Last night I went to the Apple store to pick up my compy after 3 days in the Apple ER. It was wonderful to be reunited. =) The lappy has a new face now (but it's just as pretty as ever). Oh, and because it got resurrected after three days at the Apple store, the compy's new name is Jesus, pronounced the Spanish way. That is all.

Actually, I lied. That is not all. Three days without LJ at my fingertips left me with a few other things to say.

In my class about tutoring (the point of which is to prepare students to work at the writing center), my professor asked us to compare the way we write to something in nature. So I wrote:

"When I am given a new writing assignment, I tend to look at it like a dandelion gone to fuzz, and I am the wind, or perhaps the curious child, that scatters the seeds in a thousand different directions. All of these seeds have potential to land, take root, and grow. My ideas, too, can go in a hundred directions when I first start to write. I, like the wind, must choose one, carry it to its destination, and watch as the flower unfolds. The result is not a weed, but something with a raw and honest beauty to it; something wild, yet cultivated with intentional and intimate thought." So if you ever wondered how I do it.... Now you know: Drugs. ^_^

And now, drumroll please...... I have more randomtastic, tripped out, fuzzalicious dreams to share with all y'alls!

The other night I dreamed that The Academy Is... came to my school for some reason. I don't think they played a show; they were just there. I ran into Billvy. Sarah Mac and Trisha were with me. The four of us walked around campus, talking and goofing off. I told Billvy that I wanted to be in TAITV for saying the dedication to Adam T. Siska (which Sarah and I had talked about right before I went to sleep). Then Billvy wanted to take silly pictures of each other, so we did.

Then the scene changed and we were in a mall. I don't know why my dreams about TAI are always set in malls. Maybe the guys like to shop? Anyway. Billvy decided to go find the other guys and told us to keep an eye out for his cell phone, which he'd apparently lost. Later, Sarah, Trish and I spotted the phone in the lost and found. Trish knew it was his because she remembered him using it in the podcast. So we took it to give back to him. I was excited for the chance to snag his number and to sneak mine into his contacts, especially since the dream implied that we had kissed at some point. Sadly I did not get to experience that part of the dream; I just sort of vaguely remembered it happening. But for some reason, I didn't get his number right away, and when I asked Trish for the phone the next day, she said she had already given it back. =(

Okay, maybe you're all sick of hearing about the weird things my subconscious creates while I am sleeping, but apparently it never tires of cooking up the strangest dreams known to man, and I never cease to be amused by them. This one was relatively tame, but still amazingly awesome. I woke up from it, laughed, and said, "Oh my god.... best dream EVER." So it was kind of like that time Gill and I were obsessed with that lifeguard at Smuggler's Notch, and I woke up from a dream about him, with this goofy grin plastered across my face. At least I could pass that one off as, "I was fourteen, of course I had silly dreams about boys." This one... not so much.

I'm at the mall. The space that used to be a food court before it was Old Navy was a food court again, and they were adapting it for use as a stage. I guess I dream about bands a lot, don't I? Well, evidently Cobra Starship and The Academy Is... were going to play a show at the mall. Did I mention I listened to "Viva La Cobra" about eight times in the course of the day? No? Well, I did. That might explain a lot. If you've never heard it, seriously, go buy it. Not even "go download it for free somewhere." This album is WORTH the $13 you'll spend at Wal*Mart. Then, play it at a very high volume on speakers that have very good bass, and prepare to dance.

Fast forward to the end of the show. I'm just sort of hanging around, as I tend to do at the end of shows, when I bump into Ryland Blackinton. Well, not exactly bump into; I notice him and chase after him, yelling, "Guy Ripley!! Guy Ripley!!" (That's his geeky, stalkerish, British-sounding alter ego in TAITV.) And we talked for a minute or two, but surprisingly he was not that entertaining in "real life." You would expect quite the opposite, considering a) the band he's in, and b) his antics on TAITV. I remain convinced that the real Ryland is infinitely awesomer than the one in my dream. We laughed briefly about something and he went on his way.

Then I bumped into Gabe, lead singer for Cobra, and we also talked for a few minutes, but that was another rather brief and uninteresting exchange. I don't know why I imagined these amazing people to be so hopelessly dull.

Then, as I was making my way to the exit, there was a bit of commotion, because apparently William Beckett was coming. Some security people were shoving hyper fangirls out of the way so he could get through, and me and this other girl who was suddenly my friend, even though I had absolutely no idea who she was, got shoved into a random store. We were disappointed we wouldn't even get to SEE Billvy now that we were in this store.

But then William Beckett HIMSELF came into the same store we'd gotten shunted into! And we all sat down on a sofa that was very conveniently and arbitrarily placed at the back of the store and talked for a long time. The other girl suggested we take a picture, so we did. Then I noticed that she was sitting in the middle, and thought, "Hey, no fair that I don't get to sit next to Billvy!" After all we'd been through, getting shoved around and thinking we'd never get to see him, she could at least share the love, you know? I guess I must have said something, though I don't remember it, because all of a sudden, I was the one in the middle, and Billvy totally had his arm around me, and after that we totally schneckled, and it was glorious. The end.

On another note, I'm going to see Dragonforce with Robby tomorrow. It's gonna be really scary. It's not just Dragonforce, it's like, the Metal Mayhem festival or something. My god. We are gonna die. I've barely even heard of any of the other bands, but I paid $45 for my ticket, so I plan to see as many sets as possible. Probably Disturbed, maybe Underoath, just to say I'd seen them... Robby will HATE them. Poor kid. I've warned him, but he really truly has no idea what he's getting into. Robby and concerts DO NOT MIX. This will be interesting.

My "road trip" plans are finally falling into place. I'm leaving for Phoenix on the 12th and coming back the 19th. We're gonna drive to Cali, go to either Disney Land or Adventure Land for FREE, AND - yes, it's coming... - GO TO THE WARPED TOUR AGAIN!! Yes, I know I mentioned this before... but now I have actually spoken to other parties involved and we have DECIDED that it shall be so. We're also going to see Sedona, AZ, and the Grand Canyon. And naturally I will meet some of Sarah's friends and we will crash rich people's parties (or at least do cannonballs in their swimming pools) and it shall be glorious.

Hooray! I had another wacky dream. And this does not actually merit a "hooray," because I woke up in a cold sweat.

I was living in a community threatened by various diseases. Mostly they would let certain people live in a separate community so that a few people would remain healthy, but the rest would all catch things from each other, thus building up an immunity in the strong people and weeding out the weak ones. Pretty much everyone I've ever known was living in this community. I recognized people from high school, college, summer camp, my family (specifically my parents and an uncle.... random), and other miscellaneous people I know, such as Gill and Nathan.

Now, my uncle was working on building this airship. Maybe I should mention that I watched Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind yesterday; that might explain a lot. He took me on it for a test run. There were a few other people there, but I forget who. It was running quite smoothly. Then I went "home," which was a dormitory-style community of people about my age (this was where my school and camp friends lived). I remember getting some disease, but it didn't have a terrible effect on me, whatever it was. I was far from bed-ridden, which was a good thing.

Apparently time passed and I got better. Then they called a town meeting to announce that they'd discovered a new strain of something and they were going to start injecting people with this disease so they would catch it and get over it. For anyone who has not yet witnessed my phobia of needles, "inject" is probably a worse word than certain four-letter words beginning with such letters as "f" and "s-h." They said they were going to select individuals at random to inject, a certain percentage of the population, and try to get this epidemic started and finished in as little time as possible.

Naturally, my name was the first one they drew, and I panicked. I took off out the back door of the meeting house. My parents were trying to rationalize with the town officials about my phobia, but they weren't listening, so I kept running. I remember having a whole lot of angry, heartless officials chasing me. I'm not sure where I was headed, but it must have been my uncle's, because Nathan came out of nowhere saying he'd started the airship so I could escape. And then I woke up. Which was really rather poor timing, because I would have liked to see what happened AFTER the climax. I guess I'll have to write a story about it and make up my own ending.

Oh dear. I just realized I left my cat outside. Better go let him in before a squirrel eats him or something. If that ever happened to a cat, mine would be the one.

I had another wacky dream last night. I dreamed I was at the Warped Tour, but for some reason it was in my street. Which was very convenient and all, but none of the bands I was planning to see were listed on the big board that tells you what stage and what time each band is playing. So I was sort of lost for a while. Then I noticed that Mae was playing on a stage nearby. The first time I ever saw them was at the Warped Tour, but they definitely aren't playing this year. I'm not even disappointed they're NOT playing this year, because I've seen them six times already. Of course I'd go to their set if they WERE playing, but I really don't care that they aren't. So anyway, I watched their set, and afterward I went to talk to them. Only they had replaced the replacement keyboardist and bassist, and for some reason Dave and Zach weren't there. So I ended up just talking to Jacob (who is the cutest one, anyway ^_^). Then I asked if I could get a picture with him, and he was like "yeah, sure," and we asked this guy standing nearby to take the picture. Except then he ran off with my camera, so me and Jacob chased this random guy all around my neighborhood, trying to get my camera back. The end.

About 30 minutes ago, I woke up from a night filled with the strangest, most vivid dreams I've had in a long time. I think that's why I slept so late. Being asleep was almost as exhausting as being awake, and far more epic and interesting. I wish I could live in Myriad. I mean, my dreams. They're basically the same, but I don't think Myriad means anything to anybody except me right now. Don't worry, it will. Someday.

Dream #1:

On vacation, my family went to place in the mountains where there is a big, man-made maze, similar to a McDonald’s playland but on a much bigger scale. The point isn’t just to play; the point is to race. It’s many stories high and there are many ways to the end, but there are in fact better, faster ways. At the end is a long – well, it’s sort of a cross between a slide, a zip-line, and a roller coaster. It’s longer than any zip-line I’ve ever seen, and it doesn't go in a straight line because it curves around the mountain, but you’re fastened into a harness that can really only be compared to the one you wear when you go on a zip-line. At the bottom is the Spinning Pizza Pie in the Sky restaurant, where you get on a spinny carnival ride that cooks a gigantic pizza while you ride and then serves it while you’re still on the ride. You’d think a restaurant like that would never make it. You’d think people would be hurling all over the place and food would be flying off the burners they used to cook it, or at least getting dropped by customers. Think of the potential disasters, especially burns. Oh, the liabilities! But it was always packed. Everyone loved it!

Dream #2

I was on a voyage. I’m not sure where we were going or why. At times I thought I was in another world. At other times I thought I was in this world. Either way, there might have been a war, or some other noble mission motivated us.

We prepared for a long time, but I don’t remember much of that. I remember being exhausted the day we went out to sea. In fact, I didn’t wake up properly until we reached the ship, but I vaguely remember how we got there. It was similar to the part of Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (the movie version) where Arthur gets to see the backup copy of Earth. The guy with the weird name takes him for a fast ride in a little box that shoots out over the surface of the planet. It was basically like that, except I was just strapped into a little seat, very much like the one at the end of the maze in my previous dream. Someone woke me up at one point to show me that there was a rainbow, and there was nothing to block our view of it from one point on the horizon to the other. My captain was upset that I wasn’t waking up, but I couldn’t help it. I desperately wanted to be awake, but my body wouldn't allow it.

On the ship, I didn’t recognize all the passengers, but I remember my mom, my sister, and ….the Jonas Brothers? Yes. They were there. I wish I would stop dreaming about them but I hear too much about them in the day to avoid it. They were sitting a couple of rows ahead of us on the deck (for some reason all the seats were arranged in rows like pews, but they weren’t rows conducive to paddling… just to seating a large number of people.)

I had finally woken up and couldn’t wait for the adventure to begin. While I was waiting, I tried to befriend some of the people around us… such as the Jonas Brothers. They seemed open to it, but my mom kept getting mad at me that I would embarrass my sister or make her upset that I was talking to them and she wasn’t. I tried to explain that I wanted to engage EVERYBODY in the conversation and that I really wanted to make friends with the people we’d be living and working with for who knew how long. But she just didn't get it. So then I got mad at her and yelled that I would be having more fun if she wasn’t there, and went to the front of the ship where only the “important” people were supposed to go.

Only one person seemed to object to my presence there. I acted really sweet and cutesy. Maybe I was a little girl in the dream, or at least littler than I actually am. I think that’s the only thing that would have made my eager, questioning behavior all right. I told them all how excited I was and how grateful they’d brought me along. I talked to a few of the scholars on board, especially the language scholar. I really hoped he would teach me to speak other languages as well as he could and was about to ask if he would when I woke up.

What is this?!?! When I woke up an hour ago, it was 55 degrees out, and I was stoked for another fantastic day. But it's dropped 7 degrees in the past hour alone! BOO! I was all excited to wear this new outfit!

Well you know what? I'm going to wear it anyway. TAKE THAT!

I had a reallllllly weird dream last night. I've been having weird ones, what can I say? I swear I'm not bubbling fuzzy dandelions [i.e. doing drugs]. In the dream, I was having a dream that I was being chased by someone who had been trying to hurt me, but then I guess I turned the tables and started going after them and whacked them in the head with my handpurse. Apparently it was quite heavy, I don't know. But then the person I hit started yelling at me and stuff, and I woke up from the dream-within-a-dream, and it was my middle school history teacher and I had basically just assaulted her with my purse. I kept trying to explain to people that I had been asleep and unaware of my actions and that I felt really awful about what I had done, but no one seemed to care, and my teacher hated me for life. The end.