Lounging with the Lady

My alarm didn't go off and I didn't wake up until the time I was already supposed to be at work.  Freaking out and wondering how to get there before the boss noticed, I slowly crawled out of bed and started getting ready.  Somehow Lady Gaga appeared out of nowhere about the time I was ready to leave and offered me a ride.  First though, she needed to make a few stops.

Gaga was dressed in white jeans and a pink t-shirt.  Her hair was pulled back in a ponytail and she wore a ton of wild makeup.  She had the reddest lipstick I had ever seen.  We climbed into an old pickup truck that had seen better days.  We didn't talk much on the way there, although she reminded me that she had a few stops to make beforehand.

The first stop was at an art store where Gaga took her sweet time deciding on which painting she wanted to purchase.  We moved on to an office building across town and in the opposite direction of my job.  Lady Gaga went into an office while I hung out in the front room with the receptionist.  Some guy came to check on me after awhile and I told him I needed to get to work.  He said that Gaga was conducting business and couldn't be rushed.  I sat there seething for several minutes before resigning myself to the fact that I probably wasn't going to make it to work after all.

Mascara

I was supposed to go somewhere--breakfast, I think--with a cute boy, but I wasn't quite ready, so we came back to my place so that I could freshen up. I was just going to put on some mascara, but for some reason it ended up taking me forever. I felt awful, because not only was I making us late, I has lost my sort of fresh-faced charm, both by appearing to be super high-maintenance by spending so long on my makeup, and for actually putting on too much. I knew I had disappointed him and felt like a total failure.

Unrelatedly, in the dream I had straight, dark brown hair that reached to my shoulders, and longish bangs. In real life, my hair is much shorter, curlier, and multicolored.

High School Reunion

I had yet another high school reunion dream (perhaps I'm developing a theme as strong as Strovska's group trip theme), this one ridiculously detailed. Note that this may have some basis in reality, since next month is my 15th high school reunion, although I have no plans to attend, and have never planned to attend any reunion. This resolve began the day after I graduated.

Anyway, my dream self seems to be highly entertained by the concept of attending reunions and last night was no exception.

I dreamed that I was arriving at my old school carrying my backpack. I was somewhat proud of myself for limiting my packing to just a backpack. I knew that the girl's dorm had been renovated, so I was expecting some changes. The exterior of the building was expansive and looked very nice, though I did notice that they'd chosen to retain the beige-y, buff-colored exterior, which I thought made it look like a motel.

Inside the lobby, the dorm had retained several architectural features of its former "glory," but with the additions of lots of glass walls with shiny metal accents, a la the CSI labs. I made my way inside and avoided the welcoming smiles of the girls' dean, who was standing at the front desk. She was the one I remember from my years there, and I just wanted to skitter past her with a minimum of "catching-up" chitchat.

I toured the chapel area, and thought it was a shame that they'd completely demolished the yellow stained glass windows in favor of a windowless, and beige-colored, set of blank walls, although I did appreciate the replacement of the seats, which had been horrible when I was there.

I went upstairs to find my room for the reunion weekend. Somehow I knew that I'd be staying in my old room, and that I'd have roommates AND suitemates for the duration. They were all already settled in, and the door was open a crack as I pushed it open and called out, "Hello J.B.!!" (J.B. being the initials of a girl who was my suitemate for two years in real life.) She was standing behind the door, hanging up her clothes in the closet. She gave me one of those friendly-stranger hugs.

I started working to unpack my stuff and get myself ready for something (dinner? church? assembly?). As I investigated the bathroom, I met my suitemates, my cousin A. and another former classmate, S. They had pretty much taken over the bathroom with mountains of bottles, towels, cases of makeup, and various toiletries. Still proud of my light packing job (presumably I was clutching at straws, trying to make myself "cooler" and different from my former classmates), I was trying to wash my face at the sink, which kept filling up with tiny bottles of lotions while I was washing.

There was a lot of activity swirling around me and I'm hazy on the details, but my overall impression was that I was trying really hard to be chipper and chatty, catching up on Life. Our suitemates kept popping in and out of the room, and I noticed that my cousin A., in particular, was wearing a TON of makeup. Verging on orange.

It seemed like we were all trying to get out the door at once, but with very little success, as everyone kept trying to use the sinks/counters in the bathroom, but being thwarted each time by the massive amount of potions. Everyone was trying to iron dresses and skirts, and while I'd been so happy with my limited packing job, I worried that my selections wouldn't be dressy enough, considering all the ironing, fluffing, make up, hair styling, and stocking applications that were going on around me.

In short, it was exactly like high school, and by the time I woke to NPR, I was pretty relieved that I don't have to attend any reunions if I don't want to.

back to school

I had sort of a back-to-school dream last night. I was getting set up in a dorm, my roommate seemed nice, I had some cute clothes and dorm furnishings, so overall it was agreeable. There was an unpleasant bit where I got hung up on getting ready to go to the library to study, though. I kept putting on more and more and more makeup, wondering why I was doing it and why it wasn't making me look better [and now I wonder what that was all about, because it was significantly more makeup than I ever actually wear]. I made a resolution that I was just going to stop where I was, go to the library, try not to worry about looking like a clown, and henceforth be an effortless natural beauty (!). I felt rather optimistic about my future as an E.N.B.

The other disagreeable part of the dream was my ex-boyfriend calling just as I was getting ready to leave. I was puzzled about how he had gotten my new number so quickly, and I was really annoyed because, although I didn't have anything against talking to him from time to time, I had a sense that he was going to start calling really frequently and I wouldn't be able to figure out how to get him to stop without being rude and hurting his feelings.

And I just had a flashback to a dream that I had completely forgotten, from a few weeks ago. I don't remember the story line, just images. It involved a fantastically overcrowded house (not mine) and a blues singer. The whole atmosphere was very Deep South.

colorful dresses and makeup mishaps

I had yet another dream where I was picking out clothes and trying to get ready. I was at my parents' house, and I was supposed to be participating somehow with my sister in the church service at my parents' church*. I guess I hadn't packed any appropriate clothing, because I was looking through the closet in my sister's old room. There was a huge selection of dresses, so huge that they were stored on one of those rotating racks like at a drycleaner's. I could tell that most of the clothes had been found at thrift stores. They were all really interesting, with a lot of prints and unusual color combinations. Some of them were overtly "ethnic" and others not, but they all managed to be unusual while still being very wearable and not too weird or cutesy. I was really impressed that she had amassed such a huge collection of interesting clothes, and ended up spending too much time browsing. I finally settled on a black dress** and realized I hadn't left much time for the rest of my preparations.

At that point I looked in the mirror and realized that I looked better than I would have thought given my lack of cosmetics, and also that I was a very young-looking Asian girl with bangs. Apparently my sister was also Asian, and she looked much older and more sophisticated. I worried that, especially if I didn't have time for much cosmetic work, people would think we were mother and daughter.

I guess I had time to start on the cosmetic work, because the last thing I remember was putting a mascara wand back into a bottle of makeup because I was in a hurry and being frustrated that I had probably messed up both products.

I think it's weird that I have these clothing/preparation dreams so often. I love the clothing parts and wish I could remember the details when I wake up; the preparation parts I could do without, though. I wish I could come up with an interpretation for them that doesn't point to unhealthy appearance anxiety.

*That reminds me that I periodically have dreams where I'm supposed to play the piano for their church (something that happened a lot growing up) but haven't prepared anything and am trying to figure out how to muddle through. These dreams feature a weird combination of performance anxiety and hubristic overconfidence that I'll just be able to improvise something baroque-y.
**Why did I choose something black, with all the beautiful colored and printed options?

Puffy

Due to some crying last night, I knew I'd wake up with puffy eyes this morning. In my dream, I knew that, too, but when I checked myself in the mirror, my eyes were not only not puffy, but nicely made up, with mascara and eyeliner. In the dream, I "realized" that this was because I hadn't taken my makeup off before bed.

This morning's actual results weren't quite as nice.