graymalkn

The night before last I dreamed I shot Rush Limbaugh. He was swaggering about, threatening to shoot someone (Heather?) so I warmed him a few times then shot him first.It wasn't like a regular gunshot, though - more like a cap gun or a blank, but it still did some damage.

Last night I dreamed I was in class when my classmate Antonin Scalia stole my composition book. At first I didn't know where it had gone, then I saw he'd filled up the remained of it, looking at me with a smirk as if to say, "What're you going to do about it?" What I did wasn't particularly dignified - whining and pleading, I think. Eventually, he went out for a break and I stole it back, then he whined and pleaded with me. I think I'd understand this a lot better if I knew what class Scalia and I were taking together. I actually don't think it was law.

I've never really had recurring dreams. Even the nuclear holocaust ones are different every time, just sharing the general theme. But over the last few years I've started feeling that certain of my dreams are connected to others, that they're different dreams about the same place, or connected places. In particular, I have a fairly complete alternate San Francisco in my dreams, which is highly influenced by my urban exploration adventures:

• there is a large tunnel, as for a subway, that goes underground somewhere around where 16th and Van Ness would be, but the neighborhood is totally different. This is an industrial zone and the tunnel is deep, complex, grungy, and full of promise.
• Away toward the Dog Patch, there's a maze of shipping containers and small buildings, tightly packed.
• The Financial District extends further south and is taller and grungier.
• There's an offramp from the Bay bridge that spirals down to nothing - just stops and cars sometimes drive off into the Bay.

But what's important to know is that these are all part of the same city, they all connect up with each other. What's more, the tunnel connects with other tunnel dreams that have nothing to do with San Francisco, like the one in the basement of the building (probably inspired by past adventures in the Public Health Services Hospital), or the one that's more cave like but then opens out into a trench ending in a vista of an open plane.

Not sure if this was a dream or a daydream, but early this morning I was day/dreaming about some kid asking me incredulously why he should care about history. Instead of going the "Because history shapes the present" route I tried to show him that it was full of interesting stories, and related to him the Punic wars and the fact that this guy actually marched hundreds of elephants thousands of miles to attack another city state. I don't think the kid was entirely convinced.

I had a dream last night in which I was in some sort of very tasteful underground library. Through the skylights I heard a shofar announcing the start of Passover (yes, I know the shofar isn't generally used for Passover). Thing is, it was doing so to the tune of The Beatles' In My Life.

All I remember was that there was a sequel to Barton Fink, called Barton Fink: New Orleans.

Had an odd dream the other night. A few other people and I were taste-testing different religions, in the form of cookies. Each cookie was somehow the embodiment (encookiement?) of a different religion - not just a recipe from members of the religion but the actual religion in cookie form. I think we were only tasting the Christian cookies and the were mostly fairly bland, except, for some reason, the Catholic cookie which was fairly spicy.

Now I want lunch.

Two unrelated nightmares in one night. In the first, I was told that funding for my job at Walden House had been cut, so I had to be suspended until they could renew the funding or find other sources. Later the same day, I was told that a temp job was open at EA. Because of some sort of percieved financial instability, I had to take the job, so I was back at EA, though in a different capacity. Someone needed help getting a computer set up but things had changed so much that I didn't know what to do (and besides, it wasn't my job any more). Being sucked back into a brightly-lit cubicle land, not knowing what was going on and not having a job that I cared about was... horrific.

The second was worse. The house was full of radiation, though this was planned, almost like a bug bomb or something. But for some reason I was stuck inside, not sure why. I was running around the house in a panic and could feel myself getting sick - dizzy and nauseated. Eventually I thought to dig out my old-school civil defense radiation meter and with some trepidation switched it on. It immediately pegged, so I turned it up a notch, it pegged again, I turned it up again, and it nearly pegged again, finally reading 900 rads. I knew I was screwed, but I think this is when I woke up, unusually glad that it was all just a dream. Funny thing is that at some point during the dream I actually thought, "This is so bad it has to be a nightmare."

I had a dream last night in which my wallet broke. Just fell on the floor and broke in two, spilling all my cards and cash (and no, I'm not having any financial troubles or anxiety). I've had this wallet for about 22 years and can hardly imagine having another.

In another dream, my cat Clydeberry was evil. I learned that she had been part of some sort of horrible plot, but I don't remember the details. When I got up in the morning I felt bad about doubting her virtue, so I spent a bit longer than usual scratching her chin.

Two odd dreams last night.

In the first, someone told me (or perhaps I read on Make?) that if I smeared a layer of grease between two sheets of wax paper, I could hold it up like a window and see people's, for lack of a better word, sins. I expected to see scenes of cheating, violence, etc. But when I tried it I only saw a beautiful golden glowing image of the person I was pointing it at. So that was reassuring.

The second I blame on wishthesame and rabbitlight, who gave me the copy of House of Leaves I was reading just before bed (NB: House of Leaves is, in part, about an evil house) In it, I'd felt once or twice a slight "push" while walking around the house, like someone gently nudging me. I'd disregarded it as nothing but poor balance on my part until I was walking up the stairs and suddenly felt something push me backward, hard. I nearly fell down the stairs but caught my balance, only to then have this force try to pick me up by the hood of my sweat shirt (note that I never wear hoodies) and pin me to the wall. I tried to call out for Heather but could hardly speak. It turns out that this was because I was trying so hard that I was actually talking in my sleep, which is notoriously hard to control (and which I almost never do, so far as I know). Not so fun.

I often post about my dreams, but this is a little different. This morning I woke up from a dream with music in it. It was almost a music video, but not quite - kind of how the opening to Donnie Darko is almost a video for The Killing Moon. But the thing is, the song in my dream doesn't exist - I wrote a song in my sleep and it's beautiful but I have no talent for music so I'll never get to hear it or share it.

It had sort of a New Wave/goth sound; what I keep thinking of is something between Joy Division and the Psychedelic Furs, a slow and smooth vocal over a soft synthesized rhythmic melody. All I can remember of the lyrics is

Land is gone
Islands now

And it was so beautiful, so... dreamy.