Two Dreams and a Road Trip
I woke up this morning feeling like I'd been in a movie of dreams all night, but as soon as I poked my head out of the covers and saw the glorious sunshine painting signs of spring on the mountains across the lake, I knew I'd be okay. Dream 1: I was sitting in the corner of a room next to the fireplace in my parents' old, old house (from the mid-nineties), and I had a book in my hands. The rest of my family was there and they were all talking about having to get rid of things, and I said that I wanted to keep this book. It was a novel-sized book with about 1000 pages, and it had a white cover with gold lettering indicating it was a book about yoga. I opened the book and on the page were two pencil drawings of kitchen tables, both drawn by a young child. The caption in the book identified the drawing with a thicker tabletop meant that the child had issues with his/her father, and the other drawing with the thicker table legs meant that that child had issues with his/her mother.... I looked up and my mom said that she'd like to go back to school to be able to read this book. I replied, "You don't have to go back to school to read this book; you can just read it!" Dream 2: I was in a cafeteria or school like environment, but for adults and not children. I don't remember most of the details of this part of the dream except that I was weary of those around me, and then suddenly someone shot me just below my heart. I looked down and said in a calm and slightly perturbed voice, "Awe, man... I've been shot." No blood came out though. I lifted up my shirt and looked at the wound and it was more like I'd been jabbed in the ribs with a sharp stick, and a few days ago at that. I figured I should get some help, though, so I went out into the hallway which immediately turned into the inside of a commercial air plane. The steward was approaching me to check my ticket. I looked down at the ticket in my hands and it read, "Flight Happy". Flight Happy?? When I looked up and began to comment to the steward on my confusion of the flight description, I realized I was sitting among a plane full of yoga swamis wearing orange saris. I think I need some more time to try to analyze these two dreams, plus I want to put my next story on the blog before Reading Hour begins (a new and favourite habit at our home, where we read anything we want for a full hour each night). So, onto the Road Trip... My friend Mylene was supposed to fly from Castlegar to Calgary last Saturday, and then fly from Calgary to Florida on Sunday morning. Her plans got kah-putzed on Saturday morning when the fog was so low we could barely see the lake out our window. All flights from Castlegar were cancelled, as were all flights within a four-hour-drive radius of Nelson. How about the bus? Well, the only bus that left Nelson bound for Calgary would put Mylene in Calgary five hours after her flight to Florida had happily departed. Before I knew what I was saying I blurted, "How about we drive you to Calgary?" Within two hours we packed and began our 8-hour road trip to Cow Town.
It was a fun drive, even though our CD player is broken and the only constantly changing local radio stations were CBC or Crappy Country. I ended up singing the Hari Om mantra in my head over and over again. It kept me in a peaceful state and passed the time better than my favourite Tom Petty album. One slightly archaic game was played and much enjoyed: Horse! How do you play horse, you ask? Well, anyone who has seen the New Zealand movie Eagle vs Shark knows that during any road trip, whenever you see a horse you yell "HORSE!" and everyone else in the car who missed it goes, "DOH! Good one!" There are no rewards, no points, no tallying, no winner. It's simply stupid and highly entertaining.
Once in town, we safely stepped foot into the Fairmont Palliser. Yep, I know you're probably thinking, "Whoah, wait a minute here." Let me explain: Mylene's boyfriend, Scott, had arranged for Mylene to stay at the Fairmont Palliser before her flight to Florida, so when he heard Brian and I were driving Mylene all the way to Calgary, he graciously got us a room too. What a sweet way to end the day!
The following morning, Brian and I read the paper wrapped in starched, white housecoats while eating breakfast in bed. 
No matter how fancy-shmancy that place is, I think I'd still rather be hanging out in our own bed, in my own pyjamas (my favourite red boxer shorts splattered with funky miniature Chinese take out boxes and chop sticks), and eating my famous poached eggs with fresh cilantro and homemade toasted bread.
Later that day, still in Cow Town, I had my first successful Facebook face-to-face reunion. Deanna, who I knew in high school, now lives in Calgary, so Brian and I met her in a fun coffee shop for a lovely conversation about what's happened in the past thirteen years. THIRTEEN YEARS!!??! Hmm... Perspective has returned.
The adventures continued as we drove to Banff to see my dear friend Hailey and her fun and ultra-cool Aunt Jane. The evening disappeared as we took a walk along the river and made a scrumptious meal. Before we knew it, morning arrived again and lit up the road all the way to Revelstoke. Even though this whole journey was unplanned, we were smart enough to bring our skis in case we passed through a ski town. But Revelstoke Mountain Resort had alternative plans for us. We did ski, but only for five runs because it was -18 degrees Celsius on the mountain top, and god-knows-how-cold with a wind chill. Brian's poor nose looked like it was ready to accept a small dose of frost bite, so we decided to completely cop out and kept driving all the way home to Nelson. We were home in time to make a delicious homemade meal for dinner and entertain ourselves during Reading Hour.
Boy, have I got some stories to tell around the water cooler when I'm back at work tomorrow.
posted by Dee @ 7:27 p.m.
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