June 18th, 2002

It seems to me that I dreamed on and on this morning, or last night. There is also that familiar sensation that I'm forgetting important details. Yet, one scene sticks out. I'm taking a road trip to North Carolina. It is in the evening (as it was when I recently went) and I have to stop for some supplies. I pick up the usual -- water, some food, but also end up with a couple books and other things that I don't recall.

The dream has a weird consistency here. I had forgotten to buy the books at whichever store I picked them up -- though I had bought everything else. The theft system failed to go off, thereby not reminding about my error. (Now here's where the consistency gets weird.) It is when I'm buying more things, in another store, that I make this realization; and the books are in my cart again.

I realize that when I brought them in, this store's system did not go off either. Probably, I have a couple free books! The thought make me happy. However, since they are in the cart with other groceries, I wonder if the clerks at this store will try to scan them. I decide that I will act distracted, waiting to see what happens. If they can scan it, I will pay for them here. If they can't, I will mention that they are my books, which I brought with me.

Note that this hasn't any correlation in real life -- save for the fact that I'm always taking a book with me somewhere. I haven't accidentally forgotten to pay for anything. (Have I?) Though, spending so much on books, I've certainly had occasion to wish they were free.

My distraction: There is a newspaper and a man on the front page. It is the 2nd time, in this dream, I've seen his picture; though, in the dream, it is spaced out over a couple days. The man on the front page is making headlines everywhere for his controversial art. This particular photo is a head shot of a more complete picture. He is naked and bald, covered in white paint. The white is canvas. On top of that he is covered with short broad strokes of paint -- maybe done with a think brush. It looks like oil paints -- textured that way. And every broad stoke is either true red, blue or green. (Don't forget enough green in your mind.) Staring at the page, the visual effect is stunning.

It seems to me that this guy has a real taste for art, and I like it a lot. It's not at all like some artists who I think are shocking for the sake of being shocking. And he is only nude, for God's sake! Someone tell me, are we heading into the future or the past? And at which end are we more progressive and happy anyway?

All of my groceries are scanned now and the clerk is ready with my total. (Probably) on the local news, I see a breaking story about a land collapse on I-75. I ask her about it. She tells me (not writing the details her, which I can't remember) there was a huge collapse of land by the Interstate, close to the lake. (In my dream, in NW Florida, almost where Jacksonville is and continuing west to I-75 there is a huge lake.) I'm not sure I even understood how this happened in the dream, or if it made real sense, but the ground gave way may to the west of the Interstate. That allowed the lake to suddenly expand west, collapsing the highway, and killing many, many people.

Another interesting note about this is that, in my dream, it is very cold now. The clerk tells me, "The whole thing is covered in a solid block of ice." The water now covering the remains of I-75 had frozen into a massive wall. Talking more with her, she tells me this happened around 2am -- several hours after I had passed the area, fortunately! Then it occurs to me, suddenly, that Mom will be terribly worried, and has somehow managed to hear about this despite it still being early morning.

In the dream I don't have a cell phone or calling card -- apparently -- because I ask the woman if I can use her phone. "You wouldn't happen to have a phone around here that I could borrow, would you?" Everyone is compassionate to one another in the midst of tragedy. Aren't they? They should be at least; but she tells me that there is one, and I can't use it for long distance. I'll have to use the pay phone. The shock of her indifference to Mom's worry makes me angry. I tell her that I don't have an entire pocket of quarters for a long distance call on the pay phone. "This is the 21st century, isn't it? Why can't we just get this fixed? I only want to make a quick long distance call!"

My resolution was to wake up, apparently. I don't remember anything beyond that. It's an interesting theme though. My whole life, I've had reoccurring dreams about water -- and more specifically giant waves. This finally occurred to me the night before last when I had another one. This morning's dream seems similar. Not the collapsing land perhaps, but the solid wall of ice that covered the Interstate. I wonder what it means to me?