Loan Shark Murder, Otherworldly Ocean, and Roller Blades

While Keegan is the one who sparked the idea of starting the blog back up, he's only partially responsible. The real reason it's started back up is the dream(s) I had last night. I woke up twice from the adrenaline, and decided enough's enough. Blog is coming back from the dead. Plus, I think I remember almost everything from the dream(s), so it's a pretty good time to start.

I was walking home with a man who was my boyfriend in the dream, but who is not Jake. Boyfriend owed a loan shark about $40k, and we were coming back from somewhere having just obtained the last $10k. Since he was about to pay off the debt, we were in a rather jubilant mood.
As we approached Boyfriend's house*, we noticed a carriage/truck (like that van that Jasper and Horace have in 101 Dalmatians, but maroon) outside.

*The house was one story, stucco, in suburbs that looked like they belong in England more than the US. There was a bay window that looked in on the kitchen, and the kitchen light was on. There were red curtains (open), and the house was yellow-tan. There was a wrought iron fence out front, adjacent to the sidewalk and only a few feet from the front of the house. Between the house and the fence were some holly bushes. There was a small gate opening on the walkway to the front door, which was on the left side of the house. Neighboring houses were set apart, so there were small yards, separated by the same wrought iron fences.

As we reached the gate to walk in, a rather large man walked out from behind the truck. He was probably 6'4'' and built like an ox. He was also unfortunately the loan shark.
"I hope you've got my money"
"I've got $10k here and the rest is inside." *hands over the $10k*
The three of us walked inside.
"I don't understand, it was right here."
Loan shark laughs, turns to walk out.
"Maybe you shouldn't keep $30k laying on the kitchen table. Someone might take it. I expect to have the balance tomorrow."
Boyfriend's face turns angry as he realizes the loan shark had broken in earlier and taken the $30k, and was still expecting Boyfriend to hand over all $40k at once.  ((Loan shark is a total sleazy, dirty rotten bastard, but what else would you expect from a loan shark? I really can't convey enough how awful this guy was.))
Boyfriend is rather slim, and is maybe half the size of loan shark, but $40k is a lot of money, and he's angry. I had never seen this side of him before, so I back away as I'm currently between the two of them.
Boyfriend flies into a rage and attacks Loan Shark. Loan Shark starts to beat the shit out of Boyfriend, he turns and runs out the door, down the street. Loan Shark follows at a slower pace. He's not one to give up on a fight he's winning. I (for whatever insane reason) follow them. Probably a misguided hope to break up the fight and come up with a solution.
Boyfriend turns a corner into an alley where a dog is sleeping on one of those industrial sized recycling bins behind a fence. One of his front paws is sticking through a hole in the fence. Boyfriend pauses to stroke the paw and the dog wakes up. That brief pause was enough for Loan Shark to catch up to Boyfriend. Loan Shark has Boyfriend cornered now (apparently it's a dead end alley, Boyfriend should know that, he lives in this neighborhood). Loan Shark starts taunting Boyfriend, they both know this is going to end with Boyfriend dead and beat to a pulp. Dog starts growling.
Turns out Dog loves Boyfriend, but can be vicious when provoked.
Growling increases as Loan Shark moves toward Boyfriend.
Dog launches himself at Loan Shark and brutally rips him to pieces. Blood everywhere.
I've had enough. I don't know who Boyfriend is, I don't know where this dog came from or what it's really like, I just saw a guy ripped to shreds, I am out of there.
Boyfriend doesn't notice I leave, don't even know if he knows I saw what happened.
I run toward town. Wasn't my problem, don't know how I let myself get wrapped up in it, and I certainly don't want to deal with the aftermath.
---
Dream cuts to me run/walking (running is exhausting) through downtown, some play/musical is letting out so there are people walking home/ hailing taxis. There is a couple that I am acquainted with, and they catch sight of me. He doesn't say much and is really there as more of a prop than a personality. The woman is that character from movies who is always encouraging the protagonist to follow her and she'll help them out, but she's really just a terrible influence-- think Cruella ((I swear I haven't seen 101 Dalmatians lately, it's just such a perfect reference to help describe what this dream was like.)). Let's just call this lady Cruella, even though she wasn't her. Cruella begs me to get in the car with them. She's a bit drunk so I'm sure she's not even going to remember seeing me. I do the polite thing and tell her I'm just on my way to somewhere and it was so nice to see her.

I turn the corner at the end of the street and I'm in front of a large 3 story Victorian house with a massive yard.

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That's where the first dream ends. I have a suspicion that the second dream is a continuation of the first, but since I don't know how I got from out front of the Victorian house to the ocean, I'm breaking them into two.
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At the start of the second dream, I'm sitting with a group of friends, all guys, none of them are real-life people. We're sitting on the ground, looking at pamphlets describing all the nature trails that are nearby. The ground is paved with those 8" square paving stones, it's perfectly flat and goes on forever out toward the ocean. The whole area has an otherworldly feel, the sky isn't quite the right color and the ocean is too calm. There are people out by the edge looking over the railing watching the water. More to the right and away from the coastline are some gardens that transition into forest farther back.
The area where we're sitting is gazebo-esque- it has a roof, but it's larger than a gazebo- pavilion maybe? It's also made of stone.
I flip through the pamphlet and decide I'm going to go look at the succulent forest. I let the guys know and they're a bit concerned- how will you get there, you can't go by yourself. It's only a quarter mile away, and I don't really want to keep hanging out with these guys. I'm feeling on edge and like I need to keep moving. I end up convincing them to let me go on my own, and wander off.
I think part of the uneasy feeling is because the whole place feels unnatural and I don't really know how I got there.
I wandered off toward the ocean to see how far the paved area goes, and it looks like it goes a pretty long way down the coast. I turn more inland and take the trail to the succulent forest. It was pretty quick to get to, and was really pretty. The trees overarced each other and made a small enclosed garden-like area with succulents tucked in everywhere.

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That's pretty much all I remember from that dream. There were two more last night, but I don't remember enough of them to make them worth writing up in much detail, but here's what I've got:

Number 3 involved being asked to prom by yet another dream person. I was really excited and had a dress that wasn't really a prom dress.

Number 4- Roller blades were a legit way to get around. I was walking somewhere and somebody had roller blades on. The next day after work Coworker#1 had rocket powered roller blades that they used to get to their car. Made sense, since the parking lot was full when they got there that morning so they had to park down the street in an empty lot. I was walking out to my car with Coworker#2 and he told me that Coworker#1 might lose his job since he hadn't been very interested in what was going on at work lately. I came to Coworker#1's defense since we were friends and said that he probably just had a lot going on at home and couldn't focus, but that just because someone's going through a tough time that's not an excuse to fire them. I was sure Coworker#1 would get back to normal soon enough. Dream-me made a mental note to give Coworker#1 a heads-up when I could- if Coworker#2 was talking about it, there was a decent chance that it might be true and I'd hate for Coworker#1 to lose their job.

And that's everything! Pretty good day to start back up on.
(Or bad, since I woke up from the dreams twice and felt emotionally drained most of the day, but I guess watching a brutal dog mauling/murder will do that to you.)

Party at Weggies

Had two dreams the other day that were related.

In the first one, James and I got dropped off at the grocery store by our moms for whatever reason.  After we were done shopping (I assume, although we didn't have any bags with us), we went back out to wait for our ride to pick us up.  It was cold and snowy and gross out, and I was going to go back and wait in the lobby-ish area, when James noticed that the car we were standing next to was unlocked.  He was like, no, look, we can wait in this car.  He walked around to the driver's side and got in.  I was torn between waiting with him and walking back across the slushy parking lot to the store, and gave in and got in the car with him.  Somehow he got it started (with no key and no hot-wiring) and started driving off in it.  I yelled at him that he couldn't steal a car, and he was all, 'Amanda, you're no fun.'  He turned back around and parked the car in a different parking space from where we found it.

That would seem to be the end of the dream, but given that the second one also took place at the grocery store, I feel like it was more of a prequel dream.

In the second dream, I was wandering around the grocery store (which I'm just assuming is Weggies, since it's kind of the best grocery store) with Sheree and Jake.  We came across a whole bunch of other people there.  I guess we must have been meeting up just to hang out, but were buying lunch from Weggies and eating it there?  Not entirely sure.  Anyway, there were a ton of people, including Belinda, Aleeza, James, etc. all sitting together at a table meant for not as many people as were sitting at it, and I'm pretty sure we were all just waiting for our parents to come pick us up.

Woop-woop!

Last Thursday (I think):

I had a dream (got to think of a better way to start this) where Jake and I had made plans to meet up with some people at an ice cream parlor.  We got there earlier than the people we were supposed to meet, so we got some milkshakes and sat down at a booth.  Because of how the place was structured, the people we were meeting didn't see us when they came in and sat at the booth behind ours.  We could hear what they were talking about, and heard them mention poisoning us.  Apparently we knew something we shouldn't know, and they needed to get rid of us.  Jake and I looked at each other and silently agreed that we needed to get out of there without them noticing, and fast.  We slowly crept out of our booth and made a dash for the other side of the restaurant.  When we were halfway there, the people we were meeting (who I have a vague feeling were Jake's aunts) started shooting at us, so we took off running.  

I assume we lost them, but I don't remember the middle part where we got away, but I know this next part is part of the same dream.

It picks up with me in the car with my dad and Kevin, and I'm driving.  I'm ranting to them about what happened at the restaurant, so I'm distracted, and run a red light.  As I run it, I hear the woop-woop of the police car that is two cars back.  I swear, and pull up on the sidewalk on the left side of the street (one way street, two lanes, sidewalks on both sides, so only place to pull over is on the sidewalk so traffic can go around) to wait for the cop to make it through the light.  As I'm waiting, I pull out my license and registration to get ready for the cop.  When the light changes, the cop pulls up behind me, other cars honk angrily.  The lady cop gets out of her car, and I roll down the window.  Instead of coming up to the car, she starts climbing up the fire escape of the building I pulled up next to.   I wait a few minutes for her to do whatever she's doing (messing with traffic cams?), but she doesn't come down for like ten minutes, so I just drive off.  There was a lot of traffic, and I was still trying to escape/get away from the ladies from the ice cream parlor.

I feel like the area I was driving through was India or something, because it kind of reminded me of Aladdin- the clotheslines going across the streets between buildings, they're all kind of clay and steel, and things are colorful.  But it's the same city as the ice cream parlor was in, and I have no idea where Jake went.  The drivers seat was on the left, just like in America (not sure what side of the road they drive on in India, so maybe it's not India, since I've never been there).

Holy vivid dreams, Batman!

Yesterday:
Dream 1:
I had parents, but they were different than my real parents.  The house was different too, although I was the same.  The 'parents' were fostering other kids, and 'mom' was paranoid about something and decided that everyone had to pack everything up and that we were going to move the next day.  I was like, ok, but I doubt we can get everything packed overnight.  So I went upstairs to my room and opened my closet.  Unlike other children, my closet was not full of clothes.  It was full of books.  Text books and reading for fun books and kid's books.... all sorts.  That meant that they wouldn't pack up easily since they were different sizes, and after taking a half hour to pack one box up, I went back downstairs and was like, yeah, this isn't going to happen.  That's all I remember of that dream.
Dream 2:
I was in a tiny powder blue four door car, like a Yaris or something.  I was traveling somewhere with Belinda, James, Mike and someone else.  I know there were five of us because Belinda and James were in the back seat, there was someone in the passenger's seat, and I was driving, and then Mike showed up and we squished him in between the driver & passengers seats.  We got to wherever we were going, and found a parking spot.  It was one of those ones that are at the edge of a parking lot by the grass.  The grass led to this really steep hill, and at the bottom of the hill was the building we were going to.  After whatever it was that we were attending was over, James, Belinda and I went back to the car (dunno what happened to Mike and the other person).  But now we were more or less parked in.  There were giant SUVs or Hummers or something on both sides, close enough that the doors could only open like three inches.  Maybe four.  The stupid tiny car didn't have a back hatch we could crawl through, so our options were waiting, or magic.  The dream chose magic, and somehow James got me and Belinda in the backseat, and then got in the front seat himself, calling the two of us idiots and acting all James-like.  Then we drove away, but I feel like we were also possibly being chased by bad guys, because I have a vague recollection of zooming through the parking lot and taking a corner on two wheels, but that might have just been how James drives.

Last night:
Dream 1:
Shit.  I remembered this.  I even took three snapshots of different parts of the dream in my head so I could remember the whole thing.  Now I don't.  I was all proud of myself too, until I fell back asleep and had Dream 2.  And apparently Dream 2 made it so I forgot my snapshots of Dream 1.

Dream 2:
I don't know what happened, but it was disturbing enough to make me get out of bed.

4 dreams...

First up is a dream I had several days ago and have just been too lazy to write up.  Then are three that I had last night.

1.
I was somewhere, maybe some camp or something, and there was this old kind of creepy guy.  There was a little bridge, like the kind you get to go over the storm water in your back yard garden, or the type they use for crossing over at boy scouts or girl scouts.  It was sitting in front of a small pond, and on the other side was a little gazebo thing that was partially enclosed.  There was some pretty dense bushes in the general area from the 2nd half of the pond back past the gazebo.  There were little pumpkins scattered on the ground.
The guy told me to pick a pumpkin and take it into the gazebo, and that then I could talk to the spirit of the rabbit that was living in the pumpkin.  So I picked a pumpkin, and went down one of the paths that led to the back of the gazebo, and set it down on a railing, and I found out about the life of some random bunny.

...which reminds me of another dream:
1.5
At some point in the past couple of weeks, I had a dream that Pinto, a.k.a. Bunny had died, and I was so, so, so sad.  And then I was all, "Oh no! Girl Bunny! [a.k.a. Millie] she must be so sad too!"  And then I went and cuddled with Girl Bunny and kept being sad about Bunny dying. :(

2.
First dream from last night:
There was a bag of clothes that were ready to be donated to the Salvation Army that were sitting on a chair by the front door.  On the back of the chair was one of my favorite jackets that I was going to wear.  I went to the closet to look for a scarf to wear, and dad went and took the bag and the jacket and took it without me knowing.  Then I had to find a different jacket to wear and follow dad to the GIANT Salvation Army store, where they had already put it on a rack.  So then I had to dig through all the racks to try and find it.  Dunno if I ever did though, because then it switched to the next dream.

3.
I was at a used bookstore with mom, and had a sudden need to find a very particular book.  It was a book that I apparently already owned, but that I needed to buy again (dunno, dreams are weird).  Of course, I didn't know the title, author, or what it was about, just a vague idea of what the cover looked like and that it was a hardcover book.  I started climbing on tables and looking through every single bookshelf trying to find it.  Unable to find it, we went home, where I went to my bookshelf and found it and pulled it out.  It looked nothing like what I had been describing.  Then we were in a car going somewhere, but I don't know where, because then the next dream happened.

4.
I was in charge of this carwash with like two other people.  At this carwash, kids would come to drop off the cars, and I was responsible for keeping track of what kid went with which car, and also entertaining the kids while their cars were being washed.  Dunno where all the adults were.
So I had this little book of different activities that we could do, and of course the kid (who has a dog), wants to do some weird coin toss game, so I had to run around trying to find the coin toss things.  I couldn't find them, so I conferred with one of the people who was helping to run it, and she didn't know where the stuff was.  So I had to go back to the kid and explain that he couldn't do that activity.  Then he got sad, and sat on the ground, and his dog got kind of angry, and started gnawing on my hand.  It wasn't painful or anything, just kinda.. weird.  Then I woke up.