April 29

I have been tasked with organizing a major UMA fundraiser for the Provost’s Office. My supervisor is not directing me and the duties are overwhelming. I prioritize the best I can with feeding the crowd, for example, considered more important than displaying free merchandise. The hours are long and I am frustrated. Without warning my supervisor shows up one day. Instead of appreciating what I have accomplished to date, she immediately starts to publicly berate me about all my shortcomings. She begins to undo some things I have already done all the while loudly complaining. I have finally had enough. I drop what I am holding and shout directly at her that I  quit, that I cannot take this anymore, that I have liked her as a supervisor and loved her as a friend but that she is impossible to work for and I walk off.

April 22

My friend has moved to Australia, and I have traveled to see her. When I arrive she can’t immediately spend time with me since she has just started a waitressing job and cannot afford to take time off. I wait in the general area of the establishment she is working in and fall into conversation with a man. I ask him if he knows where I can store some cans of dog food that I have brought with me since I have also brought my border collie.

April 20

It is the first day of my new job. I am in an office where someone is explaining some basic information to me from an HR perspective. I am holding a baby in my arms and the employee doesn’t seem to notice or at least does not comment on it. After we are through, the person leads me to my new office. On the way I encounter several people, all of whom seem friendly and happy, although no one speaks to me. Everyone is dressed very casually although this is an office building, and the space seems to have been designed to have fun with ramps for skateboarding and large break rooms. On the way to the office I will occupy, none of the conversations I overhear are work-related. They are all about fun activities and plans. We get to my office and the person who accompanied me leaves. I have no idea what my exact responsibilities are or who I am answering to, so I do not know what to do. The room is cavernous. I realize that I can easily fit a playpen in for the baby that I am still holding. I sit for a while and then spot a beautiful multi-colored vulture perched in a tree directly across from my office window. I regret not having brought my camera. The bird flies off and I am soon bored. I decide to walk around the hallways to see if I can find anything to do. I come across two women mopping mounds of spaghetti off of the floor. I don’t know how it got there, but I figure I can help them clean it up so without saying a word I grab a mop and start mopping. They speak to me but I don’t catch the meaning and I realize that it’s probably a private joke between the two. I quickly realize that mopping one-handed since I am still holding the baby is ineffective, so I leave. Eventually I notice a throng of employees barreling down a staircase and as I wonder what their hurry is, I realize that they must be leaving for the day. As happy as they seemed to be in the building, they appear equally joyful to be on their way out of it. Although no one has told me so directly, I assume that I can leave as well. I start to do so and then I remember that I left something upstairs although I cannot remember ever actually having been on the second floor. Nonetheless, I instinctively know that I have left something up there. It’s very difficult to try to work my way up the stairs while everyone else is stampeding in the opposite direction so I decide to put the baby down for a minute. It takes only a few seconds to realize that this might not have been the best decision so I rush back down the stairs and cannot find the baby. As I frantically search, someone tells me that I came down the wrong staircase and that the baby would be near the other one. I find the baby and we leave.

April 12

I am at an unknown location with my two best friends. We are teenagers. We meet three guys who seem intriguing, and we walk off with them to another unknown location – somewhere that they are familiar with and we are not. It starts off very innocently with mild flirtatiousness and bantering back and forth, but things quickly turn uncomfortable. They tell us they want us to do things including a photo shoot and we don’t want to. They continue to pressure us to do that and other things. We decide it's time to go, but they won’t let us. They physically block us from leaving all the while cajoling us into wanting to stay. We go along with it for a while, and I am conflicted because I am attracted to one of them who has also taken a liking to me, but it is understood that the three of us agree we need to leave. When the guys are momentarily distracted we walk off in unison. It’s understood that we will walk and not run as running would call too much attention to ourselves. While we walk off I glance at one of my friends. She is holding several items in her hands, and I notice that one of them is a clear plastic bag full of black and while photos from my childhood that I have inexplicably brought with me. I am relieved to see that one of us had the presence of mind to grab our things. We continue to walk off but are not very far before we realize that they are quickly approaching us from behind. We don’t know what to do.  

April 9

I am job shadowing in an unknown location. My task is to rotate to various departments and spend time with different employees involved in their respective tasks. It has been a long morning because much of the time has been spent witnessing job tasks such as financial management that I find boring. It is now after lunch and I am in the art department where I take an interest in what the artist is creating. She has designed a diorama depicting a Native American setting complete with a kachina doll. As I ask her questions, staff members file past us as they return from lunch. One of them who I recognize as my cousin heads into the HR office where she loudly begins to defend her actions. I hear her say, ‘OK, sure, I had sex with him but…..’ and the rest fades, but I get the impression from bits and pieces that I pick up that she was caught having sex with a subordinate and she is now trying to defend the act.

April 7

I am attempting to clean a house that I will be moving into with my kids who are with me. It’s unclear to me whether I have several children or if some friends are also present, but they are underfoot. It is difficult to get much done since I am also holding a baby much of the time. My former landlord stops by (I have been living in an apartment) and says that he will haul off two large wet rugs that are hanging outside on what appears to be a high post that I could not possibly reach. They’re not salvageable so I am relieved that he is getting rid of them. I’m baffled as to how and why they are up there to begin with.

April 5

Dream 1

I am at a large outside gathering, possibly a sporting event. My friend’s sister has been asked to sing the national anthem. When it is time to do so, she heads to the podium accompanied by several members of her extended family. She begins singing and family members join in. They sing the anthem as a ‘do-wop’ song swaying and gesturing from side to side. I cringe since this seems very disjointed for the national anthem.

Dream 2

I witness a long-lasting traffic jam where cars are backed up for blocks. Young people from two separate cars roll down their car windows and start a conversation with each other. They realize that both carloads are headed to the same concert. After chatting for a while, one of them suggests that they ditch their cars and just walk to the concert. Although it’s several miles away and they are carrying backpacks, they agree that this is a good idea. They exit their cars and simply leave them stuck in the middle of the jam. Before they head out, they decide that it would be a good idea to find a bathroom, so they search for the nearest facility.

Dream 3

I have helped to organize a fundraiser for an organization. It involves employees putting out fake warrants for someone’s arrest during an event. The employee is then told they are under ‘arrest,’ and if they want to get out on ‘bail,’ they must pay accordingly. The employee then pays the ‘bail’ and remains free. A volunteer who is serving warrants approaches me and extends his hand. I see that he is handing me a wad of cash from those who have made ‘bail.’ As I take the money, I notice that he is also holding a warrant for my ‘arrest.’ I begin to wonder if this was such a good idea to begin with since I now know how it feels for someone to want to have me ‘arrested.’