This past weekend has been quite eventful.
First of all, to those of you who have heard of it, Cat's Corner (the restaurant on the corner of 4th and Spruce St), has officially closed down, and will re-open again in a few months as a Mexican restaurant of some sort. The reason this is important is because my mom used to work there a while back, and so we are friends with many of the people who currently work there. They had a closing party this past Friday night that my mom was unable to go to because she had to work, and that I was unable to go to because I was at Shannon's house, and her mother did not feel up to going. I'm hoping that when it re-opens, the new owners will keep the same staff, so that the current workers won't have to go job-hunting, what with the economy being the way it is.
Then, also on Friday, I got my poetry journal back and discovered to my pleasure that I got a 102! I didn't fill in two journals (like some overachievers *cough, cough), and it wasn't all that creative, so I'm rather proud of myself. That afternoon, I rode home on the bus with Shannon. We hung around outside most of the day with her 9-year-old neighbor David (who we started to call Dafydd later on) and took some really cool pictures with my camera. Then, after a few hours (and once my skin had roasted sufficiently because of how hot it was outside) we came in a ate a dinner of Taco Bell that Stacia had brought home with her.
I was super-excited because I had finally gotten my mom's computer to successfully burn a cd, so I had brought over two cds: one to give to Shannon (who always loves my cds ( : ) and one for her cousin, Sean (who apparently liked the last cd that I gave him). So I let Shannon listen to the two cds that night, and I let her pick which one she wanted. Contrary to my prediction, she picked the one that I had made on my dad's computer (or the one that wasn't as cheesy).
The next morning, we drove to pick up Sylvia at her house before going to this field-day like event at Reagan, where Stacia teaches. Unfortunately, we had missed most of the action, and so we dropped Sylvia back off at her house and drove back to Shannon's early. We spent the rest of that morning over at her little five-year-old neighbor's birthday party. I took pictures of Shannon and Dafydd jumping around in the inflatable bouncy thing. It was pretty fun. Then, after a while of doing this, my madre came to pick me up and we ate dinner that night at this Chinese place near our house, the restaurant we had ordered food from the very first night we stayed in her new house. So, tons of chicken fried rice and a little nostalgia completed my day nicely.
Then, I came to my dad's house the next day, and spent Sunday night hanging out with him, Heather, and Hopey.
As a side-note, I've started to learn how to play Hallelulah (Rufus Wainwright) on the piano; it's a beautiful song, for those of you who haven't heard it:
I heard there was a secret chord
that David played
and it pleased the Lord
But you don't really care for music
do you?
It goes like this the 4th, the 5th,
the minor fall, the major lift,
the baffled king composing
Hallelulah. . .
and so on and so forth.
But anyways, there isn't a whole lot of other news, except that I had a weird dream last night, that this person and I were trying to find where my step-mom, Heather was speaking. We were wandering around in this dark auditorium full of these prim women in bright red (though conservatively cut) dresses and old bald men in gray suits. There were white-clothed tables all around the walls, and a light fell on the stage, but it was empty, and we gathered from the general discussion around us that Heather had already spoken. So, we wandered out into a gray day and rain was starting to drizzle down, and I was wearing a raincoat, as well as my mysterious (or not so mysterious) companion. We were walking on a yellow beach alongside a steel gray ocean, toward a parking lot a few hundred yards away, where we could see the old bald men leading their high-heeled women to shiny silver vans. On our left were all these fancy hotel resorts, the ones that cost an extra 100 some dollars a night just because of their relation to the ocean. It was to my knowledge, in the dream, that the Mystery Person had the keys to my car in the pocket of their raincoat (I was driving a red PT Cruiser, by the way), and so I abandoned all typical courtesy and began reaching into their raincoat pockets. Then, if one would believe it, this person takes the keys out of the pocket that I hadn't checked yet, and chucked them into the ocean. I ran over to where the waves lapped onto the land and tried to find my keys, but there were thousands of these jellyfish washed up onto the shore, dead, and my feet kept sinking into their jellowy skin like quick-sand. There were moments when I was underwater, unable to move my legs, but I was finally able to resurface long enough to see the Mystery Person hop onto a motorcycle outside one of the hotels and drive away.
Then, I woke up with Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen stuck in my head.
In any case, the trip is tomorrow, and I am excited. I'll be sure to write about it in more depth when I get back.
Sunday, April 26, 2009
Sunday, April 19, 2009
A List of Things I Did this Weekend:
Friday:
1. Did not fail at the poetry slam.
2. Went with my dad and Heather to Kernel Kustard, this little outdoor restaurant near Mario's and Target (and the mall) that plays 50's music. While we were there, we saw Mrs. Allman and her husband, so Hopey and I said hi.
3. Went to the mall and tried on some stuff (I hate trying on clothes right after I eat though, so the experience wasn't as enjoyable as it could have been).
Saturday:
1. Worked on my math journal.
2. Finished reading the second part of The Killer Angels.
3. Went to watch Hopey's soccer game (she scored the first goal!).
4. Went to eat at an indoor Cook Out (which I didn't know existed) with my dad, Heather, and Hope.
5. Bought new shorts at Target.
6. Went over to Shannon's house and met her new neighbors.
7. Ate Stacia's food (which is always awesome).
8. Sat on Shannon's roof.
9. Failed to make a duck soap opera like I had planned.
Sunday, April 19
1. Woke up and took a shower.
2. Rode back to my dad's house with Stacia.
3. Went to church with my dad (Hopey was sick) and the sermon was pretty awesome. There was also this violinist who played beautifully, especially during this one part of the service when they were remembering people who had recently passed away (it almost made me shed a tear).
4. Dined with my father at Mr. Waffle, this place near the two dollar theater.
5. Walked to the park with my dad and Hope. (My father hurt his back while we were out. . .hmmmm, is it the evil forces of April 19?)
6. Worked on my math journal.
7. Dined with Heather, Hope, and my dad at Panera Bread (we ate out a lot this weekend).
8. While watching TV, Heather and my dad came across a news report about a woman who seemed to jump into a polar bear's zoo habitat for no apparent reason. . .are the evil forces of April 19 working????
Friday, April 17, 2009
7 Reasons that You Should Hate April
1. April 14 - Abraham Lincoln is assassinated.
2. April 15, 1912 - The Titanic sinks.
3. April 16, 2006 - Virginia Tech Massacre, bloodiest yet of any school massacre in America.
4. April 19, 177something - The Revolutionary War begins in Lexington and Concord, with bloodshed.
5. April 19, 186something - In Baltimore during the Civil War, Union Troops are attacked by Confederate citizens.
6. April 19, 1995 - A man in Oklahoma City bombs Alfred P. Murrah Building and 168 die as a result.
7. April 20, 1999 - The Columbine Massacre, originally meant for the 19th (when the majority of April misfortunes seem to happen), startles America, and is remembered as the bloodiest high school massacre.
And, (as Shannon adds in at the bottom of the sheet during science class when I wrote this) "it rains all month, and prevents interaction with Asians" (who are her neighbors, one of whom she wants to ask out). So, as you can see, April is not a happy month. Look out for yourself on the 19th.
(as far as I know, all of these dates are correct, but if you see anything wrong, post a comment and I will fix it).
2. April 15, 1912 - The Titanic sinks.
3. April 16, 2006 - Virginia Tech Massacre, bloodiest yet of any school massacre in America.
4. April 19, 177something - The Revolutionary War begins in Lexington and Concord, with bloodshed.
5. April 19, 186something - In Baltimore during the Civil War, Union Troops are attacked by Confederate citizens.
6. April 19, 1995 - A man in Oklahoma City bombs Alfred P. Murrah Building and 168 die as a result.
7. April 20, 1999 - The Columbine Massacre, originally meant for the 19th (when the majority of April misfortunes seem to happen), startles America, and is remembered as the bloodiest high school massacre.
And, (as Shannon adds in at the bottom of the sheet during science class when I wrote this) "it rains all month, and prevents interaction with Asians" (who are her neighbors, one of whom she wants to ask out). So, as you can see, April is not a happy month. Look out for yourself on the 19th.
(as far as I know, all of these dates are correct, but if you see anything wrong, post a comment and I will fix it).
Sunday, April 12, 2009
Easter
Today has been pretty cool. Last night, my mom and I were watching Wayne's World, which, other than being sort of stupid, was pretty awesome. My dad came to pick me up afterwards, and this morning, I went with him and Heather to her friend Stephanie's house. We watched this church sermon on TV, and other than the guy's tendency to shout a bit too much, it was a pretty interesting sermon (it was the first time I had ever watched a sermon on TV); he was talking about what a scum-bag Peter was, and the fact that God still loved him and all that - well anyways, after the sermon, we went down to have lunch, and I sat and listened to them talk about banking, the declining economy, and a variety of wines. When the subject came to movies, one of the funnier ladies there confessed to being somewhat of a criminal: she would buy a ticket for one movie and sneak into a different one once her first one was over; she informed us that she once spent a whole 8 hours or so at a theater in this manner, and only spent six dollars. It was pretty amusing. Stephanie and her husband Vince had this really cute dog named CD (which incidentally stands for "cute dog"), and so I was petting him basically the whole time. Then, after a while, we left and went to pick up Hope from her dad's house; she was out front on her bicycle, and she was riding without training wheels! It was really awesome, especially since she had just started doing it yesterday and she could already ride around by herself without falling down. It's hard to remember now, but I seem to remember taking at least a month to learn how to ride my bike without someone right behind me in case I fell.
Well, anyways, we picked her up, brought her home, and I got my stuff, preparing to go spend the rest of Easter with my mom. I had sent a whole bunch of Happy Easter emails to people earlier that day, and so when I got to my mom's, my aunt was on the phone and wanted to thank me for her Easter email. It was nice getting to talk to her, since I haven't in a long time (she's one of my more regular email correspondents). After that, my mom and I went to the Walmart red box, where they surprisingly had the Yes Man, a movie we've been trying to rent for a while; unfortunately, it's been consistently checked out every time we've tried to get it. Except for today! Then, we went out to eat at Olive Garden, one of my favorite restaurants (where we saw Adrian Brody several times in various disguises *sorry: inside joke). We're just about to watch the movie in a little bit.
I also had another dream last night; I was sleeping in my bed at my dad's house, so I thought that this week's dream trend would be broken, but apparently not. However, I'm not going to go into all of the details of this one, since it was sort of odd. In the dream, I was in a huge house in Buena Vista, which, on the inside, resembled Shannon's house, but on the outside, resembled Elizabeth E's. There was this deck on the second floor, and this was the main similarity to Elizabeth's house; anyways, the people in the dream would change as well, most likely because of the conflicting but familiar environments. In each case, I was being shown someone's new house, being given the "grand tour," so to say; sometimes it would be my mother's friend, Garalynn, giving us the tour, and sometimes it would be Stacia, Shannon's mom, but they both gave the tour as if it was their new house. Then, we were inside the house (in the part that looked like Shannon's), when I heard footsteps from somewhere in the house, and I instinctively hid for some reason, my face reddening (and I think I know why, but I'm not sure). And then, after a few minutes, once the tension went away, Stacia/Garalynn brought the tour upstairs, which looked like Elizabeth's house. She (Stacia/Garalynn) took me and a group of some other people that had appeared out onto the deck on the second floor, which was gigantic and overlooked this huge cul-de-sac and the setting sun. We all stood there, and there was this great moment in the dream where all the tension (there was this constant stress in the dream, that had decreased slightly after the mysterious footsteps had died away) went away, and everything seemed perfect; the sky was blood-red, and everyone was quiet. Then, I think, all the random people in the crowd started to embrace each other, and some of them were crying. The sky eventually turned black, and Stacia/Garalynn led us all into the house for dinner (which would be delicious no matter which of them it was who made it) and so we eagerly followed her in. Then I woke up.
Well, anyways, we picked her up, brought her home, and I got my stuff, preparing to go spend the rest of Easter with my mom. I had sent a whole bunch of Happy Easter emails to people earlier that day, and so when I got to my mom's, my aunt was on the phone and wanted to thank me for her Easter email. It was nice getting to talk to her, since I haven't in a long time (she's one of my more regular email correspondents). After that, my mom and I went to the Walmart red box, where they surprisingly had the Yes Man, a movie we've been trying to rent for a while; unfortunately, it's been consistently checked out every time we've tried to get it. Except for today! Then, we went out to eat at Olive Garden, one of my favorite restaurants (where we saw Adrian Brody several times in various disguises *sorry: inside joke). We're just about to watch the movie in a little bit.
I also had another dream last night; I was sleeping in my bed at my dad's house, so I thought that this week's dream trend would be broken, but apparently not. However, I'm not going to go into all of the details of this one, since it was sort of odd. In the dream, I was in a huge house in Buena Vista, which, on the inside, resembled Shannon's house, but on the outside, resembled Elizabeth E's. There was this deck on the second floor, and this was the main similarity to Elizabeth's house; anyways, the people in the dream would change as well, most likely because of the conflicting but familiar environments. In each case, I was being shown someone's new house, being given the "grand tour," so to say; sometimes it would be my mother's friend, Garalynn, giving us the tour, and sometimes it would be Stacia, Shannon's mom, but they both gave the tour as if it was their new house. Then, we were inside the house (in the part that looked like Shannon's), when I heard footsteps from somewhere in the house, and I instinctively hid for some reason, my face reddening (and I think I know why, but I'm not sure). And then, after a few minutes, once the tension went away, Stacia/Garalynn brought the tour upstairs, which looked like Elizabeth's house. She (Stacia/Garalynn) took me and a group of some other people that had appeared out onto the deck on the second floor, which was gigantic and overlooked this huge cul-de-sac and the setting sun. We all stood there, and there was this great moment in the dream where all the tension (there was this constant stress in the dream, that had decreased slightly after the mysterious footsteps had died away) went away, and everything seemed perfect; the sky was blood-red, and everyone was quiet. Then, I think, all the random people in the crowd started to embrace each other, and some of them were crying. The sky eventually turned black, and Stacia/Garalynn led us all into the house for dinner (which would be delicious no matter which of them it was who made it) and so we eagerly followed her in. Then I woke up.
Friday, April 10, 2009
Yay Hooray for a Day Off and Another Weird Dream
As you all probably realize, today is Good Friday, and I had forgotten that we got a day off for it, considering it is a Christian holiday and all. But anyways, the reason I came on here was to report another weird dream to everyone; it seems that this is a big week for crazy dreams.
I dreamt that my mom and I were going down to Florida for spring vacation, only to find that the small retirement town of Naples, Florida had grown much larger in our absence. It was actually fairly reminiscent of Winston-Salem's downtown. There were these tall white skyscrapers everywhere, from the top of which one could see the ocean. Basically, the only way one could tell this apart from Winston-Salem was the temperature and humidity, as well as the palm trees that decorated the median in the middle of the road.
We had planned to attend some party before we went to meet my grandmother at Books-A-Million, her nightly hang-out. The party was being held in one of the suites of this large hotel near the water, and my mom was sort of reluctant to go; I had this feeling in the dream that the party was something that I had persuaded her to come to with me. Inside the hotel, there were all these people who wore dresses and suits, and loitered around the lobby. I felt under-dressed: I happened to be wearing a summer dress with tank top straps. When I walked over to a group of chatting people to ask where the room was, they sort of glared snootily at my dress and ignored me. My mom gave me a "didn't-I-tell-you?" look, but followed me to the elevators. We reached the top floor, where there were even more people, so we assumed we were getting closer. Many of them held these small shot glasses of punch. Windows placed in between the doors to the rooms looked out over the sun setting over the ocean.
We maneuvered through the crowd, and we even started to see some familiar faces; I saw some people from school, and my mom saw some of her old friends from high school, but most of them didn't seem to notice us. I found Shannon by the fire exit and asked her where the party was. She took a look at my dress and said, "You won't be able to get into the party wearing that. Derek's only letting people in who dressed up." Now, I have no clue who Derek was, but apparently we were friends in the dream, because I told Shannon that I was confident that my bestest buddy Derek would let me in despite what I was wearing. We found Derek shortly afterwards, a pale kid of medium height with curly auburn-ish hair and a rather high voice; he was in the middle of a crowd of important-looking people that were taller than him. I approached him and made to embrace him, as we were supposed to be friends, but he backed away and looked at my mom and I with disgust.
"What are you wearing?" he asked rudely.
At which point, my mom, already annoyed with how the events of the night had been unfolding, took my arm and pulled me away off toward the elevators. I was fuming about Derek's reaction; we went to the same school in the dream (I think). So my mom and I left the hotel lobby and started to drive away from the ocean in the direction of Books-A-Million, where my grandmother, uncle, aunt, and cousins would be waiting.
I dreamt that my mom and I were going down to Florida for spring vacation, only to find that the small retirement town of Naples, Florida had grown much larger in our absence. It was actually fairly reminiscent of Winston-Salem's downtown. There were these tall white skyscrapers everywhere, from the top of which one could see the ocean. Basically, the only way one could tell this apart from Winston-Salem was the temperature and humidity, as well as the palm trees that decorated the median in the middle of the road.
We had planned to attend some party before we went to meet my grandmother at Books-A-Million, her nightly hang-out. The party was being held in one of the suites of this large hotel near the water, and my mom was sort of reluctant to go; I had this feeling in the dream that the party was something that I had persuaded her to come to with me. Inside the hotel, there were all these people who wore dresses and suits, and loitered around the lobby. I felt under-dressed: I happened to be wearing a summer dress with tank top straps. When I walked over to a group of chatting people to ask where the room was, they sort of glared snootily at my dress and ignored me. My mom gave me a "didn't-I-tell-you?" look, but followed me to the elevators. We reached the top floor, where there were even more people, so we assumed we were getting closer. Many of them held these small shot glasses of punch. Windows placed in between the doors to the rooms looked out over the sun setting over the ocean.
We maneuvered through the crowd, and we even started to see some familiar faces; I saw some people from school, and my mom saw some of her old friends from high school, but most of them didn't seem to notice us. I found Shannon by the fire exit and asked her where the party was. She took a look at my dress and said, "You won't be able to get into the party wearing that. Derek's only letting people in who dressed up." Now, I have no clue who Derek was, but apparently we were friends in the dream, because I told Shannon that I was confident that my bestest buddy Derek would let me in despite what I was wearing. We found Derek shortly afterwards, a pale kid of medium height with curly auburn-ish hair and a rather high voice; he was in the middle of a crowd of important-looking people that were taller than him. I approached him and made to embrace him, as we were supposed to be friends, but he backed away and looked at my mom and I with disgust.
"What are you wearing?" he asked rudely.
At which point, my mom, already annoyed with how the events of the night had been unfolding, took my arm and pulled me away off toward the elevators. I was fuming about Derek's reaction; we went to the same school in the dream (I think). So my mom and I left the hotel lobby and started to drive away from the ocean in the direction of Books-A-Million, where my grandmother, uncle, aunt, and cousins would be waiting.
Thursday, April 9, 2009
Two Dreams and Other News
I know that I have not written in quite a while, but it seems that the time has long past since teachers took it easy on the children after breaks (sigh); however, I suppose that I should not have expected any different, and I am excited that we have jumped right into Killer Angels because I am eager to get to Grapes of Wrath. Unfortunately, our reading of The Great Gatsby has been cancelled, another book that I have been looking forward to reading, based off of its reputation.
Anyways, I have had two seemingly-related dreams in the past few days; I came to my mom's house on Tuesday and had the first of them that night, the next one occuring on Wednesday.
The first one took place at my friend Shannon's house, down in her finshed basement, where her cousin Sean is currently staying. We were all hanging out and playing with his ferret or something, and then, suddenly, one of those bouncing balls that you sit on with the handle appeared out of nowhere (it was pink and Hello-Kitty-patterned, like Hope's), and so I instinctively decided to sit on it and bounce around. Shannon and Sean ignored me as I maneuvered around the basement, bouncing higher than one actually would in real life, naturally bubbly and filled with joy over the experience; then, it happened: I came to a dead stop in the far corner of the room, near the stairwell, and found the stairs blocked by a fairly large (but not car-sized) jumping spider. I fell off of the bouncing ball in my haste to get away. I scrambled back in the direction of the ferret's cage to escape, and my mom had appeared there as well. Everyone, upon seeing the spider, cowered in the small space between the bed and wall, trapped, except for Shannon, who glared at me over her shoulder, stepped forward, and exterminated the spider with one clean crunch of her shoe. However, when she tried to pull her foot away, she found that it was stuck on the ground; it took the group's effort to pull her away, and when we did, there was a bluish gunk that would not remove itself from her shoe. And that was the end of this dream.
The next dream began in my mom's house. I was hanging out in the living room, and it seemed that there were a ton of people who had come to stay for a certain important event; the reason why and the people involved are both hazy aspects upon rememberance, and so will remain vague in my retelling. There were lots of people that I didn't know; someone that I did know was asleep in my mom's bedroom, but I don't remember who. I walked through a crowd of talking people to get to my bedroom, across from my mother's, where there was this little girl that looked almost exactly like Hope (though she wasn't).
She was playing around with basically every noisy toy or game that I happened to have in my room, and so I said, "I think someone's sleeping in the next room; we should keep it down,"
to which she responded by grabbing my arm with surprising strength and pulling me into her play. I realized, as I watched her, the major differences between her and Hope: this girl had these bright green eyes, while Hope's are "Tarheel Blue," as she would say (her father brainwashes her to cheer for Carolina); and this girl had a different voice, a bit higher-pitched and a bit on the little-kid lispy side. Hope is very well-spoken for her age. I had no clue where this girl's parents were, but she started to shout loudly about something. Though I tried to hush her, it was too late; my mother's bedroom door creaked open, and a man a little taller than me with straight, brown hair (perhaps in his late 20's) came through the door, glaring, a girl about my age behind him who I took to be his daughter. He looked in at us, and his glare immediately disappeared.
"We have your drum set in my car," he said cheerfully, "and we'll be ready to head over in just a minute." I said that that sounded good, though I'm not sure where we were headed, and why my drum set was required.
The next thing I knew, I was in a crowded night-clubesque atmosphere, with tons of tiny, round, candle-lit tables that faced a medium-sized stage. It was hard to see the faces of the audience; there seemed to be a black space above each man or woman's shoulders. I recall wandering through the crowd looking for my drum set or the man who said that he had it in his car, but I could find neither. Someone was speaking up on stage, a man, I think, but I don't remember what he was talking about.
Then, there was another blank, and I was up on stage singing karaoke. A huge screen had appeared out of nowhere on the back wall, and this is where I found the words, reading them above the black abyss-like heads of the audience, who were cheering and singing along, mostly (I don't remember the song). I was dancing and getting way into it, when I was suddenly struck by an overwhelming feeling of exhaustion and I fell asleep right on stage.
When I woke up in the dream, I found myself in my mother's bedroom; most everyone seemed to have gone, since the house was quiet. In the room with me was my mother, the brown-haired man, and the little Hope-like girl. I felt really stupid and my mind felt as though it was working extra-slow.
"What happened?" I asked slowly, slurring. My mom answered, but I couldn't really process what she was saying. "What?" I said, but nothing she said was intelligible the second time, either. Then the man turned to grin at me, almost evilly, and I remembered something else.
"Do you still have my drum set?" I inquired of him; the little girl, singing a hymn (I think it was the Doxology) softly to herself, floated out of the room, a few inches above the ground; this seemed entirely normal. My mom kept babbling in whatever language it was. The man continued to look at me creepily, not speaking.
"What happened last night?" I asked him. He finally spoke, his voice drowning out my mom's, somehow: "You fell asleep." he said. "And your drums. . .they're -. . ." He stopped speaking and presently fell backwards in a sort of arc, dissolving into my mom's dresser behind him. The house was presently silent, and my mom had disappeared as well, apparently when I wasn't looking; It was dark and the wind blew branches outside the window; I felt very lonely and sad all of a sudden. Then, I saw the little girl running outside, and the sun came out (it had originally been gray and stormy) and Hope was there, too, playing with her, so I decided to get up from the bed and join them outside. I had reached the front door before I woke up.
side-note: as of Monday, the situation at my dad's house has deteriorated again. He went out to eat with me at La Carreta, where he was super-quiet and sad. We went to Borders afterwards, where I found a Jimmy Stewart Biography (but did not buy it), and the sky had the most beautiful sunset that I had seen in a long time. It looked like the clouds were bleeding. I hope things have improved since then.
Anyways, I have had two seemingly-related dreams in the past few days; I came to my mom's house on Tuesday and had the first of them that night, the next one occuring on Wednesday.
The first one took place at my friend Shannon's house, down in her finshed basement, where her cousin Sean is currently staying. We were all hanging out and playing with his ferret or something, and then, suddenly, one of those bouncing balls that you sit on with the handle appeared out of nowhere (it was pink and Hello-Kitty-patterned, like Hope's), and so I instinctively decided to sit on it and bounce around. Shannon and Sean ignored me as I maneuvered around the basement, bouncing higher than one actually would in real life, naturally bubbly and filled with joy over the experience; then, it happened: I came to a dead stop in the far corner of the room, near the stairwell, and found the stairs blocked by a fairly large (but not car-sized) jumping spider. I fell off of the bouncing ball in my haste to get away. I scrambled back in the direction of the ferret's cage to escape, and my mom had appeared there as well. Everyone, upon seeing the spider, cowered in the small space between the bed and wall, trapped, except for Shannon, who glared at me over her shoulder, stepped forward, and exterminated the spider with one clean crunch of her shoe. However, when she tried to pull her foot away, she found that it was stuck on the ground; it took the group's effort to pull her away, and when we did, there was a bluish gunk that would not remove itself from her shoe. And that was the end of this dream.
The next dream began in my mom's house. I was hanging out in the living room, and it seemed that there were a ton of people who had come to stay for a certain important event; the reason why and the people involved are both hazy aspects upon rememberance, and so will remain vague in my retelling. There were lots of people that I didn't know; someone that I did know was asleep in my mom's bedroom, but I don't remember who. I walked through a crowd of talking people to get to my bedroom, across from my mother's, where there was this little girl that looked almost exactly like Hope (though she wasn't).
She was playing around with basically every noisy toy or game that I happened to have in my room, and so I said, "I think someone's sleeping in the next room; we should keep it down,"
to which she responded by grabbing my arm with surprising strength and pulling me into her play. I realized, as I watched her, the major differences between her and Hope: this girl had these bright green eyes, while Hope's are "Tarheel Blue," as she would say (her father brainwashes her to cheer for Carolina); and this girl had a different voice, a bit higher-pitched and a bit on the little-kid lispy side. Hope is very well-spoken for her age. I had no clue where this girl's parents were, but she started to shout loudly about something. Though I tried to hush her, it was too late; my mother's bedroom door creaked open, and a man a little taller than me with straight, brown hair (perhaps in his late 20's) came through the door, glaring, a girl about my age behind him who I took to be his daughter. He looked in at us, and his glare immediately disappeared.
"We have your drum set in my car," he said cheerfully, "and we'll be ready to head over in just a minute." I said that that sounded good, though I'm not sure where we were headed, and why my drum set was required.
The next thing I knew, I was in a crowded night-clubesque atmosphere, with tons of tiny, round, candle-lit tables that faced a medium-sized stage. It was hard to see the faces of the audience; there seemed to be a black space above each man or woman's shoulders. I recall wandering through the crowd looking for my drum set or the man who said that he had it in his car, but I could find neither. Someone was speaking up on stage, a man, I think, but I don't remember what he was talking about.
Then, there was another blank, and I was up on stage singing karaoke. A huge screen had appeared out of nowhere on the back wall, and this is where I found the words, reading them above the black abyss-like heads of the audience, who were cheering and singing along, mostly (I don't remember the song). I was dancing and getting way into it, when I was suddenly struck by an overwhelming feeling of exhaustion and I fell asleep right on stage.
When I woke up in the dream, I found myself in my mother's bedroom; most everyone seemed to have gone, since the house was quiet. In the room with me was my mother, the brown-haired man, and the little Hope-like girl. I felt really stupid and my mind felt as though it was working extra-slow.
"What happened?" I asked slowly, slurring. My mom answered, but I couldn't really process what she was saying. "What?" I said, but nothing she said was intelligible the second time, either. Then the man turned to grin at me, almost evilly, and I remembered something else.
"Do you still have my drum set?" I inquired of him; the little girl, singing a hymn (I think it was the Doxology) softly to herself, floated out of the room, a few inches above the ground; this seemed entirely normal. My mom kept babbling in whatever language it was. The man continued to look at me creepily, not speaking.
"What happened last night?" I asked him. He finally spoke, his voice drowning out my mom's, somehow: "You fell asleep." he said. "And your drums. . .they're -. . ." He stopped speaking and presently fell backwards in a sort of arc, dissolving into my mom's dresser behind him. The house was presently silent, and my mom had disappeared as well, apparently when I wasn't looking; It was dark and the wind blew branches outside the window; I felt very lonely and sad all of a sudden. Then, I saw the little girl running outside, and the sun came out (it had originally been gray and stormy) and Hope was there, too, playing with her, so I decided to get up from the bed and join them outside. I had reached the front door before I woke up.
side-note: as of Monday, the situation at my dad's house has deteriorated again. He went out to eat with me at La Carreta, where he was super-quiet and sad. We went to Borders afterwards, where I found a Jimmy Stewart Biography (but did not buy it), and the sky had the most beautiful sunset that I had seen in a long time. It looked like the clouds were bleeding. I hope things have improved since then.
Friday, April 3, 2009
Ah, a Short but Sweet Spring Break
The past few days have been pretty amazing. Though our break is short, I definitely welcome a few days with no school and no homework (except for math). So, in essence, not only have I gotten to sleep later, I have gotten to have more of a social life than I have had in a long, long time.
On Wednesday, the first day after break and also incidentally April Fool's Day, I went over to Shannon's house for a sleepover. Her mother picked me up around one, and I went with them to Walmart to help them shop for groceries. After shopping, we got Talia, who would also be spending the night; it was a sad, gloomy sort of day outside, and it had been raining on and off. We got to the house and loafed around for a while, waiting for Linda (Shannon's cousin, fifteen) to come over. Once it stopped raining, it was our ultimate plan to go and find Shannon's two new Asian neighbors, one of whom probably likes her, considering they were laying together in a bush (bad Shannon!) Before Linda arrived, we went out in the rain anyway, after interviewing Talia with my camera (the reason we didn't wait to go outside was because, since we had a lack of things to do, I had offered to spend the time waiting by interviewing the rest of the people in the household, an offer that Shannon apparently didn't find too appealing). So we were out standing in front of the Asians' house in the rain (more like a drizzle by this point) and it was my brilliant idea that we should discreetly serenade them. The car wasn't there, and it was very likely that the Asian boys were not in the house, but we sang to them anyways. We blessed their ears with warbling verses of "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot," "Hey Mickey, You So Fine," and some Coldplay song that I did not know the words to, which was sung exclusively by Shannon and Talia.
After singing to the Asians (or rather, their empty house) for a while, we got bored and started to wander down toward the end of the street to find the skater boys' house. As we were approaching the stop sign, Shannon's grandmother's car pulled into view, and Linda got out of the car and joined us on the walk back to the house. We all hung out upstairs in Shannon's room for a little while, looking at Linda's drawings and what-not, but then she wanted to go down and visit Sean's ferret, Draco, which was a great idea because it gave me an oppurtunity to potentially knock out two interviews at once (Sean and Linda) ( :
So that is what we did. Sean purchased this super-cool hamster ball thing for the ferret, which was twice as large as a normal hamster ball, and which scared Lucy the dog later when it was brought upstairs, complete with ferret inside. He also bought him these cute little shiny collars that Draco evidently hates.
Dinner came shortly afterwards (chicken, salad, and corn), and we watched X-Men, something that I had just seen for the first time recently. We spent the rest of the night chilling out, listening to music, and playing truth or dare on and off until we were finally exhausted enough to fall asleep.
As usual, I woke up the earliest and headed downstairs, unable to go back to sleep because of the snoring. I read and listened to my iPod until Stacia and Linda both woke up. Soon, Talia and Shannon followed, and we all had a breakfast of bagels or cereal. After we had bathed, had a lunch of Spaghettio's, and packed, we were all respectively dropped off, and Shannon came over to my house to spend the night. She got to meet my cat, Lucky, for the first time, and though she wanted to hate him, she found (as I predicted) that she could not; he is an amazing cat. So we went down to Brunson to play soccer for a while, and we conversed with this pug Fifi and her master, who was tossing her a tennis ball. Then, after we got really dirty and muddy, we went back home, changed, and prepared for dinner and a trip to Borders, where it was very possible that we might encounter pretty emo guys.
We ate at Burke Street, and I showed Shannon the place on the sidewalk across the street where this man had decided to perform a 30-minute long work-out routine in plain view of Burke Street diners and passerby. Then, my dad dropped us off at Borders, where we found no emo boys, but I found two books to give to Patrick as a belated birthday present and a book for myself. We spent most of our time looking at quizzes and dresses in these girly magazines.
Once home, we spent the rest of the night horsing around (I love that phrase!) in the living room; my dad and Heather retired early, as they had to get up early the next day (tee-hee). We played Katamari Damacy and Tekken until we got super-tired, and then we retired up to bed as well.
This morning, it was beautiful outside, and so when I woke up at ten and took the dogs outside to pee, I convinced myself that it was too gorgeous outside to go back to sleep. I woke Shannon up and announced that we would have to go and do something outside before she left with her mom. After a few minutes she got up, and we spent a little bit of time trying to figure out what to wear; then, I tried to get ahold of Patrick, as we were supposed to hang out tonight. I did, eventually, and a time was set up for him to pick me up from my dad's house.
Shannon and I went outside to play basketball and soccer for a while, but then she wanted to call her mom. We spent the rest of the morning in the dining room, Shannon with her Pokemon game, me at the piano. While I was on the phone with my mom, something strange happened; a red car pulled up outside of our house, and I assumed that it was Shannon's ride, since her cousin drives a red Saturn. However, she said that the car wasn't a Saturn, and the man sitting in it was shuffling through these papers in the front seat and was not getting out of the car. He eventually dropped some stuff on our porch and left; Apparently, he was one of my dad's tenants.
Shannon's mom came and went; my dad came for lunch, and respectively went. I took a walk up to the gazebo park on Fourth with my book and journal. Then, I went over to Patrick's house around five, where I got to meet his sister for the first time, dine on Chinese food, and help dye Easter eggs, which I have not done since about age 6. I also got to play Patrick's piano, which, by the way, has a beautiful sound. They drove me back home around nine o'clock, and I played with Hope for a while before she had to go to bed. After I was done doing that, I came here and wrote this super-long blog that no one will probably read.
On Wednesday, the first day after break and also incidentally April Fool's Day, I went over to Shannon's house for a sleepover. Her mother picked me up around one, and I went with them to Walmart to help them shop for groceries. After shopping, we got Talia, who would also be spending the night; it was a sad, gloomy sort of day outside, and it had been raining on and off. We got to the house and loafed around for a while, waiting for Linda (Shannon's cousin, fifteen) to come over. Once it stopped raining, it was our ultimate plan to go and find Shannon's two new Asian neighbors, one of whom probably likes her, considering they were laying together in a bush (bad Shannon!) Before Linda arrived, we went out in the rain anyway, after interviewing Talia with my camera (the reason we didn't wait to go outside was because, since we had a lack of things to do, I had offered to spend the time waiting by interviewing the rest of the people in the household, an offer that Shannon apparently didn't find too appealing). So we were out standing in front of the Asians' house in the rain (more like a drizzle by this point) and it was my brilliant idea that we should discreetly serenade them. The car wasn't there, and it was very likely that the Asian boys were not in the house, but we sang to them anyways. We blessed their ears with warbling verses of "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot," "Hey Mickey, You So Fine," and some Coldplay song that I did not know the words to, which was sung exclusively by Shannon and Talia.
After singing to the Asians (or rather, their empty house) for a while, we got bored and started to wander down toward the end of the street to find the skater boys' house. As we were approaching the stop sign, Shannon's grandmother's car pulled into view, and Linda got out of the car and joined us on the walk back to the house. We all hung out upstairs in Shannon's room for a little while, looking at Linda's drawings and what-not, but then she wanted to go down and visit Sean's ferret, Draco, which was a great idea because it gave me an oppurtunity to potentially knock out two interviews at once (Sean and Linda) ( :
So that is what we did. Sean purchased this super-cool hamster ball thing for the ferret, which was twice as large as a normal hamster ball, and which scared Lucy the dog later when it was brought upstairs, complete with ferret inside. He also bought him these cute little shiny collars that Draco evidently hates.
Dinner came shortly afterwards (chicken, salad, and corn), and we watched X-Men, something that I had just seen for the first time recently. We spent the rest of the night chilling out, listening to music, and playing truth or dare on and off until we were finally exhausted enough to fall asleep.
As usual, I woke up the earliest and headed downstairs, unable to go back to sleep because of the snoring. I read and listened to my iPod until Stacia and Linda both woke up. Soon, Talia and Shannon followed, and we all had a breakfast of bagels or cereal. After we had bathed, had a lunch of Spaghettio's, and packed, we were all respectively dropped off, and Shannon came over to my house to spend the night. She got to meet my cat, Lucky, for the first time, and though she wanted to hate him, she found (as I predicted) that she could not; he is an amazing cat. So we went down to Brunson to play soccer for a while, and we conversed with this pug Fifi and her master, who was tossing her a tennis ball. Then, after we got really dirty and muddy, we went back home, changed, and prepared for dinner and a trip to Borders, where it was very possible that we might encounter pretty emo guys.
We ate at Burke Street, and I showed Shannon the place on the sidewalk across the street where this man had decided to perform a 30-minute long work-out routine in plain view of Burke Street diners and passerby. Then, my dad dropped us off at Borders, where we found no emo boys, but I found two books to give to Patrick as a belated birthday present and a book for myself. We spent most of our time looking at quizzes and dresses in these girly magazines.
Once home, we spent the rest of the night horsing around (I love that phrase!) in the living room; my dad and Heather retired early, as they had to get up early the next day (tee-hee). We played Katamari Damacy and Tekken until we got super-tired, and then we retired up to bed as well.
This morning, it was beautiful outside, and so when I woke up at ten and took the dogs outside to pee, I convinced myself that it was too gorgeous outside to go back to sleep. I woke Shannon up and announced that we would have to go and do something outside before she left with her mom. After a few minutes she got up, and we spent a little bit of time trying to figure out what to wear; then, I tried to get ahold of Patrick, as we were supposed to hang out tonight. I did, eventually, and a time was set up for him to pick me up from my dad's house.
Shannon and I went outside to play basketball and soccer for a while, but then she wanted to call her mom. We spent the rest of the morning in the dining room, Shannon with her Pokemon game, me at the piano. While I was on the phone with my mom, something strange happened; a red car pulled up outside of our house, and I assumed that it was Shannon's ride, since her cousin drives a red Saturn. However, she said that the car wasn't a Saturn, and the man sitting in it was shuffling through these papers in the front seat and was not getting out of the car. He eventually dropped some stuff on our porch and left; Apparently, he was one of my dad's tenants.
Shannon's mom came and went; my dad came for lunch, and respectively went. I took a walk up to the gazebo park on Fourth with my book and journal. Then, I went over to Patrick's house around five, where I got to meet his sister for the first time, dine on Chinese food, and help dye Easter eggs, which I have not done since about age 6. I also got to play Patrick's piano, which, by the way, has a beautiful sound. They drove me back home around nine o'clock, and I played with Hope for a while before she had to go to bed. After I was done doing that, I came here and wrote this super-long blog that no one will probably read.
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