Amble Pier by Jim Donnelly (FCC)
“I wish you could live in my brain for a week. It is washed with the most violent waves of emotion . . . And you think it all fixed and settled. Do we then know nobody?—only our own version of them, which, as likely as not, are emanations from ourselves.” ~ Virginia Woolf to Vita Sackville West,1926
Wednesday afternoon. Hazy but not quite as hot.
I had very vivid dreams last night. In the first, I was in the midst of a CSI episode, one in which the main character was Gil Grissom. I stopped watching the show after William Peterson left as he made the show (in my opinion). Anyway, the entire cast was there, and the earth was literally cracking—massive waves, the ground opening up and swallowing large masses of people. We were moving quickly, trying to stay ahead of the devastation. At one point, we got on an escalator, which in my mind in the dream did not make sense since the electricity should not have been working. Lots of running and screaming all around me, but I was fairly calm. Weird, very weird.
The other dream involved my dad. He told my mom that he was going to the grocery store, and I jumped in the car with him. It was our old VW bug. But he wasn’t really going to the grocery store; instead, he was going to visit his friend who owned a gas station/small convenience store. He wanted to have a beer with him, and I ruined his plan by jumping in the car. He went anyway and left me in the car for a few minutes while he visited with all of his friends at the convenience store.
He left the car running, and it began to roll backwards. I pulled up the emergency brake, and it stopped rolling. My dad came out and asked me what happened, and I told him. He asked me to go into the store with him to help him carry something. He had bought two large glass containers that were etched on the outside. They were both over two feet tall. I was certain that my mother would hate them. On the way home, he told me that he really wanted to open a gas station with a small convenience store.
Suddenly, my mother was in the car, and she and I were arguing because I told her that I wanted to go home. My dad was in the passenger’s seat, and he had his old machete. He waved it in the air and told both of us to stop fighting. We didn’t.
I wanted to go home because I suddenly realized that I hadn’t turned in the last two assignments in one of my classes, and I hadn’t asked for an incomplete, so I was going to fail the class. I really needed to call my professor to tell her what had happened. My mother kept bitching at me.
Strangely enough, I did not wake up with a headache.
“We can spend our lives letting the world tell us who we are. Sane or insane. Saints or sex addicts. Heroes or victims. Letting history tell us how good or bad we are. Letting our past decide our future. Or we can decide for ourselves. And maybe it’s our job to invent something better.” ~ Chuck Palahniuk
Dreaming about my dad is a very bittersweet experience. Almost always, the dreams are fairly realistic, as in he’s acting like my dad, and he looks and sounds like my dad. You know how sometimes in dreams people take on different voices or mannerisms? This never happens with my dad. But one thing that I have noticed is that in the most recent dreams, my mother is almost always with my dad. I’m not sure why that is.
I haven’t spent much time with my mother lately, and I feel guilty about that. I also haven’t visited my other m-in-law in a while, and I feel guilty about that as well. My ability to heap guilt upon myself is limitless and always has been. I probably would have made a great Puritan during the colonial period: hard work and guilt being my primary driving forces.
All would have been well, that is until I spoke my mind, and then I probably would have been burned as a witch. That whole timid female thing? Definitely not me.
I do wonder why I still have dreams about school. Usually, my stress dreams involve an algebra class that I have forgotten to go to all semester, and suddenly, it’s time for the final exam. But this time it was a sociology class, and I even recalled the name of my old professor in the dream—Dr. Dixie Dickinson. Isn’t that a strange detail to recall after all of these years?
I remember that she was one of my favorite professors, and that I took two classes that she taught because I enjoyed her so much.
“But when we reach the end of the pier of everything we know, we find that it only takes us part of the way. Beyond that all we see is uncharted water. Past the end of the pier lies all the mystery about our deeply strange existence . . .” ~ David Eagleman
The quote? New author. Hence the pier theme. Seemed appropriate.
You know how yesterday I was so proud of the fact that we had no car trouble during our Ohio road trip? I should have known not to brag. The Rodeo broke down on Corey on his way home from school last night. Seems it wasn’t just the battery that went, but the alternator as well. Mike and Alexis brought Corey home, and surprise! Alexis let Corey borrow her new car to get to work last night for his second shift.
I felt so sorry for my poor hubbie yesterday. It was an endless parade of crappola in which he was the major participant: First shift his relief arrives an hour and a half late. He gets home with just enough time to change clothes and go to school. On the way home from school, the car dies. He has to be back at work at 11 p.m. This morning he woke me around 8:30 just to talk. He had been up over 24 hours, this after driving 12 hours on Sunday night/Monday morning.
At the moment, he is sound asleep, waiting for Mike to get home from work. Thankfully, Mike offered to help Corey change the alternator, which saves us the labor charge. Then tonight Corey has to go back to work at 11 p.m.
So all of my boasting about this being the best road trip ever came back to bite me in the ass. Fate has a very warped sense of humor. The rental car was a dream, but the Rodeo is another story. At least we didn’t try to drive the Rodeo to Ohio and have these breakdowns happen on the way there or on the way home. Just saying . . .
“Stripped of words, untamed, the universe pours in on me from every direction. I become what I see. I am earth, I am air. I am all. My eyes are suns. My hair streams among the galaxies.” ~Steven Millhauser, Dangerous Laughter: Thirteen Stories
I have come to a few conclusions. Let me share:
- Our house is very crowded when filled with five people. I don’t remember it feeling this crowded before.
- I’m very fortunate to be married to a man who still has dreams about the future.
- In this country, the rich are now referred to as “job creators” (per Jon Stewart). Are we supposed to be able to swallow the bitter pill that allows the rich more tax breaks than the middle class if they aren’t called rich?
- I do not want to live to be so old that I merely exist. That is not living.
- I’m chewing my fingers again, which is a sure sign that I’m stressed without even realizing it.
- I have felt old since I was young.
- I try not to make fun of Mormons, but it’s so hard.
- Coffee should always be served hot and strong.
- When I was younger, I gave my heart to people who did not deserve it, but in so doing, I gradually learned to be more discerning.
- Given the choice, I would choose more land and a smaller house as opposed to a bigger house and less land.
- Salt air holds magical powers of rejuvenation.
- I would prefer wall-to-wall bookcases over expensive furniture.
- Something about Oregon is appealing.
- My life has an omnipresent soundtrack, real and imagined.
- I am still very self-conscious and feel like an ugly duckling when I am in large groups of people.
- I have gotten to a point in my life in which a self-propelling vacuum is on my list of things I desire.
- I still desire sunlight, moon glow, cool winds, the heady scent of gardenias, lilac, and fresh rosemary, sweet fresh peaches, hot tea at dusk, beautiful books, and the sound of waves hitting the shore.
- I lost myself somewhere along the way, but I am slowly finding my way to a different state of being, one that trusts in myself more and harbors less resentment for past ills.
- I am ageless—simultaneously old and young—and this I can accept.
- When I run out of things to say, I can always find the perfect words from someone else:
“We shall not cease from exploration,
and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started
and know the place for the first time.”
~ T.S. Eliot
More later. Peace.
Music by Cee Lo Green, “What Part of Forever”
Last night as I was sleeping
Last night as I was sleeping,
I dreamt—marvelous error!—
that a spring was breaking
out in my heart.
I said: Along which secret aqueduct,
Oh water, are you coming to me,
water of a new life
that I have never drunk?
Last night as I was sleeping,
I dreamt—marvelous error!—
that I had a beehive
here inside my heart.
And the golden bees
were making white combs
and sweet honey
from my old failures.
Last night as I was sleeping,
I dreamt—marvelous error!—
that a fiery sun was giving
light inside my heart.
It was fiery because I felt
warmth as from a hearth,
and sun because it gave light
and brought tears to my eyes.
Last night as I slept,
I dreamt—marvelous error!—
that it was God I had
here inside my heart.
~ Antonio Machado (Trans. Robert Bly)
Lola's Curmudgeonly Musings 
Lita – You’re just so cool…. I’m glad that Cory finally got some sleep – and you didn’t have to worry about the car on the trip (somebody had intuition enough to choose the rental car!) And that the dreams of your mother yelling at you didn’t give you a headache…
I, too, dreamt last night, but I don’t remember one thing from the dream. I woke and was searching for pieces and clues of it, but one of the cats was obviously after a bug or something under the bed. I got up and took the flashlight and moved the container of wrapping paper under the bed – and got to see a lizard’s tail disappear under the bookshelf… Unfortunately, I doubt that lizard will be getting out alive. I’d rescue him and release him if I could… But there have been 3 vigilant cats keeping guard most of the day. How did he get in? I think one of the A/C ducts has come loose a bit. It’s about 2 weeks until we’re due for the service. Why don’t they tie wrap them on or something? I mean, I don’t mind lizards, but what it something else came in? Like a poisonous spider????
So, there went my memory of my dream. Funny how intricate dreams can be, and how they can evolve into something else so quickly.
I suggest that you add to your list of conclusions (which I love) about wall to wall bookcases, that they are elevated off the floor an inch or two so you can vacuum under there – or catch lizards. LOL.
Leah,
I used to be afraid of lizards when I was a child. When we were in the Philippines, lizards would freely roam the walls at night, and it freaked me out. Now, I think that they are very cool. We never get any in the house, but we do get some around the pool occasionally.
As for elevating the bookcases, that would mean yet another part of the house to vacuum . . .
It’s funny how some dreams come back so easily, and some disappear as soon as the fog in your brain clears.