my childhood toys and the Cree praying mantis

Last night, I was cleaning out my garage with Kendal and Taylor, getting rid of all my old toys and clothes. My mom had been fairly upset that I was getting rid of so many of these things and became pretty bitter about it. Because she was so bitter, she took all of my toys and put them in this giant plastic bag, at least 15 feet tall. It was the kind of plastic bag that you can vacuum to take all the oxygen out to compress the contents of the bag. Anyways, I remember some guys were supposed to come pick this giant bag up from my house to take to a second-hand store, and I realized that my favorite childhood stuffed animal, Big-Honkin' Teddy Bear, was lying at the very top. I struggled to grab the Teddy Bear so much that all the stuffed animals fell out, and the bag became even larger because all the air had returned into the previously deflated stuffed animals. Kendal and Taylor were kind of mad that all they had helped with was now completely undone. I took my Big Honkin' Teddy Bear inside to ask my mom why she had done this, and she became really unsentimental and it made me uneasy and upset. Then I was on the front lawn, gathering leaves to put together to put in a fish tank we had to make a terrarium, and a young Cree girl wearing a puffy tan winter jacket with her hair in her face began helping me. We began gathering more twigs and leaves, and then we were inside the terrarium. I remember knowing that we were now praying mantids. I spent a little while in there, I remember attending some sort of class that was in a school room at the Ursuline's Academy in Bruno, and then I became very irritated by this girl. She wouldn't stop talking, and I left. Then I was in an apartment with Annette and Julie, and Annette said she had never seen a praying mantis before. I told her there was one in the aquarium full of leaves and she asked where to look, because they normally camouflage. I told her to look for one with a tan jacket and she found it. Julie and her asked me how I possibly knew that without looking inside, and I told them I used to be one.

forrest gump and a sweatshop in camrose

I was at the Sheraton Hotel in LLoydminster with some sort of team I was on, and there were a bunch of "Year Twelve Teams", as they were called, that were trying to win the overall competition. I felt weird being there because there were a bunch of teams from every grade below us, and we were the only team that didn't have a grade. So all of the teams went to the Jemini, and we played arcade games, but then my whole team went into the bathroom, which was co-ed for some reason. I was barefoot and it was really gross in there. After we all went to the bathroom, we just sort of hung out, and Bozzy and Braydon Lefebvre came into the bathroom, saying that they were switching hotels from the Sheraton to another one closer to Calgary because of all the stupid pranks the Year Twelve students were playing. We were all very confused, and then a year nine girl came in and said to me,"you're gonna have to move," and just after she said pushed past me into the stall right behind me and threw up in the toilet. We were all reaallllyy grossed out, so I went back to my room. Annette and Julie were there and had packed out bags already. "We're going to a different hotel, probably closer to Calgary, so somewhere like Camrose or something? It'll be easier for us to commute to Calgary for the tournament from there," Annette said.
When we got to Camrose, I decided to get a job there because we were going to be there for a while. I applied at Earl's and got a job as a hostess and I was working with Erin. I told the other people I worked with that I was going to apply at Divine, and they told me not to because the training was way too intense. I didn't understand how it could be that intense because it was just a clothing store. I ended up applying, and at my training, it turned into a boot camp where I was Forrest Gump. I kept saying things like, "Stupid is as stupid does," and "I got shot in the buttocks," and I wore a lot of army green coloured clothing. I remember the drill sergeant would come to my dorm and tell me to get my ass in line and stuff, but I would just hide behind the door.
Somehow I ended up getting my license to work at Divine (maybe this shows that my subconscious thinks that the people who work at Divine are dumb and cowardly? i dunno), and on my first real shift I was working in the back room, which was quite similar to a sweat shop. A girl from my french class was there and she was sewing something. I quit right then and there and left.

the kangaroo and the spring mattress

The other afternoon, during the same nap, I also dreamt that my dog, Bailey, was a kangaroo. I drove out to Waldsea Lake with the Outdoor Adventure Club in a big yellow bus. When we got there, I was dropped off at the lot that my parents had bought, because we were going to build a cabin there. My parents had set up the fifth wheel trailer, but when I got inside, it was the size of my grandma's old house, and it was designed like the Foreman's house in That 70's Show. My mom was carrying Bailey in a fleece blanket, like the kind of blanket that is in every hotel bed, and nobody really likes how they feel, but they are very warm, so you sleep with them anyways. She carried her up to the bunkbed and laid her down to go to sleep and told me that I had to be quiet so she could rest up before her surgery. Then, it was the next day, and I knew something weird was going to happen. I walked outside, and all of a sudden, the trailer was gone, and I was on a big gravel lot that was right on the shore of Waldsea Lake. Down by the shoreline, I saw Dave Gelineau, and he was listening to a man out on a raft on the lake who was talking into a mega-phone. He was trying to sell a white t-shirt that was on a man who had recently died of H1N1 virus, and he was trying to con Dave into thinking that he could be the first man ever to purchase the H1N1 virus. Dave was totally buying it, and he grabbed the shirt from him, off the raft. I turned around and tried to get out as fast as possible, when I saw Taylor Gelineau, and she told me that the man on the raft was Lauren Mcloughlin's dad, and that they had a cabin on the other side of the lake. I made a mental note to text Lauren later about it.
The bus came to pick me up, and it brought me to a field where the spring from a mattress was half-buried in the ground. Mr Morari and Mr Rappin were there, doing some sort of ritual to raise the spirits from this ancient bed in the ground. I was confused, but they wanted me there, because I was able to see and talk to ghosts, and they wanted to help this spirit go to rest. I began circling the mattress, and I remember a girl appearing, or something, and then I woke up.

erin gave me a task to complete

The other afternoon, while I was napping, I dreamt that I completed the task for week one, and broke the touch barrier.

i miss zach

Last night I dreamt that I was driving around on a mini-steam roller kind of vehicle. It had two big cement wheels in the back, and a regular tire in the front, along with bicycle pedals. I was mad at Matthew, because he wouldn't come with me to Specklebelly's. I was determined to go buy alcohol, so I drove my little behicle to Athena, and was right about to go try and buy some from the lady working in the lounge. But right when I got to the front desk, I realized she wouldn't sell it to me without I.D., and I chickened out and ended up asking, "What time are you open until?" She told me 9 o'clock or something, and I went back outside onto my little steam-roller tricycle. As I was driving away, there was a drunk man coming out of Specklebelly's with either beer or Mike's Hard Lemonade, and he was shouting profanities at the traffic on Central Avenue. I pedalled past him, and asked, "Could you go buy me some Sour Puss? I have the $13 already to go." And he said to me, "You'll have to give me $17, because I have a fee." I told him that I wouldn't buy it from him, and I started pedalling away, but he started following me, and we started a game of tag, which continued over into the parking lot by the Royal Bank, and Erinn, Matthew and Matthew's friend Kyle showed up and joined in the game of tag. We all got pretty tired, and the drunk man disappeared, so we decided to stop, and I had to drive them all home. We went down Grey Ave. to Kyle's house, and Matthew left, but for some reason, I just stayed around the house. All of a sudden, I started having flashbacks that were into Kyle's childhood, and when he got his first dog. I saw his Black Labrador Retriever as a puppy, and then I returned to the present. I walked into the backyard, and Matthew was there again, but he told me that Kyle's family had an awesome deck on top of their garage, where there was a little ladder going up. Matthew left again, and I started climbing up the frozen metal ladder that was enclosed. As I came nearer to the top, I saw the door, but my head hit a piece of frosted glass that covered the door onto the roof of the deck, making a very loud bang. I started coming down the ladder, and as I did, Kyle's mom came outside with a laundry basket, and started talking to me. "Do you realize how many kids in this neighborhood always try to climb up that ladder? Too many. You kids think you can just walk right on up there, on our own private property," she said in a surprisingly monotone voice. "I'm really sorry, it's just that Matthew said I should go up there, and Matthew is friends with Kyle, so I thought it would be ok," I said. She told me to come inside, and as I was going up the steps into the house, I flashed back, and the dog was trying to run away, so I had to run down the street to go catch him. He tried to get away, but I caught him, and we just ended up playing for a bit. I took him inside, and flashed back to the present again, where Kyle's mom started talking about something, but I wasn't paying any attention, because all I could think about was if she remembered who I was from when she taught me english. When I got into their kitchen, I flashed back again, to seeing the puppy running around and playing, and sliding on the laminate flooring, which made me very happy. But when I flashed back to present day again, his family was sitting around talking about how their dog had been such a good dog, and how he used to be so cute, and then it dawned on me that their dog wasn't alive anymore.

dreaming about sleeping

Last night I dreamt that I slept in really late. So late, that I was late for work at five o'clock pm. I kept telling myself that I really didn't want to go to work though, and my knees hurt so bad from toboganning that I couldn't walk, so how was I supposed to work sales floor with a limp? Then, Ruby and Caitlin picked me up, and we went to a Winners outlet store that was over by the airport, and Ruby bought some little pink and grey suede boots. I told them I didn't think I should go to work, and they told me to just go back to sleep when I got home. They dropped me off, and I called Ashley. She came to pick me up, and we went to A&W. By this time, it was already 8:40, and I hadn't called my manager that I was late for work. Ashley told me not to worry about it, because "It's totally something I would do".

the blizzard and the rein-rat

Yesterday afternoon during a nap, I dreamt that Ruby, Caitlin and I were trying to organize people to go toboganning with us, because there had been a blizzard, and there was a lot of snow. On my way over to Kirsten's house, I saw Kirsten drive up with Edmund, Dylan, Camille and Matt in her car. Then, we all started going back to Kirsten's house, and on the way there, one of the houses on the street had a ridiculous amount of snow on it. Dylan pointed it out to me, along with a fairly big, white animal that was sitting on the roof of the house, eating either a carrot or an icicle, I'm not sure which one. I had no idea what the creature was, and so I asked Dylan and Erinn, and Dylan said something along the lines of, "Duuuh, it's a REIN-RAT. Haven't you ever seen one before?" So I asked what a Rein-Rat was, and he told me that it is a big rat, that has the ability to fly, and camoflauges with the white snow. They also have blinking noses like Rudolph. "It's a little bit cute," I said. Dylan and Erinn looked so grossed out, and told me that it was a rat... Then Taryn and Gillian showed up, and they looked very worried. Taryn said, "ERICA. You have to come. Hurry!" I followed where she went and asked what was going on, and Gillian said, "It's Daniel Allen. He's really hurt. He won't make it unless we get him to the hospital really soon!" Daniel Allen's boots kept slipping while he was back up the snow hill, and he kept bashing his face on the hill, and there was blood running down his nose, mouth and chin.