People ask me why we keep going back to Connecticut, for long weekend vacations. Ok, mostly my mom, and I suspect she'll give me shit about anything under the sun, but it still has me thinking why. I've been going there since I was a kid, nothing much has changed, we've seen all the attractions dozens of times, and there's not a hell of a lot going on. Sounds dull.
We don't go in spite of those things, we go because of them.
One of the highlights of the trip is sitting in Tim Hortons, in the late afternoon. It's not about the junk food or the coffee (although they're both a delight) it's about seeing the same old dudes roll in around the same time, sit at the same tables, and gossip about the post office across the street. They're all old boatmen. They hate the Seaport and the tourists, and the wealthy elite. Even though I've never spoken to them, we sit alongside and between their tables, and become immersed in the culture, and it feels like home. I get a weird doubling sensation, that one day, we're going to be old, sitting there talking politics, gossip, griping about SUVs and New Yorkers. It feels absolutely right. I look for the same resturaunts, and the same patterns of sightseeing. We always try a few new things every time we go there, festivals, new places to eat, something, but normally it's all super familiar. This visit, we're ranging as far as Providence RI, and going to Al Forno for dinner.
One day, Irv wants to retire up there. He restlessly scans Craigslist and real estate pages for housing up there. It's a far off dream, we have no intention of moving anywhere anytime soon, but it's a nice thing to think about. A tiny century home set into the side of the tall hill, blocks away from the drawbridge. Oh, fuck yeah. My blue heaven.
Coffee and a fritter at Tims before check in, Margarita's happy hour for snacks and pitchers of margaritas tomorrow! Cab to the hotel, whirlpool tub, more drinks. Late night pool maybe. Kitchen Little for a ridiculous early breakfast tomorrow, then to RI, to walk around, go to the huge mall, and see the city. Al Forno for dinner. More coffee, drinks, pool, tub. Sunday...maybe Old Mystic Village, and downtown walking around? Cemetery walking? Waterfront, driving around, antiques, looking at all the houses, see if Clyde's is open? I love the open ended days. We always have one or two. Steak Loft for dinner for sure. Monday, more open ended, definitely Kitchen Little, Devil's Hopyard if the weather's nice, more cemeteries, and Mystic Pizza for dinner, and a take home pie for the boy. We might be the most boring people ever. Ever. Lots of lazing around in the hotel room in between. This visit, we're not going to the Seaport, or the Aquarium. We just went in October, and turned over every stone at both places.
I think it's a weird part of my makeup. I crave routine. Going somewhere adventurous or new throws me out of my comfort zone, and while it's a thrill, while I love it, a real vacation to me is nestling somewhere I know and love. New places and events give me anxiety, here in my old age. I am within my anxiety free comfort zone, I know what to expect, and where to go. That's why we return to the same campsite year after year, too, I think. I think I traveled enough as a kid.
Feb 25, 2011
Feb 23, 2011
Zombies in Atlantic City
Yeah, it's another dream. I've been facing a serious writer's block, but blogging about my dreams always feels good.
So, I was on a bus with people heading down to Atlantic City. I seemed to be not with anyone in my family, though Luiz and Irv show up vaguely later. There's a lot of vagueness here. I know I'm with a group of strangers, becoming friends with them on a long ride, down to my dream AC, only like all resorts and famous areas in my dreams, it's not quite AC.
I'm friends with them, and there's a zombie invasion down where we were going. It was something of a survival horror bit, where we were wading through only semi agressive zombies to get where we were going. Some details: Hot summery sunshine, cool shore breezes. No smell of decay. Only some of the zombies were aggressive. There was a small child with us, who we adored. We holed up in a house, trying to protect the kids. Some of the people in the house got affected. I remember being super concerned for the kid, who reminded me of Jake's daughter Natalie. Outside on the boardwalk area, there were tables set up with prepackaged food and supplies labeled with some sort of Emergency Management stickers. Lots and lots of these kits piled on top of the tables. At some point we were in a grocery store with other survivors, gathering stuff, and there were lots of survivors. That's one thing that set my dream apart from typical zombie survival games, only about half the population was affected, there were loads of healthy people around. The zombies were only aggressive for a short time after becoming infected, and then they sort of just shambled around, looking rather healthy and dazed. Their eyes went pale grey, and the pupils disappeared, and they looked totally mindless. Back at the house we were at, the affected people, were rampaging, and the healthy people were trying to fight. I vaguely remember the one dude was kind of good looking and shirtless, and they had him of tied up, but he was struggling against the rope. There was a woman, too, with brown hair. I got too close, and the dude bit me on the hand. No flesh chunks came out, just a hard bite on the top of my hand that was bloodless, but red and painful.
We decided to leave, and it was Irv, Luiz, and I. We were walking along the boardwalk at dusk to try to find a vehicle to get home. We passed a modern looking glassy cafe with a couple that was on the bus with us. They were healthy and we offered to bring them back with us, but they claimed to be enjoying their time. The male of the couple was eating what looked like dog kibble out of a huge silver bowl. They were both Hispanic, and very attractive, in a movie star kind of way. Rugged and polished. We kept going. The dog kibble thing reminded us, before we left, to get some for the critters. Luiz grabbed a huge 50 pound bag of kibble from under one of the supplies tables, and I grabbed a few cartons of the Emergency Supplies.
The ride home was uneventful, only that the sun set, and was full dark by the time we got home. We were looking around town as we were driving in, to see if our area was affected, and the only the bar was any indicator. There were tons of cars parked in front, but most of the lights were out inside, just the blue glow of TVs. That filled me with a sense of foreboding moreso than anything at the boardwalk. The last thing I remember is us unloading the car, in the darkness, all the lights being out in the house. I turned to get more stuff, and a stranger was on my porch. Some soccer momish type with helmet hair, and a dazed look on her face. She had wide staring bright blue eyes. I was like "zombie?" She actually answered me, "no, just a little sleepy." Somehow I surmised that the zombies got better after while. Aggressive, then calm, then sort of recovering and sleepy. Also, I couldn't tell if I was becoming a zombie and able to communicate with her, or if I wasn't infected, but she was recovering...or she was just a dimwit on my porch.
I realized, with the bar being all dark like that, and the heavy darkness surrounding our house, that shit just got real. Everything was fully dark, the house, which looked like the house next door, only slightly modified, was silent and black, and even the pets were silent. We couldn't tell if they were there. That unnerved me so much, that I willed myself awake, and some super concious part of me, that knew the dream was a dream all along was like "ok, too much, party's over, time to get up". In the first bleary moments of waking, I noticed all the pets in the bedroom, Jasper and Harmony at the foot of the bed, Bella by my side, and Smokey on top of the headboard, and I thought, just for an instant "oh they're all clustered here because they're scared of the zombies" Which carried that crazy unnerving fright over into my first waking moments.
Also, I realize that I was lucid dreaming, for a lot of it. Controlling how things went and why we weren't in any real danger for awhile, and that it was still a pleasant atmosphere in spite of the zombie problem. I was in control till arriving "home" and then I got very scared.
So, I was on a bus with people heading down to Atlantic City. I seemed to be not with anyone in my family, though Luiz and Irv show up vaguely later. There's a lot of vagueness here. I know I'm with a group of strangers, becoming friends with them on a long ride, down to my dream AC, only like all resorts and famous areas in my dreams, it's not quite AC.
I'm friends with them, and there's a zombie invasion down where we were going. It was something of a survival horror bit, where we were wading through only semi agressive zombies to get where we were going. Some details: Hot summery sunshine, cool shore breezes. No smell of decay. Only some of the zombies were aggressive. There was a small child with us, who we adored. We holed up in a house, trying to protect the kids. Some of the people in the house got affected. I remember being super concerned for the kid, who reminded me of Jake's daughter Natalie. Outside on the boardwalk area, there were tables set up with prepackaged food and supplies labeled with some sort of Emergency Management stickers. Lots and lots of these kits piled on top of the tables. At some point we were in a grocery store with other survivors, gathering stuff, and there were lots of survivors. That's one thing that set my dream apart from typical zombie survival games, only about half the population was affected, there were loads of healthy people around. The zombies were only aggressive for a short time after becoming infected, and then they sort of just shambled around, looking rather healthy and dazed. Their eyes went pale grey, and the pupils disappeared, and they looked totally mindless. Back at the house we were at, the affected people, were rampaging, and the healthy people were trying to fight. I vaguely remember the one dude was kind of good looking and shirtless, and they had him of tied up, but he was struggling against the rope. There was a woman, too, with brown hair. I got too close, and the dude bit me on the hand. No flesh chunks came out, just a hard bite on the top of my hand that was bloodless, but red and painful.
We decided to leave, and it was Irv, Luiz, and I. We were walking along the boardwalk at dusk to try to find a vehicle to get home. We passed a modern looking glassy cafe with a couple that was on the bus with us. They were healthy and we offered to bring them back with us, but they claimed to be enjoying their time. The male of the couple was eating what looked like dog kibble out of a huge silver bowl. They were both Hispanic, and very attractive, in a movie star kind of way. Rugged and polished. We kept going. The dog kibble thing reminded us, before we left, to get some for the critters. Luiz grabbed a huge 50 pound bag of kibble from under one of the supplies tables, and I grabbed a few cartons of the Emergency Supplies.
The ride home was uneventful, only that the sun set, and was full dark by the time we got home. We were looking around town as we were driving in, to see if our area was affected, and the only the bar was any indicator. There were tons of cars parked in front, but most of the lights were out inside, just the blue glow of TVs. That filled me with a sense of foreboding moreso than anything at the boardwalk. The last thing I remember is us unloading the car, in the darkness, all the lights being out in the house. I turned to get more stuff, and a stranger was on my porch. Some soccer momish type with helmet hair, and a dazed look on her face. She had wide staring bright blue eyes. I was like "zombie?" She actually answered me, "no, just a little sleepy." Somehow I surmised that the zombies got better after while. Aggressive, then calm, then sort of recovering and sleepy. Also, I couldn't tell if I was becoming a zombie and able to communicate with her, or if I wasn't infected, but she was recovering...or she was just a dimwit on my porch.
I realized, with the bar being all dark like that, and the heavy darkness surrounding our house, that shit just got real. Everything was fully dark, the house, which looked like the house next door, only slightly modified, was silent and black, and even the pets were silent. We couldn't tell if they were there. That unnerved me so much, that I willed myself awake, and some super concious part of me, that knew the dream was a dream all along was like "ok, too much, party's over, time to get up". In the first bleary moments of waking, I noticed all the pets in the bedroom, Jasper and Harmony at the foot of the bed, Bella by my side, and Smokey on top of the headboard, and I thought, just for an instant "oh they're all clustered here because they're scared of the zombies" Which carried that crazy unnerving fright over into my first waking moments.
Also, I realize that I was lucid dreaming, for a lot of it. Controlling how things went and why we weren't in any real danger for awhile, and that it was still a pleasant atmosphere in spite of the zombie problem. I was in control till arriving "home" and then I got very scared.
Feb 3, 2011
The car crashes into the bar, a nutty dream
I keep wanting to document certain dreams, and this is a good one to remember. I had it during the 20 minute long snooze before getting up this morning, and the details are crystal clear.
It was a typical day, in this neighborhood. There was less snow on the ground, but it was still slushy. Our yard was much larger than in real life, and it wasn't raised. The layout was much the same, with the bar across the street. I had to go to work, so while I was getting ready at 9 am, I went to warm up my car. It wasn't my Jeep, though. In my dream, it was a small car, a black Geo Storm, wedge shaped, and I distinctly remember "Geo". So, along with warming it up, I needed to move it, too. I swung it wide in the driveway doing a looping turn onto the grass, nearly missing a tree, and leaving wide tire tracks in the wet slushy ground. I parked it facing out, at the very end of the driveway, with the wheel turned sharply towards Florence Ave, and I left it running. As I hopped out of the car, I somehow kicked something, some mechanism. I shut the door, and immediately the car went racing out into the street, and into the bar parking lot. It crashed through the corner of the bar. Upon first examining it, as I was running across the street, it looked like my car took out a full quarter of the front wall and windows, and was parked in a twisted heap, inside. Later in my dream, it wasn't. There was a huge crowd of people inside, and the interior didn't look like it does in real life. There were a lot of couches and tables, and there was a circular area in the center, with couches all facing a huge flat screen TV. The actual bar part was across the back wall. I seem to remember visiting a place like that, in real life, or maybe the interior was a composite of a few different places. But there was a huge crowd. No one got hurt. There was some sort of sports event going on, with merchandise being sold from some back tables, and lots of people wearing team colors. Even in my dream, I thought it was strange that the bar was so crowded at 9am. Someone quickly located Bruna, and she just walked over to me, and looked at the car and me, silently. I said, "We both have insurance, we can work this out." She seemed to half-nod. Told me to wait here, and she forbade me to leave. She walked into a back room, that seemed adjacent to an old fashioned chill box cooler like we had at Kellers. Coming out of the cooler was a girl I went to school with, grown up, and she was sneering at me. I wandered around sort of lost, and then I realized the time, so I went back to my car to find my phone and call out of work. I plucked my phone out of the dead center of the wreckage, which was off to the side now, and seemingly smaller. The inside of the bar wasn't really all that damaged, and people were partying right around the outside of the car. My phone seemed unharmed, but the buttons didn't work. I would try dialing one number, and another would come up, and I remember talking to all the wrong people, trying to dial home, work, my mother, and all sorts of different results came up, and I was trapped in this bar with a bunch of people who didn't care about what happened, or seemed totally put out by it. I was becoming increasingly desperate and sad, and scared. I couldn't get through to anyone, and sometimes, if I punched certain buttons, the huge TV would go off, or change channels, only pissing people off even more. I sat down on a huge couch, a dark colored couch with a very high back, and Leah showed up. She gave me a hug, and offered to sit with me. Her presence was very maternal and comforting, but I was super worried that she wasn't at work, so I kept apologizing. She shrugged, and seemed like she had nothing else really going on, and that she'd rather sit there with me. Her presence helped the situation a lot. There was an old movie playing on the TV, that a group of people were really into, called something like "The Best of Times" and there was a blonde on screen, one of the old fashioned bombshell pinup types with red lipstick, blonde hair, and a green dress, and it seemed like a very glamorous movie. I felt extremely anxious about my fate, and the fact that I couldn't simply get up and walk across the street home. I felt very isolated from the family, and really wanted to get back to see them. Leah's presence was a minor comfort, but it didn't really help the overall anxiety. I woke up while watching the dream-movie.
It was a typical day, in this neighborhood. There was less snow on the ground, but it was still slushy. Our yard was much larger than in real life, and it wasn't raised. The layout was much the same, with the bar across the street. I had to go to work, so while I was getting ready at 9 am, I went to warm up my car. It wasn't my Jeep, though. In my dream, it was a small car, a black Geo Storm, wedge shaped, and I distinctly remember "Geo". So, along with warming it up, I needed to move it, too. I swung it wide in the driveway doing a looping turn onto the grass, nearly missing a tree, and leaving wide tire tracks in the wet slushy ground. I parked it facing out, at the very end of the driveway, with the wheel turned sharply towards Florence Ave, and I left it running. As I hopped out of the car, I somehow kicked something, some mechanism. I shut the door, and immediately the car went racing out into the street, and into the bar parking lot. It crashed through the corner of the bar. Upon first examining it, as I was running across the street, it looked like my car took out a full quarter of the front wall and windows, and was parked in a twisted heap, inside. Later in my dream, it wasn't. There was a huge crowd of people inside, and the interior didn't look like it does in real life. There were a lot of couches and tables, and there was a circular area in the center, with couches all facing a huge flat screen TV. The actual bar part was across the back wall. I seem to remember visiting a place like that, in real life, or maybe the interior was a composite of a few different places. But there was a huge crowd. No one got hurt. There was some sort of sports event going on, with merchandise being sold from some back tables, and lots of people wearing team colors. Even in my dream, I thought it was strange that the bar was so crowded at 9am. Someone quickly located Bruna, and she just walked over to me, and looked at the car and me, silently. I said, "We both have insurance, we can work this out." She seemed to half-nod. Told me to wait here, and she forbade me to leave. She walked into a back room, that seemed adjacent to an old fashioned chill box cooler like we had at Kellers. Coming out of the cooler was a girl I went to school with, grown up, and she was sneering at me. I wandered around sort of lost, and then I realized the time, so I went back to my car to find my phone and call out of work. I plucked my phone out of the dead center of the wreckage, which was off to the side now, and seemingly smaller. The inside of the bar wasn't really all that damaged, and people were partying right around the outside of the car. My phone seemed unharmed, but the buttons didn't work. I would try dialing one number, and another would come up, and I remember talking to all the wrong people, trying to dial home, work, my mother, and all sorts of different results came up, and I was trapped in this bar with a bunch of people who didn't care about what happened, or seemed totally put out by it. I was becoming increasingly desperate and sad, and scared. I couldn't get through to anyone, and sometimes, if I punched certain buttons, the huge TV would go off, or change channels, only pissing people off even more. I sat down on a huge couch, a dark colored couch with a very high back, and Leah showed up. She gave me a hug, and offered to sit with me. Her presence was very maternal and comforting, but I was super worried that she wasn't at work, so I kept apologizing. She shrugged, and seemed like she had nothing else really going on, and that she'd rather sit there with me. Her presence helped the situation a lot. There was an old movie playing on the TV, that a group of people were really into, called something like "The Best of Times" and there was a blonde on screen, one of the old fashioned bombshell pinup types with red lipstick, blonde hair, and a green dress, and it seemed like a very glamorous movie. I felt extremely anxious about my fate, and the fact that I couldn't simply get up and walk across the street home. I felt very isolated from the family, and really wanted to get back to see them. Leah's presence was a minor comfort, but it didn't really help the overall anxiety. I woke up while watching the dream-movie.
Sometimes it doesn't work
That foodathon thing didn't work out so much. The next two weeks after that were totally swamped. Maybe next year I can stick to it. I'd finish baking (over 1200 cookies and 30lbs of fudge this year) clean up and fall into bed. It was too much to also write about it. Stuff like that, when I make promises to myself, and fail, make me shy away from blogs reading and writing in general.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)