(4/29/05) my best buddy; air jump rope; cd bank

(Entered in paper journal at 5:30 AM at home in Harlem.)

Dream 1

I was helping teach an enormous group of children who were in something like fourth grade. We were in a wide, low room like a cafeteria. People were already funneling outside for some project I and a couple other "guest speakers" were going to lead.

A couple kids were making trouble. One kid in particular sat on a table. When I tried to get him/her down off the table, he/she accused me of hitting him/her. Now I was walking with a female colleague. The kid was behind us and kept hitting us gently and saying, "You guys are my best buddies."

Now we were outside, down some dirt road along a chalk-white desert cliff. All the kids were gathered around with some other leaders. But nobody would speak to me except that one annoying kid.

Dream 2 (?)

I was in a half-bright, bleary-contrasting room like a long, small kitchen and dining room. I sat at a long table which was just a mess. I had eaten and eaten and left tons of shriveled, wadded wrappers everywhere.

I thought, Finally I've eaten everything. There's nothing left to mess with my self-control (or, rather, to illustrate how little self-control I have). But now I found one last packet of lunch meat.

Dream 3 (?)

I was out on some hex-brick cinder block patio under some nice, shady trees behind a building. The patio sloped up into asphalt along the left side of the building. I had probably walked down that small road with my crew mate MG to get to the patio.

To my right as I faced away from the building I saw about three obese, old, shirtless men jumping rope and heaving labored breaths. They all looked Hispanic, with graying, 1950s-style hairdos.

I thought about how I'd let myself eat too much nowadays. MG told me about some exercise he'd been doing lately. We were waiting to give some kind of presentation to schoolkids. I thought that while I waiting I could do a little exercise.

I hoped MG wouldn't think I was an idiot. But he soon seemed to disappear. I felt his presence somewhere behind me, by the building, but not with certainty.

I began bounding up softly into the air, lifting a knee forward, up to about bellybutton level, then dropping the leg down a little behind me, thus making an ellipse with my jump, i.e.

I'm not exactly sure how.

I actually started getting three or so feet high in the air and hanging there for a while, though I wasn't aware of that being not normal in my dream. I was aware of the old jump ropers all the while.

Dream 4

I drove or rode some kind of vehicle that was like a mix between a tube-train, a bus, and a van. My crew made DF was in the passenger seat. I had to stop off at some bank before I dropped DF off. We were speaking about music. I said I didn't know too much rap nowadays because I haven't had the money to buy CDs for a while. Inwardly I wanted DF to know I wasn't a racist and that I didn't think he was stupid for liking rap, even though I don't like it.

DF invited me to his house to hear some new rap CD. At first it was like he told me we could go to some store (the landscape we drove through was full of mountainous shopping malls) and sample the CD. But when I asked the location of the place he had suggested, he said something like "Oh, it's my house. We'll just go there and listen to the song. Maybe my wife can cook some food. She don't mind."

I thought that really put a crimp in my day, because it was after work and I just wanted to write. But I said okay anyway.

Then there was a pause as I stopped by the bank. DF said, "Well.. actually wait. What time is it? 3:30? Maybe you could come to my house another time, when we could start earlier. Because I actually have a lot to do tonight." I was suddenly relieved and said that I, too, had stuff to do.

I had pulled into a road shoulder like a bus stop,  a half-trapezoid against which the bank faced diagonally.

(10/7/05) crisscross

(Entered in paper journal at the Tea Lounge on Union Street and 7th Avenue in Brooklyn.)

Dream 1

I was walking behind my mother on a concrete path along a lawn lined with some small shrubs and flowers. Eventually my mother was far ahead of me, and I was behind an old, short, Asian woman. I wanted to catch up with my mom, or at least move faster than the Asian woman. But I wanted to wait until the woman wouldn't feel like I was being rude by passing her.

The path, though still as open-feeling and suburban-feeling as before, was crisscrossed now with shin-high shrubs on the walk and overhanging, leafy shrubs encroaching over the walk. I couldn't touch any shrubs. I had to jump over the crisscrosses and touch only the concrete, but I could only land on one foot and jump off and land on the next foot.

As I got better at this the overhanging shrubs faded to the sides. The Asian woman was far ahead. The crisscrosses got thicker, so that I had to float to get to each open patch of concrete. One series of shrubs I jumped through was like a mix of barberry leafs with pink sedum blossoms that were soft like pink Apache plume blossoms.

The Asian woman waited where the path became clear again. I landed near her. My mother said, as if behind us, "It's a good thing the old man wasn't here. You wouldn't have gotten away with some of your jumps."

We were all getting ready to meet a new girl. I was pleased with my abilities and in the meantime I levitated myself about six feet in the air, face down. I was surprised with how well I could control myself, how still and relaxed I was.

But the Asian woman and my mom laughed at me. My mom said, "Preemie, aren't you forgetting?"

Still floating, I spun around and saw the young woman beside my mom. The woman had long, blonde hair -- all I remember.

I said, "Oh, right, I forget."

I offered the woman my hand, but I had floated higher and was out of reach. Everybody laughed. I tried to lower myself, and then I kept aiming badly at the woman's hand.I tried to land altogether, but I was now really uneven.