Sweep Me Up

          I slept very much in. In my dream, many of us were in a mall complex out in the sticks, locked into some kind of workroom or storage space. The mall area outside was teeming with zombies, somewhere out of sight but certainly present. There were various supplies laying about on the workbenches and shelves of cheap plywood around the room; we walked on a bare, dusty wooden floor. With my affinity for stuff, I volunteered to lead the search for weapons. I pronounced dibs on any crowbar that we might find. None were in evidence, but I did find a hatchet, a couple of bats, a saw or two, and several lengths of steel pipe to distribute; I retained a bat for my own use. I picked a Rhinebeck beer out of a case, figuring it might dull my nerves (Rhinebeck is the city where I was born). If I was going to break heads, it might help. Under the bare, hanging lightbulb, Laura and Sabrina were sipping burgundy wine with the same idea and conversing quietly. (I have to ask now, where did those wine glasses come from?)
          One girl I'd never seen before revealed a light wound, and everyone knew what this meant. She might turn any time. A guy whose face I knew was enlisted to prevent that. "Make it quick," she instructed, kneeling by the wall. He wound up and smashed a pipe into the side of her head with a gut-turning klonk. She hit the wall, unconscious, and slid down as he repeated the blow 2 or 3 times to make sure. It was quiet for a few minutes before Matt T organized everyone into teams for the sortie into the mall. When we headed out, everyone was making altogether too much noise, bitching about their teams, abandoning their partners for friends, and the like. I disapproved, but was tied up trying to wrest my bat out of Andrew's thieving fingers. Preoccupied with this, I lost track of my own team while retaking it. A sense of dread clutched at my heart for a moment. I abruptly split away from the large, noisy group and headed for a sub-level, meeting Alaric along the way. We walked down a spiral ramp, and he leaped nimbly onto a catwalk-like structure in the center. I considered making the jump but reconsidered, figuring I would be helpless if trapped up there. Instead, I decided to take the ramp to the bottom, where it was obscured from view by the contours of the building. I choked up on the bat and steeled myself for what was ahead.

          I woke up to the old, familiar smell of pancakes. Sean offered me some of his and they were every bit as tasty as I dreamed. Most of my day was spent cutting up papers. We discovered the source of that strange, musty, bready smell in one corner of the living room: a several month-old loaf of bread [scare chord] abandoned among Nathan's things.Emily, Iris, Malcolm, Alaric, Jules and Sean passed the peace pipe, with some districts abstaining. It was around this time that Alaric and I decided to use the last of our powerups, splitting it half-and-half in a cocktail of lemon and orange juices. We were in familiar territory soon enough: standard jitters, that warm feeling, body awareness, attention problems, scribbling in my notebook. We discussed Battle Tetris and how stressful it is. A snowy walk to 7-11 was long, lonely and cold, everyone huddled up in coats, together but apart for a minute or two. I obtained glazed donuts and took a chance on an apple fritter (and it was scrumptious.)
          Next up: Waking Life. This movie still blows my mind somehow. And by the way, the lemon juice is a proven technique; flights were boarding at this time! We took a tropical journey as well, squarely making this another "vice night." Selected WL highlights for today... Giacometti in a car accident: "Finally, something is happening to me!" Kierkegaard's (slightly misquoted) last words: "Sweep me up!" I felt frantic at this time, as if channeling something. Creative energies? Ambition? We talked about sitting and its benefits, white noise and the feelings it inspires -- no doubt the radiator had something to do with this -- paranoia, and the assertion of time as "an unending instant." We started to discuss hockey, some cooking stuff fell down with a clatter and scared us, and then it was back to hockey. Still in the body effects at this point, and it would be a time before we were over. I watched "Marcel the Shell With Shoes On" for the first time, admiring Jenny Slate's talent. A fully satisfactory night.
          Quotes of the day:
"Particulate shadows. Shadows are becoming mosaics." - Alaric
"Being unconscious is awesome." - Emily
"The plane is boarded, but you have to set the passengers on fire." - Jules
"Smallastons. Smally World." - Malcolm
"Everyone gets to the 'yes' in the end. Write that down." - Malcolm
"That's what would happen if breads were beds!" - Alaric
"Continental breakfast, it's also a Continental bed!" - Alaric
"I'm like Rafiki on Pride Rock." - Jules, holding up her burrito
"Purple's a dope-ass color." - Jules
"I am all kinds of full of DAE Le Gems? tonight." - Jules
"This some da Vinci shit up in here!" - me
"...DAE Vinci?" - Alaric
...
Me: "Human connections."
Malcolm: "Social construction."
...
Me: "The shape of her face is interesting."
Malcolm: "She also has more teeth than the rest of us."
...
Me: "Uncle Bewbs."
Alaric: "No. Uncle-- no. Never again."
...
Alaric: "I remember that fondly."
Me: "Uncle Bewbs will fondly you."
...
Me: "Jules, you just went into Jules mode."
Jules: "That's funny, because I was trying to allow a burp to develop."
Me: "Sounds like my first relationship."