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.

This morning I woke up with a very sore stomach, the kind that makes you double over into a fetal position and not want to move, except you have to move because if you stay still the pain takes over your lower eyelids and makes you scream like a baby. Well, maybe it wasn’t THAT bad, but it was horrible. I almost used it as an excuse to call in sick to work. In the end it turned out for the better, because I did absolutely nothing at work. If I had stayed home, I would have done the same thing; I just wouldn’t have gotten paid for it.

The only thing that happened at work was the realization that sometimes, when you’ve grown up and matured into a true adult, suddenly the people you used to know are still thinking like little kids, and as a result are not as pleasant to know anymore.

I watched Animal Precinct tonight, and every time I see that show I am amazed and appalled at the ignorance and stupidity people have in this world. It is horrifying what these so-called “pet owners” do to their charges. Tonight’s episode there was a case where owners tied up 13 newborn puppies into garbage bags and threw them into the trash for the garbagemen to pick up. If a neighbor hadn’t heard the crying from inside the can, all of the puppies would likely have been lost. In the end, however, only 2 of the 13 survived. The owners were, naturally, arrested. There was also a case of a dog being muzzled with what looked like a coffee can, and even a dog that had its throat cut wide open with a knife. The show is not for the faint-of-heart, but at least those stinky ignorant dirt-people get what they deserve.

The inventory for the store was today, so much of my time was spent in preparation. There wasn’t much for me to do since most of the back rooms were already accounted for. I just had to check the displays for any merchandise that we still sold. There was another job that had to be done, that of logging all the sunglasses in the drawers so that the inventory people wouldn’t have to count them. That job was supposed to go to Lynn, but she’s a putz, and not to be trusted with assignments of high detail and meticulousness. Seeing as how I am probably the most anal retentive employee in the company, that task fell to me.

I discovered today that the classes I wanted to take in the fall were closed. Those last few seats were snatched up like the last calzone at Boston’s. Of the two classes I want to take, one has another section offered at the same time on the same day (I assume it’s held in different rooms), so that I foresee no problems with. Unfortunately, the second class has another section at 0745 hours. That in itself would not be so bad, but I would have to kill 3 or 4 hours before the next class. That’s a lot of time to spend at an accredited university. I think it will only serve to heighten my quirky insanity to extremes beyond mortal comprehension.

Some good news, though; I bought doughnuts for breakfast.

Tonight’s Invader Zim episode:
A Room with a Moose

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.

Today turned out to be another lazy day. We were supposed to go to the dog park, but the sky was cloudy and gray, and the temperature was at the right degree for lounging around. We did eventually step out of the house because we had to go to LCC to buy books for Maile’s upcoming semester. It’s odd how the price of books just keeps going up and up. $140 for 3 books! I think they jack up the price just for kicks.

I found out today that the Japanese have what they call “costume play.” Basically it’s a big dance party where everyone dresses up in costumes of video game, manga or anime characters. They have a costume contest, of course, but the main idea behind it is just to meet people and have a good time. I don’t know if there’s alcohol involved, but I suppose mixing alcohol and anime costumes could have some dangerous results.

I had a glass of water for breakfast, scrambled eggs and pancakes for lunch, and a hamburger macaroni casserole for dinner. For dessert I had a creamcheese poundcake that was very delicious!

There is a gecko living in my bedroom. I think it’s because of all the silverfish that wander about when I’m not looking.

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.

Today started out weirdly. I almost threw up the omelette I had for breakfast. I had the night shift at 1830, so that meant I had to kill 9 hours before leaving for work. I’ve never been more bored in my life. What’s even more sad about that is the fact that just in my room there are hundreds of things I could have done to pass the time. Chalk it up to good ol’ laziness, I guess. I even tried to take a nap, but it was too hot, and I think I only managed to doze off for 10 minutes.

On CheesyMUD I tried to make a spec program, somewhat because I wanted to show I could contribute something, but primarily because I felt like it. The only problem was, a certain command was unavailable to me, so I couldn’t compile the code. That makes it tough to test. I felt like a prick for bugging all the higher-ups on the game to compile the code for me.

At work I tried out the new pair of boots I bought on Wednesday. A black pair of Bates-brand boots, they look like something someone in the military or law enforcement would wear. I think it even claimed so on the tag. What’s neat about them is they have a zipper on the side, so I can take my feet out while keeping the boots laced. The boots were comfortable at work, and after having them “blessed” by Irene I did a little dance in front of the jewelry stand.

Work itself was.. well, okay. That’s the best I could put it. It wasn’t dull or boring, but neither was it active enough to consider it a “busy” day. That’s what happens when our primary customers are those from overseas. Still, it felt like I got a lot of work done, so in the end I guess you could say it was worth it.

There’s not much to talk about regarding work, except to say that these days it seems the young Japanese girls are wearing less and less clothing. You can blame the pop stars for that. One day a pop star is going to promote corsets and those gigantic hoop dresses, and then all over Japan women will find it hard to ride the train.