Mark Allen's Dream Journal - July, 2004
*note: Date of dream entry refers to day before,the date of the night I went to sleep and the dream I had into the next day's date.7/1/04
I am in some kind of museum or high security office or something like that... a one-story building. It is nighttime. The inside of the building has maroon industrial carpet, drywall and cork white ceiling panels with fluorescent lights. Many of the walls in the space are made of glass and have swinging glass doors.
Whatever the building is, an office or museum or whatever, it is high security... and I am a security guard in the building, along with child actor Ike Eisenmann (as an adult). It is late at night and we seem to be the only ones in the building, or at least the only ones in this particular wing. We both have security guard uniforms on and belts with jangling key rings.
Ike seems to be really crafty and scheming... he's always walking around and saying stuff like "See that drywall? You could easily place a pin-point spy camera in the corner and spy on people in this room, easy!" or "Oh look at that wimpy lock! I could pick that with a paper clip in ten seconds flat!" I just kind of listen to him walk around and say all this stuff. At one point, Ike looks up at one of the cork ceiling panels and says "Did you know that the company's super-powered computer is up there, imbedded in the ceiling? It holds all the company's information... they thought it was well hidden ...but not from me, because I wore my infra-red glasses the other day to work and I saw it. Did you know that you could go up there with a floppy disk and insert it into the computer and download all their banking and security information... just like that?" ...he then pulls out a floppy disk from his pocket and a weird, small blue key. He looks at me intently and says "I have this key right here. It opens the lock on the computer's floppy disc port... do you wanna go up there and unlock it and do the deed? Download all the company's info? I have a floppy disc right here. I'll remove the ceiling tile and keep watch while you jump up there and do it. What do you say?"
I just kind of look at him and say "All right" for some reason. But then, I change my mind instantly for some reason and say "Wait... no, I'll keep watch and you do it. I'll remove the ceiling tile and you jump up there and do it." He says okay and then I take the ceiling tile off and he climbs up into the ceiling with the disc and key.
Almost instantly all these loud alarms go off and flashing lights. I just back away from the area and watch as all these other security guards and the boss of the company (an older guy in a weird 70's style brown polyester suit) and some police with attack dogs on leashes and big rifles swarm into the hallway. They look at me and then look up into the ceiling and reach up into it and pull Ike down. They instantly cuff him and the police start reading him his rights and saying "You are charged with the felony of grand theft from a high security government building. This is a crime against our country!" We all kind of go outside where there are a bunch of police cars with flashing lights and stuff. The boss comes over to me and says "Were you an accomplice in this crime? Did you know what he was doing? Were you an accessory to this felony?"
I lie and say "No... I had no idea what was going on... I didn't even know he was up there until you guys swarmed in." Ike is lead over to me and the boss asks him if I am telling the truth. Ike looks me straight in the eye and says with a totally blasé look on his face "No... he had nothing to do with it and didn't know... it was all me." I feel a strange bond with him at that moment.
7/2/04
I am in some kind of dark room, and I am kind of "observing" some kind of creature that seems to be a fish in a fish tank... but also seems to be floating in the air, even though it looks like it's in water. It looks kind of like a cross between a catfish and one of those giant Japanese goldfish (except it's all gray). The creature is looking at me.
At some point the perspective of what I'm seeing changes and the creature I'm seeing transforms into a big shark, and I seem to now be observing it from underwater in a shark cage that has been lowered into the ocean. I get the feeling that the cage is just down there, underwater, in the middle of the ocean... and the shark is circling it... and there is no one above on the surface guarding me... like I'm in the middle of the ocean, in a shark cage, under the surface (in a wet suit and oxygen tank), all alone, being circled by a shark. Plus... it's is very, very dark under the water... like the shark encounter is happening at night... with the moonlight reflecting on the surface of the ocean being the only light source. Real creepy.
Then the perspective changes again, and I seem to be back indoors, not underwater. The creature is still floating in front of me, but has changed back to being a fish-thing again. I also seem to still see the shark cage bars in front of me (the perspective of the bars only seem to have the proportions from the underwater scene before... but everything else has the perspective of being in a small room... and dark). Then I notice, behind the floating fish, I see the glowing lights of a stereo system behind the fish. Like a stereo is playing in a dark room... and the only light source I see are the tiny red and yellow and green lights of the little equalizer gauges and stuff on a stereo system... behind the fish. Soon I realize I am in the dark bedroom of a childhood friend, whom I used to spend the night with all the time... I remember seeing those stereo lights at night from the perspective of my sleeping bag on the floor... because we would listen to records as we kind of talked and fell asleep... and the stereo would stay on all night. The fish is still floating in mid-air in front of me, and the bars are now gone.
7/3/04
No dreams.
7/4/04
I am in some kind of suburban setting, but it also seems to be NYC at the same time. There are lots of rolling hills and apartment complexes dotting the landscape... very open. I also see a distant valley below the populated area, so even though the terrain is relatively flat, it might be part of a mountain or incline in the land. I somehow "know" that I am also in NYC, even though it looks nothing like it.
I is daytime but overcast and very windy, mild weather. I am just kind of wandering around alone amongst the terrain... which is kind of barren. Many of the apartment complexes look abandoned and unkempt. For some reason, I keep crossing the path of this male and female couple wearing kind of urban-trendy, hip-hop-ish clothes. The guy is always talking really loudly in kind of urban black lingo and he keeps saying the word "fuck" over and over. He's all "...yea man fuck I'm gonna fuck fuckin' fuck up that motherfucker's fuckin' fuck face face! That fuck! Fuck!" and the girl is just kind of walking along listening and saying "Uh-huh" and stuff. I seem to keep coming across their path as I wander around. One of the last times I cross their paths I hear the girl ask "How are we going to capture him?" and the guy responds "Here's what we're gonna fuckin' do..." and then he says something I can't hear.
Then, later... I am trying to get through this field in the neighborhood that is filled with grass that is about a foot high. The grass is dead though... but still tall. The wind is blowing across the field making the grass undulate like water. I am just walking through it... trying to get to the other side. Soon... I see the couple walking in close proximity behind me. I think it's odd that they seem to be following me, so I act casual but kind of pick up the pace. Soon, the couple has separated and now they are moving faster, one on my right (slightly behind me) and one on my left (slightly behind me). It is obvious that they are in pursuit of me and they don't mean well. I start to kind of run through the grass... the other side is still far away. As I'm running along, I look over at my right and left and see that the couple has the inhuman ability to ball up their bodies into shell-covered spheres... like a roly-poly bug. This allows them to run at great speeds as they constantly shapeshift in and out of a running human body, then dive and curl into the sphere and then back out again... all the while in motion. Because of the grass undulating in the wind, as they do this, they look almost like animals in the water, like sharks, swimming at great speeds. They keep looking forward the whole time, never looking at me, and stay on my right and left. It's like they are animals hunting me. I get really scared and just keep running as fast as I can. They seem really determined and quite skilled at pursuit.
Soon, they move from the right and left and converge on me. We are in the middle of the field and I am struggling with them (they are out of ball form and are human). I now see that both of them are Asian. The guy keeps making all these really dramatic kung-fu moves at me... they almost seem designed to "hypnotize" me or something. The girl keeps trying to grab my arms and I always break free. They both keep looking me straight in the eyes as they do all this, and have these casual, almost smiling looks of determination on their faces. They constantly seem on the verge of capturing me but I keep breaking free. Soon... I break free and dash off in another direction and reach another edge of the field. I loose them and I suddenly come upon this giant office complex... which I seem to have come to on purpose.
I go inside the complex and into a doctor's office. I suddenly am in a doctor's examining room. A doctor and another man is in there with me. I and the other man are sitting on the floor, with our backs leaning against the doors of cabinets. I see that the doctor is actually the Moe the bartender character from "The Simpsons," in animated form, but wearing an animated white doctor's uniform. Everything else in the room is normal. the room is kind of dim and there is a TV set and a VCR showing episodes of "The Simpsons." I am telling the doctor that I want him to give me plastic surgery and reconstruct my entire face so no one can recognize me. He looks at me and says something to the other man in the room and they converse. He then tells me that he can perform the plastic surgery, right now even, but that this is a very important decision for me to make and I should not do it hastily. I tell him I definitely want it done, because two crazy Asian people are after me and I want to elude them. The doctor (Moe) tells me that he wants me to think about it, and that he's going to leave the room and wants me to watch the episodes of "The Simpsons" on the TV screen while I think about it. He then leaves. On the TV screen is an episode featuring a lot of Mr. Burns.
The other man in the room starts to talk to me as we sit there. He tells me that the Asian couple that were trying to capture me are very dangerous. He says that they are part of some secret murder cult that is very skilled and very vicious. The reason they were trying to catch me was to take me to their meeting place and then spend days slowly torturing me to death in the most unimaginably horrible ways possible. They wanted to experiment on my body to see how much pain and horribleness they could inflict on a person, for the longest time possible, before they die. He tells me that I was just chosen at random, and that I was very lucky indeed to have escaped. The doctor comes back into the room and asks me what my decision is. I tell him that I want the operation and I want it right away.
7/5/04
No dreams.
7/6/04
I am in some unknown suburban environment that seems like Dallas/Plano, Texas. It is always nighttime wherever I am. The environment seems very nice, like I am always in a really nice area of town... all the homes seem large and new and the lawns seem well manicured... lots of homes have elaborate driveways with gates and lit fountains. All the mailboxes are elaborate brick structures. There are street lamps everywhere that illuminate this kind of hazy light that is really peaceful. You see junebugs and moths fluttering around the tops and bases of the lights. I see lots of cars parked along the street, some have boats hitched to the backs of them. The only sound you hear is the mist and maybe some distant tricklings of fountains. I am the only one around. I am just kind of standing there on the sidewalk looking around while everyone is asleep. It feels very peaceful and amazingly serene and safe.
Then the scenario kind of shifts and I seem to be in the same area, but in an apartment complex nearby. The building is old, and all the structures, decoration and furniture seem to be art deco style (Dallas has a lot of old art deco style buildings). I seem to be in this one apartment on the second floor. The apartment is decorated entirely in black and white. I seem to be living there temporarily, like maybe just for a few days. I can look out the front door of the apartment, through this really old and kind of blurry peephole lens... which looks out into the hallway. Out in the hall I see a love seat couch and maybe a cylindrical ashtray... both are black. The walls are painted mauve or maybe pale green, and there is industrial carpet that is a dark color. The old fisheye lens of the peephole stretches everything around the edges. On the inside, the peephole has a little swing door made of old metal that has been painted white... I keep swinging it open and shut and looking out into the hallway for some reason. It is still late at night and no one is around. For some reason I am kind of frightened that someone is going to try and break into the apartment and harm me. I soon realize that the little swing door of the peephole also kind of acts as the inside lock of the door, or at least the only lock on the old door that works. I decide that I will stay here opening and closing the little door of the peephole... when it is open (and the door is unlocked) I will be safe because I can see out into the hallway)... when it is shut (and the door is locked) I can't see out but the door is locked. I will just keep doing this until dawn, when everything will of course magically be okay.
At one point I look out the peephole and I am staring at the furniture in hall. I can "hear" the hum of the hallway... like the central air and hum of the lights. At one point... I am just kind of staring out at the long black couch and cylindrical ashtray, and I start to notice that they might be small, dark Hostess cupcakes and Zingers, rather than furniture. They look kind of good and I wonder if the perspective of what I am looking at is correct. Is it real?
Then, what I am seeing through the peephole magically changes to the street that I was seeing before when I was standing on the sidewalk. My view seems to look right through the walls of the building to the exact same view when I was standing outside earlier. The edges of what I am seeing are curved because of the lens. I see the street, the houses, parked cars with boats, streetlights, mailboxes, elaborate gated and fountain-ed driveways, curbs, lawns, houses. I decide that as long as I have a view of something so beautiful, and I always know a place like that exists for me, everything will be okay in my life.
7/7/04
No dreams.
7/8/04
I am out in some field somewhere. It is daytime and overcast, warm. There are quite a few people (that I don't know) mulling around. Something seems to be going on with these weird holes that have been dug into the ground in various places in the field. They are about three feet deep and about a foot and a half wide. They have these cylindrical containers placed in them, made of concrete and metal. When placed in the hole, to tops of the cylindrical things come level with the ground. The tops of them have a little hole about one inch in circumference, that's rim is made of brass. It has a little round door that seals over the hole, made of glass and brass... it appears to "seal" the cylindrical thing. I soon learn that these things are time capsules... and everyone has just dug these holes and are placing the time capsules in them some of which already contain items, and are sealing them up. Amongst the crowd I keep noticing these weird little creatures running around. They almost look like little "moppet" poodle dogs... they are white... but their fur is very long, and completely covers their faces and little arms and legs. so as they crawl/waddle along the ground they almost seem to glide. Plus their fur doesn't seem to be fur at all, but long white feathers that are almost translucent. They just keep moving along the ground sniffing stuff.
At one point I am near one of the holes with one of the capsules inside. There are two women there talking about the capsule, talking about what to put in it before they seal it up and bury it. For some reason, I feel this incredible sadness and pity about the dog creatures that are among the crowd. I keep wondering why no one has thought to put one of them inside one of the time capsules? As I think this, I can kind of "see" how the dog creatures can actually fold up their bodies very small... almost like they have no skeleton (like an octopus). I can "see" one of the creatures folding it's body up into a long, skinny pole, with the feather things collapsing against itself... so it can just slide into the small hole at the top of the capsule very easily. I just keep looking down at the hole and feeling this pity that one of the creatures won't go into the capsule, even though it would slowly suffocate and die.
Then I start to look into the hole of the capsule. I notice it's actually light in there. Also... I seem to see a lot more space inside of it than there should be... like the hole is looking into another spatial dimension. I see a lot of different light sources that are peach and burnt orange colored. I then see this awful creature that looks like a mummified cat's corpse... with it's head and open mouth pointed at the hole, from the inside. It's like it's waiting in there to "eat" whatever is placed in the capsule, even though it's the mummified corpse of a cat. It seems very wrong and evil... like the capsules are an entrance to Hell.
7/9/04
I'm in some very large, victorian-style house. It's daytime outside. The house is empty like it's being moved into or out of. There are bare, hardwood floors all over the house. But sometimes the house seems to "transform" (like walls get pulled away and stuff) into this multi-level entertainment mall/TV studio thing. Then the floors are industrial carpet with sick patterns all over them.
When the house is just a normal house, I seem to be walking around fixing everything up because I'm moving out. But, when it's the TV studio thing, people seem to be running around because the pilot to a wacky new TV talk show is going to be broadcast the next day from that studio, and everyone is running around to make sure everything is in order. Parts of the studio seem to be geared towards pleasing passersby or people that have wandered into the studio/mall... to get them interested in the new TV show or maybe convince them to be in the live studio audience. There are little food kiosks and areas to sit down and talk and stuff.
There is also a real, live elephant walking around the house... it was part of the house... not the TV studio. It's name is "Stampy" (like in that 'Simpsons' episode) and it was acquired at some point when I was living in the home. It just wanders around and people kind of walk up to it and pet it's nose and stuff. People love Stampy.
When the house is just the house, at one point my brother walks through the foyer (wearing sunglasses) and I ask him when he is moving his stuff out. I tell him "...mom and dad want to know when you are moving all your stuff out of your room." He says he'll have everything out by tonight, even though we are supposed to be out of the house by the end of the day, and from the looks of him he is obviously leaving for the day and might not be back until tomorrow. I say to him "So you want me to just cover for you and tell them you'll be out by tonight even though you won't, and you'll just deal with the whole mess tomorrow even though we're supposed to be out by tonight?" and he just smiles and walks out the door.
At one point, when the house is the TV studio, the host and creator of the show (who is a real hard-ass and obnoxious guy) calls me over and says he will pay me $80 a day to be his personal assistant. He tells me that the hours are from 9am to 5pm, and that the job is so hard I can't even imagine, and that he's a terrible person... and that if I'm ever late for the 9am call time he will yell so loud at me when I arrive that "...the studio will fall to the ground." Even though it's ridiculous and the pay is so horribly low, for some reason I say "yes" to him and he tells me that he will see me tomorrow morning. I then instantly start to dread going in the next day... and the week ahead and I start thinking about Friday. I'm wondering why I said yes and I can't believe I low-balled with the pay so much and I'm mad at myself.
Then it is later, at night, and I am in the kitchen of the house with a bunch of people. The kitchen is all white - and looks vaguely 50's-esque in style. One of them is my old high school/college friend Heather. The elephant, Stampy is kind of wondering around outside the kitchen, in the big empty living room, and sometimes in the kitchen itself. Stampy seems to be the center of attention as everyone watches him use his long snout to search for food on the ground. Someone in the kitchen says "Heather was putting some money into the peanut machine and Stampy reached over and grabbed the quarters right out of her hand and hid them inside his skin somewhere!" and everyone is like "Really? Let's see!" Everyone looks up to the top of the old, white refrigerator. On top of it there is a red metal and glass, old fashioned, globe, coin-operated peanut machine where you can put quarters in, turn the knob and peanuts will come out of the metal chute thing. So Heather, who's sitting at the kitchen table, reaches in her pocket and takes out four quarters. Suddenly, huge Stampy is in the kitchen with us, to Heather's right... standing watching intently as she digs the quarters out of her jeans pockets. She takes the quarters out and stands up from her chair and reaches really slowly and exaggerated-ly with the quarters to the machine... to see if Stampy reacts. suddenly everyone looks over at Stampy and he has transformed into a human. It is a guy, kind of tall with dark hair. He has on a light blue shirt and white jeans. Everyone is like "Oh... you're a person!" and he's like "Yea... I shape shift back and forth between an elephant and a person." Heather asks him to try and transform back into an elephant as she tries to out the quarters in the peanut machine... to see if he can grab them with his long snout. He says he'll try to just transform his nose into the long snout, but not the rest of his body. Heather reaches outward with the quarters and the guy starts grunting and straining... trying to make his nose transform into a long snout. He's grunting and getting really red-faced and straining but the nose is staying human. Heather keeps holding the quarters out in the air and slowly moving them up towards the peanut machine. We're all watching the guy straining. Finally he stops, out of breath, unsuccessful and says "I can't always control it that well."
7/10/04 - 7/14/04
No dreams.
7/15/04
I am in some big, old house. I get the feeling that I may be in Texas (maybe Denton?). The house seems to be owned by some older man that I can't really see, but is in the house with me. The house is filled with tons of books and antiques and stuff... it looks like a university professor's house in a college town. I am in one of the upstairs rooms that is kind of like a living room/den, even though it is upstairs. I am sitting in a red bean bag chair near a fold-out card table that has a computer or typewriter on it. There is a bright desk lamp on the table shining down on me. It is daylight outside.
For some reason, there is this monstrously huge spider or tarantula in the room somewhere. It is hideous and very scary looking. It's loose in the room somewhere. At one point... I sense, or see in my peripheral vision, that the spider is kind of trapped under the bean bag chair I am sitting in. I see it's huge, pointy legs sometimes reaching out from under the chair to try and get me... but I'm able to position myself in the chair to prevent it from doing so.
While I do this, next to me, hanging from the edge of the table (for some reason) is one of those big cylindrical bird cages that hang from a hook at the top. Inside the cage, instead of a bird, is a large white cat with orange and brown spots on it. At the top of the cage is this weird pet play toy, like you would buy in a pet store. The toy consists of this orange rubber ball that sits at the top (on the outside) of the cage, and then has these eight long, skinny, yellow wire "legs" that have hinges or joints in two places each (like a spider's legs). These yellow legs kind of wobble and move around if you move the cage. Sometimes they move around and come inside the cage, through the wire bars. The more the cage moves... the more the legs of the toy vibrate and move in and out of the cage. The cat's hair is up on end, and it is squashed down as far as it can lower itself inside the bottom of the cage, looking up at the toy and hissing in fear... it is terrified of this toy... that it can't get away from. I somehow know that the cat knows about the spider in the room ...that's it's loose somewhere in the house. The cat, however, has no way to differentiate between this toy and the real spider... so it thinks this toy (which the old man placed there for some weird reason) is the spider. It looks like it's in this constant state of panic attack and terror.
I reach right over from where I'm sitting (still on the bean bag chair with the spider presumably underneath) and somehow the bars of the birdcage kind of magically disappear. I take the cat in my arms and place it on my lap and pet it to try and soothe it. It seems to be calming down now that is away from the toy that it thinks is the spider. It feels safe with me. I keep seeing the hideous legs of the real spider squiggling out from beneath the bean bag chair, trying to swat at me. But I just keep positioning myself in the chair to keep it from getting at me as I pet the cat and assure it that everything's OK.
7/16/04 - 7/17/04
No dreams.
7/18/04
I am Jim's place in the mountains. It is daytime outside. He is standing in the middle of the room, facing his computer screen. I am sitting on a couch nearby... laying on it actually. Jim is talking to me as he looks at his computer, he is using both hands to reach down and type on the keyboard. Also, he has a .22 rifle, double barrel shotgun, loaded and cocked, that hs is kind of holding between each elbow. It is pointed right at me, and as he uses his hands to type on the keyboard, the gun is kind of fumbling around in his arms.
Then a total scenario shift: I am looking at a white porcelain toilet. The lid is open. As I look closer at the toilet, I see that the hole that the water and waste flushes into, and leads into the sewer pipes, kind of changes perspective and turns into this staircase leading down into a basement. The perspective of the toilet is real... but the flush hole that has turned into a stairwell is also in correct perspective... like I'm viewing a stairwell from a distance. Suddenly, a small child's hand and arm come into view, and it places it's hand on the rim of the bowl.
7/19/04
I'm in a nice house... like an old, two-story victorian home. It is late dusk outside. There are, I think, lace curtains on the large windows which the weird dusk light is coming through. I am in the kitchen making coffee. Even though I am in a strange home, I seem to be using my coffee maker from my NYC apartment. For some reason, the coffee has all been used very quickly even though I made it recently, and I'm making more... and seem to be in a really frantic rush. I am filling the glass canister with water from the sink next to the coffee maker (it seems to be my sink from NYC too). In all the rush, I somehow seem to fill the canister with old, cold coffee (from the refrigerator?) instead of water... and pour that into the water compartment. I then turn it on and wonder if that's OK for the machinery.
Is this possibly the most boring dream I ever had?
7/20/04 - 7/21/04
No dreams.
7/21/04
I am in some unknown room, looking at something online on a computer. I am looking at a website that has different little browser windows popping up. They seem to have a hard time loading into my browser. Each time one loads, it has to disappear and then automatically reload for some reason. Each time one does this, I catch a glimpse of what is inside each window. They appear to be various photographs of a row of guys outside in an overcast, kind of fall-ish looking location (they have winter coats on and are in the parking lot of a building and trees can be seen in the background). I'm only able to catch fleeting glimpses of each photo as the windows annoyingly load and then reload. They guys look young and many of them have trendy clothes and facial hair. They are always kind of mugging to the camera in all the shots. In one of the photos, this guy with lambchop sideburns and kind of curly hair, in a brown corduroy jacket, keeps looking at the camera and sticking his tongue out. For some reason, I get the "feeling" that I have seen this guy in Brooklyn somewhere before... even though I have never seen him before.
Suddenly... a scenario shift: I seem to have entered into wherever the photographs were taken. I am in the parking lot of the building... there is an overcast sky with a little bit of sun poking through, to the edge of the asphalt parking lot begins a kind of wooded area (all the leaves are off the trees). It is cool and fall-like. All the guys in the photos are mulling around. There seems to be a guy holding a big video camera that is directing the guys... telling them to do this or do that, and capturing it all on video. At one point, the director tells the guy with the lambchop sideburns to crawl up onto this wooden thing that looks like a little wooden rope bridge thing you would see n a children's outdoor playground set. The guy climbs up to the middle part of the wooden bridge (it is in an arc shape) and then the director instructs him to lick it. The guy sticks his tongue out and licks the wood (the wood seems old and weathered and bleached by the sun). Then suddenly... the bridge begins to move like it's alive, like a giant snake. It starts to "take off" and go into the wooded area... looking like a moving roller coaster or snake creature... it seems to get bigger and keep kind of moving along the ground and into the wooded area. The guy just keeps riding it and licking it... holding onto the edges of the part he is on with his hands. I realize now my perspective is overhead... like I'm looking down from the air. All the guys are doing strange things... like dancing around little parking space poles in the parking lot, banging on trash dumpsters... rolling on the ground over speed bumps. The director just keeps filming it all. the guy on the moving bridge thing just keeps riding it into the woods.
7/23/04
I seem to be at some kind of resort summer house with my family. The town looks like it might be the Hamptons. It is daylight outside and rainy, but summer. My family is out and for some reason I am defrosting a small refrigerator that is in the living room. I have unplugged it and moved it over near the front door of the house. I have the refrigerator door open and have taken all the food out. I have a small, white, plastic hair dryer and am blowing it onto the large chunks of ice that have accumulated in the freezer. I find an old fan and point it at the open door of the refrigerator. At one point I get really excited because a huge chunk of ice dislodges itself from the top of the freezer and I am able to take it out and go throw it in the sink. When I do this I see part of the big chunk has dirt in it.
Suddenly, the phone rings and I answer it. It's an old fashioned 1970's cream-colored phone. The phone is in a room near the front of the house... which has a large kind of bay window/french doors area that looks out onto the yard and street. For a second I can "see" myself talking on the phone, and I am not me, but a blond, young girl in 1950's-style clothes. My dress matches the phone. Then I go back to being me. The person who called on the phone is an editor from a magazine. She says "I have some bad news..." and I kind of lean against the wall as I hold the phone to my ear... I am thinking that she is going to tell me that they are not going to run one of my pieces. She then says "Yes, Mark... we need to write another small insert story quickly to go with your other one. Meet my by the restaurant in your house, quickly... our car is right outside." I then look over at the bay window/french doors area of the room and see that it is wide open... almost the whole wall is open into the outside... and there are many tables in and outside of the house... filled with people who are eating and getting table service. It's like the patio area of our house.
I see the editor who had just called me in a dark, convertible car, parked right up against where the people's tables end, on the curb of the street. I walk through all the tables carefully, and reach her car and she says hello and introduces one of her editing assistants, who is in the passenger seat. The editor has short blond hair. The assistant has long dark hair and a pair of reading glasses on her face and a pair of big sunglasses pushed up on her head. There are folders and papers strewn all over the car. She is wearing a dark blazer and an ascot. I sit down on the edge of her car and start talking with her. She says "Yes... okay, we need you to write another piece that kind of correlates with your other piece, and do it quickly as we're on deadline. We want you to write three of four little quips about dream interpretation. You know... something along the lines of 'If you dream about holding a conch shell while leaning up against a wall wearing a cream colored dress, it means you are going to come into lots of money' or something like that... you know you've seen those dream interpretation things like that right?" I tell her yes and she then looks over at her assistant and the assistant is looking down at some papers and then, without looking up, the assistant says "This is going to go in the styles section... the s-styles section. Not the section the first piece was in." I think it's funny how she pronounces "s-styles" because it sounds like someone's name. The editor says "Don't worry about it making sense... this is just for fun... like the things you see in those cheap dream interpretations paperback books at the supermarket... it's just supposed to be light and not taken seriously, and we'll state that."
I look over and see that people are sitting down eating literally right next to me and they can hear everything we are saying. I tell the editor and her assistant I will write up the piece quickly and email it to her. She says thanks and they drive away. I go back through all the tables and into our house. I notice there are now hot, bright, overhead lights above the tables. It looks like it might be dusk outside now. My father and brother have returned and they are sitting down on the floor, leaning up against the wall next to the refrigerator which has the fan still blowing on it. My father's face seems almost distorted or something... malformed. I tell my dad that I can't continue defrosting the refrigerator because I have to write something quickly. He doesn't say anything and he seems kind of mad. Then my mom walks in and I go into my room and sit down in front of my computer to work.
7/24/04
I am at some kind of outdoor swimming pool area with a bunch of people I don't know. It may be the backyard of someone's house... or perhaps a public pool that is closed down and we are the only ones using it. The area is well-kept and groomed. The part with the pool has a concrete perimeter, and the rest of it is mowed, green grass. There are some large trees here and there, and a chain-link fence somewhere in the distance (which seems to mark the property). The people I am with are a small group of male and female, young, and everyone is wearing bathing suits. It is daylight, warm, and slightly overcast.
There seems to be a series of amusement park rides that are scattered amongst the pool area. They are like that pirate ship swing thing that goes back and forth, or a tilt-a-whirl thing, or maybe a ferris wheel. The thing is though, that the rides are made of the same material that a home gym would be made of. The metal parts of the rides are aluminum, silver... and the parts where people sit are made of padded foam that is covered in black vinyl slip-on covers (or maybe black, metal weights. Every ride follows this weird design pattern. The position of the rides keeps changing in the pool area too. Sometimes the pirate swing thing swings directly over the water in the pool.
At one point, there is this girl with dark hair, who seems to be very popular in the group and very funny and quick witted. Several of the guys in the group are always playfully teasing her and the back and forth banter from her is very entertaining. Anyway... at one point she is getting into the pool and she has this colorful inner-tube around her as a floatation device. She is slowly getting into the pool, and as she does... suddenly the pirate ship swing ride (which now seems to be over the pool, with each grounded leg of it on either side and the swing part going back and forth over the water) starts to swing back and forth over it. As she is getting into the pool, the swing ride, on each swing, bashes her in the head. It just keeps going back and forth and bashing her repeatedly in the head. Her back is to me so I only see the back of her wet hair as this happens. It's incredibly brutal... this huge ride doing this over and over. Every time it hits her, everyone around goes "Whoooooooaaaa!" and "Ohhhhhhhh!" and for some reason she doesn't get knocked down, it doesn't seem to hurt her. She doesn't say anything and it just keeps hitting her. People actually start to laugh. It seems like what I am watching is incredibly unreal... like a movie special effect or magic trick or something, or computer animation. I just keep watching and I think I say out loud to myself "fantastic" - but I seem to be remarking about the unreal-looking special effect, not the fact that this girl is getting pummeled in the head.
7/25/04 - 7/27/04
No dreams.
7/28/04
I am in some wooded area, the back yard of a large, three-story, Victorian-style house, looking around. There is this weird thing about my perception where sometimes it looks like what I am seeing is in normal, blazing color... and at other times it seems like what I am seeing is in this kind of washed-out, blurry, old home movie kind of color. For some reason I know that up in the house, there is a party or event being planned and gotten ready for. It seems to be fall or winter, and I am just way out in the yard alone. There is a chain link fence separating the back yard from the natural area, further beyond the house... but it's all the same landscape... tall trees with no leaves, and the dead fall leaves all over the ground... it's actually very beautiful. The trees are pretty far apart from each other, and in a lot of areas there is quite a bit of open space. I am facing away from the house, and looking over/through the fence at the natural area. Soon I notice what looks like a teenage girl's soccer team match playing and practicing in one of the more open areas... which is kind of in the distance.
Suddenly, the team's coach, who is a man, runs over to me carrying a ball and with a whistle in his mouth. He looks extremely angry. He starts yelling at me from across the fence, and accusing me of "...spying on little girls!" and I'm just standing there like "huh?" I explain to him that I was just back here looking around and happened to look over at the girls practicing soccer out in the open, and that can hardly constitute as spying. He yells that I'm a pervert and just keeps screaming at me, and the girls start to look over. I tell him he's nuts and start to walk back towards the house. He just keeps yelling and yelling and getting louder and louder. As I am walking away, I turn to look over at him and see that even though I can hear his voice still yelling, his body has fantastically transformed into a giant, old-fashoned, locomotion train engine that is barreling in my direction. The train comes over the fence (knocking it over) and towards me. Just then, it totally vanishes into thin air and is quickly replaced by another train engine (a different make and model) which starts back from where the other one started, and comes careening towards me at an angle. It too then vanishes and is replaced by another, then another... sometimes more than one at a time. It's like I'm watching some kind of weird film loop or something that has the ability to materialize into reality. It seems very real... like I can feel the heat and rush of the trains coming at me. The whole time I see this, I can hear the soccer coach's voice still screaming at me.
I go back into the house and talk to some friend (whom I only seem to know in the dream) as I help get ready for the party. I explain to him what just happened. He tells me that that guy out behind the back yard is not a soccer coach... and that those girls playing soccer were really actresses. He says that the coach is really a conceptual filmmaker, and that what I experienced was actually a remote re-enactment/recording of a strange kind of film that the type of which is that filmmaker's specialty. I triggered the whole thing by walking into the back yard. He says the coach and the girls weren't even real... they were kind of like projected holograms that were recorded at a prior time. He says there were hologram projectors high up in the trees, projecting the characters onto the ground... and there were also cameras up there recording everything as it happened. It was all a hologram I was seeing... the girls, the coach... the unbelievable train transformation. He says that the cameras in the trees are run by a computer, and they are hastily editing the footage that they just shot, into a short film... which will then be beamed to locations all around the world, printed out on 8mm film, and sold as a new copy of this filmmaker's work. All this information makes me stop what I'm doing and just stand there like "huh?"
My friend tells me that that's how this filmmaker works. He sets up these really odd conceptual hologram "traps" in various unexpected locations around the world... and they re-enact these weird kind of "Candid Camera"-esque situations that put people in odd situations. The situation I was in was getting yelled at by a soccer coach for supposedly spying on his team... and then watching him transform into a series of giant train engines that came barreling towards me. The whole thing was supposed to trigger a funny or interesting reaction in me. And there are many, perhaps hundreds, of films in this series. He tells me that the title will be called something like "Train Coach part IXIIV" or something like that. He says there are fans of this filmmakers work all over the globe... and they anxiously await for one of his "traps" to lure and then play a gag on an unsuspecting person... then enact the hologram stunt, record the person's reaction from different angles, assemble and edit the footage, then beam it to all the places in the world where they are printed on 8mm or video or DVD stock... and then sold or projected in theaters. He says that images of me in the backyard talking to the coach may even be printed out on large posters with the words ""Train Coach part IXIIV" printed on them and "Available Now!" somewhere and pasted up all over cities where the film is sold.
7/29/04
I'm in this old, three-story, Victorian-style house. I am in the living room... which has heavy velvet maroon curtains with gold cords and tassels, Tiffany-style lamps, antique tables and Persian rugs. There is also a large fireplace. It is daylight outside and I think it is fall or winter - all the leaves are off the trees. I am sitting in a big leather chair which is the color of coffee ice cream, and has brass dog's feet-shaped things at the base of the four legs. Across from me is a red wine-colored velvet couch with beige lace or macramé head cover things on the top of it. There is a man sitting on the couch talking with me. I can't really make out what he looks like, he seems to change form a lot. sometimes he seemed kind of tall and thin with big, puffy black hair (almost like a bouffant-style) and maybe a fake black handlebar mustache that is glued onto his upper lip. At other times he seems very fat and maybe bald... with a maroon dinner jacket on, and maybe some kind of gold-rimmed glasses.
I am drinking some hot tea out of an antique white porcelain cup and saucer with gold rims and hand-painted flowers on it. The man on the couch has served me the tea. As we are talking... I start to feel very faint and kind of ill. My vision becomes kind of blurred and I feel like I might pass out. It becomes apparent that the man has slipped something into my tea. Through my hazy perception... I hear the man's voice tell me that he has poisoned me. He holds up some kind of container... which is metal... and says "This is the antidote to the poison... it will cost you one dollar. Give me a dollar and I will give you the antidote, otherwise you will die in less than an hour when the poison completely takes over your body's vital organ functions, and the antidote will be useless! Give me one dollar!"
While the man stays standing up by the couch and holding the metal container, and watching me, I somehow stumble out of the room and into the dark wood-paneled foyer and out the double front doors with oval glass windows, outside... and down the steps of the front porch and onto the sidewalk and street of the town. Not to try and get help or the police... but to find a dollar. I know somehow that I am totally broke, and don't even have a dollar. I start to stumble around in my blurry state... totally dizzy... and look for anywhere that I can get a dollar and bring it back to the man who poisoned me. I feel totally desperate and panicky but drugged.
The town looks kind of like an old town in Ireland or Scotland... lots of wet, muddy, hilly streets and little cobblestone walls everywhere. But also sometimes it looks like a northeastern suburban town... with concrete streets and curbs and sidewalks and lawns. When it seems like an old Scottish town it is foggy and wet... but when it seems like America, it is sunny but cool and fall... with colorful leaves all over the ground.
Through my double vision, I see lots of people walking around but I don't even feel the need to stop one of them and say to them; "I need a dollar fast because some crazy person just poisoned me and wants a dollar for the antidote so give me the dollar right away and I'll be right back ...oh and by the way can you call the police too?" For some reason I feel embarrassed to do that. I stumble around and I feel weird because I don't even have a dollar... I mean, how broke can I possibly be? I keep flailing around and at certain times I feel so disoriented that I feel like the ground keeps jumping up and smacking me in the side of the head really hard.
Somehow... I see a little cobblestone hut (the town is foggy and Scottish-y at this point) with a grass kind-of roof and a little stove pipe chimney coming out of the top with smoke coming out of it. I know somehow that this is a convenience store/newsstand that I will be able to get a dollar from... somehow. I run and fall over to it and swing open the door (which has a little bell on it) and go inside... it's real small inside and there is a wall of magazines and then a large, slanted counter with little compartments for candy, and an old man behind there with a smock on. all the compartments seem to have Mentos candy in them. I grab one of the rolls of Mentos candies and somehow tear the paper off and hold up the pastel-colored candies and say to the man behind the counter "I'll give you a dollar for this magazine! QUICK!!" I don't know why I think offering him a dollar for a magazine, even though I have a roll of Mentos, is going to result in me getting a dollar... but somehow I seem convinced of this. The man behind the counter doesn't even react. I look down at the candies and see that they have changed into a glossy magazine... I think it may be Good Housekeeping or Better Homes and Gardens or Country Living or something like that. I see on it's cover (which has a photo of an antique, Colonial American-style kitchen) there is a headline in bright yellow old Western woodcut-style font. The headline says "THE JOY OF LIVING ALONE."
7/30/04 - 8/4/04
No dreams.