That's what friends are for

In a foreign city, Paris or Amsterdam, I walk through what looks like a bad part of town. There are dark cobblestone streets. I come across two bars or clubs on either side of an alley. On the outer walls of each is a plaque or painted sign that says something about not bringing large pipes or bongs (but it was a different word) inside the establishment. I turn on the next corner and see a few people walking in and out of apartment buildings. There is more sunlight, but large metal gates blocking access to the courtyards of the buildings. I wind up in a crowded square. I recognize someone in the crowd. Then I start seeing a bunch of people I know from high school. I call some guy John, but I don’t actually know him. I see Suzanne across the way, then several others. I am so surprised and excited, that I lose Brooke in the crowd. I follow George Lamb to a tent full of electronics – speakers, wires and computers or broadcast equipment. A man is working on the other side of a bank of machines. I get caught up in some wires and the tape from a VHS cassette wraps around my neck. I struggle but can’t get loose. George gets it off me. Then we walk down a dirt hill. I kick over a large bottle about 3 feet high in front of me. It falls forward and water and some change spill out on the dusty hillside. I grab the bottle and take to replace it upright in place. I realize it looks like my old giant coke bottle bank. I can’t find a level spot where the bottle used to be, so I move it a few feet down the hill and set it on what turns out to be a polished stone plaque of compass directions covered in a thin layer of dirt. I walk down the hill and onto a road.
I walk out to the railing of the inside of a mall, I take an elevator down to the bottom floor. There is a dance club in the middle of the food court.

A family of fat people are at a dock. The parents are super obese, but their children are still able to move around. The kids get in the water and start climbing onto to large torpedo shaped rafts tied behind a large ski boat. The boy says something about pinning the rope of raft under another piece. I point out the proper place to tie it off. Then the boat is flying through the water or a wide river or narrow lake. The rafts are pulled behind like a water-skier. The boat makes a sudden sweeping turn in front of a large rock face of a sharp boulder or cliff. I am hanging on to one of the ropes trailing behind the boat, flying through the air. My feet barely miss hitting the rock as the boat makes it’s turn. The fat people are behind me, they haven’t followed the boat through its turn yet. I pull in rope, it is a struggle, but I haul in enough slack to keep them from smacking into the rock.

I am in my Arkansas apartment listening to the Tonight Show with Jay Leno. But it is on the radio not the TV. The crowd is charting something and when they stop, I hear Sam and her friend from Disney and they are chanting “Fernt, Fernt, Fernt.” I get out of bed and call Paul to tell him about it.

Make way

Langdon and I are talking to a woman in a fancy club or convention center. We are supposed to be setting up or decorating for the event she is hosting. She says something about the roses going here. I point to another room containing several vases of roses on a table and ask if that room will be in use. She says yes. I asked because I want to steal those roses to use since we don’t have any. I figure we can run up to the grocery store and buy roses without the woman knowing. But Langdon either says something or she sees it on her face. She gets upset and can’t believe we aren’t prepared for the job. Langdon and I walk out to the parking lot to go to the mall and find roses. On the Lawn out front to the building is a giant inflatable Snoopy. It is part of our decorations but the head is missing, there is just a rounded nub like the head of a tack where the head should pop onto. I wonder what’s wrong. Then I see that my cousin Julian is setting up the Snoopy balloon and hasn’t yet moved the small red blower fan to inflate the head, which I now see spread out on the ground next to where he crouches checking the balloon. Langdon and I get into a car, but we don’t know which way the mall is.

I am in a school, but I don’t know what room my next class is in. I am near panicking because I don’t know where to go. I also have a meeting about my 401K and I don’t know where that is taking place either. I walk into an open area covered in orange carpet where two hallways meet at a corner. There are a few rows of school desk set up there and Matt is standing next to one. He tells me that this is where our class is meeting. I ask him frantically if he is sure and about my 401K meeting. He says yes and the meeting is in another room. Then instantly I am riding in a boat that is being down a road. It is taking me to me 401K meeting. I walk to the front of the boat and look over the bow. I don’t see any vehicle pulling a trailer. Instead I see a narrow concrete canal that is about as deep as the boat is high. It runs parallel to the road I was on and turns to the right ahead at the upcoming intersection. There are rocks, mud and a few large puddles at the bottom. I realize that the water is too deep for the boat to float on. Yet it is gliding along and I wonder if it is mounted on wheels.

Brooke and I stand on a dock. I am about to take her sailing. Next to the dock is huge sailboat. It belongs to Stacy. The boat has automatic controls to raise and lower the mainsail and cast out or reel in the spinnaker. All you have to do is push one of several buttons along the side of sitting area around the wheel. Even though the boat is at the dock, all of it sails are unfurled and puffed out. The spinnaker is blue and has some red on it perhaps stripes. But the boat doesn’t move even though it doesn’t seem to be tied to the dock at all. We set sail but my perspective changes and I am flying above a river through the thick, green canopy of leaves of jungle palms.

Brooke is standing naked on a snowy hillside or mountain. I see her from a distance but can tell that she is not affected by any cold. She just stands there like a statue and I am moved by the effect of seeing the darkness of her bush set off against the lighter tone of her skin and the whiteness of the snow around her. I am closer to her now and the scene has changed around her to a grassy park. I try to move closer and get a better look at her because I am struck by her beauty. She hides behind a tree for a moment. I call for her to come to me and when I catch sight of her again, she is wearing shorts and a black bikini top.

Unlikely

Grandma walks into an apartment. Grandpa is inside, the TV is on. He yells at her to get out and go back downstairs to her place. Grandma walks down the hall to the elevators, she is carrying a square Styrofoam to-go container full of take-out food. I think how sad it must be to eat alone. Then she asks me if I will sit with her while she eats.

A pleading look is my only chance

Running through a deserted small town desperately trying to escape. I don’t know from who but the whole town feels like a prison. I reach some railroad tracks and a road towards a train flying by. I don’t even come close to grabbing ahold. I’m supposed to meet someone to leave but don’t know where they are. I sense that people are about to turn onto the street. The only place I can think of to hide is to climb up a railroad crossing sign. I wind up hanging with my arms and legs wrapped around an arm of the sign that extends over the street below like a stoplight. The street below quickly fills with people walking. I see a cop standing on the corner across the street. Then I hear Mom call my name and start to say, “Brian, what are you doing up there?” Stacy is walking beside her and I look directly into her eyes and silently plead with her to ignore me. She and our mom walk below and beyond me without looking up.

Fail

The job interview isn’t going well. I’m sitting in an office and across the desk sits a woman giving me feedback on an earlier interview with a creative director. She says that I missed a few points and that Febreze is not industrial strength. She explains that they write the copy to make people think that it is, but that it just sounds that way. It all sounds very calculating and manipulative. I say that’s not honest, that I believe the work should be clear. My voice falters, my protest sounds weak and I know I am bombing the interview. But I can’t help myself, I have to speak out.

I am walking behind a woman as she begins to cross a short catwalk that bridges a deep pit. I am walking along the edge of a steep hill, the bridge is to my right. As the woman steps onto the steel mesh of the bridge, she slips and her leg sinks into the mud of the side of the hill. I look down and realize that I am wearing a tux which is also dirty from the mud. I can’t show up to the event I’m trying to get to in this condition. She will be late for work already, so she offers to help me get cleaned up. So I follow the woman to her house back down the street. Her house is huge, well-furnished and clean. She walks past a sweeping staircase at the entrance. There is a sexual tension in the air, so I leave.
I am walking in snow and see a dollar under a bush. It is on a slight hill and I have to duck and crawl under the thorny bush and stretch to reach the bill. When I stand and unfold it, I discover a 20 dollar bill on the inside of the 1. I take the bills to show someone and tell them I found 21 bucks. I end up going with them to a party in a nice house. Then I am standing in a hallway or bedroom and the woman from the mud is standing there holding up two pairs of panties and asking which she should wear. She holds a white pair in her left hand and a pink pair in her other hand. I’m not sure if she is talking to me or Travis. He stands slightly behind me wearing the same camouflage coat he wears to work. I wonder if this woman is his date and why she is talking to this redneck if she’s supposed to sleep with me.

Light it up

I get out of the shower. I am living in a huge loft or condo. I talk to Brooke on the phone and walk out on to the deck right as fireworks start going off above the city skyline nearby. The deck/patio seems to shared with other apartments as there are several patio tables and beach chairs for people to lay out. At the far corner of the deck is a table with a bunch of my stuff spread over it as if I was working there. I worry about papers blowing away and move a book on top of them. Then I wonder why I left my wallet and keys outside and pick them up along with my digital camera. As I walk back to my sliding glass door, I see a regular camera and some paperbacks laying on the ground. I pick them up and struggle to balance everything in my arms. Then I pick up a small pink, plastic box which turns out to be a Polaroid camera. I see a photo stuck in it, so I pull it out. The picture is a large (taller than a normal photo) group shot of young teenagers at Disney World. I notice that I am standing in the top of the picture, I am the younger, the same age as the other kids in the photo.

I am driving on a highway and get off on an exit ramp. The ramp and my car is bathed in a strange light. After a moment I realize it is a glare or reflection of a large video scoreboard of a football stadium above and to the right of the ramp. I see scenes of several football players wearing IU uniforms. As I drive past the football field I look back at a plain scoreboard trying to see the score. I can’t make out the numbers but see that we are playing a team I have never heard of, the team is listing on the scoreboard as Z.

Park, fly and park

I am in Austin looking to meet someone, maybe Brooke. I drive to different parking lots looking for a place to park to go into a restaurant. And then I am walking past train tracks where there is a commercial shoot going on. Missy is working the shoot, she looks rounder than in person. The camera set up on a dolly on the track. A cop car flies past. They have a van chasing a woman that is running. They do multiple takes. Aaron walks up and asks me how I’m doing. I’m supposed to be meeting someone else there.

I am in a hot air balloon with my grandma. Jerry is piloting the balloon but doesn’t seem to be paying any attention. The balloon almost flies right into the side of a building but at the minute rises above it without the burner being hit. It is flying like there is a steering wheel controlling it. It turns around a tree we should have flown right into. We fly over the Ohio River and I point out a two-story bungalow with multiple decks and patios and say that it used to be Gleason Calise’s Dallas office building. We do a water landing and go back up. Mom and Dad call on the radio. I hear them talking to Stacy on the radio. They’re talking about me and ask what time it is. I say it’s 9:05. We do another water landing. I am wearing winter gloves and try to take them off to pick something up from the floor of the basket. My shoes and pants legs get wet and I jump up and brace myself up with my arms behind me and my feet pressing on the interior sides of the basket.

I am trying to go to a BBQ restaurant. I look at the green neon sign from my car. The parking lot across the street is a pay lot. The one on the side of the building is only for the bar next door. I go around the corner and there are parking garage everywhere but I can’t pull into any of them. It is an industrial area. One has a sign over the entrance that says Car repair shop in neon.

Ride to detention

Riding a bicycle through the halls of a high school. I walk into different classrooms, I am looking for a place to leave the bike. I open a broom closet in the basement but don’t leave it there. I ride it out of a stairwell and past a teacher in the hall that yells at me, I ignore her. I try to park it in a bike rack outside but the tires are too big. So I go inside. I try to figure out what class I’m supposed to go to, but I can’t remember if I have biology after lunch or if that was last year. I ask somebody that. I go up and down the stairs and forget what floor I’m even on. Finally I open what I think is the door to the broom closet downstairs but inside is what now looks like a teacher’s lounge. Aaron is in there and him and Andy are turning it into an office.

That seems racist

I get into a car with someone to get a ride to school. The guy driving turns off the main road onto a trail. There are branches hanging low overhead and on the side. It is night out and the headlights show nothing but green growth everywhere. The dirt trail is almost totally overgrown. I am bouncing around the back of the jeep and the guy is talking about getting into more adventure on a shortcut. We come to a chain link fence across the trail. Two black guys are pounding on the other side of the fence. I don’t know if they are trying to tear it down or warn us off. The guy driving backs up the jeep and I think he is going to turn left and drive parallel to the fence. But instead he crashes through it. On the other side of the fence we drive thru a paved lot full of parked cars and there are tons of black people around. I think that a bunch of stuff is going to get stolen. I picture them rioting. We drive down the long row but now we are in a camaro or firebird. I realize the people are all in a long line 4 or 5 people across all slowly moving in the same direction we are as we drive pass them. I figure they are just waiting in line to get out or to get their cars out to leave for work in the morning.

Inappropriate

I am in a living room with Christina from work. Danny and other people are in the next room, which is the kitchen. We start making out standing next to a couch and then I am on top of her on the floor. She says, “We are falling into a sinkhole.” I stop and go into the next room.

Has to be good

I see Jenn driving past in a parking garage. Brooke and I are in the car. We end up checking into the same hotel. Jenn is with Mike and I am with Brooke. Jenn and I end up spending some time alone together. But later Mike and his pal warn me to stop hanging around here. Suddenly we are in the same hotel but now it is a fraternity formal with a bunch of my old fraternity brothers hanging out in the hotel. Then I’m with a group of them (and Brooke?) walking outside. We see a bar on top of a building with giant pink flamingos. I say that’s going to be a party later because you know a bar has to be good if it has pink flamingos.

I’m in a giant gymnasium type room with Langston. Someone else is there. And Brooke is on my team. The other teams are lined up along the wall moving forward. They have to battle some kind of beast or giant thing. They have a wooden bucket and water to put out the fire. And throw rocks at it. There is a big pile of rocks there. But then the room is cleared out and we’re getting showered and dressed for the battle again. We are in a locker room. A hot girl walks in. I am dressed but Adam is naked. He is bent over picking something up, his ass facing me leaning towards the girl. When he stands up she acts impressed at the size of his manhood but says the word “little.”

I am in a bathroom and Chrissy comes downstairs and says that Chris needs to get in there. I get dressed but there are paper towels that I used to wipe my ass laying on the floor. I’m gathering them up and throw them in the toilet as Chrissy walks in. She is disgusted at first but then says, “Uh, these things happen.”