Tuesday, June 30, 2009

MUDDLED MUSINGS

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4JNqmCFPZG0

This was the answer to a question posed to bloggers by Mr. Shife on his blog two weeks ago. We were given the task of answering... using the titles of Def Leppard songs in our answers. The question was "Why didn't you accept the last collect call you recieved?" I like stuff like that.
The trouble is that I am not clever enough to think stuff like that up.



These are all over town right now. Asiatic lilies. They must be easy to grow or cheap. Maybe both. Whatever, they are pretty.


Last night I fell asleep before doing my blog post for today. I like to


give it a great deal of thought. Yeaaah... not happening today.


I woke up on the edge of a dream. In it, I was in Santa Cruz .

Not in the black and pink houses of my friend Kelly or our lovely white beach house on the cliffs with the deck on top. We were staying at Deck's beach house, which was one street over from Kelly's houses.

The "we" I speak of is my team in the scavenger hunt. Not the Saturday Scavenger hunt, but the one our Geography class had way back at Ananda the school.

Our teacher, Bill had come up with the idea. The class, which was not at all large, was split into two and we were each given maps and a clue to our first stop in the hunt. The rules were simple...


You could use any type of transportation available to you. That included buses, cars, bikes, etc. Three of us... Annie, Sheila and I chose to hitch-hike. You could do that then.


I'd like to say that we were safe hitch-hiking then, but we weren't. A few of us had some close calls. You never knew what sort of nutbag was going to pick you up. But as long as there were three of us, we should be okay, so off we set.


I don't know which clue we were on when the nutbag found us. All I can recall is that we did not stay in the car for long. He was from somewhere down south according to his accent. He wanted to know if we took drugs. He wanted very much to know where the closest orgy was. I don't think the car had even completely stopped before Sheila had the door open and was on the sidewalk.


When you found a clue, it gave you the clue to the next stop. I don't recall much else about the race to find the end of the game other than that I was sure that we could not possibly be on the winning team. It was getting late in the day and finding that last location had been tough. Surely the other team had won and it was past over.


We did end up winning. I think some of the other team's members gave up and went home. We stuck it out. Or maybe some of our other team members finished way before we did. It does not matter. We ended up in Santa Cruz as a reward for being the winning team... which led to my dream this morning about John screaming that he wanted "little nippers!" as he ran down the sidewalk in the heat to the mom and pop on the corner.

That was about Cheese Nips. John had the munchies. To this day I call "Cheese Nips" or
" Cheese Its"
"Little Nippers". It's funny that a dream can be that short... just a mental youtube of John running down the street in those clunky biker boots yelling for Cheese Nips. Or that I swear that I could smell the ocean with a tint of popcorn in the salty air. How curious that my sleeping mind would notice how brilliantly blue the sky was or that I could feel the reflected heat from the side walk. Stranger still was the feeling of being half-baked myself as I struggled into reality.


I think that dreams are reflections of reality. Not quite clear memories. More like a mirror image. Something that has been flipped. It looks the same. It feels very much the same. But if you look carefully, it is not the same at all. It's a ghost of what was.



Care to share a dream?



23 comments:

  1. I've never hitch-hiked before, nor do I think I would want to. I've also never taken part in a real scavenger hunt.

    I wish I could remember some of the dreams I've had lately. I know I had one last night that dealt with a mouse (that's because I have another one in the house).

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  2. aliencg-- You are wise. It is not safe to hitch-hike. Scavenger hunts are a blast.

    I have had mouse troubles in the past. My sympathy. My kitty likes mice.

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  3. I used to hitch hike in California in the 80's by myself. I was so dumb. I had one really creepy experience, where I almost threw myself out of the car. The guy didn't say anything, I could just feel him directing all his hate at me. I asked him to pullover and at first he wouldn't. I finally started screaming at him and he did. I wish that were a dream.

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  4. Churlita-- That's a real life nightmare! I had a similar experience with a guy in a step van.

    It's a shame too. People were nice about it at one time. It's a great way to travel if there weren't nutbags out there waiting to take advantage of the situation.

    Good for you that you screamed and got out of there. You just gave me an idea for tomorrow's post. Thank you!

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  5. Ah those little nippers! He was so funny - and indeed had the biggest clunkiest boots I have even seen on someone who wasn't a biker. You have gone and told yet another secret about me. I mean...uh...I nver hitch-hiked - what are you talking about?

    This morning I dreamed that we had to move out of our house (not our real house - I've never seen this house before) and I had it all fixed up - but wait there were more holes in walls all around and my husband was going to have to fix them becuase these holes required sheets of wall board. He was taking his usual sweet time and then a friend I never see anymore came and set up (with a tractor no less) a yard sale - on Sunday night - I thought that was the strangest thing - since we wouldn't be able to have a yard sale until next weekend - she even set up booths with food samples. You asked for it - you got it! Now, splain, Lucy!

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  6. Ethel ...ur...crazy4coens-- OOOOPS! Me and my big keyboard! Sorry about that, crazy4!

    Sounds like remodelers stress to me! My folks worked on our house the entire time I was growing up and then sold it as soon as they finally got all the rooms done. I think my mom needed a new project.

    Perhaps a bit of husband strain as well?

    Or the clutter anxiety that I often get. You aren't a pack rat like me are you?

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  7. Way to share the Def Leppard video. Awesome. And the last dream I can recall was that me and Mrs. Shife had a baby girl named Isabel. Not that she is pregnant or anything or that we are trying but some day we would like to have number 2 and hope it is a little girl.

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  8. Mr. Shife-- I have to stop and listen to it each time I come to my own blog. hahahaha. Thanks.

    That is a lovely dream. I do hope it comes true someday. Little girls are really something. But so are little boys, like your darling Baby Shife.
    Glad to see ya, Daddy Shife! I'm heading your way now.

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  9. Mr.Shife-- I love the name Isabel. Would be a good choice for someday.

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  10. I so rarely remember my dreams. When I actually do, I often have to post about them, because I'm so amazed.
    I have never hitch-hiked, but I have participated in real scavenger hunts. They are so much fun and I get really excited when kids come around doing them now and I can find things to help them :-)

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  11. laura b.-- I feel the same about scavenger hunts. I love it when kids show up looking for things. Takes me back.

    I guess a lot of adult have trouble recalling dreams. Mine are pretty vivid and stay awhile after I wake if I have one. But I don't have them often now.

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  12. Love the pics of the flowers.. very pretty..

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  13. Well, I don't remember what I dreamed last night. I remember being very annoyed by it when I woke up this morning, but now it is totally gone.

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  14. laughingattheslut-- I guess as we grow up it's harder to keep dreams in our heads until we're awake. But, yeah... the emotion stays doesn't it?

    Maybe that's why I wake up cranky sometimes.

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  15. Cool post, AG. You are brave to share your dreams with the blogosphere. Me, I have weird dreams. If I don't write them down, I will sometimes forget everything but the 'flavor' of the dream, but even that is usually weird. I don't refer to myself as a twisted polyhedron for nothing ;-)

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  16. cube-- You are so funny.

    That reminds me of a dear friend named Andrew (not apple cheeks crazy4)who used to obsess over the lights at Denny's being dodecahedrons.

    He was a gemologist. And a great guy.

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  17. i dreamed i was soaring over some trees and shat on a crow.

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  18. billy-- I laughed really loud at that one. I hate those fecking crows! Big grin.

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  19. Asiatic lilies aren't exactly cheap, but are pretty reliable and care-free (except fr some watering) and SO gorgeous.

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  20. secret agent woman-- Yes, indeed they are. I am truly enjoying them. I do love day lilies too. They have nice foliage. In fact, I collect day lilies. :)

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  21. I have had a lot of dreams where it is imperative that I do something, yet I am thwarted by scary monsters or barking dogs before I can do it.

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  22. Michael-- Ah, the dreams of the responsible man!
    Dreams like that are frustrating to me. I do not have them very often. Hope you don't have them often either!

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