The Natatorium

An emporium of oddities from around the world, complete with somewhat informative plaques that almost never match the item they are meant to be describing.

Sunday, December 21, 2003

Well. It's over. I have two weeks to party (i.e. read) before I must return to Stalag 14. I went to Silver Dollar City with my grandparents and cousisns today, and it was lovely. Nothing gets you in the spirit like 10 million lights and a musical 5-story Christmas tree. It was marvy marvy marvy. I saw Kristin there, and she helped me pick out taffy. I also bumped into Quigley while waiting for the tram. Apparently you can run, but never hide, from Calculus.

On a less cheery note, I had some truly odd dreams last night. Has anyone seen Final Destination? No? Me niether. But I had a dream that followed the concept, I think. I've been told that in the movie, the characters are constantly being chased by death, and they very nearly die in every possible way. The dream was like that, only it was not just me but also my immediate family. There was all kinds of carnage and dismemberment around us, and as soon as we escaped one thing, another was after us. First there was some weird car in a field that I was certain was going to quarter my brother, so I was trying to get him out of it and then a foreboding looking man started walking toward us. When I finally got him out of the car, some other car on a nearby road explodes and flies into the air, nearly taking our heads off and lading just a few feet away before totally fireballing. So I'm running with my brother in tow away from the burning car and the crazy man, and I get to my front yard but as I start to go into the garage I see a car in there that we don't own and think to myself (as I'm catching on at this point) that it's A--- (one of my dad's business associates) and he is certainly going to shoot us. Sure enough, he comes out of the house and levels a pistol at me, mad as hell at my dad over some "business deal". He seems to be contemplating if he should shoot us or not, just out of spite, and it appears he's leaning towards yes. He fires and I'm dodging bullets left and right (this part was kinda cool except for the blind terror). Then some other stuff happened. Other things tried to kill me. I dunno.

I woke up from that and was still pretty scared, then went back to sleep and had another dream. In this one, *he* was the new lead singer of some local rock band, and he was actually pretty good at it. The situation between us was still the same as it is in real life though, and I had the feeling that he was trying to win me back with his rock-starry-ness. All the songs were very nihlistic and depressing though, so it just made me sadder. He kept looking at me and I kind of acted like it didn't bother me any more, but it did because everything was so depressing. Alison was a big fan of the band he was in, though to be fair she liked them before *he* became lead singer. Other stuff happened. I think I went on some kind of mission, or had to solve a puzzle or a crime or do something important.... but that happens in all my dreams. That was pretty much the only fun part. That and the part where I swung on a rope from a rooftop across a gap or a bridge or something.... yeah...

I saw him on the way to SDC today. I was in the back of my grandparent's car and we were stopped at the highway intersection by my house and he pulls up to stop going the other way, reading to take the road in my neighborhood. There was a girl in the passenger seat but I couldn't tell who it was. I don't think he saw me at all, but I got a good look at him. He was laughing and talking to the girl. That made me feel a little bit better. I hope he's getting more joy out of life.

I think that's long enough for now. More later.