Giant Slide

This was such an epic, sweeping dream that I've had to think all day about the different parts. I can only remember bits and pieces, but I'll try.

I dreamed that I was at my mom's old house (as an adult, though) and I was talking to this girl about my own age. We were climbing around in an adult-sized playground toy as we talked. As we heaved ourselves through tunnels and ladders, we got onto the subject of nature vs. nurture. In the dream, I was trying to lead her around to my opinion on this topic, without seeming like I was trying to convince her.

It turned out that we were killing time, waiting for G. In real life, G is a coworker who is in charge of scheduling, so maybe that makes sense. Apparently, we had talked longer than we expected, so we jumped out of the playground. When we got to the parking lot, however, G's car was gone. We got in our car and followed because apparently a group of people were going to caravan somewhere.

We caught up to G and the rest of the people and followed them into what turned into a waiting room at the top of one of those giant slides (like at fairs, it was bright yellow). There was an unattractive and bored person working in the room, monitoring the exit onto the slide. The room was kind of like a locker room, with benches and lockers, I think. Our group was in there, along with other people. I milled around a bit, then somehow learned that it would cost $13.50 to slide down the slide. It turned out it was the only way out of the waiting room; I guess I couldn't go back out the way I came in.

I didn't want to pay that much money, but I was sort of stuck. I had my little zip-up wallet with me, along with some other small items. I was worried because if I left them in the lockers, I'd have to come back up. If I came back up to the lockers, I'd have to pay again to slide down. I started distributing my items into my pockets. I was afraid there would be water at some point, so I tried to wrap my wallet in a plastic bag. There was air in the ziploc bag, though, so it was too big for my pocket and I was afraid it would fall out.

Eventually I gave the guard my money and sat on the beginning of the slide. Instead of those big individual mats, there was a group of us sitting together on what turned out to be a big, flat carpet. We inched forward toward the drop, and I surprised myself by not being scared at all. I even leaned forward as we flew down the (surprisingly steep) hill, raising my arms.

The ride lasted forever, and I started to get worried about all my small items, but especially my wallet. I think that I woke up while I was still on the slide, and I started to check my pocket when I realized I was wearing pajamas and was lying in bed.