(9/10/08) co-worker quits; christopher street lingerie; annoyed by people

(Entered in paper journal at 6:15 AM on Q-train from Brooklyn to Manhattan.)

Dream #1

I sat on a large office floor. The lights were off, but some natural light came in through the windows. The light was grey and top-dim, like in a warehouse. Only my co-worker DE and I were here.

DE was talking on the phone about how he was going to quit, and something about how it had to do with me moving up. He hadn't told me anything yet, and I felt bad that I hadn't been kept in the loop regarding his actions. But I thought back a little and realized that he actually had said a lot of things in passing that had implied what his plans were.

DE now called to me. We were sitting in a small room, like the room of TM, one of my best friends from childhood. The room was dim, with just a purplish light (like from a fish tank) glittering somewhere. There were long desks against both walls, so that DE and I sat across the room from one another, our backs to each other.

I turned to face DE. His computer looked very old. DE told me he was quitting. He said something like, "I've known this for months now. Isn't management going to be surprised about that?"

Dream #2

I walked into some kind of store run by an older Asian woman. It was in an area like Christopher Street in the Village. The shop was very nice, with brick walls and wood floors. It was moderately busy. There may also have been a laundromat somewhere in the store.

I had to leave the store and get to work (?). But as I was heading out I found myself in a lingerie section. There was a lot of stuff there that I liked. The place was just a small alcove or room. I had to get out of it by crawling under my hands and knees under some cinder-material "board" that was being propped up by a pale wood bookshelf, which was to my left, and edging against the doorway, which was to my right.

As I did this I thought about how I'd seen this place before, possibly in a dream. I wondered what it could mean that I'd found such a place in real life after having dreamt it.

Dream #3

I walked into a cafe. A man, who may at first have been my old friend R, held the door open for me, but treated me in some annoying way as I crossed the threshold. The interior of the cafe was kind of cheap, almost like a fast food Mexican restaurant. The floors were red tile and the walls were thin, white plaster. The light was dim, with only a couple windows toward the back. The cash register was at the back, too, beside a stainless steel, cafeteria-style display counter that looked like it wasn't being used at all. There was a belt-barrier stretched around and away from the register counter.

As I walked toward the register, the man behind me acted really annoying. I looked back at him. He was a rich-looking, white man in a white t-shirt and some long shorts. I decided to fight back against him. But I only managed to lean back into him and push him backward.

The man smiled a queasy smile. I knew I hadn't annoyed him at all. I wondered what was making me let myself get annoyed so easily. Then I remembered: I had seen R again. Our last meeting had been awful. It ended so badly that R had asked if we could meet again to come to a better resolution on things. But I hadn't really wanted to see R ever again.

I was sitting at a table. R came in. He was wearing a gas mask. He may have had long, shaggy hair. He walked toward the cash register. Eventually he may  have come and sat at the table with me, at which point we may have had a really creepy, tense conversation.