Thursday, December 8, 2011

The 18

I have a recurring dream of running to catch the No. 18 bus on the Southside. Sometimes it's from my apartment, sometimes at Five Points, occasionally at UAB. Always, when I'm just a few steps from it, the bus pulls away. It's as if the driver watches me and leaves when I'm almost there. That really used to happen sometimes.

I had the dream last night. The scene before and after I run to catch the bus is always different. This time, I was getting dressed to go to work, and Mama was there, and she told me I could wear her blazing hot-pink printed skirt. Then after the bus left me stranded, a convertible car full of six of my college acquaintances stopped at the curb, and I squeezed into the back seat and started talking to them. But close up, they weren't who I thought they were, but a bunch of unshaven, sort of thuggy-looking guys. When I explained and apologized for getting into their car, the one beside me said it was all right, they would drop me off at work.

Explain that one, Dr. Freud.

3 comments:

JD Atlanta said...

Hmmmm. Very interesting.

Okay, that was my Freud impression.

I once had a dream (I guess you would call it a dream) that was kind of similar. It was when I was in college. I half-way woke up in the middle of the night, convinced that I was in some stranger's house. In the "dream" (which was more of a false memory, I guess), I knew that I was driving to Dad's house late at night, and was too sleepy to keep going. So I stopped at a random house, and conviced the couple that I was a distant cousin or some such. When I woke up, my main concern was that I would get to sleep through the night before the couple realized that I had scammed them into giving me a free bed.

In unrelated news, yesterday I gave a presentation to customers in Florida. On the way back, I stopped and took a nap in a Chic Fil A parking lot.

Joanne Cage said...

It's a good idea to stop and take a nap instead of sleeping at the wheel.

JD Atlanta said...

It really helped. I was very alert for the rest of my drive home.