The last few nights I’ve been dreaming of homes that weren’t mine and have never seen before; and yet when I’m dreaming I strongly feel an attachment to them and want to move in, even if they turn out to be someone else’s home. But in this dream (as well as another one) there are three square-shaped homes built close together on top of a hill. And I’m somehow aware that not all three homes are inhabited. I feel happy because the one that I like hasn’t been bought yet, and I can possibly live there.
Then I’m at this Barnes and Noble type bookstore that I’ve been put in charge of. It’s large and spacious, and I’m walking alongside the company president, who is dressed in a very expensive suit. He’s throwing out all these sales and marketing projections and using terms I’m not familiar with. I do research them though.
I’m feel flying by the seat of my pants; but instead of thinking I’m unprepared for this position and am way over my head, this doesn’t feel like one of those dreams where I’m in school and unprepared for a test. Instead, because this position just sort of fell in my lap, I have this feeling like, “Hey, let’s just see where this goes.” This guy has all this faith in me because he believes my outside-the-box perspective will mean more sales. He’s even bought me new clothes. I go out in the parking lot and stomp on rain puddles. I walk back towards the store. The boss and another person are standing outside on the sidewalk. I notice my shirt is splattered with dirty puddle water, but I just shrug it off.
Then I’m in a car driving with Charlie Crews from the tv show Life as well as a woman I believe is his partner. We’re driving around Monument Circle in Indianapolis at night. Crews is in one of his zen reflective moments and going on and on about what makes paper so special and what it would be like to be surrounded by fresh paper all day. We pass a Barnes and Noble. I mention how I once ran a bookstore and start talking excitedly about the smell of newly printed pages. Joining Crews in his excitement about the subject of paper irritates his partner. I still don’t recognize the partner, but I’m so excited about being in an episode of Life.
We’re on top of this skyscraper with an amazing panoramic view of the city. We’re there to question a nefarious eastern European couple concerning their whereabouts during a murder. We have to make it through their bodyguards though. And we do after some back and forth. We turn the corner and the couple is throwing what seems like a party.
But the couple informs us that they are observing an acting class lead by a black woman that’s supposed to be this very famous acting teacher. She conducts an acting exercise aimed at breaking down inhibitions. Everyone in class is supposed to embody a wild animal.
She starts shrieking and lunging around, flailing her arms about. Other students, who are also black, do likewise and soon are worked into a frenzy–except for one female student, who sits by a potted tree and tries reading a book. She’s clearly irritated. When asked, she says she thinks the exercise is demeaning and enforces negative stereotypes set by Hollywood.
The exercise goes on and the teacher gets closer and closer to the student. And just when it seems something might happen, it does. The teacher attacks the student like a predatory animal, clawing at her with a berserk strength. The detectives tackle her. Once she is subdued, a little boy appears and identifies her as the “noisy monster” who killed his mother.
At first, it seems the teacher’s motivation for attacking the uncooperative student was because she wouldn’t participate in the exercise. Then it seems the acting teacher just made up the acting exercise as a cover to attack the student. But then it’s revealed the acting teacher committed murder because in her mind it made her performance as a wild animal more authentic and allowed her to fully embody the character.
Looking back, my mind was probably thinking about alternative motives for the murder mystery, but in my dream it seemed like I was really solving this crime and discovering the killer’s true motive.
There was also a question about the nefarious couple who had been suspects, and if they had intentionally thrown this party so as to expose the true killer. Then as the drama was winding down and the murderer led away, a voice that sounded like a DVD commentary announced that this would have been Life, Episode 4.21. When I woke up I was sad because I so would have liked Life to have lasted four seasons.
I took this picture while walking around the demolition site of 4 Riverplace. 

Lately I’ve had a problem with squirrels raiding my strawberry patch.

With the movie poster’s school-notebook title font and pregnancy-centered storyline, it might seem like Away We Go is a deliberate attempt to cash in on Juno’s box office success. Yet this grown-up comedy starring Maya Rudolph and John Krasinski has a sweet charm all its own and could become another indie sleeper hit. It’s already my favorite film of the year.