12002 September 04
I moved to the west, down the main street of the small town, which seemed like $P3. The landscape around me seemed very hilly. I remembered this section of town from when i was younger. The railroad tracks ran to the north of where i was, but they arched to the south, cutting just to the west of me. I was now passing over the area where the black train tracks curved down the western side of town before heading off to the southwest. There were many tracks, and i was aware of a train coming from the south. The main street of the town crossed over the tracks just to the south of me, on a long cement bridge. There was a hill to the south, and the train tracks ran through a deep pass in the center of it. The western part of the hill seemed to have a natural slope to the southwest, but the eastern side had a rock cliff where it had been excavated for the tracks. There was something special about this area. I stepped carefully over the tracks, watching the ground now to make sure that i did not put my foot in a rail diverter. I kept looking in both directions to make sure that there were no trains coming. I felt nervous about being here, thinking that i might not have time to get out of the way of a quickly moving train. I was then on the other side of the tracks, and i seemed to be walking on one of the elevated walkways which headed into the hills to the west. This place seemed new to me, even though i was very familiar with this town. It seemed as though i had never been to this part of the town before, and i was interested in looking around. I came to the end of the walkway. There was an old rusted set of metal stairs which climbed up the steep rock wall of the hill to the west. I headed up the stairs. The stairs seemed very old, and i found it interesting that they were still in usable shape. As i climbed the stairs, the stairs seemed to zigzag across the side of he hill. I was then at the top of the stairs, where they emptied onto a suburban road. There seemed to be small simple houses across the street from me, to the northwest. A second elevated metal walkway went off to the south from the street. I did not know that this section of the city was so big. There seemed to be many houses sprawled out at the bottom of the hill to the south. I looked to the west, along the slope of the hill. There was grass growing along the side of the hill. The street to the west seemed to descend along the side of the hill until it met the road at the bottom. The houses across the street from me were only a block thick. Behind them was the rest of the hill, which was covered with more grass. This place felt unexplored and interesting.
I walked into the back door of my grandfather’s house on $P12. The living room of the house was very different from what i had remembered. It seemed that this was an entirely different house. It seemed very open, with a set of circular stairs descending in the center of the room. The column in the center of the staircase was tan, with vertical wood boards on its surface. I looked at the tall column, which was now part of the front of the house. This house looked very modern. It belonged to the parents of $F1 now. It felt strange to be here, but i did like what they had done with the house. The outside was now covered with vertical wood siding which was stained a light tan. The round column at the front of the house stood out form the rest of the house a little, with a glass window between it and the house. My relatives were still standing at the curb to the west of the house. I turned and headed down the stone path, to the east, heading for the front door of the house. I was uncomfortable having my family here. They should not have been associated with this house. Something felt wrong.
12002 September 05
The other person mentioned the run. I pictured the map in my head, visualizing the town where the run had started. The town was on the main road which ran north to south, along the creek, to the south of $P14. I had missed the run with $G4, which was on the day before. The run had been held in the small college town. As i drove the car to the south, i headed into the center of the old campus. The narrow drive wandered through the grassy areas and old stone buildings. I thought that this college campus looked very nice. There was an old small building ahead of me which was made of rounded red stones. I felt comfortable here and remembered this place from before. It seemed that i had taken a bus which had come through this college. I felt pleased to have discovered the campus, and to discover that it was not that far from where i lived. $Z mentioned that he had come here for the run. I knew that the run was held on the road to the east of us, but $Z said that he had expected $G4 to follow the creek through the narrow gorge toward the campus. Since the creek was the same one which ran through the college campus, $Z said that he had come to the campus to see if he could find the runners on the trail. He said that he had not found the trail, though. As i turned the car around in the circle to the north of the stone building, i noticed the white flour marks on the stone steps of the grey stone building to the east. I thought that $Z must not have looked too hard for the trail since i ran across it so easily. I knew that $Z was right about the runners coming through the gorge, and i thought that they might now be to the east of where i was, on the other side of the campus. I decided that i could drive around to the other side of the block. I knew that there was a road down the hill and behind the large grey stone building, to the east of me. I would have to drive around the quadrangle to the northeast to get there, though. I headed back to the north, to the intersection where the campus road intersected the main road on the north of campus. I came to the intersection, it the business district of town. The roads did not meet at exactly right angles. There was a line of shops on the northeast corner which seemed very old. Their fronts were covered with class, and they seemed very well kept. I thought that this was a very nice college town. I wished that i had come here more often when i was in school. I turned to the west and started to head south, down the main street through the campus. The large stone buildings stood along the eastern side of the road, facing the smaller wooden structures of fraternity and dormers on the west. Everything was very nice here, and the sun was bright in the clear sky. As i headed to the south with my parents, i looked around at the crowds of people which were gathered on the sidewalks. There was a celebration happening on the street. I looked at the decorative columns of the academic buildings to the east. One of the larger buildings had several large columns across its face, and it sat back from the road more that the others, leaving space for a patch of grass in front of it. The stone of the building was tan, and the metal roof was green. My attention was then drawn to the south. I was standing in a square podium, with columns on all four sides. There seemed to be a roof above me with red banners and ribbons hanging from it. I looked to the south to see the first of the floats from the parade coming down the street. I was excited to be here. My parents stood to the east of me as i moved to the southwestern corner of the pavilion to see the parade. My mother made a comment. I watched the people coming down the street with excitement. I felt happy to experience this event with the students.
12002 September 06
I stepped out onto the porch of the old green house. The porch was on the north side of the house, and stretched down the length of the house. I had just bought this house and moved into it. It seemed very old, and i wondered why i had bought it. I thought about the house that i used to own and wondered why i had given it up for this one. I looked at the dull white paint which was chipping off of the wooden window frames which closed in the porch. The wall on the outside of the porch came up to the level of my hips and was painted medium green. The green was dull and greying with age. The upper half of the wall was filled with windows in white frames. The windows were hinged at the top, and a number of them were open. It seemed to be getting cold, though, so i thought that i should close the windows. I pulled several of them close on the western end of the north wall. They shut, but i realized that the single-pane glass would not insulate the house well in the winter. This house would be expensive to heat. I wondered again why i had given up my old house to live in this one. It did not make sense.
12002 September 07
I looked across the large open field to the north of the road as the bus came to a stop. The other man was waiting for us by the old building on the north side of the field. We were in the country, and the land around us seemed to be wide rolling farm fields with old stone walls between them. The field just to the north of us was cut, but the tan grass still covered the dirt ground. I stepped off of the bus with $F12 and $F24. The other man from the festival was now standing near us, and i walked over to him and greeted him warmly. I hugged him hello, but he did not seem at ease with me. I thought that he might not remember me. I let him go and he moved to the west, where he hugged $F24 warmly. I headed to the north, across the field where the festival would be held. People were already setting things up. There was a large wooden stage on the back side of the field, just to the north of me. I passed in front of it, watching the others move things onto it. I thought that we would have to set up the ramps so that we could load all of our stuff onto the stage. I thought that the ramps should be on the east end of the stage, but i realized that there was a rocky ditch just off of the stage. We would not be able to put the ramps over the ditch because they would not have enough support to hold them up. I walked around to the west side of the stage to see that there was a similar ditch there as well. I felt exasperated and wondered what we should do. I then realized that there was a dark green tent stretched over us as i moved around the front of the stage. I told the others that there was a problem with the ditches. $A355 was standing at the west end of the stage with her hands on her hips, listening to what i was saying. I was concerned and did not know what to do. $A172 was then standing to the west of me. He seemed annoyed with me and said that i was exaggerating about the ditches. I felt annoyed with him, and was upset that he did not take me seriously.
12002 September 09
I was running along the dirt trail which ran through the gorge. I seemed to be heading north along the western side of the gorge. The gorge was very steep, with forested slopes on both sides. The trees were almost leafless, and the ground was covered with bright red and yellow leaves. I watched myself jog on the trail from the northeast. The trail climbed to the north along the western wall of the gorge. I seemed to be running with $G4, though there was no one with me at the moment. I thought that they might be ahead of me. I came to a level area of the trail, where the land started to open up to the west, at the top of the gorge. There was a flat area to the west of me where a few small stone houses stood. They seemed old and very nicely built. There was a short hedgerow running along the west side of the trail. I then spotted the flour mark on the trail in front of me. It was a trail marked, and i knew that i was heading in the correct direction. I passed the end of the hedgerow and came out in the gravel driveway of the house. The main road was just to the north of me, so i continued jogging, hoping that the people in the house did not get upset that i was on their property. As i came to the end of the driveway, i noticed some action figures on the ground. They were in a pile, just to the west of the driveway. I stopped to look at them, thinking that they must be trash. Several of them were Star Wars action figures. They were worth some money, and i wondered why the people would be throwing them away. I wanted to take the action figures with me, but thought that the people in the house might want them. I was not really sure whether they were trash or whether they were left out by the children of the house. I bent over and looked at some of the figures. One of them was wearing a short red dress from the 1960s Star Trek series. I realized that it was a statuette of Ohura. It seemed in very good condition. I then noticed the old doll of R2D2. It seemed worn, but it was complete. I wanted to take it, but i was less sure that these things were trash. I could not decide what to do, but then i noticed a boy in the yard to the south of me. He was playing with something, but he noticed that i was standing at the front of the yard. I decided that i should not take anything now and started running again. I headed to the west, down the road in the rural neighbourhood.
12002 September 10
I remembered running down the sunny country road from the east. I was with $Z. We had come to this place by accident, and were checking the area out. The town was inhabited by apes, though. This had something to do with Planet of the Apes. I remembered that we had come to the town, not knowing where we were. It was dangerous here, though. The apes were not happy with humans, and we had to escape. I remembered what it was like to follow the road into the town. The road ran to the south of the village, and we had walked through the grass of the fields to get to the houses of the small town. We were now sneaking back through the thin forests to the southwest of the town to get back to the road. The apes were aware of us, and would be looking for us. I thought that they would follow the road to find us, so we would be able to get ahead of them by traveling through the woods. I knew that we would not be able to leave this world in the same way that we had come, so we would have to hide here. I did not know where to go. We came out of the forest and started to follow the road to the west. The path was partly overgrown with grass. There was a lawn on either side. The path was blue, with cartoon images of animals on it. The characters reminded me of a Disney film, and i thought that this place used to be Disney Land. The large building to the south must have been one of the rides in the theme park. I thought that me might be able to hide here. The apes did not know a lot about their surroundings, so there were many places that were familiar to us that they would not be familiar to the apes. We could take advantage of our knowledge of the old human places. As we ran down the crumbling path, i noticed that there was someone standing in one of the openings of the building. He was dressed in red and seemed to be wearing a mask. There was a second person who came out of an opening to the right of the first. These people seemed to be wobbling as they walked, as though they were zombies. The humans of this place were not as intelligent as the humans who had built these places. I wondered whether the humans would alert the apes to our presence. $Z and i ran to the southwest, through one of the large rooms of the large cement building. The humans who had been hiding in this place had already warned the apes that we were here. I thought i was aware of the apes coming from the east. I wondered what to do. The humans had notified the apes about us, but now seemed to be sympathetic to us. I thought that they called the apes because they simply did not know who we were. I started across the large cement room, heading to the east. There were large metal plates on the flood which covered the maintenance bays of the factory. I thought that the apes might not be aware of them. If we hid in them, the apes might simply walk over them without thinking to look under them. They would be totally unaware of the holes in the floor because they would not know what they were used for. I thought of these things as i looked out across the cut lawn to the south of the factory. We would have to hide at any moment, but i kept thinking about the strange things that i knew about this place. I no longer felt worried about the apes catching us, because i knew too many things about the people who created this world that the apes did not know. I felt certain that we could always keep ahead of them.
12002 September 12
I was in the chapel of $P7 for an alumni event. There were many other people wandering between the rows of wooden seats. I did not feel quite comfortable here, and i started to wander around the building. I walked out into the front hall as some of the other people wandered through the building. I spoke $Z, who also seemed to be an alumnus of this place. I mentioned the construction that had taken place in the building since we had been here. We walked to the east, across the hall of the second floor and into the library. I told $Z that the library had been remodeled. I had visited here before, and remembered the changes. We walked through the front door of the library, and i saw the round circulation desk, which was now in the center of the room. The rest of the room was surprisingly empty. I thought that there had been tables and study booths in the room, but i did not see any now. I described what i had thought was in the library to $Z as we moved in front of the windows on the east side of the room. I then looked to the south and noticed the terrace on the roof outside the window. It had a solid roof over it which was supported by thin metal poles. There were many small round tables on the terrace, and i thought that the place was a student cafe. I spoke of it to $Z as i tried to get a closer look. The terrace came to a point where the south wing of the building curved away from the wall of the main building, meeting the front wall of the south wing in a sharp angle. The terrace cafe must have been a new addition to the building. We walked to the east, walking through the tables of the cafe. We then seemed to be heading north through the small diner, passing the booth seats along the west wall. As we walked past one of the tables, i realized that $F4 was sitting with $F7. I did not stop to say hello because i felt that it would be awkward to do so. I continued to speak to $Z as i looked around. I would have to return to say hello to $F4. I then noticed that there were many people from my graduating class in the diner. It seemed strange that they had all returned to this place at the same time. I walked back to the small table to say hello to $F4. It was very strange to be with all of these people again. They all seemed very young, as though they had not aged. I felt uncomfortable and anxious.
12002 September 13
I was very angry as i waited in the dentist’s office. Many of my relatives were there as i paced around the space. I was outside of the modern cement building, to the north of the building and to the east of the stairs which led to the main entrance. It was starting to rain, and i felt frustrated that the dentist might not be able to see me. As i paced angrily to the east, i looked of the wide cement steps at the front of the building to see the dentist working on someone ahead of me. I could see the rain starting to fall heavier. I started to wonder why a dentist would have an office outside. I felt as though i had chosen the wrong dentist. I would have to pick another one so that i did not have to wait on the rain again. I was starting to feel very upset. There was something important about this doctor’s appointment. I did not want to wait to be seen. My family was in the room around me. As i turned to the north, my grandmother walked in front of me from the west. She was very happy and spoke to $K1, who was on the east side of the room. The room seemed very much like the kitchen in my grandmother’s house. My grandmother said that she was very happy with the two CDs that $K1 had bought for her. I looked down at the portable tape player that my grandmother was carrying as she walked in front of me. $K3 was standing just to the east of me as my grandmother handed me the player. I listened to the music for a second, but i already knew that it was religious music and that i would not like it. I felt angry with my relatives and threw the tape player down. $K3 smiled at me and told me that i was just jealous of $K1. I felt very defensive and angry and cursed at her. I tried to say “Fuck you.”, but the words did not seem to come out right. I was too upset to think. I paced around the room angrily, leaning back against the counter on the north wall of the room. Someone patted me on the left shoulder. I looked to my left to see $A35 sitting to the east of me. He tried to comfort me, but i did not want to me comforted. I was frustrated enough that i really did not want to deal with anyone. I went upstairs to the bedroom and started pacing up there. I was angry with my relatives because they were so happy, and i could not feel content. There was a small bed against the east wall which had the sheets on it bundled up, as though someone had slept there the night before. In the center of the room, i passed the large bed, which also had the sheets in piles around the bed. I felt suddenly tired and thought that i needed to take a nap. I thought again about the dentist as i approached the corner of the bed. I would have to wait before i could go to my appointment. I thought that a nap in the middle of the day would seem like a siesta. I started walking down the street in front of my grandmother’s house, to the west. I wanted to get away from my relatives, but i knew that they were going to follow me because they were concerned. As i moved down the street to the west, i could see the small car that they were driving ahead of me. I did not want them following me, but i did not know how to get rid of them. They knew that i was heading to the elementary school at the end of the street to hang out for a while. I then realized that their small hatchback car was heading straight, into the front entrance of the school. I wanted to go to the right, around the back of the school where i could enter the playground. I turned to the right at the intersection in front of the school, thinking that i could lose them. I found myself driving over the bare lawn at the back of the school. There were several construction vehicles, and the lawn was dry dusty dirt, which had been packed down by the many tire tracks crossing it. I came to the south end of the building and realized that i would not be able to hang out in the playground here. There were too many large construction vehicles driving around, and the playground had been torn up. There was a large opening in the back of the building where the main hall of the building was. I could see the dark metal cross braces of the ceiling spanned the main hall. The building was dark inside, but i knew that the construction workers were busy redesigning it. There was a large yellow-armed forklift at the entrance to the hall. I still felt disappointed as i turned my car around and started back down the west side of the building. I still felt very angry and frustrated. As i started around the northwest corner of the building, i passed a group of people who were heading out onto the grassy field to the west of the school. They seemed to be heading out to play some sport. There seemed to be several gates and doorways on the north end of the building that i had to maneuver through to get to the street, but i had to wait for the people to pass me. I opened one of the white metal doors to the east of me and saw $A356 coming down the stairs toward me. He smiled as we walked through the door. His hair was bleached blonde and stuck out on the sides of his head, and he seemed to have lost a lot of weight. He prodded me, saying that he had told me that $A284 would be here. I stepped back from the door as he walked through. I walked with him to the north. I remembered being with $A284 the previous Friday, so i already that he was back in town. $A356 was very happy, and kept speaking to me. As i reached the main gate at the edge of the schoolyard, i stepped to the north to let the young women in the long-sleeved rugby shirts pass into the schoolyard. Their shirts were green and blue, and i realized that they were the women’s rugby team. I knew several of them and looked around at their heads to see if i could spot $A132. I then remembered that she had moved to DC. I did notice $A259 in front of me. She was facing away from me, chatting happily with someone. I then noticed $A223 talking with someone in the crowd to the east of me. I wondered why he would have come to the rugby game. I looked around to see if $A223 had come with any other $G3 that i knew. I spotted some others from $G3 at the back of the crowd, near $A223. I leaned back against the white wooden structure. There was wooden roof over the entrance to the playing fields, just to the south of me, and the wooden structure on which i was leaning ran from the western edge of the roof supports. There was a metal bar running between the supports which separated the crowd entering the field from where i was standing. As i leaned back, to the west, i noticed that the pipe under my right hand was wet. I lifted my index finger from the pipe and saw a squirt of water spray out, wetting my hand and the sleeve of the dark-blue windbreaker that the man on the other side of the railing was wearing. The man stood up suddenly, realizing that the railing in which he was leaning was wet. I commented on the leak in the pipe.
12002 September 14
I was sitting on the floor on the east side of the coffee table. There seemed to be a couch to the east of me, with a wall behind it. The others were sitting around the coffee table, and we were singing songs. This was part of a performance, but i did not think that i knew the songs well enough. There was a woman sitting across the table and slightly to the south of me who was playing guitar. I was also playing guitar, but was unsure of the chords. The woman started a new song, and i realized that she was playing Undertow. I struggled to remember the chords to the song, thinking that i should know the chords since i had written the song. I played the first set of chords but then fingered the wrong chord for the transition. I quickly tried to play the correct chord, bit did not get it to sound. I then realized that we had finished playing the introduction to the song and should have started singing the lyrics. I quickly started the second verse of the song Across the Universe but soon realized that i was singing the wrong song. I felt confused and frustrated. The audience was watching us, but i could not stand to be here any more. I felt angry and had to leave the room. I stormed out of the room, heading to the north. I felt tense and upset. I pushed through the door and walked out of the building, throwing my acoustic guitar to the east. I glanced back as the instrument hit the ground, the head hitting first. The neck of the guitar snapped off. I felt concerned that i had damaged my instrument, but that feeling was quickly pushed aside by my anger and frustration. I turned to the east and walked around the side of the house, which seemed like $F1’s house on $P1. I was too angry to know what to do. I felt as though i had to do something to get out the frustration, but i did not know what i could do. I turned around and walked back to around the north side of the house. One of the young men from the cast of the show was picking up the pieces of my guitar. The wood of the neck was fractured. I knew that that the man was concerned for me, but i was too upset to talk to him. I paused on the north side of the house and noticed that $A62 was standing in the light of the back door. He had his hands on his hips and was looking at me angrily. The young man made a comment to $A62, telling him that the guitar could be salvaged. I knew that everyone was mad at me for my tantrum, but i did not care. I could not stop feeling bad.
12002 September 17
I stood on the west side of the driveway of my parents’ house. $X5 was chained to a small log in the middle of the driveway so that she could not escape. My mother was standing to the southeast of me, on the edge of the driveway. I was concerned about $X5. $X5 then ran to the south, down the driveway. The chain on her collar pulled tight and the log to which she was bound started to roll down the driveway toward her. I was then standing to the east of the log and $X5 was on the north side as the log rolled down the slope to the south. I realized that the chain would drag $X5 under the log. I watched as the chain pulled tight over the log and pulled $X5 over the top of the log. I was frightened for $X5 as i watched her pulled head-first under the log. The log seemed to roll over her in slow motion. I hoped that she would be all right as her body stiffened as it emerged from under the log. I grabbed her and picked her up, holding her close to my chest. I was worried about her, but glad that she was alive. I walked to the east, into the kitchen of my parents’ house. I felt suddenly confused. There was something strange here. I knew that i had to get ready to go into work, but i did not fool like doing it. I thought that i would have to make myself lunch before i left. I tried to think of what i should make. I did not really feel like making anything. I still felt concerned. I then realized that i was staring into the east. I looked ahead of me and realized that the three men who were in the kitchen were also staring, transfixed at the east wall of the room. Two of them were standing in front of the window, and one was near the door. I said something to my mother about this. She was off to the north of me, in the back room of the house. The men in the kitchen turned around, surprised, as though i had woken them from a trance. I walked into the kitchen, starting to think about my lunch again. I thought that i would have to make sandwiches from the thin bread that my mother had just bought. I felt very apathetic, and felt that something was out of place.
12002 September 21
The man, who was crouching in front of me, was adjusting the image in the computer screen. The picture was of two cars driving into a pool of water. The cars were driving toward the camera, off the end of a wooden dock. I leaved forward to get a better look at the cars as the man adjusted the lens of the telescope. I looked to the west, where i could see the cars falling into the water. I then looked back at the screen. The old blue and white, fifties-style car was floating in the water off the dock, and the smaller red car was hovering in the air just behind it. The second car had just driven off the dock. This image was part of a time sequence. The cars could not actually be frozen in mid air. I described what i was seeing to the man as i watched the image. I mentioned the way in which the old cars were being wrecked for recycling. The cars would me crushed into a small cube. I looked at the cars again to see them stacked with the red car on top of the blue one. They were in a compact bin and were ready to be crushed. I turned to the north as i said something to the man with me. I then noticed the line of people who were waiting to toss things into the compactor. Most of the people in the line were women, and one of them had a white tassel mop with a black metal handle. She walked forward and tossed it into the compactor. I was disappointed that these people were simply throwing these things away. I then stopped in front of two women, who were standing at the back of the line. They were each holding pairs of pants over their arms. The pants seemed plaid. I asked them about the pants as i looked at the pair over the arm of the woman on the right. The pants were mostly tan with blue cross lines. I liked the way that the pants looked and wanted to keep them, but i could not interrupt the line. I felt uncomfortable asking if i could take the pants. It seemed an improper thing to do. My mother then said something to me from the counter to the south. I turned to the east and picked up the glass jars from the round white table. She had bought the things in them and i was helping her carry them to the car. I walked out the door on the north side of the store and found myself on the sidewalk in a city. There was a tall building across the street from me which seemed to be a parking garage. I looked down at the five mason jars that i was carrying in my hands as the man in the tan trench coat crossed the street and walked to the south. The bottles in my hand were arranged in a triangle, but my left hand was not tight on the side of the triangle. I thought that i had to squeeze my hands together to keep the jars together, but my left hand was not responding. It must be tired and loosing its strength. I started placing the jars into the pockets of my jacket so that they would be easy to carry. Once they were all secure, i continued to the west, where the car was parked in the parking garage.
I gazed out the window on the left side of the car as my father drove to the west. I was in the passenger’s seat, and we were returning from a short trip. The hills around us were mostly forested, with houses and small lawns in between. I could see the town in the narrow valley to the south of us, with a lake to the north of it. I thought that the town was $P14 and mentioned this to my father. I was surprised to see the town like this. I thought that i was very familiar with the area, but i did not know about this road. I looked ahead of us to see the road curve along the narrow crest of the ridge. We now seemed to be heading to the northwest. This mountain was too tall and the ridge too narrow. This could not be $P14. I tried to think of where we really were. I then spotted the road sign as it passed to the right of me. It was white, with green letters which said “261”. I remembered that we had driven through the intersection of the small town to the west of $P6 to get onto Route 261 when we were driving out to where we had been. We must be somewhere to the north of $P6. I said some things to my father about the area as i looked around at the houses. They all seemed like nice places to live. Some of them were old farm houses, and some were more modern, but all of them seemed to be well maintained. There were more houses on this section of the road, as though we were entering a residential area. The houses on the right side of the road were up hill from us, and had very steep lawns. There was one which was yellow and stood on a steep hill. It was covered with vertical wooden boards and seemed very tall and plain. The roof was double-sloped, like the roof of an old barn. I wondered whether i should move into a new house. The next house that caught my eye was small and white, and sat on top of the steep hill. It was very modern, and, even though most of the house was obscured by the slope of the hill, i could tell that it had a lot of space inside. The house was broken up into smaller units which formed the separate rooms. As we continued down the road to the north, i considered the house that i was living in. I wondered why i did not move on. It seemed adventurous to move on.
I sat on the floor in the small bedroom of the house, facing the west wall. This place seemed like a hotel room, with two full-sized beds against the west wall. I was sitting between the two beds as my parents started to settle into the bed to the south of me. My grandfather was sitting on the bed to the north of me when i noticed something on the small table which was between the two beds. Without thinking, reached for the red object and picked it up. My grandfather immediately yelled at me not to touch the thing, which i had thought was a compass. He angrily snatched the object out of me hand, and i felt suddenly upset. I had grabbed the object impulsively, without thinking, and wondered why i had done so. It was as if i were not in control of my actions. My mother sat up in her bed and stood up to see what the problem was. She walked over to my grandfather as he held the red dial. He said that i had stopped his kidney alarm. I felt bad. My mother took the alarm and tried to fix it. I knew that the alarm was to keep time of some medical condition that my grandfather had. I asked whether they could set another alarm and try to synch it to the first, but my grandfather did not seem to think that it would work. I walked out of the north side of the small house. This place seemed to be a cottage that we were staying in. I was now looking to the west, over the sandy beach and blue water. There was a white lifeguard stand to the northwest of me. I then heard the siren and saw some of the people on the beach moving hurriedly. One of the lifeguards ran from the north and stopped just to the south of the white wooden lifeguard stand. I saw a second run from the south and stop in the same location. The lifeguard was wearing red shorts, a white tank top, and a white sailor’s hat. He raised an air horn in his right hand and was looking to the west, out oven the water. Then several of the lifeguards started to line up along the beach. They had white cream on their noses. I looked at the people swimming in the water. There did not seem to be anyone in trouble, but then i thought that there could me a shark warning. I then saw the man with the metal garbage-can lid standing in the water. He was facing out into the water and was holding the lid in front of him like a shield. I thought that he was defending himself against the shark. As he backed toward me and out of the water, i saw a fin appear in front of him. Then the water rose and broke over the top of a large bluish-grey fish, which swam into the lid that the man was holding. The man stumbled back a little. I felt suddenly panicked as i backed away from the water, stepping back onto the wooden stairs which led down the east side of the house. I watched the fish as it followed the man out of the water. It was not a shark. It looked more like a small whale, with a cylindrical nose. As it crawled out of the water, i started to think that it might me a manatee, but it had an odd shape. It followed the man onto the beach, where it suddenly rolled over onto its back and sprawled its arms and legs out. I realized that it was a hippopotamus. The other person then said that the animal was a killer whale. I was now on the north side of the house, and the beach was to the north of me. I backed up the wooden stairs which descended down the east side of the building from the apartment on the second floor. The whale moved over the ground, following the people who were running around the beach. I felt frightened of the animal and backed up the stairs to the small landing, which was halfway up the side of the building. As i watched the whale waddling after people, i realized that the landing was really at ground level. There was a woman standing to the east of me who had been chased by the whale. She had come out of the house behind me. I told her not to go near the whale because it was a killer whale. I then remembered that it could secrete venom around its teeth when it bit into someone. I cautioned the woman about the poison. Then i started to wonder about the safety of the stairs. I remembered that i had climbed up the wooden stairs to get to the wooden platform, on which i was now standing, but i still seemed to be at ground level. I realized that the paved driveway to east of the building was sloped, and rose with the stairs along the side of the house. The whale would me able to get me if i stayed on the platform. I looked up at the wooden beams which supported the balcony on the second floor and though that i could climb up them to the balcony if i had to. I then looked up over the north face of the building as i thought. This place seemed to be in the Caribbean, and the sky now seemed pale blue. There were some men talking to the northwest of me. I turned to see them standing under the palm tree on the sandy ground. They seemed latino, and they were making comments about me. I felt unwelcome here, but i tried to act as though i did not notice the men. I headed for the stairs on the east side of the green wooden beach house. A man called to me from one of the windows in white wooden top-hinged frames on the second floor of the house. I looked up to see two large windows. Together, they stretched across the length of the back wall. The eastern window was open, and the man called from it. Referring to the men on the street, he told me that i could have the “hojos” for fifty cents. He had a wry smirk on his face. My mother seemed to be watching through the western window. I knew that the man was referring to the men on the street as male prostitutes, but i asked him exactly what he was talking about anyway. I felt annoyed with him and started up the stairs. I wondered what made him think that i would be interested in hookers.
12002 September 22
I was sneaking through the back halls of the building. I came to a small chamber with bare cement walls. I entered from the northwest. There was a set of cement stairs which started in the center of the room. They climbed from the southwest to a cement platform. They then turned to the southeast and disappeared into the wall. There was a metal railing around the side of the cubical platform in the center of the room. I quickly climbed up the stairs, following them as they curved to the east. This place was secret, and i was not supposed to be in this place. I thought that this place had something to do with Hitler. It was not related to the person, Hitler, but rather to the idea of Hitler and the Nazis. This place was really a lesson in philosophy. It presented some controversial ideas, and i thought that many people would object to it. I came to the top and found myself in the small lecture room. This place was old, and it did not seem that many people had come here. I walked to the south, down the slope of the room toward the small stage where there was a podium. The room had stone walls, but it seemed very formal, with decorative borders on the walls. There was a large fireplace on a stone hearth, just behind the podium. As i walked, i noticed that there was some water on the floor of the room. I stepped carefully through it, not wanting to get my feet too wet. There were several small statues on the tan stone mantle over the fireplace. The white stone statues were of greek-like heroes. I continued to the east, noticing that there were a few people sitting in the chairs of the lecture room already. They were getting for the lecture where the historic significance of this place would be discussed.
12002 September 25
I was sitting on the pale-green couch which was against the north wall of the small room. $A333 was on the couch with me, along with several other people. I was telling them about the difference between event memory and process memory. I tried to describe how they both worked, but the others did not believe me. Someone then said something and we stood up from the couch. I headed to the east. I was floating across the lawn toward the old house, to the west. The house was dark, and i thought that it was haunted. I entered the building and came into the large entry hall. There was a staircase ascending along the south wall of the house. It climbed to a balcony which crossed the eastern side of the room. The ceiling was originally white, but it now seemed grey with age. It was dark in the room, but i could see all of the details of the room. There was a wide doorway just to the west of the bottom of the stairs. I floated through the doorway and into the dark room. This place was really a nightclub. I passed through the room, heading to the west. There were several shelves in the room which were covered with various items. This place was where they sold the items for the club. I noticed several comic books hanging from the west wall drew my attention. I floated over to them and looked them over, thinking that hey might be very old. The wall was covered with comic books, and i recognized some of them. There were several issues of Thor hanging in the center of the wall. I looked at one of the covers, noticing that there were two different representations of the character Thor on the cover. I remembered this issue as having something to do with a new person taking over the powers of Thor while the first Thor was indisposed of. The issue was of Thor versus Thor. I then looked over some of the other comic books on the northern end of the wall. I started to drift back to the east, through the shelves of the magazine store. I turned at the end of the aisle and headed to the south. There was furniture at the southern end of the room. As i approached the red couch, i noticed that $F24 was here. I had just been talking with him on the couch in the other room. He said that he had called the police. He pointed to the east, toward the bar in the next room. He said that there were too many people drinking too much alcohol too early in the evening. I looked into the bar to see two police officers enter through the glass door on the far end. They were wearing black uniform coats as they walked up to the bar along the west wall. $F24 stood up to leave before the police started arresting people. I followed him to the west.
I had to go to do the play, but i felt very nervous. I did not think that i knew my lines. I paced in front of the stage, reading my lines. I tried to remember them without looking at the script, but i could not remember them. I felt frustrated as i looked back at the papers in my hand. I suddenly realized that i would have to sing a song in the play. I felt confused and distressed. I did not have time to learn the lines. I looked at the song. I recognized the song. It had the lyric “sun is shining” in it. I recognized the chorus, but could not remember the verses. I felt suddenly uncertain and did not think that i could memorize all the lines. $F42 then called for me. He needed me to do something on the stage. I did not go. I felt upset, and did not want to do the play as the others wanted. I felt very bad and started pacing around in the room. $A15 was near me as i paced angrily around the room. I wondered what i should do.
I sat at the desk with the others, looking at the computer to the east of us. We were looking at the home page for $G2, but the picture in the upper corner of the page was of a haunted house. I remembered the house from before. I had dreamed about it. I remembered the dream, where i had gone into the front hall of the house to see the ghosts. The others thought that the page looked nice, but i knew that it was a mistake. The old house should not have been on the page. The picture was supposed to be of one of the old houses on campus, but i had used the picture of the haunted house by accident. I left the counter and headed down the hall and down the stairs. The front door of the building was open and i could see the snow outside.
12002 September 26
There was something wrong. I backed into the room but still kept looking down at the people outside the hotel. The Middle East was attacking, and there were troops on the streets. The troops were standing on the inside of the stone wall which surrounded the hotel. On the outside of the wall, i could see a car driving toward the wall. I felt suddenly concerned, realizing that the ramp of the parking garage just outside the wall led up to the top of the wall. The car drove up the ramp and over the wall, crashing through the chain-link fence and into the troops. This city was not safe. I backed into the hotel room, realizing that the hotel had been taken by the enemy troops. I needed to hide so that they could not find me. If the lights went out, i thought that i might be able to hide under the bed. The invaders would not expect anyone to be in every room, so they might not check the rooms too well if they did not immediately see someone in them. I had to get out of sight.
I sat on the left side of the bus as it drove to the east, down the road to the south of the large city. I remembered being this read before. It was just outside the developed area of the city, where there were still some fields and trees around. On the north side of the road were some new buildings being built. I noticed the large hotel which was still being constructed. I remembered seeing it the last time i traveled on this road. It seemed like a Hyat hotel. As we passed the front of the tan building, i noticed that there were letters on the front of the building. The large sans-serif red letters were widely spaced and said “1995”. The date was the year of completion for the building. As i watched the building pass, i thought that it seemed almost complete. The bus then slowed and came to a stop at the entrance to the bridge. The bridge crossed the river and came out by the shopping center of the city. A woman in a dark uniform was standing in front of a small toll booth at the entrance to the bridge. The bus then continued across the suspension bridge and into the city, coming out in the center of town. I walked to the east, from the place where the bus had dropped me off. The dull grey buildings around me were tall and blocked the light from the sky. I headed down the dead-end street to the east, looking at the old shops along the street. Many of the shops did not seem to be open, and i thought that it must be too early in the morning for them to be open. I passed the building which looked like an old cinema and came to the end of the street. There was a tattoo shop to the north of me which was open. Something felt unsafe about the city streets, but i knew that i could protect myself. I turned around and headed back to the main street, to the west. I then noticed the man teaching martial arts in the courtyard to the north of me. The courtyard was surrounded on three sides by the old grey brick building. The lot in which they were practicing seemed dirty and grimy. There seemed to be a dirty blue metal dumpster in as alcove on the east side of the courtyard. I was interested in the class and stopped to watch for a moment. The man seemed very old, and he moved slowly, but his students seemed very young and fit. I thought that some of the students were very nicely built. There was a tall blonde man whom i thought was attractive. I watched them practice for a while, thinking that the instructor was not as attractive as the students. I then realized that the teacher was disfigured. He had a large bulbous growth on the right side of his head. As i looked over the rest of the class, i noticed that several of them had the same growths on their heads. I continued on to the west, realizing that this was not a safe part of town. I walked to the south on the main street and turned down the next alley to the east. I followed the narrow alley to the southeast, looking at the small white statues in the shop window to the south of me. They seemed like replicas of greek figures. I was then aware that the light in the alley was coming from ahead of me and behind me. There was something over my head, like a roof. I continued to the east, down the corridor, cautious of this area. I followed the old stone-walled corridor around some tight turns. This place was an old factory which had been converted into a shopping center. I finally came to the eastern side of the building, finding my self in the tall main hall of the building. The hall was white and several stories tall. To the north of me was a grand staircase which led up to the west, to the second level of the shops. There seemed to be several decorative columns against the walls. This place seemed safer than the other section of the building, but i turned around and headed to the west, back into the other part of the building. I thought that i might run into the men again in the dirty section of the building. I turned to the south and walked down the corridor. The floor of the corridor was cement, and the ceiling seemed lower over my head. This was the basement section of the building. I headed to the southwest as the corridor ran between the zigzagging walls. There were small shops on both sides of the corridor. The one to the west seemed to be a pottery store. I came to the end of the corridor and turned to the east, finding myself in a large empty room. This place was an art studio. I looked at the many paintings that were on the walls. They were abstract art, painted with browns and reds. I had gone the wrong way. This corridor was a dead end. I could not get out of the building this way. I turned around and headed back up the corridor. I felt confused. This was the uneasy part of town, and i wanted to get out of the building and back into the streets. I headed back through the white hallway. Things seemed suddenly strange, thought. I was no longer where i had been. $F34 seemed to be there with me as i headed east. I was now in the car. We followed the road which was just to the south of the city. We came to the bridge again, and we headed back across in to the east. I expected to pay the toll again, but there was no one standing by the toll booths. I continued driving to the east, thinking that i should drive around the city in a counterclockwise direction. It was dark now, and i watched the city lights to the north of me. As i headed down the road on the other side of the bridge, however, i started to wonder where i was heading. I was just visiting this city, and i was unsure of where i was going. I then seemed to be in the back yard of the house with the others. $F34 was at the party here. I looked up into the night sky to see the many stars. It was a clear night, and i started talking about the stars with the others. I then noticed a cloud which was low in the western sky. It seemed to be on fire. I wondered about the cloud. It did not seem possible. I then realized that there was a burning object behind the cloud. The flaming object moved to the west. I felt uneasy and asked what the object was. The man to the north of me said that it was a meteor. I said “It better not be a meteor.” The object disappeared below the horizon. I told the others that we would be in trouble if it was a meteor. It was big enough to destroy the planet if it actually hit. I then felt the ground shake suddenly, as if there was an earthquake. I felt suddenly worried, afraid that it was a land shock from a meteor impact. I was afraid that the wind blast would hit at any moment, and i wondered whether it would be worth hiding from it.
12002 September 27
I wandered through the weight room as the others did some workouts. I felt unfocused as i wandered around the room. I turned around as i reached the northeast corner of the room and started to wander back through the white metal bars of the gym equipment. I stopped under a machine which seemed to be a leg press machine. I looked down at the two black footrests at the ends of the white vertical metal bars. The bars had a square cross-section, and were bent slightly about half way down. I sat down on a black bench and said something to the people to the west of me. There were three people, sitting on the exercise equipment. I then started moving through the equipment again, though it now seemed like playground equipment. We were then in the small grassy yard just to the southwest of the one-level house. The grass seemed very green. There was a small round shack just outside of the house which was made up of tan and blue plastic tiles. It seemed like a playhouse for children. I spoke to the others as i moved through the structure. The large hollow tiles of the shack were held together by small black plastic bolts: two on each side of each tile. I lifted part of the structure to get a better look at something. I noticed a cluster of bees on the corner of one of the tiles. I cautioned the woman about them. As i moved the tiles around in my hand, i noticed that there were yellow jackets clustered on many of the joints between the blocks. I started to worry that i might get stung by the yellow jackets. I dropped the structure on the ground and kept looking at the bees on it. The bees were clustered into a small section of the block on the ground in front of me.
12002 September 30
I stood to the south of the others as we stood on the south edge of the gravel parking lot. This place also seemed like a large field, as though it was the lot of a dive-in cinema. The people with me were being questioned by the police. There was an officer talking to someone to the northeast of me. I watched a white fifties-style car drive cross the gravel lot to the north of us, heading from west to east. As it reached the eastern edge of the lot, though, it quickly turned around. The sound of the gravel under its tires could be heard as it started to accelerate to the west. Someone with us then yelled for us to get down. I was facing the south as i hurriedly threw myself to the ground, thinking that the people in the white were turning around to shoot at us. I landed on the ground, astonished that i would be in such a situation, but nothing happened as the car drove past. What had seemed threatening really was not. I was standing again as the car left the western side of the lot. There was another car driving on the road. This car was blue and seemed to be a station wagon. I spoke to the others, still feeling a bit shaken. There was a large metal structure just to the west of me which seemed to be a construction dumpster. It had thick metal walls on the three sides and was open to the east. This would be a safe place to stand if someone started shooting at us. I thought about this as i spoke to the others. Something did not seem settled here.