10/28/03
The Robots Will Attack On Tuesday

This is all the same huge convoluted dream, I believe, from not long before I awoke from my regular sleep. On awakening I clearly remembered the part that came right before then, and I also remembered many other snippets of it, but not the order in which they went nor what connected them all; so what follows is pieced together as I can best place it, in the order that makes the most sense--not necessarily the correct order.

In real life I get up around 6:30 PM to record a television show; I manually start the recording as I don't want to catch unwanted commercials or miss any of the show with a timed recording, but after pausing out the commercials in the middle of the program I then set a special timer recording so I can go back to bed until around eight PM. (I'm nocturnal.) The show I've been recording is Dragon Ball, an anime featuring a green alien character named Piccolo. This influenced part of the dream so I thought I'd share it.

Again, this may not be the actual order of the dream.

I got up to record or to wash my hair; I'm not sure which. I'll say record, since in real life I do that first of all; I wash my hair only when I get up for good. I assume I was recording Dragon Ball and like in real life it seemed to be dark out (due to the season and Daylight Saving Time)...I can't remember what specifically happened in here, but my memory picked up with me on the computer, surfing the Net. I can't remember exactly what I was doing online but it involved visiting a lot of sites and just checking things out, like my e-mail and such. Dad came out into the living room and noticed me at the computer. The time was after 6:30 PM. Dad saw me and asked me something like, "Aren't you going to go back to bed?" since after setting the timed recording I usually head back to bed around 6:45--so why would I have gone online if I was going to do this?

"I guess not," I sighed. "I didn't mean to spend so long online!" And I started mentally berating myself--what the hell had I been thinking, logging on when I was only going to be awake for about fifteen minutes?? Already I think it was almost seven PM and of course there was no way I could get to sleep fast enough to matter. I might as well just stay awake. I suddenly felt very tired, too, which just made it worse. How stupid I'd been! I was hurrying with visiting the websites for some reason, as if I felt I had to get it over with quickly.

I may have gotten off and gone to wash my hair, now that I was staying up. I went into the bathroom to do so but as I was doing this, the hot water handle broke off. In real life this is a continuous problem; there's no real handle there, just a metal nut or something which Dad tightens with a screw so it stays clamped to the nub the handle used to be on. Every so often the screw will loosen and the nut or whatever will fall off, making it impossible to turn off the water. What's worse is it's often too hard for me to turn it off all the way, anyway! Dad is often getting angry when I break the nut off or when I can't turn it off all the way, as if it's my fault the dumb thing will never be fixed. This has been acting up lately so I guess that's why this happened in my dream. Hot water was still gushing from the tap. I don't remember ever really washing my hair, but I left the bathroom anyway and went to Dad with the nut or whatever it is in my hand. "It broke off again!" I said, and just started SOBBING my eyes out. It's almost like I was crying rivers or something. "I tried turning it off but I can't! I can't help it that it broke! Bla bla bla bla..." I just kept ranting and crying about it. Fortunately Dad did not seem so much angry as surprised by my reaction (or OVERreaction, as I should say). I guess he went to fix it again; even though I don't remember doing it I suppose my hair was washed, and I went into the living room to await Ma's return from bingo. I don't remember putting my hair in a loose tail like I always do in real life.

It may have been at this time that I sat on the couch trying to draw a picture of Piccolo, the alien character from Dragon Ball. He's this green guy with a turban and pointed ears; in Dragon Ball he has a thin neck, as he's young, whereas in the later cartoon Dragon Ball Z he has a thicker neck, since he's gotten older. I already had a drawing of the thin-necked Piccolo on a piece of paper in front of me. It wasn't half bad! It looked like it had been done a bit hurriedly, like a sketch or doodle, but it was pretty good, considering I don't know how to draw the characters from memory! It was a face-on shot, just his head and neck, and I think he was grinning slightly. But he had no ears. While I sat here I attempted repeatedly to draw in Piccolo's ears. I figured I could do this easily enough. They're just pointed, batlike ears. But I kept messing them up. (I was drawing only the right one, first.) I would draw one on, then erase it when it didn't turn out right. Sheesh, it seemed like an easy enough task but they never looked right on him. I made them too big, or shaped too weirdly, or whatever. At one point, while I seemed to be talking with somebody, I absently drew just an ear, detached from Piccolo's head, and it looked just PERFECT. Why couldn't I draw the same thing on his picture so I could finish it? Very frustrating.

The dream shifted a bit here in an odd manner as it now got LIGHTER outside, even though it had been black out before. Dad was now sitting on the couch with me and I was just being quiet and sullen. A car slowed down and pulled in and Dad said, "There's your mother."

"That can't be Ma," I said in monotone, even though the car had obviously been hers. "She's going to bingo tonight." Then I started griping to Dad about how she'd told me "the numbers were up" (meaning, there's a big jackpot), so of course she was going to bingo. (This happened in real life yesterday morning.) What my mother does not seem to understand about gambling is that when there's a big jackpot, your chances of winning are FEWER, as more people are going to attend! Yet the higher the jackpot, the greater her chances of going there. It pisses me off how much time she spends at bingo, and it was only yesterday that I started considering how much money (her own money, granted) she spends on it, and what better uses that money could be put to. So I believe that's why I was in such a bad mood in this part of the dream.

Ma came into the house, so yes, she was home. It was never explained why she had not gone to bingo like she'd said she would. This suddenly strikes me as odd, based on what happens later on in the dream. Remember that I had this dream on Monday, and my mom's bingo nights (they sometimes rotate) are Sunday, Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday; she NEVER goes to bingo on Tuesday or Thursday, as those are her rotating CASINO nights. >:/ So at least at this point in time, the dream must have been taking place on a Monday. Anyway, Ma came in and I was going to have her do my hair...but suddenly a bunch of OTHER people came in with her! My brother Eric, his wife Shannon (they live in Georgia), and some of Ma's relatives, like her sisters--maybe Aunts Rose, Teresa, who knows who else, she has a very big, chatty, and sometimes dense family. (No offense, but they can be pretty naive on some things.) They all just barged in yapping and demanding Ma's attention! I tried a few times to draw her attention to me, as I wanted my hair done, but I was unsuccessful. I was getting VERY upset! I felt ignored, and I HATE that. :( I was also afraid to get up from my seat on the couch, as I feared some dumb relative or another would steal it and I would have nowhere to sit--a fear which echoes real life, as I no longer attend family gatherings--there is never anywhere for me to sit, people are rude and steal your seat if you managed to get one, and yes, I'm always overlooked after the same three stupid questions ("Are you still in college? Do you have a job? Do you have a boyfriend?"--after I say, "No" to each one, they frown disapprovingly and lose interest in me completely). My hair was still down and ugly looking (I HATE my hair, especially when it's down)...it may not have been washed after all, as I feel it was messy and dry, so perhaps I intended to just skip washing it? In any case I held my arms over my head to hide it from view of my annoying relatives. I could not relinquish my seat, so I couldn't exactly follow Ma all over, and thus I had no way to catch her attention. I felt so awful.

There were some shifts in time here, and now I seemed to have my hair done as I was outside with Ma and the others and I wasn't as upset anymore, though I still was not really involved with them. At one point we were driving north down the highway, I believe, and I looked up ahead. As usual in my dreams I had a vision of something greatly magnified in the sky--it was in the distance and located on land, but seemed much bigger than it could have been, and rose WAY high above land. And it was...the Twin Towers!! O_o There was the World Trade Center, practically in the middle of our highway! It was weird as it was both home and New York City at the same time, yet I never really felt I was away from home. Very odd. "Oh look," I said to Ma, "the city lights are coming on." Evening was falling now and I was watching all the lights come on in the buildings, and the WTC caught my attention. "There's the North Tower," I said, and felt a little puzzled now by what I was seeing. (Probably very slight lucidity--I wondered to myself, "What are THESE doing here? Don't they not exist anymore? I know they didn't rebuild them yet--so have they just not fallen?" I knew they should not be there, on some level, but I could not understand or figure out why they still existed--even though it's obvious in real life what happened, I just couldn't rationalize this in my dream. I figured the fault lay with my memory, not with what I was seeing.) Atop the North Tower, which was on the right, I saw the big TV antenna, as well as some railing and/or construction going on. This confused me. Were the Towers still being built, then? Were these the replacements? I hadn't even known they were so far through replacing them. "There's the South Tower," I said, and looked at the one on the left. Now THIS one showed definite problems. At first it had been standing upright, but now it was leaning WAAAAAAY over to the left, over the highway, in an impossible manner--just CURVING, like a tree branch bent and heavy with ice. And I noticed that it was very ragged and in bad condition, and as I watched a BIG hunk of steel detached itself and fell to the street below. We were still on the Michigan highway, but the street the steel section fell into was in Manhattan, as I could see all the traffic and buildings and such in that little area, almost like I was having a clairvoyant vision.

I frowned when I saw this happen. "That seems rather dangerous," I murmured. I looked around the buildings, thinking that maybe they had cleared all traffic and such away from their bases so they could collapse in a civilized manner, without crushing anything or anyone...but nope, there were buildings built right up to their bases, and they were located right on the street (no water was visible), and there was traffic going right by underneath them. I noticed now lots of white smoke/dust rising from the ground right around them...this meant something, and not fire, though I can't quite recall what it was. It wasn't a BAD thing, I know that...the smoke might have been from the Towers collapsing, or it represented a very small area it was safe for them to fall in, like when workers purposefully implode buildings. Still, I felt this was quite dangerous, for them to be collapsing over a populated, busy area like that. "Why don't they tear them down?" I believe I asked, not expecting an answer.

There were some people with us; who, I'm not sure. At least one was a woman I didn't recognize, maybe a friend of Ma's, and she said, somewhat defensively, "The Towers are beautiful. They're a symbol of New York. We plan to replace them with a structure that is just as fitting, so nobody will ever forget them."

I can't be positive what she said EXACTLY, but that's the only thing I can think of; her response was at least slightly along those lines. I remember I got the feeling that she loved the Towers and she had taken my comment to mean that I did not like them and thought they should be permanently removed.

I held up my hands in my own defense. "I didn't mean it that way," I hastened to say. "Don't get me wrong--I love the Towers. I think they're beautiful, too. And I really want them to be rebuilt exactly as they looked before, though I don't think that's going to happen. It's just that I'm kind of worried about that debris falling right in the street like that...can't they tear them down before they get even more dangerous...?"

We must have headed back home. I was wandering around outside the house now, and my brother's truck was parked near the short driveway, only it was in the area near where the pothole and sandbox are, and it was perpendicular to the driveway, its front facing the house--a very inconvenient position, but whatever. (My dad's vehicle, which is always parked on the pavement where part of Eric's truck would be, was not in sight.) I think the truck was black and somewhat older, maybe with slight signs of rust--not like in real life. (I can't remember what sort of vehicle he really has, though I think it's a pickup. A nice one, though.) Over the truck bed he had some kind of plastic or glass covering, like a dome or shield, which could open up and close over to protect whatever was back there; it seemed oddly shaped (it was not rectangular, like a truck bed, but somewhat rounded/sloped) and might have had some black bars holding it together near the top. I only saw the bottom edge of it. For some reason I had set my pencil, a notebook, and maybe one or two other things of mine in the truck bed (the tailgate was down). At least one of the other objects was like a couple of leaves or something--tree leaves. Roundish or heart/spade-shaped ones, not like maple leaves. They were yellowish since it was autumn (in this part of the dream it was overcast outside, nice but maybe wet from a recent rain); I guess I'd just picked them up because they were pretty. Spotting these things in Eric's truck, I decided I'd better retrieve them before he closed that plastic/glass covering. But I was too late, and they were trapped in the back. :/ Ma was with me, acting all neutral and uninvolved; I asked her for help. "Could you tell Eric to open up that covering so I can get my things out of his truck?" I think he was getting ready to go somewhere, and I wanted my items before he left!

Ma replied with, "You can buy a new pencil."

"Well, it's not just my pencil I need," I said, not bothering to include, "I LIKE that pencil!" "My notebook is back there, too," I said, and this was very important. It looked rather like my little schedule book I have in real life to keep track of what episodes of my programs will be airing each day, though I don't think it served that purpose in my dream; I think I was keeping some important notes in it. Maybe writing notes? Who knows. I really wanted it back. I wanted my pencil and the leaves, too, but I didn't bring up the latter.

I think I reached into the truck bed and managed to pull up the covering just a teeny bit, enough to free my pencil. I believe Eric showed up (he was also acting rather uninvolved and might have been talking with someone over to the side before now) and raised the covering so I could get my notebook, but it was closed again before I could get the leaves and whatever else might be back there. I remember looking at the little yellow leaves trapped just under the covering--maybe right by the edge of it--and resigning myself to the fact that I would have to let them go. Oh well. I could always get more leaves; my pencil and notebook were what really mattered.

At some point in here, though I don't remember how it connected to the rest of the dream, I went walking through the woods (I'm not sure what woods since they didn't resemble ours) with a couple of the others, probably Eric included. Somebody had told a story about how a pit back here was used to dispose of something, some kind of waste product, which maybe was burned afterward. (I think this was influenced by real life, as recently my dad took me to the UAW Family Center where he works, and there were several locations where different kinds of waste were dumped for later disposal--things such as felled trees, sewage, etc.) I spotted what I believed to be the dumping pit on the right. It was overgrown by trees and shrubs but a little opening was visible beneath them. It was very damp and wet and cool out here, and VERY green--not bright vibrant green, but cooler silvery green. The ground was covered with some sort of leafy substance which I cannot name, and there must have been an opening/clearing here as overcast light came in from above, though there were thick trees ahead and off to the sides. I brushed the saplings and such aside to get a better look at the dumping pit and it was very small. After a moment it looked kind of like a trench or something of some sort...do you know how pools will have the shallow, sloping end, then the deep, horizontal end? It was like that, only very small, maybe a couple of feet across and several feet long, not even that. It was not grassy or green, but muddy, like it had just been scraped out of the ground. I knew that this was where they dumped whatever and I wondered if they later burned it, as I think there might have been signs of slight charring on the plants around it--white ashy stuff, maybe. I think my brother was somehow connected with this, so maybe he was the guy in charge of it.

Well, at whatever time, we must have gone back to the house. Somewhere in here I had the thought of going into my room and dancing to "Transformation," a song on the Disney's Brother Bear soundtrack sung by the Bulgarian Women's Choir; in real life I bought this album last Friday and I very much like that particular song as it sounds a lot like Adiemus, a New Age/World group whose music I enjoy. In real life the night before I had not danced to any of my music; in the dream I thought of this song and of something else which kind of put me in the mood for listening to it, so I considered doing so soon. This meant night must be falling, as I do this only when it's dark, in the middle of the night. It was just a passing, fleeting thought.

Back at the house, Ma and I and maybe some others were outside standing on the pavement, doing various things--talking, mingling, whatever. I got bored and for some reason turned and just went walking up the long driveway, toward the highway. I think Ma turned to watch me go and I felt she was going to ask, "Where are you going?" as it was odd for me to just walk off in the dark like that--because now, suddenly, it was DARK out! (Time just made no sense in this dream. o_o ) The sky still had a bluish tinge to it, but if I stepped out of the range of light provided by whatever was lighting up the paved area, I'd be in the dark. This light reached just faintly down the driveway, but it did not extend into the front yard, as it would be blocked by the house itself. Ma didn't call after me, though I had walked off abruptly because I WANTED her to wonder what I was doing. I stopped between the yard and the highway and turned to look north, my gaze going up into the sky. This is where the dream started to get REALLY freaky.

There were leaves on the trees, at least on our big maple ahead and to my left, so now it seemed almost summery. I lifted my head and then started to turn away, when I spotted something odd in the sky. I looked up again and moved a little to the side to see better, as the leaves had obscured it at first. And now, way, WAAAAYY up in the northwest sky, I spotted them--two or three silhouettes in ROBOT shape, like Gundams or Transformers--you know, big mecha humanoid robots! They were just hovering way up in midair, legs spread and arms sticking out and down almost like gunslingers getting ready to draw. They were in a little row, just frozen like that. I knew they were staring down at me.

I let out this short little SCREAM! I knew Ma would hear it, and wondered if she'd yell or come running to ask, "What's wrong?"

For a brief moment I felt kind of stupid for having reacted like that, and...I waved at the robots. I wanted to see if they showed any signs of intelligence! o_o; I've always wanted to see a UFO; well, I guess these qualified!

They had been in perfect silhouette before, but now their eyes LIT UP. And I turned and RAN frantically back down the driveway as fast as I could!!

I dashed into the house and locked the door behind me. (No idea what became of Ma and the others who had been outside.) Then I ran to lock the front door, then went and pulled all the blinds. Dad appeared again, asking in some puzzlement what I was doing. By now I was crying and shaking very badly. I KNEW those robots were bad news! "I can't let them get in--can't let them see in!" I cried, fumbling with the blinds. It was almost like a "Watchers" dream, only a whole lot scarier!

I knew somehow that these robots were part of an alien force coming to exterminate the humans soon. There was never a feeling of ARMAGEDDON, but I was still panicky. It was more the feeling one might get on seeing a ghost and not knowing if it's friendly or hostile, so assuming the latter! Like I said I've always wanted to see a UFO, but I'm pretty sure I'd be freaked out if I did!

Then...there was a very odd but subtle shift in the dream right here. Now it was no longer an alien robot force coming to destroy us...it was the plot of a popular new book. I think I actually wondered, "Oh, so it's not really happening...?" I was looking at a flyer or advertisement, insert, something, featuring different books and among them it had Parts 1 and 2 of this series by this popular author, about a robot force that was coming to attack Earth on...Tuesday. (Remember how it seemed to be Monday earlier on? Now it was Tuesday.) I saw the first two books and felt there was one more, a trilogy. It was almost like a Left Behind-type series. (I have never read that series but I have a general idea what it's about.) Basically these Transformers-type aliens would arrive on Earth, totally expecting to kill everyone off with ease, only for a handful of clever humans to manage to somehow hold them at bay. On reading that this would happen on Tuesday I was very curious, and looked to see if there were further books in the series--I could not find the Part 3. I assumed it was three long novels.

I finally found what I believed was Part 3, only to look more closely and realize it was Part...12? TWELVE? Crap! This wasn't a trilogy, it was a big long SERIES! And they were no longer adult novels but kiddie books, maybe only 60-90 pages or some such. Just slender little things with big type, meant for middle school readers! I felt quite disappointed--I had wanted to read an engrossing trilogy, not a bunch of kiddie books! :/ But that's what they were...*sigh* I remember seeing a blond boy with a bowl haircut on the cover of one. That was another reason I didn't want to read them anymore--while I love series stories, I HATE series books, as I ALWAYS miss some! It would be too hard to keep track of them all as they came out, so I basically said screw it.

But anyway, I continued to browse. I remember reading a blurb about the plot of the books. It said something like, "The alien robot force comes to attack on Tuesday--the most stressful day of the year." This made sense in the dream (even though I briefly wondered if they were statistically accurate). Why? Because the invasion and destruction in the book indirectly mirrored the destruction of the World Trade Center...which of course happened on a TUESDAY. So this part of the dream reflected back the earlier part about the Twin Towers, although in a very bizarre manner. The book summary assumed that because of this connotation, Tuesday was now the most stressful day of the year--and the robots were going to attack on that day.

I believe there were additional summaries for the plots of each individual book, but I didn't get to read them as I think I was losing interest. I had only been interested in the first parts of the series because I still wanted to read the part about the invasion itself; I assumed that happened in the first book or two, and then the rest of the series was spent on how the humans lived as they tried to fight off the robot invaders. Booooring. I was just interested in the JUICY part.

I woke up right around here, for no real reason. I was sleeping on my back and I glanced at my clock. It was ten minutes to when I was going to get up. Yet I was jittery (the sight of the robots in the sky had freaked me out) and cold, so I rolled over onto my left side with a groan and curled up, deciding to wait until my alarm went off before getting up. *sigh* I hate waking up just before the alarm. :/



2003 Dreams
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