illusionofjoy | Mirrored TSWP Entry - Tuesday, January 7, 2003

For the past couple of nights I've been dreaming. There's nothing like the reflections of my life filtered through my subconscious to make me wonder where I went wrong.

Last night my ex-girlfriend, the Asian Goddess, took centre stage. We were at an apartment where a few friends of mine used to live. I couldn't tell if it was night or day, but the two of us were in the living room of said apartment. We were engaged on one of the sofas when a bunch of people suddenly came into the room. I jumped behind a coffee table and hid, while my girlfriend simply stood in front of the sofa for all to see, a stoic, "world could care" look upon her face. Everyone in the room began talking with one another, not seeming to notice the naked Japanese-American in the middle of the room.

I looked over the crowd in the room. I didn't recognise a single person there. Not one of them had ever made an appearance in my waking life. One of them looked at me, as I sat behind the coffee table. She must have been in her late 20s, with a mousy face and bobbed auburn hair that went no further than the middle of her cheekbones.

"Well, come on out," she said. I replied with a weak protest that never really materialised into a recognisable sentence before standing up and out from behind the piece of furniture in all of my glory. "Ah," she said very matter-of-factly, before returning to her conversation with the rest of the group.

One of the people from the group turned on what looked like a television set. Two names that I didn't recognise appeared on the set. Two spheres appeared next to the names and then the combination of each sphere and name moved onto two separate points on a topographic map upon the screen. A line was then drawn between the two points. Moments later, the screen changed and flashed a page of information and the crowd suddenly became awash in approval that some test had been passed.

Everyone in the crowd looked at my girlfriend and myself. "Do them," someone said. Our names flashed across the screen, followed by the same spheres and the same topographic map. The line began being drawn and it just didn't stop. It seemed like it was taking forever to make a connection. The two points were just about to touch when the screen flashed off, the final report on display for all to see. "I guess it's just not going to work," I heard from out of the middle of nowhere.

The crowd then vanished, leaving The Asian Goddess and myself standing alone in the middle of the room. We walked towards each other and held onto each other before we both starting slowly shrinking away from the other. I woke up at that point, remembering that the room in my dream had become large, unfurnished and monochromatic like a racquetball court.

The night before last, I dreamt that was paying a visit to one of the administrative offices at my school on business. For some reason "Weird Al" Yankovic was sitting at the secretary's desk, dressed in one of the outfits he wore in UHF (he also still has his moustache). I told him what I was there for.

"Well," he said slowly, "I'm not so sure we can do that...let me find out for you." His hand moved towards the phone on his desk, where he picked up the receiver and dialled a number. He began speaking to the disembodied voice on the other end, which I could hear as if it were a person speaking not five feet from where I sat.

"What is that," the voice said, "you know we can't do that. We've got to keep him here! If we send him out into the combination of the recession of Northern New York and the Bush economy, we'll have big trouble on out hands! Don't you know that's the type of thing that makes people into murderers?" I didn't expect that particular line, as I felt one of my eyebrows raise quizzically.

"Well," 'Weird Al' said to me after his phone conversation ended, "it looks like you're all set - congratulations." At that, the dream ended.

A friend once told me that the symbolism inherit to dreams was merely a personal reflection of the symbolism that an individual creates from one's own experiences. Popular symbolism has little bearing in the land of dreams. I'd have to say - especially after these two episodes - that I'm inclined to agree with that standpoint.