it's a circus out there

(i love it when my dreams so clearly represent my real life anxieties)

i was in the car with a friend. she was driving us to lunch. as we rounded a corner, we were surprised by a herd of alpacas* running across the street. as we drove a few feet further, we then found ourselves surrounded by all sorts of animals (just about every kind of non-domesticated animal imaginable) running wildly to-and-fro. there were tons of them. my friend was nervous and wanted to speed out of the situation as quickly as she could. i was a bit nervous but more interested in documenting the moment with my camera. i convinced her to slow down as i cracked the passenger window and tried to take non-blurred photos from a moving vehicle.

as i snapped pictures, i watched as a double decker bus cut through a field. on the side of the bus was a large banner that read: Ringling Bros. Circus. the bus was packed with people on both levels and it quickly became apparent to me that the animals broke free from the circus and that the employees and visitors were trying to escape harm. the double decker wasn't much of a getaway, however, as it could only go about 15 miles an hour and the sides consisted of nothing more than railings. none of the animals seemed terribly threatening, though. just a bit wild and out-of-hand with their new found freedom. i did catch a glimpse of a lioness attempting to attack an alpaca, but it didn't appear that she was trying all that hard as the alpaca easily dogged and ran.

the most amusing part of the dream was watching an orangutan guard the top level of the bus. animals were trying to climb and jump to the top level and the people were screaming and running to the center. the orangutan would either elbow the various animals off or catch them and throw them back to the ground.

*i never even knew what an alpaca was until i came across this the other day.