Panic / Pool / Festival

Saturday night

Dream 1: Panic

My friend, Ann R., and I were taking a trip together from D.C. to New York City. I had stayed up all night anticipating the things we'd see there, so I was already exhausted. We took a series of subway trains to get to the D.C. train station. When we arrived, I turned to Ann and said, "Can you believe we did all that, and we're still only in D.C.?

The train station wasn't like the real one in the District; it was a complicated underground system of many tracks and tunnels, and there were elevators on the platform to take you to other levels. I got out ahead of Ann while we were talking and walking toward the elevators. I turned around, and suddenly she had vanished. I called out, "Ann? Ann!" I had no idea where she'd gone. She must have gotten on an elevator or jumped onto a train, and now I was completely lost.

I looked around to try to get my bearings, and to figure out what to do. No trains were in sight; instead, I saw buses that were paused, ready to run along the tracks. The instructions by the elevators made little sense, and the buses were flipping their destination signs, so nothing was clear; everything was confusing and complicated. I was already worried that I'd missed the first train; therefore, I'd miss later connections and screw up our schedule. I said to myself, "I've got to be more self-reliant."

Finally, I decided to cut in line and ask one of the bus drivers if he or she knew which bus I should take to New York. I peered through the front door and up the stairs, and saw that this particular bus had two drivers. A black woman was behind the wheel, but a smaller, older, balding man from India was sitting on her lap. She was training him, and he was slowly taking the customers' money and recording the sales. I called out, "Is this the bus to New York?" Before either of them could answer, I looked in my wallet. My ticket was gone.

Dream 2: Pool

I was at an indoor public pool, and dove in from the side (not off of the diving board) over to my right, toward a female teenager in a yellow bathing suit. I proceeded to swim all over the pool, mostly near the bottom, weaving in and out of crowds, meandering past legs and feet of people I didn't know. The young woman in yellow got out of the pool to complain to someone that I had been swimming too close to her, and that she was uncomfortable.

Dream 3: Festival

Elvis Costello was playing an outdoor show in a field. The audience was standing in front of the crowded, elevated stage, but a fairly large square of the grounds, about 10 feet in front of the stage, was roped off, so that no one could stand in that space. The crowd gathered where it could, around that area, but not in it.

Costello was in a good mood. He stood at the microphone, and wasn't playing an instrument. He sang a mixture of old and new songs, including some medleys. His black hair was a little long and unruly, and every so often he'd take out a large comb to try to tame it.

During a break between songs, Shannon F. (the organizer of the event) walked up and whispered something to someone on stage. The next thing we knew, a female bus driver walked out into the center of the crowd and hollered, "All right, Cheatham, I've got to get you home!" Apparently nearly half of the audience consisted of students from Cheatham County, Tennessee, who left to board their buses. The rest of the audience quickly filled the breach left by the departing students, including the square which had previously been off-limits. I remember hoping that maybe Elvis would play something special, or extend the show for those of us who remained.

*****

What's the deal with buses last night?

Dream 1

Ann R. is a friend who worked with me in Virginia at The Freedom Forum / Newseum.

This dream nails me in a lot of ways: I am way too reliant on others, for directions and for a lot of other things; I am frequently frustrated and confounded by what I see as the unnecessary complications of the modern world; I frequently don't get enough sleep; and I can't wait to go back to New York.

The underground D.C. train station in this dream resembled Washington-area Metro stations in some ways -- they really do have elevators, for use by the handicapped or infirm -- but the one in the dream was much much darker, gray and gloomy, almost like the tunnels under Paris in "Phantom of the Opera."

Dream 2

I think that I was a kid again in this dream, which would make my actions decidely less creepy, just incredibly annoying. I often did swim near the bottom of the pool when I was young, flitting around like my beloved sea turtles.

Dream 3

I've seen Costello in concert numerous times since 1978. He's great.

Shannon F. is one of the managers where I work. She was the one who organized the pep rally described in the comments after "Get Out of Jail Free Card," August 12.