(6/10/05) jokes about my teeth; heading to el paso; corporate volunteerism; catalpa flowers

(Entered in paper journal at 6:42 AM on uptown-bound 2-train from 116th Street station.)

Dream 1

I heard some people telling jokes about my teeth. I may actually have been one of the people making fun of me. I saw myself in a mirror. My teeth were so covered over with plaque that the plaque was like a strip of orange grime, which I peeled right now.

Dream 2

I got on a train, possibly with my friend ML. I don't know where we were going. The train may have "been" a bus or a train. We may have been heading to El Paso.

A couple people we sat by were weird. We switched cars.

I think at one point I was laying down and looking out the window at the dark blue of late night or early morning and feeling the rolling along of the train.

Dream 3

I was in the back of something like a pickup truck, stomach down, kind of half-on and half-off the bed. My crew mate and friend KB (?) and some other woman sat cross-legged on the bed. They had been making fun of me a little.

I now read in some magazine about a corporation like Walmart that was allowing people to do community service. I said I thought at least the corporation was doing one good thing.

KB and the woman sneered at me. They simply didn't and wouldn't like the corporation. I felt even stupider. I may have started crying.

Dream 4

There was some party in an nice house. I saw RL, one of my ecology supervisors for my NYC Americorps program. I told him that I had seen a catalpa tree in bloom. I said, "The flowers are interesting."

RL kind of interrupted me. He said, "You actually like the look of catalpa flowers?"

I continued, "They look a lot like azalea flowers. That's how you can see a difference between the catalpa tree and the royal paulownia trees: the flowers. But, no, I guess the flowers are not interesting."

Now I was running around the room while RL threw orange dish soap at me. I walked down the hallway now, hoping nobody would wonder why I was so messy.

I was now a transvestite. I walked into a bathroom to see myself in a mirror. I was Asian. I looked good. I posed a bit and thought how I could improve my look.