My weekend, my strange dream, my left overs

I had an eventful weekend. It is going to be tough, as it always is, to head back to work.

Friday night Kate came over. We had Pizza, lounged around and relaxed after our busy weeks at work. On Saturday we got up and went for a walk around Melrose. I went to the Public Library and checked out a travel guide on Chicago, where Kate and I plan to visit in June. We then went to a local mom & pop hardware store on Main Street in Melrose where I bought a spray bottle for my plants to give them some extra loving. We went to Liberty Bell Roast Beef for Lunch and indulged in french fries and sandwiches. It was a lovely day. Around quarter to five, Kate and I went our separate ways, and I headed to Portland for Tim Hayes's 30th birthday party. It was a nice little "shindig" using Brandy's words. It started with dinner & cake at RiRa's and then finished off at a Old Port dive called Amigo's. It was a loud and fiesty evening.

Sunday I went to the folk's place in the morning after spending the night at my friends, John & Michelle's apartment. I slept well, however I had a weird dream about being in this crime ridden city which seemed on the scale of something like New York City, except it seemed like it was in Texas or the southwest by the lay of the land and the climate. I went out exploring on my own in this city, and was given strict instructions of where I should and should not go. Additionally the places I did visit were deemed unsafe after sunset, but from my encounters, they just seemed unsafe all the time. Each time I waited for a train, and once on the train I had to talk my way out of getting mugged or killed. One guy even asked me what I did for a living, and when I said I worked in the sciences he was convinced this somehow made me evil to the core, so of course he had to threaten violence... as I babled to try and tell him we meant to help people. There were hoardes of teenagers walking around with guns that they didn't even bother to conceal. It spent all of the time in this dream wondering how to behave. How can I keep attention away from myself? How can I appear unworthy of robbing? Should I appear tough? Do I avoid eye contact or is this a sign of weakness? Sometimes I was successful in talking my way out of problems, other times I escaped the negative encounters through pure luck and circumstance.

As the trains would go through neighborhoods there were people out everywhere in the sweltering heat. Interestingly, felons and families intermingled side by side almost if there were deals in place. Perhaps you had to earn the respect of, or pay for protection from the thugs that ran the streets. Oddly the dream ended with me going to sleep on a futon in a friend's home, and I woke up on a futon, at a friends.

When I got to Mom & Dad's they were both gone. Mom was gone with my Aunt Gigi doing the rounds at the maple syrup tasting festivities currently going on. Dad was at work and wouldn't be home until 1:00 pm. After showering up I roamed around the old neighborhood a bit, hoping to reconnect with a couple of the neighbors, but no one was home.

I returned to house, started watching a documentary on John Lennon which was on some variant of VH1. My parents broke down and switched over to digital cable, so I was having fun with that. Dad showed up, we ended up doing a couple of errands and getting some Chinese food. I was lucky enough to score the left overs and bring it back to Massachusetts with me. Later that evening when Mom & Aunt Gigi returned we got pizza. My two favorite take out items in the same day. That's pretty tough to trump.

ANYWAY.... guess it's time to go to bed, so I must bid y'all good night.