Category Archives: Love/Relationships

Wedding in London

I’m in a city like London because I’m going to get married. My family and many of the people I know are there to see the ceremony and wish me well.

My mother says that Jeff is the doctor who delivered me when I was born. She says we was a very good doctor and he did a fine job. When we see Jeff and try to talk to him about it, he says he doesn’t remember being a doctor and doesn’t think he ever did that.

I meet up with my faceless groom and he’s wearing khaki pants and a polo shirt. Evan asks him “you couldn’t even wear a real shirt?” We look around a store trying to find him some better pants and a button-down white shirt.

Once I’ve gotten him settled trying on clothes, I run across the street to another store to try on some makeup. I realize that in all the excitement around finding clothes for my groom that I haven’t put any makeup on.

Friedman’s gifts

Friedman likes a girl with short brown hair. He decides to buy her some gifts to show how much he likes her.

He buys her nine different presents. Instead of wrapping each one up and watching her open them, he makes a video of the gifts and posts it on YouTube. When I ask him why he didn’t just give her the presents, he says that isn’t necessary anymore, and this new way is better.

People Die

My aunt tells me that my father has been killed in a car accident. I am shocked and devastated, but I also have the vague sense that I expected something like this would happen. The last time I saw my father, I said goodbye to him, and I felt like I let him know how much I loved him.

I am dating a man and his mother tells me he has been killed in an accident. I am heartbroken. He appears later and I am shocked that he is still alive. I tell him that I was led to believe he was dead, and he replies that sounds like something his mother would do. I tell him that’s sick.

Engagement ring

A man working behind the counter at a convenience store asks me to marry him. He gives me a giant engagement ring with an enormous stone. Later, when I look down at my hand, I realize that the stone is missing. It turns out the stone wasn’t really attached to the ring, it was just resting on the setting. I look around and find the diamond and put it back into the ring.

The man’s mother finds out that he’s given me the ring, and she gets angry at him.

Jai and his new relationships

I go to visit Jai at his new apartment. It’s a Thursday evening. He has a new boyfriend and they’re all over each other. He tells me that this is the most important relationship in his life. I’m put out by the fact that he’s ignoring me and I try to make him understand that he’s being rude to me.

I go back and visit him on Sunday. This time he has a different boyfriend. He claims this boyfriend is really the one for him and he will be with him forever. I tell him point blank that there is no way this can be true, since he just broke up with someone else. He ignores me and I can tell he doesn’t want to listen to me.

They adopt a baby girl from Korea. I am shocked and disturbed that they would expect to care for a baby when they are obviously not that stable. Jai tells me that having a baby will confer legitimacy on his relationship. They ignore the baby once she arrives and go out to eat at restaurants.

The subway is never the way it is in real life

I meet Josh at an office where we’re supposed to do some work. I’m planning to take the train home but he lets me share a black car with him.

The next day I go back and meet some other people in the office. There is a tall Scandinavian man working in the office and I flirt with him. He flirts back and says he thinks he might want to marry me. Turns out he is already married to an Asian woman and they have an infant. I sit with them in the cafeteria and hold the baby for her.

When I’m ready to go home I go over to the subway. The station is attached to a shopping mall and is served by a couple of different lines. I get on the N train but it is going the wrong direction, and I wind up at the end of the line. I go to look at the map and realize how far out I am. I try to plan my trip but I can’t figure out if the N/R/Q or the B/D/F will get me home faster.

The company is supposed to provide transportation but my Metrocard either isn’t working or they’re expecting me to use my personal card. I call someone in customer service and she’s rude to me and then hangs up on me. I stare at the time on my phone, shocked that she just hung up. When I call back she is angry with me in return. She says I should just use the Metrocard that I have and it won’t be a problem.

No Apology is Forthcoming

I’m back at the University of Minnesota for the fall semester. It’s beautiful and the weather is absolutely perfect. I joke that they plan it that way, to get people hooked on Minnesota before the winter begins.

I’m having lunch in the cafeteria with an asian woman. Her boyfriend is a strapping Minnesota blonde. He proposes to her with a ring of small pale blue stones. I’m really happy for them but she’s not happy about the proposal. I take the ring and put it on my own finger. I’m wearing my wedding band and another ring that is a larger diamond. I experiment with how they should be positioned on my finger and decide that the new ring looks best on the inside, even though I should technically wear my wedding band on the inside, closest to my heart.

I find an ancient manual typewriter that prints in an elaborate cursive script. I want to use it to communicate with Jai. I think that if I can type what I want to say to him, he will listen.

Jai and I are driving in a car around campus, looking for a place to park. I ask him what is wrong and why I haven’t heard from him in so long. He gives me a number of lame excuses and I don’t really accept any of them. I finally tell him that I think what he did was wrong and I’m really hurt, and I think I deserve an apology. After a while he yells at me and says that no apology is forthcoming. I get really angry and get out of the car, slam the door, and storm off.

I have to walk around to find a way to get home. I see a sign directing me to the “Steppe” stop on the New Jersey PATH train.

Movie about a lover and a trick door

I am seeing a group of friends. Sharon my college roommate is there. She looks beautiful and is very professionally dressed.

I’m bored and decide to watch a movie. In the movie a young man gets trapped in his lover’s room by her husband. The husband is going to kill him. There’s a chase scene with music that I can hear quite vividly. The husband gets a horse, but there is a trick door and the lover is saved.

I’m in a department store looking for a gift for my grandmother. I get a call from Caitlin but she says she’s not available. I don’t mention the fact that I’m not available either. I am buying an engraved necklace for myself and I run into Caitlin, but I call her Megan by mistake. She is annoyed that I did not call. I tell her I’m going out of town. I decide to pick up the necklace later.

College Campus with iPod

I’m walking through a series of rooms and hallways on a college campus, while listening to my iPod.

Jane’s husband is cheating on her, and I think to myself "at least they don’t have kids." He leaves for eight weeks to go on a "job hunt" that I think is suspicious.

I stop to look through a sale rack of cheap formalwear. The dresses are all ugly.

I see a posterboard with a sign talking about a homemaker in Minneapolis that killed herself very young but her family did not understand.

I can’t find my way back to the room where Kevin is. Kevin is condescending and dismissive. So I just walk the hallways with my iPod.

Coffee Shop Romance

I am in love with this hipster guy I meet in a coffee shop. The coffee shop has all sorts of flyers and postcards announcing shows and events up by the register.

I get pregnant but I decide I’m not going to keep the baby and I’m not going to tell him about it. But the next time I see him he knows something is up. He gets me to admit that I’m pregnant and insists that we should have the child.

He flirts with another girl in my presence. I sit there and watch and I’m upset about it but I don’t let on.

I go and hang a large poster across the street from the coffee shop. A man passes by and jeers at me while I am trying to get it straight.

Coffee Dates at the Mall

I’m in a mall where there’s a big McDonalds with about 8 or 10 lines that are all at least 6 people deep. I’m on a date at the mall and we go out for expensive coffee drinks. I like the guy well enough. He says the next time we go out we’ll have coffee at McDonalds. While we’re standing there talking I see Harry waiting in line out of the corner of my eye — I feel a shock of recognition. My date asks who I’m looking at and I decide I don’t want to get into it, so I say I thought I saw someone I know.

The next night I go out on a date with someone different, but we’re in the mall again. We’re standing overlooking a railing on the mezzanine. My date notices my hearing aids and then shows me that he has them too. He pulls one out and I comment that we wear the same brand. He passes it to me and tells me to be careful, but I just laugh and say I know not to drop it. And I don’t. I can feel myself falling in love with him, I want to be with him so badly.

My date comes from a large family and I go to meet all of them. One of his sisters is getting married. It’s chaotic, people everywhere, all grabbing and laughing and yelling. I wonder if I can marry into this family because I don’t have siblings. Bob Lord is helping me clean up in the kitchen, it’s a huge mess. We’re talking about people making video resumes, he tells me that’s how everyone applies for jobs now. I say I’ll never get a job again because I could never make a video about myself. Bob and I are very friendly, there’s no awkwardness. I have all my cosmetics in a plastic zip-lock bag, and I’m afraid I’m going to lose it. The father in the family comes through and tells us to throw out everything that’s unnecessary.

Engagement Rings

I’m having dinner with Jeff from "Curb Your Enthusiasm." We’re discussing our relationship and he pulls out an engagement ring and puts it on my right hand. I act all surprised and excited, but really I’m not sure. The ring is hideous, it’s black and reminds me of coal. It has a piece of metal that sticks out over my fingers, making it hard to move them around when I’m wearing it. The diamond is tiny and stuck inside a pocket in the metal. I try to find a way to tell him politely that the ring isn’t my taste, but as I’m talking the ring starts to disintegrate. He apologizes and gets me another ring, this one more traditionally styled, but also with a tiny diamond. But really I’m just unsure if I want to marry him.

I go into my mother’s safe deposit box to find a ring that she used to wear. The safe deposit box has her jewelry drawer in it. It’s guarded by a bitchy asian man who doesn’t want me to take anything, but I tell him it’s my mother’s box and he leaves me alone. I’m looking for a gold ring that has vertical strips of gold down the front. I find a ring that looks similar, until I realize it has roman numerals on the front of it.

I’m walking with my mother and John to do some shopping. My mother is all bundled up in her warmest winter clothes, even though I tell her it’s at least 60 degrees out. She says she’s afraid she’ll get cold. John calls "time and temperature" from his mobile and says it’s 80 degrees.

I ask my mother about the ring. She says the ring I’m wearing was a gift from my grandmother when she graduated from high school. I ask about the other ring and describe it as having "twigs" falling on the front. She says I can have that ring too. I repeat several times that I won’t lose it, but I’m afraid that I will.

I’m unrolling a long piece of sticky paper or plastic. I unroll it across the room to where Harry is, he’s sitting and talking to some friends. I’m trying to keep the plastic from sticking to itself, but it’s difficult because it’s so long.

Dating a single father

I’m with Helen and we’re going to go trick-or-treating or somehow out on Halloween. I don’t have a costume. I look around in a suitcase and I’m trying to find something to wear. I’m afraid I’m going to be cold.

Scott appears twice in the same issue of the New York Times magazine, once in a shorter note about Squidfartz and once in a longer article. I want to tell him about the articles, but when I go back later I can only find one of them.

I’m dating a very tall bald man. We’re having dinner and he tells me that he has a young child. His wife abandoned him and the baby, and now he’s caring for it alone. His wife had a drug problem and he said she did a lot of coke and ecstasy. I feel uncomfortable about dating someone with a child to care for. Specifically, I wonder how he can be out with me in the evening, and who is caring for the child.

Mistrust

Maggie M. works for Bond but she’s my enemy.

I’m dating a man who I’m very fond of, but when I google him it turns out he’s lied about his name and he’s married.

Cheating on a sofa

I’m in a big hotel or convention center. There’s a man there I’m attracted to. We start making out in public on a sofa. It’s very passionate.

Jonathan sees us and I feel terrible that I’ve been cheating.

Someone asks us why we had to act that way in public, why not just get a room? I answer that I didn’t want to cross a line.

I’m still excited by the feeling of being with someone new.

Jewish wedding

I’m marrying a Jewish guy. We’re trying to set a date for the wedding. It can’t be on Christmas and it can’t be on Friday.

I find a fancy resort in Indonesia for our honeymoon.

My adopted daughter

Jonathan and I are traveling through India or China. We get married. At the hotel, they replace the old, worn-out carpet in our room with new carpet in honor of our wedding.

We decide to adopt a child. Andrea comes to help us. She gets us a girl baby and tells us the child’s name is "Lucas Samaha." I laugh and say that I can’t have a daughter that’s named after my high school boyfriend, because all my friends will think it’s weird and make fun of me.

Gram’s garden

I’m out socializing with a man I don’t know. I take him to Gram’s house and show him her garden. I tell him how important she was in my life when I was growing up.

He has some other friends who don’t like me. In particular, there’s a woman with long dark hair who clearly despises me. When I meet her for the first time, I snicker at her, and she sees me and gets pissed. Later, I won’t acknowledge that I’ve done anything that would make her dislike me.

This man is going out with his friends, this woman included, and I decline to go with them.

San Francisco office landscape

I tell Mark that I am not taking the job, but I hope we can still be friends. We hug. Then we kiss. We start dating. But he’s gay.

I’m working for a hotel chain, traveling all over the world. I fly from San Francisco to Dubai.

Mark and I have sex on a kitchen counter. I give him a blowjob.

I know he’s cheating on me. I confront him about the fact that he’s dating men on the side.

I’m working in a big office building in San Francisco. There are lots of agencies that work in this building. I’m navigating through a huge space of blue-lit cubicles.