New Year’s Eve
May 4th, 2009 by Jenny Crimp; no comments
It was New Year’s but it was in June. Laura, Garett and I drove around Alki for a while looking for parking, but it was very crowded, of course, and so we had to park a few blocks away on the east side of Capitol Hill. Alki was on Whidbey Island, which was directly across the Sound from Seattle. I had to walk back to the car after a while when it became apparent that nothing was going to happen for a while. On the way there I stopped in a really nice house that was for sale. There was a fancy party going on inside, and I ran into my Dad. He told me that Laura and Garett and decided to buy the house, even though it cost twice what their current house cost. I was excited, and wondered if we would be moving into the new house or staying in the old one so we could fix up the new house and rent it out. I wasn’t supposed to be there, so I snuck out before the smiling hostess could ask me to serve drinks.
On the way down the street Alex rode past me on his bicycle and I yelled his name and he stopped, but we didn’t talk long because he had to be somewhere and because Jason Burns appeared across the street and and grabbed my hands and flung me around in arcs over his head for a while. When that was over I told him how Kris had used a computer program to train his bicycle to go get pizza for him, but it only went to the pizza shop, and he had to go there to retrieve it.
Tooth Fairy
April 30th, 2009 by Jenny Crimp; no comments
My dad is giving me a ride home, when Devin calls him on his cell phone. From eavesdropping on the conversation I learn that for the past six months my childhood friend has been working for my parents without my knowledge. I have been really out of touch.
Home is more like some dotted lines and implied walls over a bare patch of dirt. It shouldn’t be surprising that a stranger should find his way inside, but the mostly toothless, heavily-bearded and incredibly creepy truck driver scares the shit out of me when I turn around and he’s coming out from behind the curtains in the living room. I tell him to leave and he doesn’t move. My dad is still there, but he won’t pay attention to me. Creepy truck driver sits on the floor next to me as I pack my things (I’m moving out or traveling, maybe this is why my house no longer has walls). He reaches out and sneakily snatches some small item, like my hairbrush, and replaces it with a bag of plastic cup lids. I tell him I don’t want his lids, give me my brush back. He doesn’t want the lids back; it was a trade. I see that he’s hidden my brush in his shirt pocket, and I reach out and snatch it as I shove the lids into his hand. He caresses my hand as I pull it away. I yell, “I don’t want to trade!” and get up to shoo him out the door, but he’s already traded my toothbrush for something else of his, like an old air freshener, and I know I can’t just steal my toothbrush back because it was a trade, so I have to find a way to get the air freshener back on his person while simultaneously reclaiming my toothbrush. Again, he caresses my arm, I jump away and open the door, but he’s already claimed something else of mine, and hidden the thing he replaced it with. I have to hunt down his deposited items and finally just scream, “GET THE FUCK OUT OF MY HOUSE!” and shove him out the door. He makes sure to stand in the doorway long enough so that Gingermoss, my kitten, can escape, and then vanishes. I know he’s up to something malicious, and when I run after Gingermoss, I trip over something. It is my phone, which he had stolen, but cleverly deposited for me to find. I run down into my parents’ yard, and continue across the street. Just then I get a phone call from an unfamiliar number and answer.
He speaks over the phone, “Turn around.” I look back and see Gingermoss sprint from under the tree. He is concealed underneath.
“What did you do to her?!” I yell, “What did you do?”
He replies, “I just wanted some of her teeth.”
“How many did you take!?” I demand.
this is not my dream
November 27th, 2008 by Jenny Crimp; no comments
it is actually my grandma’s dream.
she dreamt that i was small and i was sad and crying about something.
rebecca’s salt addiction and something from harry potter or that ridiculous vampire movie
November 26th, 2008 by Jenny Crimp; no comments
After class at the CMA I decide to walk through U Village and maybe get something to eat. On the west side there is a new building with a few stores and some medical offices. One of the stores looks interesting, so I go inside. It appears to be an antique/estate jewelry store; the floors are dark wood with fancy rugs. A man in a suit is waiting to greet me as I take a look into the cases recessed into the walls. In the case are various precious jeweled objects such as a Faberge egg, but what really catches my attention is a miniature bust with a blank face. Onto the face, a video of Lexi’s face is projected. She talks to me.
“You have to understand, I had no way to predict it, I went to see doctors and they had no idea, but I finally found out that it was some sort of imbalance in my brain. That’s why I needed salt, and I had to have it all the time.”
I tell her I’m very sorry about her medical condition, though I am silently perplexed as to why she feels she needs to explain this to me.
Now Rebecca chimes in- she is in the store with me now. “The same thing happened to me. It was terrible, I didn’t realize it was happening. It really began with that ice cream, the specific brand you get at QFC- creamy vanilla with the salty pecans.” (She actually meant salty caramel, I believe). “I couldn’t get enough of it and nearly went broke. I’m being treated now but sometimes I still struggle with it.”
I feel really bad for their affliction and say so, but also kind of weirded out and want to change the topic because I don’t know why the miniature bust brought it up with me to begin with.
Rebecca and I leave the store and run into Gavin. We decide to get something to eat, and as we walk down the sidewalk, Gavin recounts the story of when Rebecca unexpectedly jumped him as they were leaving her apartment to go have dinner with his girlfriend. Gavin thinks it’s funny, and I applaud Rebecca for taking action to get what she wanted, but then remember that I should scold her for being disrespectful of the fact that Gavin is totally off-limits and putting him and a really bad position if Emily ever found out.
Later, I am on Bainbridge, and must get back to Seattle in a hurry. Intending to fly, I jump out the window of the old mansion I am sneaking away from, but don’t have enough momentum to get up into the air, so I have to grab a power line as I glide to the ground in the cobblestone courtyard, and hop a few times like a crow before I can get back into the air. It’s not easy; I fly in arcs by hopping and then concentrating on defying gravity to get higher, but eventually gliding back to the ground. I do this through the busy semi-residential area of town, checking my back every once in a while to make sure I haven’t been followed. My powers must remain secret from the public, but I am not worried about being seen, because I remain invisible unless someone thinks to look specifically for a flying girl. This has never been a problem before because no one would ever think a person could fly unaided, but eventually I feel eyes on me- not the people who should be following me, but this is an ordinary person who received a tip and wants to expose me. He jumps on his bicycle and races through the streets as I jump over rooftops. I try my best to lose him and finally reach the water’s edge, where I must jump from Bainbridge to Seattle. Trying to be more inconspicuous I seek out the tallest tree around, and fly to it low-to the ground. Then I begin to half-fly, half climb up the trunk. The branches get thicker and the climbing harder as I approach the top. Suddenly I look up and there are feet on the branches above me and two sets of hands grabbing me- I have been set up. I point my hand at one attacker’s stomach and attempt to stun him with my magic powers, but there is just a green spark- it failed. I watch in horror as the other attacker points his hand at me and prepares to shock me. But it doesn’t work, I struggle some more, trying to blast my opponents with no success. Somehow I break free and desperately try to jump from the tree and fly to Seattle, but I have no more power over gravity and fall though the branches to the ground. Miraculously, as I approach the ground my fall slows and I don’t die. I jump into the air again and fly to my accomplice’s hideout nearby.
Hiding in the store with the doors locked and lights out, I ask my friends how we were followed and what could have happened in the tree. One rather kooky old woman I have never met before informs me that the tree is the oldest one around, and probably just absorbs all powers.
I’m basically James Bond
October 30th, 2008 by Jenny Crimp; no comments
My family, Kris, and probably Alex and Rebecca managed to get tickets to the 2010 winter olympics in Vancouver. We are in an indoor arena that looks remarkably like Sylvester Middle School’s gym. There is no real seating because the bleachers are all folded up, and we must back up against the wall so as not to get hit by the athletes warming up. We are going to watch several events at once, which probably includes figure skating ,curling, and basketball. The whole thing is very disorganized, just asking for disaster.
I decide to go get some snacks from a vendor, and when I go to pay, I realize that I only have Canadian currency- but wait, that’s actually good because we’re in Canada! The change I get though, is not Canadian, it is in my own currency, (I am from a tiny remote country in Asia that no one knows about.) To give me five dollars in change, the vendor ripped off a quarter of a twenty dollar bill, which is totally legit.
As I make my way back to my family I realize that I’ve been discovered, since I’m a spy and no one is supposed to know where I am from. I am supposed to be keeping an eye on the assassins stationed throughout the arena, but the vendor has just given me away.
Now the high speed foot chase begins, at least ten armed assailants come out of the crowd after me, and I must run away because for some reason I’m completely unarmed. I manage to lose most of them in the crowd, and knock one or two unconscious with a karate kick to the head, and when another comes after me with an iron pipe in the parking garage I manage to steal it from him and run away (I didn’t feel like really injuring him, I suppose). I throw the pipe out the window as I climb out and up the fire escape. There is only one attacker left, the boss, and I know he’s not far behind.
My head is spinning from the never-ending chase and attacks, I just want to go home to my family. I duck in and out of rooms in the hotel attached to the parking garage, until finally I lose the boss and find my husband and two year old son in one of the rooms. My son thinks of me as “daddy” and my husband as “mommy”, because, even though we’re both secret agents, my husband is much more maternal than I am. We are so tired, so we all change into pajamas and climb into bed. It’s so nice to fall asleep with my family, but of course I sense the enemy approaching, and must leap out of bed before he finds us, and lure him back to the parking garage for the final battle. We begin a violent fight that I know could go on forever, because neither of us will ever run out of energy because I’m really just asleep.
I don’t even know.
October 10th, 2008 by Jenny Crimp; one comment
I am in a hurry to get up the Ave, because I am going to visit Kris. He has just moved in to a new place, which is located on the third or fourth floor of a building, but it is only accessible by climbing up the fire escape. The fire escape is semi-enclosed, more like a multi-leveled play structure or tree house, and there are multiple people living in it. This is not strange at all. On the way down I run into one of Kris’ room mates, or former room mate, and I tell her I am looking for Kris. She begins to tell me something unrelated that is of little importance. Kris comes part way down the fire escape to meet me. We climb the rest of the way into the apartment. This is the first time I’ve seen it, and it’s quite fancy and spacious, with nice views from its floor-to-ceiling windows. It is dark and wintery outside. Kris goes behind the bar to retrieve something, I greet the new cats and small color-changing dog. Someone’s father is there, and I ask him about what his child is up to, but it turns out he is not that person’s father, and he asks me a question I probably shouldn’t answer honestly.
We have to leave because some oppressive force has become aware of some holes in the universe we’ve been using to move about from one dimension to another. We have to go protect our people. Oddly, we still feel residual happiness and confidence from our world; we don’t feel as terrified and threatened as you would expect. This may be because we are now very small and have the power to become invisible as we wish- I think we may be rabbits and the oppressive force in the other dimension is a pack of highly intelligent, vicious dogs. We slip back and forth between worlds easily because we are so small and know where the holes are located. The holes are actually cuts, made with a knife, and I think of trying to ziplock them closed behind us, though that isn’t very likely to work. It’s regrettable that we won’t have access to both worlds anymore, but it’s too dangerous to leave them open.
My Mother’s Wedding
October 9th, 2008 by Jenny Crimp; no comments
Several friends and I are hanging out on a boardwalk with a huge roller rink/dance floor in the center. I really want to go join the dance party going on in the middle, but out of everyone present, including Rebecca and Rod, Nate is extremely timid and lacking in positive social exposure. I decide this has to change, and pull him out onto the dance floor. Soon another girl joins us, who may be a friend of a friend of Nate’s or a complete stranger. They dance together and get really into it just as the entire dance floor empties out. Though they are the only ones left, they still make requests to the DJ and dance by themselves. Rebecca and I briefly debate if we should tell them they look silly, but quickly decide that they are having too much fun to care. Besides, I am late for my mother’s wedding, which is way over on the Peninsula.
I am one of the bridesmaids, along with Laura and her friend Michelle. I wear black and they wear white. My mother is wearing a red satin gown and a white shawl. It is extremely cold out, and we are in a hurry to get started, because our permit only gives us a time slot of one hour. The permit turns out to be for the 8 foot-wide space between a nice old chapel and a brick wall. Laura, Michelle and I squeeze our way through the crowd to the front, where my Mother is standing, waiting for my Dad to walk down the aisle. (Just for the record, my mom and dad are still married, never divorced). It’s not that they are renewing their vows, they’re just getting married again. Before we begin, I have to take off several un-matching sweaters that are layered between the clothes I need to be wearing. I end up with one side still stuck in the sweaters and one side completely disentangled from all clothes and freezing. Just then, a police officer pushes his way to the front of the crowd and says, “So before we begin, just so we’re all clear, you guys are registered voters of Kitsap County, right?” My mom tells him that they aren’t, and he tells them that the law will not permit them to get married until they register to vote in Kitsap County. This also includes gaining your Kitsap County citizenship, which requires an application and a three month waiting period. My mom isn’t that angry, but apparently we are still in a hurry because we all jog down the street to the town’s post office, which doubles as the sheriff’s department and has a notary. It is in a trailer home, with wainscoting on the walls.
Ghosts that bleed and humans that don’t
September 10th, 2008 by Jenny Crimp; no comments
Laura and I sneak into the home of a family we know in order to search for something and investigate some suspicious circumstances we have noticed. The people who live in the house may be related to us.
It is a really beautiful old house with brick pillars and reddish wood floors. We look in each of the rooms, making a circle quickly through the house, but too scared of getting caught to be very thorough. Then as we turn to leave from the kitchen the big gray cat that in reality lives next to Kris but in this dream lives in this house runs in from outside and through a crack where two walls are supposed to meet. I turn around and push one open…
There is a room in the exact center of the house that we missed because all of the chimneys from the surrounding rooms back up to its walls. This is what we expected to find, but it’s much worse now that we’ve seen it. There is a bed in the center of the room with restraining straps. This is where the missing child was kept.
Something happens then, there is a fight with a ghost and when I cut it with a knife it bleeds, but it is okay because it was already dead. Then as we try to leave, the people we really fear come in through the wall. They are two girls roughly my age. The kind that are really into being pretty. They come at me with an axe. I grab it, but my limbs are moving through water, I’m so weak that I have to swing it several times before I make contact with the girl as she just stands there looking amused. I slice through her shoulder a few times, agonizingly slowly, but where she should be spurting blood there is just gray underneath her skin.
“You’re not human anymore?” I ask.
“Did you think we would still be?” She replies, still coldly amused.
It’s all plastic underneath.
In the end Laura and I just walked out. Once we figured out we couldn’t beat them they just gave up.
Sketchy Explosion
September 2nd, 2008 by Jenny Crimp; no comments
My dad, Rebecca, Roderick, and a few other friends and acquaintances are gathered in a large fancy building that is perhaps a showroom for space ships, but apparently there are also scientific experiments going on, because one goes wrong, and without warning we are all caught in an explosion of something like time and space. After being knocked to the ground in a cartwheel, and a few moments of disarray, I find myself intact, and look around to see everyone else standing up and brushing themselves off. I ask each person of they are all right, but when I turn to Rod he just swings around in confusion. We shout at him and wave our arms, but he can neither see nor hear us. He can shout though. We all stand there wondering what to do, and finally I grab his hand. He asks questions, and I answer by squeezing his hand once for “yes” and twice for “no”. He knows which number corresponds to which response because he has also seen The Diving Bell and the Butterfly. It’s incredibly frustrating to have such a one-sided conversation, because we need to tell him the explosion may have been contaminated, and he may never recover, or possibly develop some strange disease. For the time being we take turns leading him around with little or no explanation as to what is going on.
Apparently Rebecca, Rod and I had plans to go para sailing, and we have decided not to cancel even with Rod’s condition, so I run around my parents’ house frantically packing everything I could possibly need for a six-month trek through a temperate rain forest (even though we are just getting a ride down to the Seattle waterfront). I almost forget to put on my bathing suit, but Rod reminds me at the last minute (apparently he is regaining his vision or something).
Down at the dock, I decide to abandon all of my unnecessary luggage, ever though I might actually need it because it’s freezing cold and dangerously windy.
Instead of actually going para sailing, we end up looking for something in a rather empty hospital with faded posters on the walls. Rod has recovered completely.
It could have been such a great nightmare
August 23rd, 2008 by Jenny Crimp; one comment
My family has just arrived at our new home, which is located somewhere near the ocean, probably on the Isle of Wight. We pull up in the gravel driveway and stretch our legs after the long journey, and bring the first of our luggage in the door. None of us have ever been to the house before, and as soon as we walk in, I have the urge to turn around and walk right back out. It is obviously been remodeled very nicely, has tall windows and high ceilings, but nobody else seems to notice that it was a church before. Or at least, our living room was the chapel, probably built for some rich lord who didn’t want to have to go all the way to the church and worship with the common folk. I get sort of flashbacks of the old chapel, before the other parts of the house were built, when the walls were either halfway built, or, I get the sense that it’s a glimpse of the future when the walls have collapsed from a fire. To put it simply, I’m getting some serious bad vibes in this place, either from Jesus because we’re sinners living in the house of the Lord, or from the evil spirit of the old priest.
I don’t have to stay in the living room because I’m sure that’s where all the horrific events will happen, so I go upstairs to the loft of the new part of the house where we’ll be sleeping. That’s when the walls start bending in. Apparently I’m also the only one who notices this, or my siblings, in their dream haze mind states are only slightly disturbed and brush it off.
I decide it’s time to go outside and check out the yard. I go into the back garden, which is quite beautiful and recently landscaped. I can’t help but notice how enclosed the yard is, completely surrounded by forests with no neighbors for miles. The groundsman is even old and creepy, just like in all those haunted house movies. Then it strikes me that our yard is probably the old graveyard.
This scenario just set itself up to be the best scary dream ever, but somehow I got sidetracked and ended up in Sylvester Middle School’s band room. I’ve gotten my class schedule for fall, and got placed back into Mr. Fosberg’s band. I haven’t played in three years, and Devin and I are the only trombones, so I feel especially terrible as I stumble my way through a march, but actually enjoy myself quite a bit.
It’s not until I go to the locker room to get changed for P.E. and get really frustrated trying to put clothes on (always impossible for me in dreams) that I realize I have way too much stuff going on in my life to go back to middle/high school, so I go to break the news to Mr. Fosberg. I run into him in the hallway making excited comments to Devin about the future of the band, and when I he turns to me I start out, “Look, I don’t know how to tell you this but…” I pause for some tactful words but nothing comes. “-I just don’t have time for this right now. I am waay overcommitted this fall, I’ve got a full class load-” The look on Mr. Fosberg’s face is so pitiful you’d think I’d just broken up with him, but I am merciless. “I just don’t have time, I’m sorry.” And I leave
for Nordstrom. I am on a mission to find a warm sweater, but as I browse through the winter coats I become aware that I have a stalker. It’s a girl, and when I notice her she immediately offers to sew a missing button onto my shorts. I look around and my mom nearby shrugs why not. However, I know she is dangerous, and I can’ let her do anymore favors for me or she’ll try to take possession of all my attention. I try to lose her in the shoe department, where they are holding a silent auction on sandals. Unfortunately, all of the shoes are really hideous, and I realize I’m not wearing pants, so I wander around decisively, so that none of the sales associates are tempted to talk to me because they can’t tell I’m not wearing pants until we speak.