Smile brighter

I am looking at a thin cardboard card that kinda looks like a magazine ad from the 50s. It has a line drawing of a man saying something like “Hold this up to your teeth.” There is a drawing of a large smile with specks and junk on it. It looks like a toothpaste ad, but I don’t see any logo.

Change your socks

I was taking off a pair of black dress socks even though I was wearing white gym socks.

Fleeting fame

I write my name in the sand in big perfectly formed block letters. The waves roll up a few feet below the letters. But I know that once the tide goes out and returns, it will erase my name.

tricked out ride

Someone is wielding 3 wheel rims onto the side of a car.

Abandonment

I am walking up the driveway of a house with all kinds of toys scattered about. I am snooping around trying to find something in the garage. I am surprised to discover a woman there leaning over going through a box. It is her house and it appears I am there to steal something. In an attempt to cover myself, I ask her where she bought her tennis balls. (there are several about on the floor and out in the yard.) She thinks this question is odd, so I go on how I notice all the tennis balls as I walking past and that I have been looking for a place to get them cheap.

I am at the back of a house that is abandoned or under construction. There is junk throughout the yard. I lean over a chair or small ladder and look at several old playboys scattered on the ground. I start to flip through one and a newer issue a few feet away catches my eye.

I am hanging out with two girls, friends of mine. One girl and I are in a bedroom alone. We fool around but don’t have sex. The other girl walks into the room and I am lying in bed alone. Then there is a conversation (between the other girl and I or all three of us?) and she claims that I slept on top of wet spot on the stained sheets. I try to say that we didn’t have sex and that I wasn’t even asleep. But then I realize that I might have woken up when she walked into the room. And if I was wrong about that, could I be wrong about not having sex? Then I think how odd it is that I am having this conservation with such a good of friend of mine. I have a strong feeling that the girl that walked into the room was someone from Portfolio Center.

Motives

I am playing Golf. I keep trying to hit my ball lying in some short rough just off a fairway. I keep missing the ball or it rolls away down a slight hill. Then it is behind a wooden adirondack chair and I can’t figure out to swing at it. There is a girl with me, I think it is Tara.

As I’m walking through a gas station convenient store, something in the drink cooler catches my eye. I open the glass cooler door and pull out a six-pack of Coke. It is the tall, slim cans that I read in Ad Age that they are only selling in trendy night clubs. I think, “Is that why I am buying this?”

Great idea

I try to water ski to everywhere I go.

I walk into a hair cut place in the back corner of the second floor of a mall. I talk to a guy at the front counter. Then I flip through a book of photos. The shots of are different haircuts, clients perhaps? And the stylists that work there. I keep flipping and come to a series of pictures of two girls kissing in the nude. The photos and the girls are incredibly natural and hot. I turn and see the turn girls sitting on a bench in the walkway of the mall out in front of the store. Then I am talking to them. One of them drops a matchbook. She is hitting on me. Trying to get my number or give me hers. I walk out through the mall and 2 different girls cross in front of me. They stop in an open area in front of some chain department store and start throwing a beanbag with wind up pitches. They are practicing softball.

Work it out

I’m driving along and see a giraffe on the side of the road, so I pull into the parking lot of a fast food petting zoo. First I think it is a restaurant with the animal as a promotion, but then I see the building is really a barn and there is also a small back ho type bulldozer that is painted to look like a giraffe. I run around the back and down the side of the building between a chain link fence.

I walk up to Mom and Dad in the parking lot. A man asks if we can spare some change. Dad replies, “Didn’t you just get free beer?” The guy has coifed white hair and wears a retro 70s looking suit. He says, “Yeah, I’ve been to 4 80’s parties this week.”

I am walking and then riding a mountain bike through a strange city. I walk thru a parking garage, down stairs and across a catwalk or alley. I peddle up a steep hill. Look out over a railing towards a capital looking building on a green lawn. I carry the bike thru a back room day care and up a flight of stairs.

I enter an antique shop full of furniture. There are 2 or 3 other guys with me and we are arguing loudly, perhaps on the verge of violence. A few minutes of this and the gay couple that run the place interrupt us. One of the guys tells us to stop. I recognize them and remind them that we bought a big white 70s kitchen table and chairs from them a week or 2 ago, then I ask if we could just have a few minutes to work this out amongst my friends.

Down the hatch

Mom, Dad, Stacy and I are in a big, empty restaurant with booths sitting on tall platforms. We paint or build 4 lamps that hang from the ceiling. They are round hot air balloons. Two of them have large globes in the place of baskets.

I enter a small movie theater. There is popcorn and empty soda cups all over the floor. The place is full of kids. I take a seat against the wall with a seat or two empty next to me. An obnoxious fat kid sits down next to me, so I get up in disgust. I decided to get refreshment from the snack bar. There is one at the front of the theater right under the screen. I don’t want to walk in front of everyone in their seats, so I get in line at a smaller snack bar to the right. I wonder why there is a concession stand actually inside the movie theater, much less two of them.

I try to find Ray at our old office, but no one is there. I find him in a big room helping an older woman fix a washing machine. I am sitting up on something like bleachers looking down at the machine on the floor. A couple of other guys seat with me although they are here with Ray. The woman takes off her top and is leaning out from the washer with her legs supporting her in the tub. She is swinging back and forth as if to dance. Then there are more people in the room and it is now a party. A guy hands a girl next to big a giant drink which I think is a pitcher for everyone, but is really just one drink he bought for the girl. As people are talking, the girl starts holding my hand. She keeps coming on to me and asks if I want a drink. She leaves to get it. Mom, Stacy and another girl enter and I ask what they are doing at this party. I am sitting slightly above them on the bleachers as the walk up. As they are saying hi, Stacy put her hands on my legs and her hand touches the erection in my pants. I am embarrassed. I assume she touched it accidentally, then I think what if she saw it and touched it on purposed? I push her hand away and she pushes my hand back. She accuses me of trying to be unfaithful to Brooke. Does she grab me again or do I just worry that she will? I am horrified and ashamed thinking about it.

I am in a strange house and drunk. Brooke was with me. Where is she now? I walk up a set of stairs and into a bedroom where Sharon is sleeping. I apologize for waking her and cross the room to leave out another door. Danny is in a bed on the other side of the room. The door leads to another room, not where I want to go. But now I can’t find the stairs back down. I try another door but it leads outside. I think about taking the fire escape. The house is like a maze, the rooms keep changing.

Get away

I am stranded on a deserted island. I swim out to a rock outcropping covered in crazy branches where several parrots are perched. I talk to them for a while, comment that some of their gang is missing, then swim back to the beach. On the beach I start picking up coconuts on the edge of the surf. Three of them are the size of oranges. I wonder if I can crack them open to eat. But I’m not worried about food, so I’m just collecting them because I think I should. Out on the ocean I see a giant Coconut husk floating towards the island. A forth of it is missing and the inside is hollow, it looks the size of an ocean liner. I run down the beach thinking we can use it to sail away. I run towards two other guys on the beach. I am not surprised to see them, but before I can speak to them, I see several old sailing ships (like pirates or the British navy) approaching the island. The giant coconut sails right along side them.
Suddenly I am on the other side of the island and hundreds of boats of every size (most look like cruisers or house boats) are tying up to long docks. I pick up a white captain’s off the ground. I think I can pass myself off as one to steal a boat. But the hat has Disney or mickey mouse on it. I put in on anyway. Then I see a tour group of Chinese school children get off a boat, the hat is part of their white uniforms. They swarm past me.
Now I walk into a building near the dock, inside is a counter where people are betting on a horse race. The betting slips are bunch of perforated stamps with the horse’s name on them. You’re supposed to detach the one you want to bet on. I look over a woman’s shoulder to see how it works and she accuses me of trying to steal her picks. She starts yelling about it to the old man behind the counter, but I and everyone else ignores her. I look out the window and see Craig Watson standing by a fountain. He sees me at the exact same moment and runs in and grabs me in a big hug. Over his shoulder, I see Stacy and Brooke standing at the fountain looking around. I want to go to them, but Craig has me.

I am in a small deli, like a convenient store. The walls and counter are metallic and there is a lot of glass (window and/or a divider between the counter and customer area. I am talking to the guy behind the counter like I know him. There is TV on behind him. Several customers come and go. They wait in line but it is more of a cluster. Then the guy gets what the next person needs from behind the counter. One guy looks at a rack hanging from the ceiling and complains that they don’t have the type of cigarettes he wants. I notice my Aunt Linda standing in the line. I watch her in the store until she turns to leave. Then I grab her by the arm, I want to introduce her to the guy behind the counter. I start to say that he is my cousin, but wouldn’t she already know my cousin?
Aunt Linda leaves the store and into a parking garage outside, she says something about watching the History channel. I don’t want her to leave and yell to the guy behind the counter to change the channel to the History channel.

I am walking or driving past a row of really nice houses. I keep seeing one with an interesting tiled swimming pool. Then I am swimming in it. A group of teenage girls comes out to swim and asks who I am. I say I was just leaving while climbing out of the pool. But instead of leaving I am inside, fully clothed, listening to two women talk. One of them lives in the house. The other is commenting that her husband does not keep all of the required amount of books for a Doctor or Lawyer in the house. The other woman responses that he keeps most of them at the office. As they are saying this, I look in the room off the kitchen. It is a flowery bedroom that has a shelf running around the entire room up near the ceiling. Leather-bound books are in place every so often on each wall.

Clear out

I am following a pick-up truck fast down a country road, I am on a tiny red car with several of the same cars zooming around the pick-up. It has a cartoon feel, like an old black and white keystone cops type comedy redone in color with modern special effects. Because the pick up is falling apart and loosing parts all over the road. A bracket falls off near the front wheel and the whole trucks starts rattling. A little guy that looks like Buckwheat jumps off his car grabs the piece runs and jumps back on his car without breaking pace. He then zooms up next the to the truck, stick the part back in place and truck keeps rolling smoothly on.
Then another trucks comes up fast behind us. This truck is surrounded by full size 4x4 all-terrain vehicles. These guys look mean and are after us. Somehow I am on the side of the road and a tough woman and man approach me. I pick up my car and swing it at them, then I take off running. I have a handful of loose quarters in my hand. They catch up to me near a building. They threaten me and I know that I won’t be able to defend myself. At the last minute, all my Jersey guys walk around the corner. I watch them walk, they don’t see. The man and woman stare at me, as if to tell me that the pain will be worse if I yell. I call out. Fred and Paul turn around. The two tough guys take off running. I pick up and throw a cheese grater at them as they retreat.

The Jersey guys and I are staying in the second floor of a building near a beach. The place seems to be divided into eight sections. We don’t know the other guys and girls staying there, but everyone comes and goes as they please, just hanging out.

I am in a crowded family restaurant looking for a table to sit with a friend. I am carrying a tray like at fast food places. Langston clears plates from a table but it is not for him and I to sit down. He is bussing the table for two black girls as if he works there.

Auld lang syne

Meet Alex from New Year’s in a coffeehouse. We’re both there on two different mornings. We leave to take the subway to work.