Saturday, May 31, 2008

Alright...

Alright, so I went to the Dave Matthews Starlake opener last night. It was also his summer kickoff show. Honestly, I had no idea I was going, let alone driving. I met up with Heather and Sarah at the salsafied cafe and was convinced to attend. Then, encouraged to play the usual role of limo driver, except, via Subaru. Our group was semi-disorganized, yet sturdy and determined. Fortunately, I cleaned out my car the day before - it was a pig sty. We made it to the lot around 6pm and hooked up with The Dub and his crew. Nearby was Jenn, Amanda and her crew. Taligated for a bit and I snagged a mail order ticket off some dude in the lot for $20. I thought about working the buy and sell angle but just didn't feel like it. Jenn was envious of my mail order ticket and wanted to trade for her standard one. I declined - an omen of things to come.
They all went into the show as I finished off a beer. When I went to the old lady scanning the tickets, she scanned and it came back negative. No fucking beep noise. "Are you kidding me?" She looks down at the ticket and explains it's for Saturday, the following night. I'm a little astonished. I never bothered to check the date. I just assumed it was a go, especially since it was a mail order. So I gather my wits and head back to the dumpster area and look for a ticket. Very little action at this point, since it was going into the third song. I ran into this one guy and he offers me a ticket for $30. I try to get him down to $20, but I'm tired of haggling and I give him the thirty. I bum another beer, drink it, and head down to the same old lady. "Alright, let's try this one." She scans it. No fuckin' beep. She softly explains, "I'm sorry sir, this ticket has already been used." This time I'm pissed, not at her, but at myself. I let that fuckhead sell me a used ticket. UNBELIEVABLE. What am I? Some kind of concert going newbie.
Anyway, I take a deep breath and head back to the car. There's group of 4 people hanging out near my car in the VIP lot. They sense my dismay and this one guy asks me, "Hey, what's up?" I respond, "You don't want to know." This guys is just like me, looking for a floorshow or some side entertainment. I go into the prolonged explanation of how I got a ticket for the wrong night and then bunked. His girlfreind says they have an extra and she insists on giving it to me. He tries to charge me for it but she insists. Alright, so I get miracled at a DMB show and the original Saturday mail order ticket is still usable, even though it was scanned.
I missed about 5 songs but made up for it with about 3 extra beers. I squirmed my way to the box seats where my original crew was. KILLER seats. Definitely among the best. As for the show itself, hats off too Jenn D. for calling the Don't Drink The Water opener. She studies these DMB setlists though. I blame myself. I think she takes after me with the Dead setlists.
I thought the show could have been a bit stronger song-wise but there was some great energy. I don't care for Grey Street as one of their closer songs. I thought the encore would be the song about his sister, but I was thinking Grace is Gone - it turned out to be the other song about his sister. I was surprised by the small crowd. The grass lot and VIP sections were a little over half full. Kind of low for a nice weather Friday night. Maybe it's the economy, but hey, isn't Dave the king of the rich-white-college-girl crowd? That's actualy why I like him - DMB is a marketing machine. F'in A.
The ride home took an extra half hour. I'm not going to explore this part of the night in print. Dropped everyone off at the house and hit the Alpha. I'm taking my crew up to Pittsburgh today. They just want dropped off and they're going to dinner and the Penguins game #4. I'll pick them up around midnight. Guess where I'll be in the interim? That's right - round 2. Can't let that ticket go to waste. I think it may be the first time in the history of Starlake that someone shows up in an empty limo. Dare to dream...

Thursday, May 29, 2008

2 more

Yep, 2 more dreams from last night. There was a third dream, but I forget what it consisted of. The first dream was VERY brief. Meowee was chasing a mouse through the house into my bathroom. The mouse jumped into the toilet and Meowee went in after it. I was trying to prevent Meowee from literally being flushed down the toilet. It was kind of like a George Jetson type atmosphere (Jane get me off this crazy thing). My feet are braced against the base of the toilet and I'm grabbing, pulling and trying to restrain the cat. It was a very "cartoon-like" atmosphere. My hands are around her midsection. Then it abruptly ends. Something of note - another dream with a mouse that has some kind of death wish or is dead.
The other dream was more distinctive. I'm shopping at Reisbeck's in the Elm Grove Crossing Mall. Incidentally, I worked there back in late high school/early college. About 3 years. There was an incident where this old guy getting a newspaper. I was about to go on break and said, "do you mind if snag one of these." He screamed, "Oh no you don't and slammed the newspaper machine door on my hand." Then, I said something to the affect, "You asshole, what the fuck is wrong with you." He complained to my boss. I wasn't fired but they reduced my hours to one day a week - so basically, it became a joke to work there. All that has nothing to do with the dream, just some background info.
Anyway, I'm in the store doing some shopping. No recollection of the contents of the shopping cart. I ran into a guy I know named Chris and another one named Dan. We made small chit-chat as we went through the checkout line. I'm almost out of the store, and I run into another guy I know named Dave. He discreetly tells me that he has just shoplifted 6 chocolate bars. He opens his jean jacket and there are a bunch of regular Hershey bars. I say something like , "Good for you." We both start out the door and a siren goes off, and somebody over the sound system says, "Code Red" or "Emergency"." I forgert the exact wording. Anyway, this black employee about 25-30 yrs old who resmebles this guy I know also named Dan, puts me in a headlock and tells me I have to come with him. He walks me to the back. I don't resist but just am kind of "along for the ride." We enter the storage area in the back and that's where it pretty much ends. I think I said something like, "You'll never find anything on me. I didn't take anything."

Sunday, May 25, 2008

another dream

I took a very rare afternoon nap and just had another dream. This one was incredibly brief. I was entering the Walmart in St. Clairsville. As I approached the door, I see this motorized wheelchair coming from the other direction. There's a woman sittting in it, but her body is disconnected. No arms, no legs, no torso - IT'S JUST A HEAD. The rest of her body is right next to the head, somewhat slumped over. This guy entering the building looks at me and lamentably says, "Ohhhh, she's fucked."
The head was relatively ugly. It looked a bit like a friend's mom. I don't want to say who because I referred to the head as ugly. If I see you in person, I'd probably be willing to share who it is.
I remember thinking to myself in the dream, "How on earth does the deatched headed person get around so well." Then, I wake up.
I think there's a correlation between this dream and the last dream with the mouse. Obviously, both dreams had disfigurement issues.

Thursday, May 22, 2008

another dream

Sure enough, I had another dream last night. Like I said, I rarely dream these days and if I do, I usually don't remember them. I'm sitting at a bar with Paulie Goutiellrie and Christopher Multisanti from the Sopranos. The bar looks a lot like the one in the movie Good Fellas - the scene where they kill that made guy "Bats" in Queens. Oddly enough, Bats is the New York boss on the Sopranos. I seem to be playing the role of Bats, or at the very least, I'm sitting in his seat. A converstaion emerges between the 3 of us and Chris challenges me to eat a mouse. I tell him that will require $360 or $380, I forget. Then, I come to the realization that they want me to eat a live mouse. I tell them it must be dead, and they start laughing. Chris leans behind the counter and grabs a dead mouse and places it in a plastic shot glass. I look at it and it's pretty mangled. Mostly made of head and tail. It seems to be missing most of its body. I ask them where the money is and Chris reaches into his pocket and pulls out a wad of crumpled bills -roughly $18. As I unfurl the bills there's a little more in there. About another $10 or so. I look at them both and say that it's insufficient or something to that affect. And that's where the dream ends.

Wednesday, May 21, 2008

dreams

For the past 2 night, I've had dreams of impending personal danger and destruction. Very rarely do I even remember the content of my dreams, but these were both extremely vivid and both caused me to wake up.
On Sunday night, I dreamt I was skateboarding down a hill that looked a lot like 2 mile Hill (Dallas Pike). However, the hill was sloped differently. As though, I was starting at the Highlands and going down eastward. I never been able to operate a skateboard effectively. As I approach the bottom, the road turns into a swamp and I end up wearing a pair of roller blades. I'm trying to navigate through the swamp - it reminded me of a picture of the Puget Sound in Oregon. And of course I start sinking and getting bogged down. When I feel as though I'm totally helpless and sinking, I wake up.
Last night, I dreamt I was on the front porch of a house in a prairie like setting and I spot a tornado off in the distance. I ask a man in the house (not sure who it was) how far off he thinks the tornado is. He says, "I don't know" and then I say "seems like the distance from Wheeling to Wellsburg." The house is a standard brick colonial (probably 4 bedroom/2 bath). I suggest we'd better head inside as a few other tornadoes have started to form (same distance). We retreat into the living room and there's woman (not sure who it was) staring out the window and she says something to the affect of "Oh god, look at all the other ones coming." I stare out the living room window and there's probably about a dozen funnel clouds approaching. That's when I wake up.
Maybe once a year or so, I have a nightmare where I wake up in a sweat. I wasn't perspiring on either occasion, but I was definitely unsettled and agitated. I'm curious to see if another dream hits me tonight.

I neglected to mention, in the second dream, when I retreat into the house, I try to shut the door, but there's no knob or handle. I manage to close it for the most part. The flap at the base of the floor is awkwardly sticking up. It's made of a black rubbery plastic composite.