Underdressed and underwater

I had to attend a dedication ceremony for a dormitory at Princeton, and I looked down and realized I was wearing jeans with holes in them, and I needed to go home to change. It was a long walk home, and I was running late.

Then I found myself having to do a reality-tv-style challenge that involved wading into the ocean. Some of the other challengers chose to wear flotation devices, but I figured the water was cold and I'd probably last longer keeping myself warm by treading water. However, as I waded in, the water didn't get any deeper than a few inches. There wasn't enough water to properly do the challenge, the judges thought, so they decided to move the challenge to a pool. Since it didn't seem to be as fair or interesting in a swimming pool, they decided to change the challenge to having us choreograph an underwater dance routine in the pool.

Arab Chinatown

I woke up on a tour bus traveling through what seemed to be a Chinatown in a Muslim country (Egypt perhaps?). Signs were in Chinese and Arabic. I realized I was on a Princeton trip, and I still had work I needed to do. Someone wanted me to make an animated e-card with ET flying past the moon.

Then I was no longer with the tour, but instead with just my family in a van. My uncle was driving the van, and my cousin was navigating with help from the GPS. Looking out the window I saw someone dressed in a military uniform (in China, military surplus is quite popular attire) taking a dump on the sidewalk. When we got to our hotel, I decided to change out of the flimsy ballet flats I was wearing into more substantial shoes.

Andrew McCarthy, pregnant women, and Peru

I was at a lecture with my mom and aunt. The room was sort of like the old lecture halls in McCosh at Princeton. Andrew McCarthy came up to me and said hi - apparently we had gone to high school together. When he left, I told my mom and aunt (in Chinese) that he was a movie star and we had gone to school together. They said that I should invite him to have dinner with us after the lecture. When he came back, he had notes scribbled on paper and gave them to us. He said these were his ideas for a movie script.

Then I was with my friend who was pregnant and wearing a gray seersucker sheath dress. She was thin and looked great - just the baby bump. I realized that I had been rude in not congratulating her sooner on expecting. Her 2-year-old was running around under the dining room table - he was proportioned like a 2-year-old but only about 1/2 the size, like a miniature kid. I tried to pick him up and he was tiny.

Then I was at some tourist site in Peru, walking along a trail full of other tourists. There were red llamas, and small buffaloes. There were also horses running down the mountains, followed by jockeys on foot running after them. I thought, I should take some pictures... Then the clouds broke and it started to rain hard, so I made my way into a building. It was a hotel, and there was a woman checking in who looked like a girl I went to high school with - at least from the back. She was pregnant and wearing a slinky black cocktail dress with cutouts, only because she was pregnant the dress didn't fit and she only had it halfway zipped up. She and her friend started talking to me - first about how quickly the weather had changed, then they also had a bunch of CDs of local pop music and wondered if I wanted them.

New neighbors

In my dream, a cool old brick building at the end of Nassau Street in Princeton had been converted to luxury apartments, and we lived in one of them. There was a courtyard in the middle, and when we looked across we could see directly into the house of one of our neighbors. This was a huge place with a 2-story vaulted ceiling room, that was hung with medieval art, with a stage and lecture seating. It looked like some sort of chapel, but it was just a room where they did their daily things, like getting the kids off to school with backpacks and lunches.

Leonardo DiCaprio and Billy Connolly were also our neighbors apparently. Princeton, the town itself, also seemed much hipper and more urban. We were sleeping one night and one of our neighbors was out on his balcony in the courtyard talking loudly on the phone. He had an annoying nasal voice, and he was saying "I'm the wine guy, that's my thing."

Streets video

I was either part of the production and/or actually in a Mike Skinner/Streets video, that was being filmed in Princeton. There was a scene on Palmer Square where we could be seen through a window above J.Crew/PNC Bank. Later we were screening a film and I was sitting with Redneckhunter's former boss. At other points, my former boss and my friend Anthony were also in the dream.

On campus

I was searching online for a "black and white polkadot romper." I guess since we currently don't have working internet at home, I was at the computer cluster on Princeton campus. I remember being a little embarrassed at doing online shopping while everyone around me was doing schoolwork. I was having trouble typing though - every time I tried to type in "black and white polkadot romper" - it always came out as different words.

A very young undergrad sat at the computer next to me and he was having problems with Final Cut Pro or some other video editing software that I know, so I started helping him. Then he started kissing me, and I was like, what?! He said, just relax... Then he picked me up and carried me out of the computer cluster "Office and a Gentleman"-style while the other people in the computer cluster cheered.

Then I found myself outside near the football stadium, and I had a heavy backpack and was trudging my way back up the hill - much steeper in the dream than in real life. I decided to cut through a building, which was not a real campus building - only in my dream. Inside it was an abandoned and empty and dilapidated lecture hall - pretty cool looking.

I ran into a couple friends of redneckhunter's. I revealed to them that what I was carrying was a shitload of alcohol for a party to which they were coming, but even then, neither of them bothered to help me carrying the bag.

The Klan

I was driving down Washington Road in Princeton, going down the hill approaching Streicker Bridge. I took my eyes off the road for a second, and when I looked back, I saw a row of white hoods. There had suddenly appeared 5 or 6 Klansmen standing in a row, blocking the road. I slammed on my brakes in fear, and I forced myself to wake up. I didn't know what they would do to me, but I didn't want to find out.

Assorted mini dreams

It was a rainy day and I was on my way with redneckhunter to a family gathering. We walked past a house with a porch where there were Princeton alumni wearing their Reunions jackets all going to a party.

Later, I was running in race with Debbie. It was a big event, but it was like the race was an afterthought. There was only a narrow roped off area for the course - the width of a hallway. And it was winding through people drinking and partying. At one point, we ran past a concert stage, and it was Paul Weller performing, so I shouted "I love you, Paul Weller" and waved as I ran past.

Then I was on a New York city street corner with Clinton Kelley of "What Not to Wear." He had an Eastern European accent. I was telling him how the latest episode of "How I Met Your Mother" had made me feel old because Barney is upset that a girl he slept with lied about her age when she was actually 31.

Then I was with my family on a family vacation and we were calculating expenses where everyone had to document every cup of coffee and pay for his or her share.

Frank Gehry Nursery

I was in the Lewis Library on the Princeton campus, which is a Frank-Gehry designed building with a lot of bright colors and odd curves. I was in the library and noticed a section that appeared to be a nursery. Gehry had designed the furniture within the library. So in this case, the nursery furniture was all one piece like one large Gehry-designed jungle gym - with a built-in changing table, drawers, cubbyholes, a hammock-like hanging cradle, all in bright primary colors. I was looking at this nursery set when I noticed a baby just left there alone in the crib! Almost as if the baby was there for display purposes. So I picked her up, and started to try to figure out who, if anyone, was there to take care of her...

Inglourious Basterds

1000yregg and I were on a tour of the set of "Inglourious Basterds." He was being a total fanboy, as expected. When the tour cleared out, I was left alone with Ted Danson's character from "Bored to Death" and we started making out on the top bunk of an Army cot. It was getting hot, so we moved to the bottom bunk, and then I noticed that there were people moving around outside the window of the barracks. I looked outside, and it was Princeton. They were filming scenes on Princeton's campus - it was right outside of Spelman dorms, but they were making the scene look like it was shot out in the woods.

Urban to Suburban

I was with someone who was bringing me to their apartment. I think it was a gang girl (a bit like Snoop from The Wire), but maybe it could have been a Ghost Dog type of guy.)

Anyway, the place was in the midst of an industrial urban wasteland - nothing but abandoned factories and empty lots all around. We went into a run-down building, up a dark flight of stairs, to what I realized was the front door, which looked only like a large sheet of rusted steel. She/he put some kind of key into a barely discernible hole and into the "apartment" we went. Up another flight of dark stairs and into a minimally furnished but pretty unexpectedly nice place, which opened onto the rooftop of the building. I could tell the person really didn't want to be found, so I asked them whether they were ever worried about being spotted on the roof, by police helicopters and such.

The second part of the night, I was in Princeton in the early 1960s, riding in the back of a car driving down Washington Road, kissing Don Draper from Mad Men.

Map of Princeton

Don't remember much of last night's dream, but it did involve drawing a map of Princeton for a lost parent. It was quite a detailed map - I remember even drawing a little Nassau Hall, spire and all. Though the guy argued with me that he couldn't find a building that looked like that anywhere on campus. I was like, c'mon...

Oh, and there were Chinese students in the dream too, on Poe Field.

Food and Fetishwear

The dream started out with me walking on Princeton campus near the football stadium. Nick was busy, so I was trying to figure out dinner by myself, and was headed in the direction of north Nassau Street. So I made it up to Nassau Street, only this is a Nassau that only exists in my dream world. I'm pretty sure I've dreamed it before (though it could be deja vu). It's almost like Nassau, but with businesses that don't really exist. I walked past a dream-world health food deli, and decided to go into a sit-down restaurant that I had not been to. I thought to myself, I don't think I've ever eaten at a real sit-down restaurant with waiters by myself, so I should do it. I had a book in hand, so I had something to occupy me. As I perused the menu posted on the sidewalk, I ran into someone I knew (who was not in reality anyone I know). He was young (maybe one of Nick's rowers?) and looked like a young, less ugly, Peter Lorre (so probably a coxswain instead). Heading inside, and looking forward to dining alone, I was annoyed that Peter-Lorre-look-alike followed me in and sat at my table.