Monthly Archives: January 2009

Party in Brooklyn

I am having a party (maybe a birthday party) and I’m telling people where to go. I tell Brooke and David that the party is going to be in Brooklyn. Brooke is reluctant to go because she doesn’t know how to get there, so I explain to her how to take the subway. When we get to Brooklyn it’s crowded. The streets are jammed with people, so it’s almost impossible to walk.

I am taking care of an elderly Chinese woman. At the party, someone tells me have to get home as quickly as possible because there is something wrong with her. I need to take a handkerchief or a Kleenex and very gently dab around her eyes. Someone shows me how to do this.

Later, I meet a man and we walk through the streets of a dark city to a convenience store. We pick out some items from the store and then sit on the curb outside.

Navigating a city park

I walk over to the window across the hallway from my apartment. I want to go out onto the roof. The window turns into a door so I can to outside. When I’m out there, it isn’t a flat roof that overlooks the tops of shorter buildings, the way I’d expect. Instead, it’s a grassy hill that slopes down into an outdoor park. When I look to the other apartments, I see that instead of windows, they all have sliding glass doors, like we’re in an apartment complex in the suburbs.

I walk down the hill past picnic tables. It’s warm and sunny out. I walk for a ways through a park, then decide it’s time to head back home.

I see that I can cut through a path across a college campus to get home. As I’m walking, I come across a staircase that will take me up to a skyway. I start to climb the stairs but discover that they’re folded up as a security measure, and I slide back down. As I’m standing there looking at them (and marveling that they close up) the steps fold down so I can climb them. I take this as an invitation and begin to ascend.

As soon as I make it to the top of the stairs, an alarm sounds and the stairs close up again. A gate comes down from the ceiling and I am trapped inside the skyway.

Bumped off a flight going to visit Joe

My dad drives me to the airport where I plan to take a flight to D.C. to visit Joe. When I’m checking in I realize that I don’t have any luggage. I’m holding a disorganized sheaf of papers, and I shove them into my empty backpack. (Where is my laptop?)

When I get to the ticket counter to check in, the gate attendant tells me that the flight is oversold. She checks my reservation and tells me that because I used frequent flyer miles to purchase the ticket, I will be bumped off the flight in favor of paying customers. At this point I notice that my ticket is to Atlanta, and I really want to go to D.C. I ask her what sort of compensation they will provide if I am bumped, and if they will arrange for me to get to D.C. instead. I think that this could work out well for me, as I obviously made a mistake in booking my travel.

I go down a flight of stairs at the airport to go back outside and meet my dad. Walking down the stairs, I pass by Maya Angelou and her entourage. I realize that they are on the flight to Atlanta.

I get into the back seat of my dad’s minivan because my mother is in the front seat. They both drive me home so I can pick up my suitcase.