dream journal

I've been having some interesting dreams lately. I used to have a dream journal but only kept it for...oh, two or three days until I lost interest. I think I'm going to start writing about them here (as long as they're not too personal, of course). I really have no intention of interpreting them; I just want to write every minute detail as vividly as I can so I can look back on these and think, "What the fuck was I doing the night before?" So here's last night's/this morning's dream:

It was winter. My mom picked me up at a parking lot in her minivan. I lived in an apartment building, and she was going to drop me off. She was telling me how the first few times she drove there, she kept getting lost. This time she drove there with ease. I needed a key card to get in the front door of the building. I had a bit of trouble opening it because my purse was heavy. (I had a big bundle of pens and pencils in it.) There was a huge crack in the door (the door's not wide enough), so the inside was also covered with snow. There was an old guy walking towards the door wearing a wife beater and khaki shorts. In the hallway in front of me, a lady was walking hand in hand with a little girl. The lady looked anorexic, and for someone reason I knew/felt that she was 89 years old. I walked up the stairs (also snow-covered) and into a sort of living room/community area (no more snow). There were three guys sitting on the couches watching TV in the dark. I decided to join them. I ate some snacks, one being gigantic cheese puffs...they were probably the size of a loaf of french bread. I was sitting in a booth across from the other guys. I had a glass of water on the table. I got up to get more snacks, and another old lady and her daughter took my seat. (I guess there were a lot of old folks living in the building.) She asked me if the seat was taken, and I told her she could have it since I was leaving pretty soon. The lady kept insisting that the guy sitting in front of the TV move (I guess to make room for more people). He didn't really want to.

I had another dream right before that:

It was also in an apartment building, maybe the same one. A bunch of people (including me) were having a race to see who could climb up and down the stairs the fastest. There were sixty floors, and the stairs went back and forth so you went in a circle. I ended up in fifth place. Dennis from It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia came in fourth place.

smug alert.

I can't stand smug people. I don't really give a shit if you listen to Jandek while you're blogging and drinking organic tea in the vegan café across the street. Nor do I care if you shop exclusively at Whole Foods Market and donated ten bucks to Hope for Haiti. Do you really have to brag about it?

Don't get me wrong--it's great that people are becoming more aware of things. But it seems like some people are only doing it for the sake of being noticed. They do it because they think they'll be perceived as more "cultured" and thus better than the people around them. Pure douchebaggery is what that's called.

So next time you go shopping and whip out a reusable bag at the checkout line, maybe you don't have to announce to the whole store, "Don't worry, I don't need a bag. I brought my own." Maybe you don't have to smirk and ponder why everyone else isn't as worried about the environment as you are. Maybe you don't have to be such a dick.

Beyond words.

There is nothing quite like Arvo Pärt.