Tag Archives: Waterloo

My Baby Boy Surprise

Cast of characters:

  • Just me and my surprise baby boy.

Historical context:

  • My great-grandfather’s name was Leo.  I love the name, and if I had a baby boy today, his name would be Leo.
  • I want kids.  A boy would be great.
  • I recently had an appointment with a surgeon to schedule surgery to have my gallbladder removed.  He told me that, until my surgery, I had to eat a very low-fat diet.  But then he looked at me and said that, by the looks of it, I already ate a low-fat diet, so it shouldn’t be a problem.  Totally untrue, but I was flattered that he thought so, nonetheless. 🙂
  • I like watching Family Guy on TV.  Haven’t in a while, though.

The dream:

I was walking down Monroe St. in front of the Karl Junginger Memorial Library in Waterloo, my home town, when I felt a pain in my belly.  I lifted my shirt and looked at my skinny belly.  All of a sudden I realized that I was 8 months pregnant.  I wondered how I could be 8 months pregnant and still have such a skinny belly.  Then I realized I was in labor.  Within the blink of an eye, I was holding my baby boy, while still standing outside the library.  My baby was swaddled in a white blanket and had a little crocheted white beanie on his head.  I thought that I’d better name him right away.  I started to think of good names for my baby.  I thought that Stan, Spence, and Hank would be good names.  Then I thought that maybe Stillwell would be a good name.  There was a character on Family Guy named Stillwell (ummm, there’s really not, as far as I know???), and I thought that it sounded like a rather regal name.  But then I stopped and remembered that I already had a favorite name for a little boy, but I couldn’t remember what it was.  I thought and thought, and finally it came to me… Leo!  I don’t know what I named the baby in the end, because the dream ended right as I remembered, “Leo.” 🙂

Tornadic Activities

Cast of characters:

  • A handful of random clients.
  • Me

Historical context:

  • Reoccurring dream… tornadoes!
  • I work with clients, all day, every day.
  • Sun Prairie is a medium-sized town near my home town of Waterloo, WI.
  • I visited the Institute for Underwater Archaeology in Istanbul, Turkey, for work last year.
  • Hilary was one of my best friends while growing up in Waterloo.
  • I handle operations in both Tanzania and South Africa.
  • I’m still known to write my phone number on a piece of paper for people, rather than having them just enter it into their phones. 🙂
  • I like to ride bikes.

Last night’s dream:

To continue a trend, last night’s dream was anxiety ridden.  Ahhhh… tornadoes.  So I was sitting in Hilary’s house, which was located in Sun Prairie instead of Waterloo.  It wasn’t an accurate depiction of Hilary’s house, though it had some similar features, notably, the two-story tall ceiling and cedar rafters.  Initially, I was sitting among a bunch of my clients.  We were all sitting and waiting for someone to give a presentation.  There was a podium in the southwest corner of the room, against the south and west walls, which had windows from floor to ceiling.  There was a small little woods immediately outside the windows, with the town visible beyond.  The trees were bare, and it was winter, though there was no snow.  The room we were in was one story above ground level.  Suddenly, everyone else in the room had disappeared, except for me and two older women.  We walked over to the podium and looked out the windows to the West.  The trees were now gone, and we looked out towards an open golden field.  The sky was gray, and then, out of nowhere, two whitish-gray tornadoes appeared.  The tornadoes were headed straight for us, but we stayed by the windows.  The tornadoes disappeared, and in their place, this gigantic, silvery blob appeared in the middle of the sky.  The blob was morphing into different shapes, and we wondered what it was.  We thought maybe it was an alien.  It started approaching us at a high rate of speed, and right before it slammed into the windows, we ducked for cover onto the floor.  As soon as the blob slammed into the windows, we realized that it was a big blob of rain, and then it started pouring outside.

All of a sudden, the two women and I were standing in the hallway with the other people from the meeting, taking a break.  The hallway was supposedly right outside the room that we had been sitting in when the big rain blob hit the windows; however, the hall was an accurate depiction of the second-floor hallway at the Institute of Underwater Archaeology in Istanbul.  We were all mingling in the hallway, drinking water from the water cooler out of little Dixie cups.  I was talking to some guy, who had traveled with us to Tanzania and who was now interested in traveling with us to South Africa.  I wrote my phone number on a little piece of paper so that he could call me if he had any questions.  Suddenly he was gone, so I started wandering down the hall to the East, trying to find him.  The hall got darker the farther I walked.  Then the two women appeared before my eyes, and they said that they were running late and had to get home to Waterloo right away.  They didn’t know if the bus would be coming to take them home.  I said that it was no problem and that I could take them home to Waterloo, since I was going back there anyway.  I seemed to be riding home on a bike, but there was plenty of room on the bike for them, if they wanted.

The end.

Close Quarters

Cast of characters:

  • Jess J. – BFF since 1999.  Met during study abroad in Bonn, Germany.  Mother of my godson.
  • Drew J. – Husband of my BFF, Jess.  Father of my godson.  Cool dude.
  • Mark – Friend and one-time roommate.  Godfather to my godson.  Overall great guy.
  • Michele – Met during study abroad in Bonn, Germany.  We keep in good contact.  Cool chick.

Historical context:

  • Ummm… not much.  Lum Ave. holds no particular place in my heart.  Piggly Wiggly does, however.
  • I miss my friends in Madison.

Last night’s dream:

So last night’s dream was very quick and pretty uneventful.  Jess and Drew lived in their same house in Madison, but their street in Madison was actually Lum Ave. behind Piggly Wiggly in Waterloo.  Evidently everyone was trying to move closer to Jess and Drew.  Michele had just bought a house next door… a raised ranch with an old deck overlooking Piggly Wiggly.  She had an old 1970s fishing boat in the back yard, and there was a black and white cat slipping in and out of view in the grass around the boat.

While talking with Michele on her deck, she pointed out a small, angular, and cramped house on the other side of Drew and Jess’s house.  She explained that Mark has just bought that house.  I was stunned and asked her why the hell Mark would give up his nice, luxury condo in downtown Madison to move into that little house.

Done. 😉