magicbeans. nothing if not awkward.

dreams:

i was in a series of rooms that looked out over a dark courtyard / chasm into another series of rooms on the other side. i was with a bunch of risd kids and there was a war going with the people on the other side. (the french? brown students?) there was gunfire exchanged back and forth. i tried to keep low and out of sight of the rooms opposite.

there were a couple little side stories involving interpersonal relationships and such, but i can't remember too many of the details. at one point i was reading to someone.

two girls brought this big cake in during one quiet point. i was sure that it was some kind of trap, and told people not to eat it, but a few people did anyway, and fell into comas.

laster i was wandering through some hallways and ran into alexis (one of the few people that i routinely saw at meals over wintersession), who said something about how i tended to get caught up in little things, and get to dinner late, after everyone had left. and then i got caught up in changing the password for my door. (instead of locks, there was a password, and i spent about half an hour trying to figure out how to change it.)

and later still i was walking along this snowy (but not particularly cold) path with a bunch of risd kids (some who had woken from their comas) to a political rally of sorts. i was planning on announcing my candidacy for congress (i'm still too young to run for president).

when we got there, it was sort of a disjointed amphitheater, covered in snow, and people were just arriving. i was already barefoot, so i took off the snow pants that i was wearing, and the longs leave shirt. and noticed that one of my feet was bright yellow, with paint or curry or something. there was a shower up at the top of a stairwell that garth (who was also barefoot and in short sleeves) had washed his hands in. so i went to wash my foot off.

i started looking around in the building behind the shower. someone told me to see the guy in room 201. but i went upstairs first, and looked in some rooms on the third floor. and then came back down through a stairwell the ended in a fancy dining room, all set up for some sort of high class party, and then found 201. it was a large office, bookshelves along most of the walls. there were some role playing games that caught my eye.

the guy being the desk was about my age. maybe a little younger. he was one the phone when i knocked and pushed the door open a crack, but waved me in. he had one of those headset phones, and begin pacing behind his desk, then came out and sat in a chair in the middle of the room. he was carrying a little tape player and kept switching tapes. one of the things he was listening to was material issue.

the person on the other end must have briefly put him on hold at one point, as he held up a piece of paper for me to see that had a "translation of what g.i. joe had said in another language." and i asked what language and he didn't know.

after he got off the phone we walked back outside and the seats were filling up. i was afraid that i wasn't going to find an empty seat near my friends. but then it occurred to me that there might be somewhere i could sit that would be better suited to fulfilling my political ambitions. which was basically just to mix things up a little, i think.

---

i found myself wandering around the grocery store and decided to make indian food for dinner. curry with peas and potatoes. rice. my mom figured she'd make an indian dish too, so it would be a whole meal.

i ended up cooking the potatoes too long, and it basically became curried, mashed potatoes. and i got really upset at the fact that i had messed up what i was trying to make. swearing, throwing silverware around. it wasn't all that bad, and i knew that, but i just sort of lost it.

i guess it's a good thing that i'm not a chef. or, maybe i was just overdue for being upset at something. once i calmed down, it tasted just fine. and that's what cooking is really about.