{"id":"urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:edom","title":"Into Edom","subtitle":"There too the lilith shall repose and find herself a resting place","author":{"name":"I was born in the desert..."},"link":[{"@attributes":{"rel":"alternate","type":"text\/html","href":"https:\/\/edom.livejournal.com\/"}},{"@attributes":{"rel":"self","type":"text\/xml","href":"https:\/\/edom.livejournal.com\/data\/atom"}},{"@attributes":{"rel":"service.feed","type":"application\/x.atom+xml","href":"https:\/\/edom.livejournal.com\/data\/atom","title":"Into Edom"}}],"updated":"2010-01-19T04:05:35Z","entry":[{"id":"urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:edom:25770","link":[{"@attributes":{"rel":"alternate","type":"text\/html","href":"https:\/\/edom.livejournal.com\/25770.html"}},{"@attributes":{"rel":"self","type":"text\/xml","href":"https:\/\/edom.livejournal.com\/data\/atom\/?itemid=25770"}}],"title":"Dream stub: who the hell is Michael Nasrudin?","published":"2010-01-19T04:05:35Z","updated":"2010-01-19T04:05:35Z","category":{"@attributes":{"term":"tag later"}},"content":"I don't remember enough of last night's dream to describe it outright. Even the setting is ambiguous--a school, or a workplace, or a reseach facility, or possibly all three rolled into one.

In the earliest part I can<\/i> remember, I was hanging out in the kitchen with a young woman that I had befriended when she told me that while she was out, a man by the name of Michael asked her for my number. I know quite a few Michaels, though, so, Michael who? \"Michael...Nasrudin<\/i>!\" She giggled. She squeed. I was aghast. Not Michael Nasrudin! UGH! No! Get his number and tell him I'll call him!

Waking reality checkpoint: I have no idea who this person is supposed to be.

Next day, dreamtime, we're in an auditorium when Michael Nasrudin walked in and tried to casually chat with us. Hemming and hawing ensued, and hurried excuses to leave. The dream shifted several times, and I woke up and forced myself to go back to sleep several times (ah, colds are fun), but every time, there was Michael Nasrudin.

I was rushing down an industrial staircase in pursuit of someone, and there comes Michael Nasrudin. I was waiting to give a speech, and there came Michael Nasrudin. And so forth. Once I realized he was going to show up and try to talk to me at every change, I sought him out to talk to him and get it over with.

No sign of the bastard!

So, if anyone has a clue who Michael Nasrudin might be, please, let me know. And give him my number."},{"id":"urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:edom:25465","link":[{"@attributes":{"rel":"alternate","type":"text\/html","href":"https:\/\/edom.livejournal.com\/25465.html"}},{"@attributes":{"rel":"self","type":"text\/xml","href":"https:\/\/edom.livejournal.com\/data\/atom\/?itemid=25465"}}],"title":"Dream: Obnoxious neighbors, now with chainsaws!","published":"2009-09-24T21:43:33Z","updated":"2009-09-24T21:43:33Z","category":{"@attributes":{"term":"tag later"}},"content":"Obnoxious neighbors, now with chainsaws!<\/b>
Yesterday morning, just after dawn, I dreamt that I was feeding worms to my frogs. As the dream pulled out, we were in a large, bright blue above-ground pool in the apartment's backyard. The pool, a fish pond, and the (not aquatic) frog vivarium all shared the same space, but somehow were separate; all anyone could see of it was the swimming pool, as the pond was (somehow) invisible or incorporeal, and the vivarium was somehow only accessible if you entered the pool and stayed dry. Oh, yeah--the pool was simultaneously wet and dry.

I don't know, folks. I just live in this brain.

A young boy of seven or eight climbed into the pool behind me. I was too surprised to react as he squatted down, helped himself to a worm, and then climbed out. I went to the edge of the pool, and saw a second boy approaching. I climbed up the ladder and put my foot out on his chest as he tried to climb up. I told him to back off in some very unpolite terms, as the shock wore off and was replaced by anger at having my space so casually violated. The boy protested that it wasn't fair, and swore at me. I cussed him out and shooed him away.

\"Oh, it's okay,\" called a voice. I turned and several buildings down, on a large deck, a woman waved from the middle of a group of people. \"I told him he could.\" Uh, no<\/i>, I called back, and sent the kid on his way out of our yard. I remember thinking, That's why pools are required to be fenced in, stupid neighbors--to keep your damn wandering kids safe!<\/i>

A few minutes later, a man (who looked suspiciously like Penn, of Penn & Teller, strolled up. He was agitated but pretending excitement, and he circled the pool. \"Wow, look at that. Wow. Worms. How much do those cost, huh? Where do you get those, huh? How much?\" I moved to block the ladder as he came around and tried to answer him, but he wouldn't let me get a word in edgewise.

Finally, I shouted over him, \"You can buy<\/i> them at the bait shop on [street] and [street].\"

\"Oh, interesting. Interesting. You know what I've got? A NEW LAWYER! HA! A NEW LAWYER! I'm going to sue your ass!\" And then he triumphantly stalked back to the party. Naturally, I was unimpressed, as this little power display made no damn sense whatsoever, so I leaned out of the pool and made a masturbatory gesture toward the party-goers. (I am, after all, the same dreamer who just cussed out a small child. You should see me in waking life.)

The setting around the pool remained bright summer sunlight, with the pool in the middle of it bright and blue, while every other scene of the dream switched to a dark, Halloween setting of dark night and dead leaves. I sat in the pool, just defending my territory, when I heard a loud noise. I looked over, and in the alley, a large man in a mask revved a chainsaw and held it up threateningly. I stared nonchalantly as the man ran after a couple of blonde party-goers pretending to be terrified, chasing them into the yard and around the pool. He waved the chainsaw in my direction menacingly, which was quite sad, given that it was quite obvious who he was, and that he was just trying to intimidate me. (And failing miserably.)

My mother walked out of the house to see what was up, and I climbed out of the pool and told her to call the cops (because the guy was being a douchebag, not because I felt legitimately endangered) as the man did a second run around. He came up on me, raised the chainsaw high over my head, and stood there waiting for a reaction. My mother and I both stared blankly at him like he was a fucking moron. This was clearly not the reaction he wanted, so he waved it again and ran off into the alley.

Somewhere around this point, bits of my brain were waking up, and while I did not consciously realize that it was a dream, I did somehow take control of it. I thought, \"I hope the cop who comes is one I know from [job],\" and at that point, a police officer arrived and came around to the back of the house. I walked up to greet him and let him know why I'd called, when suddenly the idiot neighbor popped out in the alley and waved his chainsaw.

Cop pulled his gun and shouted for the idiot to drop. The very, very surprised idiot did indeed drop the chainsaw, and then lowered himself to the ground. As he was handcuffed, neighbor tried to explain it away as a prank, while I told the cop that he and the rest of the party-goers had been harassing and attempting to intimidate me all night.

And threatening, added cop. He wasn't going to accept the idea of the chainsaw as a prank. Also, it was threatening him too, which is much more serious than just threatening a civilian like me. So I dreamt up a paddy-wagon, and a lot of cops rounding party-goers, because I was tired of dreaming the bastards even if they weren't actively being bastards. And then the cop asked about any damage.

Hrm. Well...

So I tallied up how much the plants and fish in the (invisible to the cop, and everyone else, including me) pond would cost to replace from the pond shop, because the kid had damaged them. (This did not actually happen in the dream; see below for an explanation.) The idiot neighbor groaned, and the cop agreed with me that, hey, no matter how cheap I started out, I deserved to be compensated at full value, eh?

And at that point, I could no longer deny that I had to use the bathroom, so I closed the dream unfinished and got out of bed.<\/a>

Notes and explanatory details<\/b>
#1. Power and territory clearly take center stage. Strangers are claiming authority\/power over what is mine, but I won't let them have it; they threaten and attempt to intimidate me, but I stand my ground. What strikes me most is the juxtaposition of the pond and the apartment building.

I did<\/i> turn a backyard swimming pool into a pond at my old house; it was a smaller, cheaper pool, and it was completely without vivarium, swimming side, or invisibility mode. But I didn't dream of that pond, and I didn't dream of that house, which places the dream firmly in the here and now. (And makes it rare--I dream of the old house quite often, but have never before dreamt of the apartment.)

I have recently been missing my pond, though I'm fairly sure that it is symbolic in the dream, rather than just random nostalgia.

#2. I also had several incidents of assholes trying to steal fish from the old pond, including one boy who ripped plants out of the pool and threw them to the ground as the fish tried to hide in them. He cost us quite a bit of money, the little bastard. The kid in the dream was not this kid, but the dream does refer to this incident.

#3. People in apartment-heavy neighborhoods have no territorial respect, and are generally far more easy-going about boundaries than I am comfortable with. (Get outta my space, people!) Our new neighbor upstairs has made friends with the neighbors in nearby buildings, and so we have had crossed paths a couple of times with random people cutting through the yard, and have had grapes picked from our vine in the yard (probably a different neighbor). At times, it makes me want to erect a six foot barbed wire fence...

#4. During my time working in retail, I've had more than my share of people who've tried to intimidate me. Usually it's someone who's had a bad day and needs to feel powerful by asserting their authoritah<\/i> over someone they perceive as weaker or lesser. Sometimes, it's someone who's been told 'no' and thinks they can shout and threaten until they get their way--store policy and\/or legalities be damned! I recently discussed a couple of these incidents with a friend, so it was fresh in my mind.<\/a>"},{"id":"urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:edom:24837","link":[{"@attributes":{"rel":"alternate","type":"text\/html","href":"https:\/\/edom.livejournal.com\/24837.html"}},{"@attributes":{"rel":"self","type":"text\/xml","href":"https:\/\/edom.livejournal.com\/data\/atom\/?itemid=24837"}}],"title":"Meta: Zyrtec! Now made with LSD!","published":"2009-08-31T15:16:24Z","updated":"2009-08-31T15:43:01Z","category":{"@attributes":{"term":"tag later"}},"content":"Suddenly stormy weather has the mold up, and my sinuses are trying to kill me. I can breathe just fine, but my face is puffy and I can feel pressure from the back of my nose across my left cheek. Chewing is an exercise in pain.

Last night I used the neti pot, drank lots of hot minty tea, took two aspirin (more for the inflammation than the pain), mimicked chewing for the breaking-up motion, and, finally, took a Zyrtec and retired to the bathtub with a hot wet cloth over my face.

And half-dreamt for half an hour; I wasn't asleep, but I wasn't there, either. I want to say my heart danced a strange tango too, but that could have been in my head.

I felt better, but all through the night I found myself dozing off at odd moments, heavy-limbed and clumsy. I dropped into bed and lay there for twenty minutes (I think) of strange hallucinations--the rabbits whispered, the door may or may not have opened, the house-god gripped my leg and told me that she usually insists on sacrifice, and I politely thanked her for, y'know, not demanding I slaughter anything. The heater chirruped like a little bird or kettle, asking me to turn it off and I stood up, staggered over and remembered (a) that I had turned it off an hour earlier and (b) heaters don't talk. I crawled back into bed determined to close my eyes and ignore anything else that tried to talk to me.

I made it through most of today without medicine, though I'm so swollen and tender it hurts just to talk. I just don't think I could stand having another appliance talk to me.

(Crossposted from <\/a>mokie<\/b><\/a><\/a>

Notes and explanatory details<\/b>
#1. My last goldfish, a little feeder rescue from the old pet store, was on the brink of death last night. I think he was the spark for this dream.

#2. A former co-worker from the pet store now works for Lowe's and suggested I apply for a job there; another friend works at their competitor, Home Depot, and mentioned applying there.

#3. I'm not sure what's up with the monkey. Sorry.

#4. What I miss most about the pet store job these days is having a list of the day's tasks in front of me. My current job doesn't have task lists at all; several co-workers have complained that management criticized them for not getting certain tasks done when they had never even been told that they were supposed<\/i> to be doing those tasks. I make up my own lists, to stay focused and efficient.

I hadn't cleaned the goldfish's tank recently, since we'd planned to move it back outside into a planted tub soon, and I think this is the root of the \"missed tasks\" dream fretting.<\/a>"},{"id":"urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:edom:24311","link":[{"@attributes":{"rel":"alternate","type":"text\/html","href":"https:\/\/edom.livejournal.com\/24311.html"}},{"@attributes":{"rel":"self","type":"text\/xml","href":"https:\/\/edom.livejournal.com\/data\/atom\/?itemid=24311"}}],"title":"Dream: Carousing with the wrong crowd","published":"2009-03-26T16:53:07Z","updated":"2009-08-31T14:36:52Z","category":{"@attributes":{"term":"tag later"}},"content":"Carousing with the wrong crowd<\/b>
Only the broad strokes of this dream stuck around, so I'm afraid I can't offer much in the way of elaboration.

I was hanging out with some friends and we met a girl, and we all ended up back at my apartment. We all decided to go shop-hopping and as I left, I realized that I'd forgotten my shoes. I saw them at the bottom of the steps as we ran down, along with two other pair (so I wasn't the only one barefoot), and I picked them up as we passed. One of the other girls was carrying a handful of bras, including mine, and I vaguely remembered (in the dream) taking it off because it was uncomfortable. There is a gap in the dream after this.

When the dream picked up, we went into another building that I didn't recognize, into an apartment or hotel room that I didn't recognize (but which was similar to a friend's old studio apartment with a slightly different layout), and all crashed laughing like teenagers. The new girl sat alone in a chair in the corner. I said, \"Why am I not wearing shoes?\" and realized that it sounded like a whine, so I said more obviously joking, \"I don't care much about the shoes, but where's my bra?\" Everyone laughs, someone cracks about me drinking, one person jokes about the rhythm method and jumps on me in his shorts. I slap him with a laugh and push him off.<\/a>

Notes and explanatory details<\/b>
#1. Before bed, I was thinking that \"Rhythm Nation\" would make the perfect anthem for the rhythm method. I don't know why, but it was pretty late, so that probably has something to do with it.

#2. In the dream, my apartment was a chic second story number in The Big City, I was a svelte and social party girl and my friends were witty and attractive and lots of fun. In reality, I live in a run-down duplex near the edge of a small city, it's been a long, long time since I ran around drinking and laughing my ass off with friends, and none of those<\/i> friends made an appearance in this dream.

#3. No, the friends in this<\/i> dream were clearly supposed to be the nerdy gaming friends that I only see once a week, on nerdy gaming day. The group consisted of 'dream extras' who fill in space but don't correspond to real people, except for two individuals, who did not remotely match the people they were supposed to be, and the feel and personality of the dream group (if this makes any sense) did not, at all, fit the feel and personality of the actual group. I like 'em, but these are not friends I would be lounging on a bed with, drunk, bra-less, and joking about sex; it's just not that kind of gang.

I hate to say it, but I think this might be a catty little observation from my subconscious about the quality of my social life lately.

#3. I immediately thought of the new girl as one group member's new girlfriend, even though I've never met his new girlfriend and, in the dream, she was not.

#4. Although I've forgotten more of the dream than I remember, I know that the shop-hopping played a big part in it. Shops are on my mind these days, as I'm trying to set up a small shop to sell my own goods, and have been setting up at-home businesses in the Sims 2.

(Okay, it's definitely a catty observation on my social life...)<\/a>"},{"id":"urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:edom:23870","link":[{"@attributes":{"rel":"alternate","type":"text\/html","href":"https:\/\/edom.livejournal.com\/23870.html"}},{"@attributes":{"rel":"self","type":"text\/xml","href":"https:\/\/edom.livejournal.com\/data\/atom\/?itemid=23870"}}],"title":"Dream stub: my grandmother's voice","published":"2009-03-25T14:52:47Z","updated":"2009-08-29T20:56:29Z","category":{"@attributes":{"term":"tag later"}},"content":"Yesterday, at 7:24am, I heard my grandmother's voice telling me to get up. It was just in time, too, because I had to be at work in half an hour.

This morning, around 8am, I had (now lost) dreams telling me to get up early and see to the pets.

I don't know who's looking out for me, or if my inner alarm clock has just gotten a new battery, but it's slightly off-putting."},{"id":"urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:edom:23711","link":[{"@attributes":{"rel":"alternate","type":"text\/html","href":"https:\/\/edom.livejournal.com\/23711.html"}},{"@attributes":{"rel":"self","type":"text\/xml","href":"https:\/\/edom.livejournal.com\/data\/atom\/?itemid=23711"}}],"title":"Dream stub: Raptor attack!","published":"2009-03-08T18:26:08Z","updated":"2009-08-29T20:53:12Z","category":{"@attributes":{"term":"tag later"}},"content":"I was at work, and velociraptors were reported, so I huddled with customers, watching the computer monitors for updates and commenting on how our computers weren't up to the task at hand.

And that's all I remember, alas!"},{"id":"urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:edom:23509","link":[{"@attributes":{"rel":"alternate","type":"text\/html","href":"https:\/\/edom.livejournal.com\/23509.html"}},{"@attributes":{"rel":"self","type":"text\/xml","href":"https:\/\/edom.livejournal.com\/data\/atom\/?itemid=23509"}}],"title":"Dream stub: too much game, too little sleep?","published":"2009-02-15T08:32:52Z","updated":"2009-08-29T20:48:41Z","category":[{"@attributes":{"term":"dream:theme:romance"}},{"@attributes":{"term":"dream:type:gnatter"}},{"@attributes":{"term":"dream:meta:blast from the past"}},{"@attributes":{"term":"dream:sym:people:baby"}},{"@attributes":{"term":"dream:meta:dorky details"}},{"@attributes":{"term":"dream:tone:embarrassment"}},{"@attributes":{"term":"dream:meta:scripted"}},{"@attributes":{"term":"dream:sym:people:mother"}},{"@attributes":{"term":"dream:tone:annoyance"}}],"content":"I knew I should have written this dream down when I woke up. The details are lost to me now, after a busy day in retail hell (why do people wait till Valentine's DAY to buy presents?). What I remember is that the dream had to do with gaming--I have a gnattering that the dream involved me roleplaying a date or through a date and being flustered at being stuck in one place when I'd rather be in another.

It's not difficult to dissect this dream, just embarrassing. Since I had to work on Valentine's day, I made my plans for the day after and opted out of my usual Sunday activity--gaming with my friends. My subconscious brain is not-so-politely informing me that I would rather go gaming, thanks much. Says a lot about my romantic side, doesn't it?

I remember the latter portion of the dream better. A baby was introduced, mine, and I was at my cousin's old house with the baby and my mother, trying to put the infant down for a nap in a small Critter Keeper style pet carrier. It was big enough to hold a newborn, but still, it was a pet carrier<\/i>. I tried to hold the baby and adjust the towel I was putting in the bottom for cushioning, but it was too awkward, so I handed the baby to my mother. She slumped it into a chair and turned back to whatever she was doing (watching TV, I think). The baby fell, but was tangled up in the thick towel and wasn't hurt. I was upset over Mom's thoughtlessness, the idea of being blamed for her action, and that she had essentially blown me off.

I have been trying to grow moss in the pet carrier for a little while now (no luck, just mold), and there were babies on TV and in my news reading last night, so this could have been a simple brain dump. It could indicate that something I am trying to work on or get done is being hampered by folks who aren't team players, or that I'm trying to pass off the important work to someone who isn't interested.

Alternately, yet another friend recently voiced the opinion that people who have kids really just want\/think of them as really cute pets<\/i>. It's a popular stance among the childfree. I'm not childfree (no, I'm misanthropic, and hey, kids are people too!) and do<\/i> want kids, so perhaps this offhand comment led to a dream in which I was making a pet of a kid?"},{"id":"urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:edom:23150","link":[{"@attributes":{"rel":"alternate","type":"text\/html","href":"https:\/\/edom.livejournal.com\/23150.html"}},{"@attributes":{"rel":"self","type":"text\/xml","href":"https:\/\/edom.livejournal.com\/data\/atom\/?itemid=23150"}}],"title":"Dream stub: running away to the 1980s!","published":"2009-02-12T11:18:04Z","updated":"2009-02-12T11:18:04Z","category":[{"@attributes":{"term":"dream:sym:people:family"}},{"@attributes":{"term":"dream:meta:blast from the past"}},{"@attributes":{"term":"dream:type:stub"}},{"@attributes":{"term":"dream:sym:act:pursue"}},{"@attributes":{"term":"dream:sym:act:violence"}},{"@attributes":{"term":"dream:sym:people:child"}},{"@attributes":{"term":"dream:sym:act:attack"}},{"@attributes":{"term":"dream:sym:space:yard"}},{"@attributes":{"term":"dream:sym:people:murderer"}},{"@attributes":{"term":"dream:sym:space:alley or street"}}],"content":"Tuesday night's dreaming took place at the old house, though it had a slightly different layout--the front and back doors were reversed, mainly. Where most dreams featuring the old house portray it in a ramshackle, exaggeratedly rundown state, in this dream it was much the same as it was when I was growing up there during the '80s, though the color scheme was firmly mid-90s. (This means nothing to anyone but me, I know.)

The main part of the dream, now forgotten, concerned some sort of large holiday family gathering with all of the cousins. I was in the kitchen, getting a drink, when I heard a noise outside. I looked out the screen door and saw a truck plough through our yard and through the neighbor's privacy fence, pushed by green SUV as its driver leaned out of the window and shouted profanities at the truck's driver. When the two stopped in the neighbor's yard, the SUV's driver leapt from his vehicle and closed on the other driver with a gun in hand. This was clearly not an accident.

The neighbors ran out to assess the damage as he shot, not realizing the danger, and he spun to turn the gun on them. He looked around afterwards, and I hit the floor, hiding behind the metal portion of the door and hoping he hadn't seen me. As he ran up on the porch (the cement porch of the '80s, again, not the deck we had later), I knew he had, and I ran away. Fortunately, the dream layout was much more sensible than the house's actual layout! He and his accomplice(s) stormed in and people scattered; I was hiding behind a piece of furniture, and got a good look at the men. I knew he was after any possible witnesses to his crime--a silly idea, given the public nature of it, but I knew it nonetheless--and I considered briefly how I should help save my family members. I realized with some despair that the best thing I could do was to get out of the house and go for help. I couldn't defend them, and it was me he was after, since I could identify him.

I took off through the front door (at the back of the house, in the dream) and around the corner. I didn't know where to go at first, but set my sights quickly on the local pizza place. It was just a few blocks away, they knew us from the neighborhood, and it was far enough from the house to feel safe. I ran full out through the alley, like I did when I was a kid, and I was<\/i> a kid at that point in the dream, just 11 or 12 years old. I rounded the outside corner of the squat little pizza shop, but when I ran in, it was suddenly more of an auto repair shop\/family restaurant with very, very '70s decor. (Yes, both. Don't ask, I don't know why.) The proprietor wasn't the owner of the pizza place but rather the man who had owned the small neighborhood grocery store when I was a kid, and I ran up to him right away and told him that some man was at my house shooting people. He yelled for an employee to call the police, but the shooter came into the building, and everyone ran for cover.

I know the dream goes on further from here, but I don't remember anymore of the plot. The violence was surprisingly non-violent and bloodless, altogether very PG-13.

Though pairs of threatening men have been a symbol of considerable significance in previous dreams\/dream cycles, I don't believe the shooter et al. filled that role here. The dream didn't feel like a nightmare and there was no real sense of danger or menace; it felt instead like a moment from a movie, and I am fairly sure that shooter, victim and accomplice(s) were all actors, though I can't put my finger on where I've seen them, though I think the shooter might<\/i> have been Harold Perrineau<\/a>. (Yes, victim, shooter and accomplish were all black. I would analyze this for symbolic intent, except I think it was like that in whatever movie my brain plagiarized.)

What really sparks my curiosity is the time warp in the dream back to the early or mid-80s, right down to the shop keeper than I have not laid eyes on or thought about since I was, at most, 8 years old. Weird!"},{"id":"urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:edom:22859","link":[{"@attributes":{"rel":"alternate","type":"text\/html","href":"https:\/\/edom.livejournal.com\/22859.html"}},{"@attributes":{"rel":"self","type":"text\/xml","href":"https:\/\/edom.livejournal.com\/data\/atom\/?itemid=22859"}}],"title":"Dream: In waking life, sex never resolves anything. (posted: 6 February 2009)","published":"2009-02-06T09:55:53Z","updated":"2009-08-31T13:09:08Z","category":[{"@attributes":{"term":"dream:tone:embarrassment"}},{"@attributes":{"term":"dream:sym:act:sex"}},{"@attributes":{"term":"dream:sym:object:bed"}},{"@attributes":{"term":"dream:sym:people:friend"}},{"@attributes":{"term":"dream:type:dream"}},{"@attributes":{"term":"dream:sym:act:wait"}},{"@attributes":{"term":"dream:tone:annoyance"}}],"content":"Be warned, some graphic elements ahead!<\/b>

Oy, so embarrassing.

I was lying in bed with a friend; I was naked, he was clothed, and we were talking. I mentioned feeling uncomfortable but he said it didn't matter to him, and I was covered with a sheet anyway. At one point in the conversation, I looked down and realized the sheet had slipped, so I quickly adjusted it.

Later, I rolled over with my back to him and we talked for a while longer. He very hesitantly made advances toward me, but retreated again when I showed any sign of listening. I finally resigned myself to lying there and ignoring him utterly till he worked up the nerve to just stick his goddamn dick in already. When he did, he was half-limp and seemed completely unsure as to what he was supposed to be doing, but I knew if I said anything, he'd just retreat to his side of the bed and we'd have to start the whole charade again.<\/a>

Notes and explanatory details<\/b>
When I dream of having sex with people I know, it's usually because I have been upset or at odds with them. The sex symbolically marks for me a mental turning point regarding an individual, or an internal resolution of those conflicting feelings.

There have been times when I have made amends with someone, but it wasn't until I dreamt of having sex with them weeks later that I realized I had been holding back and waiting--for a shoe to drop, or them to spin around and laugh at me for believing they were sincere, for myself to blow up over something. It's a disturbing little cue from my brain that we really are okay with this person again, and it's alright to stand down a little.

If I have had an argument with you, I have probably also had a sex dream about you. I say this so anybody who reads this can be as uncomfortable as I am.

The dream is pretty transparent. Some weeks earlier, I had shared some private information and made myself vulnerable (naked), and was embarrassed publicly (the embarrassing reveal). Like the sex, the resolution is half-assed, and really more resignation on my part. In waking life, I realized that this friend would have to first understand or care why the incident upset me, and that wasn't going to happen. So I just accepted any apologetic overtures for what they were (don't make me point out this bit in the dream), along with the sad fact that I won't be talking quite as openly as I once did (the turned back).<\/a>"},{"id":"urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:edom:22633","link":[{"@attributes":{"rel":"alternate","type":"text\/html","href":"https:\/\/edom.livejournal.com\/22633.html"}},{"@attributes":{"rel":"self","type":"text\/xml","href":"https:\/\/edom.livejournal.com\/data\/atom\/?itemid=22633"}}],"title":"Dream stub: now you TOO can smell like George Carlin!","published":"2009-01-07T18:59:52Z","updated":"2009-02-07T20:55:59Z","category":[{"@attributes":{"term":"dream:sym:other:death"}},{"@attributes":{"term":"dream:sym:sense:scent"}},{"@attributes":{"term":"dream:type:stub"}},{"@attributes":{"term":"dream:meta:commercial"}},{"@attributes":{"term":"dream:meta:dorky details"}}],"content":"My unremembered dreaming was interrupted by commercials, most of them for celebrity fragrances.

The only one that I can remember clearly--because really, how could I forget?--is George Carlin's signature scent, which had some ridiculous name like \"Please Play with Daddy,\" and which was advertised by a clip of him rubbing his ass on the inner rim of a washing machine.

Maybe it was reading that list of influential people we lost in '08, or maybe it was reading about creepy advertising techniques<\/a>..."},{"id":"urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:edom:22410","link":[{"@attributes":{"rel":"alternate","type":"text\/html","href":"https:\/\/edom.livejournal.com\/22410.html"}},{"@attributes":{"rel":"self","type":"text\/xml","href":"https:\/\/edom.livejournal.com\/data\/atom\/?itemid=22410"}}],"title":"Dream stub: walking with old classmates","published":"2008-11-22T19:21:18Z","updated":"2009-02-06T11:46:50Z","category":[{"@attributes":{"term":"dream:type:stub"}},{"@attributes":{"term":"dream:sym:building:school"}},{"@attributes":{"term":"dream:sym:space:ireland"}},{"@attributes":{"term":"dream:sym:act:converse"}},{"@attributes":{"term":"dream:sym:act:walk"}}],"content":"I dreamt I walked with an old classmate (the homecoming king, in fact) while painting a giant countryside mural. We talked about his life and career and so forth. Not too long ago, I dreamt of stumbling across him and trying to force a conversation, so I guess I'm really in a mood to talk to this guy.

I'm having a fair number of dreams about old classmates these days, possibly because I run into so many of them at the new job. This classmate and I both ended up in Ireland for a bit, and i believe that was part of the dream discussion. I only wish I could remember more of it!"},{"id":"urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:edom:21969","link":[{"@attributes":{"rel":"alternate","type":"text\/html","href":"https:\/\/edom.livejournal.com\/21969.html"}},{"@attributes":{"rel":"self","type":"text\/xml","href":"https:\/\/edom.livejournal.com\/data\/atom\/?itemid=21969"}}],"title":"Dream stub: barging in on old classmates","published":"2008-05-04T08:27:55Z","updated":"2009-02-06T11:49:31Z","category":[{"@attributes":{"term":"dream:type:stub"}},{"@attributes":{"term":"dream:sym:building:school"}},{"@attributes":{"term":"dream:sym:act:converse"}}],"content":"Yesterday I dreamt of barging in on and old classmate that I've seen recently at my workplace and trying to talk to him. It was awkward, oh yes.

Not long after, I walked into work (really, in waking life and all) on his heels without realizing it. Weird!"},{"id":"urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:edom:20696","link":[{"@attributes":{"rel":"alternate","type":"text\/html","href":"https:\/\/edom.livejournal.com\/20696.html"}},{"@attributes":{"rel":"self","type":"text\/xml","href":"https:\/\/edom.livejournal.com\/data\/atom\/?itemid=20696"}}],"title":"Dreamlet: ferret-washing","published":"2007-10-06T19:32:15Z","updated":"2009-02-06T11:39:01Z","category":[{"@attributes":{"term":"dream:sym:other:water"}},{"@attributes":{"term":"dream:sym:animal"}},{"@attributes":{"term":"dream:sym:animal:ferret"}},{"@attributes":{"term":"dream:type:dreamlet"}}],"content":"I dreamt that I was in a new place and trying to bathe my ferrets in the kitchen sink.

I woke up and had a brief moment of joy before I remembered that they were dead."},{"id":"urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:edom:20346","link":[{"@attributes":{"rel":"alternate","type":"text\/html","href":"https:\/\/edom.livejournal.com\/20346.html"}},{"@attributes":{"rel":"self","type":"text\/xml","href":"https:\/\/edom.livejournal.com\/data\/atom\/?itemid=20346"}}],"title":"Dream: Race relations in dreamland","published":"2007-09-29T14:05:04Z","updated":"2009-08-31T12:30:59Z","category":[{"@attributes":{"term":"dream:role:male aggressor"}},{"@attributes":{"term":"dream:role:female aggressor"}},{"@attributes":{"term":"dream:sym:people:family"}},{"@attributes":{"term":"dream:sigil:two men"}},{"@attributes":{"term":"dream:sym:act:violence"}},{"@attributes":{"term":"dream:sym:act:attack"}},{"@attributes":{"term":"dream:type:nightmare"}},{"@attributes":{"term":"dream:sym:space:yard"}},{"@attributes":{"term":"dream:issue:race"}},{"@attributes":{"term":"dream:tone:annoyance"}},{"@attributes":{"term":"dream:sym:space:alley or street"}}],"content":"Race relations in dreamland<\/b>
I dreamt I was at the old house, which was now an apartment. The old woman who had lived upstairs had moved to the basement to make room for someone else, so it was like a triplex rather than a duplex, except that being in the basement meant she was paying less in rent. A gangplank had been constructed across the alley to the apartment over the old laundrymat (something I daydreamed about doing for years<\/i>).

I was in the backyard at night when a white family walked past: a man and woman in their thirties with a young boy around five. The man approached the fence and asked about something to drink for his family. The woman touched her throat and cleared it, and said something like, \"Just to wet my lips.\" I wasn't sure I heard them right (he didn't have a strange accent, and he was speaking loudly enough, but to my ears it was as if he was mumbling) and asked if soda was okay. The man said yes and handed me some money.

I ran into the house and looked for a cup, lamenting that I'd earlier taken a disposable kiddie cup outside and given it away to some passerby. I looked in the old kitchen, and ran upstairs. In the hall was the bureau\/sideboard with cups lined up on the shelf. After much debate about what I'd not mind throwing out, I selected one and took it downstairs, pausing at a whiteboard to check the price on drinks and make change for the man. As I passed there was a conversation about a movie on TV in the living room, and I had a moment of guilt about being so noisy to the woman downstairs as I went through.

I went out back and the family was gone. I leaned out and looked down the alley and saw them only a small way on, so I called out, and they came back. I handed over the soda and the driveway gate was somehow open so they stepped in to receive it instead of accepting it over the fence. The woman took it, not the boy, and I apologized to the man over taking so long. A new second woman, chubbier, wanted to throw away some food bag full of fries nearby. I noted that both the man and the woman were far older than they had first seemed to me.

As the family left, I closed the driveway (making note of a notice on it about white supremacists and mentally rolling my eyes), threaded the broken metal tie's cord through the latch and wrapped it around to tie it shut. A young black man walked up to the gate as if to walk out, and I told him to go ahead and go over. He stood back and waited, so I said again, \"Go ahead and jump the fence. I can't undo [the tie], because it's a bitch to re-thread.\" This was a lie; I just didn't want to do it.

He said nothing but went over to pick up a large disk nearby. (A second man stood in the neighbor's doorway, though the door was shut; he raised his arms. This is a tangent detail I'll discuss in the notes.) I thought he was going to smash the tie to open the gate, and got angry because he was creating extra work for me. I picked up a rock or disk of my own, intending to commit violence. He threw his disk either at the gate or my head; I don't remember, or remember which it hit, as I was near waking, but despite his difficulty with it, it was a very nerfy item.

I tried to scream but couldn't raise my voice; my ears just popped slightly and no noise came out. I tried to just yell, and my voice was soft and hoarse. I was more frustrated than scared, and had only just started to wonder why this asshole was cutting through my<\/i> yard (and, in a meta-dream moment, why I couldn't just open the damn gate for him) when I woke up.<\/a>

Notes and explanatory details<\/b>
#1. I don't know why the old house was an apartment, or if it is at all significant to the meaning of the dream, apart from the possibility that it changes the territorial significance of some aspects of the dream by making it not quite my<\/i> place anymore.

#2. In the dream, I was ready to bend over backwards to accommodate this white family's request for a drink, while I was unwilling to simply untie the gate to let the black man out of the yard. The gate was not even locked, as the lock and cord had been broken, while getting a drink for this family involved much more effort.

On the one hand, trust and territorial issues play into this: it's a older family unit with a small child vs a lone adult male (yes, I have trust issues when it comes to men; we know this already), and the family did not come onto the property until asked (and had to be called back to accept a drink they'd already paid for) while the man had come uninvited while I was busy elsewhere.

#3. On the other hand, that sign about white supremacists points a hard, stubby finger that's difficult to ignore. I don't remember at all what the sign said about white supremacists, except that it was unflattering and that I considered the whole matter some silliness. I have struggled over the years with the racism I grew up with and its mental residue that occasionally pops up at me out of the blue. The sign could stand as where I think I am, aware of it and opposed to it, while the dream itself plays out in ways that are clearly not as positive.

#4. I don't remember many details about the second man in the neighbor's doorway. I believe he is a reference to a (white, if it matters) man who tried to break into the neighbor's yard through ours a few years back--a simple threat to the safety of the property. He could simply be a cue to the frame of mind--insecurity, territoriality--or he and the man in the yard could be the Two Men, recurring villains in my dreams.<\/a>"},{"id":"urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:edom:20177","link":[{"@attributes":{"rel":"alternate","type":"text\/html","href":"https:\/\/edom.livejournal.com\/20177.html"}},{"@attributes":{"rel":"self","type":"text\/xml","href":"https:\/\/edom.livejournal.com\/data\/atom\/?itemid=20177"}}],"title":"Dreamlet: attacked by greenery!","published":"2007-09-23T16:54:14Z","updated":"2009-02-06T11:40:59Z","category":[{"@attributes":{"term":"dream:tone:anxiety"}},{"@attributes":{"term":"dream:role:male aggressor"}},{"@attributes":{"term":"dream:sym:object:bed"}},{"@attributes":{"term":"dream:sym:other:monster"}},{"@attributes":{"term":"dream:sym:people:ghost"}},{"@attributes":{"term":"dream:type:dreamlet"}},{"@attributes":{"term":"dream:sym:act:attack"}},{"@attributes":{"term":"dream:meta:psychic event"}}],"content":"I dreamt I was attacked by a plant.

I was in my bed, I opened my eyes and it was in the doorway. I closed my eyes a moment and it was in the room. I closed and opened them again, and it was beside the bed. When next I opened them, it was looming over me.

I woke up and had the feeling something malicious or angry was in the room. From the corner of my eye I caught sight of a child's face--a little boy, I thought. We have had minor ghost issues with a little girl*, and I thought there was an angry boy more recently, but I can't lump this in as evidence. The feeling of a malicious presence isn't odd right after a nightmare, and strange visual flashes at the edges of waking aren't abnormal, especially from the corner of one's eyes.
* I don't care whether or not you believe in ghosts."},{"id":"urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:edom:19493","link":[{"@attributes":{"rel":"alternate","type":"text\/html","href":"https:\/\/edom.livejournal.com\/19493.html"}},{"@attributes":{"rel":"self","type":"text\/xml","href":"https:\/\/edom.livejournal.com\/data\/atom\/?itemid=19493"}}],"title":"Dreamlet: THIEF!","published":"2007-09-08T13:53:39Z","updated":"2009-02-06T11:24:39Z","category":[{"@attributes":{"term":"dream:tone:anxiety"}},{"@attributes":{"term":"dream:sym:act:steal"}},{"@attributes":{"term":"dream:sym:people:thief"}},{"@attributes":{"term":"dream:type:dreamlet"}},{"@attributes":{"term":"dream:meta:dorky details"}},{"@attributes":{"term":"dream:issue:money"}}],"content":"I dreamt of a thief getting into my wallet and then trying to get out of the house. I jumped on his back and called for help, then just screamed.

I woke up, checked the house, but kept waking up every half hour or so convinced there was someone in the house.

Bah."},{"id":"urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:edom:19452","link":[{"@attributes":{"rel":"alternate","type":"text\/html","href":"https:\/\/edom.livejournal.com\/19452.html"}},{"@attributes":{"rel":"self","type":"text\/xml","href":"https:\/\/edom.livejournal.com\/data\/atom\/?itemid=19452"}}],"title":"Dream: The Unemployment Blues","published":"2007-08-25T00:03:30Z","updated":"2009-08-31T12:30:51Z","category":[{"@attributes":{"term":"dream:sym:animal:fish"}},{"@attributes":{"term":"dream:sym:act:shop"}},{"@attributes":{"term":"dream:meta:work-related"}},{"@attributes":{"term":"dream:issue:power"}},{"@attributes":{"term":"dream:type:dream"}},{"@attributes":{"term":"dream:sym:animal"}},{"@attributes":{"term":"dream:theme:responsibility"}},{"@attributes":{"term":"dream:tone:annoyance"}},{"@attributes":{"term":"dream:sym:animal:hamster"}}],"content":"The Unemployment Blues<\/b>
I dreamt that I showed my hamster Pochi a fish bowl filled with guppies. I looked away, and when I looked back, he had a guppy in his pouch. \"I don't believe it. I can let the cats drink from the bowl, and the hamster<\/i> goes after the fish,\" I say. Other pets were involved in the dream, but this is the only pet-related part that I remember.

I dreamt after that I went back to the pet store where I used to work to pick up supplies and was stopped by the store manager and asked a question. I answered, pointed out the paperwork where he could find more information, and was asked a few more questions. I helped as best I could, and finally agreed to come in later in the week to get some task accomplished. He also said that the new manager was getting a couple of credit cards to take care of department expenses, and one would be in my name. My thoughts were snarky, because the new manager should have had a store-assigned expense account for this sort of thing, and having to take out a pair of credit cards in her own time and on her own dime seemed like shoddy managing.

As I was leaving, one of the previous managers of the department I worked in was at the counter, and asked me if I could believe that the new manager had run a credit check on me. I was surprised, and a bit miffed, as that's intrusive, but it made sense if they were putting a card into my name. All in all I was annoyed at having this dumped on me after I'd already quit.<\/a>

Notes and explanatory details<\/b>
#1. When I left, the new manager did not as yet have a store expense account to take care of certain necessary expenditures. The credit card issue in the dream reflects some of that--the strange wrangling that was needed just to get fresh food supplies, for instance--and also my own worries over credit checks as I searched for a new job.

#2. The new manager running a credit check on me, I believe, touched on my worries over vindictiveness from this individual who had already shown herself to be somewhat shady.

#3. Clearly, the overall message is that I have no faith in the new manager to hold things together, and that I am worried even though it's no longer my responsibility.

[Added in 2009, a long time after the original dream!]<\/i> And lo, several times when I returned as a customer, employees (including the new manager) directed other customers' questions to me. Hrm.<\/a>"},{"id":"urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:edom:18271","link":[{"@attributes":{"rel":"alternate","type":"text\/html","href":"https:\/\/edom.livejournal.com\/18271.html"}},{"@attributes":{"rel":"self","type":"text\/xml","href":"https:\/\/edom.livejournal.com\/data\/atom\/?itemid=18271"}}],"title":"Dream stub: sick rabbit","published":"2007-08-18T18:00:38Z","updated":"2009-02-06T11:01:17Z","category":[{"@attributes":{"term":"dream:sym:other:time"}},{"@attributes":{"term":"dream:sym:body:illness"}},{"@attributes":{"term":"dream:meta:replay"}},{"@attributes":{"term":"dream:type:stub"}},{"@attributes":{"term":"dream:sym:animal"}},{"@attributes":{"term":"dream:sym:animal:rabbit"}}],"content":"I know I was dreaming when the alarm went off. I got up, hit snooze, and laid back down into the dream in progress, but the interruption caused a tangent in the dream, and I had to stop dreaming to take care of my rabbit Darwin. He and his cage was covered in mess; I wasn't sure if it was diarrhea or vomit, but he was very ill. I opened the cage, lifted him out--

The alarm went off. I got up, very agitated, hit snooze, and flopped back into the bed, eager to get back to Darwin and get him taken care of.

Darwin had ducked under the shelf, his favorite hiding place, in the meantime, so I knelt down, concerned about how to get him out without scaring him further. Rabbits are delicate, and he was sick already. Fortunately he came straight to me, and even allowed me to pick him up with no protest. I turned to take him into the bathroom to clean him up--

The alarm went off. Dammit!<\/i>

Got out of bed. Went into kitchen to get coffee. Went into living room to retrieve rabbit. Realized rabbit was still in cage, was not covered in mess, and was not, in fact, sick. Well, that was good, at least.

I think losing two hamsters recently and preparing myself for the loss of a third has taken its toll on me. It doesn't help that I woke up sick myself..."},{"id":"urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:edom:17993","link":[{"@attributes":{"rel":"alternate","type":"text\/html","href":"https:\/\/edom.livejournal.com\/17993.html"}},{"@attributes":{"rel":"self","type":"text\/xml","href":"https:\/\/edom.livejournal.com\/data\/atom\/?itemid=17993"}}],"title":"Dreamlet: dream-skank needs to keep out of my stuff!","published":"2007-07-29T01:14:58Z","updated":"2007-07-29T01:14:58Z","category":[{"@attributes":{"term":"dream:tone:embarrassment"}},{"@attributes":{"term":"dream:tone:annoyance"}},{"@attributes":{"term":"dream:type:dreamlet"}},{"@attributes":{"term":"dream:meta:dorky details"}}],"content":"Before the alarm went off, I dreamt of a nondescript man and an overweight bleached blonde at a library researching something. I don't remember more than that, because my alarm clock went off.

My alarm clock has a feature called \"Nap\" that I use as an extended snooze button, getting another twenty or thirty minutes of sleep if I don't really have to be up that early. I hit it and laid back down.

I opened my eyes. The blonde was back, but this time she was sitting in my bedroom, at my computer. I sat up in bed and looked at her. \"Do you have any games on this computer?\"

\"Um. This is my<\/i> computer. In my<\/i> bedroom. Not a library.\" I sat up and stared at her.

\"Oh, sorry. So...do you? I just wanted to see--\" I squeezed politely past her to shut the computer down, thinking that later I'd need to check it carefully to make sure she hadn't fiddled with anything. I turned around, and the woman was touching a yarn mobile thing hanging on my wall. \"I was just trying to look up [something],\" she said.

\"I think you need to go to the library,\" I replied as she turned to poke in something else. I tried to untangle the mobile, but she'd gotten a small metal shelf part tangled in it, and it was all coming undone.

\"Well,\" she huffed, \"since I'm not welcome<\/i> here, I'll just go.\"

I realized as she walked out that I'd left my paycheck on the top of the hall shelves, and hoped neither she nor the man had seen or pocketed it. But how could I check without being obvious and impolite?

The alarm went off. I got out of bed and went to the bathroom, glancing at the top of the shelf to make sure my check was still there. In the bathroom followed the painfully embarrassing moment when my waking brain reminded me that dream people do not steal one's real-life stuff.

(Yes, I was aware, even in the dream, that she was a dream person.)<\/font>"},{"id":"urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:edom:17748","link":[{"@attributes":{"rel":"alternate","type":"text\/html","href":"https:\/\/edom.livejournal.com\/17748.html"}},{"@attributes":{"rel":"self","type":"text\/xml","href":"https:\/\/edom.livejournal.com\/data\/atom\/?itemid=17748"}}],"title":"Dream: My father's marriage and hostages (posted 28 July 2007)","published":"2007-07-29T00:59:24Z","updated":"2009-08-31T12:30:33Z","category":[{"@attributes":{"term":"dream:tone:powerlessness"}},{"@attributes":{"term":"dream:role:male aggressor"}},{"@attributes":{"term":"dream:sym:people:family"}},{"@attributes":{"term":"dream:meta:blast from the past"}},{"@attributes":{"term":"dream:sym:act:deceive"}},{"@attributes":{"term":"dream:sym:people:father"}},{"@attributes":{"term":"dream:theme:injustice"}},{"@attributes":{"term":"dream:issue:power"}},{"@attributes":{"term":"dream:type:nightmare"}},{"@attributes":{"term":"dream:theme:unpunished"}}],"content":"My father's marriage and hostages<\/b>
Had an unpleasant dream this morning, at the edge of waking. I only remember the details and the tone, not all of the sinews binding the plotting together.

In essence, my mother's sister was getting married. To my father. In part of the dream, I approached the door of the suburban house they shared and my aunt was sitting on the porch, much younger than she is in waking life, and I wondered what the hell she was thinking. Inside, in a pastel blue room straight out of the '60s, my father was being loud, obnoxious and abusive, talking about kids and his rights and such.

Oh yes, the kids. A young boy and girl in the dream, two kids from the family (I think they were supposed to be a cousin's kids, in the dream), were there. My father and aunt were going to adopt them, but in his case, it was just to have a hold over someone, or for the money, or something like that. I was concerned but helpless.<\/a>

Notes and explanations<\/b>
#1. My father recently contacted my older (half)sister and my stepmother, trying to get from them contact information for my mother.

#2. I think my aunt appears in the dream as a stand-in for my mother. She had the same hair color that my mother currently has (my aunt usually keeps hers darker), and she's in a longterm relationship with a man who happens to have the same first name as my father, and we never call my father by anything but his first name around here, because we hate him that much.<\/i> Maybe subbing her in as Mom's understudy is less squicky for me than putting Mom in directly.

Alternately, my aunt has been with a few abusive bastards in her time. It could be that, in dreaming of my father as an abusive bastard, my brain inserted my aunt rather than my mother, who dropped his ass like a rock when he got abusive with her (go Mom!).

Finally, coincidentally, she's how my mother and father met. I wasn't there at the time of course, but maybe there's some deep down mental association because of knowing that.

#3. Two children in my family were taken away by social services some years back. When my older (half)sister visited to talk to us about our father trying to get in touch, she also updated us on that story: after much fuckery and legal squirming, the kids have finally been adopted out of the family. They're gone. Permanently. It hurts, it's wrong, there was nothing I could do to help, and there's nothing I can do now, but I still feel guilty over doing nothing.

#4. When I was much younger, my mother warned my stepgrandmother not to let my father take my (half)sisters with him one day. She suspected he planned to leave the state and take the girls with him, to hold them over my stepmother's head since she wasn't doing what he wanted her to do.

There's a reason we hate him, and why my mother watched us carefully on the rare occasions when he visited...

#5. The blue room seemed a cross between the living room of our old house as it was when I was a child (except it was yellow) and the front room in my stepgrandmother's house as it was when I was a child (except they it was green).

#6. The two children, a girl and a boy, were dressed in yellow\/white '70s summer clothes, very clean, as if they were dolls never let out of their display cabinets.

I don't know if the color has any significance, but the dated clothing, combined with the dated room and my too-young aunt enhance #4's retro-creepy factor.<\/a>"},{"id":"urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:edom:17638","link":[{"@attributes":{"rel":"alternate","type":"text\/html","href":"https:\/\/edom.livejournal.com\/17638.html"}},{"@attributes":{"rel":"self","type":"text\/xml","href":"https:\/\/edom.livejournal.com\/data\/atom\/?itemid=17638"}}],"title":"Dream stub: Lost in the Mormon crabfarms (posted 28 July 2007)","published":"2007-07-29T00:21:21Z","updated":"2007-07-29T00:23:15Z","category":[{"@attributes":{"term":"dream:type:gnatter"}},{"@attributes":{"term":"dream:sym:animal:dog"}},{"@attributes":{"term":"dream:type:stub"}},{"@attributes":{"term":"dream:sym:animal"}},{"@attributes":{"term":"dream:meta:dorky details"}}],"content":"I meant to get up early and go to Pagan Picnic.

Instead, I dreamt of goth F-lister<\/a> <\/a>illusion_of_joy<\/b><\/a><\/span> as a Mormon homesteader, crab-farmer, DIYer, and famous internet podcaster. Oh, and Bob Bakker lookalike. I was sent to interview him, ended up spending more time watched by his disapproving spouse <\/a>joi_division<\/b><\/a><\/span> as she took me in the yard to teach me to wrangle crabs in the grass, by his hillbilly parents as they asked me awkward personal questions, and by the small army of dogs that made the place a big, dirty gnawed wreck. Somehow, the interview went awry, I admitted that my biggest worry was making a poor impression on <\/a>joi_division<\/b><\/a><\/span>, and she and the parents finally smiled at me. His mother said, \"Warm ginger ale!\" and <\/a>joi_division<\/b><\/a><\/span> laughed, and I was welcomed inside and the marriage approved.

Marriage? What? No! Interview! Interview! I was sent to interview him!

The dreamlet ends, kid thee not, with me crying out of sheer exhausted confusion<\/i>. Warm ginger ale? What the hell is going on?!

Minor point of clarification: I had a small gnattering, as I woke up, that the ginger ale had to do with <\/a>joi_division<\/b><\/a><\/span> trying to impress her then-future mother-in-law, but that's probably just my slowly waking brain trying to apply logic where obviously none<\/i> belongs. C'mon, crab wrangling?

Major<\/b> point of explanation: I do not know <\/a>joi_division<\/b><\/a><\/span> at all. What I know of <\/a>illusion_of_joy<\/b><\/a><\/span> is nothing<\/i> like the character in the dream. So, Seth, I apologize for dreaming you as a particularly crazy Mormon..."},{"id":"urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:edom:17382","link":[{"@attributes":{"rel":"alternate","type":"text\/html","href":"https:\/\/edom.livejournal.com\/17382.html"}},{"@attributes":{"rel":"self","type":"text\/xml","href":"https:\/\/edom.livejournal.com\/data\/atom\/?itemid=17382"}}],"title":"Dream stub: Spiderboss, Spiderboss, does whatever a--er... (posted 28 July 2007)","published":"2007-07-29T00:08:42Z","updated":"2007-08-08T23:26:31Z","category":[{"@attributes":{"term":"dream:type:stub"}},{"@attributes":{"term":"dream:meta:work-related"}}],"content":"Strange, strange bit of dream which makes no sense without the rest of the dream around it, and probably made little more in context.

My manager and I were crawling along some castle walls--or rather, on the top of the wall, the wide walkable part from which one can observe invaders and pour boiling oil over them. Think of the way an amateur moviemaker might hold the camera sideways and have his would-be Spiderman crawl over a surface to make it look, when replayed, as if Spidey's climbing a vertical wall (that just happens to have gum stuck to it and shoeprints on it). Very much like that. We were crawling as if through a maze, or as if trying to reach something that's fallen to the back of a low shelf, except there was no maze and nothing to reach.

I realized I was just in the way and all of this was damn silly and awkward, and I don't get paid enough for silly and awkward, so I stood up and stepped away. I almost stepped on his head as I did, and was yelled at for it.

I remember thinking, with a big mental sigh, that if any of the co-workers had seen this, they'd definitely get the wrong impression, or think something inappropriate was going on.

Minor point of explanation #1: I think this has something to do with this manager leaving at the end of the month. Exactly what, I've no clue.

Minor point of explanation #2: a former co-worker once made vague allegations of inappropriateness between me and this manager, after I got the promotion she'd wanted. It was both a laugh and a pain in the ass at the time, but it's remained a niggling worry in the back of my head, since others have said* that my version of friendly can come off flirtier than intended. I don't see how griping constantly at him and calling him an asshat could be considered flirty, and logically I know it was just a spiteful backlash over not getting the spot, but still.

* Read: mokie's random slutvibes!<\/font>"},{"id":"urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:edom:17102","link":[{"@attributes":{"rel":"alternate","type":"text\/html","href":"https:\/\/edom.livejournal.com\/17102.html"}},{"@attributes":{"rel":"self","type":"text\/xml","href":"https:\/\/edom.livejournal.com\/data\/atom\/?itemid=17102"}}],"title":"Dream stub: the bloody couch","published":"2007-06-01T15:01:40Z","updated":"2007-06-01T15:01:40Z","category":[{"@attributes":{"term":"dream:tone:powerlessness"}},{"@attributes":{"term":"dream:sym:people:friend"}},{"@attributes":{"term":"dream:type:stub"}},{"@attributes":{"term":"dream:sym:body:blood"}}],"content":"The alarm caught me mid-dream this morning, and in what I remember of the dream, a small stub congealed by the alarm, I was in PJs at Tina's house cosily discussing some random thing.

When I stood to go to the bathroom, I looked down at her new pink ultrasuede couch and saw what looked like a big buttsweat mark. I realized with much embarrassment that I'd flooded the menstrual pad I'd just put in. (I think I was in PJs because earlier in the dream I'd bled over into my clothes, and Tina had lent me both PJs and a fresh pad.) My jaw dropped and I looked up at her, already apologizing, but she was furious and would hear nothing of it. She booted me out the door and I wondered how I'd get home, considering how far away she lived and that I was barefoot and clad in bloody jammies."},{"id":"urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:edom:16673","link":[{"@attributes":{"rel":"alternate","type":"text\/html","href":"https:\/\/edom.livejournal.com\/16673.html"}},{"@attributes":{"rel":"self","type":"text\/xml","href":"https:\/\/edom.livejournal.com\/data\/atom\/?itemid=16673"}}],"title":"Dream stub: quid pro quo!","published":"2007-06-01T14:42:12Z","updated":"2007-06-01T14:42:12Z","category":[{"@attributes":{"term":"dream:type:stub"}},{"@attributes":{"term":"dream:meta:lucidity"}},{"@attributes":{"term":"dream:meta:dorky details"}}],"content":"I set the first alarm on my clock for 8am, and the second for 10am, in case I was still braindead at 8am. Every ten minutes between 8am and 10am, I reached out and hit snooze.

At 9:50, my dreaming self crouched in anticipation, waiting...

Bzzt!<\/i>

AHA! That proved it! Scientists the world over would bow before me!

I rolled out of bed with a smile, though I couldn't remember for the life of me what exactly it was supposed to have proven."}]}