snippets

I had a weird assortment of dreams last night, but I only remember a few bits. I was crawling on my stomach with a few other people into a cave-like space under a concrete traffic underpass construction. I wasn't too excited about it and was starting to feel pretty claustrophobic, which led to a realization that I had never really liked caving. I announced that to my companions with a feeling of relief, as if I had been obliged to do a lot of caving (??) and this was finally going to free me of having to do an activity I didn't enjoy.

While we were crawling around, I was gathering dirt in addition to some other unclear objective (there was a reason we were under there). The next snippet I remember was a contest involving making a concoction with an inedible substance that would resemble as closely as possible a food or personal care product (??). My item was a skin cream simulacrum, made by whipping up the collected dirt with some store-bought lotion (apparently we could use a certain amount of ready-made product). I whipped it up until it looked like light-colored chocolate mousse (which begs the question of why I didn't call it chocolate mousse) and labeled it as a beauty product.

The judging involved normal consumers looking at the products (not knowing about the inedible ingredients) and choosing which they were most interested in buying. There was a lady who was very excited about my skin cream and wanted to buy some and use it immediately. I wasn't sure what the procedures were going to be for the rest of the contest, but I was very concerned that she was actually going to try to use some--I kept picturing her applying what was basically mud to her arms. I dropped several broad hints, but she wasn't taking them and I got more and more panicked about how to stop her from trying the cream.

After that I was stuck in traffic, which is a frustrating thing to dream about, since I spent about an hour stuck in terrible traffic on my way home yesterday. I was able to drive at almost full speed for a while in the dream, although traffic ahead was slowing drastically. Suddenly one of the tires on my car blew out, but I managed to calmly brake and pull over without rear-ending the car in front of me. When the insurance people showed up (insurance people show up to accidents?), they knew me already because apparently we had been ordering a lot of miscellaneous car parts and they had a lot of dealings with the parts people. What a boring snippet....

Car insurance on the island

JL was supposed to get me a pair of headphones, but he forgot. He told me how to get to the place that sells them - drive to the other side of the island to the end of the road. I also needed to mail something, so I was going to the post office as well. I got in the car and took the highway to the other side of the island. I saw a red sign for the east side of the island along the side of the road. The other side of the island was dark and deserted with very few cars on the road. It had snowed. I was going faster than I should have been going in the snow. I got to a roundabout, but the right side of the roundabout was blocked with an orange cone, so I went to the left. I took the turn too fast and lost control of the vehicle. I was flung out of the car and aw the car flip over and crash into a tree on the driver's side. I walked through the snow, picked up the car and turned it over to put it right side up. The drivers side door had a big dent in it, but the car was still driveable. I got in the car and drove to the next intersection, but was unsure which way to go to get to the post office. A woman driving by asks me something and I ask her how to get to the nearest post office. She told me to go back to the one in the city on the other side of the island. It was open later and had 20-30 people there. She said the one on this side of the island was probably closed. It seemed too far to drive back with a damaged car. I tell her about the accident and show her car. I become nervous because I do not remember if I purchased insurance. We walk back to the car and look for the printout from the rental place (Hertz). I find the receipt and see I have purchased insurance. - $68 a day for the car and $40 a day for insurance for a total of $131 a day for the rental. I am relieved.