(7/1/06) amphora/amphori restaurant; a girl and three guys; adjusting the color

(Entered in paper journal at 9:16 AM at Starbucks on 43rd Street and 3rd Avenue in Manhattan.)

Dream 1

I walked through a city street with cobble-brick roads in the daytime. I had spoken with either my friend ML or R about meeting at a Mexican restaurant. I couldn't remember the name of the restaurant.

I went into a Mexican restaurant, thinking it might be the one. But it was so empty I thought it couldn't possibly be the one. I wanted to stay, though, because it was so clean -- white tile floors and clean, white plaster/stucco walls lined in places with touches of dark wood and small traces of lush vegetation. The place was divided into a few rooms (and reminds me of a famous Art Nouveau cigar shop, maybe by Victor Horta?).

Over wide walkway into another room I saw a wood sign with white painted letters saying "AMPHORA" or "AMPHORI." This was the name of the restaurant. But I still wasn't sure it was the restaurant I was looking for.

I walked out. It was night. There were tables full with people. The light was only orange street light. I sat and waited for whoever I was waiting for.

A man sat on a wood crate. He was tall, fat, pale-coffee-colored, balding with frizzy, copper-colored hair. He kept shouting to ask me if I wanted some drugs.

My mom walked up. Then she almost went to the man. I had to tell her not to go to the man. He would poison her.

Dream 2

I was in an office space very like my floor at work. I walked past the cubicle of a girl I like and into a conference room. The lights were off in the conference room, and there were no windows except to the floor, so the room was dim.

The girl spoke on the phone to some tough guy on another floor. The guy flirted with the girl. I thought I should tell the girl how I liked her. But the girl walked away with another man and took an elevator downstairs.

Dream 3

My sister and I were watching a movie on TV. At some point a couple cowboys were walking down a hillside.

My sister said, "The sky is too blue. Can't we adjust the screen so the sky isn't so blue?"

I agreed that the sky was really blue. It was so blue it hurt my eyes. But I wasn't sure the sky was supposed to be gentle at this point in the movie. But I wasn't sure the screen wasn't also a little out of whack. Nevertheless, I didn't want to mess with the screen, especially this far into the movie.

But my sister did mess with the color. Now the sky looked normal. But the screen was blurry and the cowboys (or ranchers like in Brokeback Mountain) had a gross green tint to them and were welled in grey like they always stood in shadow.

(Below is a sketch I made after my dreams, on the last page of this dream journal.)

(10/25/08) video game with gender surprise

(Entered in paper journal at 8:45 AM at Connecticut Muffin in Windsor Terrace, Brooklyn.)

Dream #1

I was part of a video game. I may possibly have gone into a room and grabbed a metallic bust out of a case that was set in a wall. This was the reward for passing the level. I wasn't sure how I'd gotten to this level at all. I didn't know if I'd make it through the next level.

I now saw a screen like an old spaceship battle video game, like Galaga. I seemed to be getting along alright,  but then more and more enemy ships came, until I was completely surrounded for layers and layers. I might have continued fighting. But it was clear that I was losing.

Suddenly my ship began to spin and glow. It became light blue. I spun all the ships around me in a circle. Somehow I destroyed all the ships.

I was part of the video game again. I stood in a room like a mix between a castle and a museum. I opened a heavy (green?) door with a long, clear (plastic? glass? quartz?) handle. Some voice may have told me that since I had passed the previous level, I could enter the room and retrieve the elephant's head as a reward.

I walked into the room. It was a small room, possibly with deep blue walls. The lighting was very dim and elegant. There was a doorway to a much bigger room on the back wall. I went to the left wall, where I saw a silver bust in a case set in the wall. The bust may at first have looked human. Then it ma have looked like a bull's head.

A tall, black man opened the heavy door and walked in. He told me that the head was his. It was the bull's head he was to receive as a reward. The man was kind of thin, with long dreads. He wore a long, loose, tan, denim jacket and pants that may have matched. I let the man take the bust. He left the room.

I now walked around, looking for the elephant's head. I thought, Did I just let that man take my reward?

I saw a couple empty, grey plexiglass cases on stand-alone pedestals. Some or one of them may have said something about the elephant's head. But I couldn't find the elephant's head.

I walked into another room, which was like a mix between a living room and a Mexican restaurant. Two women sat on stools and behind a cash register counter. I asked the women if they knew where the elephant's head was. They didn't answer, but they were nice to me.

One of the women was round and fat. She was probably Mexican. The other woman was pale-skinned and thin. She wore a white tank top and a long, dark blue skirt. She was faced away from me, toward the wall. I walked up to the second woman. Now it was like I knew her. I was cuddling up to her. She was somewhat indifferent to me.

There were now more people around, like we were at a party. Time had worn on, and the girl and I now decided we would go home with each other. "Going home" just meant going down the hall and to a bedroom.

As we "went home," the woman became a skinny, pale, white man with long, straight-up, pale blonde hair. But I still thought he was a woman.I was thinking about how "she" would have sex with me. I knew "she" would penetrate me. I was trying to figure out how that could be.

We were in the bedroom. "She" stood behind a set of shelves and drawers. Suddenly I realized "she" was a man. I was trying to think of a polite way to tell him that I couldn't have sex with him.

I now sat at a desk, "typing" on a keyboard that looked more like a phone keypad. I was somewhere like a living room in a low-income house. To my left was a doorway to a room like a kitchen, where a job interview may have been being held. The person interviewed may have been my girlfriend H.

I put on some music, probably something by KT Turstall. I could tell the interviewer was British. I thought it would be impressive of me to play music by a British person.

The interview finished. H walked out and away. The interviewer walked out. I couldn't see the interviewer, but I think she was beautiful. She might have been standing behind me. I told her that I thought H was really good. The interviewer said, "Yes. He is."

I said, "He? Isn't H a woman?"

The interviewer smirked and said, "Oh, sure. A 'woman.' But you can tell right away she's really a man, right? I could. But I stayed polite during the whole interview and called him a her."

I was very confused. I had no idea what to do now that I knew H was a man.