Dream: Waitress with Pie

I dreamed I was driving on the east side of town, past a row of renovated businesses that I’d never seen before.  I think about stopping in one day and checking out this area, especially this cafe I spot.  Then I’m walking into that cafe, and immediately this black waitress starts calling me by my name.  She offers me pie.  She’s so happy to see me.

However, I have trouble remembering her first name, which is a problem I have in real life.  I’m terrible with first names.  But I know we attended school together.

I really want to know her name because she’s so pretty.  She wears a pink uniform with a little pink hat.  Her hair is shoulder length and  there’s something about her smile.  Also, for some reason I keep noticing her arms and how dark and smooth they are.

Eventually, her name comes to me: Veronica.  I tell her I stopped in because my new job involves working outside the office.  In fact, the person I work for needs an accountant.  Because I know she’s an accounting major perhaps she could apply for the position and mention my name as a reference.  We talk some more, and eventually I wake up.   I hope this dream is more prophetic than symbolic.  I’d really like to meet someone like Veronica.

Dream: Won’t Treat a Worm Like a Wick

I dreamed I was in what looked like an old abandoned factory.  I’m pouring gasoline on the floor of this large room.   The floor is covered with a least an inch or two of gasoline.  I can see the ripples in this large, shallow puddle.  I want to cause an explosion to escape the bad guys pursuing me.

All I need is to ignite something that I can toss into the room from a safe distance.  I look on the ground for something, but all I can find is an earthworm.  For some reason–perhaps dream logic–I think an earthworm will light up like a wick or paper.  I flick on my lighter, but I don’t want to burn this innocent worm.  I search for some other material or object.  Eventually, I give up and hope the people chasing me are smoking or somehow create a spark that causes the gasoline to explode.

I continue on through the factory, trying to make my escape.  It’s very dark., but I see the trio of men pursuing me because they have flashlights and laser scopes on their rifles.  Suddenly, I hear a narrator’s voice describing my actions.  I come across this ladder and equipment blocking my way, and the narrator says, “Then, just as he was about to make a clean getaway, he knocks down the ladder and alerts the gang to his whereabouts.”

I think, “Well, I had better be really careful getting around this ladder.”   But as cautious as I try to be,  my leg still gets snagged, causing the ladder to fall on me and make this clattering racket.  I get up and take off running with the bad guys close behind me.

My Urban Garden 11-22-09: Clematis in November

I was raking leaves this evening when I noticed that my clematis was still blooming.  I also noticed blossoms in my strawberry patch. 

Usually, at this time of year, my goldfish barely want to eat, even on warm days.  A few of the larger ones might nibble on a pellet or two.  All a part of getting ready for winter.  But these last two weeks they’ve been gobbling down food as if it’s still summer.

It doesn’t do much good to put too much faith in Ohio weather; but I am hoping for a mild winter.

 

Smokin’ Keepsake Bingo Hot

Today, I ended up solving someone’s website email problem.   Good thing too because the day before I had actually made the problem worse.  But they never found out, so I just call it a private learning experience.

This evening I attended a Hallmark club meeting where I mopped up playing Keepsake bingo.  I had an insanely good card.  I even called double bingo when I got a diagonal and a vertical row filled at the same time.  In all, I won a certificate for a free year’s membership, a lighted gingerbread house that plays “The Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairies” and so many coupons I ended up giving four away to the people at my table.

Dream: Rolling a Ball

I dreamed I was driving on I-75 through downtown.   But then I was still on the interstate, but I was on foot rolling this large blue exercise ball.  It was snowing.  I remember a group of kids came up to the interstate to watch me push the ball, and I took some of the snow that was coating it and tossed some in their direction.

Then I was on a bridge with the ball.  I saw a group of people below (perhaps a family).  I was trying to teach a baby how to stand up and balance on top of the ball.

Dream: Bookstores and Murderous Acting Classes

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.

“If you have my gun, can I have it back?”

I made good use of the pleasant fall weather this afternoon and worked on clearing  my front garden and getting it ready for winter.    As I was piling leaves and stems into my wheelbarrow, a guy walked up my driveway.  He told me how his friend had tossed something in my yard because he thought he’d be stopped by the police.  They’d come by my house earlier and knocked on my door as well as my neighbor’s looking to find what the friend had tossed.  But I guess they couldn’t find it.

I told him I’d been clearing the garden and hadn’t come across anything.  What was this “something” that had been tossed in my yard?  It turns out it was a gun.

I suggested maybe the police saw the friend ditch it and they have it?  No, it seems the gun was ditched before the police got to the friend.

All I could say was that I’d cleared my garden and hadn’t come across anything.  Of course, I hadn’t gone around my barberry bushes.  I said he could look around them if he wanted, but there were thorns, so he should be careful.

He walked away.  This happened a few hours ago, and I’m wondering if there really was a friend.  Did the guy think because he couldnt find the gun that maybe I had it?  If so, did he expect me to pull the gun out of my pocket and just hand it over to him.  Sure, let me hand over this loaded gun to you, Mr. Complete Stranger.

Dreams: Missed Keys and Chases

I dreamed about an ostracized woman involved in a small town scandal.  She wants to return to her church and play the organ again.  But this stern woman in charge of the church tells her that she’ll have to prove she’s truly sincere by playing a particular song.  It’s sort of test.  Only someone who is sorry for what they’ve done can play this song without making a mistake.

The woman plays, but she misses the keys.  But here’s the thing: the woman isn’t trying to play the song the other woman told her to, but one she thinks is appropriate.  This is all about the woman wanting to be heard and understood for who she really is.

Then the dream changes and it’s like I’m watching a cat-and-mouse thriller involving high tech gadgets and chases through hallways and stairways in order to capture a criminal mastermind.

The River Flows South (Just Like Downtown Progress)

Got up this chilly morning and went downtown for the Greater Dayton Downtown Area Plan Update.

I believe in downtown. I believe the city and region need a dynamic center if the Miami Valley is going to succeed and prosper again.

But, seriously, wake me up a year from now. After the interstate, bridge and other infrastructure projects are completed or near completion.

I’ve attended three townhall meetings and two Urban Nights this year and have seen these same conceptual drawings.

I get it. We’re sitting atop a huge water source; need to attract young professionals; green buildings and sustainability; renovate historic buildings; bike-ability; walkability; and all the other abilities that will make downtown (and I’m getting tired of the over use of this word) vibrant.

All hail the urban playground that will come!!! May its many amenities be sufficiently pleasing for members of the beloved creative class to migrate here and deliver us all unto greater prosperity! Amen.

But you have to build it first. Everyone is anticipating great things, but this seems so premature, like looking at blueprints and already planning the menu for the first house party.

I would’ve been okay with this as a little progress update or a brief detour on my way to Second Street Market if this had focused solely on downtown. But when the attendees broke off into little discussion groups, I listened to a city planner go over a large map with a colored highlights marking areas of renovation and future interest. Fine. But what bothered me was how far south the city planners’ vision extended while highlights west and north of downtown were confined to just along the river.

True, building accessibility between the University of Dayton campus and downtown would be important. Yet all the south end neighborhoods in between were highlighted as well; and the city planner started using a marker to detail additional projects that were all slated for-you guessed it-south of downtown.

And as a north-of-downtown resident I felt excluded…again. For years I’ve been hearing about plans for improving downtown and the surrounding areas, but the greater percentage of them all seem concentrated south of 3rd Street. I would’ve felt better if the map included highlights of all the park land and bike paths stretching north along the river and all the way up to Triangle Park.

After all, green spaces are supposed to be an important part of the downtown vision and it does run along the river. Also, considering all the infrastructure projects west and north of downtown targeting improved traffic flow, I was looking for an indication what positive impact this might have on major streets such as Salem Avenue, North Main Street and Riverside Drive; and how far north might it spread.

So I voiced my lack of enthusiasm. Then I went back and forth with the city planner who kept insisting there were plans for northside neighborhoods like Five Oaks and Santa Clara on another map. And then he tried throwing the argument back on me by asking what have I done to improve my neighborhood.

I’m already aware that a great percentage of the scheduled vacant property demolition slated in northside neighborhoods hasn’t started yet. Nor do I expect revitalization to spread uniformly in all directions. But after our discussion, my impression is that the city planners haven’t put much thought into North Main Street beyond the interstate project.

Perhaps the northside is seen as a little too ghetto to be included in the yuppified playground of a new downtown and will remain a casualty of a shrinking population until companies locate here and new residents look for cheap real estate.

I had a little better time at the table discussing downtown’s green future and efficiency projects. My suggestion that landscaping from many of these soon-to- be demolished properties be salvaged and reused in the dozens of proposed parks and public gardens gained a favorable response. (Well, except for this one woman who followed me from the other table and didn’t seem pleased with how I had spoken to the city planner.) There are many fully grown boxwood, barberry and other bushes and shrubs that would each cost well over fifty dollars apiece at a garden center. Why let all those healthy plants get crushed and ground up by bulldozers?  The same equipment that tears through brick walls and beams could easily scoop out a large bush or shrub and set it aside for transplanting elsewhere.

But I’m tired of talking. Just build it already. Then we’ll talk.

The Caterpillar that Ate Dayton!

I took this picture while walking around the demolition site of 4 Riverplace.  

Surrounded by piles of debris, the awning sort of looks like a giant caterpillar from an old Japanese monster movie.

The Caterpillar that Ate Dayton!  I would so see that movie.