I am hiking to the top of a snow-covered hill. The land around me is covered in evergreen forest. I got the sense that I was trying to get away from people I was with, but these detail are lost to the dream. When I reach the top of the hill, I notice that someone has built a ski run down the hill and right into their backyard, complete with a ramshackle lift. As I am atop the hill thinking about the best way to get back home, a man on horseback rides up to me. He asks if he can give me a ride somewhere. I say yes, and he immediately asks me if I need help mounting the horse. Initially, I decline, but I realize he's riding saddleless. After one poor attempt to jump onto the horse without the use of a stirrup (and terrifying the horse in the process), he hoists me up himself. We trot down the hill.

For no discernible reason, we switch locations abruptly, and we're now riding through Sarah's dorm. As we ride down her hallways to the elevator, I see my mom and yell a hello her way. As we wait on horseback for the elevator (??), mama approaches me, furious. She tells me that it was very rude to ride by her without stopping to chat. I am very embarrassed that she'd lecture me like a child in front of my horse-owning companion.

Okay, I have an embarrassing confession to make regarding last night's dream. Before bed, I was watching What Women Want, that turn-of-the-century masterpiece starring Mel Gibson and Helen Hunt. Because I was fourteen when said flick came out, I loved it. I am fully aware that it is a terrible and silly romantic comedy. If you now have complaints about my character, please address them to fourteen-year-old Julia.

As a result, I dreamt little variations on and snippets of the movie all night long. That's right; Mel Gibson and Helen Hunt were haphazardly (and hilariously) falling in love in my dreams.

Uh, sorry.

I am at home. Tiff comes in; she's just returned from her trip to Las Vegas. Of course, I ask her how the weekend was. She says that the trip wasn't that great, and its shortcomings were due to her stepsister. Her family anticipated that the stepsister would be difficult, so they planned the itinerary around her expected tantrums. Surprisingly, the stepsister was well-mannered and upbeat all weekend, and she didn't hold them back at all. They had so much time to kill that Tiff was unbearably bored. I feel badly that the trip didn't go well, and I suggest that she should bring a book along the next time she travels.

I am with my family on an expansive spaceship. It's clear that the spaceship is not ours, as we're occupying ourselves with exploring its many rooms. We walk into a large room. As with every room we've entered, there is a time delay of about 15 seconds before the overhead lighting automatically switches on. In the near darkness, all I can see initially is rows and rows of cages. I'm frightened, as I am fairly certain that we've entered the ship's prison. However, when the lights kick in, we encounter something much stranger. The room is an exotic zoo of sorts. It's full of creatures alien to us, each in its own cage. Imagine all of the bizarre characters from Monsters, Inc. as zoo animals, and you've got an idea of what we see.

The family and I are walking the room individually, ogling the caged animals, when Sarah screams with shock. We run to her; she's standing in front of a cage that contains two tiny kittens, your garden variety domestic short hairs. We also see immediately why Sarah screamed. The kittens have collars embedded under their skin, but no one has tended to the hastily-sewn stitches after inserting the collars. The two young cats are very obviously in pain. Papa pulls out a medical kit and declares that we must help the animals. After applying a topical local anesthetic, he cuts the collars out and begins to sew the wounds back together neatly. One of the kittens starts to lose blood quickly. I'm holding his neck wounds together to stop blood flow while my dad works. Weirdly, the blood lost is purple at first. Bleeding continues for a minute or two, and then the blood turns a more pedestrian red. The kitten is much less lethargic and generally more kitten-like after its blood looks normal. We realize that the kittens have been poisoned into near-torpor somehow via the collars. Since all of the zoo animals have these collars, we begin to debate our next step. Most of the room's species are foreign to us, and who knows what the animals are capable of doing once fully awakened from their lethargy?

1. I am with Sarah and her daughter at a public pool. I don't feel any older, but Sarah looks about ten years older, so it seems as if we have taken a jump into the future. While lounging on my chair, I happen to notice an attractive man at the pool with a young boy. He looks very similar to Scott, but it's a different guy. When I tell him that he has a beautiful son, he laughs and corrects me, saying that the kid is his nephew. We chat for a while, and we're clicking nicely, but Sarah has to get going, so I leave.

A few weeks later, I'm at a potluck function for Sarah's daughter's elementary school. I've made some sort of salmon casserole that looks just as horrible as anything else at a potluck. Imagine my surprise when I run into the same guy at the potluck; apparently, my niece and his nephew attend the same school. As Sarah, her daughter, and I are getting into our cars to leave, he comes over to talk to me. We're hitting it off once again, and I move the salmon casserole to the backseat so that he can sit down next to me. (I had a semi-lucid moment here, because I was pushing my dream self to give him my number.) He tells me that he has to take off, and I give him my number. We have an awkward moment of silence in the car, because neither of us wants to leave it at that.

I think I was still channeling that strange tenth dimension video last night, because in the third segment of this dream, I was in a higher dimension with the guy. We are extremely comfortable with one another, as if we have been dating for some time. We feel flat in this dream, as if we're two-dimensional, but this higher dimension is characterized by bright swirling colors and a lack of linear time. Though we never slept together in this dimension, we were having a very passionate, cinematic make-out session. It was bizarre, given the scenery.

2. I'm at a special meeting of my communicative disorders class. When I arrive, I'm surprised that there are probably 200 people at the meeting, since there are only about 40 people in the class. My professor is up at the front, telling us to get into partners. I partner up with Stephanie from my high school. For some reason, all of the attendees have brought a dessert to pass, so everyone is snacking on scotcheroos and chocolate chip cookies while listening to instructions. I begin to realize that this meeting isn't for my class; it's actually a meeting for all those interested in volunteering in the com dis department. I feel guilty for partnering up, since I don't have time in my schedule for yet another lab. When I tell the professor of my mistake, she stares me down. It's pretty obvious that I haven't been paying much attention in her class (It's not my fault that the neuroanatomy information she presents is meant for com dis grad students and is therefore extraordinarily simplistic and boring.).

Last night, I think my brain was trying to wrap itself around ideas introduced in this video about the tenth dimension http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qU1fixMAObI, which I watched before bed last night. The dream was nonlinear and really impossible to describe, but you should watch the video so that you know what I mean.

1. (Sat., 9/15) I am participating in a local walk supporting children with Down Syndrome. About halfway through the walk, someone informs me that he knows of another participant who hails from my hometown. He brings over the participant to meet me. I look up to see my old friend, Patrick M. Patrick went to my elementary school, but his parents went through a messy divorce when we were in middle school, and he ended up moving away to who knows where. He has Down Syndrome. It's strange to see him so many years later; he must be about 24, but his cognitive function is the same as when I knew him in elementary school. We were close friends, yet I'm still surprised that he remembers me. I cry.

2. (Sun., 9/16) I am walking into my history discussion when I see many people pulling out typed papers. Apparently, the questions that the TA emailed out, which I had thought were some sort of agenda for discussion, were homework questions due at the start of the period. I am experiencing that sinking feeling associated with complete forgetfulness of an assignment, and I'm extremely anxious. (I can't believe that I'm still having "I didn't do my homework!" dreams. Hopefully, these dreams will stop someday.)

1. I and a number of my close friends are superheroes. My powers are flight and super strength. Sadly, I can't remember the superpowers of any of my friends, except that many of them could fly, as well. The catch with our superpowers is that they're effective at full strength only initially; over time, the powers "fatigue" and one must rest to recharge powers to full strength again. For some reason, my power of flight never "fatigues," and I have a great time flying all over the city (which I think was supposed to be New York City).

2. When reach for my wallet to make a purchase, I realize that my debit card is missing. After a cursory search, I can't find the card anywhere. I'm nervous that it's been stolen. Worse yet, it's a Sunday, and the credit union is most definitely closed. I try the credit union's number anyway and, miraculously, a man named Tim answers. He is able to cancel my debit card and issue me a new one, to be mailed on Monday. Later that day, I'm on a spacious yacht belonging to the president of the credit union. I tell her of Tim's great service, and I thank her for being available to solve major problems on Sundays. I leave her to explore the yacht with a group of friends. On the lower level, we discover a number of stripper poles. We leave the yacht, wondering about the secret life of the credit union president.

I am making myself a nice, gooey bowl of homemade macaroni and cheese, and I'm really enjoying the prospect of enjoying my meal with a tall glass of milk. Unfortunately, I used the remainder of a gallon in making the mac and cheese. Tiffany was nice enough to take care of this problem for me; she left a few minutes ago to go pick up some more milk, so I'm waiting for her arrival before I dig in.

Tiff returns promptly with bad news. Walgreen's has stopped selling milk. I am really bummed, because this mac and cheese just won't taste as good with water or lemonade.

I am with Scott in New York City. We're heading to a special sneak preview of Emeril Lagasse's new restaurant uptown. It's built upon a high-class brew pub concept. As we walk into the restaurant, we're awestruck at the number of taps available. There are tappers lining the entire length of the bar, and each dining table has its own tap, as well. Apparently, the idea is for people to pick a brew while making reservations; they'll be seated at a table with a tap of their beer of choice. We run into Emeril at this private sneak preview, and he tells us that 1500 tap and bottled beers will be served at the place. I am embarrassed because, at some point in the evening, I've dirtied my hands and feet -- in fact, they're almost black in color. This is mortifying, as I've noticed my messy appearance right before meeting the big man himself.

Note: Emeril irritates me in real life, but it would be sweet if he took my restaurant concept and ran with it.

I only remember random snippets from last night's dream, so the descriptions below are very disconnected.

- Kori is driving a yellow school bus around Madison. It's an old clunker, and it creaks and groans as we drive it down the road. She's supremely irritated, since it's been a total bitch to find parking for her new wheels. We end up parking the beast so that we're blocking half of a Budget Bicycle driveway.
- I'm with my mom and a few other people. We're getting out of our family van in front of a bank. In front of the building is a man with a huge display of lollipops. There are bunches and bunches of Dum Dums arranged in little kiosks all around the table at which he's sitting. This is like a divine intervention of sorts, since I've got a horrible metal taste in my mouth that won't go away. However, the man with thousands of lollipops flatly refuses my request for some candy; he's only authorized to give Dum Dums away to people who apply for a loan. I am irritated, since he's obviously got plenty to spare.
- There's a wide-eyed freshman sitting next to me in some discussion section. We're nearing the end of class, and she's stressing out, worried that she won't make it to her next class on time. For some reason, she won't listen to me, though I've assured her several times that the building for her next class is directly across the street from us.

I woke up a five a.m. after this strange dream concluded. Sadly, I know that the one dream element I really wanted to remember for the blog was lost when I went back to sleep.

I don't have any details, but I remember that in last night's dream, Vito shit on Scott's Wii. And this was not a little pile; quite the contrary. We're talking a coat over the entire surface of the Wii. It was awful-looking, and I hadn't gotten the courage to start cleaning by the time this dream ended.

(Vito's been having accident issues lately. He's going to the vet as soon as this weekend is over.)