Dream Journal 6/21/16 | Dream #2: Bad Boys

Kyle and I were awoken in the middle of the night by loud hollering and talking outside out bedroom window. I peered through the blinds and saw 3 teenage boys, around 15-16 years old, standing around a car parked on the grass beneath our window. Suddenly, they all turned and stared at me, as I watched them through the blinds. One of the kids flipped me the middle finger, while the others laughed. I walked away from the window and grabbed my phone, ready to call the police. I went to the window to show them that I was going to call the police if they didn’t leave, and one of the kids started taking pictures of me through the window.

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Mom’s Visit | The Final Day

[You can read about Days 0-1 here, Day 2 here, Day 3 here, Day 4 here, Day 5 here, and Day 6 here.]

Hello, friends. Yesterday was my mom’s final day visiting with us, though her plane doesn’t actually leave Illinois for another 3 hours or so. It was a very mixed day. I felt really on edge, and anxious, from the time I woke up, to the moment we said our goodbyes. I tried so hard to make it a good day, but it felt like my mom and I were butting heads more often than not, and it created a lot of tension.

Kyle worked from 10-6 yesterday, so it was another day of just my mom, Liam, and I. Liam has been in quite the mood for the last couple days, including yesterday, which resulted in an early nap, which I was hoping to avoid doing, since we were going out to eat that night, and I didn’t want him being fussy. Ah, life with toddlers. Everything revolves around them.

My mom came over just after lunch, and we left in search of local garage sales, since there are signs littering the entire town. After over an hour of driving around, which was pretty quiet and uneventful, and not seeing anything of interest, we decided to drive to the mall so that Liam could play a bit before dinner. I stopped by Sears to see Kyle, but was told that he had just gone to lunch. I asked his co-worker if she could get him for me really quickly, as there wasn’t a single person in the store, and she was just standing at the register, but she told me she wasn’t allowed to (which is bullshit). Since I don’t have minutes on my phone, I couldn’t text him to tell him we were there, so we left, and hoped that he would be there when we came back through.

My mom bought me a late lunch at my favorite spot in the mall, and I shared a delicious, pretzel bread turkey sandwich with Liam, who already eaten lunch, but always insists on eating everything in sight. We also went into Maurice’s to scope out the huge clearance sale they were having. My mom tried to buy me every single article of clothing that I touched, not I kept telling her not to. She was not happy about that.

When we got to the play area, it was empty. I ran around with Liam for a while, but he was being naughty, and kept running out into the open mall, and I had to chase after him. There is a ramp and some stairs right outside of the play area, and he always runs toward them, which is frustrating and exhausting. My mom sat at the opposite end of the play area, taking videos and pictures the entire time. As we were going to leave, I asked her if I could see them to send some to myself, but she told me that she had deleted all of them, because none came out.

Well, okay then…

We left the play area, and my mom insisted on going into the mall bookstore to look at children’s books and puzzles for Liam. I saw so many books that I wanted to get for him, but I let my pride and my bad attitude take charge, and wouldn’t let my mom get any of them for him.

I don’t know why. I really don’t. I wanted them, he wanted them, and she wanted to buy them. I said no. What is wrong with me? Ugh.

I headed to the bathroom to change Liam, and my mom disappeared. When I came out, I was stopped by a young couple with a tiny baby, and we chatted a bit about babies and whatnot, before I went back to Sears. Luckily, Kyle was there this time, and he gave me the details on our dinner plans for the night. We were to meet his mom and step father at Applebee’s at 5:30, which was an hour from that point, and then he would be meeting us there at 6:00, after he got off work. I gave him a hug and kiss, and he got some cuddles from Liam, and I went back out to meet my mom and let her know what was happening.

Since we had an hour to kill, we decided to head to a local park that I had been to before, but had never visited the playground. It is a massive plot of land, with a cute lake, a bunch of walking trails, and a large playground, lined with sand, and surrounded by grass and trees. It is a beautiful park, and I wish we lived closer. Liam was barefoot, and as I placed him down on the grass, I remembered that he has never walked barefoot on grass, or sand. It only took him a few minutes of funny walking to get used to the it, and enjoy it… but he definitely did not care for the feeling of sand between his toes. It was funny.

There was another mom there, and she had two little ones with her, a toddler boy, and a tiny infant. Her son was about 2.5, and he watched us closely from the picnic area while Liam was on the swing. My mom sat herself beneath a tree, and watched us from a distance. She didn’t have much interest in playing until the end of our playground adventure. After nearly 15 minutes on the swing, we decided to explore the rest of the large playground, and the other little boy joined us! Rather than telling you about it, here are some pictures I took!

So that was fun!

We left the park around 5:20 and headed to meet Kyle’s mom and step father at Applebee’s. They were already there when we pulled up, and we sat in a large corner booth, and ordered our appetizers and entrees without Kyle, since he would be joining us a bit later. I ordered the Southwest Steak and Black Bean Soup, as well as the Crispy Cheddar Bacon Potatoes, for myself, and the kid’s Chicken Grillers and broccoli for Liam. It was all super delicious. I forget what Kyle’s meal was called, I think it was one of those “Build Your Own” things, but he got sweet potato fries, a steak, and some seriously amazing looking mac ‘n cheese.

It was a nice dinner. My mom and Candace politely went back and forth over who would pay the bill, as I expected, but they settled on splitting it evenly, which I also expected. We then gathered in the parking lot to put Liam’s car seat back into our Lincoln (it’s been in my mom’s rental all week), chat about some upcoming family events, and say our goodbyes.

There were hugs, and thank yous, and my mom cried.

And then it was over. She leaves tonight, and though her plane doesn’t leave for 3 hours still, and she has been sitting at the airport for 2 hours, she did not want to come by today. I’m okay with that. I had a nice week, and it was honestly good to see her, and for her to meet Liam, but I am completely drained. I don’t know when I will see her again, but I do know that I am happy to have things go back to normal around here. We definitely work better with a thousand, or more, miles between us.

I have a few other blogs I need to write, but I don’t know when that will happen. I need rest. I need to recharge.

Thanks for reading, friends.

Jan

Dream Journal 3/13/16

I was running down a deserted street with Maggie and Glen from The Walking Dead, as well as another young woman with red hair. We were all armed, and were weaving in and out of deserted alleyways between very old, Spanish-style buildings. Out of nowhere, somebody started shooting at us from one of the rooftops, and we were forced to take cover inside one of the empty buildings. Glenn had been shot in the leg, and was bleeding badly. The inside of the building looked like a cathedral, and we found that we were not alone. Meredith, Alex, Callie, and Arizona from Grey’s anatomy were all there, pointing guns at us. We held our arms up in surrender, and told them we were just seeking shelter from the shooter outside. They invited us in and carried Glenn away to take care of his leg.

The room that we were in was very sleek and modern, unlike the rest of the city, especially the building we were in. Callie was stitching up Glenn’s leg, and Arizona brought us into the adjacent room, which was actually a massive indoor garage, filled with armored vehicles of every size, and enough weaponry to arm a small army. She informed us that there were over 50 people in their group, and that the rest were out scavenging in the city. They had been there for over a year, and had made the building a stronghold. I asked her why we were able to just walk right in if it was a stronghold, and she told me they left that specific door unlocked for people like us, and that if those people didn’t work out, they just killed them.

Arizona told us that we could take one of the vehicles from their fleet, and stock up on supplies, but then we had to go. Once Glenn was done getting his leg fixed up, we chose one of the armored vans, stocked up on food and a few weapons, thanked everyone, and left.

We were driving down a deserted highway, when we spotted a gas station that seemed to still be in good shape. We decided to grab whatever fuel we could find, and grab some more food and water. Next to the gas station was a car dealership, and the lot was filled with large vehicles. We decided that we wanted a second vehicle to bring back to camp, and decided on a black and chrome truck. Maggie and I went inside to find the keys, and Glenn and the redhead went to find food and water. Inside, there was a single zombie, which we took down with ease. While we were searching for the key, I noticed that my hair was wet, and was dripping onto the concrete floor, leaving a trail behind me. I ignored it, until Maggie asked me what was making the weird tracks on the floor. I looked down, and saw that something was following me, making weird tracks in the water left from my hair. I started running in circles, and the tracks still followed me. Something invisible. I reached down to grab whatever it was, and a small, white dog appeared in my arms. She was a long-haired yappy dog, with a pink bow in her hair. Maggie looked confused and walked over to look at the completely normal, no longer invisible, dog I held in my arms.

We went back to the van, unable to find the keys for the truck, and we all left. The dog was no longer with me. We drove to a mall, which had been completely overrun by zombies. Despite there being hundreds of them, we drove right up to the doors, and were greeted by a woman, who showed us how to jump the fence to get inside. Inside the mall was actually a prison, with over a dozen floors, all circled around a hollow center. There were no open rooms, only cells, aside from the bottom floor, which was a hilly grass-filled space. The woman showed us around, and gave us two cells on the second floor, overlooking the grassy area. She told us that we were not allowed out of our cells at night, and that it was very dangerous.

It was nighttime, and all the lights were out. We were sitting in the grassy area on the bottom floor with a few other people, who told us that the rules were stupid, and they wanted to do whatever they wanted. Suddenly, the doors opened, and a large figure dressed in full-body, knight’s armor walked in, leading a dozen zombified horses. We all ran to hide, and he didn’t seem to spot us. Zombies flooded the room behind the horses. The figure shackled the zombie horses to the stone walls, equal distance apart from each other, and began circling the room, chanting. The horses started going crazy, and one of them broke the bolts on the wall that kept it shackled in place, but it did not run.

Suddenly, the Grey’s Anatomy group walked in, dressed in formal attire, with Callie leading them, donning a white wedding dress, adorned with red gems. Honestly, it was terrifying. They walked in silently and slowly to the center of the room, where the knight bowed to them, and left. I ran out from our hiding place, and asked Callie what was happening. They all ignored me, and someone ran out and grabbed me, dragging me back to where I had been hiding. The woman who had shown us around the prison grabbed my arm and shoved me into the wall, telling me that I should not be here. The rest of my group was already gone. I shoved her back, and we fought, as I tried to run back out to Callie and the others, but she kept stopping me.

The horse that had broken free suddenly ran forward, and trampled through the group, killing them all. The knight started screaming for the zombies to attack, and they all started clawing and biting at the horses that were still in chains. The woman from the prison and I climbed up a nearby rope ladder up to the second floor, and shut ourselves inside one of the cells. We could still see below, and there was blood flying through the air, landing on the floor that we were on. There was an eerie green light flooding the building, and I became aware that the grassy area was on fire. Green fire.

And then I woke up.