me for a bit, walked away, and then walked towards me again. This time he spoke.
"Why haven't you told them you love them?" he asked me.
I was absolutely amazed at the fact that the horse could speak. I'd never seen a speaking horse.
And he was referring to both Luisa and her brother. The horse wanted me to tell them how I felt.
The door opened and Luisa appeared. The horse immediately stopped talking and gave me a look as to suggest "don't you dare tell her I talk."

Luisa said that she'd moved the party to later that night. Nobody was coming over as early as I was. She looked depressed and lacked energy. I said that was fine, that I'd go home. Except I didn't. I just sat around until Luisa got tired and headed upstairs.

I was about to go home when Rosalia showed up. She'd hang out with me until it was time for the party. We went out to the front of the house and sat on a little wall that faced the ocean. I could see the water and I could see the houses on the other side of the water. Charlene's' house was there.

I'd always considered her house so mysterious. When I drove by, at the bottom of the cliff, all I could usually see was the top of her house and the hedge around it. From where Rosalia and I were sitting we could see all of her house. It was a very pretty house.

We walked down the cliff and into the hallways that connected all the houses in the neighborhood into one big house. I realized they weren't separate houses but rather one single house. There was a kitchen down there and doors and bathrooms. It was my grandmother's house, I realized. The one I'd lived in from age 4 to 8.

I ran into Juan (Luisa's brother) in what used to be my mother's bedroom. I told him as much. He nodded in approval. The party Luisa was throwing was because he was moving out of the country. She was thinking about moving too.

At the gym, I realized, we'd always have ellipticals next to each other. We'd always see each other, no matter where people moved.

I laid in bed and looked at the ceiling. I could feel a person's head against my shoulder. Everything was going to be just fine.

Sunday, June 8th

2008-06-09T06:45:00.001-07:00

Miranda was getting ready to go to school. I wanted to shower before she did but Marcelle was using one bathroom and Tina was using the other. I had somewhere to be. I was in a hurry. Miranda suggested I use my mother's bathroom, but I didn't want to wake my mother up. She was still sleeping. Miranda shrugged, told me I could do whatever I wanted, and started heading towards my mother's room. She'd use it if I wasn't going to.

I darted out of my room and into the busy city streets. My mother slept on the other side of town. I had to dig my way through the crowd to get to where I could shower. I could see Miranda ahead of me, pulling a rolling bag behind her.

Wednesday, June 4th

2008-06-05T08:12:00.000-07:00

I was going shopping. I had a list of things to buy and was taking a taxi.

I hailed a taxi and one pulled up next to me. There was a man and his sister driving. Well, the sister was just sitting passenger side.

The driver asked if I'd mind if he dropped his sister off at the store before he took me to my store. I said that'd be fine.

We dropped the woman off and the taxi driver parked to wait for her. I got uncomfortable because I wanted to get where I was going.
"Relax," he said, as he poked me in the stomach. "What do you have down there? Your head?"
What he had actually felt when he had poked me was the little money belt that I was wearing underneath my shirt.
I got really nervous. I didn't want him to know how much money I had.
"Let me see it," he said.
"No," I said. I kept talking to him as I pushed it down, underneath the waistband of my pants.

"We'll need to talk," he said. He got his cell phone out and called his sister. He gave her a whole list of extra things to get so that she'd stay in the store longer. Apparently he wanted to talk one on one.

He took of his shirt and got ready for the conversation. At that moment, a man and his wife knocked on the passenger side window. They were wondering if the taxi was available. When the man looked in and saw the taxi driver without his shirt on, he got really angry.

The taxi drive was thrown in jail. I ran out and talked to people, told them what had happened and tried to get them excited about graduation.

Side Note: Words had interesting abilities in this dream--certain words, for instance, made other things happen. Some would pull, others push, others grab or throw. Everything made something happen.

Wednesday, March 26th

2008-03-27T07:55:00.000-07:00

There was a huge fight. My cousins had all gotten involved and there was a lot of blood. As a matter of fact, because of all that blood, some of them had gotten very sick. Nobody wanted to talk about what diseases they had and how they'd be affected, but me and my sister knew.

My mother was out of town for most of this, and when she returned, we all met at my grandmother's house to discuss the situation. It was clear that at least 5 of my cousins were infected and sick and needed complete bed rest. My uncle was very disappointed in his children. My sisters were both safe.

My grandmother's adopted son (whom she had just gotten a couple of days before) was infected. She was furious.

When we were driving home, my mother asked me where it all happened. I told her it had happened in the kitchen of our own home. She looked at my dad incredulously. He nodded. She punched him in the arm. "I can't believe you didn't tell me," she said. "I haven't even changed the sugar."

Monday, March 17

2008-03-18T08:56:00.000-07:00

I was at a wake. Someone I knew had died, but not someone in my family. At the wake, I ran into an old high school classmate's mother. I said hello. She was surprised to see me and said hello back.

I asked her about her son--Lawrence--and where he was.

She said he was gone and asked me into another room to explain.

I walked with her into a lavish room. I sat on a bed while she looked at herself in the mirror and made herself ready. She had huge hair and a colorful dress.
She came into the room and I immediately knew she was up to no good. She was a vampire witch, I knew, and out for my blood.

I struggled to get out of the room and she followed me. I asked everyone at the wake to leave and she slammed doors and closed off hallways just by moving her hand. She laughed and I knew she had me.

I turned towards her and moved my hands in the same way. I was surprised to see I could push her back and close doors too.

I opened doors instead. I let my aunts out of the wake and plead with my mother to leave too. They didn't need to be there. I could hear Sandra (that was her name) pounding on the other side of a door. My mother and everyone else had made it out to the garden and I had waved the gate out onto the street open.
Something told me, it seemed, that once out in the street we'd be protected from the woman's power.

They all exited, as did I and the woman burst from the house towards us. She was in a rage. BUT once she stepped out onto the street she was fine. She said bye to us and we did the same. We walked off in different directions and I knew we were safe from her.

Monday, March 10

2008-03-11T07:19:00.000-07:00

I was in a small market town. A man had two small cows and he had a contest going on: for a price, a noise would sound, and you'd have to guess if it was he or the cow who was making the noise.
I talked to him, told him he was making the noises, and he hit the cows which quickly walked up to the front door, pushed it open, and left. Once outside, realizing how cold it was, the cows turned around and tried to come back inside. They couldn't pull the doors open, so they turned into babies.
The babies crawled around, crying, until a woman from within the market came out, pushed them all together to make one baby, and held it as it calmed down. She looked at the man who had the cows and glared.
Another woman appeared and chastised the man for what he'd done. She couldn't believe that he would create a man/cow hybrid. She thought the babies would suffer a lot throughout their lives.

Meanwhile, I was trying to get back home. I was talking to my grandma Nanny on my ear piece as I drove down the highway. I got lost, though, since I was talking so much, and pulled over in a small town to ask for directions. I got them, but I felt there was something eerie about them. I followed the path they told me to and got to an abandoned or closed down shopping mall. I was getting ready to be attacked or surprised when I saw a bus driver whom I often road with. I asked him for directions and he walked me down a series of steps to a market place where I met the boy with the cows.

Sunday, March 9th

2008-03-10T07:36:00.000-07:00

I was back in high school. I was trying to find the table where I'd get my registration information: what class was I taking, which locker was mine, etc. I asked my cousin (who I did go to high school with) and he said he had no idea. I had a feeling he was lying.
I finally found it, registered, and wondered if they sold locker locks at the campus store. They didn't.
I sat down on some steps to look through the course materials I'd gotten. Just for safe measure, though, I pulled down my pants a little bit--just low enough to show my boxers. Soon enough, my friends Luisa and Charlene walked by. They said hi to me and I stood up and immediately got really embarrassed by my loose pants.
My cousin Tomas then showed up in his van and invited us to take a drive. I got in and he backed out of the school and started going really fast. He kept going backwards and kept barely avoiding accidents.
I asked him to slow down and he said he was fine and when I asked him where we were going, he said that out by the airport. I thought to myself that at the first chance I got, I'd get off. Everyone was laughing and talking and Tomas was driving and I wondered why he was such a bad driver. I considered the fact that he was Asian, but I thought there was probably something else to it.

Wednesday, March 5th

2008-03-06T11:24:00.000-08:00

Miranda, my little sister, was not happy. She was being abused (although I'm not sure in what form) and as a result, had decided to restart her life. She hugged me and expressed how much she loved me before reverting back to her baby self. We were back to the days of diapers and learning to walk and learning to read. I missed talking with her, but I knew she wasn't gone and she'd be able to talk soon enough.

Coats for all weather

2008-03-04T16:18:00.000-08:00

I'm visiting my friend Megan in New York City and decide to take the afternoon to go downtown and buy a coat. I walk into an old store front, the kind of place where tradesmen and painters go to buy their Carharts and Dickies. It reminds me of a place in Webster Groves my Dad and I used to go when I was in elementary school. Erring on the side of caution (and fashion) I buy two huge marshmallow-style puffy jackets. There is a young black boy, probably 12 years old, who sits behind the wooden counter and rings up my bill. He wears th clothes of a much older man and speaks mellifluously, with excellent diction and a vocabulary beyond his years. His voice, however, remains that of a boy. He asks if I have a way to bring the coats home, since they are too big to fit on the bus (they suddenly are exceedingly bulky; I wonder if I can somehow deflate them). He suggests tying them to the bike rack on the front of the bus; I reconsider.

The bus pulls up and there is a Mexican standing on top of the bus tying down people's luggage and day bags. I pass up my coats and board. Now the bus is driving through the moonscape of Mexico's Central Valley. As we enter the frontier of the outer suburbs, the buildings start to slowly fade into the aisles of a supermarket. Looking out the window I think, Mexico City's aesthetic comes from its rampant advertisements.

Sunday, March 2

2008-03-03T07:44:00.001-08:00

I headed over to my friend Matt's. His family was out of town, so when I pushed the front door open 5 dogs raised their heads to meet mine.
One of the dogs was enormous, and one was ridiculously tiny.
Matt was "dogsitting" for the weekend.

His house, unfortunately, was really dirty. The dogs were not allowed outdoors for some reason and they had made a mess of EVERYTHING.

I walked back to my downtown apartment--it was on a first floor and had French doors that opened up to the sidewalk. Once inside, a large door blocked the room that faced the street from the rest of the house. A balcony from the second floor looked down into that sidewalk room.

The news was predicting doomsday weather. My mother and father were staying with Zach and I and I called Matt and Scott to come stay with us because we were high above street level were the flooding and snow would not affect us. (I know. I know. I somehow had French doors that opened to the sidewalk and 16th floor living).

My mother cooked for all of us and I locked the French doors. I was worried because Matt and Scott hadn't arrived. I looked down the street and people with homes that weren't prepared for the weather kept banging on people's doors for shelter and food. I waved at Matt and Scott, asked them to hurry, and was elated to see that Matt was wearing his multicolored dream coat. It would surely keep him from harm.

In the house, after locking the doors, my mother sat us down for a nice dinner. We all sat around a large table and I thought about the fact that Matt and Scott had really little interaction with my father. I hoped he didn't hurt their feelings.

We ate and I heard banging on the French doors. I opened the divider door and saw that people had stuck their arms and legs in through broken glass windows. It was a post-apocalyptic scene. I screamed and closed the door and asked my father to take care of it.

Matt, Scott, Zach and I went upstairs to play board games. I could hear the thunder and the rain had started. I didn't worry, though. I had board games, my mom's cooking, and great friends.

I did worry about the dog's at Matt's place, but he didn't seem worried himself.

Wednesday, February 27

2008-02-28T12:43:00.000-08:00

I knew I was in trouble when the leader of a warring tribe was made to believe that my peaceful tribe had the secret formula for cocaine. He wanted it and he wanted it bad. He threatened all of us. He was a large man, imposing and frightening.

He came into our office--our village elder was standing by me. He was an old man, bald and frail.
He asked for the cocaine recipe and we replied honestly: we don't have it.
He said he'd give us time. A couple of days. But that he'd be back.
And just to show us he meant business he took out a razor and cut a slice out of the village elder's head. He sliced off the skin like you might peel an apple.
Then he grabbed me, took me to another room, and broke my back. I had to ride in a wheelchair after that.

I met with the village wise men to decide what we'd do about the threats. They were sure, they said, that the secret to cocaine was hidden in seashells. If you read the lines and the shapes carefully enough you'd figure it out.

One of the wise men grabbed a shell and started turning it and analyzing it. It opened up in his hand and indeed, inside, it was full of cocaine. He had no idea what he had done, though, or how to redo it.
We could give the threatener a handful of cocaine, but that was all we had.

Tuesday, February 26

2008-02-27T08:10:00.000-08:00

I'd been out shopping and was walking through a large garage looking for my car. I couldn't find it anywhere and was starting to get worried.

Finally, on a floor with few cars, I saw a group of cops walking around. They kept talking about finding the owner of the car. I got even more worried.

When I walked up to my car I saw that it had been completely taken apart. There was nothing left. Whoever had broken into the car had even taken the seats. It was now a broken piece of metal.

The cop approached me from behind and apologized. It had happened a couple of times before, she said, and they were hoping to catch the criminal.

Would insurance cover this? I asked.

Depends on what kind of insurance you have, she said.

I doubted I had the right type.

I salvaged what I could from the car (mainly some tools that were left in the glove compartment), and walked away.

In the same parking garage, a few floors down, was a car dealership. They had a GM car on sale for $3,333. I took it for a test drive and was sold. I might as well just buy a new car. I had to pick color (green or teal?).
I walked up to the cash register and told them I didn't want it financed.
Are you paying cash then? they asked.

No. I just want to pay a little each month, but I don't want it financed because that ends up just taking long time.

Ok! You can pay a little each month then.

I drove out of the garage in my brand new car. It was beautiful on the inside--it felt like a $30,000+ car. It didn't have a division between the front seats, just one long seat.

I can't remember what color it was.

Friday, February 22

2008-02-23T15:52:00.001-08:00

I was a member of a tribe of people who lived right in between the land of the living and the land of the dead. We would crawl in between both lands through special tunnels that had been dug out in the mud. We were allowed to move in between.

It was Friday and my friends and I had gone to the mall. After a fight with a guy who wanted to kidnap me--and after I flew away doing the backstroke in the air--we headed back home. A young girl was following us, I could tell, and there was nothing we were going to do about it.

We got to the border. A huge, tree-trunk fence divided the living from the dead. In the ground, in a huge pit, were hundreds of bodies, each body on an individual dais. We moved around the pit and noticed that a group of four or five kids weren't dead. They were lying in the pit, pretending to be dead, as a form of protest. I smiled at the kids and noticed one of them was Daniel Radcliffe.

The girl kept following us and I told her she couldn't come through the tunnels. She asked how she could cross and I pointed her towards the main gate. My father greeted her and she explained she wanted to cross.
"I can get you a ticket on a boat in about three hours," he said.
"I'll take it," she said.

My friends and I crossed through the tunnels and climbed up to the top of the fence. From there we could see the pits full of bodies and the young girl, who had found a tree-stump to sit on while she waited for her boat.

Right then lightning struck and sent the girl flying away. Her body fell dead on the muddy ground. My friends and I all looked at each other and nodded.

There was no boat.

That's not how Juno ends!

2008-02-23T10:10:00.000-08:00

I'm watching Juno; well, considering the dream perspective, perhaps quietly voyeuring is the best description. The story proceeds as expected, but at the deneumont we fast forward several years. The group is sitting on the front steps of some urban brownstone apartment building. As a parting tiff, the male lead insinuates that he never lost his virginity to the Ellen Page--twist!
The "movie" then becomes a dark film exploration of sexual predation and the guy's suppressed gay desires.

Wednesday, February 20

2008-02-21T09:16:00.001-08:00

I was on an airplane on my way to see my grandmother. I had one bag and it was with me.
I was wearing a suit coat. Nothing else.

A man next to me kept talking to me about my bag and the stuff in it. He was really interested in my camera. I didn't trust him, especially because I was naked.

I got off the airplane and stopped at a small restaurant. I hung my coat over the back of a chair and sat down to eat. I realized I needed to use the bathroom so I started walking towards it. I thought maybe I better wear my coat to the bathroom so I ran back across the restaurant to grab it. A table of women stared at me but I didn't care.

I went into the bathroom. It was dimly lit and had ugly green tile. I thought maybe I shouldn't be walking around in there in my bare feet. What did it matter, I thought, because I didn't have shoes to put on anyway.

I used one of the urinals that had walls on either sides. As I was washing my hands I looked in the mirror to the man standing behind me. He was fully clothed and had a strange, long bump on his head. It looked like what cartoon characters develop after getting hit. Just a long, knobby bump. He was wearing a knit cap over the bump and it make it look even more ridiculous.

I nodded and he nodded back.

Tuesday, February 20

2008-02-19T08:09:00.001-08:00

The Haunted Becomes the Haunting

I was at home, driving some of my friends to a famous haunted house in Heredia. We entered the lobby of a large house, where there wasn’t ivy, there were orange drapes covering large amount of wall space. Strangely enough, I wasn’t scared. I was eager. I wanted to hear haunts; the distant crooning of a subdued soul; the soft cackle of a lost child. But we heard nothing.

I woke up – but still in the dream. I was on a bed in the middle of a field, far from the house we were just in. My friends were walking toward me, either looking for me or continuing their search for ghosts in this strange lot. In this dream, I had spectacular night vision – a luxury my friends did not share with me. So when they got close, I feigned a raspy voice and a limp. Despite my inability to run quickly in these subconscious worlds, I managed to drive them quite far back into the house before they all realized … that I was naked?

Monday, February 19

2008-02-19T07:00:00.001-08:00

I took a musical composition class.

We all sat around a large interior courtyard. We had computers and keyboards. The professor paced around the room as we composed.

I had already taken the class before and had put together a wonderful symphony. That's why this time I was the teacher's special assistant. I got to walk around and help students with their compositions as well as compose my own.

I loved the class. Especially because the teacher was Philip Glass.

Later, my friend Rosalia and I played around on a glass elevator, going up and down and side to side.

Sunday, February 17

2008-02-18T07:15:00.000-08:00

My mother was guiding a group of us through the fields of a farm. She was in the front, my sisters behind her, a gorilla, and then me. I was very proud of the gorilla. She couldn't quite speak yet, but she was civilized and happy to be coming with us back into the city.

We stopped to rest and I sat with the gorilla. I pointed a panda bear and her baby making their way through the farm in the distance. The gorilla enjoyed seeing them.

We reached the city and the gorilla was a little shocked. I don't think she knew what to expect. We took her to a museum and showed her human bones and gorilla bones. She denied having gorilla bones. The museum's curator assured her those were the bones she had.

In the museum I ran into my cousin Danny. He and I strolled outside to a pier where cruise ships often docked. We talked about what we were thinking of doing with our futures. He said he wanted a master's degree. I said I did too. In Costa Rica, maybe. He said not in Costa Rica because he'd have to study under Mr. Atkinson (our old English teacher) and he didn't want that. I told him Lincoln (our old high school) would be a good place to do it, though. He said he was thinking of doing it in the states. I asked him not to leave for California.

We strolled through his grandmother's old house. The ghost of his grandfather still lingered there. His sister and brother had fallen asleep by a huge fireplace. His sister woke up and smiled at us.

We walked out of the house and into a gigantic glass structure filled with gardens and canals. It was beautiful and peaceful and full of light. Tall palm trees pushed up towards the glass and there were beautifully landscaped stone paths leading through the waterfalls and gardens. I asked him to stay in Costa Rica with me. He agreed to think about it. In the meantime, though, he and I both had places to go.

I hailed 5 water taxis (one driven by Andrew Westlund, from Saint Louis) and set off with my entourage.

Saturday, February 16

2008-02-17T07:23:00.000-08:00

1. My mother and my sister took a trip to China. Throughout the trip they wore masks. In the photos I saw of the trip later, I could never be too sure that it was really them who had gone on that trip.

2. My mother had purchased my late great-grandfather's house. There was a ghost in there, we both knew it.

3. Zach was really angry. Anything I did just made him angrier. He and some other friends even kicked me out of a game of connect 4.

4. I was driving through the Costa Rican mountains. There were volcanoes and jungles and beaches.

5. At the beach. Something extremely important and special was going to happen and I was excited I was there for it.

6. I was going to take a cruise. In order to get on the boat first I had to go to the airport and go through customs. Then I'd take a tiny plane to a hotel. I'd spend the night there and in the morning--really early, before anyone else was up--I'd take a helicopter back to the airport and onto the ship. I did that twice and then told my parents how to do it.

7. In my dad's car we drove, on the runway, next to my mom and sister's airplane. We waved as they took off. My mom was piloting.

You just can't get good help these days

2008-02-16T08:53:00.000-08:00

I'm in a crowded, upscale restaurant. The place is huge and densely packed with diners. Our waiter is serving us when another waiter whose shift just ended barges up to him on his way out. The second waiter starts berating our waiter in front of the whole restaurant. I can't remember over what, but it was petty. Our waiter, maintaining all decorum, ignores the other as best he can and apologizes to the surrounding tables. Finally the second waiter grabs at our waiter's hand and almost makes him drop the glass he was serving my companion. I gesture to the rude waiter that he should leave us alone and get out of the restaurant. The waiter then pokes me hard in the ribs with his index and middle finger. I am outraged and jump out of my chair. "I can't believe the service in this place!" I holler, "Unbelievable!" The restaurant starts to divide into two camps: those who support my outrage and those who think the waiters should do whatever they like. This eternal battle between server and served was, alas, unresolved.

Friday, February 15

2008-02-16T08:39:00.000-08:00

I was walking down the street near my favorite restaurant. It's a cute place on the sidewalk. It's full of little tables with umbrellas and people are eating and playing board games and there's lots of greenery.

The owner, a friend of mine, approaches and says "We're being forced to close by Frutch."

I was so upset. Frutch was another restaurant. Bigger, yes, but not better.

I called my mother and my cousin and we immediately got on the train. We were going to New York with this!

It was going to be a very long ride, though. To get from wherever we were to New York, on the train, would take days.

Days passed--on the train--and we entered the tunnels beneath Boston. The train went up and down hills and on one of the last hills, we saw that the track had been closed! The train pulled into a station and we got out to try and figure what we needed to do. The attendant calmly told us not to worry, we were just being transfered trains and we'd still make it into New York on time.
We were relieved and we made our way towards the other track. We walked up to the door and the conductor asked for our tickets. We had left them on the other train! We hadn't even thought about bringing them with us!

I was desperate. To buy a whole other ticket would be too expensive. Frutch couldn't win! Not on this one!

My phone rang. I picked it up. A sultry voice told me I had won a lot of money! My problems were solved!

Then she laughed and I realized it was my aunt Livia. She was bored and lonely and had prank called me to get a laugh.

Mowing grass.

2008-02-15T20:39:00.000-08:00

I'm back in the neighborhood I grew up in, where I used to mow grass for a few of the old widows on my street during the summer. This one woman, Olive, lives about five houses down from me. Her backyard is pretty big, but a chunk of it is taken up by an in-ground pool that hasn't been used in years. The bottom of it has a foot or so of scummy water, frothing with green algae. Bullfrogs live in it, and I always wonder how they enjoy living in there with no discernable way out.

One day after mowing her yard, I walk down to get my money. I ring the bell and wait much longer than usual for her to answer. She finally does, and begins to root around in her purse for some money. As she does, she starts to quiver, then to shake. The shaking intensifies, becoming convulsive and alarming. I'm stunned and don't know what to do - I'm just some kid that mows the grass. She starts to snort and thick, pasty drool erupts from her mouth in bursts. She doubles over, and her arms seize up tight against her body. She collapses to the floor as the spasms continue. Her eyes bulge and turn black, and her ears elongate. Right in front of my horrified eyes, Olive painfully morphs into a white rabbit.

Seriously.

Recurring move

2008-02-15T16:23:00.001-08:00

It's been the same one for three nights:

I am sitting on the floor in the corner of my apartment, leaning against the wall with my legs stretched in front of me. The room is empty, save for a few boxes and a coat in the opposite corner. An ex-boyfriend-whom I do not recognize- methodically carries the boxes out the door, ignoring my presence. When he finishes, he re-enters and looks at me intensely with a combination of disappointment and anger. Without breaking his gaze, he puts on the coat, shakes his head, and leaves without closing the door.

It repeats several times a night.

Thursday, February 14

2008-02-15T07:08:00.000-08:00

My friends from home missed me. I hadn't seen them in so long and they wanted me to come back.
I acquiesced and spent a day with them back in high school. We even stopped by the cafeteria kioks and got a croissant (Vous le fa fa).

I left the next day because my family was taking a trip. We were going to the beach. When my friends complained that there were many pretty beaches in Costa Rica I told them I was actually going to a beach in Alaska. I'm pretty sure that was a lie.

We took an airplane. It had very, very little space to land on, but it did just fine, and we landed right next to the pool.
At the beach we had to share our house with someone else. The other people were ok with it, but they seemed a little uncomfortable. Our house, though, was also part of a hotel. It was on the 10th floor of a large building.

I crept into the 6th floor to try and steal a tree as a prank. I was unsuccessful, however, because the guard on the 6th floor told me I could only go to the bathroom in my own room. Going to the bathroom had been part of the plan.

Back in the city the couple we shared the beach house with called. They had enjoyed spending time with us and were wondering if we'd be interested in living together all the time. I decided to think about it while I walked through the city. Both of them kissed me on the mouth.

It was a busy day on the streets, there were cars and buses full of people everywhere. I decided to go to a favorite restaurant right on the fringe of town. It was dangerously close to where the bad part of town started but it was worth it.

On my way there, I ran into Jeff Pike and Carmon Colangelo (my 2 bosses) and they were headed there as well. They were planning, they said, on talking loudly about the school while they ate in hopes of attracting more applicants.

I was a little disgusted and decided to go somewhere else for lunch. I took a wrong turn, though, and ended up in the bad part of town. I tried to get out as quickly as possible, but I kept making wrong turns. The bad part of town stretched ominously in all directions.

I finally found someone who gave me directions and I could see the good part of town shining in the distance. I walked as fast as I could. I heard yells behind me and turned just in time to see a boy in a bicycle zoom by. I was sure he meant to rob me and I was frightened.

I found another restaurant and ducked in. It was a Hispanic restaurant and the owner offered to drive me home. I turned him down, though, because I didn't want him to lose his good parking space.

I found my family. They'd been driving around looking for me. We were finally headed home, but my aunt Livia begged that we stop. On the side of the road she'd spotted a house that she recognized from her gossip magazine. It was supposed to be the house of some big-time actress. It looked abandoned to me.

She and I walked up to the front door slowly. I could see it was ajar. There was certainly nobody in there, I thought. It was abandoned. But Livia was relentless.

She approached the house and pushed the door open. We both screamed. In the house, taking a shower, was the grandma from the Beverly Hillbillies.

Robin Williams came out of where?

2008-02-14T21:15:00.000-08:00

I am a visiting vassal to the court of kingdom of bullets, or least bullet-like people. The majority of the royal court is made up of bulletmen (I only recall there being men, but I don't want to count out female bullets). They are about the size of a soccer ball and have no arms or legs; their locomotion seems inspired by Beauty and the Beast.

There was one bullet who was charged with carrying the king's luggage around with him at all times so that the king could leave on a whim. Some of the more elite bullets had golden rings laid flat on their faces, giving them the appearance of noses.

Suddenly, I'm in a Ricola-inspired mountain valley. Flowers are everywhere. I hear a voice say that someone paid a lot of money to see the unicorn cry, and then the unicorn appears. I walk towards it and as I raise my hand to touch its face, Robin Williams emerges. First there is only his face and then his shoulders and arms follow and he mumbles something inaudible that I am convinced is of the utmost importance.

Now there is a gun floating in mid-air; I'm looking down the barrel, but I can see that it's not pointed at me. The gun fires and then Robin disappears back into the unicorn's face. The unicorn turns and gallops away.

I return to the kingdom of the bulletmen a hero and take the throne as king. My first act as ruler of the bullets is to emancipate the poor soul who had to carry the king's luggage everywhere. There is much celebration as I begin my benevolent rule.

Friends

2008-02-14T10:12:00.000-08:00

The cast of "Friends", plus myself, sat around a cafe singing "We Are the World". End of story.

Tuesday, February 12

2008-02-13T08:16:00.000-08:00

I saw a piece of parchment unfurling before me. It was of incredible importance and value. I had to read it. But I couldn't. It was in a different language: something I had never read or seen.

I was sure I could decipher it, though, and started immediately. It was an enormous piece of velum that kept unrolling. It seemed like whatever secret was hidden in it would go on forever.

I called up some of my old fraternity brothers to try and get their help. They called me over to the house so that I could see a video they had put together. I agreed to come.

When I got to the house they had prepared a bedroom for me. I was to spend the night in their master bedroom (it was my parent's bedroom from when we lived in Barrio Escalante--as a matter of fact, it was the same house).

I waited and waited for someone to show me the video but nobody would. Finally, I walked out into the common room to ask one of them to show me the video. I tapped one on the shoulder and it was my cousin Fernando. He said he'd put the video on.

I went back into the bedroom and jumped in bed. Fernando came in and knelt down in front of the TV to make the necessary adjustments.

Monday, February 11

2008-02-12T07:41:00.000-08:00

I was at a BBQ at my uncle's house. There were lots of kids playing all around and the adults were sitting upstairs, on a rooftop terrace, right near the grill.

I felt the urge to go downstairs and use the bathroom, so my uncle asked if I could send Smart-Smart up.

I descended, down a wide staircase, into the lower levels of the house. On my way down I said, "Smart-Smart, they need you upstairs."
I large dog, shaggy and with a long snout bound up the stairs past me.

I looked for the bathroom downstairs--a beautiful house, with interior gardens and light pooling in through skylights. I couldn't find it, though, and felt lost.

Smart-Smart reappeared, this time holding a pillow in its mouth.
"For me?" I asked.
I looked at the pillow. It had a note attached to it, and prices sewn into it. I had to pay $2 to use the bathroom, it said. I thought that'd be fine, except I usually don't carry bills in my wallet. I have a separate money clip. How would I pay Smart-Smart?

I looked in my pocket, and to my relief, I had brought the wrong wallet. This one did have bills in it. Then, of course, I worried about other things, like my driver's license and my credit cards.

I went into the bathroom and started closing the door. Smart-Smart stuck its snout in, preventing me from shutting it. I tried to tell him I'd pay him after I used the bathroom, but he was relentless. I took out the two dollars and handed them to him. He took my whole hand in his mouth. It was wet, and hot, and...interesting. My hand came out without the bills and I noticed it was completely covered in Smart-Smart drool.

I tried to close the door and still, Smart-Smart would not allow it. I pushed with both hands and Smart-Smart stayed, his body halfway in and halfway out. Eventually I decided to just pee with my foot lodged against the door so that Smart-Smart would not come further inside.

When I was done I left the bathroom and headed into some other room downstairs. A cartoon was playing on a large movie-theater screen and two children were sitting there watching. I felt like I had interrupted something when I went in (maybe they were kissing?). I looked at Smart-Smart, still carrying around the little pillow with prices, and left. I told him I might purchase the theater later, but for now, he should allow the kids to stay inside.

Smart-Smart left me and I continued to explore the lower levels of my uncle's house. There were children in all of them. Some were watching movies, some were playing video games, some where writing letters to loved ones. There was something bizarre about the place--no adults is an obvious one (they were all upstairs, on the roof deck, sitting by the grill)--but I didn't quite figure out what it was.

Eventually I stopped in one of the rooms and played video games with my cousin Silvana. She was trying to kill two dragons that were crawling around a gigantic column. I shot one of them with an arrow, straight through the eye.

The dragon fell off the column and tumbled to its death. As it fell, it let everyone know that the Queen of the Dragons was now dead.

Blake, again.

2008-02-11T09:13:00.000-08:00

Last night I dreamed of Blake again.

I was walking down a dirt road through vibrant green foothills on a bright, sunny day. Something caught my attention over a nearby hill and I hung a left at a fork in the road. As I approached the hilltop, the trees broke and there was a small crowd gathered in a broad meadow. Everyone looked up to the sky, where a number of jets were swirling through the sky. I wondered when I was going to buy my X-Box 360.

My friend Blake emerged from the crowd. He walked over and asked if I'd like to go grab a cup of coffee with him. I said I did, and we left the meadow and soon found ourselves in an underground parking garage. As we walked to the coffeeshop, he was messing with his cell phone and complained how he needed a new one. In my mind, I saw into the future and knew he would soon buy a new smart phone. I decided not to tell him about it, because I also knew that he would die soon, and I didn't want him to know that.

I was sad he was going to die, but grateful we had this chance to get coffee together before it happened.

Sunday, February 10

2008-02-11T07:12:00.000-08:00

I had attached a bungee cord to an end of the swimming pool. That way, once I bungeed upwards, I would come back down and fall in the pool. Easy enough.
The gardener thought it was brilliant.

I made my jump, upwards into the treetops, and when I fell back, found that I was carrying a monkey boy. He was half monkey, half boy. He was odd, but he meant well. I fed him some bananas but he said he preferred apples. We quickly became good friends.

Everyone hated the monkey boy. They thought he was weird and they didn't really accept the boy-monkey mix. I was upset by this. I didn't want anybody thinking badly about my new friend.

Meanwhile, on a little path that came close to the pool, my cousin Fernando's new-born daughter was out taking a walk. Everyone was horrified because it was so cold out and she wasn't wearing any shoes. They all called out to her from inside. Come back in, don't go out there, etc.

I got out of the pool, picked her up, and brought her in. I kissed her on the cheek and told her she hadn't kissed me good morning yet. She did. Then she picked up a glass bottle of Coca-Cola and started drinking from it.

Grandma wasn't happy. Little girls that young shouldn't be drinking Coca Cola, she said. The girl responded rudely and with lots of sass. I told her she shouldn't stick the glass bottle in her mouth like that because she could knock some teeth out. She said she probably couldn't lose any more teeth.

The kitchen door opened and my mother led the girl's mother out. She was eating ravioli with the little girl's milk teeth sprinkled on top. She looked absolutely disgusted.

The father (my cousin Fernando) grabbed his surf board and floated away on the swimming pool.

I left for my bedroom where I'd seen a huge bag of apples. I had to get monkey boy some food. It was a huge bag of red apples--they didn't look that good to me. I asked if anybody knew who they belonged to and Liz Childs (faculty at the school I work at) showed up to say they were hers. She showed me how good the apples were and pointed at places she thought were probably extra juicy. She said I could have one, but not two. I grabbed one, thanked her, and asked her where she'd gotten them. She said she'd write the address down for me. She said eating this many apples was how her husband stayed healthy.

She grabbed a piece of paper from my desk--it had my grocery list on it--and she scribbled down the address. When I looked at it I realized it was a monk's name, in Thai.

I grabbed my apple and went looking for monkey boy. Downtown Saint Louis was a mess. The police were fighting against a band of boys who had rebelled and were just...evil. Buildings had fallen apart and there was rubble everywhere. I could see shots being fired from one building to another. Mortar bombs and grenades exploded in the distance.

I had to walk another block before getting home when I realized a policeman had his gun aimed at me. He probably thinks I'm one of the rebels, I thought. I ducked and told him I was on his side, but it was too late, he had shot a grenade in my direction. I continued to plead with him, begging for my life. He smiled and said I shouldn't worry. The bombs were only filled with air and meant to scare more than to hurt. I walked over to where he was hiding inside the remains of a destroyed building. Across the street I noticed someone I knew had a gun aimed at the man. I tried to warn the policeman but it was too late. He'd been shot in the leg.

The cop fell out of the building and reached for his gun. My friend climbed out of his building with a different gun. He aimed it at the policeman and fired only to realize he was out of ammo. The policeman smiled and aimed his gun but the pain from his bleeding leg wasn't giving him a steady shot.

He handed me the gun and said "you better not miss."

I didn't want to kill anybody. I was just walking home. I looked at the gun and at my friend standing there with a sad look on his face. "What did you do?" I asked him.
He didn't answer, but in a flash, I saw his body surrounded in flames and what he had done: he'd poisoned and killed monkey boy.

I was furious when I woke up.

Saturday, February 9th

2008-02-10T20:03:00.000-08:00

I was talking to an American woman and her son. They had just finished saying something about travel. I smiled and told them I'd gladly give them a tour of my country if they ever cared to visit.
They nodded, thanked me, and headed out the room (I think it was a kitchen).

My cousins (second cousins like Walty and Andy) were sitting at the kitchen table. They all looked at me and started laughing and hooting. They couldn't believe I had just offered those people a tour of Costa Rica.

The Hole

2008-02-10T11:51:00.000-08:00

It was an ink-black night. Two plain white SUVs drove down a gravel road surrounded by flat, fallow fields on all sides and in every direction. The vehicles headlights cut through the dark, illuminating the dust from the gravel and unused earth, as they traveled down one perpendicular road after another. Finally, they reached a ramshackle shed made of little more than corrugated aluminum walls and a shoddy roof. There they parked and three men emerged, including myself.

We entered the shed and a light hung from the ceiling, swaying back and forth, casting stark shadows about the cramped space. In the middle of the dirt floor was a small hole, from which protruded the upper-half of a man in a biohazard suit. The hole was too small to accommodate anything more than his legs. I noticed the men I arrived with carried machine guns, and were dressed in military fatigues.

The man in the hole began to fidget, then to struggle. His face gnashed in pain, then agony, as he was forcibly pulled into the hole by something unseen. He shrieked as blood filled the hood and drained from his nose, mouth and eyes. In a sudden burst, the mask of the hood was splattered with gore, and the man was violently sucked into the hole. The men readied their guns, and I ran from the shed.

Outside, screams and gunfire cut through the dark somewhere in the distance. I ran past the cars and into the fields. The other men ran from the shed, jumped in the cars, and raced off. They were in pursuit of me. I didn't know why, but I kept running.

Friday, February 8

2008-02-09T16:52:00.000-08:00

I was walking around a lake, and when I turned over to look at the lake there were three women holding back three enormous alligators. They were on leashes.

I turned to whoever was next to me and told her: "Oh my god. Look at those enormous alligators!"

They were gigantic. Really long and bizarre.

"They're always there," the girl said.

I looked over to Miranda, who was playing on a hill in the distance, and called her over to see the alligators. She ran over and was just as amazed as I was. She moved over to the railing on the side of the lake and peered inside. There was a sleepy Plesiosaurus resting on the bottom. Its head was against a rock.

I walked over to where my mother was sitting and told her the lake was full of dinosaurs.
"Isn't that amazing?" I asked.

She pointed towards the lake and an Ichthyosaurs had just jumped out--very similarly to a dolphin--and was swimming in circles.

Miranda had waded into the lake and was helping the women with the alligators and the leashes. When I next turned to look at her she was feeding a Tyrannosaurus Rex. I could only see its head. It was coming out of the lake.

Welcome

2008-02-09T16:39:00.000-08:00

So here's the idea of the project:

Anything that gets posted here has to have been dreamed. You can't post lies or made up stories. You can't post things that actually happened. You have to post things that you've dreamed about. It can be bizarre or half-remembered. It can make sense and read like a real-life recollection. It just has to have been dreamed.

Easy enough, right?

The more people that contribute, the more interesting it will become.

E-mail me and I'll give you the blog passwords, etc.

Let's see what happens.