In which I was productive

Too much stuff in entry, too tired, not even going to bother to even PRETEND that I checked my grammar, be warned.

...

My parents and I arrived at Davis at around 11ish. The weather was not too bad except for five minutes at Fairfield and about fifteen minutes right after we had lunch. After my parents left I went to the bookstore and got the lab manual (photocopied and bigger than my 103 reader, which was around 180 pages), then went to check on the plants in the fields. I think we will have lupines (I planted them in early December) unless something manages to eat them before they put out any more leaves. Part of the bike path and the arboretum looked as if a mini-hurricane had passed through. There were huge tree branches on the ground everywhere and Putah Creek is, I think, close to flooding (they roped off portions of the arboretum and there are tractor-type vehicles all around carrying plant matters). Since the part of the arboretum that I passed by is the part that is lined with eucalyptus trees the air for part of my bike ride smelled of eucalyptus and rain. It was cold, it was bumpy (nothing helps you appreciate the secondary growth of plants like trying to bike over it), but it smelled wonderful.

Then I went home, showered (because I got rained on and it was very cold), then had a cup of tea while I sorted through the mail. There was so much stuff stuffed (no pun intended) into our mailbox that it took me three tries to get them all out. Most of the stuff is wrinkled, a few torn, by the careless USPS worker. It was a huge armful despite of the fact that we get most of our bills (well, at least most of my bills, which include PG&E and phone) online. Then I unpacked, sorted through my school stuff (my professor wants me to write an abstract, I have no idea HOW -- is there some kind of format that I'm supposed to follow?), and threw out all the food that Kate's forgotten that have recognizably altered sentience (yes Kate, you did forget the milk). That was followed by taking down all the shedding tinsel and the string light in the living room that the cat's already gotten to (and the tinsel too -- there was a silver one with about five inches of which is chewed off -- I just threw it away) so I can vacuum the living room and the corridors without feeling like I'm engaged in a futile cycle (the furnitures were very heavy to move, so having a positive mindset helps). Then food, and dishes (Kate, your tea's finally gotten to the spoons, the one in your cup has a definite yellow tinge to it despite of my attempts to scrub it), followed by my observation that I should do something about the candle holders, since last time we burned three candles that didn't come with a little tin cup at the bottom and the melted wax is fused to the candle holder. The little tin plate at the bottom did mean that microwave's not an option, so I had to use a pot with boiled water. It was mostly successful except for the part where I poured out the hot wax and one of the tin plates fell down the sink and I had to stick my hand down to the garbage disposal to get it out (the thing might be hard enough to jam the blades -- I'm not taking any risks)(Kate, I broke one of your tree ornaments -- the blue glass dreidel one, I'm sorry).
I kind of want to bake cookies tomorrow morning, except a cursory search in the cupboards reminded me that I forgot to buy vanilla extra the last time I ran out.

On an unrelated note, I had a dream last night where Kate, Lusine and I were passing out marshmallow peeps to kids. It was at the third floor of what looks like the hospital for Camino Medical Group (but had more of those stainless-steel-doored elevators), in one of those open lounges except it was in the middle of the central hallway area and the carpet was not the multi-colored type but the drab grey type you'd find in some class rooms. It was Halloween. There were Halloween decorations pasted on the windows. It was either twilight or just a dark day outside and there was a large TV with something (cartoon of some sort) playing on it and the kids (around third grade age range) were seated in a "U" shape in front of it, watching it. Kate, Lusine, and I were passing out orange marshmallow peeps (I'm guessing Halloween themed peeps -- do they exist?) to those kids. It was like a strange version of the week when I was in charge of a group of second graders as a volunteer for a spring camp. As far as time line is concerned Lusine was wearing the glasses she had when she was in high school (or at least one that had frame made out of some sort of yellow metal -- though my mind could be making that part up as well) and Kate was...well, she was wearing a sweatshirt so that doesn't really tell me anything, but she had the shorter version of short hair.

Then there was this other really random dream where my mom and I visited CHS and the parking lot along Finch (the one furthest away from Stevens Creek) had been converted to this... tree lot, with a fence around the lot, where people planted their old Christmas trees (it made sense to my subconscious, I suppose). It was this thing for homeless people, I think, where people wrap things they want to donate like they're presents and either hung them or put them on the trees (and on Christmas day the homeless can come in and get their "presents"...or something -- it's been a long day, my memory of it is getting a little fuzzy). I remembered looking at the trees and seeing only a few ribbons -- the type you wrap presents with -- left on the tree (as in they looked like they were used to wrap & hang something from the branch, but the something was gone). My subconscious insisted it was around January second this year (don't ask me why, I honestly don't know). The person who was there (inside what looked like a toll booth / ticket booth, like the one you find in downtown parking lots) was this scraggly but cheerful old man (Caucasian, in his sixties, balding) who was very enthusiastically telling me about how they just acquired this lot right next to this lot and so they're expanding the project...and he pointed, and I saw a smaller lot connected to the far side of this lot that had two rows of some sort of fir tree that HAD FROST ON THE BRANCHES (I don't know ...maybe they refrigerate the trees for storage?).

I thought they're fairly entertaining dreams, so I thought I'd share. (Though now that I've skimmed back over them and they sound either insane or inane -- and how is it that they two words are only a letter off?) You can actually train yourself to remember your dreams in more detail than I do with mine (I just never bothered) but it works better over the summer because then you'd have more time and this requires both time and patience.

I don't recommend trying to train yourself to wake up instantaneously though, unless you like spending at least an hour in the dark trying to talk your mind back into the "sleep" mode.