The odd things we dream of

Have you ever had a dream that feels like it came out of no where?  How about this one:

Kids need adopting, so they get adopted, lots of them.  Six to eight and somehow they all fit in the small car we sported.  Then, of course, why not, there is ice skating because one kid played hockey.  He got hurt, so we're all encouraging him and getting him back on the ice.  He's a teen, I think.

We're on a pond. He falls in.  We freak and go into rescue mode.  One person shoves a hand down into the icy water and pulls the poor kid up but, BUT, the kid is seated on a huge alien like creature.  Kid is frozen to it's back so we try to get him off without getting eaten.  Not an easy thing, one could imagine.

Someone, another kid I think, pulls out a laser cutting torch that looks like a tiny flat triangle of clear crystal.

Who are these kids?

We attempt to cut the top portion of the creatures body off with kid still attached.  Then...creepy monster opens it's jaw from what appears to be it's forehead to it's chin. Vertical mouth? okay.

Understand the the head of the thing is larger that a standing human, is flat like a...crab of sorts, AND it's in a friggin pond!  I am sure it shouldn't have fit in the pond unless the pond grew during the struggle.

Strange huh?  I can only assume the kid was rescued because I don't remember anything after that and I wan't as worried about him as I should have been.  Either the dream changed or I woke up by my cat galloping across my bed like he does most mornings.

Alrighty, I'm off to do normal things.  I'd love to hear about your strange dreams when I get back.

No weather induced day off for me

I find it very disappointing when the news reports tell of wind and freezing rain and to watch your news for school closures and delays and then ... you have to go to school anyway.  It's reminiscent from my childhood days I'm sure, but it's just as potent today in university.  I don't mind school at all, but I love me a weather induced day off.

I'm reminded of the time I lived in Washington state and there was a storm which produced hurricane force winds.  It was so very exciting.  The night it rolled in I was picking up my little D from after school activities.  Saying it was dark is an understatement and I do believe all the traffic was in front of us.  I say that because there was no one, zero, zip, zilch, behind us.  All I could see is a wall of black and the few building lights on the sides of the freeway.  A very eerie feeling since the norm was to be packed in like lemmings in a science experiment.  I don't have the greatest night vision so I tend to follow the lights of other cars.  Not the best strategy, but here I am to tell about it.

Well this storm blew some kind of power junction box off to one side of the road.  We saw a flash of blue in the thick black.  I was driving slow and by that time most of the folk had disappeared off the road.  I thought I must be missing something if all the cars are gone.  Sure enough the radio says something like "get your rear home missy, or you'll be wind bait."

I took my exit and when I pulled into the base check-in point there was a huge tree down that I had to drive around.  Fortunately there were no other cars so I was able to skip through lanes with no trouble.  We made it home, the wind was kicking, and it was the first time I'd ever felt the need to tape my windows in case they shattered.  The evening was filled with news of highway signs getting ripped of their poles like candy wrappers and, you know, general mayhem.  

The next morning we took a drive around base.  My eyes were double their normal size and and my jaw was stuck in dropped position like a sergeant was yelling "drop and give me twenty!"  Some people were smart enough to tie down their little metal sheds at the sides of their houses.  Some had the misfortune of picking out the pieces from several houses down the way.  I saw a trampoline, size large, folded up like crumpled paper and again in someone else's yard.  Many many trees were broken, a few on top of houses.  We were one of the lucky few who didn't have anything outside.

For now I must return to normal life because school was not cancelled.  Not today anyway.  I'm crossing my fingers.

Yummy Tummy

When I was little and my dad would take the long way home for the joy of the car ride and the sites to see, we would occasionally follow a road that had a hill.  That little tiny but steep hill.  He would speed up the car just before the hill and we kids in the back seat would raise our voices and giggle "faster, faster!" Dad let off the gas pedal at the top just as the momentum carried us in a woosh down it's slope.  I delighted in this event because with it came what I began to term "yummy tummy."  It's the same one you get when you go down a roller coaster.  That quick drop that tips the orientation of your internal organs, or whatever you want to call it.  To this day I will drive that road even when I don't need to just to go down that wonderful little hill.

Sometimes I get that felling even without a hill or roller coaster to set it off.  Today for that matter, has been a curious one.  Butterflies.  That's another word for it.  I have no known reason for the little buggers to be invading.  It isn't anxiety or panic.  I'm very aware of what those feel like.  This is more pleasant like those days of speeding down hills.  I don't think I've forgotten anything important.  I still have homework, but I know what's on the to-do list.  It's not the essays for my Ed program application.  I'm pretty sure it's not intuition warning me of something.  Anticipation?  I doubt it, there isn't anything to anticipate that would cause this feeling.  I'm baffled, befuddled, mystified.  I thought using more than one word to describe that general feeling would be well served for the amount i'm feeling it. It's been happening off and on all day.  Just a tiny little wisp that flutters and as soon as I try reach and grasp it's meaning it disappears.  If I think and think about all the things I've done or thought about today and over the last week I don't feel it.  Then, when I give up and focus on other things it sweeps over me again.

Maybe I'm tired.  Maybe it's money.  Maybe it's the thrill of new friends and doing something I love that I haven't done in a long time, writing.  Maybe it's thoughts of changing my life, again.  Maybe it's the idea of once again not finishing what I started, even if I find that what I started isn't what's best for me.  Maybe it's just the unknown.  I'm starting to not like the word maybe.

I have to say, this isn't a whine about life or a depressing gallivant of woeful thoughts steaming up my mirror.  I don't feel down or worried.  In fact my new classes are fun, I do have a new friend that I really enjoy talking to, even if only by email and text because she lives states and states away.  It's hard to have a bad day when you just went to the movies to see Les Miserable for free.  (gift card)  The film was...brilliant.  Yesterday I heard for the first time my best friend's new baby cry.  So, what ever causes this odd feeling to pop out of nowhere, I'm as a loss.  The scientist in me who wants to search and search for an answer just for the satisfaction of knowing how something works is really antsy about it, but she'll just have to suck it up I guess.

...sort of

I am a quiet person...sort of.  When I speak most people say I need to speak up, get louder, raise my voice.  All my life I've heard this but to me, in my ears, my voice is plenty loud.  If I raise my voice I feel like I'm nearly yelling.  In the right environment people can hear me just fine.  Sometimes my voice projects without trying.  Acoustics in the room are just right I guess.  Well, my point is.  I'm quiet...sort of.

When I was young, elementary young, I was a good girl.  I did as I was told, I learned, I played nicely.  I liked to listen to the adults talk and tell stories.  Sometimes I did something wrong, but for the most part a good girl.  Do you ever wonder want happens if that sort of thing goes on to long?  Doing the good girl thing?  Well, it's like a spirally curl that when pulled goes strait...until you reach the end.  Then it springs back to it's original position.  Satisfied and right in the world.  All goes back to normal for a while.

A good girl I believe is like that curl.  She can go months and months without ever intending to do anything wrong.  Bad is the wrong word to use.  Bad to me implies things like stealing.  This could happen, but what I'm getting at is simply the passion the pours out at that precise moment.  When she does something completely out of character.  Or it appears out of character to the untrained eye.  Really this is her character.  She has a fire in her that is stored up and saved for when she really needs it.  When she is young, good girl doesn't know what it is or how to use it.  It just belts out like a jack in the box.  It startles her.  It startles everyone.  As she grows she learns about it.  She uses it for strength, motivation, and for standing up for what is right.

It takes a while for all this to accumulate into understanding though.  She is often an adult before she can fully utilize it.  For now though, she might yell when normally she is very tolerant, she will snap at her friend and they look at her like she has just grown horns.  They don't understand what just happened.  But that's okay, neither does the girl.  She will say sorry after a while, say she didn't mean it.  All goes back to sunshine and roses.

This is just a small look into the good quiet girl.  You should never label her, she will resist it, she will be what she wants to be, not what you think she is or should be.  In fact we all seem to label everything and most things get labeled incorrectly.  For an object this is not so bad.  For a good quiet girl it is like purposefully pulling on that curl and releasing just to see what will happen.  It's just plain rude.  Once she has learned control, usually with age, she prides herself on not reacting.  You'll be ignored.  She doesn't like mind games.

The best part about this quiet good girl is her loyalty.  Once she determines who is a good friend.  She will stick by them fiercely.  There won't be an end.  You do something wrong, anything.  She'll still be there.  She'll never turn you away.  You won't be babied, you might get teased, if you need to fall to learn something, she might let it happen, but she'll be there.