Dream Journal
January 20, 2001
I’m on a bike, approaching this small shack on a hill. A friend is with me. Inside, it’s unlit except by the daylight streaming in through the windows. There are people scattered about and I’m amazed to see Mark Curry. He’s about to leave. He and my friend get into a car. I run up to the car and say, “Mark, hi! I think you’re a wonderful artist — one of my favorites.” And you know what? It’s not Mark Curry. It’s Ernest! Part of me notices but I keep going. He’s so touched by my comments and replies that he thinks my guitar playing is great, with all the fingerpicking stuff. I remain outside the window while he’s driving down the hill. I ask him to stop because I need to get back to my bike. He says okay but keeps driving slowly. I’m still out the window! I begin to realize I don’t like Ernest. He gets to the bottom of the hill and turns a corner. A block down, I disconnect and go back to the hill. But now it’s twice as steep and part of a crazy dragster track. This unbalanced guy is trying desperately to get his dragster up to the top of the near-vertical hill. I try to get up there too but instead turn around and continue on these endless sky highways.
References: Mark Curry is a musician I like. Ernest is the weird guy in the Ernest movies.
Really Mistaken Identity: Mark Curry is a musician I really like and Ernest is the weird guy from the Ernest movies. I didn’t really know what Mark Curry looks like. Generally we mistake someone in a dream for someone with a similar appearance, or someone who holds a similar relationship to us. But for someone I admire to switch to someone I dislike with no physical similarities. . . . AND on top of that, he mentions my guitar playing? Who would know about my fingerpicking style? Was this someone who knew me well messing with me? It’d be a good prank.
Outside the Window: This is wonderful. I’m outside the car window talking to Ernest, the car drives away, and I stay right outside the window, just standing there relative to him. Essentially, since I’m in communication with him, my position in the dream world is relative to him, and I travel along with him.
Hills: Because returning up the hill is impossible, I end up taking the sky highways, possibly exiting what might have been a rote in the same way I came in.