Monthly Archives: February 2006

Memphis

I’m in Memphis, driving around with a man who’s either my uncle or someone from work.

We go to a print store that also sells bags. I see a red leather backpack that’s on sale. The straps were kind of messed up, one was black and one was brown. Other people wanted it. We’re browsing the prints but my uncle says he doesn’t want to cause a racial incident.

We have shirts made. The shirt is nice because the facing on the placket is the selvedge.

We get coffee from a shack-type place that’s supposed to be amazing. I order decaf cappuccino and they laugh at me. They look in the back and it turns out to be a warehouse for a big bag of decaf beans.

Convertible off a cliff

Driving in a convertible
There’s a surprise ending
My romantic interest is unmasked as a monster
We’re going over a cliff

Angry child

I’m incredibly angry. I live with my parents and Gram and three dogs. I yell and scream. I write FUCK YOU and other invective on pieces of cardboard and leave them around. My mother finds them and gets angry with me in return. They all yell at me to stop it.

I live in NY, and a friend is going to get a new apartment in the East Village. She likes it because it has original tile and moldings. I think maybe I should move for a change of pace, that moving would make me more stable.

I feel overwhelmed by how powerless I feel to change my situation or my behavior.

Signed baseball

I’m in Vegas. I’m wearing something a little racy, but it’s not inappropriate.

I want to get a baseball signed by a favorite player. The player tells me that it’s his favorite ball. It’s all lumpy and I try to take the leather off.

I’m driving around and trying to find a place to park, but I can’t drive very well. I’m in an old car with the shifter on the steering column. I’m driving towards my grandmother’s house. The road to her house is a much bigger freeway and I’m having trouble driving and turning around.

Performance reviews

I’m in a big conference room and we’re discussing performance reviews. Marcelo is angry that Royce told us to use bullet points. I yell back that Royce is new, defending him.

There is a black cat in the conference room, and I think also a kitten. The cat is angry.

I hear a round of applause. Marcelo has gotten an award.

Chinese guy

I’m getting my hair cut. My hair is really dark and long and I have bangs. I have the same color hair as my stylist. She says it’s my natural color.

There’s a kind of geek chic Chinese guy who has a crush on me. He gives me an MS-Word document that is actually an application. It doesn’t work very well, when I click on things they move around and break the page. I’m annoyed at him for giving it to me.

He’s driving me around, we’re going to see a movie. I’m carrying a baby girl under my coat. The guy is a little weirded out by that. When I get out of the car I forget for a second that I have the baby. I’m afraid I’ll drop her but I don’t.

I’m with Paula and Steve. They are going to see the movie too. We talk about the Chinese guy.

Paula says my jeans are too short and I’m horrified. Turns out they’re not, they’re just folded up. I start hemming a skirt with tape. It’s white and red and flounced, and I’m trying to make the hem even. We have to leave.

Party in a store

I’m in a store looking around and I see an expensive handbag that was $5000 marked down to $159, so I buy it. I ask why it’s marked down so much, and the salesclerk says that it’s the only one like it they have, though they have unfinished ones in the back. The bag is brownish-tan leather.

A bunch of people come into the store and I realize it’s a party. I get a note in the mail and it’s a card from Liz that she made by sewing puffy fabric on the card. I see all my friends there, everyone I know — Jai, Ross, Susie & Jake. Susie and Jake want to stay outside and play hockey. Chad avoids me.

Walking through the party, some people comment on my sweater and ask who made it. It’s by Balenciaga but I don’t know how to pronounce it, so I show them the label. The label falls off and I give the label to one of the people who asked.

I say I sometimes dress as a tranny, which is an inside joke in reference to a comment that someone made earlier. At the time it seemed hilarious.

Across the room, someone points out the guy who owns the store. I want to meet him.

Cell phone vending machine

It’s night and I’m standing on a platform like a train platform. There is an expensive, fancy, round vending machine. In the vending machine there’s a Treo for sale for $300. I think that it would be dumb to buy a cell phone from a vending machine.

Later I come back and see that the phone is gone, someone bought it and left all the manuals behind. I discover that Chad bought it. He’s running around, acting like a maniac, tossing the phone around. I get really annoyed at how stupid he’s acting.

Philadelphia University

I am arranging a visit to a design department at a university in Philadelphia. Some people from Boston want to come but they say traffic is terrible. I ask if they can fly. They talk about expanding the highway to 8 lanes.

When we arrive the head of the department is cold and imperious and tells us to come back later.

The staircases and escalators are like an Escher painting. I see my mother go down a staircase that’s between two escalators. I try to follow but my leg gets stuck. I cry for help. When I try to extricate myself I wind up hanging by my hands, sort of upside down. I ask a stranger if he will catch me and he says he will, but it turns out I can just drop safely to the floor.

We go back to the design department office. We’re playing Yahtzee to pass the time. Except it’s different, it’s not called Yahtzee and you want to get a series of 8. The dice still have 6 sides, though. I roll once and get some 6s, and roll again and get four 6s and a 5. I’m trying to decide what to do with that, where to put it.

There is a bathroom in the office that has been decorated by Sony Playstation. I remember seeing a similar one on campus and I assume Sony is branding bathrooms now. The decor is kind of ridiculous, all red, hanging mobiles of the Sony logo. I think about calling to see if they would do ours.

The department head comes back and we are all discussing what we’re going to ask her. I decide to ask about designing computer games. Do the principles of design remain the same? How do you account for game play and screen displays? I note that it used to be heresy to talk about screen "design."