Dream Diary #10 – A Surprise Singer

Dreamdate: Tuesday, October 28, 2008

I was at a Kiwanis Festival class with my cousin Stacy and sister Susan. It was a competitive singing class for 15-16 year-olds. The venue was a church. It was a nice looking church, probably a Pentecostal or Salvation Army style, with oak pews and wooden detailing, a large altar and choir section, and even some sort of balcony above. We listened to probably 8 or 9 performers, and one of Tsitsi’s students, Ashley Abbott was to perform last. I wondered if she felt a bit miffed that she had to perform last, because she gets s o nervous when she sings that the waiting just makes her more anxious. But then thought, ‘Naw she’s seasoned by now, she’s a big girl and will be fine!’

But wait, the Kiwanis emcee had a name that was added to her list, someone who wasn’t in the program but was permitted to perform with the rest of the group. Strangely, it was an older lady. She was about 65 or 70 years old. She had round glasses, blondish-greying curly hair, and wore a light-colored dress. She appeared slightly nervous, yet slightly excited. She had brought a background tape with her, and as the music started and she began her first few lines, the Kiwanis adjuducator (judge of the performances) was so enthralled with the beautiful music that she began dancing and swaying her arms around the nervous singer. (We’ll call her Jane – although I know that the song itself was about Jane, not that her name was Jane. I had been listening to a Ben Folds song “Jane” a few days ago!)  Jane was so thrown off by the dancing adjudicator that she bolted across to the other side of the room, and stood there in partial shock with one hand to her face, saying she was very nervous. The background music kept playing, and Jane eventually f ound her spot in the song, and continued. As she eased into the song, now her voice began to flow out like an angel. Hers was a pure, natural voice, laid above the contemporary pop karaoke track; sweet and uplifting. Unfortunately, as I looked around, I noticed that many people had left and the place was almost bare. Perhaps they had left before Jane had gone on, because they thought the class was over. Nonetheless, Stacy, Susan & I listened in our pew, enthralled at this elderly lady’s voice singing this beautiful song about being yourself and not pretending to be someone else. Jane was now so at ease she was walking upon the church alter, making arm movements and singing directly at the audience with confidence. Next thing, she was up on the balcony! She effortlessly kept going. Then, as the song rounded out, she walked to the far left side of the balcony. There was an apparatus hanging from the ceiling, at the height of the balcony. It was sloped almost like a mini slide. To our co mplete surprise, Confident Jane sat herself on the hanging apparatus, slid and propelled off it, and ended up landing on her feet straight up on the ground many feet below!! Thoroughly impressed, our small audience gave her a long, enthusiastic applause.

A few moments later we settled, a nd poor Ashley was now waiting in the wings to perform! Do your thing, Ashley!!

Moral of the story: If you think you’re too old to learn how to sing, you’re not! Music and creative arts is a form of expression that can be enjoyed at any age, and it helps to maintain a youthful spirit.

Recommended listening: “Jane” by Ben Folds Five, from The Unauthorized Biography of Reinhold Messner

Dream Diary #9 – Sometimes You Can’t Do It Alone

Dreamdate: Monday, October 27,2008

Myself and a few others were somewhere in Asia – p erhaps China – in a huge video-game type coliseum. We were playing a game for our lives. There were panels that would shift, and giant metal mouths that would close up on us, shutting off the last bit of light to the outside and trapping us in the darkness. Total darkness surely meant death. I don’t know about everyone else, but I seemed to be very unlucky. I couldn’t see anyone else, and there was no way out. The walls, void of light, were closing in on me and I was not quick or skilled enough to find my escape.

I thought, this can’t be – I have to get out. Suddenly I was in another part of the arena and there was someone else with me. I don’t know who she was. She appeared a little older than me, slightly heavyset but strong, with dark wavy hair and a gentle face. She took my hand and we ran! Now there was a Chinese man chasing us. We were nimble, but he was burly. I was scared, but I trusted that my new friend was wise to the twists and turns of this place and she would get us out safe. We ran through vertical and horizontal tunnels. We slid past metal enclosures. We came upon a chute – like a parcel slot that descended a few floors. She let me go first, consoling me, ‘Go on. It’s ok, you’ll be fine’. I climbed in, and pushed myself down the chute. I didn’t go as fast as I would have liked down that slide, but I made it to the bottom. My savior followed. I think we temporarily lost our foe at that moment. There were many other implements along our way, but I can’t visualize them all now. There were strong colors of red and blue, and images of metal teeth, and other moving pieces like something out of Indiana Jones. Finally we saw ahead of us a sliver of light through a metal panel. Home free! We ran. Holding my guide’s hand as she led, we crawled through the opening in the door – just enough for our small bodies to get through – and we were outside!!

Now somehow my friend disappeared and I could literally see the world before me. I wanted home in Newfoundland now. I willed myself to soar over this covered entrapment, past some trees and forests, past some villages in another continent, past a hoard of a million army men wearing red and black and holding their swords at attention. I flew over all these things with determination that I would make it home. Finally I could see the shape of Newfoundland. Now I was truly home free! I woke up happy and safe in my warm bed, with my savior who had pulled me out at a time when I needed it the most.

Moral of the story: When you think you’re alone, you’re not. A true friend will be there to support you and guide you home.

Recommended Listening: “Sometimes You Can’t Make It On Your Own” by U2, from How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb

Dream Diary #8 – A Bully Revealed

Dreamdate: October 21, 2008

I was playing keyboards with my band. I was so proud; I had a setup of three boards – two in front and one to the side. Suddenly during this gig, there approached a huge man. He was a giant, like in Jack and the Beanstalk, maybe 10 times the size of us all. He had blondish hair, large facial features, and was wearing khakis and a light-colored shirt. He yanked me out of my safety zone and dragged me off with him. I screamed and cried. He had me held captive in his little room. Here this giant of a man seemed much smaller – it was like he was diminishing in size. He could fit in the room but he was still bent under the top of the ceiling. I was weeping silently. Eventually I calmed down enough that I was able to talk to him. He revealed to me that he was mourning the loss of his little wife. So I knew that he had captured me only to fill that loss. He seemed to be getting smaller again. I noticed a beat-up keyboard over in a corner and pointed it out. He said he had always wanted to learn the piano. At this time, some people came to my rescue. Among them was Jason Winsor, and old high school friend. Jason spoke to the hurting giant, and the topic of church came up. I think Jason and the others had just come from church when they heard of my plight. At this mention, there was a glimmer in the now-normal-sized man’s eyes. “All I ever wanted to do,” he said, “was play the piano in church.”

Moral of the story: Bullies are bullies because they are hiding behind their pain. Making someone feel small makes them feel bigger, until you get behind the real source of the pain.

Recommended Listening: A Bully Revealed by Sharona Clarke

Dream Diary #7 – Racecar Robber

Dreamdate: October 19, 2008

A few friends and I were at a Vegas-type game parlour in some foreign city. Chris Kearsey was there (dunno why I’m dreaming about you Chris – perhaps because I was thinking about Musicstop yesterday!!) and we decided to play a kind of racing game. At first it wasn’t a game. We were on this track in real life – in a car, driving a high-altitude, twisting & winding road (again, figments of Mario Kart Rainbow Highway). It was crazy and fast. I could see large black highways that literally curled up and around in a loop, and we had to drive over them fast enough so that gravity would keep us on the track even when we were completely upside-down. I was amazed and probably said “Hoooooooly shit!!” many times. Sometimes the roads would be cut off , so we would have to find the right road to get on where they would intersect again, or else we were “off the track” – and probably dead! Once it got so difficult, suddenly we were safe on the ground watching the action. There were other people around watching as well, or playing. It was like a huge aquarium where you would have big windows to see the animals underwater, except this was an aerial view of racetracks in the sky. The “cars” were spinning along this track and now the space in between the broken roads were so large that many times the cars missed. These roads were not black, normal highways. They were sci-fi-looking pipe-shaped passages, oranged-tinged and shiny. The “cars” appeared to be round bright dots, they were so far away. As these spacecars approached the broken edge, the skill and timing of the drivers had to be so precise; they would have to leave at the exact time and speed that they would make it to the upcoming road without fatally overshooting the top. It was almost tragic to watch, so I said (perhaps within the dream, perhaps within a lucid state outside the story), “Ok, we can’t let so many drivers die. Let’s pretend it’s just a game where we can control the drivers and they have unlimited lives!”    So then it became a game, and Chris was playing very well. So well, in fact, that he ended up winning a huge amount of money! We both went over to the ‘bank’ where they change up the slip we got from the machine. He had a few large coins about the diameter of a bracelet, which were probably worth a hundred dollars. He also had a load of twoonies, and a slip of paper citing a $500-dollar win. So in total we guessed about $700 dollars. Wahoo! What a load of money for only playing for a short time.

As we were waiting to change up the money, now it seemed that we were in a house with big rooms. We walked through a few rooms. There were some nice red couches. The room with the bank lady had a table with a phone, a cash booth, and a large picture window looking out onto the street. There were a few men standing outside. After Chris showed the ticket, the lady handed him the phone and told him he was to answer some questions before getting his cash. Chris was apparently having some trouble on the phone – we were in Spain or France and Chris couldn’t understand the heavy accent of the man on the phone. Tension was building, as we were anxious to get out of this shady neighbourhood with our money. After some frustration, Chris foolishly tried a tactic to get the man to give us the cash. He broke the window next to the street, shouting and pretending that we were being robbed so that the man would hurriedly let us have our money and get the hell out of there!! The surprised men on the street looked our way. Seeing an opportunity, the tall man with the light grey suit ran towards the house, reached his hands in the broken window and scooped up a handful of the 2-foot-long row of twoonies!!! So, in pretending to be robbed, we actually DID get robbed!

Moral of the story: Don’t try to attract things into your life which you don’t want!

Dream Diary #6 – A Wee Little Kitty Story

Dreamdate October 2008 (exact date forgotten)

This is a brief little vignette I had at some point but never wrote it down at the time. My little kitty, love-of-my-life, Willow is a black & white tuxedo cat. She is about a year old and has not reached her full size yet. She is not spayed so I am concerned about her getting out and bringing back babies!

In this dream she somehow got out. I frantically went out searching for her. To my surprise, there were about twenty little tuxedo cats outside, various shapes and patterns – and I couldn’t tell which one was my baby! I called her but none of them came running. I tried to figure out which one had her black & white pattern but the place was a blur of catties! So I investigated a little closer, and picked a little one up by the scruff of the neck and held him up close to have a look. The defiant cat glared at me (clearly he was a male) and said in his silent kitty language, “GEEEEEEEEEEEEZ woman, would you lay off the grip!??!”

Dream Diary # 5 : Piano Games

Dreamdate: Monday morning, September 8, 2008

My sister Susan and I were suddenly part of a piano duo. (Didn’t know you could play piano so well sis!) Conveniently, we had double gigs, back-to-back, and this was our very first night for both. It was early fall. We finished the first show to a small, appreciative crowd, and made our way to the second one. Somehow I lost track of Susan and had to find my way to the place myself. Horrors!! It was a new place in a strange town and I had NO idea! Apparently it was a Martini Bar type venue owned by Peter Brushett….. oh, and look, there was Shane — or at least a figment of Shane, or perhaps Ryan — to help me out! We had to go across the street (and I had a vague recollection of the back and bookstore floor of the MUN library) and down a few sets of stairs (and I had a vague recollection of the old Spot in Springdale). We got to the bottom floor where we were to play, and it was completely EMPTY! Not even a piano. Just a big ol’ ugly-looking offwhite rug in the middle of the floor, and a few bar tables. I found Brushett and he had just told Susan that it was pretty dead so we would start next week. D’oh!! Shane-Ryan and I made our way up and out again. We passed a guy in a room, filing. Not your normal hanging file folders. (What IS normal about my head anyway??!) These were file folders out of Alice in Wonderland. Massive vertical green things, all hanging on metal rows, which the guy was nonchalantly putting things into. We spoke briefly, but he impatiently said he had lots of work to do. Now, as we got outside there were some kind of brick walls to get past, with a weird, realistic figure of an old man, moving back and forth breathing fire on us! Yeow! In some kind of videogame-ish fluke we managed to get past him. We ran upward, stumbling a bit. I had my pink cellphone in hand and just noticed that Susan had sent me two texts. Where had my sister disappeared?!? I eagerly flipped open the phone to check the texts, but then tripped and BAM! slammed the phone amd my hand into the rocks in the process of preventing my head from bashing the rocks. Ahh crap. The phone uttered a painful distorted beep and the screen was frozen in attempted conversation. Well…., I thought, my contract is almost up anyway and I can get a new phone. And I know that when I wake up my phone will be working just fine!

When I woke, I touched my pretty pink phone on the night table next to me, and smiled.

Dream Diary # 4 : Cinema Dreams — WARNING! GRUESOME CONTENT

Dreamdate: August 12-14, 2008 – Cinema Dreams

Here’s the most recent of a three-night dream-capade that started with an aztec boulder challenge (to come), followed by a dream movie night of Men In Black meets Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, and ending in a zombie horror flick. Got your popcorn ready?

Part 3, Zombie Rock Band

I was part of a committee that was organizing a rock show at some swanky building. (Looked curiously like the Pentecostal church in Springdale…. Naw, couldn’t be!) Churchy or not, it was not your typical rock show. Seems that all members but one had to come back from the dead in order to play the show!! They looked like a young punk band. Perhaps they had died young as a result of some heavy-duty rocking out — and we all know those ‘mishaps’ that occur from heavy-rocking-out rockstars! So anyway, the living guy was probably the lead singer, and I could see him standing offside while waiting for his dead members to assemble (or re-assemble) themselves. Now the full band were all set on stage, and happily proceeded to rock their little hearts out. Oh wait…most of them didn’t have hearts — but they were having as much fun as dead people could possibly have! Now a scene in my dream where all of a sudden we are descending downward, downward, deeper, until we hit the pits of Hades. Yes, Hell. It’s where most rockstars go anyway, right?!? We see rows upon rows of beds (think Pink Floyd’s Momentary Lapse of Reason), and upon each bed a gruesome skeleton. The catch: the boys were apparently in some kind of limbo and had better hurry up and finish the show or else they would be forced to remain on the earth as living zombies!!

Dream Diary # 3 – Speeding on the Highway Without a Car

This is short and sweet. Here I was zipping, zipping oh-so-fast on a crazy twisting, turning highway at night in a busy city. But where was my car?!? I was crouching and zipping with my legs and arms, feeling kinda like Mario Cart on that bastard level, Rainbow Road!

Dream Diary #2 – The Paint Crayon: What a Cool Invention!

DREAMDATE: May 13, 2008

I was visiting my sister Jane who had just moved into a fancy new suburb in Edmonton. The houses were close together and of grandiose design – brick exterior and almost castle-like on the outside with huge square doors, but smaller and cozy on the inside. There were a few people around before Jane got home from work, and we went outside to hang out. Somehow I got my hands on a neat little crayon, if perhaps I felt a bit artistic. But it wasn’t an ordinary crayon, and in fact it wasn’t even little. It was a large, thick thing about the size of a frankfurter and it was bright neon orange! Vandalously enough, I decided to go across the road and try it out on a neighbour’s lower veranda!  This crayon was probably not made of wax. When it hits the surface of the brick, it melts into a paint-like substance and writes very glossy and clean. But it was not messy to hold. I proceeded to write my name and draw a few squiggles, then wrote something about Jane being awesome. But quickly realized I might get into trouble for vandalizing so I wore down that paint crayon by scribbling over everything!

Dream Diary # 1 – Parts 1 & 2

DREAMDATE: Sunday morning, April 13, 2008

Part 1

The first part of my dream that I remember, I was in a big house. Actually it was not necessarily huge, but it was old. It had the old style mouldings and walls – no flat gyprock or no nice trims around the doors. The walls and doors were like it had been painted over several times. They were a pristine white..but kinda cruddy and bumpy. Kind of like my radiators in my apartment. (Link to reality?) Anyway, I was there with Paul and I was unwashed and no makeup, or at least barely little. (Another link to reality!) My intention was to go up and promptly take care of that — until there was a knock at the door and some friends came to visit. Akk! No one is supposed to see me like this! But they did. It was a couple guys and a couple girls. I’m not sure of names or faces because I tried to avoid much conversation and quickly left to go upstairs. Now, the bathroom to this place was kinda strange. It was a big bathroom, with a big tub. Weirdly enough, the tub was already filled with water – but not my water! There was another door besides the main door. I decided to check it out. Oh cool – on the other side of the door was a bedroom. It had a twin or double bed, and a baby crib. Nicely decorated place, with a blue color scheme. No one to be seen. Now another door on an adjoining wall. I can’t quite remember now but I think it was another bathroom, but without a tub. Or it could have been some kind of pantry. I went back through the rooms to get to the bathroom again, and closed the secondary door behind me. Did I lock it? Not sure. I undressed to get in the tub and was about to step in. All of a sudden I hear a rattling at the door. I leap to lock the door to prevent the intruder from coming in. Too late. It was an old man. I gasp and grab for my fluffy blue towel. But alas, I had already been violated. Not sure if I minded been seeing naked by a stranger……except he was a creepy looking man!

Part 2

Totally separate story, no relation to the first. The earliest part I remember was playing video games with my cousin Stacy. I’m pretty sure it was a Nintendo Gamecube, but I don’t know what game. If I really think hard about it, I might remember a house and many more details too. There’s a vague recollection in my mind as I write this, of a big fancy house, lots of wine, and a business woman with an intention. Perhaps that would have been Part 2, and we shall call this part 3. So back to the video games — it seems now we were in a car. My car. Little black Mazda. On the right passenger side we sat, but it seems there was no seat. Stacy was ahead of me, and I was in the back about to start a game. The atmosphere suddenly turned eery. I looked down the street to my left. It was very windy. There were trees that were blowing uncontrollably in the wind. A few moments later, I looked up the street to my right. It was now extremely windy. There was a huge, thick tree that suddenly started warping from the wind. In what seemed like only a few seconds this tree monster bent and twisted and then snapped! and flew down the road towards us. I shouted to Stacy to look out! The tree slammed into my side passenger door and I was sure there would be a huge dent in my car (however not as huge as it would be in real life – I probably would have been dead or severely hurt from a tree of that size and hurricane force winds!) After the wind died down, I stepped outside to survey the damage. Oh this was weird – why is my car ‘inside-out’? Expecting my shiny black exterior to have a nice dent or scratch on the side, instead I saw my grey padded material right around the car! No dent to be seen though!