Black and White Birthday, with Zombie

I was out looking at critters in a pet store, and there were several of my friends with me. We left without me buying anything, as I was concerned about the pool in the back yard (the fish were taking over) and the zombie in the basement. I really didn't have room for pets, and hoped against hope that they weren't thinking of getting me a new pet, as I was having trouble keeping up with the koi in the garden pool. The house wasn't ready for a party either, every horizontal surface was filled up with Lego based game prototypes that needed to be broken down and stored away. After photographing them, I figured, I checked my phone, over 8Gb of memory left, so no problem there. I slipped out of the store and headed home ahead of the crowd, they said they were going to stop somewhere for lunch. I cleared out all the Lego constructs surrounding the pool so that my birthday friends could use the pool area if they wanted. I kept dropping pieces off of the contructs into the pool. I tried fishing out the Lego pieces I'd dropped - a bunch of 1x1 round and cone-shaped bricks in long antennae-like chains, mostly yellow and light blue. (Everything else in the dream seemed to be black and white, mostly.) The fish (Beautiful black spots on white koi) in the pool kept hitting the chains of bricks, knocking them even further apart. After dropping an entire space shuttle model and watching it carreen down the stairs into the basement, bouncing and knocking bits off as it tumbled from step to step. I decided to head down there and deal with the basement zombie so that my guests would have some place to gather. The zombie, wearing a black and white checked clown outfit, would stop attacking if someone agreed to play a card game with him. It was a collectable cardgame sort of thing, and he had the two decks already made up. As long as thew game was in progress, the zombie wouldn't bother anyone. If you lost your game against the zombie, he would eat you, of course. I started the game, then left to finish cleaning up the dropped Legos. As I was taking the Legos back upstairs to my room, I was a little worried about leaving the game table after my turn, but figured the zombie would just have to wait. I heard the house manager saying my guests were arriving and they offered to usher them into my room - which I knew was way to small for everyone. I explained the issue, and as I came back from dumping a few pounds of Legos in various states of contruction, or destruction, into my room, I realized I wasn't even going to have room for me in there. I could only barely make out the fact that I had a black an white checked bedspread and pillow shams. The zebra patterned rug on the floor was barely visible between the desk, printer stand, office chair, file cabinets, book cases, piles of Lego and paper models and my bed. I sighed, wondering how it had gotten all so crowded. I shouted down to the house manager to ask my guests to wait in the frontroom until I could get the fish out of the pond and the Zombie settled. I was a bit worried about the zombie, as I was pretty sure he cheated. I found a couple of decks I'd made up myself many years ago and decided to bring them down. Maybe we could get him to play a four-hand game and that way he couldn't cheat by rearranging my deck. A part of my brain realized that the Zombie had picked the cards for the second player'd deck, so probably didn't even need to rearrange the draw pile. Heading back down the stairs, I discovered that my friends had brought me two black and white kittens from the pet store, they were adorable, and friendly. Also, a black and white puppy (looked like an English Bulldog, too cute) two guinea pigs (also black and white in their little white cage with a black exercise wheel) and a small very musical voiced black and white bird. I protested that I not only didn't have enough room for all of them, but I had no kitty litter, training pads, cat, dog, rodent or bird food for them either. They didn't seem to care about that, and started taking the cages downstairs into the basement. I hoped the zombie was fully engrossed in our game and wouldn't be a problem. The uncaged critters stayed in the front room, playing on the black futon. The little black and white bird fluttered up to my shoulder and sang a cute little song in my ear as I went down to face the zombie, and all of my guests, not sure which I was more frightened of at that point.

All Singing and Dancing, Science Fiction, Future-Fantasy, Seven Escape-Room Extravaganza!

Starting with a sliding ice puzzle and winding its song and dance routine way through; star crossed romance, rescues, tentacled maidens, mafia weddings with choreographed bridal deflowering, lost purses, exes showing off their reconstructive breast surgeries, and, in general no foot, hand or chest pains. What an exhilerating and eshausting morning.

Fever Dreams with Robots and...

The fever dream started like any other dream, a nice normal seeming classroom of ten year olds taking my "Robotic Programming" class. I was working a two hour a day shift at a private elementary school, teaching the very fun class with robots and then supervising the playground in the afterschool hour while waiting for parents to come get their students. All in all a very good gig. It was paying the bills while I used my pension to make board games. It was one of those classes where I had as many parents in the room helping as I had kids.

One afternoon, as the classroom began to empty out, the Principal arrived to tell me that they were cutting the class. I pointed to the parents still straightening up the room and kids still excitedly reviewing what they'd accomplished. I didn't understand the decision. She reassured me it didn't have anything to do with my teaching or my class, it was that the board had decided to purchase a new turnkey curriculum and my course couldn't be fit into the new system. She handed me an envelope with my current pay and two weeks extra. I said thank you, but pointed out that I had a contract for the full school year that would have to be bought out. "Unless we can find you another position, which we're trying to do."

I was still mighty unhappy about the situation, but resolved to deal with it another day. I stuffed my anger down and went back to helping clear out my classroom. One of the moms was a labor attorney, she handed me her business card, "just in case you decide you need me." I thanked her and went out into the playground to fulfill my after school supervision. Kids eventually got picked up. Several of the other teachers had stayed behind and we all went into the school, having to duck between the movers who were packing up everyone's classroom in neatly labeled boxes, even taking apart the school's furniture. We watched in disbelief as box after box with our class names on them went out of the building to be loaded up on big trucks. The Principal arrived to let us know that the board had agreed to let us teachers go through the materials from our classrooms to keep what was ours and any thing else they weren't using before it was all sold at auction. A couple of my colleagues were shouting and upset that the movers were packing up their private stuff, including one who's purse and car keys (thus her way home) had already been packed. We managed to intercept the box from her room before it got put on the truck and rescued her personal belongings. I went to my room and grabbed my hat and coat as well as my computer bag, figuring I had the time to go get anything else later.

Saddened by the state of things, I asked why the Board hadn't retrained their current staff, and she started to tell me that there was no robotics... I cut her off, and asked about all of the basic education teachers, some who'd been at the school for decades, weren't re-trained.

"That doesn't concern you."

I put on my coat and hat and stepped out into the stormy afternoon. The weather had changed to match my mood, dark threatening clouds, hints of thunder in the distance, the thick smell of pent up rain. I walked out into the public park.

A row of Thundermen appeared and gathered in front of me, grey fedoras, beige trench-coats, black shoes with wide white spats, immaculately tied ties over white shirts. They stopped my progress. They lined up behind the leader, and a row of apparently meaningful gestures began to form behind him. While I couldn't make out what they were trying to signal I mimicked the gestures as best I could. My Beige trench-coat and fedora (green instead of grey) seemed to confuse them a bit. Finally, after exchanging some pleasantries, and commenting on the delightful lightning and thunder that had begun in the sky behind the school, the leader of the thundermen told me I could be locked in the bathroom until the storm passed, or I could re-enter the school through J-3. I had no desire to be locked in the public restrooms, so entered the classroom, which was still having its desks assembled, oddly, in the desks that were already put together, there were students, or some sort of simulacra of students already seated and working on their lessons. I had a very uneasy feeling, the teacher looked up from her planner and I apologized for the interruption, moving through the room into the schools central hallway. There I ran across the Principal who was beaming at how efficient and trouble free it was all going to be. I started to worry about what was going to happen to all of our students. Were they being replaced, too?

I made my way through the faculty room, and out onto the little patio that faced the open hillside behind the school. Lightning filled the sky, thunder rolled across the valley and shook the windows of the school, I could hear them rattling all down the length of the building. I looked out to see the fluffy pink bunnies and leaping unicorns lightning struck and suddenly come to life. The plastic cavorting turned into the real thing, accompanied by a tinkling and high pitched whistling music, they danced under the darkening sky until they seemed as one, to notice me watching. They lined up facing me, much in the same way as the lightning men. I started to make the same gestures and then stopped myself, speaking directly to the head unicorn instead.

She blinked. Obviously not expecting me to actually try to interact with them. At first she seemed to think I was a Thunder man, and wanted to run me through, but I somehow managed, by taking my hat off and bowing, I think, to convince her that I was just a former teacher who'd been replaced. This saddened her and she raced away, leaving me to watch her fluffy bunny and unicorn minions cavort to unearthly music. Eventually she returned, accompanied by a large pink and white dragon. The dragon had to be as big as the school she surveyed from end to end with a single sweep of her long neck. She settled over the hill and curled around her bunnies and unicorns, shielding them with one giant wing. She began to shoot the unicorn who'd spoken with me, jolt after jolt of pink lightning.

"Stop" I shouted. "She hasn't done anything wrong!"

"You live, Thunder man, that is not to be tolerated, I will get to you in a moment."

I don't know where the courage to do so came from but I stepped in front of the unicorn, letting my wet trench coat drag the lightning to the ground. I felt the tingle on my feet, but though painful, it wasn't in any way debilitating.

"If you kill her, how will she learn and become an even better leader for you?"

The dragon stopped mid breath. Her great head lowered down to my own, her eyes, as large as myself, took turns looking at me. I felt like I'd been put in a giant MRI or CAT scan machine.

"You are not a Thunder man."

"Thanks, I think."

With that she picked me up and flung me high in the air over the hill and above the clouds. I don't know how every bone in my body wasn't broken by ahd acceleration. I found myself cresting the top of my arc in the clear sky overlooking a vast ocean and a road, suspended in the air. There were small figures, moving, single file along the road as I flashed overhead. A rope was tossed to me and I managed to grab it as I dipped below the road. I crammed my hat on my head, and held on with both hands as the rope curved my fall into a pendulum swing just below the roadway. I pumped and at the crest of the next swing back, managed to grab the hands that were being offered down below the road edge. The large scaled arm pulled be up past the road and let me down on my feet.

It was an assortment of characters, I think from my own gaming past. The large spear toting Lizard Man, a pair of spindly hobbits in all black kit, and an elf of surprising beauty with two longswords on his (her?) hips. The only one I didn't recognize was a nearly topless scaled woman with short curled horns and long nails. Like the Lizard Man, she had a long tail, whip-like rather than trunk-like. They greeted me and one of the hobbits asked if I was a Thunder Man. The Lizard and Demon Girl looked like they were ready to throw me back off the skyway.

"No" was all I could manage to croak. I checked my bag, somehow it hadn't dumped anything. I took off my hat and bowed, that seemed to convince them. I surmised at that point that the hat was part of a thunder man, so they couldn't do that.

"Where are we going?"

"To the other end of the road!" chimed in the hobbit twins, getting disgruntled looks from their companions.

The elf spoke, explaining that they were on a quest and had traveled on the skyway for the better part of two days. They believed they were much closer to their destination than their beginning, which was, though civilization, nothing the matched what I knew. Plus I only had a muffin and a half bottle of water in my back, so didn't fancy going that way until I could replenish my supplies. The Hobbits were the only two in favor of letting me travel with them, but somehow they managed to convince the demon girl after the two women had a hurried conversation out of earshot of the rest of the group. They resumed travelling, single file, except for the hobbits who trotted ahead of the group hand in hand.

"They are a cute couple," I volunteered, trying to make conversation.

"They're twins." The Lizard man grunted, shouldered his spear and leaned forward to pull away from me. The elf had dropped back far behind us and only the demon girl stayed close enough to converse with until we met the end of the road.

I had to explain that I wasn't flying but falling, as I'd been thrown by the pink and white dragon. The hobbits looked at the elf and said "your prayer must have worked!"

"I doubt that." The Elf had barely spoken to me the whole trip, he seemed to have something against me from the very start, but never revealed what he was thinking or feeling.

It had been much easier to befriend the Lizard man, I taught him tic-tac-toe, and despite there not actually being toes in the game, he was quite taken by it.

The Hobbits seemed to love everyone equally, and the Demon Girl, seemed to be practicing sultry on the Elf, and not succeeding, ignoring the Lizard Man, who seemed all too interested. I had the impression that there was some history there best left lie. She would at least converse with me, explaining her own world and listening intently to tales of my own "crushingly boring" world, which the hobbits seemed to enjoy.

We sat at the end of the road, obviously not what any of us were expecting. I noticed that there was a large blue square with writing in it, but I couldn't make it out from where we were.

Soon I found myself being lowered on the end of the rope. "Press to Call" was what the writing said. I asked them to pull me up and we looked around, but didn't find a button like it in the covered bridge area, at least, not on the side we were on. One of the hobbits took the rope and tied it around her waist. The Lizard man tossed her over to the other side. She landed with a giggle, and found the button, but it had been smashed in and wasn't working. They hauled her back over, and I thought of an idea.

The rope wasn't long enough for me to swing over to the skyway support column, though. I then thought of another idea. We filled up my water bottle and unraveled the knitted border of my sweater to lower it towards the button, again not long enough, until they lowered me on the rope. The bottle landed on the four foot square button, and the elevator shot towards me. the team started pulling me up, but I still slammed into the platform. The bottle rolled off the button and the elevator slowed to a stop and began to fall. I managed to recover enough to pull the bottle back up and roll over to the button. Whoosh, the elevator slowed and then accelerated skyward.

It took a few tests to figure out how to raise and lower the platform smoothly enough not to launch me into the ceiling, or more importantly to land at less than terminal velocity. Apparently whatever controls were supposed to be in operation were no longer working. I drove the platform up to the team and they let me fly them back to the ground. The elf looked greener than usual after the trip down, but the hobbits wanted to stay and see how fast they could make the elevator go back up. As we left One of the hobbits had put a rock on the button I turned in time to see the elevator platform crash through the roof of the bridge structure at the top of the skyway, and then come fluttering, obviously no longer under control back to the ground. We all ran out of the range of the falling debris. When the Elf started to chastise the hobbits they just pointed at each other.

Somehow they convinced me to come with them rather than build a hundred foot ladder to climb back to the roadway. (Even though I was pretty sure the roadway didn't lead back to where I needed to go, I felt it was at least closer to home.) There was a short barrage of other travel stuff. Something to do with a big blue glowy thing, and a pretty wild celebration party that ended with an acrobatic naked tangled celebration between the Demon Girl, Hobbit Girl and myself. The team asked the pink dragon to send me home. Good thing I hadn't tried going back by the skyway.

There was a knock on the door. The police were looking for me, as I had gone missing. I explained that I had been playing a video game the whole time, and was right here. They looked dubious. I noticed the figures on the screen were the Lizard Man, Demon Girl, Elf and Hobbit Twins with a Long Coated stranger in a Green flat brimmed hat. They were waving good-bye as the stranger headed into a pink and white portal and the rest of the team, escorting a wagon with a strange blue glow coming from under a tarp, headed into town, they turned and waved, not at the portal, but at the screen. I was at my computer, but dressed in the clothing I'd been wearing since my "disappearance" including an adventure's worth of wear and tear. Not to mention a bag of gold coins and semi-precious stones that I might have some difficulty explaining.

Surprise House Party

While I was sleeping, the house decided to throw a party. I woke up to thumping music out in the back yard, the sounds of running and giggling, a door chime, and the smell of BBQ wafting into my office. I had been working about thirty six hours straight, then had fallen asleep in my task chair. Except for bathroom trips and to get food, I hadn't been out of the office for several days. I had some sort of deadline I was racing to make, and had lost one of my illustrators, so was trying frantically to color correct everything for printing. the job was done, and I had fallen into a coma like sleep for a period of time I wasn't sure of, all my muscles hurt. I really needed to swim, but didn't have a suit that fit. I made my way through the surging crowd of party goers, only a few of whom I recognized. It didn't take long for me to decide that the party atmosphere had lasted long enough for me, it didn't help that I was dressed in a pair of pajama bottoms missing the fly button and an old holey T-shirt, neither of which had been changed for at least four days. I went back to my office, but the house had locked the door. When I tried to override the lockout the house said "You need to socialize," and that I would not be allowed to hide in my office until after I did so.

I made my way to the master bedroom, which was also full of party goers, who had overflowed even into the master bathroom. I reached in and grabbed a towel. I shrugged. "Okay, house, if that's the way you want it."

"What are you thinking?"

"I feel like swimming."

"Okay, shall I turn up the pool heat for our guests, the hot tub is already hot."

"That won't be necessary." I like my pool a little bit cooler, and the last thing I wanted to do was warm it up and make it more inviting.

I noticed that there were already a half dozen folks in the hot tub, and only a couple in the pool. They looked like they had gotten too warm and had jumped in to cool off before returning to the hot tub. I waited for them to climb over the wall into the hot tub so I would have the pool all to myself. I dropped my towel and pajama bottoms over a shaded (and thus empty) pool chair, then strode naked to the deep end of the pool. A couple of people came up to me to ask me to put something on, I didn't recognize them, so just pointed to the "Swimsuits or Nothing" sign, and said, "It's my home, my rules." One of them hurried off to go gather his children and leave. I smiled, waved at my friends in the hot tub and dove into the pool.

The house whispered to me through the pool speakers, "that wasn't nice."

I stayed under the water, kicking off the walls and gliding through the cool waters, enjoying the relief the cold water provided from my hand and foot inflammation. When I'd been down for a couple of minutes, several of the women in the hot tub had entered the pool to see if I needed help. I swam over to them and they dove down to greet me, saw my "condition" and turned and broke for the surface. I surfaced between them and mounted the stairs to make my way to the hot tub. A small pink and yellow swimsuit top plopped into the water next to me. My young friend M was below me on the stairs stepping out of her bikini bottoms. Only a couple of people stayed in the hot tub with us. I decided I liked the party after all.

Warehouse Home

I dreamed J and I had moved into the city. We were living on the second and third floor of a converted warehouse building. Inside the bottom floor, were two locked areas, one with N's old furniture and one with J's antique collection (at least, the stuff that wasn't being used in our home.) N came to visit on a day that we were having a huge party, she wanted to get some of her stuff out of storage. After deciding what things she was going to take and what she wanted tossed, we made our way back into the home. There was a stained glass door between the sitting room and the formal dining room, off one end of the dining room was another sitting room, this one with stairs up to the more private parts of the house, and two doors to the kitchen and a long front facing set of old offices now converted into various library and sitting rooms. There were stairs at the end (a spiral staircase) that went up to the loft area. We ended up chatting in the loft room, overlooking the road and the deli/butcher shop across the street. The butcher was just stepping out of his shop, so I called out to him. Turns out he was from Chicago and was an old friend of N's. He didn't recognize her at first (she'd let her hair go completely white and the usual wrinkle based age differences.)

Elementary Independence Day Pageant

I had loaded six POE switches onto the back deck of my Little Red car and headed out to an elementary school to replace some of the older switches. (Putting in some new wireless and expanding the phone system as well.) When I got to the school, there was traffic control. I was directed away from the back parking lot, then told I had to wait until they had a white car and a blue car to go with me. They were having their Independence Day pageant, and wanted me to drive in their parade, because there was a shortage of red cars. I asked where the non red white and blue cars were parking, and the person indicated they were using the lot across the street. I didn't really want to lug six switches all the way across the street so decided to play along.

As I was waiting, two lines of moms went by, each in white with red stars halter tops,  blue and white striped shorts, and cork-bottomed platform clogs like the '70s. There were close to 150 of them, all with slender, nicely curved figures. Waiting suddenly did't seem like that bad of an idea. I wondered how they'd found so many good looking moms, but then remembered there were over 600 families at the school, so there were lots to pick from. There were a half dozen dads thrown in, they were in white shirts, red and blue suspenders and similar blue and white striped shorts. The dads weren't in platforms, but red and white boating shoes with one red sock and one blue sock. The men weren't uniformly attractive like the women.

We followed the parade into the main parking lot and were directed to park in our red, white, and blue order. I got out and opened up the hatch so I could carry in my switches. When I turned to head into the school, I noticed the people in costume were walking along a makeshift runway, constructed of boards and chairs, people had to step from chair to chair to make their way to the stage. I felt sorry for the women in their platform clogs, but it was quite the bouncy and shimmying spectacle. I waited for the procession to go into the school quad and then followed on with half my load of switches.

As I passed by the quad I noticed the principal trying to convince an older woman in a bright green and pink sari to move out of the front row - so that she could have people dressed in red white and blue sit there. I just shook my head, knowing that might not end well.

I swapped out the switches and decided to pop into the quad to see more of the patriotic display, the moms were waiving sparklers or pom-poms, dancing four to five on raised platforms around the quad. The principal was speaking on the center stage, and then a Sousa March started playing and the principal was marching through a number that culminated with her being lifted up by the six dads while simultaneously changing into a liberty hat and sparkling torch.

When I got back to the office I was telling J about the display with the older women and she mentioned that the principal and performers there were way out of our class, so likely wouldn't even have a second thought about asking grandma to move.

Stage

For some reason, the sound system controls were in the podium, on the stage. I presume the assumption was that the setup would be done once, and then no one would have to monitor the audio setup. That was probably true, if there was only one speaker.

I had to run the sound for a series of six speakers, however, and that meant I had to keep going out on stage to adjust the sound for each new person. I wondered why no one had invented an expert system to take over the sound board operator's job, it seemed like a perfect place for automation. After the speakers were done, there was a student group coming in to use the space. I stayed to help clear the stage in preparation for that event.

Unfortunately, one of the props from the previous presentation was a large safe. The people who'd placed the safe (with a forklift) were long gone. We tried lifting the safe with a half dozen burly men, but that wasn't particularly successful. I got the idea to use a couple of four by fours to use as levers to lift the safe and pivot it on one point at a time to move it upstage behind the curtain line so it was out of the way. A couple of the engineering students smacked their heads, wondering why they hadn't thought of that.

The students invited me to stay at their party, and I did for a bit, helping line up the comfy chairs for their presenters and then adjusting the sound for their music. As the crowd filed in, I noticed there were a lot of very affectionate couples, and that got me to missing J, so I excused myself and headed home.

On the way off the stage, I remembered the title of the dream from last week (which I told the folks at Pizza Night, then promptly forgot it.) "Destiny Dog."

Birthday Surprise

I dreamed it was my birthday. I was just about to graduate with my degree in, of all things, law. In this dream I was about twenty seven, and was trying to get a birthday date with a cute little blonde girl who I'd taken a fancy to. Unfortunately, she wasn't that interested in me (too old) so arranged to trade places with another woman.

I'm not sure how they thought I wouldn't notice.

The woman she was trading places with was someone I knew, but I hadn't known she had a pretty severe crush on me. She even dyed her hair blonde for the switch. As I arrived to pick up my date the room exploded into a surprise "masquerade" party, and my friends slipped a mask on me.

Despite the masks, I could pretty easily tell that the buxom blonde wasn't really the woman I had hoped to spend the evening with, but until the masks came off I didn't know who it was. We danced and had a couple of jello shots, and slipped out onto the balcony to talk for a bit. I had figured out that my original date had slipped out of the party early, so had decided to make the best of my evening with who I thought was a stranger. We went for a walk, as the noise and the crowd were obviously making her uncomfortable.

It was a delightful walk, and her mask had some sort of electronics in it that disguised her voice, giving her what I thought was a rather borg-like sound. We chuckled at that. 

The clock tower in the commons struck midnight. and we turned to one another to take off our masks. She made me promise not to get mad at her and the little friend, as I had hinted that I was well aware that they were not one and the same.

I was quite surprised, and delighted, when I discovered my friend under the mask. I wasn't sure I liked the blonde hair more than her original more maple colored hair, but her outfit did an amazing job of reining in her normal curves. She opened up her overalls and showed me that she was wrapped up in bandages from hip to underarm. 

"That can't be comfortable, can it?" I was wondering how she'd been able to breathe all night.

"I could use a hand getting out of it. Would you like to unwrap your birthday gift at my place or yours?"

"You don't have too... ah, my place." She lived with three room mates, one of whom was my original date. I didn't want that confrontation just yet, so offered an arm and led her back to my place.

As we walked back arm in arm, I realized that I did, in fact, want to unwrap this birthday gift.

On Location: Forested Plains

I was working on a movie, helping move set pieces and vehicles around. At one point the director asked several of us to step in as extras, as were were on location in a remote area, and he didn't want to wait for people to be bused in from several hundred miles away.

We shot a fairly large number of scenes, and the writer and director liked what they saw and wrote even more for us to do, telling us it might all end up on the cutting room floor, but since we were here...

Several days later, we were wrangling the vehicles and animals onto large rail cars to be taken back to the border, where we would load them on trucks for a short hop to the next set of trains. It was getting cold and everyone was looking forward to getting back to California. I wondered how I had gone from driving vehicles to leading cows and horses, and a bear around.

Time jumped ahead, and we were in a San Diego theater for the premier party, when we arrived, there were several dozen reporters gathered around the cast and director. S, G and I were about to go by when we were spotted and dragged into the cast photos. At first I wondered why, but then saw that the image that they were using to promote the film was from one of our location shots. There S and I were, me with an ax over my shoulder, offering a quilted jacket with the other hand, S with a chain saw and G sitting on a log opening up a  steaming steel thermos, the rest of the cast huddled around a small fire looking up at us. The blue light of the Canadian dawn cast very dramatic light across our features. The funny part of this was, I knew this was an non-acting production shot, we were actually in camp trying to get our cast warmed up on a very cold morning.

When they showed the movie, that scene was part of a very touching montage (as they had no actual audio to go with the story) and it blended into the film so nicely that we were the only ones who knew that it hadn't been shot for the film. The way the film was edited, they had to have used nearly every scene they shot with our hastily written dialogue and our ad-libs as well. When it was done, there were a ton of questions from the director; about whether or not there would be a follow up to tell the story of the three woodsmen.

It was not what I was expecting. The director turned to us and asked (in front of the reporters) if we might be up for a prequel.

I looked at S and G, then back at the main cast, who were all nodding and saying things like "go for it!"

One of the reporters, a little grey-haired woman, said "please, it would be so nice to see a film with people our ages, no offence to you youngsters." She smiled over at the very twenty something main cast of our film.

It was a little weird that we were getting more press activity than the main cast, and I was thinking that wasn't really a good sign for the film.

When they unveiled the giant movie poster. Our three pictures had been added to the cast's photos along the bottom of the image. The producer and a couple of lawyers rounded us up after the photo session at the end of the night and told us they were going to offer us a slightly improved contract, as we'd taken on a slightly larger role in the film after it was all said and done. The money was nice, it was a few thousand dollars each. The offer of a new contract with us in starring roles was the real surprise.

I really didn't want to wake up from this dream.

Druid Civilization Game

I dreamed that about a dozen couples had gotten together for a long gaming weekend in a secluded park area. There was one main cabin, with lofts and four full bedrooms, so a couple of couples would have to share the pull outs in front of the large fireplace in the sunken living room. We got ourselves settled in and I retrieved a card game. It was a civilization building game, that had a Celtic or Druid centric theme.

The goal of the game was to build a series of villages and then to link them up in a way that made them, as a whole, self sufficient. The world you played in was different every game, as there were cards that determined the layout of the world you had to settle. It was a competitive/cooperative game, as there were certain thresholds that needed to be met by all the players in order to survive the sorts of catastrophe's that might be pulled up out of the deck. We played a round, then everyone went outside to enjoy the woods and the various rocky hillsides nearby. As we were exploring the area, several of the people pointed out that the layout of the rocks and hills and cabin and little stand of woods was very much like our game. We decided to play a live action version of the game so broke up into teams of four. One team took the stand of woods near the house, another a nearby hill, and our team took the stand of rocks and the rocky caves in them about three hundred yards from the house and hills.

We used our cell phones to show the other teams the challenge cards, and ran back to the house to get new hands when needed. The first game went pretty well. So well we decided to do a second game, even though it was coming up on sunset. When everyone got back to the house, I collected up the cards to shuffle them up and redistribute them. I dropped them into one of my bags accidentally, and we started to gather them back up. Multiple hands in a tupperware tub at the bottom of a small bag made the process far more difficult than if I'd been allowed to do the task alone.

Sunset was rather faster than we anticipated, so we ended up working from flashlights. The cards had swollen up in the humid air, and the stack seemed to be nearly twice the size it was earlier. Fog started rolling in, and the group decided that we were hungry. I noted that there was a nice fire pit near the stand of rocks we'd taken as our village in the previous game, so we agreed to gather there and heat up dinner over an open fire. I decided that sitting around an open fire with greasy fingers wouldn't be good for a card game, so started packing the game up. The swollen cards wouldn't fit back in the box. I ended up taking my breakfast cereal out of its bag and using that to hold the box and all the extra cards. I agreed that we might need to find a different printer to make the next set of cards.

I remember next to nothing about the actual play of the game, other than the cards controlled resources, messengers, and challenges. The number of cards in your hand was based on the population of your village. In the live game, the players took the messenger and resource cards from group to group across the actual countryside. (Which is why we decided not to play after sunset.)

Moon Two of the Tetrad Disco Party.

Getting up for the second moon of the Tetrad allowed me to wake mid dream, something loud and raucous with lots of dancing folks and disco lights.

Unfortunately there wasn't any sort of plot, just the sweaty teen dance floor smell, that funky combo of sweat, deodorant, wood floor wax and rubber dance mats. Flailing arms and legs, slinky dresses and shiny jewelry, bell-bottom polyester pants. One cool thing, was when the alarm sounded, I stayed in the dream for a bit, and the conversations in the dream turned to the "Blood Moon" and why it was the cause for this celebration. I don't, of course, remember any of the specific details of the reasons for celebrating other than "reasons."

I did snooze a bit before getting up for work, but the dream was just one of those frustrating ones where I was reading something printed and was awake enough to realize that it didn't actually make any sense. That and the singing cat (which may well have been real, Ms Ember sings the "I'm a mighty hunter" song while she's putting all the cat toys away.)

Dream Lands Elevator

In the first dream I remembered (at least part of) my sister and I had been visiting the Dream City together (a first as far as I can remember.) We had a short companion, at first I thought my niece, who recently passed, but no, it was someone else. Nonetheless, I was feeling pretty melancholy about the resemblance. The three of us were at the base of the exit to reality, when I happened to notice that there was an elevator, a little bent but still sturdy looking. I looked up the seven hundred plus stairs, and then at the elevator and shrugged. Why not?

So we took the elevator up to the nearby ridge that separates the Dream Lands from Reality. We spoke for a bit and the short woman promised she'd be back later. We stepped out at the top of the ridge, after a long rickety ride that had me wondering if this had really been a good idea after all. When I crossed the threshold of the elevator I woke up.

[I re-arranged the cats. They had positioned themselves such that I was getting no benefit from the AC unit I'd moved from my office to the bedroom. It was blowing cold air on them, though, so they wanted to cuddle. ]


After I fell back to sleep I had a travelling dream. Little Red loaded to the gills with supplies like clothing, bedding, dry foods, water, RPG tools, etc. The short ash blonde woman was with me. "Told you I'd be back!" she bubbled at me. She was still very short, easily under four feet, slender but with curvy hips and calves, her hair was short, but feminine and her lips full. I couldn't really tell if her eyes were blue, green or hazel, they seemed to shift with the light. She had a pleasant voice, not as highly pitched as you might expect for her small size. It was a delightful trip, we ended up in Boulder Colorado for an Anime Convention, where we'd been invited to run an RPG (my gig) and talk on a couple of design panels (her gig.) We ended up at a pretty wild party, where there was an ever full fountain of soft drink punch - highly spiked.

My companion got a lot frisky and started up an "Anime Pose Recreation Game" where things started out innocently enough but the posses slowly got more and more provocative, and the clothing started to come off. Viewers voted on the points per pose on a completely made up scale ranging from one half for folks who chickened out up to a million when my companion stripped down to her boy shorts and sports bra. The last challenge that came our way was a pose from an "accidentally compromising" moment in an Anime that I can't now recall, it basically had us splayed out arms and legs akimbo with our crotches together. Another cool bazillion points from the onlookers, after I warned them this would be our last one, because if we did this I would "need to take her away now."

My companion's answer was, "woo hoo! See you all later!" I noticed that her nipples had become all sorts of perky under her grey and blue bra.

I knew I was deeply in love, or some four letter word starting with "l."

We probably would have gotten more points but we decided that it might not be a good idea to take my pants off, as my under shorts didn't look at all like gym shorts, which hers could sort of pass for. I don't even know what sort of prize we won from the party hosts, but I liked my personal prize for 'playing along' a lot better, I'm sure. (The dream, sadly, didn't go into that. The End: we were untangling ourselves and she was trying to cover my excitement, only making it worse, of course.)

Behind the Stadium, Party Crashers

Dreamed of making love on the green green grass behind the stadium.... She's a little fuller figured than the previous model, and her brown eyes were a little closer to the blue/green spectrum. In the dream it was pretty clear this was a short term thing, a one convention only deal, five days and four nights, as it were. I was pretty okay with that, as by the time she was completely satisfied, I was thinking anything longer term would give me a heart attack.

To write anything more would be a chapter from an erotic novel, haven't had a detailed wild dream like that in a while.

In the second dream of the night I was at a party when a red-haired woman in a backless dress arrived. She was beautiful in the "there's my dream woman" sort of way, but wrong, terribly wrong. Whatever was walking around in her, wasn't her, and wasn't welcome. I forbid her to enter, not that I could block the entire garage door sized entrance to the party, and that seemed to amuse her. I could see the person inside fighting back against whatever was controlling her. She won out for a second and demonstrated the proper hand gestures for casting her tormentor back and forbidding her entrance. I played along and repeated the gestures, turning around as I did so. There was another woman there, heavy set and not too happy looking. I apologized, explaining that wasn't aimed at her. She brushed it off, but didn't enter the garage, instead electing to go around to the back gate instead.

I turned around and the slender red-haired beauty had found a sword from somewhere. I could see the entity fighting for control so I reached in and took the sword. The entity and the woman struggled for a bit until the entity won out and hissed at me "What, are you going to slay the innocent to prevent my fun?"

"Nope," and I slipped the sword up and across the small of the girls back as she turned to enter the party. The stroke, way more skillful than I could really do, cut through the transparent strap that held her dress back together at the top. I could tell from the entities surprised look that this wasn't at all something she expected, or even knew what to do about. She spun away from me, towards the driveway instead of deeper into the party full of potential victims, or whatever she considered fun.

I deftly cut through the knot in front of the dress that held the shape around her perfectly freckled cleavage. She spun around, the host momentarily regaining control to cover her embarrassment, and to keep the dress together. I could see her blushing all the way down her back. I reached out with the sword to where her thong rode high across her rather firm bottom, again with the transparent plastic straps, snip snip, and her thong was cut loose. I somehow managed to hook the tiny mesh back and pulled them off from behind. She gasped and turned to face me. I made the gestures, as she'd showed me and said the words to forbid her, and then reached out and pulled the girl across the threshold. The entity poured out in a puff of greasy smoke.

The red-haired woman knocked the sword from my hand. "You were supposed to threaten to kill me!"

"I'm pretty sure it was too smart for that bluff to work, besides, this way you're completely unharmed."

"And naked."

"Under your party dress, if you don't say anything, no one will know but us."  I let her step back and she let me tie the front of her dress back together. She took my hand to lead me back into the party, still blushing, all the way down to her freckled ankles.

As we passed through the door into the back yard, the heavy set woman I accidentally turned back earlier made the same gestures at me and I was pushed out and away from the party watching the backs of the woman and the gentleman who was still holding her hand. He was now blushing furiously.

I heard the entities voice, "Now neither one of us gets to crash the party." I could feel her pouting.

Sleeping in, Until the Party was Too Loud

I was sleeping in this morning until the party next door was too loud. I got up from the bed, and a couple of people entered the room. They were as surprised to see me as I them. I showed them my room key, and we re-tried the keys in the door, sure enough, all of them worked. Mom and dad were a bit grumpy looking about it, but the daughter thought it was cool to share a room with "Santa."

The parents wanted to argue about whose room it was, and I pointed out that I was leaving today, but the checkout time wasn't until eleven. I offered to call down to the front desk to get them a porter to put their luggage in storage if they didn't want to leave it in my room until I checked out. The dad and the child were very obviously tired, but the music and laughing from next door was going to make it difficult for them to sleep, so they decided to go back down to the front desk and ask for a different room, anyway.

I showered and then put my luggage in my car. I checked out then on the way back to my car, on a whim, I knocked on the door of the adjacent room. The party goers were pretty blotto by then, obviously a number of spring break women, they just about dragged me into the room, offering to make up for waking me up.

We danced and I found out what they were all majoring in, I was just enjoying the feminine company, my age apparently making me safe from any sort of "hookup" pressure (unfortunately.) Some musicians arrived, and there were a couple of live sets going on in different parts of the suite, pretty soon the pretty boy musicians were being plied with liqueur and clothing started to become optional.

One of the history majors got upset when one of the "Luke Duke" clones made fun of my Santa like appearance. "Wow, twice in one morning," I said. The musician then pointed out that it was evening. I'd intended to be on the road long ago but didn't really want to rent another room for the night.

The woman said "good night" to everyone, and then leaned over me, covering my face completely in her long black curly hair she asked if I would walk her back to her room. A short ginger haired woman, who was equally curvy, joined us. I hadn't spoken to her much during the party, as she seemed to always be surrounded by a fairly large noisy group, all competing for her attention. I soon figured out why, she was funny and sweet and totally adorable. She was also probably the least drunk of the three of us. Turns out they were sharing a room.

They both plopped down on one bed and offered to let me spend the night in the other if I promised to behave. Soon we were lying in our beds, but still talking. The room grew dark as the sun set, and eventually our conversation faded with the light. A few minutes later I felt someone climb in with me. "I just want to cuddle, no sexy stuff, okay." I was really too tired to argue, so agreed. Just have her curled up against me counted for sexy stuff in my book.

The tiny red-head joined us a little bit later, just as I was falling asleep. "I want some of this, too," she purred at me.

"We're just cuddling, no sexy stuff." I muttered.

"Okay." The little red-head burrowed in under my arm and turned and gently bit my chest just above the armpit, "For now." She then almost immediately relaxed in the sort of totality that could only be a strawberry cooler induced narcolepsy.

Accidental Downspout

I was dressed in a green wool suit, wholly inappropriate for the weather, but right for the 1940's style murder mystery weekend I was acting in. I was glad that my character would be killed in the first half of the first day. After that, I would go into town and get a shave and a haircut, rinse out the temporary hair color and return as a late arriving "guest" for the rest of the weekend. My job at that point would be to be a sort of improvisational "shill" who would be responsible for making sure one of the investigation teams stayed somewhat on track with the story. Missing out on the main action would give me the excuse to say "What happened, again?" with great sincerity. I had done this enough times to discover that was typically enough to keep things on track.

I always got a kick out of the round up at the end of the weekend where our roles were revealed. There were always a few people who never knew I was one of the main cast the first morning.

This particular time, things went a little bit odd when I returned from town. There was a child out on the porch, just sitting and looking out at the rain. Now, this is an "adult" weekend, as there are frequent bad words, some partial nudity, and the occasional heavy sexual tension. (Sometimes the guests brought their own brand of this, which, as a single actor, was not unwelcome.) So, I was surprised to see the child. I stepped out onto the patio to try to determine where he belonged.

And I was a child, playing on the same patio, but newer, with a fresh coat of whitewash, and brand new cloth screens between the beams. "Let's go on the roof to watch the storm come in!" said a little brown-haired boy, my brother, older, braver, but shorter than myself.

I watched as he swung out of the patio door and hoisted himself up the corner post, stepping on the lantern support and then up onto the roof. I ran out to the uncovered part of the patio, pacing him as he raced over to the shorter part of the roof. By leaning back, I could see the black and green cloud wall approaching. Wind and lightning whipped around the thing silently. The wind stirred across the yard behind me and flowed, full of the leaves dropped in an early fall, up and over the roof of the house, as if the storm contained some giant vacuum cleaner. "Get up here! It's keen!"

"I can see it from here. Looks like a tornado, we should get in the basement!"

"It's too late for a tornado, you're missing the lightning!"

"I can see it from here!"

"No you can't!"

"Can, too!"

"Chicken!"

Well, I couldn't let that stand, so I hopped up on the rail and walked over to the corner post with the lantern support. My brother had turned back to watch the storm. The climb terrified me. I half walked half crouched over to my brother once I was on the roof. It was covered in leaves and the footing seemed unsure. He laughed but quickly turned back to the storm. He was right, of course, I couldn't see all of the lightning. The storm had to be at least a mile across, a solid green-gray wall of blurry motion, shot through with lightning that rippled around the circle, up into the thick clouds above and leaping off the roofs and trees below as though it were being drawn up into the thing.

I stood, completely amazed, entranced.

"Told you."

"Uh huh." I nodded, still standing slightly hunched over, afraid I would fall backwards.

We could hear the rumbling of nearly continuous thunder, like an approaching freight train. The cloud and its lightning storm began to blur and fade. Too late, I realized that was the storm letting loose, the curtain falling on a show. I turned and went back to the patio, where it would be easier to get down.

"Yellow!" My brother teased.

"I don't want to get..."

But it was too late. The water from the storm front hit. I could barely make out my brother, it was as if I'd been dowsed with the laundry tub, only the water kept coming. I scrambled on all fours to the corner post, easing myself down over the edge of the roof, hanging on to the lantern support for all I was worth. I could feel my feet slipping on the hand rail of the open part of the patio. I turned to see where my brother was. He was coming straight down the roof. I'd seen him hang from the gutter and drop to the patio chair before, so figured that was what he was going to do. I grunted, I should of done that. It was a ten foot drop off the handrail to the ground below if I slipped.

Then, the wind came. I could feel the whole house shake. My brother hadn't made it back to where the patio was when he slipped, then rolled towards the edge of the roof. It was probably twenty feet to the ground where he was. I shouted his name. His foot slammed into the gutter and he hunched up against it legs drawn up to his chest, but instead of crawling back to the relative safety of the porch overhang, he stood up and waved at me, keeping one foot in the gutter. Another gust, and I dropped to the rail, forcing myself to fall on the patio side. It hurt, but I was safe. I stood up, there was no sign of my brother, the gutter where he'd been standing was burst out, and water poured out of the accidental downspout. I limped over to the rail, but couldn't bring myself to look down right away.

After a moment, I followed the falling stream of water, watching it arc down past the patio, and finally to where it splashed on the small crumpled form of my brother in the broken berry bushes below. And I knew, I just knew he was gone.

The adult me stood alone on the patio, in the midst of a sudden fall shower. I turned and looked out past the edge of the patio, eyes along the roof line, and there about six feet past the end of the patio was a rusted hole with the ragged edges still slightly bowed out, water poured out of it far in excess of what one might expect for such a gentle rain. I walked to the edge of the patio, following the falling water with my eye, and there at the bottom of the fall, it fell in a bramble bush, pushing the leaves and branches playfully to splash on what I'd always thought to be just a granite stone, but that I now realized was a grave marker. The young boy was there with me, appearing out of nowhere.

"It wasn't your fault." I said.

"I still miss him. He won't come play in the rain any more."

"Of course you do. He loved you." I turned to face the boy, and he faded away smiling sadly.

The older gentleman who owned the house slid open the door. He watched me standing in the rain for a moment or two, then motioned with a towel in his hand.

I looked out at the gutter again for a moment, then turned back to the house.

He handed me the towel. "I should fix that gutter some time."

I looked at him, "no need, looks like the water goes right where it's needed."

"You saw him, didn't you."

I nodded. I could hear the sounds of the guests chattering about their clues in distant parts of the house, the old man and I looked out across the rainy valley.

"I still miss him."

"Of course you do, he loved the wonder of the world, the adventure of it, loved you."

The old man handed me another towel, "hold that for me,"  then stepped out onto the patio himself.

Friends

I was introduced to some college aged friends, an odd mix of twenty somethings cut straight out of 'Big Bang Theory,' '90210,' 'Three's Company,' and, 'Friends.' We were at a condo warming party for the bunch of them, as they'd all just moved in.

They were all crammed into three of four units in a quad-plex condo, and were trying to get me to agree to be the purchaser of the fourth so they would have a unified front to present for the common area rules. This led to an awkward moment where I had to point out to them that I was old enough to be any of their parents, so a unified front was, well, unlikely.

"But you're a cool, odd, old guy..."

"... and the show needs that."

So, I was thinking to myself, this is what my life has come to, I'm Mister Furley on some new semi-reality show.

Just as I was thinking this couldn't be even a smidgeon more awkward, the Middle Eastern fellow that no one really understands came over and hugged me. "I wish I had a dad like you."

And the hug went on way longer than it should have, just like if we were shooting a sit-com. I hoped I was getting more than union scale.

Garden Party

Garden Party

I dreamed that I had just gotten home from work when several of my friends showed up carrying grocery bags and charcoal and picnic hampers. I asked what was going on and they said they had come for my garden party. Well, I was a little shocked by this, since my garden is more than a little neglected these days. 

As more and more people showed up, however, they kept moving the potted plants around and were pushing back the various piles of debris, including completely raking up the long dead grasses. By the time I’d set up the grill and got the bratwurst going, the yard actually looked pretty good.

I handed the cooking chores over to JH and CC. Out front was MA and his wife Z, neither of whom I've seen in at least ten years. They've been pretty busy raising a family, which I assumed was the two young couples and their little ones tagging along behind. I was pretty sure I'd run out of space for everyone, but they went right around back. I greeted another long time friend who's been on the east coast for years, he was in a costume, the shirt of which was pretty much just like the silver and charcoal sleeved shirt I was wearing. I had no idea what movie it was from, but apparently it was the standard outfit of a certain sort of robot butler. We went inside and robot buttled for a few minutes, getting the various empties out into the recycle bins, and getting a couple of comments abut how people didn't know it was a costume party. “it isn't,” I assured them, then went out to see how crowded the back yard was.

The yard wasn't crowded at all, because somehow the hill was gone, and in its place was a rolling green yard with an old wagon just beyond a pool at the end of the property. I visited with folks, all of whom had plenty of room to walk, sit or mingle, until the party died down.

I rocked gently in my re-upholstered sleepy chair, reassured by the familiar click of the all metal mechanism underneath. I rocked almost imperceptibly, soaking in the sublime moment; glad for my recent company, and equally glad for their even more recent absence.

The moon was coming up behind me, quite full, and I could see my shadow stretching out towards the “l” shaped pool of water that hugged an antique but lovingly restored wagon. Silvery moonlight illuminated the pool and reflected off its still surface to perfectly illuminate the now monochrome wagon, making it glow against the darkness beyond. I thought about going in to get my camera, but decided I could do that another night.

Track Inspector, Sexy Party Guests

Two dreams this morning had memorable elements. In the first I was involved in checking the continuity of a railroad line. I was traveling to the top of a mountain where I set a marble in the indent in the rail. It began to roll down hill, then started picking up speed. 

It had some sort of camera in it that was transmitting back to my iPad. Don't know how that worked, and even wondered about it in the dream. After the marble had rolled several miles, I started down the track after it, a locomotive and a couple of cars not far behind. I knew I would have to get on the train shortly, as it wouldn't be able to keep to just my walking pace on the wet rails further down the mountain.


The second dream featured a lovely dark-haired woman with a navy one-piece leotard with a very sexy tummy and back cutout. She was engaged in a rather pornographic moment with a man who she rubbed to completion, resulting in a jet about six feet long. Her bobbed hair bounced as she turned to me, "still think I'm cute?" She asked.

"Very much so,"  I said as she leaned up against me. That was apparently the right answer.  I had one hand on the smooth tight flesh of her back, and the other on her slightly rounded tummy, where I stroked her through the cutout, following it down to the tops of her soft curly pubic hair. 

Her red full lips made an "Oh," then I bent down and kissed her everywhere her cutout allowed. I could smell her arousal and see the dampness forming between her legs.

"Let's go back to my room," she took my hand and pulled me away from the living room, a long legged, almost too slender woman unfolded herself from where she'd been watching and followed us down the short hallway.  She was in a pink bra and was bottomless, her flushed labia clearly visible through a coppery cloud of pubic fluff. I very much wanted to run my fingers through that hair, but the dream ended all too soon.

I was happy there were no zombies or video game drama for a change.

Party Mansion

T-Rex and Teddy were with me on a visit to a large country estate owned by a wealthy older woman. Her staff and friends were, all, like her, very attractive people. 

At one point I was telling how T would sit up and beg, not only did he demonstrate, but Teddy decided to come out of hiding and show off as well. The pretty women were taking turns feeding them out of a cereal bowl as the went from lap to lap. I heard the owner calling and as I got up to go greet her the others encouraged me to hang back and describe what she was wearing first. I poked my head out my cottage door and waved to her, describing the slender creme colored shift with satiny highlights kind the fluffy half sweater that helped bulk up her slim torso. She walked over towards us, and I could tell the group was confused.

"What's that she's wearing," and "I've never seen that before," we're a couple of the comments. Most of them decided to skedaddle, leaving me, the cats and one of her older friends. I knew I didn't want the very dressed up woman to come into the cottage for long as I had just discovered floras and mites.

She entered anyway, saying I should just go ahead and have the place treated, but the kitties and I should come stay with her in the main house until it was done. She called up to the house to arrange to have us moved into the orange suite.

I remember picking through some bedding and clothing to get stuff without flea dirt all over it. Fortunately the infestation seemed very limited at that point. Only T had any sign of fleas, Teddy seemed to be unbothered.

The woman found me a tuxedo and told me to dress up as we were going out to dinner. She insisted her friend come along as well. "I would have taken the others, but they all ran away."

"They seemed to be afraid of you," I said.

"And you're not?" 

"No, I can leave any time."

"So can they," she smiled at me, "that's why I like you, you don't act like you need me."

"Well, not in that way..." I pulled her close and danced her around, then we headed back up the walk to the main house arm in arm.

Four and Gaming Party

When I woke up this morning I found that I had written myself a note to help remember a dream I had last night. It was the single word "Four" and nothing else. While I'm sure that seemed significant at the time, I can't remember a single thing about it now. I don't even remember waking up and writing the note, if you could call it that.


This morning I dreamed that I was invited to a big gaming party by friends, a couple of former students, who I haven't seen in a long time. I arrived and thought I was early, but my hosts explained that they'd invited some of their friends, who they knew were gamers, early so they could teach them a new game. The game was a combination of Monolpoly, Sim City, and Illuminati. The rules were complex and there were a number of cards, counters and money props as well as vehicles and various buildings that were to be set up on a modular buildable board. 

I pointed out, after a couple of turns, that this cried out for computerization and a three-d virtualization with funny animations. My host had to agree, and wondered if anyone had licensed the game yet.

A group of new guests arrived, and the hostess insisted that I come with her to greet them. Turns out she was introducing me around to the single members of their gaming group. I stood out front and chatted with the group of women for a time. One blonde woman was obviously cold, so I offered her my cloak, a red multiple-layered red silk construction with a dark blue green lining. It was a costume piece for a character I played, so it looked recently singed and a little bit ash colored around the "burnt" edges. After I explained that, the woman was glad to take it. 

"Oh! This is much softer than I expected."

Our host offered to take the group on a tour of the grounds, and the hostess asked for my help in the kitchen. Once there she started apologizing to me, it seems one of their other guests had brought N as a date. I calmed her fears and promised to behave. 

N was sitting on a coffee table just near the edge that surrounded the sunken gaming floor. I stepped in to resume my place at the game, but a twelve year old kid was filling in for me. We weren't doing all that well, but he looked like he was having fun, so I motioned for him to continue. I watched a round and did some people watching. Seeing N wasn't making me happy, and I could tell she was doing her best to avoid even looking at me. 

The hostess noticed that I wasn't engaged in anything, so came and "rescued" me. I told her that wasn't necessary but we littered around in the kitchen. She'd made some sort of gin concoction and took a taste test. It was so bad she immediately spit it back out into the container. Embarrassed she handed the container to me and asked me to go and pour nit out in the deep sink, she didn't want that smell in her kitchen sink. 

The deep sink was just around the back of the kitchen, and from the I could see my host guiding the group of women back to the party. I noticed that the woman was carefully holing up the hem of my cloak to keep it from dragging in the wet glass. I noted that she was very graceful, and even though I thought she was a bit on the slender side, she had curvy hips and a narrow waist.

The blonde woman came right up to me, bundled up with the hood and face cover bunched up around her face. I said "let me," and adjusted the hood and face mask for her, even that was too big for her.

She pulled up the cloak and inhaled deeply. I realized that even though the cloak was clean, I'd been wearing it and it had to have smelled a bit like me.

I started to apologize, she interrupted, "I love the way this smells.

"That's just me...." I stopped, realizing how awkward that must sound.

She stepped past me into the game room, offering an edge so that I could help her out of it. She made just enough of a flourish to attract a lot of attention, including N's. "Now it's both of us," she half closed her eyes and made a yummy noise. "Thank you, for the loan." 

I unwrapped her from the voluminous cloak, revealing her petite but still curvy figure. She placed both hands on the cloak and my chest underneath, I could still feel the warmth of her in the cloak as she stretched up on tiptoes, lips puckered and aimed at my cheek, which she still couldn't reach. I bent down and placed a hand on her waist lightly to steady her.

"You're welcome. I don't the cloak has ever looked better."

It was a cheesy line, but she giggled and hugged me; I blushed even more. She turned and waved to the people in the room, staying at my side snuggled up against the silk cloak and my arm.

N was frowning and turned away when she caught my eye. I actually felt guilty, but stopped myself from pulling away from my new friend and going to her. My hosts were absolutely beaming at us, so I knew they had set this little scene up. That made me smile. Even if the little blondes affection was contrived, I resolved to enjoy it and it's residual effects.

We walked over to the game and I explained what I understood to my new companion, who showed every sign of enjoying the conversation and my attention. Our conversation took an interesting turn when my host mentioned that I had created the game system they'd played in high school. She virtually dragged me off to a small table and began to grill me about RPG design philosophy.

Talk about being my dream girl.