Dream 4:
Genre: Science fiction
I was watching this one as the camera. The protagonist was James Kirk or at least a younger William Shatner. I could hear his thoughts and intensions. He was outdoors, but there were stones around. On the ground was a giant slug creature that was going to attack him. He approached it cautiously and then as it rose to attack he held his breath and stuck out his arm. The creature quickly extended its green ooze around the actor’s arm in a tube shape and then died. This happened 4 times with 4 different creatures, each one making it farther down the actors arm. My initial belief was that the creature was dying from the salt on the arm, but at the last one I wondered if in fact the actor’s fist was somehow reaching the creatures brain.
I don't have or at least don't remember dreams like this every night, but when I do they are often filled with adventure. I'm curious if other people dream like this as well. Feel free to comment with your take on this.
Now for the weekly wrap up:
Monday was a great day. I went hiking in the Santa Monica hills/Palisades with Jenny. She lives in the northern coastal part of Santa Monica. First we walked over to the Santa Monica steps, a long set of stairs going straight up a hill that people run up and down for exercise. Then we wandered over to the park on Pacific to see the view down to the ocean. As much as I'm sick of the pier and the promenade, Santa Monica has a ton of natural beauty. After that we wandered back to her place to grab some water and the car and head up to the hills. The park was actually really close to Jenny's house, once we took the correct turn. I believe it is called Temescal park or something like that. Which is funny since I used to live in the Temescal part of Oakland.
It is a nice park, quickly putting you into the woods. Jenny lead and we walked toward a waterfall that she knew about. At one point we got to cross a big tree that had fallen and made a bridge across the river that was probably a good 12 feet down. Jenny started out, then turned back scared. She said she would do it if I did it, so I did. I would have accomplished it no problem (it was a wide tree) if she hadn't said anything, but her fear affected me, so I had to take a pause three quarters of the way through. Once I had done it, Jenny skipped right across.
It took less than an hour to get to the waterfall, which didn't consist of much more than a few 5 foot drops and a bridge. Jenny has been teaching me about meditation, something I am becoming increasingly interested in. She meditates often and talks of how much it helps her. We paused at the waterfall so she could meditate. I considered it, but was too easily distracted by everyone walking by so I just waited, glancing over at her so I could get some insights into my own practice.
The rest of the hike took about an hour or so more. I believe the total loop is between 3 and 4 miles. The top is very pretty with a great view of the ocean. We were both feeling quite refreshed by the time we got back down.
After that we went to the bank and grabbed some dinner and then back to Jenny's house. I had intended to meet up with my friend's Josh and Matt later that evening, but Jenny and I got into a long discussion about our lives and just about everything else, so I stayed until it was time for me to head home.
Tuesday was uneventful until the evening. I had met a woman at the Speed dating event that told me about this Nutritional Coach job that she does that involves giving people nutritional and physical training device. The intro meeting was Tuesday night. I decided to go since it would be a nice supplement to my income. Right away the place felt ultra LA to me. Everybody was SUPER nice and when they shook my hand and looked in my eyes there expressions were huge. I popped upstairs to the meeting and met some more people and then it was time to start. It was basically 45 minutes of hearing current coaches tell their success stories (RE: Money) as coaches and learning very little about what I would do except that it somehow involved Herbalife. By the end all I knew was that I was going to have to pay $65 to get some sort of training/licensing kit and that there were lots of classes coming up. We were invited to talk to the people that invited us and to ask more questions, which I did sparingly with another woman sitting there. Basically every question was glossed over with a "It'll be easy" or "It'll be fine" answer. As best I could figure it, it was some sort of Nutritional pyramid scheme that involved coaches recruiting new coaches. So I got out of there and finally caught up with Matt and Josh a day later.
Wednesday was marred by a head ache that wouldn't go away until Thursday evening. I've been very focused on self exploration lately and sometimes when I'm not getting everything I need or taking care of myself well enough it can lead to a lot of over thinking. Luckily that night I got to have dinner with my friend Amanda, which is always a good opportunity to process. Amanda is a great listener and very understanding and I feel like we are at a similar point in our lives in regards to what one might call the practical philosophical entities of life, so it is easy to connect with her. I felt much better after talking with her, but my headache still lingered, so I went to bed super early that night.
Thursday was another hiking day, this time with my friend Sharron. She was auditing an acting class that day near my house so she came over after. Actually she came over half way through the class since she ditched because she said it was awful. From here we decided to actually go back to her place in Santa Monica since we were going to out to Afrofunke later that night which is over there and this way we could pick up her dog to take hiking with us. After searching for a place to go we actually ended up going to the exact same place that I went to with Jenny. Unfortunately, dogs were only allowed on the lower trails, so our hiking was a little limited. That was ok though since we were going to go out dancing alter anyway, so this was more of a warm up. Plus Sharron's dog, Daisy is so super cute that just spending time with her was worth it.
Back at Sharron's we hung out and she made us dinner. While she was cooking I started reading a book called Buddha's Brain. It is a fascinating book written by neuroscientists that are using Buddhism to study how the brain physically adapts to what you think about. An example would be how London cab drivers have a large hippocampus, which is where visual-spatial memories are kept because they need to memorize all the twisting streets and alleys in London. I liked the book so much that I went out and bought it the next day.
That nights Afrofunke was once again a ton of fun. Megan, Sharron's roommate came with us and we all had a great time dancing around and making friends. I spent more time dancing than friend making, but that's me.
Friday afternoon was spent at a place called the Alcove in Los Feliz with my friend Erin and her friend Megan. An enchanting duo who didn't mind giving me more LA advice. Fortunately for them I tried to move the conversation into more social areas after a while. The good people here are so sweet and caring that sometimes I worry about an imbalance since I do have a tendency to talk about myself so much. It isn't so much that I am self-centered, I just spend so much time thinking to myself that when I am finally around others, I want to share and investigate what they think.
After leaving the ladies I came home and spent the evening reading Buddha's Brain, watching television and playing video games. I also discovered that my air conditioner is actually quite powerful, which makes me happy with the weather getting hotter and hotter every day.
And that leads us to today. I have no actual plans for today, so I guess you will just have to wait and see what happens. Until then...
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