6-9 a.m.

I've been dreaming more than usual, perhaps because I've been allowed to sleep later the past few days. (I don't usually dream until later in the morning--prime-time for me is between 6-9 am)

Last night (this morning), I was trying in my slumber to decide between living in a 2-bedroom apartment with amazingly large windows that faced the street, or a free standing, adobe home in a very family-oriented, Hispanic neighborhood. I remember standing in the apartment looking out the prominent windows, pondering privacy issues, thinking about what tornadoes might be able to do to those windows, and then thinking, "Well, at least the apartment is on the third floor, in case of floods." I thought it strange, even in the dream, to think about such precautions, but I reasoned that when you become a parent, you automatically start thinking in those terms. "Kind of cramped in here," I thought, noticing the small square wooden table and chairs that were serving as the "dining room," but "but it's in a centralized location."

The adobe house was calm and cool, with a soft orange glow falling on everything. There were a lot of children playing around it, and one of them came in to greet me while I was looking at the house. I don't remember much else about the house.

I suddenly saw my mother-in-law(she has become a strange, recurring fixture in my dreams), and I told her of my choices. She wanted me to show her the apartment, which was in walking distance from where we were. We walked toward the aparment, but as we got nearer, I noticed that I was by myself. I stood outside the building and noticed a small patch of soil, once a flower bed, in front. Although I hadn't decided to live there yet, I thought it would be good to plant some flowers in front, just in case. I had only a packet of seeds and a spoon with which to dig, so I began to try to plant. There was still a very thin layer of ice on the soil, left over from winter, that I broke through easily with the spoon. I also noticed that there were little pieces of garbage that were mixed in with the soil. "That's life in the city," I thought. As I was digging, I discovered under a rock two keys, which I instinctively knew fit the third-floor apartment, and a one-dollar bill. I reasoned that the keys were hidden there by the former tenant for the landlord, but the landord had forgotten to look for them there..

By the time I had finished planting the flower seeds, I had decided that the apartment was the place I wanted to live.

***
Dream #2

My mother-in-law kept inviting my husband to come with her on vacations to Californina, and he continued to accept. He would call me on the phone from these trips, telling me how much fun he was having. "I'm in a hotel eating filet mignon," I remember him telling me. Meahwhile, I was home at home babysitting our toddler and getting angrier.

At a family gathering, my mother-in-law asked my husband once again if he would like to accompany her on one of her trips to California, and he said he would love to go. I'd had enough, so I asked them if I could talk to them in the next room. I sat them down, and I told them both (but mostly directed toward her) that if he went with her to California on vacation one more time, neither I nor the baby would be there when they returned. My mother-in-law was aghast that I would actually stand up to her, and that I would threaten her son with my and the baby's absence as leverage.

Meanwhile, I had the underlying feeling that they were both impressed that I had enough courage to defy her, once and for all. He didn't go on that, or any more, trips to California.

***
Dream #3

John Edwards was elected president and Obama was his vice-president. Once elected, they had no interest in actually governing. They just wanted to "entertain the middle class," hosting huge shows for the enjoyment of the "average, hard-working Americans." At one point in the dream, John Edwards was rolling himself around a stage on one of those boards that mechanics use to roll themselves underneath the cars they're working on. I was thinking the whole time...if they're up on stage doing all of this, who's ruling the country?