Wednesday, November 4, 2009

A Lesser Nightmare

I don't quite remember what led up to it, but I remember being out in front of my grandparent's house, either along the street or in a parked car, perhaps behind a car. A police car went past with its lights flashing, though no siren. It seemed to be in pursuit of another car, but neither were going particularly fast. There were several hispanic men in a car behind us, a red volkswagen bug, and they pulled out and started following the police car. They appeared to be armed. I noticed the street seemed different. It was wider, and looked more inner-city-ish. There were cars parked all along both sides of the street, and there were a lot more buildings, apartments, and hotels. The policeman had stopped his car and gotten out, pistol drawn. He was a black man of medium build with a mustache, and in full uniform. There were more young hispanic men coming up the street towards him, seemed to be a large gang, or a perhaps the start of a riot. They mostly carried sticks, clubs, and such, but a few of them had guns.

My dad had me take my mother, sister, and brother-in-law into our hotel (apparently we were at the shore on vacation now rather than at my grandparents' place), while he and my brother, both armed as well, were going to give back-up for the policeman, along with a few other upright men of varying race. I was frantically running through the hotel, looking desperately for our room, which overlooked this particular street. I entered one room that I thought was it, but an older woman was in it whom i did not recognize. "Sorry, wrong room," I said, and quickly ran out to continue my search. I entered another room at the end of the hallway, but found an unfamiliar older couple in it. "Your room's over there," the man said, pointing to an adjacent door. My sister unlocked the door and we went inside, and there found my mother in a bathing suit, apparently getting ready for the beach. It was understood / implied in my mind at this point that she was not present earlier. I ran to the window and grabbed a rifle, in hopes of offering sniper support, but when I got there it was already over. People were cheering, the gang had been defeated, though how, I do not know.

Time passed, and things began to settle down. I was about to go to bed, but I stopped to look out the window in my bedroom. It had started to storm, and and I could see the ocean. Suddenly an enormous wave rose high above the horizon. That's a big wave, I thought. Then it came crashing down, and the water came rushing toward the hotel, and filled up all the way to my window, which was on one of the upper floors. It continued to flow until the bottom two-thirds of the window was covered in water. I feared that the glass might break and that the water would come pouring in, trapping us in a completely flooded hotel room. I ran to my sister's room, and she was sitting on the edge of her bed, consoling herself by hugging her little dog tightly. All of the windows I saw were now completely covered with water. "We have to go up!" I shouted, and we started to gather the rest of the family. But that must have been enough of it, for the threat of the flood completely disappeared from my mind.

Everyone else had left, or was waiting out in the hallway. I was walking to the bathroom, and suddenly realized I could place my tongue under and inside of one of my teeth, into an impossibly large cavity. In the bathroom, I took a hold of the tooth, and with a light tug, I pulled it out, and dropped it in the trash can. I looked in the mirror at the gaping, bloody hole along the right side of my mouth where the tooth had been. Then I became aware that there were more teeth that had to come out, and tin gripping another tooth and pulling, something resembling a dental retainer came out along with both of my canines. "Oh no, those were my favorite!" I lamented. I looked again, and saw what appeared to be a metal wire around them, as though I'd had some preparative dental work done for a night brace, or some other bizarre apparatus. I gazed into the mirror again, and although these had been from the upper row of teeth, my whole bottom row were gone, and my lips hung kind of loose at first, then receded into the deformity of a toothless lower jaw.

I awoke after that, and earnestly thanked the Lord I still had all of my teeth..

Tuesday, November 3, 2009

A Visit Down Under

In a recent travel dream, I some how wound up in Australia, along with several members of my family. We were at a summer camp of sorts, hosted/run by a man who was both simultaneously Steve Irwin, and Gordon Ramsay, though predominantly the former. It was getting late, and we were either getting ready to leave, or return to our cabins, i'm not sure which, and we had to cross an enormous rope bridge. It was impossibly wide, and near entirely composed of ordinary brown rope, and spanned / arched over a pond. Due to circumstances I no longer remember, I wound up in the water, though at least in part it was intentional. The water was a very pretty shade of blue. There were water lilies closer to the banks, and towards a cave further back along one of the walls. I started toward the cave, but a large, black, and partly transparent tadpole started coming towards me. It had no eyes, or any other features except a wide gaping mouth and a long, finned tail. I would estimate it between eight inches to a foot in length, and the head roughly two inches in diameter. I shooed my hand at it in the water, and it swam away. The Steve Irwin man had gathered everyone up at the edge of the bridge and was preparing to do something with a bunch of barrels that were right by the edge. But then everything fades at this point.

Sunday, November 1, 2009

Back to School (Again..)

I was in a classroom, my classroom, resembling a cross between my "home room" of high school, and my jr high / middle school science class. It leaned more toward the latter. The teacher, an older, slender man with graying black hair, had given an assignment, that I do not believe I had completed, if I remember correctly. Other students turned in papers. It was at the end of the class period, the bell rang (it was more of an electronic beeper over the loud speaker, which was standard during my high school year), but before I left, I met with three or four other teachers by the door, who were reading / reviewing the story I am currently in the process of writing. They were not thrilled with it, but did offer some words of encouragement. Particularly though, two or three of them began asking me questions in tandem, and I remember answering that I loved writing, and started back in the third grade. I'm not completely clear if I was deliberately lying, or just dreamfully forgetting that it was the sixth grade that I actually began to take a greater interest in imaginative compositions. They started offering tips and suggestions, but my attention began to drift out the door, I regret I did not mark their words, but instead I only remember my own, which was "practice?" I think they may have asked me what the three most important things are for becoming a good writer. Alas.

Then I was out in the hall, walking presumably to my next class. The left stem of my glasses had come loose in class apparently, and as i was walking, i become aware that the screw holding together the right had come loose as well. My brother was a little ways behind me, and I called to him to ask if he saw my glasses' stem and the screw to it. He must not have heard me clearly, for he cried, "what?" And it was then I felt the screw still in position, though completely apart, yet some how resting on a surface, though in fact they were still on my face. I pinched it together with my right hand and said, "nevermind." I walked on, my brother must have gone to another class, for I found myself alone and wandering around only semi-familiar territory of the school. I became less and less aware of where I was actually headed, and soon I was all but lost. But I kept on going, figuring it would eventually become familiar again. All the while I was thinking to myself, why am I still going to school? I'm 25 years old, I should have graduated by now. Funny thing is, in reality I'm actually around 33-34. But I digress.

I marched on, and as i was ascending a flight of stairs, I suddenly realized I was outside, it was summer time, and I was at the swimming pool to which we used to belong. A large number of my family members were there sitting by their towels and chairs on the grass around the baby pool.

I vaguely remember there was more to it than just this, but unfortunately this is the greatest of my recollections at present.

Curious though.