I had another dream last night.

(I swear, I think there’s something funky going on with Neptune in relation to water signs)

This time I dreamt that I was getting ready for a wedding. Oh, but this was different. This was my wedding.

W-w-w-what?

Yeah, at some point during the dream, I was thinking that I was in a bit of shock that this was happening so soon–three years after graduation. It’s interesting how my dream actually pinpointed a certain period of time. Anyway, I was getting ready in my house, and since it was a big event, my relatives from New York/New Jersey were staying over. I remember being nervous, and feeling gaseous. Something a bit graphic happened as a result…and if you’re interested you can contact me for more info. Let’s just say that it involves a little bit of a “surprise”. Ahem.

After showering, I was trying on various shirts. For whatever reason, I wasn’t going to be wearing a tuxedo. I was going to wear my suit with a coloured shirt of some sort. I put on a slate grey shirt and looked in the mirror. It was a bit wrinkled and bunching around the waist. I left my room and asked my cousin Lauren for advice. She didn’t say much, but smiled and shook her head in disapproval. So, I tried on a bright yellow short sleeve shirt. I thought that although it looked alright, it was a bit too flashy. So, I tried on a red shirt. Again, it was a bit sloppy looking. I asked Lauren once more, and she sighed and told me to look at a magazine article she had on hand. It stated that guy should not wear shirts that are too large and not properly fitted. Doing so results in looking sloppy and having the shirt bunched at the waist. Hah. Funny that. So, I settled on wearing that bright yellow shirt.

As I left the house, I saw a black pick up truck. That was my ride in to the church. Inside the truck was my bride. I had no idea who this person was. All I knew was that she was a shorter Filipina whose name was…Dina? Diane? I dunno. It was a short name that started with a D or a P. I asked her if there was a short form that I could call her, like “Di” or something. I don’t remember her response. Her head was covered in a veil, but I could still make out her eyes. They seemed focused on the road ahead. Not once did she look at me.

My mom was going to drive the truck. She climbed in. There was someone in the front seat, but I don’t know who it was. From across the street came a bunch of people that I sort of knew. They were all heading to the wedding with us. I was looking at them one by one to see if I could remember their names. There was a guy named Paul who looks vaguely familiar. There was another guy whom I needed a bit of confirmation from to remember his name. I asked, “Your name is…Hua Long…right?” He replied in a bit of frustration “It’s Hua Rang”. All I could do was apologize. I don’t remmeber the rest of the people in the back.

And that’s when I woke up.

You know, after the dream, I was a little bit sad. I mean, it wasn’t a terrible dream, but it was filled with a lot of uneasiness. There were a lot of unknown factors. The one known factor that stuck out at me was the date: three years from now. I’m certianly not on any schedule for things to happen. Though for anything to really happen in 2009, I’ll need to find someone, and that’s been problematic as of late. I have an ongoing track record of girls placing me firmly in the “friend zone”. And while it means I’ve got a lot of friends, it also means that there’s a role in my life that hasn’t been filled. This dream just reminded me of that.

No matter though. Life has been very kind to me as of late. If I place my focus on developing my career, I’ll easily get by. To be honest, I’m hoping that I’ll stop caring about such things, not because of a lack of interest, but because it makes me think of what I lack. It takes my attention away from the many blessings that I’ve been handed.

And life will go on, no matter what.

I don’t dream pretty often, but when I do, they’re really vivid. I had a dream last night. Unfortunately, I’ve already forgotten some of the details. As time passes, I’m misplacing more and more memories of what happened.

Well, I think it takes place somewhere in Japan. For a great deal of the dream I was trying to communicate in Japanese based on what little knowledge I have. Funny thing is, there’s also some English and Tagalog in the dream. The setting is one of those streets that I frequently walked down while I was staying in Asakusa. It wasn’t a busy neighborhood at all–probably as busy as a street you’d find in Brampton.

For whatever reason, I has in a convenience store, though not one of the bright flashy ones that I always saw. This was more of a ma and pa store with a lot of wood panelling. The clerk seemed to be this American type guy who was wearing pajamas while minding the register. After shopping I asked him in Japanese if there was a toilet in the store. I really had to pee. He went in the back and came back asking in English: “Do you want a Boston crapper or a squat toilet?” I still wanted to practice my Japanese, so I said, “dochira mo ii desu,” or, “whatever is OK.” So, I went out back, where the scenery suddenly took on more of a Southwestern US terra cotta villa type dwelling. I wandered around and found the toilet. The toilet was a bit low, and had a half height tank. When I came back, for whatever reason, I found that I couldn’t pay for what I was going to buy. I was starting to panic. However, I was panicking more because I needed cash to get to the airport. I needed to find an ATM. So, I asked if there was an ATM around. The guy said that there was one out back. So, I went back, and wandered around, wondering why there would be an ATM in a residential area. I ended up poking around the bedroom, and fond nothing, so I came back to the shop.

By then, there were new employees in the store because of a shift change. The clerk was now a teenage guy with glasses, and there was this grandmother-like woman with curly grey hair. She was wearing some sort of eggplant coloured outfit with a floral shirt and a vest. I asked her if there was an ATM: “ATM ga arimasu ka.” She said yes, and led me to the back again. She led me to the bedroom, thinking that the ATM was there. Inside, on the right, was a white painted dresser with various things on it. On the right were two electronic devices. She was pointing to both. One was a digital clock with blue writing, while the other was a red digital radio that was sort of tall, and looked had al sorts of buttons on it. I was trying to practice my Japanese by saying useless phrases like, “that is a radio,” or, “that is a clock.” It was pretty useless, so I thanked the grandmother and headed back out. I was a bit nervous, so I went out ahead of the grandmother. The entrance to the area was a swinging door. In my nervous energy, I didn’t hold the door for the grandmother, and it ended up hitting her. I think she got pissed afterwards.

I was freaking out. The teen was noticing my distress and learned of my dilemma. That’s when this middle aged Canadian woman walks in. She was tall-ish and had wavy brown shoulder length hair. She wore sunglasses. The teen tells her in English about my problem. He asked her if she had any money to spare. I was kind of embarassed and sort of hid in one of the store aisles, peeking at the situation. She said, “you poor thing” as she reached into her purse. She handed me a ¥500 coin (which read 200…but was shaped and coloured like a 500) and a Canadian $20 bill. The $20 bill was of the old design which had birds. It wasn’t enough, but I was really thankful.

The teen’s aunt was outside and he went out to ask her about the ATM. She told him she knew, so I went outside to meet her. She was on the side of the street with a big black wok on top of a fire. She was stirring some beef with two big sticks (much like they do in the Mongolian Grill by UW). She spoke to me in Tagalog about how she knew where it was. However, she couldn’t leave the wok, so she was waiting for the grandmother to take over. However, the grandmother just stood outside, looking away from me, obviously angry. Time was running out. The aunt said that the ATM closed at 3. I panicked.

Umm…that’s when I woke up from the dream. I woke up feeling really sad and stressed out about the situation–this, despite it not really happening. It’s funny how a dream can affect you on such a level, you know?