Hard Sleep Between 4:00 and 5:30 a.m.

 

               I fell asleep early.  I got up at 2:00 quite warm and

decided to take a shower.  I did not return to bed as I had

had six hours of sleep. I took my kindle into another room to

pass the time.  If I had thought about it I would have cleaned the

carpet in Richard’s office.  Of course I did not

think about it.  I returned to bed at 4:00.  Sometime between

4:00 a.m. and 5:30 I had a really hard sleep.  I know that I was

sleeping hard as I had another really bizarre dream with no

connections to anything. 

               I was driving down a road that leads to downtown Myrtle

Creek.  A deer zoomed in front of me.  I think I stopped hard to

let it pass.  And then I saw a woman slowly moseying down

the middle of the road.  She was wearing a coat and scarf – all in

loud colors.  As the deer passed the woman, I slowed down and

called out her name (turns out it was someone that I have

worked with at the library) and asked her if she would like a ride. 

Her destination turned out to be a lot closer than either one of us

had expected (downtown Myrtle Creek is NOT that big.  EVERYTHING is

within walking distance)

               I parked next door to the bank (which is not in the same

location that it was in the dream) in an area I have never seen in real life. 

It was called Moon something.  I think it was a bar or night club or

something.  I don’t even know why I parked.  I don’t even remember leaving

the car – and yet I found myself in another elaborate building – huge – like Las

Vegas huge.  NOTHING like that exists in Myrtle Creek.  Highly doubtful in all

of Douglas county.  Yet in the dream there it was. 

 Jaime took me on a tour of the facility.  She was an actress

performing in one of the rooms.  I recognized the background from photos she

had posted (not in real life but as part of the dream) .  I suddenly remembered the

woman I had dropped off at the bank – which magically connected to the

building I was in.  But

she was gone.  Well, yeah – I had been

there much longer than anticipated.  I forgot about my car.  Oh oh.

I returned to the place I had parked to find a large sign on

the back of my car (or some kind of car – much bigger than the one I was

initially driving)  and all the tires had been removed.  I was devastated.  How

in the heck was I going to explain that to Richard?  

I am leaving out so much detail. 

It was 5:45 when I returned to the front room scribbling down my

thoughts.  The notes don’t make any sense.  But

neither did the dream.

Odd Week – or at least the last half . . .

            I accepted a long term position at the middle school last week.  When I arrived to the school on Monday I was given a schedule which had my name on it along side three other aides.  I was told to follow the schedule unless another aide is absent and than her schedule would be my priority rather than my own.  I’ve been there enough times to know what teachers utilize me and which ones don’t and so will use my own discretion on where I may be needed most but often will feel as useful as a tampon dispenser in a men’s room.

            The schools let out an hour earlier on Wednesdays giving time for instructors to meet together or what have you.  Those aides who are scheduled to stay after school lets out go to the detention room to provide homework support for those students who need it.  As I have mentioned in prior posts I have RS meetings on Wednesdays – or did rather. I am able to leave before school lets out in order to make my meeting.  As a result, the office manager had me come in earlier.

            I arrived before the students were dismissed from the Cafeteria to walk up hill and cross the street to the school.  When I arrived, students were walking toward the Skyhawk instead of going to the school.  I hadn’t believed that there was enough time to make the walk down there but learned that all students were being sent there as there was “a flood in the girls’ bathroom” which I guess was code for something else – though I don’t know what.  When I had seen the police officer I wondered if it was vandalism.  I don’t have my own email account for the school and so did not get all of the details about what took place.

            Many teachers stood in the cafeteria as students sat at tables or on the floor.  One teacher was on the stage lecturing the youth about the seriousness of the cornavirus and went over hygiene and the importance of washing our hands.  After about 35-40 minutes, the students were released to go to the school.   First period was pretty shot as far as time goes.  The staff added an additional ten minutes cutting the next class 10 minutes short, but 3-7 period were all the 35 minutes that occur each Wednesday.

            On Thursday a child had pulled the fire alarm just before the middle schoolers were about to dismissed for lunch.  The fire department was contacted and those persons who’d been in the elementary school and surrounding buildings could not be in the building.  Because the Skyhawk cafeteria is near the elementary school, it was closed due to a “fire drill” – thus all the students were to report to the gym before they could go to lunch.  I don’t know how long they were there.  Though the inconvenience seemed to disrupt the schedule, they made it work.  Still it felt weird.

I made this rough map to illustrate my
explanation in a letter to my son.

            This morning it was announced that today will be our last day for a while.  The state of Oregon is shutting down all schools for at least the next two weeks.  Two weeks, really?  They think all this commotion will be gone by then?  I expect it will be more than a month.  But what do I know?  

            At lunch time a few patrol cars showed up and the officers entered the field to play football with the students.  That was an awesome sight!  

             I read on my sister’s facebook page that they have shut down the libraries in Utah.  I don’t know whether they have been pulled out of school or not.  I really haven’t seen a lot of signs of panic.  I have seen more eye-rollers and skepticism.  Signs of precaution and concern. Jenna brought home a letter about the school shut-down and Roland said we need to keep it for the future of “remember this”. 

            My paycheck is usually enough to pay the mortgage – though sometimes it has been under.  I think this is one of those times that it will be way under.  Jenna’s crying.  Not only did seminary get cancelled but so did school.  Her birthday is coming up.  Some sweet sixteen celebration.  Isolation. Again, worse things happening elsewhere.  My suggestions to her are not helpful at the moment.   

Switching Bodies

I thought I would share some thoughts on the bizarre dream that I had this morning – though many of the details were already gone before Roland requested that I make pancakes – and then chop up some vegetables for the meatball stew . . .

“I’m not even dressed yet!” I thought.  After all I had mentioned that I had two hours before I would leave for work and that I needed to take a shower.  Thus this post has been put on the back burner.  So do I start with the dream or the cake? 

          I took pictures of the cake that we made on Saturday.  Jenna had done the entire cake part by herself and I frosted it and poured over coconut.  The intention was not for the purpose of giving the appearance of a giant snowball, but that is what I thought it looked like:

          So moving on to the dream which took place sometime between 3 and 6 this morning.  I remember it involved multiple documents – I don’t know if they were from bill collectors or court documents or what they were – but I didn’t want them.  They were wrongly given to me and I was trying to dodge them.  Granted, I am reading a mystery novel in real life and so I suppose some of my reading could have made their way into my dream but the weird part was trying to hide from it and driving to someone’s house to discuss it. 

I don’t even know whose house I had driven to except for my cousin was there and in the dream she had gone into nursing and knew the secret of body switching – which I had heard of, but was really nervous about it – yet I was willing to take the gamble in order to dodge whomever was behind the paperwork.

Now in real life I used to see my cousins often which gradually turned into perhaps twice a month and less than that after grandma died. And that was just my dad’s side.  I don’t even know my cousins on my mom’s side.  Ironically the oldest one lives in Salem just three hours away.

          So probably out of all my cousins I have spent the most time with Michelle – but Michelle was not even in this dream, but rather her sister Rose.  She is the one that suggested we switch out bodies and she taught me what I needed to do in order to make that switch.  It seemed to make sense in the dream, but doesn’t even remotely make sense as I write this.

          So I returned to Myrtle Creek and she returned to Logan (or is it Layton?  I don’t know . . . some city north of Salt Lake that starts with an L.  See how close we are?) and I am me on  the inside, but my outward appearance is Rose.  The documents stop coming and I am no longer harassed.  I am skinny.  I can wear eight layers of clothes sopping wet and still not weigh as much as Rose does in my body.  Why is it she was willing to make the switch with a heavy blob?  Is she in trouble with the law or creditors, too?

          I am able to eat several pieces of the snowball cake and my allergies haven’t bothered me.  

with banana ice cream made on MLK day

But the chin ring that Rose wears is killing me (I highly doubt that Rose has ever had a ring in her chin) and at the end of the dream I ask her when she wants to make the switch back.  She doesn’t seem anxious and I tell her I’m going to have the chin ring removed.

          I don’t know why my eyes fluttered, but I asked Roland what time it was.  He groaned as he turned to look at the clock and reported that it was six o’clock.  Jenna had forgotten to wake us again!  I woke up before Rose reacted or know if the chin ring was removed or not.  Weird