I had a dream this morning

And this is the dream I had:

I was working (somewhere) & got some time off unexpectedly. A friend had gone out of town (to a resort?) for a waitress gig at a special event & I followed after to see if I could pick up some hours. 

The place was booked for a fashion/avant garde art event. I saw my friend (Abby B) already working; she was surprised & not entirely pleased to see me. I wasn’t going to be able to stay in her room (that's part of why she wasn’t happy) because she already was sharing with someone.  And I realized I didn’t have the proper waitstaff clothes with me anyway (white shirt, black pants).

The event had started. Rich people attended the party and the models and walking art and performers mingled among them.

The organizer/designer saw me, and while they didn’t need any more waitstaff, she thought they could use me as one of the walking art people. She told me who to talk to. 

I went to the front desk to find out about a room, and said I’d gladly share with someone. The 3 desk staff (Latinx) looked at me blankly, but the manager (Filipino) was on a couch in a lobby seating area nearby and came over to help. She warned me to be cautious but thought she had someone she could ask.

She took me a to a room with 3 little people (1 looked like Phil Fondacaro, something I noticed & almost remarked upon), 2 men & 1 woman. They agreed to let me share the room. The two men would share a bed & I’d share with the woman. Their troupe was Gnomic Illusions & they were performance artists. They had their gear along the walls of the room. The designer provided my costume & these three did the rest. They did my makeup, which involved painting an idyllic park scene from my eyebrows down. Above, I had a bald cap, and the make up became black & white like an adult coloring book with lots of small images. I’d fallen asleep while they were doing my makeup so it was a surprise to see the image, especially with the bald cap. Except, they hadn’t gotten my long hair under the cap. They were trying & woke me up. But I’ve got so much hair they couldn’t just tuck my hair up. So I suggested braiding my hair so it looked like I just had these 2 braids from the back of my head, and they could be wrapped or some cord braided in so they looked fake.

One of the men (not ~Phil) was demonstrating this new technique he’d invented, for wearable effects. It involved something like latex, but he poured it onto one of the beds, mixed the colors, did something else, and then peeled this textured piece off the bed. The person who was supposed to wear it rejected it, but I volunteered. It would go on my back, filling in the low back of my dress. It breathed better than latex and the texture resembled crochet on the outer surface, and it was completely smooth on the inner.

That’s when I realized, I didn’t have the right shoes either. I was stressing about it and one of the performers dragged me out of the room and showed me other people walking around barefoot, both guests and performers. 

Then the performers did a march/strut/parade through the ground floor areas to the song “This Is Me” from The Greatest Showman. One of the folks leading the parade grabbed me as she passed me, and we went arm & arm. Her other hand held a feather fan & I wished I’d grabbed my lace fan.

About this time the radio alarm clock finally penetrated my sleep and I woke up.

More Gaming: It's Pyre of the Righteous today (Living Greyhawk). I'm playing Kayla for the first time since September. We're waiting for our 4th player, so I have time to post a little bit. I get to kill more things, cause Kayla's a barbarian.

Chris was sick yesterday so I didn't get much done. I collected my manga together, or at least a lot that I have not read yet. I cleared out the floor near the phone and that was it. Then this morning a transformer blew & we lost power for 3 hours. It came on in time for Chris & I to take showers and run to FE for me to pick up more manga.

Dream: I had a bad dream Friday night, it was not a nightmare per se, but definitely unpleasant. I remember a mechanic allied with us that I was glad that he was on our side; quasi-psychotic perhaps? I remember him shooting an attacker on a motorcycle and I could see the biker's spine sticking up out of the wound/severed torso.

Computer game: I've been playing Chocolatier and Build-a-lot. They are fun little strategy & economics games. In one you're building a chocolate empire and in the other a construction business.

Mutants & Masterminds: Since two of the players couldn't make it to the game; we had an 'annual.' That's the GM's name for a one-shot. We ended up dealing with a racist ghost/demon. It had been summoned at the end of the Civil War, as a last ditch effort. Its MO was to possess someone, until they died. Too bad the last host had been in a coma, trapping it. We had to fight it; it killed a male nurse and two of his neighbors. We managed to save the teenager that it possessed. It briefly possessed Kodachrome (after she accidentally revealed her secret id to a freelance reporter) and tried to possess Totem. Its weakness was gold. Totem and her priest trapped it in a gold inlaid ashabti. The reporter agreed to keep Melanie's/Kodachrome's secret since she saved his life.

Dream: I had a really good one last night. It was a fantasy adventure but I don't remember much. There was a princess/queen and a prince pursuing the prince's older brother, who had stolen her magic artifact/treasure. The pair had both bonded to large panthers, who were partners rather than anything subservient. The panthers chose their partners and, as usual for cats, still retained much of their independence.

Work: More unpacking today. My boss really helped. Mostly, I told him where I wanted stuff, at least more or less, and he emptied boxes. All that's left are the drawers around my desk. That will take some doing as they got re-arranged. I may have to empty & redo them.

dream: I don't remember much, one thing was a bus problem such that my usual bus was stuck & would be about 2 hours later than normal (neat trick considering the route is about an hour round trip). After that I was trying to sleep on the floor but with only one sheet, so the rough carpet kept irritating me. When the alarm went off I was quite sharp about declaring that I was tired and I was not going to work.

no tatting and only Jadeclaw re: books.

I think I'm getting depressed again. I need to read something, perhaps.

clothes: black slacks, cream turtleneck, red vest (open because it's unexpectedly warm), half-boots, & dragon jewelry

I had no alcohol, why do I feel hungover?
Answer: I'm dehydrated. Anyway, the show was great. Chuck Davis is great and they gave him a script so the show didn't run too late. But just watching Bhangra Elite wore me out. Inversion was about as bad. All the dancers were fantastic and the spoken word artists were powerful.

book: Read Real Vampires Have Curves; it's closer to chick lit than a romance novel but a neat view of vampires. I liked it. It's also the start of a series.

Decided to eat at a local Korean BBQ restaurant for lunch. I've never had that before. I had some kind of broth soup. It was sooo good. It came with half a dozen dishes of side foods; radish cubes, spinach, bean sprouts, kimchi (spelling?), a fish (yeah, looked odd but tasted fantastic), broccoli florets with spicy sauce, & some little strips of something, a meat I think. The soup had potato noodles; never had that before either & oh yum. You know it's going to be a good ethnic restaurant when you can't read the ads or the 'community' newspapers by the door. Yeah, and all the dishes were listed in English & Korean. While I hit a slow time, I was still the only person who did not obviously have some relatives (however distant) in or from Asia.

I was going to go shopping but I developed an extremely nasty headache. So I came home and took pain meds.

dream: I don't remember much, but some guy irradiated his sheep. He thought this was a good thing. He didn't get all of them & I was trying to prevent the 'glowing' ones from contaminating the others. That involved not letting some of the lambs feed and them yelling 'but it's so gooooood.' I took a lamb that had just been born and couldn't let it feed or it would be poisoned too. I took it to Cary, who raises sheep. She was at the Village & they had a new vendor entrance to use, the top.

The ladder, I use the term loosely, was this strip of metal with ridges that curved up over the dome. So here I am, towel wrapped lamb in one hand, as I scale this not-quite-ladder. By the time I got to the top, everyone else had left me behind and I was getting tired. I finally reached up and grabbed the edge of the roof? cover. I shoved the lamb ahead of my into the small opening as I finished climbing enough to get inside. The top floor had a film theater and a couple restaurants. It was a private little mall for the Village of Yesteryear vendors.

clothes: black tennies & jeans, red Hurricanes t-shirt, USS NC battleship sweatshirt, flower pendant, butterfly earrings, flower band, and loose hair.

Supper & books; or what I did last night: After the Memorial I headed home, catching the 6-ish bus. John came over & we headed out for Chinese food and then to Raleigh on a bookhunt. He found a present for Rosemary at the B&N in Brier Creek. I spent too much on books, quelle surprise. We got back a little late & he showed off the G3 laptop. When he gets the other laptops to work fully, that one will be mine. It's a 'thank you' for helping him get the other computer stuff on eBay.

Usually when I see Mom, she gives me a pile of Wednesday presents. They're all wrapped in comic pages from the newspaper, or colorful calendar pages or catalog pages. They might be clothes, books, stationery, whatever struck her fancy as something that I might like. One about a month ago was a package of very long tank-tops to wear for warmth under winter clothes. The one for today is linen hankies & towels. They are all embroidered or otherwise decorated. Pretty neat, huh.

She started that when I was in college. They would be little slices of 'I love you' from my mom.

The memorial was very moving. I'm glad that I took a tissue. I gave one to the girl sitting next to me, too. I'm glad that I went.

dream: this morning I had a dream that I went back to school. To State! For some reason, I decided to live in a dorm, so I was a 40-year-old freshman, in the dorm. At least I had some geeks to hang out with. Too bad my room was so friggin' high it set off my latent acrophobia.

books: I've read all of 1 & most of another book that I bought last night. I read Guns Will Keep Us Together & 2/3 of the stories in Dead Over Heels. I'm saving the first one because it comes after incidents in a novel that I haven't read yet.

Guns.. is another (2nd) book about the Bombay family & the family business: assassination. This time it's Dakota's turn to have his life turned upside down. It's good for him.

Dead..continues in the world of Fred in Swimming Without a Net & one Queen Betsy & one Wyndham werewolves. One story each.

clothes: black 1/2 boots, black jeans, black belt & silver buckly, dark red (blue undertones) tank, black short-sleeved crochet sweater (worn open), plaited hair (with red elastic that matches tank), silver Celtic knot moon/star/tree pendant on short silver chain, silver flower band, hematite band, silver hash mark band, & black/silver chandelier earrings.

Chris's game: Last night the fight with the Salt Baron continued. One of Kelis's last actions was to cast sleet storm, which blocked the merchant from targeting our PCs with spells (sleet storm does not do damage, it blocks normal sight and makes it hard to walk). Joe's cleric, Gaius, hit the area with a dispel magic a few rounds (& some healing) later. That revealed the merchant & his closest salt golem, which was half-destroyed. Turns out, when Chris wrote up the salt golem he included a specific weakness: vulnerability to 'create water' & 'sleet storm'. That was also true for the salt merchant's salt staff. It was half-gone, too. That had the unintended side effect that the next time he used it, it blew up. One more destroyed golem later & the fight was over.

We spent the rest of the session dealing with our PCs correct orders (make a 6-week trip in 3-weeks, since they weren't where they were when the orders were cut). Also, the undead knight sent a little 'gift,' 6 black heavy warhorses with matching tack. The dwarf developed a distaste/hatred/antipathy towards riding so he certainly wasn't going to take one. None of the other PC's except for the fey-ish warmage & my half-elf druid took one. They are very nice warhorses. My cavalry characters would be drooling (so to speak).

tatting: I finished the red butterfly that I started, from the Palmetto Guild's book of butterflies, while trying to donate blood. Now I've started another snood, red this time.

dream: I was working at Piece Goods and Louise was the manager. There were just 3 of us working and it was almost closing time. We could see snow falling outside in the lights of the parking lot so we were trying to hurry. 3, or 4, people came in through the back door (storage room) and were stacking up fabric from the remnant tables, mostly camo and heavy fabrics. The handwritten sign on a nearby table said $4/yard. I just knew that they were going to claim that sale price for the fabrics that they were buying. At least they weren't too horrible about it, just irritated.

We finally got everyone out the door & started cleaning up. Someone had left a box of kittens as well and I was trying to put water out for them when this lady barges into the store (oops, forgot to lock the door). We tried to tell her that we were closed, 'but I need this for my job. I won't be long.' Finally we showed her that the register was empty and closed, we couldn't sell her anything. She finally left.

In the meantime, 2 others came into the store but they helped us clean up when they saw that we were closed. We locked the door but accepted their help because we really needed to be out of there before the snow made it too dangerous to drive. First lady came back, pounding on the door, demanding to know why the other 2 customers could buy stuff but she couldn't. We had to explain to her that they weren't shopping, they were helping us straighten & pick stuff up.

Was that an anxiety dream or have I been reading the Customers Suck forum too much?

clothes: black half-boots, black jeans, black belt with Celtic knots, silver belt buckle with Celtic knotwork, hematite band, onyx band, emerald pendant & earrings, dark green Ocean City MD polo, & braided hair.

Video of the day: Korean Freestyle Slalom roller blading; it starts slow but keep watching. Oh, sorry about the ads.

Site of the day: Hair Museum, in Independence, Missouri. This woman collects art & objects made or decorated with human hair.

tatting: I finished another bookmark or two. I also decided to include one that I made earlier. So now there are three red, white & blue bookmarks (2 different bookmark patterns), one variegated blue one & one multi-colored one. I have started a variegated red one, too.

dreams: I remember part of one from last night. We were vacationing at a beach resort, somewhere in the Caribbean. Coincidentally, someone that we know from RPGA was also there. We were hanging out & socializing when a wave of almost invisible spirits came sweeping through/past. Everyone could see them and gabbled, trying to figure out what it meant. Then someone looked out the window at where they had come from. Offhshore was this dark, looming, oncoming tornado. There were no cellars, so everyone huddled down together. We put towels and other things over our heads & backs to try & protect them from flying debris.

There was some delay. The storm just paused. It was still there but it was no longer oncoming, as everyone panicked and ran about. Someone got everybody to calm down & we started partying, singing & enjoying ourselves. Immediately the storm started advancing again. It was like it had some sentience & as long as we suffered, it was, not exactly satisfied. Perhaps, savoring?

It swept over us. The eye came over us exactly. It was very fast & I was surprised by how little it seemed to affect us. We weren't pulled up, we barely even swayed. We stayed in place as the eye quickly encompassed us & then passed. After the storm, we looked up and the place was trashed, but still standing.

books: I finished The Way to Glory at lunch. What shall I read next? Shall I re-read something, check my TBR pile or what?

tv: Chris made me watch the last 2 episodes of Coupling (season 3 episode 2 & 3, I think) last night; thank you BBC On Demand (last 4 shows, for free). It's the British version of Friends. Sort of. All I can say is that my utter lack of being able to breathe was all his fault. I was laughing so hard, I literally could not breathe. And since he insisted that I should watch those two episodes; it's all his fault. We started to watch Criminal Minds after that but I just wasn't up to it. I went off to bed & read before going to sleep.

clothes: same shoes, belt, watch & hematite band. Black jeans, paui shell pendant & ring, teal turtleneck (that has some faint purple overdyed splotches, ie laundry accident), multi-color scarf/shawl, & hair twisted up being held by my new hair clip (Bronze Jeweler). It's not a full bun, just a twist to kind of shorten the ponytail.

Busch Gardens: I only rode 2 rides; Corkscrew Hill (in Ireland) & DarKastle (in Germany, I think). They had technical problems with Corkscrew Hill (part of the last scene was green) but it was fun anyway. The only reason I didn't scream during DarKastle was I closed my eyes & breathed. Rosemary screamed once. She went on to ride Alpengeist & Big Bad Wolf, unlike me. Chris rode Griffon & really enjoyed it. I can't understand it myself; 95 foot drop people. 95 feet!

I bought a personalized name pull for Hailey & a glow in the dark charm bracelet. I bought a couple sticker books for Leela. I bought myself a purple & blue teddy bear (one they fill for you, I entertained the gift shop worker, who'd apparently had a very bad day, by telling her that I planned to add bat wings to its back & head to make it an incubus bear. She really needed that laugh, it was half an hour before closing & she was tired). I didn't like any of the ride t-shirts & I really wanted a griffon one. The only DarKastle shirt they had was for kids! I was greatly disappointed.

While I waited for Chris & Rosemary to ride rides, I managed to get conversations with a couple other people waiting. That was interesting.

Other things that we did besides shop & eat: watch the Fright Night show & rode the train. We walked, a lot.

Monday we went to the Jamestown Settlement Museum. That was really cool. They have reconstructed the fort, a Powhatan village & you can go on the three rebuilt ships. I took a lot of pictures. There were two 'guards' who demonstrated matchlock rifles; firing them off. I missed the cannon firings. They told us to plan for 3 hours, we took 5. Afterwards we walked Duncan & vegged out. I also bought postcards for all my family. I bought a Jamestown t-shirt, Chris gave me another one; I also bought a Jamestown commemorative coin/medal and a kit to make a possible bag (probably called that because it could have possibly anything in it). There were a lot of fun kits for sale; weaving, drop spinning, quilt, doll, embroidery, model of Jamestown fort, tiny canoe, etc. It was so hard not to buy one of everything. Except the tatting one. I know how to tat.

Yesterday we went to Historic Jamestown. That's the national park/archeology dig. We had Duncan with us so we went a little slowly. Once again, it's unseasonably hot with temperatures hovering around 90F. We looked at the signs, at the James River (the tide came in while we were walking & suddenly there was this salty fragrance in the air). The heat was hitting Rosemary pretty hard, too, so she & Duncan sat in the shade with some water while Chris & I went into the Archaeolasium, or whatever it's called. That's pretty neat. They have glass panels in the floor so you can see the original structure foundations under the building. They also have some human remains in a special closed off hallway. That way, there's no chance of coming upon them unexpectedly. They've learned a lot from those remains though, especially about those individuals ignored by history.

Last night we did laundry. It was so late by the time that we got back & we were so worn out by the heat that we didn't want to go anywhere else. The laundromat was un-air conditioned though. Blech. Rosemary continued reading Witch Hunter, Chris read Emerald Sea & I worked on my tatting & read a little bit of my Shadowrun book. I read just enough to learn that I had messed up my Short Fix 4.0. So I'll be doing a little of that today.

tatting: I made one leaf, badly, from the autumn leaf bookmark from Tat's Where I Stopped. I've made, badly, Jane's SCMR bookmark & a heart from Tat's Amore. I have updated my tatting blog, though. I posted pictures of my necklace.

clothes: it's been jeans everyday. I wore my new Jamestown t-shirt that Chris gave me yesterday. It's a soft not quite sage green with white edging on the arms, neck & hem (unhemmed knit) with a soft yellow/pink sunrise looking background behind a silhouette of a sailing ship and the words "Jamestown, 1607-2007" on it. Other than that; my burgundy NC Archaeological Society t-shirt and my purple Feat the Four t-shirt. Most of the jeans I've been wearing are black since I only packed one grey/blue pair. I have also been wearing black tennis shoes, my clip watch & usually Celtic jewelry. Not every piece, I've worn chain mail earrings one day.

dream: in a movie/computer simulation of history, with a posse in the Old West pursuing desperados. We're holed up & a shoot out is about to commence as the bad guys arrive. Something goes wrong & I'm suddenly in it. Then things start to repeat and it gets worse. I leave, briefly, to talk to the programmers and when I come back the sheriff tells me that the entire posse died because I wasn't there. I was gone for weeks. He locks me up and complains of a horrible drum beat. Then the fireplace animates and this demon/creature emerges & locks me in a cell with energy bars. When I try them, I get mutated, my hands merge into one bar & my eyes/face relocate to the bar. My mouth also gets sealed shut. Other people, in other history sims are also dumped into the same cell, including one poor guy who's not mutated, he looks like that naturally.

Turns out that the company behind the big computer sim is being foreclosed and their head programmers and board are locked into the simulation too & a virus is causing these problems. They somehow have the papers with them & my bosses look over things & track down the problem.

It ends with the head boss making some speech about how we're all human & made in god's image (seeing that one guy) no matter how that looks.

Hallucinations? For some unknown reason, I woke up & thought I saw light outside my window. I checked my clock, thinking that I had somehow slept through the alarm & was thus running late. Very late. I was more than a bit surprised when I saw that it read something after 4 am. I check the window again, it was dark. So I mentally shrugged, rolled over & went back to sleep. Then when my alarm clock radio did wake me up, I swear it sounded like the weather forecast was for a high of 58F. Since yesterday's high hit about 94F, that seemed unlikely. So I stumbled down to see the tv & check the weather news. The real high was supposed to be near 90F (actually it only hit mid-80's). Odd, huh?

books: I finished Fortune's Stroke. Now I need to find the next book. I read the prologue to Scion: Demigod.

tatting: I loaded the black/brass color Czech faceted beads onto the black size 12 perle. Now I need to decide what pattern to use. I only have 49 beads, I lost one.

writing: I've now written cards to both of my father's sisters. That just leaves 7 more to write.

Chris's game is tonight. I need to clear off the table first. It has the most recent mail and Chris's cds (he's looking for one that's gone missing) all over it.

clothes: black ~slippers (I saw a student wearing an identical pair at lunch), black jeans, lilac polo, almost matching animalrescue site silicon bracelet, fem/dancer ring, flower band, mostly hidden flower fairy pendant, hematite band, butterfly earrings & plaited hair.

News: Robert Jordan died day before yesterday. Now The Wheel of Time series will never be finished.

Morning Commute Soundtrack: It's Raining Men, Get the Party Started, Love Song, Stupid Girls, Don't Let Me Get Me (4 in a row by Pink, huh), Sister Rosetta (Capture the Spirit), You Had Me & I started Pon De Replay when we arrived. I sat somewhere different on the bus & could actually hear my music this morning.

tatting: I finished the heart yesterday on the way home, plus a single ring flower (emptying one shuttle) & emptied the 2nd shuttle by doing a red butterfly. I loaded some beads on some pastel variegated Olympus to make one of Karey's baubles but without reading the pattern. That was a mistake. I started tatting, got through the ring, looked at it without closing & went 'uh, that doesn't look right. Guess what I'll be undoing.

I almost missed the bus this morning. I had to take out the trash, take the recycling to the curb & I tried to forget my id & bus pass. I remembered them after I had locked the door, so I had to unlock it, dash in & get my badge.

Food: Sunbelt has changed the packaging on their Oats and Honey & Chocolate Chip chewy granola bars. My breakfast consists of 4 chewy granola bars; one each of Oat & Honey, Coconut Fudge, fudge dipped Chocolate Chip & Chocolate Chip. Instead of white with colored ends (green for oats & honey and blue for chocolate chip), the ends are more like pantone green & blue (colored but with white dots breaking it up).

We had chicken last night and broccoli. The broccoli had been in the freezer a little too long, but it was still edible. I think that I'll put some of the leftover chicken in the freezer. I'll be having at least one leg for supper tonight.

books: I finished my bedside book, Guards, Guards and I started Magic Lost, Trouble Found last night.

I had to wake up to empty my bladder this morning, one of the reasons that I have a nightlight in my bathroom. As I snuggled back into my still warm covers and started to doze off, I heard something horrifying. My alarm clock going off. My immediate thought 'oh hell, no!' Alas, it was yes.

And all this after having dreams of fighting with the copier. I dreamed that the original was set in place and the pages to be copied had to be fed. The stupid things kept catching and fan-folding on me. Driving me nuts. Of course, my boss is standing there, impatient to get his copies.

clothes: black ~slippers, black slacks, black Origins shirt open over grey floral tank, Celtic knot earrings & ring, Celtic knot star/moon/tree pendant, clip watch, hematite ring & hair in ponytail/bun held by two black hairsticks with brown leather decorative wrappings on the end.

What is with me? I woke at 4 am, hungry enough to eat my left arm. The only thing I could do was get up & get something to eat. Alas, there was nothing ready to eat; I had to fix something. Okay, it only took about 10 minutes; that's enough for me to thoroughly wake up. By the way, the only thing of interest on at 4 am was on TCM. They had a Roy Rogers' movie. Alas, I missed the beginning so I switched over to catch the weather. It's going to be hot. Again. Shock. Surprise.

I finished reading Harmony's Way though. It's a decent read but very explicit. I'm not often comfortable with that level of language.

I've had 5 hours of sleep and I'm tired, even now. I am not quite certain how I'm going to get through the day. I guess we'll just have to see.

I forgot my bus pass yesterday. Luckily the morning driver recognized me & let me on anyway. I realized just as the bus arrived. For the commute home, thought I had the fare, especially since I wasn't catching my usual bus.

Now I'm going to work on a database of the Workbaskets & their contents. Or maybe I'll work on my writing. We'll see.

dream: something about Rosemary, horses, carriage rides and starting a business of 'old-fashioned' carriage rides vs modern? carriage rides.

clothes: black slacks, black belt, ~slippers, white polo (UNC), moonstone earrings, pendant & ring, ~rope band, fem/dancer ring, hematite band & braided hair.

More Women of Ninja Warrior last night. It was the 4th competition & someone finally won. Unsurprisingly, she's a dancer/acrobat. I keep meaning to have my laptop up & online while watching that show to do a search on some of the contestants. A couple of them look really tall, but the winner looked like she was only about 5'.

books: I read (re-read?) more of Simply Unforgettable & I almost finished Falling Awake. I brought Complete Champion to work with me for my commute & lunch reading.

Tatting: it's so hot & humid that I get to one large ring & it refuses to close; thus calling my efforts to a halt. I closed one large ring (last ring of the 1st clover of the pattern), short chain, small ring, short chain & then the large ring refused to completely close. Back into my bag it went.

dream: Richard T (of Lost Goblin) asked a bunch of us to find certain plants/trees for him. I think that it was gaming related. He gave each of us a plastic bag with a sample of the plant & a short description of its growing conditions. I think that I had sassafras; at any rate it had somewhat long, narrow leaves with unusual vein pattern & black berries. I ended up at my family reunion (either granddaddy's or grandmother's side, I don't know which, but grandmother was there - odd considering that she's been dead a few years) looking for the plant. I thought that I found it once, but it had the wrong kind of berries; I concluded that it was a relative of the plant that I was seeking. While I was checking the edge of the yard, one of my younger cousins latched onto my wrist and toddled along with me. Her dad managed to move the (photo?) album on the table right before she ran into it. I felt bad because I hadn't even noticed that she was about to hit it with her head.

clothes: Since I was busy reading, I ran late and just grabbed clothes. Black slacks & slippers, purple Bookwyrm polo (green dragon wearing spectacles reading a large book embroidered on the left breast with 'Bookwyrm' embroidered in yellow above it), moss agate bead bracelet, flower band, flower fairy pendant, hematite band, tri-hoop silver earrings, clip watch & my hair is down for the moment but I may put it up as soon as I locate my hairstick.

Cut my bangs yesterday: As usual, I cut them just a little too short. At least they'll grow out.

Forgotten Realms: Even with Mya as a distraction, we at least got through the fight yesterday. As typical, the wild magic played havoc with our plans (& those of our opponents). Rosemary is doing a good job of taking a module that was written as a tram ride (ride the tram, door opens, you watch stuff happen, your actions mean nothing) and turning it into something playable. We do have the problem that our characters have traveled back into their history so they have some idea what happened and dare not interfere too much. Although they did try to prevent Cyric from becoming the god of death & murder. They failed, as became shockingly obvious in yesterday's game.

Mya: Duncan's reaction was pretty funny. He likes babies because they're about his size & thus they are not intimidating (he overcompensates). However, at one point he was quite vocal and as best we could tell, he was scolding Richard about something. We think it's because he was holding Mya & she was crying. She really doesn't like being put down for her nap.

At some point, everyone at the game but Chris had a turn at holding her. She's fascinated by everything around her and whoever is holding her becomes the focus of her attention. I was holding her while Richard set up the play pen (it folds up to the size of a large fencing bag) and I was watching Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom episode about wolverines. So I would repeat what the show was saying about wolverines, bears, etc while I held her.

books: Read the next volume of Kitchen Princess, #3 & also the most recent Genju no Seiza #4. I'm now re-reading Games of Command. I really want to re-read An Accidental Goddess, but I can't find my copy.

Dreams: another weird one. Saturday night it was a CSI dream. There was an old woman first, but I'm not sure how she was connected. The team was called out to look at a dead body in some kind of wet suit, in a sealed coffin/sensory deprivation tank found floating in the river. It turns out the DB was an addict & the set up was for smuggling. They checked records & this particular addict had been brought in by the same EMT every four weeks for the last [indeterminate period]. It turns out that was also part of the smuggling. The drugs were in the addict, who's kept out of it in the container, floated on the river across the border & then the container is retrieved and then the EMT retrieves the drugs from the addict/mule as part of 'emergency call.' The EMT gets arrested, natch.

Last night's was set in a dystopia. Some government agent had tracked down The Wells Traveling Circus. It turned out that Mr. Wells, who had had the contacts that kept them traveling without getting caught had died; so they had settled in this apartment/brownstone building. The agent, a woman, was going up the stairs, around the ex-performers who are exercising and practicing when she was finally met, near the top, by Mr Wells's assistant. The assistant showed off her hat/wig that she wore for her dance routines in the circus (based on an old friend who was a belly dancer, with the addition of a hat with braids hanging down). The performers would probably be executed for seditious and disloyal behavior (entertaining etc). The acts consisted of everything from a Fat Lady (who had lost a lot of weight since they stopped traveling) to Martial Arts Exhibitionists to Dancers and Acrobats.

Switch to an underground gambling hall, where drudge office workers/drones entertained themselves playing slot machines etc; none of which is permitted by the government (nothing entertainment is permitted - it is a distraction from working all the time). Under the floor of the gambling hall, people try to keep the machines running. I was working on trying to repair an old ticket/lottery machine when the establishment got raided and I had to flee.

I managed to get a ticket on the subway train (in Germany or France) and somehow managed to stretch the ticket to Rushford in England. About that time, my alarm went off.

clothes: navy loafers, khakis, white UNC polo, ~rope band, hematite band, knotwork earrings, star/moon/tree/knotwork pendant & braided hair (white elastic).

Dental visit: I have a small mouth ulcer instead my upper lip on the right (stress & hormones probably). It was a root canal & I'm out of dental insurance for the year. This sucks! And there's a nasty aftertaste that keeps hitting me at unexpected moments. I go back in 3 weeks for the follow-up. No more for me until the new year & my insurance renews.

Oh, & I'm cramping. Less today than yesterday at least.

Family: My Aunt Evelyn called me tonight. What a lovely surprise. We had a lovely talk and once again Chris says that my accent dipped deeply into the South.

Dreams: I woke up from a nightmare this morning, about 4 am or so. I woke up before I got scared. I stayed awake long enough to fix the details in my memory & wrote it down when I woke up later (after daybreak). The situation: about 8 of us stuck in a house of death (haunted it's believed) to disprove it (or something like that). As we are about to leave to pick up photos that one of us had taken the day before, the metal shutters slam shut over the windows & doors. Even that wasn't what woke me. When the haunt/demon/devil thing was about to force me to drink blood – that made me wake up.

Books: I read most of Flirting with Pete by Barbara Delinsky while I waited for my appointment & afterwards. The dentist was running late; it happens.

Tatting: I'm two repeats from having both straps & back done. That will just leave the front area. I've also tatted three butterflies & some flowers, mostly while I was in the dental chair.

TV: catching the CSIs that we missed. Not much else on. Watched a little X-play but I was on the phone for most of it.

Weather redefines hot. Temperatures in the 90's and humidity to match. Being outside for very long is an exercise in endurance.

No internet connection tonight, so I'll be uploading this tomorrow (probably via usb drive). I also need to email that teacher about meeting her to give her the cookbooks.

Clothes: black jeans, belt & slippers; white polor, black tatted earrings & necklace, clip watch, black stone ring, fem ring (seen as a dancer by the dental assistant) & plaited hair.

I have a blog entry for this weekend but I haven't loaded it to blogger yet. I will try to do that tonight.

Meanwhile: Another restless night. I have had vivid dreams the last two nights (& fairly realistic). Last night, what I remember, was influenced by reading the Scion: Hero rulebook. What I remember involved getting the evidence to prove a felony against a college student; named Keith or Kevin. I was worried about having all the documents in one place in case he managed to get his hands on them. The other is one of my co-workers getting a new phone; she was showing it off while we were in the lobby of our new building looking at the damage caused by several of the large square panes of glass/windows falling out/destroyed. When she made a call from the phone later, it somehow caused some of the hexagonal windows/panes of glass to fall out. Because of that, I had to fire her.

I know it doesn't make much sense here. But there was a larger story & it was all connected. I just don't remember the details.

Bus Pass: I managed to lose the badge holder with my work ID & my bus pass. I had it when I got home on Friday. I could not find it this morning. I honestly don't even remember seeing it since Friday. I checked the pocket of the jeans that I wore on Friday (& the ones that I thought that I had worn), the laundry room, the couch, my purse, my pack, etc. No sign of it. I will check again tonight.

clothes: black jeans, ~slippers, polo shirt (Geoff), belt (w/ silvertone buckle); dragon band ring, Celtic knot ring, hematite ring, dragon pendant & earrings; ^ plaited hair.

Weather: Yesterday it was 81F & sunny. Today, it's 47F and raining. Just to add the loveliness, the sudden change in pressure gave me a massive headache (woke up at 2 am to take meds).

dream: I was a vampire (how that happened I don't remember) and as I was out stalking my prey, I found a gang of youths that looked perfect. Except that they were zombies & they were hunting me, not knowing that I was a vampire. The only living creature was someone who made Quasimodo look like a GQ posterboy. So we went looking for meals (blood for me, brains? for the zombies & flesh for the ghouls). We ended up at a high school & things went fine as we munched down on football jocks & cheerleaders (after school, it was night, duh). Then we found some elementary school kids on one of the rooms (age 8ish); they were watching some film or other as a kind of sleepover thing - school related. I couldn't let the zombies & ghouls eat kids, so I fought them off & barricaded the door. I took steps to prevent them from getting in (painting warding symbols on the doors, windows, walls, ceiling & floor). Somehow there were kittens involved but that may simply have been imagery symbolizing the innocence of youth. By that time I had thoroughly infuriated the lead zombie (& the one that I almost ate) and he was determined to munch on those kids. About that time my headache woke me up & I took some heavy painkillers.

After that, I dreamed that I was at some boarding school; one that was very odd. It turned out that it was for 'talented' kids (magic?). There was an incident involving a ghost or spirit of some sort and we ended up accidentally burning down part of the school. Me & the two kids with me (we may have been siblings) were being sent to another school; one that was also set up to handle people with our talents.

Stuff: To add to my fun, as I was disembarking the bus (& wishing the driver a good & safe day), I slipped. I slid/slipped down the bus steps until I was seated on the last one, with my feet out the door. My backside is bruised but everything else seems to have escaped injury.

This evening I'm not going home, I'm meeting Chris, Rosemary & others for David's birthday supper. Since I don't have a car, I'm taking the bus to that part of town & waiting for someone to get me from there.

book: Finished the book I brought with me yesterday and started The Service of the Sword (Worlds of Honor #4). I also brought along another book, A Fine Passion (one of the Bastion Club series) because I have a long bus ride this afternoon.

clothes: tall, black boots, brown velour broomstick skirt, navy turtleneck, navy cord vest embroidered with flowers, paui shell pendant & ring, flower band, fem-power band, and blue bead & silver heart dangly earrings. My hair is up in a ponytail & braided because it got so very tangled yesterday in the ponytail, I decided not to go through that today.

cold: Thanks to the fact that I'm sick again, I've had to cancel my platelet donation on Friday. That really bums me out. Yesterday I started coughing, too, a wet, hacking one.

dream: One of the things I dreamed about, I was in bed but I could see a road. The road was very wet, with standing water. I saw two police cars headed towards me & a small car away from me. For some reason, the departing car, with 3 young men in it, was going over the line, in a zig-zag. I remember thinking that they must be doing it to avoid the standing water, and just as they passed the 1st police car they hydroplaned right into the 2nd police car, almost a 't'. It went out of control and hit the 1st one, pretty much destroying it. The small car came to a stop on the side of the road, maybe after rolling. The policemen were not happy with the three young men. I came forward, a little reluctantly I admit, and told them what I saw.

One of the other dreams, involved Rosemary explaining to David R about a recent Living Greyhawk game that we'd played. It was part of a larger storyline and the recent adventure involved saving the lives of the leaders of X (I don't remember what). We didn't like the leader but we did like his 2nd in command (& successor). Unfortunately, we couldn't save one without the other. Chris was adding that there was a whole...mythology (he meant backstory) to it. Rosemary was trying to explain without going into so many details that it would bore David. She ended by saying the game was so exciting & tense that she was wound up like Mike (M, in MD).

books: I've tried reading Bridge to Yesterday before. Yesterday I finished it. I don't remember why I stopped reading it the last time. It's a pretty good book. Then I bought & read The Trouble with Witches. It's the 3rd Abby & Ophelia mystery. I'm continuing to read Shelters of Stone but for the commute (& lunch) read I brought Paid Companion to re-read.

clothes: Green/black Harrington steading polo, black slacks, black belt (with silver buckle, I'm finally small enough to wear it again), black knee-highs, black sequin/bead flats, malachite & silver bracelet & ring (which is a little large on me now), black stone ring, quartz point 'feather' pendant on long silver chain, & feather & quartz chip earrings. Hair's in a ponytail for lack of anything better.

cold I'm still suffering but I've not needed to take any meds since Wednesday (yay Alavert). I'm just tired and my ears hurt from the pressure (& not popping).

Neat website: It's a click to donate site called Poverty Fighters. It provides funds for microloans, mostly in 3rd world countries, but not entirely. By helping people help themselves, it provides long term poverty relief. They also have a bunch of the success stories. Most of the organizations have a 99% loan repayment rate. Isn't that spiff. Starting Monday, if you read this & decide to visit, click on the UNC-CH button. It's part of a contest between colleges; winner gets a speaker or a benefit concert.

books: read Lynsay Sands latest, Bite Me If You Can & Tongue in Chic by Christina Dodd. Now I'm reading further in The Pillow Book by Sei Shonagon.

almost a nightmare: I had one dream that started to go nightmarish, luckily I woke myself up before that happened. The other dream I mostly remember. It was very horror-movie-esque. As some very posh or elite school, the science teacher said that sharks won't eat rubber tires, or maybe the tires kill the sharks; either way he assigned his students to find out why or to find a solution. One of his prize students somehow developed a shark that could 'swim' through land (it was very ghostly). It detected weight & was smart enough to tell when you got up on something (it got heavier). It could also smell blood that dropped on the ground. What really attracted it was love (hey, it's a dream). The girl who developed it was the first known victim (there may have been another, earlier victim), so no one knew how to stop it. The rest of the dream was one of her classmates trying to stop it, without anyone else dying. Unfortunately, there was an explosion on the school lab which destroyed more information (& killed 2 more classmates). In the end, the shark was stopped when he ate another classmate, who had a bag full of jewels on her.

clothes: black slacks, black suede shoes, black turtleneck, dark teal ~silky blouse, paui shell pendant on long silver rope chain, black stone ring, silver dome ring, 3-layer texture metal & elephant earrings (keep trying to lose the right one), & loose hair (for the first time in weeks).

Sun December 3
clothes: black jeans, socks (it's cold!), loafers, & 2002 MepaCon tee (front: MepaCon 'bird' & back: “ooh, looks dangerous, you go first!”). I've washed my hair, so it's loose. For jewelry, I went with my rainbow moonstone trimoon pendant, moonstone ring, ~rope band, Celtic knot ring, & fem-power ring (vaguely Willendorf). The sole of left loafer is trying to come off. I may braid my hair later, using my Celtic knot ponytail holder.

I dreamed about gaming, English history & my friends last night. Did you know that yaua yarn is Keoland home region access only. There was something about King Henry & King John (Lackland) of England & how many kids they each had.

Rosemary had a dream about gaming, too. But her dream was funnier than mine. But it's all in-joke so not funny to others.

Books: in the morning, while waiting for others to finish preparing for the day, I've been reading Watchers in the Night by Jenna Black (autographed). It's a vampire romance & very different. The protagonists were very much in love & were going to be married 3 years ago. He disappeared, because he'd been turned into a vampire. I haven't gotten very far but so far I like it.

Tatting: I started the first angel from Mark Myers book of angels. I think I screwed it up. But then, I was gaming at the same time, so my distraction is understandable.
Still no internet connection here, so it will probably be tomorrow before I'm able to upload these notes.

Con: The author ran our mod & it was fun.