Dream #500 (April 11, 2013) - 2 Cops, Ghosted, Chicago

So this is 500?  Is it worthy of the number?  We'll see.


In the first dream I felt like some sort of a spectator yet, at the same time, I was somehow very much a part of the dream.  Two cops were running their route in the middle of the night in a large, dark, and inactive city.  The driver was a middle-aged redhead with a thick mustache and the passenger was a young man who resembled Joseph Gordon-Levitt.  The driver was asking the young cop about his life, wife, and young daughter back at home, and the young man went into how he was having a tough time with his marriage.  Then the redhead offered some odd advice having to do with taking a "breather" every once in a while.  After that remark, the cop car's headlights passed over a couple of young women staggering into an abandoned building.

The older cop asked the younger if he wanted to have a little fun.  Without waiting for an answer, he harshly slammed on the breaks and whipped the car over to the entrance of the building, parking it there.  The cops got out, grabbed flashlights, and entered the rubble.

They searched through the dark and musty rooms, hoping to no avail that each corner would reveal the beautiful women waiting for them.  At last they entered a long, red bathroom with several mirrors lining the walls.  The redhead stopped at one of the mirrors and tidied up his thick and wavy hair and his mustache with a come he kept in his breast pocket.  The young man did the same.  Then they heard one of the women in the next room say, "Come and get it when you're ready."  The JGL look-alike rushed toward the door, but the older man put his arm out and caused him to pause.  "One more thing."

The redhead began to show JGL a bunch of skin pockets that he had on his stomach, legs, and arms (yes, that is terrible gross and strange).  In each of the pockets was hidden a small razor.

"You never know when you'll want to whip out one of these."

The redhead led JGL into the room.  Suddenly, the roofless room was filled with a harsh white light coming from above.  Several UFO's stormed down from the sky onto the city, and the whole earth, and began to destroy it.


Then I switched over to a different dream.


I was attending an outdoor basketball game.  A wooden floor had been set up in the middle of a soccer field, and thousands of people were there to watch.  I walked along the boundary lines and observed the game and the fans alike.  I saw a lot of people with whom I was familiar, but I didn't stop and talk to anyone.  I walked over to a concession stand in the corner and asked if there were any free items.  Without a word the heavyset 20-year-old handed me a pamphlet about this legendary horror that had taken place at the creepy old house next to the soccer field.  I opened it up and began to read it.

The first paragraph described a found young college girls that bought the old house together because it was inexpensive and resided near their school.  I looked up from the pamphlet and noticed that all the people had disappeared.  The court was gone, the bleachers were gone, and the concession stand was gone.  I looked at the old house and was drawn to it.  I dropped the pamphlet and ran to the front door.

One of the four young women answered the door politely and let me in.  She asked me where I was from and what I was interested in.  Night had fallen quickly, and the few lamps and candles in the house struggled to light the vast rooms.  I found myself being controlled by strange impulses that I was unable to control.  When the woman left the room to grab some refreshments, I ran into an adjacent room and changed into a different outfit.  I put on a long black trench coat, black goggles, black gloves, black pants, black socks, black shoes, and a black top hat.  I carried a silver cane and walked back into the room.  My appearance frightened the woman, and she threw a vase at me, which hit me in the head and killed me.

The next thing I knew there was a detective observing my dead body and taking notes about the crime scene.  The four girls were all standing nearby, crying into each other's arms.  Then I discovered that I was able to leave my body, so I did.  Because of all the daylight in the room, my spirit was invisible.  Soon enough night fell again, and all of the cops and detectives left, and the girls were there alone.

An incredible thunder storm had come over they house.  The girls were sitting in the living room talking about what had happened, trying to keep each other calm, when my spirit walked into the room.  They were dreadfully frightened, and they began throwing things at me.  Because I was a spirit, I was unable to get hit.  The girls began to scream with insanity and they all fled the house, running straight into the storm.  I tried to stop them, but was unable.  Then, somehow, they were all struck by a single bolt of lightening.


Then I switched to a different dream.


I was walking along a street in Chicago in the middle of a grey afternoon.  Hundreds of people crowded the streets and it was difficult to get around.  After walking several miles I eventually made it out of the the crowds of people into a less busy side of town.  I traveled here for a long time and realized it was so late that, even if I were to run back, I would not be able to catch the train back home. I accepted that and continued to walk.  I ran into my old high school classmate Brandon Porter with whom I have not spoken for years.  I yelled across the street, "Hey Porter!  How's it going?"  He waived and replied, "Hey Joe.  Pretty good."  Then we continued along our opposite paths.

I ended up at an interesting building that was part music store, part national parks information center.  I talked to the owner, an old man wearing a green national parks vest with a little trumpet pin.  He told me that Houndmouth had recently played there and that Katie Toupin had left her guitar, her kick drum, and her snare drum there (she doesn't play the drums, at least for Houndmouth, in real life).  He also said that my tripod had also somehow ended up there.  I called Katie up and asked her if she wanted me to bring them to the band.  She said that they were staying at my grandpa's house, so I could just meet them there.

I then sat down on the floor and pondered how I would return the musical equipment to Houndmouth without having a vehicle in Chicago.


Then I awoke.

Dream #499 (April 10, 2013) Gorilla Taxman

So close.


I was living in a very tall hotel.  The stairway to the rooms was located inside this square prism of a building, and the room were only located on one side of that building.  Every hall and every room had a light yellow wallpaper plastered to it, and they were all set to 68 degrees.  This hotel also had no ground floor; rather, it rested atop an eternal black abyss.

I returned home (to the hotel) carrying two brown paper bags full of vegetables and loaves of French bread.  I walked in at the bottom and climbed a dozen sets of stairs, which, for some reason, were built on alternating sides of the hotel so that I  had to walk down the hallway of every floor to make it to the next ascending stairway.

When I finally reached my room (the third to last room at the top floor), I, with great finesse, managed to pull out my keys, unlock and open my door, and safely set the groceries onto my dining room table.  I proceeded to unload the tomatoes, heads of lettuce, potatoes, ears of corn, etc. into my cupboards.  When I was about done, I heard a knock on the door.  I left the groceries and opened the door after peering the the people at the little taxman before me.

This guy was actually not a guy at all.  He was a gorilla, yet I treated him and thought of him as a man. He was wearing a suit and tie and was carrying a briefcase, from which he pulled out a large stack of papers and handed them to me.  The gorilla-taxman explained without words (mainly using gestures and eye contact) that the paperwork had to be completed in one hour, or else I would go to debtor's prison.

I panicked and, after grabbing the papers, slammed the door in his face and rushed into my bedroom.  I closed the blinds of my window that overlooked the city and turned on a red lamp next to my desk and began working like a madman for what felt like hours.  I flew through page after page, but the pile seemed to never end.

Finally, I had only about ten pages left to finish when I heard a knock on the door.  I looked up at a clock in my room and saw that an hour had passed.  I ran to the door, with the papers in my arms, and saw through the peep hole that the gorilla was there, with two cops, waiting for me.  I wasn't ready!

I kicked my own door open and leaped over the cops and the gorilla taxman and even over the guardrail of the hallway.  I began falling down past the several floors in the hotel as onlookers waived to me.

Before falling into the black abyss below me, I managed to grab onto the safety rail of the first floor's hallway, the papers still tucked under my arm.  I held on the rail with one hand and shoved the papers into my pocket with the other.  Then I started swinging like a monkey on the rails as I headed for the exit.  I saw that the cops and the gorilla were nearing my location, so I tried to sling a web from my wrist like Spider-Man, but that didn't work, so I continued to swing toward the exit.

I finally made it.  I was met there by a half gorilla-half rhino wearing grey pants and a purple vest.  I was at first scared of this thing, but he managed to (without words) tell me that he would buy me as much time as he could, but I would have to try to finish the paper work.

I thanked him and began to run again.  I went out the exit of the hotel, which led to a grey hallway with doors lining both sides of the hallway.  I ran all the way to the end of the hall, where rested a final door.  I tried to open it, but it was locked, so I opened the door to the left of it and jumped in the room (which resembled an office that my dad once worked in) and frantically began to finish the final papers.

I was on the last page when I heard the rhino-gorilla say that he couldn't help me anymore.  I popped my head out the window and saw the whole community coming after me.  Some were even carrying torches and pitchforks.

I took a quick but deep breath and finished the last page just as the crowd got to the door.  I held the papers above my head so that the people would know that I had finished.  The rhino-gorilla started the crown in a slow clap that lead to an applause by the time I made it to the end of the crowd where the gorilla-taxman stood, arms crossed.  He ripped the papers out of my hands, sifted through them, then signaled to the crowd that they were indeed complete, and everyone began to celebrate.  The vest-wearing rhino-gorilla came a patted me on the back.


Then I awoke.

Dream #498 (April 6, 2013) Grey City Speaker/Shrinker

Dream.

I was in a twilight city made up of gray and pale yellow stone and brick buildings.  I walked down the smoothly paved sidewalk that ran along an empty, narrow street.  I entered, through a cage, into a small Greek restaurant and waited in line to order a gyro.  After receiving my food, I left the restaurant and ran into an acquaintance outside and began chatting with him (a 40-year-old man whom I don't know in real life).  This hairy fellow told me of his fishing business and of his newfound love.  I listened and bode him farewell after congratulating him on his recent successes.

I walked to a great tower and entered into it.  After taking a tight elevator (with a 1-skinny-person capacity) up 23 floors I walked into a massive indoor stadium.  People cheered for me, giving me a standing ovation, as I walked up to a small podium that looked down onto the massive, faceless crowd. There were a few elementary school and high school classes that had received special tickets to hear me speak, and they sat right in front of the podium.

I began to deliver an address with charisma and power to the people there, talking about all sorts of subjects, from community building to running camps, from filming to photography.  They were excited about everything I had to say, and they let me know by applauding often.  When I finished my speech, I knelt down from the podium and had a more intimate discussing with the students about the communities at their respective schools.

After that, I left the tower and headed back down the street to my hotel.

Outside the building that I had been set up in, I ran into my friend Caitlin Geeslin.  She seemed excited to see me and after talking with me about some of her recent endeavors (mostly cross-country journalism), she invited me to her room in the next building to meet her friend Aaron.  I asked who he or she was, and Caitlin informed me, somewhat ashamedly, that he was her husband (I'm still not sure why she seemed so ashamed to tell me this).  I agreed to meet him, then Caitlin began having second thoughts.  I told her I had an idea.

I ran up seven flights of stairs to my large but empty hotel room and grabbed a sparkling vile and drank a potion in it.  Caitlin had followed me and when she entered, I told her how I had discovered a solution that would allow me to change size at will.  I shrunk down the the size of a peanut and told Caitlin to carry me in her pocket so that I could meet her husband without him meeting me (I'm still not sure why this was a big deal).

She put me in her pocket, but that was terribly dark and uncomfortable, so I climbed out up onto her shoulder as she walked to her room.  She entered it and nobody was there.  She put me on the ground and I grew back to normal size.  I told her that I should be leaving because I had some preparing to do for my next project, so I left.

Outside I found a woman with black hair that had heard about me and had a few questions for me.  I agreed to answer them if she  could walk with me back to my room while asking them.

The questions she asked were much more deep and personal than I anticipated.  They were questions about the afterlife and about love and about purpose and about my mental state.  I managed to say things to her that, though they weren't technically answers, they appeased her.

She asked if she could observe me for a while as I worked, and I reluctantly agreed.  I found myself shrinking as I tried to write while she was watching me.  Soon enough I was again the size of a peanut.

Then I awoke.