tiltawhirl

dream interpretations?

Last night, I had a weird dream.

I rarely have dreams, or at least I rarely have ones that I remember. When I do, they are pretty typical, very boring.

I used to have a variation on the "naked at school/work" a lot, where I would show up at school or work and have forgotten to put on a shirt. Sometimes I was in my bra, other times completely topless. And for some reason, no one would say anything about it to me. They would all be talking, pointing, but no one would say "Why aren't you wearing a shirt?" Also, there was always some reason why I couldn't just leave and go home and put a shirt on. The main thing is though, it's not like I feel ashamed in the dream. Other people seem scandalized, but I don't really care. Sometimes that is the reason I don't go home to change. I just didn't feel like wearing a shirt.

Dream dictionaries say that the naked in public dreams are about fear of exposure, of people seeing the true you or something like that, but it also says this:

"For a small percentage of you, dreaming that you are proud of your
nakedness and show no embarrassment or shame, then it symbolizes your
unrestricted freedom. You have nothing to hide and are proud of who you
are. The dream is about a new sense of honesty, openness, and a
carefree nature."

That's a good one.

Anyway, back to last night's dream.

I'm on a beach in Long Branch, NJ, with my mom and my Aunt JoAnn. We are sitting in beach chairs and looking out toward the ocean. It's low tide, but there is a big puddle on the beach where the high water mark was, and kids are playing in there and having a good time. We're also having a nice time. The ocean is totally flat, very calm. Suddenly, two giant buzzards or vultures land right near us. They are enormous, black and white birds and VERY ugly. They regard us for a second, then they puff up to enormous size and charge us. We fight back at them, kicking, yelling, swinging beach chairs, and they go away. We walk over to the next beach, and there is a building in the water. In the dream, I know it as the Harbor Island Spa (which is a real place, or was, I don't know now) but this is a very new, modern building. Which happens to be in the ocean.

OK, so what do the dream dictionaries have for us on this one?

buzzards
 Typically fortells scandal. To see them fly away as you approach,
foretells that you will be able to smooth over some scandalous
disagreement among your friends, or even appertaining to yourself.

beach
 If you are just relaxing on a beach this shows that you value the calm feelings that family get togethers lend to you

low tide
 A low tide suggests a reluctance to alter your established way of life; don't be overcautious.

The Hives / The Donnas

The hives
Originally uploaded by Michelleration.

We saw The Donnas and The Hives at the Showbox on Saturday. Doors were at 8, there was an opening band that we weren't familiar with up first. We walked in at like 9:20, no lie, it was maybe 2 minutes until The Donnas took the stage. I love when it works out like that.

The Donnas were great, it's hard to believe they've been at it for 15 years. Of course they were like 15 when they started.

The Hives followed soon after, with a blistering set. It was so hot in there, by the end of the show, the building was actually sweating - water was dripping from the ceiling. I hope it was water.

the interesting thing about drawing penises...

it's universal. there's a feature on the Nintendo DS called PictoChat - you can join a chat room and other people in the vicinity (about 300 ft) can also join, and draw on the screen. But every time you get in a place where there are a lot of other DS users (a gaming convention like Penny Arcade Expo here in Seattle, or something like the E for All conference), if you join a Pictochat room, it's only moments before everyone starts drawing penises.

A friend and I were recently goofing around, trying out a chat client that includes a whiteboard feature, but it didn't seem to be working right. My friend said over voice chat "Can you see what I'm drawing?" and I said "A penis" and he said "Oh, so it IS working?" and I said "No, it's not. But I know it's a penis."

the great initial carving caper

My parents had this hideous furniture when I was a kid. It was all Mediterranean styled, mostly red and black I think, with wooden arms that had like knobs on the ends of them, kind of like you would see on a stair railing. It was hideous, but it went really well with a painting they had of three Spanish looking dudes that hung on the wall above it.

At some point, I got an overwhelming urge to carve something into the wood arm of the couch. I decided that the smartest thing to do would be to carve my SISTER'S initials into the couch. At least what I assumed my sister's initials were - CEA.  I was too young I guess for it to have registered on me that my sister went by a different last name.

When my mom saw it, Charlene got in trouble of course. When my sister protested that those weren't even her initials, I think my mom suspected she might be telling the truth, but couldn't definitively say one way or another which of us did it. It wouldn't be the first time a family member who wasn't technically named Aumack used the Aumack last name. Just ask my cousin Peter, aka "Gonzo Aumack" as he introduced himself at my brother's preschool.

a family tradition

My Uncle Kenny recently brought up a childhood story about his brother, my Uncle Eddie, drawing a penis and trying to convince my grandfather that it was NOT a dirty drawing, but instead, a rocket ship.

When I asked my mother about this, it reminded her to ask me if I was involved in the drawing of a penis on her paperwork that she needed to return to the dentist. Apparently, said penis was drawn over the holidays while Ryan and I were visiting.

I was *not* involved in this incident, but I can understand her targeting me as a primary suspect. When my brother Chris was in maybe 4th or 5th grade , I took his homework and wrote "Chris smells" on it. He  did not notice, and turned it in with my comments still intact.

He got in trouble for it with the teacher, and found himself in "The Gotcha Club". Now, I don't know what the Gotcha Club was, I imagine it was something akin to this teacher's "Shit List", but he was mighty upset about being in it. The thing that was always so confusing to me about the whole thing was, why was he in trouble? It has to be pretty obvious he didn't write that about himself. And if he did write that about himself and turn it in, wouldn't the teacher recognize it as some sort of self esteem problem?

Wild Mushroom Kingdom

021508_herd_01
Originally uploaded by Michelleration.

A herd of 18 elk has been frequenting the property at my company's North Bend, WA facility.

They have seen deer, coyotes, mountain goats, bears and a bobcat and a trio of cougars on the property in the past, but they've never seen this many elk show up at once before.

More photos of the elk herd at North Bend

Starbucks to offer sort of free Wi-Fi

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/350854_sbuxatt12.html

My mom and I were talking about this the other day. My sister is vacationing in FL and wanted web access, so she went to a coffee place that offered free WiFi.

Mom wondered why Starbucks didn't offer free Wi-Fi with purchase. I guessed that they were trying to avoid the unemployed cheap dude in sweatpants who comes in, buys a tall drip coffee and sits there all day browsing the web, uglying up the place. Tully's has free unlimited WiFi and every time you go in there, you see that guy.

It seems like their two hour time limit and requirement of having a Starbucks card with a balance will help avoid that.