Who is William Arnone and why is he in my dreams!? Have you ever dreamt about someone you have never met or heard of? I just have.
In my dream I had chosen to write a thesis paper about ghost stories of a small town (don't know where). I traveled to this town with a friend of mine who was taking care of a young child in search of ghost stories to fill my thesis paper. After speaking with several people in the town we could not find any ghost stories so we headed to the local library. The librarian did not know of any such stories but showed me to the old fashioned card catalog. As I was browsing the library caught fire. I panicked as this was the only chance I would have to write this thesis. I grabbed a bunch of cards and tried to find my friend and the small child. I found them playing in the bath tub (why there was a bath tub in the library I do not know) and she refused to get out of the building until they had found some sort of face recognition toy. Finally we found the toy and got out of the burning building.
As we were outside I started to look through the cards and noticed a huge chunk of cards under the name William Arnone, whose name, in my dream, rang a bell. When asked, the librarian told us that yes, Arnone was a well known author and hailed from this small town. I thought, ah, this is the ticket, he must have written a ghost story.
So I tried to track down this William Arnone, without much luck.
This was my dream.
And, when I awoke I found that I had written down Arnone's at some point during the night. I googled this mysterious dream like figure and found he is a left wing activist or a lawyer. Now, why would I have dreamed of someone I had never heard of, never met as being this famous author when he is not even an author at all. Very strange indeed. I sort of feel like the woman in Medium. Scary! If you are William Arnone reading this, perhaps you can explain?
Thursday, May 14, 2009
Wednesday, May 6, 2009
Sleeping with Giants
There is something about large trees that calm me and at the same time make me hopeful about the world. Perhaps they are a testament to human beings that in a small part of the world we have been smart enough not to mess with nature, the result of which is a magnificent swath of giant trees. I of course am speaking of the Redwoods in California, which I had the privilege of visiting this past weekend.
The drive down was rainy and long but gorgeous nonetheless. I picked up a friend in Portland, where I spent the night and was taken out on the town and treated to a Voodoo Doughnut (I chose the Bubble Yum flavor) and some classic Portland nightlife spots.
Woke up at the crack of dawn to start the 9 hour trek down the coast. Among the highlights were finding a drive through espresso in Rice Hill, Oregon, arriving at a tulip festival too early to be let in and taking a picture by a tulip planter with 5 tulips in it, getting checked for produce at the Oregon/California border while eating an orange, the giant Paul Bunyan statue on the side of the road, spending awesome catch up time with a friend and just driving in those trees.
Got to the Avenue of the Giants just in time to pick up our race packets (yes, of course I went for a race, why else would I go!?). Our friends from Sacramento had arrived just then and we headed for the spaghetti feed put on at the community center to benefit the local fire department. Such a great community feel, all these runners sitting at long tables with plastic tablecloths chowing on homemade spaghetti in the middle of nowhere in a run down community hall. Who needs a fancy restaurant to create a special atmosphere?
Unfortunately it was raining as we set up camp but managed to keep the inside of the tent dry and hung out amongst the giants around a campfire. I had such a sense of peace, just being there. I am one lucky girl.
Slept like a log, with the rain pelting our tent the whole night. I had a dream, a dream where it was raining all night but then we were walking to the race start and the clouds parted and it was sunny. I woke up, with cold damp feet and told my friend about this dream, she told me to keep dreaming. Managed to break down camp and stuff all the wet stuff in the trunk of the rental car (so glad I rented a car cause it was stinky in there) and headed over to the race start, in the rain.
Found a super secret parking spot where there was actual private, locking bathrooms that had just been cleaned, within two minutes walk to the start. As we arrived the clouds parted and the sun came out. I felt like a prophet!
The race was amazing, a half marathon through the trees, giant, loping trees, no cars and lots of sunshine filtering through the oversized branches. We even got a medal. Who could ask for anything better?
Found a great cafe in the woods and had an amazingly tasty breakfast of huevos rancheros and took off back up to Portland. Some highlights of that drive include having to roll down the window when we could cause we were slightly stinky, coming up with some great, steeping-too-long-in-a-car business ideas, trying to find a mom and pop burger place to get a strawberry milkshake, stopping at the Jerkey drive up stand to buy elk jerkey from a guy with no teeth, passing an RV with the name "Flair" and one with the name "Beaver" several times, stopping at the beach to feel the warm sand and cold Pacific waters on our toes, seeing several elk in the park and again, spending time with a friend and just driving in those trees.
The visit was too short but I feel better about the world just knowing those trees are out there.
The drive down was rainy and long but gorgeous nonetheless. I picked up a friend in Portland, where I spent the night and was taken out on the town and treated to a Voodoo Doughnut (I chose the Bubble Yum flavor) and some classic Portland nightlife spots.
Woke up at the crack of dawn to start the 9 hour trek down the coast. Among the highlights were finding a drive through espresso in Rice Hill, Oregon, arriving at a tulip festival too early to be let in and taking a picture by a tulip planter with 5 tulips in it, getting checked for produce at the Oregon/California border while eating an orange, the giant Paul Bunyan statue on the side of the road, spending awesome catch up time with a friend and just driving in those trees.
Got to the Avenue of the Giants just in time to pick up our race packets (yes, of course I went for a race, why else would I go!?). Our friends from Sacramento had arrived just then and we headed for the spaghetti feed put on at the community center to benefit the local fire department. Such a great community feel, all these runners sitting at long tables with plastic tablecloths chowing on homemade spaghetti in the middle of nowhere in a run down community hall. Who needs a fancy restaurant to create a special atmosphere?
Unfortunately it was raining as we set up camp but managed to keep the inside of the tent dry and hung out amongst the giants around a campfire. I had such a sense of peace, just being there. I am one lucky girl.
Slept like a log, with the rain pelting our tent the whole night. I had a dream, a dream where it was raining all night but then we were walking to the race start and the clouds parted and it was sunny. I woke up, with cold damp feet and told my friend about this dream, she told me to keep dreaming. Managed to break down camp and stuff all the wet stuff in the trunk of the rental car (so glad I rented a car cause it was stinky in there) and headed over to the race start, in the rain.
Found a super secret parking spot where there was actual private, locking bathrooms that had just been cleaned, within two minutes walk to the start. As we arrived the clouds parted and the sun came out. I felt like a prophet!
The race was amazing, a half marathon through the trees, giant, loping trees, no cars and lots of sunshine filtering through the oversized branches. We even got a medal. Who could ask for anything better?
Found a great cafe in the woods and had an amazingly tasty breakfast of huevos rancheros and took off back up to Portland. Some highlights of that drive include having to roll down the window when we could cause we were slightly stinky, coming up with some great, steeping-too-long-in-a-car business ideas, trying to find a mom and pop burger place to get a strawberry milkshake, stopping at the Jerkey drive up stand to buy elk jerkey from a guy with no teeth, passing an RV with the name "Flair" and one with the name "Beaver" several times, stopping at the beach to feel the warm sand and cold Pacific waters on our toes, seeing several elk in the park and again, spending time with a friend and just driving in those trees.
The visit was too short but I feel better about the world just knowing those trees are out there.
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