(8/28/05) the stuntmen are done for the day

(Entered at 9 AM at the Tea Lounge at Union Street and 7th Avenue in Brooklyn.)

Dream 1

I was with someone from my NYC Americorps program, maybe VT, under a scaffolding. There were two trees. The one on the right was small and thin. The other one struck me at first as being unbelievably large. (They both stood outside the scaffolding, and we saw only their trunks.)

I was almost frightened by the thought of the size of the large tree. I called to my friend to look. I couldn't quite bear to look completely at the large tree. It was in a small pit and its root crown heaved and bubbled up over the sidewalk so much that I said, "Look! On the other edge it looks like a mountain!" But when I looked more directly at the trunk I saw it was thin as an average young oak.

Now I was afraid to look directly at the trunk because I didn't want it to be a regular tree instead of something special. I told myself that the root crown was enormous, so at least that was special. But I didn't believe it.

Now I saw someone in a silver spandex bodysuit and helmet arc down from the air on skis and land on the asphalt and slide on down the street. I was amazed. I wanted to see it happen again. I told "VT" to look, too.

We watched as a bicyclist arced down from the air to the street. I thought there must have been a huge jumping ramp nearby. We looked for it. We found a dark blue Volkswagen Beetle (?) with a cream-white board laid against it (?) as a ramp. I thought I'd like to try, but I was also afraid.

But now my crew chief SM came at the ramp with a tiny push-scooter. As he got to the ramp some vague hands set a barrier in front of the ramp.

Some vague person said, "The stuntmen are done for the day. The ramp is no longer safe to ride."

I was now on a bike, riding down the street. I went right, onto a strip of lawn. As I headed back toward the street, apparently preparing to do something showy, I rode toward a ditch I hadn't known about. I didn't have time to turn away. it was so steep and rough (though small) that I thought I'd wipe out. But I kept my balance. I was surprised that I didn't make a fool of myself in front of my Americorps crew mates and the stunt people.

But now I saw I was coming to a ridge or a little step-up in the ditch. I didn't know if the bike tire could take it or if I'd have to "jump" with my bike. I was pretty sure that now I was going to make a fool of myself.

(4/23/06) unfamiliar food; truck crash is my fault

(Entered in paper journal at 10:45 AM at Starbucks on 1st Street and 7th Avenue in Brooklyn.)

Dream 1

I walked into my room late at night. The room was big but a little like a hospital room. My bed was a lot like a hospital bed. The floor had a black and white octagon tile design (like in the bathroom of a place I'd lived in in waking life Harlem in 2005). I had a sink at the back end of the room -- like a hospital sink.

I wanted to go to bed. I kicked my foot against my fridge. It popped open. It looked disgusting, but not as disgusting as I'd thought it would. Plus there was food in it, packaged food, mostly like plastic bottles in which one might find milk or yogurt drinks.

I closed the fridge but then thought I'd open it again to see the food, none of which, on reflection, was anything I remembered having gotten recently. But I opened a fridge to the left of the first fridge. This was a tall fridge with two vertical doors, like my mom's fridge.

I had thought before that someone had come into my room and put weird food in my fridge. In the tall fridge was a note, written in capital letters with red marker, explaining everything. The note said that my landlord had brought this new stuff into my room because he didn't want me to leave. He wanted me to feel more comfortable right here.

I couldn't believe it. I reached into the fridge to see if it -- and the food -- was real.

Dream 2

It was daytime. I was out by a huge road. The road curved away to the right. On either side of the road were big, mangled-looking buildings. In the center of the road ran a concrete barrier.

Big vehicles, enormous trucks, mostly, sped by, going at a frightening pace. But I needed to get across the road. I need to deliver something from my bosses on one side of the road to a boss on the other side. There was a smart, safe way to do it. But the trucks scared me, so I wanted to get past my fears by going straight through the traffic.

I got to the barrier, maybe even straddled it, when something bad happened with the trucks. Either they crashed with each other or they crashed into buildings. I had failed and caused this crash by not doing the safe thing.

One building across the street could no longer be used for work -- it may have been being built, close to being done, but now it would take much longer to finish. One of my previous bosses, PG, was very angry.

A woman to my right, walking with me back across the now empty street, told me not to worry, that the present building was fine for at least another year or two. We were now inside the building, which had a tall atrium. We walked from one side to another and then back to the front of the lobby, to a reception desk.

As we went around the told me that we would be covering (doing investment research on) a new sector -- something to do with hospitals. I said, "Oh, isn't RO in that sector? He's a pretty smart guy, and pretty cool. But for some reason he's always scared me."

I sat down in the reception desk. There were stacks of books and journals and papers all over. I knew I had a lot of studying to do.