weird dream night

[datasuspect]

my dreams are extraordinarily real. i usually go into REM sleep within 5 minutes of shutting my eyes. suffice it to say, they are vivid, realistic, the same as watching a movie.

starts out with dreams about my deceased grandmother. in the dreams, i always have the sense that she is the only one who can see me. while alive, i was practically the only person she was kind to and she was like a second mother to me.

anyway, the setting is a chicago composite and my father is driving us around through what looks like the south side, except the building fronts are closer to the sidewalks than they normally are. we're trying to find a place to stay for my grandmother.

we head toward 18th st (significant area in my family's history) and climb the ratty steps of an 1890's era building. the banisters are all stripped, but there is some kind of skylight in the stairway and it is illuminated with a pale winter light.

get onto the top floor and it is some sort of rooming house: flops at $70/week. two kinds of rooms: one with complete walls and a smaller one with a partition (incomplete wall). i tell my grandmother she can't stay here, but it would be a good place for me. "where else can you be THIS close to downtown for $70/week."

details: old, old place. small alcove with a small table and small couch. drug addicts here and there, indians, and mexican immigrants.

dream shifts to a recurring thematic sequence: still in chicago composite, but it is my own invention: a 1920's suburban type area complete with transit terminus, a diner, and old buildings. kind of like cicero or berwyn.

my father and i are thinking about getting breakfast or beer and we remember that we have to pick up my grandmother. everytime this sequence appears in my dreams, i am feeling the need to get to the transit area, but can never accomplish this.

switch to a new york composite.

walking through an office lobby at 5 am with two lawyer/corporate types who have ulterior motives. they turn into people i don't know, but who are my friends, these shift into two or three actual friends.

i'm sitting outside a large building talking about advantages in life with dan akroyd and asking a cop how to get to the port authority. my friends and i aren't supposed to be in nyc, but we are there anyway, and i am trying to get out.

we end up being squatters in this strange region that used to be a railyard or an industrial area, but it is completely levelled. there is containerized freight in places and building materials in others. this like a huge construction site and they are building condos. we are stuck here and can't find the city, although the large buildings are right there - my overarching, overwhelming NEED in this dream is to find greyhound or amtrak so i can get out of here.

i set out without my friends. i walk up what seems like a bridge and then it becomes an unprotected sidewalk that is actually the side of a building. i wasn't scared walking down it, but then i became aware it was the side of building and that i was actually high up and i was mortified.

[Fiona]

1. That's so wierd...

I dremt earlier tonight that I was in a city and I saw my grandmother (named "Nana") and she lived there, and that was odd becuz Nana never lived in a city, but she acted like she LOVED it (living in the city) but when I asked to see her apartment, she wouldn't let me, but took me out to eat instead.

[pres2032]

2. wow, what a dream

hehe, is it sad that i haven't been to bed yet and its 5:10am EST??

[datasuspect]

3. i fell asleep

at 6:00 pm CST

[pres2032]

4. wish i could do that

At 7:00PM EST, I was just starting my FIRST final exam for the night. I'm finishing up my second one as we speak. thankfully i can sleep all day today.