Fear the Crab

I was in Longs with a whole bunch of co-workers. We were there because we were on our way to the beach, and we wanted to get things. Strangely enough, the items we were getting had nothing to do with the beach at all, and we were all in our duty free uniforms. I remember browsing the shelves for things that I wanted, and as I walked around, I traveled close to the windows and the door that lead outside. I looked outside to see what the weather was like, when suddenly I didn’t look where I was going and ended up nearly stepping out of the store with a basket full of merchandise. Thankfully I managed to steer away from certain doom before I crossed the line, but I kept thinking that Longs was going to send a security guard to check up on me. While browsing for gum, I noticed an undercover security officer trailing me. But I wasn’t hiding anything, and if he approached me I was going to tell him the truth, that I wasn’t watching where I was going, and in my dream that actually would have worked.

I went to pay, and was standing behind two other customers. It was odd that Longs’ registers were all inside little booths, and these booths formed a circular island in the middle of the store. There were these separators that you’d find at airports or Disneyland, which would accommodate long lines. The first customer left, then the second mentioned something to the sales clerk, and the two of them left the store. Those of us in line, especially me since I was next, began to wonder what was going on. I looked over to the door, and noticed that there were four sales clerks standing around there, just talking. Meanwhile, everybody else was done with their shopping, and they came by to see what was taking so long. I explained what was happening, as far as I could tell it, then I noticed that the line was getting super long, even at some of the other registers.

Eventually the sales clerk came back, and I got ready to pay. Unfortunately, she came back with another customer, and took her in front of everybody so she could be rung up. This happened twice more, and apparently it’s because this dream Longs had special 10-minute parking stalls for customers, meaning that if you parked there, you had top priority to be serviced because you only had 10 minutes. At this point I was getting quite upset, especially after being snubbed in line and all the other sales clerks not doing anything to help out. Irene and Min kept coming by to find out what was taking so long, and even Maile came into the store. Finally it was my turn, and strangely instead of having a basket full of little knick knacks, I was buying a pair of boots that in reality I got a couple weeks ago. My dream total ended up being over 200 dollars for one pair of boots. When I was done with my transaction, I stepped one window over to their service counter, where a young man was there. I asked if he was the manager, and he said yes. I then proceeded to tell him everything that went wrong with my visit. I said that I could understand how the clerks needed to service those people in the 10-minute stalls, but that left no excuse to have four other clerks standing around talking story while the line gets longer and longer. The manager seemed sympathetic.

However, before he could do anything or say anything in response, I found myself watching an anime cartoon detailing the end of a futuristic civilization. There was some sort of nuclear blast, or that’s what I was led to believe judging from what I was seeing. I remember the scene was underground, and there was a subway train that transported people to different sections of the underground city. There was no sound (it was a dramatic moment, I guess), and I felt that this cartoon was really cool because of the way they drew and how they wove their story. When the subway doors opened, no one came out, but rather this melting heat wave spilled out and turned the area into an oven. Even the walls were melting.

Here, the details of my dream are blurry, but I do remember an escape pod containing a robot and a monkey, crash landing on a planet. The monkey survived, but the robot did not, and the robot was the only thing that could tell the monkey what to do on this new planet. The monkey then turned into a group of five people, all trying to figure out their role on this new planet (which looked like Earth). I was among those people, and I remember opening up the flood gates in our yard and watching all this water spill out into the street. We wanted to judge the peoples’ reaction, and their reaction was to throw baseballs through our windows. I got rather sick of that, so I decided to leave and take a walk down the street, which led me to be find myself…

…in Longs, with a whole bunch of co-workers. We were there because we were on our way to the beach, and we wanted to get things. Strangely enough…

That little loop forced me out of my dream, with help from a power saw.

I was on my way to a party at a restaurant, which was thrown by the Japanese club. I was in a sectioned limousine, sectioned because there was a compartment in the car for the front seat, middle seat, and rear seat. There were five other people with me, three women and two men, all of whom were also going to the party. We were delayed by weird circumstances, such as having to change our clothes because what we were wearing wasn’t fancy enough, and making pit stops at shopping malls so someone could browse shelves.

By the time we got to the restaurant, it was quite late, and I knew that we were going to get into trouble. To make matters worse, there was a lot of our things still in the car, what with having to change and all. I asked if we should take everything, and everyone said no, that it was all right. So we all left the limousine, and headed up some stairs for the restaurant. Yet I was feeling that we should have taken our stuff, because the limousine wasn’t ours, it was like we rented it. I ran back downstairs, but unfortunately, the car was gone, with all our belongings.

I was quite pissed at everybody, and stormed back upstairs to confront them. However, I couldn’t find them. Instead there were some people I had never seen in my life, such as a “club” of geeky-looking people that greeting each other by pressing their faces against one another and yelling Tarzan-like words. It almost seemed to me that they were the animation club. There was also a club of drama enthusiasts, but they seemed to also like brown, styled hair and heavy makeup. I recall one of my college friends as being in that group, but rather than go and talk to her, I settled for smoking a cigarette and waiting for Maile to come to my rescue. She was on her way, but before she arrived, the party was over, and people began to ask me in Japanese how to catch the bus or taxi home. Seeing as it was so late, I wasn’t sure if the buses were still running, so I went to look for a phone book that had the information phone number. For some weird reason, I couldn’t find it, and given my mood from earlier events, I decided to give up. Before I could cry, or continue my cigarette, I woke up.

I was back at the U of Puget Sound, in the basement of the Student Union Building. I was in some office, for reasons which I do not know, and I was actually not supposed to be there. I was sneaking into this office as a favor to someone else, who required a paper or file from the back rooms. I felt highly paranoid as I conducted my business, but I was able to leave without being stopped.

As I left the building, a professor came up to me and said I needed to come with him to the Fiscal Office. The reason was because he had forgotten to tell them that I was now living in a special house-dorm with a few of my friends, and we needed to correct it if I wanted to remain there. As we were walking to the office, I noticed that the professor was accompanied by a few other faculty members, and I came to realize that they were all sycophants and hung around him merely to leech off his fame. I could overhear their whispers, and they said amongst themselves that I was the teacher’s pet, though I had no recollection of even taking that professor’s classes.

On the way to the office, I received a phone call from Jumi. We engaged in idle talk, and then she made mention that she was still working at the sheriff’s department. That conversation seemed to twist the dream into a “daydream” within the dream, because I was then thinking about a fictional time when I worked at a television station, helping their broadcasts by positioning lights, and I even began to think about the fictional time that I had to apply make-up to these actors and actresses.

My dream returned to “normal,” and we made it to the fiscal office, which turned out to be a mock-up of the Customer Service Counter at DFS. The line was long because the person working the counter was slow and did not do things in a timely manner. I realized that after we had all approached the counter, we would have another wait for the fiscal office cashier’s window, and I began to worry that I wouldn’t have time to get my next class. Yet I couldn’t leave, because I needed the professor’s help in telling the office where I was living and why I was living there (I think he had to vouch for me and sign some papers). I remember thinking that maybe if I at least made it past the CR counter, I could skip out and go to my next class. A foolish thought, but it was the last one I had before I woke up.

I was back at the Univ of Puget Sound, visiting the old dorms. However, I wasn’t going back as an alum, but rather as a student. And the dorms were all underground bunkers that were surprisingly “sunlit” inside. I say underground because the front door to all the dorms was accessed down a stairwell, and there were no floors above ground level. It was raining very hard, where I could feel the water drumming the top of my head.

I know I had a roommate, but I don’t know who it was, and all I really remember from that part is that the desks were falling apart and I had no idea where to put all my stuff.

I was at my grandmother’s house with the whole family, and I remember having to go next door to take violin lessons. However, things kept coming up and delaying my departure. I would forget my socks, I would forget my violin, I would have to use the bathroom and then forget my underwear. Until finally, I’m ready to go, when I see a girl in the front lawn using two laptops as well as my own. For some reason she is supposed to be there, because I walk over and ask if everything is okay. She says yes.

Then we both notice that there are these men who are standing around, looking at the small stone fence that separates my grandmother’s house from another neighbor. Suddenly, then walk around the wall and start looking around on our side. The girl and I walk over and we ask what’s going on. It appears there was a problem with the gas line, and the men were trying to fix it before it got dark so people could have gas for whatever reason they wanted to use it.

The girl and I go to tell everybody, when suddenly I remember that all those laptops were still in the front lawn. I rush back and discover that two of the laptops are missing! I look around, and I see, far away, this woman carrying the tray the laptops were on. I go to chase, and suddenly it feels like I’m running through molasses. I’m not getting any closer, and despite trying to use my hands to “pull” my way forward, the lady just keeps walking. I yell that she’s a thief, but everybody around isn’t paying attention or something, because no one helps. She takes a left turn, and heads into a park and disappears from view. When I get to the park, I realize to my horror that it’s full of people having picnics. Everybody’s walking around, making it very difficult to see where the lady went.

I would have begun to panic, but suddenly the dream changed and I was riding on a train with a bunch of musicians, all of whom were trying to find some new way to play their instruments, because they were so bored. It was amazing, because not only did they successfully play their instruments in new ways and create new sounds, but they had some of the weirdest instruments I had ever seen. For example, a cello that was in the shape of a rectangle and had eight strings from top to bottom. A trumpet that looked like it cross-bred with a trombone. You get the point.

I don’t remember much else, after the alarm clock woke me up.

I don’t remember too much about this dream, except for the fact that I was at a birthday party at some restaurant or convention hall. It wasn’t my birthday, and neither was it any member of my family, but for some reason my entire family was in attendance.

I also remember walking Titan, but that’s about it.

I remember walking around Pearlridge Shopping Center with a friend from Japan, Nana. We were at Phase I, or what’s known today as Uptown. On the second floor near the escalators, I saw George, who was the one that first introduced me to Nana, sitting in front of Software Etc. She went over to say hi, and the first thing that popped into my (dream) mind was that George was going to be very upset that Nana was here and he didn’t know about it. I also began to think that he would become further upset with me because I was hanging out with her, even though in my dream nothing had occured and there was nothing that was going to happen. Nana had come down and I just happened to be there, but would George come to that conclusion?

Before any of that could come into play, however, the dream changed and I was now wandering through a department store with Maile. It is unclear what we were looking for, or perhaps it was Maile’s intention to shop, because I never felt like I was there to actually buy something. I believe the store was Macy’s, still in Pearlridge, and it seemed we were in a department that sold ashtrays and other knick-knack paddywhack goods. I picked up a small item and held it fully within my closed fist, then turned to Maile and, showing her both fists, asked her to guess which hand the object was in.

She never got around to guessing, because I woke up with both my arms and hands tingling from the lack of circulation. I hate when that happens.

This dream seemed to be a mix of images all blended together. It first started with me spending time in jail, and I was on a work crew. Except I had a pair of needle-nosed pliers. I had to sit in the bed of a pickup truck with a bunch of hardened cons. Then the dream switched to that of a man running down the street eating a package of uncooked spaghetti, or linguine.

There was an image of me playing a solitaire game with actual cards, and a scene of me standing.. somewhere.. to do.. something.

None of it made any sense, and already I find it hard to remember details.

I think I know the reason behind this morning’s dream, at least for the girl who had a hard time with math. Irene is taking a “practical purposes” course in math, where students use formulas to calculate everyday things like compound interest or matrices for bus schedules or airline flights. She understands the formulas well and good, but when it comes to assignments she can’t seem to cut it. The reason? They’re all word problems, and she hates word problems. She says she panics when she sees them, and I guess her brain locks up and can’t figure things out. I recommended she circle the important facts she sees in the problem, and then once all the facts are circled, put them into the appropriate variables in the appropriate formula. Here’s hoping she does well.

However, I have no idea why Booger was trying to kiss Maile.

There was an accident on the freeway that backed traffic up for a good mile. I got caught in it on the way home from work. We were stopped for a good 15 minutes before we slowly started moving again. From what I could see, some car or truck either lost control or skidded from the right lane all the way across to smash into the center barricade. I didn’t look too well, because I was more interested in getting home, and I hate rubberneckers.

Maile says I need to be more curious. I need to pry my nose into and squeeze every drop of information from whatever it is I’ve encountered, just so I can relay the entire story to her when I tell it. I told her I’ll try.

Today’s Invader Zim episode(s):
Door to Door
FBI Warning of Doom
Megadoomer
Lice

I was sitting in some sort of cafe, only instead of being there to drink coffee and eat food I was there to take some sort of math class. There weren’t enough seats for people to use, so many were sitting on the floor. I don’t know what kind of math it was, for there were strange symbols like (0 0) + -0/-0, which I think stood for a weird twist on boolean logic; true and true + minus true over minus true. We had some kind of test to take, but sitting behind me was a girl who was supposed to be smart, but she never seemed to cut a break from the professor. She would ask me to look over her work to see if anything was wrong, because the professor would just jump all over her case if there was even the slightest mistake. This was strange, because the professor only treated her this way. Finally the test we were taking was over, and to my horror I realized that while helping this girl, I had neglected to fill in my own results. Thankfully the prof didn’t approach me for my answers, rather he went straight to the girl and confronted her. She spoke an answer that was correct to everyone’s opinion, but the prof wouldn’t accept it. There was some trivial detail that was wrong, like she hadn’t written in one of the ( signs in the right place, and so he flunked her completely. This time the girl got fed up and ran out of the classroom crying, which at this point had transformed into a giant bus. Going against my better judgment, I decided to go after the girl, taking with me my girlfriend. Except we couldn’t catch up, because I was driving her car, which wasn’t the car she has now, but rather an older model used years ago. I was having trouble driving because, as I said in my dream, “The gas and brake pedals are right next to each other, not separate on other sides of the drive shaft like my car.” Every time I wanted to press the brake, my foot would reach over and hit empty air, causing the two of us to momentarily panic before resuming a normal state.

So we got lost in a parking lot, and all the while my girlfriend is shaking her head and sighing at my ineptitude. Finally we get out, and we’re at this big college party. We step onto this wooden deck where three guys are playing basketball, only they’re not playing it with a hoop and net but rather giant fruit and a giant vending machine. Don’t ask me how that game worked, in my dream it felt like it was commonplace. My girlfriend and I asked around for the girl that ran out of the math class, and everyone seemed to have their own idea of where she went.

Then to my horror one of the guys at the party starting to make the moves on my girlfriend. He looked.. well, right now I can say he looked like Booger from Revenge of the Nerds. At this point in my dream, I started to treat it like a rewind/fast forward videotape. I first went up to the Booger impersonator and punched him in the left eye, hard enough to shatter his sunglasses. Then it seemed like the dream rewound itself back to the moment I caught the guy trying to kiss my girlfriend. Perhaps I was doing something wrong, and my dream was giving me a second chance to do the right thing. So I ran over and started yelling and doing the macho bump-your-chest thing. Then I grabbed him and THEN punched him, this time in the stomach, and pushed him down the stairs that were magically placed next to us. The dream fast forwarded to a weird scene where I’m standing on the sidewalk of a two lane road in the middle of the night, watching cars edge slowly forward in rush hour traffic. The only significant thing I remember from that is a taxi parked on the side of the road suddenly pulling out into the lane and nearly getting T-boned by a limousine.