Dream Journal 4/9/19 | Welcome to the Jungle

The family and I were driving down a busy highway, with a trailer hitched to the Jeep, and all of our stuff piled in the back.

Dream Journal 7/29/17 | Tornado

I was on my way home, driving down the backroads in my town, when it suddenly started getting very dark outside. I looked out my window, and could see funnel clouds forming and touching town in the fields on all sides of my vehicle. They were pretty far from me, but I could see them tearing trees out of the ground, and throwing vehicles and debris through the air. I pulled over, and started taking pictures of the funnel clouds, and the destruction they were causing. Within minutes, the tornadoes funnels were closing in on me, and I ran back to my vehicle, and sped off.

I got back to my house, which resembled my childhood home in many ways, and grabbed Kyle and Liam. I told them that the tornadoes were on their way, and told them we had to get into the basement. Kyle informed me that we didn’t have a basement, but I ignored him, because I was tearing a grate up from the living room floor, and digging into the flooring, which had kind of turned into rock and dirt. I dug for a few minutes, all while excitedly telling Kyle about the pictures I took to send in to our local storm chasers, before breaking through the flooring, and into a small tunnel, barely enough to slide into. I climbed in, and kept digging furiously, until the dirt walls crumbled away, and opened up to a large, underground room, that kind of resembled a dungeon.

Kyle and Liam crawled into the hole after me, and joined me under the house. The walls of the room were made of stone, and despite being underground, and under the house, there were large, glassless, barred windows on the walls, and wiry grates above us, where we could see the outside. I could hear the rumbling and howling of nearby tornadoes, and ran over to a bunker door at the far end of the dungeon room. I opened it, and called Kyle and Liam over. On the other side of the room was a short set of stairs, which led to a massive, underground bunker, that resembled a library, or some kind of mancave.

The room was warmly furnished, and looked clean, despite what I expect was years and years of neglect. There was a roaring fire in the fireplace, and we spread out to begin exploring, forgetting about the severe weather outside. The electricity was on, and there were lamps and lights everywhere. There were huge bookshelves along the walls, filled with thick books, with topics ranging from UFOs and aliens, to biochemistry, to Shakespeare. Liam was sitting on a brown, leather couch, playing with a globe, and Kyle was digging into a small mini fridge in the corner, which was stocked full of bottled water. I joked about how this room was nicer than our whole house, and he agreed.

I opened a box that had been sitting on a table, and pulled out a long strand of thick, green garland, and began hanging it around the room.

And then I woke up.

Advertisement

Dream Journal 11/22/16 | Cousin

Kyle, Liam, and I took a trip back to my home state of Maine.

Mom’s Visit | Day 3

[You can read about Days 0-1 here, and Day 2 here!]

Hello, friends. Despite yesterday being not-so-fantastic, today was pretty good! It was unbearably hot, and we had made zero plans for the day, but I knew I wanted to stay indoors as much as possible. I wanted a little bit of alone time with my son, just to bond and relax, so I told my mom that we could meet up later in the day, some time after Liam’s lunch and nap, and then maybe do some afternoon shopping. I made delicious grilled cheese sandwiches for Liam and I for lunch, which had provolone cheese, parsley, avocado, and tomato (his was deconstructed, since he still doesn’t have many teeth), and they were so delicious. I haven’t cooked, or really made anything at home, in days!

We ended up meeting up much later than planned, thanks to some technical difficulties on my mom’s end with Facebook. Even though she was on it all day, she never saw any notifications for the half a dozen messages I sent her telling her she could come over at that point. After over two hours of waiting for her, I messaged Kyle and asked him to text her (I still don’t have minutes), since I knew she would get that right away. Sure enough, she did, then messaged me back immediately, very upset that she had missed all my messages. I was thankful for the time I got to spend with Liam (as well as a fantastic nap that I snuck in before lunch), but happy to finally get out and do some shopping.

She picked us up, and told me all about her morning and afternoon exploring the town. She went down to the waterfront, somewhere I didn’t even know existed, and relaxed by the water, sipping her coffee. We talked about possible plans for tomorrow, and I pointed out a few possible dinner options for tonight. We got to Walmart, and did a couple laps around the store. I picked out two shirts, two pairs of shorts, and a package of socks for Liam, and we found a cute sensory animal book for him as well. It has words I can read to him, as well as pictures of animals, and little patches of “fur” textures for him to touch. When you press on the textured spots, it makes the noise of that animal. I was excited, because I’ve been looking for a book just like that for him, and this was the first I had seen. It wasn’t until we got home that we realized that the whole back half of the book is a misleading block of fake pages, where the batteries and noise boxes are, and that it is actually only a few pages long. Very misleading, and definitely not worth the $13 it cost. Oh well.

I didn’t see anything there that I liked, mostly because Walmart only has three options for women: Too tight junior clothes in neon colors, workout clothes, and… well, clothes that even my 50 year old mother thinks are too old for her. So I got nothing, which was fine with me, since I’m still not comfortable letting her spend money on me. She bought some cute things for Liam, so that seemed to satisfy her urge to spend.

After Walmart, we went to Culver’s for dinner, since she had never been, and talked about the past. She asked me if I still kept in touch with the handful of friends I had in high school, which I do, and told me that she bumps into them every now and then. She asked me questions about my ex, and his family, and about our breakup, which I honestly didn’t mind answering. It’s not like I really have friends I can talk to about it, even though it was over 3 years ago, it was nice to be able to bitch about him and his family for a minute, ya know?

After dinner, we headed to the mall to visit with Kyle before he got off work, and Liam happily ran barefoot through the empty store. We decided that since Kyle has tomorrow off, we would head to one of the neighboring towns, where there is a huge indoor swimming pool, and do some swimming. It is supposed to be stormy and yucky for the next few days, so this will be a nice alternative, assuming it isn’t really crowded. The hotel pool where my mom is staying is still being renovated, and we spent a lot of money on swimsuits, and don’t want them to go unused. I am excited. Liam hasn’t had a lot of exposure to water, aside from the tub, and when he dumps his water cup on himself, so I am hoping he has fun. As for me, I haven’t been swimming in nearly 7 years. And I looove swimming.

It was a good day. I got some alone time with my kiddo, as well as a nice nap. Kyle is home now, so we are going to cuddle up on the couch and continue watching The Adventures of Merlin on Netflix. I can’t remember if I recommended that yet, but seriously, you guys should check it out if you’re into magic and fantasy and lore and adventure. It is quite fantastic!

Hope you’re all having a fantastic holiday, thanks for reading!

Jan

Dream Journal 2/14/16

Present day.

Kyle and I were sitting on the couch watching some animated movie, while Liam was dragging all of his stuffed animals over to the couch, and placing them at my feet. Kyle asked me if I had left a faucet on somewhere in the apartment, because we could hear running water, but I hadn’t. After a little while, we got up to double-check, because the sound was still happening, but found nothing.

Liam started crying, and threw one of his bears at me, and I realized that the bear was wet. I looked down, and saw that our entire living room was flooding with water. Kyle and I jumped up and started panicking, looking around frantically, trying to find where the water was coming from. I picked up Liam, who was now screaming from being wet and uncomfortable, and Kyle shouted for me to come to the bathroom. In the bathroom, water was cascading down each of the walls, appearing out of thin air. We ran from the bathroom back to the living room, and suddenly, water was trickling down all of the walls in the apartment, in varying severity.

There was a knock at our door, and I answered it, still carrying a crying toddler. My upstairs neighbor asked if everything was okay, but took one look at our apartment, and stormed in, determined to help us. I went to change Liam, and luckily all of the clothes in his dresser were still dry, because everything in our apartment was soaking wet. when we went back to the living room, my neighbor was on a ladder, trying to figure out where the water was coming from, but he couldn’t find anything either.

I looked out the window, and saw that there was a bad snow storm happening, and that we couldn’t leave. I was soaked and shivering, and Liam was crying, but I opened the front and back doors to that the water could pour out. When I opened the door, the water went out, but started to freeze around my feet and ankles. I brought Liam into our room and shut the door. I sat on the bed, which was soaking wet. I could hear Kyle and the landlord calling people on the phone out in the living room. Liam fell asleep on my shoulder, and we sat in the room until Kyle came in, told me to pack a bag, because we had to leave.

I packed all of the dry clothes that I could find, but couldn’t bring anything else. Back in the living room, they had shut the door to keep the cold out, and the water was up to their knees. We opened the door and left, and our neighbor went up to his apartment, still talking on the phone. The snow had nearly stopped as we ran out to the car, and I started crying as I put Liam on my lap in the front seat. His car seat had been in the living room, and was wet. Kyle called his mom to ask if we could spend the night at her house, but she only yelled at him for calling her while she was at work, and wouldn’t listen. After she hung up, Kyle started the car, and we drove to the McDonald’s a few towns over, which is open 24 hours, and went inside. Liam was still asleep on me, so I put our clothes down on one of the booths to make a bed, and put him down. Kyle went to order us food, and people turned to stare at us.

My pants had ice and frost on them and I brushed them off. An old woman across the restaurant got up and started walking towards me, but stopped, shaking her head, and turned back. I was still crying when Kyle brought our tray over, and I hungrily shoved french fries in my mouth.

Kyle got up to get our drinks, and the old woman started approaching him…

And then I woke up.

Daily Prompt 2/10/2016 | The Perfect Storm

The Daily Post’s Daily Prompt 2/10/2016 | Sudden Shifts

“You’re at the beach with some friends and/or family, enjoying the sun, nibbling on some watermelon. All of a sudden, within seconds, the weather shifts and hail starts descending from the sky. Write a post about what happens next.”

“Liam! Nooo!” I shrieked, as my one-year old son dropped a fistful of wet sand into my head. I pulled out my ponytail and shook my hair violently, trying to disperse the itchy particles from my scalp. My little terror smiled brightly, turned on his heel, and took off in the opposite direction toward his father, who was doubled over with laughter.

I rolled my eyes, giving up on my hair, and leaned back into my lime green beach chair. My eyes adjusted to the shade provided by my comically large beach umbrella, and I sighed in defeat. I looked over at my husband and son, who were happily attempting to build a sand castle, with little success. Life with a one-year old, never a dull moment. I smiled, and turned my head to survey the rest of the beach. Families and groups of friends, both big and small, were scattered across the vast, sandy beach, frolicking beneath the warm, July sun. It was the third day that week that we had spent the day at the beach, as the weather had been perfect, and despite having to dig out sand from every nook and cranny of my body, and having a slightly pink complexion, I was definitely not tired of it yet.

“Is it supposed to rain today?” I heard my husband’s voice, and turned my head lazily to face him.

“No, I think it’s supposed to be sunny the rest of the week. Why?” I asked him, sitting up in my chair to embrace my tiny toddler, who was now climbing into my lap.

He made a confused “hmm” noise, and turned away from me, staring out toward the water. I suddenly became aware that the sun was no longer shining brightly down on the beach, replaced by the shadows of storm clouds, dancing across the sand. A chill entered the air, and I wrapped my beach towel around my son and myself. Kyle turned to me, opening his mouth to speak, when suddenly, something heavy landed on top of my umbrella, startling us.

“What the hell was that?” I asked, picking Liam up tilting my umbrella to investigate. A large ball of ice slid down my umbrella, and landed with a thud in the sand. Confused, I looked up into the sky, now dark with storm clouds, and shivered. Was that hail? Was it hailing? How? I heard a loud curse from behind me, and turned to see Kyle bending down to pick up another large ball of ice from the sand, while rubbing his head gingerly.

My eyes widened as he presented a baseball-sized piece of hail to me, and we stood there speechless. All around us, concerned voices, as well as cries of surprise, rang out, and families and friends ran to gather their belongings. Without another word, we quickly packed up our chairs, towels, and other beach accessories, and ran as fast as we could toward the parking lot. I held my umbrella over heads as best as I could, nearly tripping several times.

“This is crazy!” Kyle shouted, but it was still hard to hear him by my side over the roar of hail falling around us.

We got to our car and quickly barricaded ourselves inside. The pounding of hail rang loudly in our ears, and I was surprised to discover that my tiny toddler was remaining calm, and seemed to be amused by the balls of ice raining from the sky. We sat in silence (well, not really), and watched hoards of people as they dove into their cars in desperation. I couldn’t help it, and I began to laugh at the bizarre shift in the weather. I turned to Kyle, and saw the intensity melt from his face, and he too began laughing, reaching for my hand, and squeezing gently.

He started the car, and we followed the herd of other vehicles to the main road. Less than a mile later, the sky opened up, and the sun made a welcome appearance. We drove home with smiles on our faces, both ignoring the fact that the outside of our vehicle now likely resembled the craterous surface of the moon. I glanced in the rear-view mirror at my son, now sleeping soundly in his car seat, and sighed contently. We drove home in a happy silence, hearing only the sound of our tires crushing the occasional ice ball on the road. What a beautiful day.

Thanks for reading, friends!

Jan

Dream Journal 1/26/16

Future (2-3 years?).

Liam, now a blond toddler, and I were at the park with a group of other moms and kids. Liam was around 3 or 4 years old, and was running around the playground with several other kids. I was sitting at a picnic table with the four other women, and one of them was telling the group that she had caught her husband cheating on her, but he didn’t know that she knew about it. She was talking about how she wanted to get even with him, and that she wanted to find an attractive guy to cheat with, so that her husband would catch her. One of the other women told her that she could use her husband, as they were in an open relationship, and he probably wouldn’t mind.

The other two moms got up and left to get their children, visibly upset by the women’s discussion. I turned my head to watch the kids play, trying not to listen in on their private conversation. A few minutes later, I turned back, and they were passionately (and pretty aggressively) kissing each other, and one of them had removed their shirt. I quickly stood up and took several steps back. Once I vacated the picnic table, they quickly re-positioned, lying down over the spot I had just stood up from, and continued.

I looked around, slightly embarrassed, and saw other people starting to look in our direction. Several people were even moving closer. I kept backing away, and walked over to the playground to get my son. When I turned back around, a large crowd had formed around the picnic table, and were cheering the two ladies on loudly. I grabbed Liam’s hand and we walked away quickly, but the crowd kept growing and getting louder. We started to run, and cut across the baseball field to get to our car.

I could still see the crowd growing from across the park, and could see dollar bills, jewelry, and other expensive things, being thrown in the air. We drove away, and I asked Liam if he wanted to get lunch at Wendy’s. He told me he wanted to go to Jack In The Box, even though the closest one was hours away. I told him that we could go, as I hadn’t been in years, whipped the car around, and started speeding off in the opposite direction. I turned on the radio, and the One Direction song Story of My Life was playing. We sang together, joking about how much we really didn’t like One Direction, but the song was so catchy…

And then I woke up.

Dream Journal 1/3/16

(I’ve been meaning to write out several entries from my dream journal, and finally have time to do it. Here is the final.)

Present day.

I am walking around a large hobby/craft store with my friend Dominique, who I worked with years ago, and haven’t seen in quite some time. Her little boy, Aaron, was also with us. The store did not have a normal roof, instead, it was a large, transparent dome, and we could see the sunny skies above.

Dominique and I were talking about our ex-boyfriends, and it was really upsetting. I don’t want to go into detail, but things got really deep, and sad. Aaron was talking to a little girl, and brought her over to us and told Dominique that he wanted to marry her. She got upset and shouted at the little girl, telling her that he was only seven years old. She ran away crying, and Dominique started laughing. I looked horrified.

Then, we were in an aisle lined with fake flowers, and there were petals floating down from the dome roof, and it was beautiful. Aaron was angry with Dominique, and was calling her a horrible person and a bitch, and she was ignoring him and picking out flowers, as if nothing had happened.

When we went to check out, the old woman at the counter glared at us, and mumbled something racist (Dominique and Aaron are not white), and Aaron threw his shoe at her face, which set off an alarm. Then we ran out the front door, and got into Dominique’s car, just as a dozen police cruisers pulled up.

Then we drove away, as if it didn’t even happen.

We were driving in the country, Dominique and Aaron were arguing. I think we were going to a park, or maybe a pond… or something.

And then I woke up.