05/02/04
Congratulations, It's A...Giraffe
There was more to this dream before my memory picks up but that's forgotten by now.
For some reason I was somewhere, probably with somebody, and I was watching as a giraffe gave birth. o_o I don't know if it was on TV, if it was live or recorded, or if we were there in person. It seemed to be either on a screen or through a window. The giraffe was in perhaps a zoo environment; I remember soil and maybe grass, and it was overcast and drab out. The giraffe lay down somehow, probably bending her legs beneath her, but with her head and neck still in the air. I believe someone or maybe more than one person was with me, and I think somebody was assisting the giraffe as well. I think a man was with me. We stood here watching as first the baby giraffe's head and neck emerged from its mother's body.
I knew that delivering a baby with such a long neck couldn't be very easy--in fact I think there was some difficulty involved at the moment--so I felt tense for the poor giraffe. One of us asked the other, "Should we make her stand...?" thinking that maybe if the mother giraffe stood, she could give birth more easily than lying down. Right now she was giving birth to the baby on the ground.
Before we could really decide if this should be done--I think the person assisting the giraffe pretty much knew what they were doing--the rest of the baby came out. Now this is odd because I had already seen the head and neck emerge, but as I watched the rest of it come out...it was like it was a breech birth, coming out hind end first. But for some reason this didn't present a difficulty. I saw the body of the baby giraffe, with its legs folded against it, just slide out of the mother, plop, just like that, as easy as anything. I sense this baby giraffe was probably about as big around as a good-sized dog (and when I say good sized I mean BIG and ROUND), not counting the legs and neck, of course. I was surprised by how easy the birth had been, and how quick; the mother giraffe didn't even seem to be in distress.
As for the baby itself, I was impressed with it as well. It was born with all its fur and spots and its eyes wide open and clear, and it had this stiff, light-colored, bristly mane on top of its head or down its neck. And despite the slippery birth it was almost completely dry already, without very much goop at all, as if it had already been cleaned. We watched as it lay there looking around for a moment, then it started to stagger up to its feet. It had those big soft dark eyes that all giraffes have, and I was impressed with how quickly it got up and going, even faster than most hoofed animals do. The only thing that bothers me a bit in retrospect is that aside from giving birth the mother giraffe didn't seem very interested in her offspring's well being--she didn't clean it or suckle it--but maybe that's just the way giraffes were in this dream. Nobody else seemed upset by it, not even the baby.
After watching this I and whoever else was with me headed back to this sort of gift store that I knew I had been in earlier, looking at various things. I remembered I had seen a giraffe charm in there before and now I felt compelled to buy it as a sort of tribute to the baby giraffe's birth. I don't remember if I intended to keep it or give it to the giraffe or its caretakers or what. I just thought it would be a nice gesture. This gift store might have been an extension of the "zoo" or whatever the giraffe lived in; it was somewhat spacious if well stocked, with lots of shelves and rotating stands and such. I think there were windows all around it but it was overcast outside so the lights were on inside, and the walls might have been wooden paneling and the carpeting dull brown. Not the best looking place, but it wasn't there for looks. Whoever else had been with me wandered off while I tried to find the charms I'd seen earlier. I think of Dianne B. (old school friend) for some reason so maybe she showed up briefly at some point.
I had trouble finding the charms again, but at last I located them and then had to find the giraffe one. Aha! There it was. These charms appeared to be roughly cut out of some sort of hard orangish material, maybe like coral or shell; they were kind of flat and curved, not very thick, so they seemed like shell of some kind. Not the most sophisticated; they were carved in a sort of primitive native style, like cheap paua-shell trinkets you can find anywhere. I took down the giraffe charm from one of the rotating shelves (the kind you spin around to see what's on all sides); it was perhaps three or four inches high. It was in profile, I think facing the right. I noticed it had a very small dark blemish, perhaps on the neck, but sensed this was part of the natural coloration, plus this seemed to be the only giraffe charm there was, so I took the giraffe with me and turned to the counter, which was right behind the rotating stand. It was a long counter spanning almost from one side of the store to the other; I think the entrance was behind it--ahead of me--and just to my right. I believe the sign said the giraffe charm was thirteen cents--a pretty decent buy--so I started looking through what money I had with me, in my coat (?) pocket.
I had a bit of trouble with my money, as usual. I believe I started to seek out thirteen cents, but then reconsidered. What about tax? What if that was only a sale price and it in fact cost more now? Well, then I would have a little more money on hand. But it still could not cost an incredible lot. I think I decided on having like fifty cents or a dollar ready. I started looking for quarters; all I seemed to have was a handful of change. I remember perhaps a few dimes and nickels and maybe a penny or two, but I put those back and the quarters were what I focused on. I tried counting out four of them, I think; I planned on going up to the counter with several quarters, handing them over, and then receiving appropriate change. Better to have too much money than not enough ready! I might have changed my mind about how much I should have on hand, as I remember sorting through my change and picking out the quarters at least a few times over. I was being very compulsive about this; I wanted to be perfectly ready to pay.
Well, that was easier said than done, for when I went up to the counter I believe somebody else had gone up ahead of me and it seemed to be taking quite a while for them to purchase what they wanted. I stood and waited and waited. Maybe the total wasn't ringing up right on the register; all I know is there was some trouble and I was getting antsy. I think there were two cashiers at the counter so I finally went to see the other one instead. I believe they were women. Ma might have shown up but I can't remember much more. I don't remember the actual process of buying the charm, but I guess that I did; I seem to remember that the listed price was in fact right, so I would have more than enough change to pay for it. I really wanted to honor this giraffe for some reason.
I can't help but think that at least the second part of this dream was influenced by real life, as yesterday when shopping at Wal-Mart I tried to return to the checkout to help Ma unload the groceries, but a woman with two noisy kids pushed into the aisle right in front of me so I could not get in to help. I entered from the other way and listened to her issue ultimatums to her kids while we unloaded the groceries, until she finally gave up and went to another aisle out of impatience. Ahead of us was another woman just finishing bagging her items and she was EATING some sort of fruit right there at the checkout, before she had even paid for it. And the cashier herself was rude, as when I tried to pull a bag off of the rotating bag stand to put it in the cart she spun it around right as I was doing this and nearly took me and the bag with her. After leaving I felt incredibly angry and frustrated with the rudeness of all three others at the checkout--while Ma herself stated she had not even noticed the actions of the other two shoppers.
Videotape Jockey
This dream was DEFINITELY influenced by my recent real-life frustrations with Cartoon Network's programming changes to their Toonami and Adult Swim lineups. In real life, Toonami used to run weekdays from five to seven PM; it's Cartoon Network's habit to air programs with minimal commercial breaks, leaving about a five-minute span of commercials between each program. When recording I utilize this five-minute break to switch tapes and prepare them for recording the next show. Likewise commercial breaks were easy to predict as they usually occurred halfway through the program, so all I had to do was check about ten minutes after starting. Well, when Toonami moved to Saturday night, primetime, I discovered that they had changed their approach and now chop the programs into smaller pieces with MORE commercial breaks, and run the episodes almost to the hour--leaving NO commercial breaks between them, thus practically NO time to switch and prepare tapes for the next recording! I have to literally stand at the VCR and swap tapes like a DJ tossing records or something. Add to this the fact that my dad is usually trying to watch something at the time, PLUS I have to monitor the program to pause out the ever-unpredictable commercial breaks...and you can see why I find this change very frustrating.
Well, I guess I was thinking about the Saturday night lineup a lot in my sleep, for I had a dream about it. Ugh!
In the dream...it was nighttime, dark outside, and I was of course getting ready to record the programs on Toonami. Now, the Adult Swim program changes for its new Saturday lineup (which starts after Toonami, at 11 PM) are not nearly as frustrating, as they still have the one commercial break halfway through, and the five-minute pause between programs--but Toonami does not. It was the same in my dream. This was quite realistic here as I seem to remember the specific times 10 PM and 10:30--which in real life were the exact times I had to record Toonami programming. The thing is, in my dream I believe the two programs in question, Dragon Ball GT and Gundam Seed, were reversed, so Gundam Seed aired first. I'm pretty sure those were the programs in my dream, since I recall looking for the GS tape and thinking, "Do I already have a tape started, or do I start a new one?" I think I ascertained that I had to start a new one--either that or I couldn't find the original tape, because I looked around a lot, then started trying to find a blank tape to record on. And I just had no luck whatsoever! I knew I had some blank videocassettes--and in my dream they were sitting under the picture window, on the floor. Yet when I went to retrieve them I noticed that it was raining very hard outside, and the wind was blowing the rain horizontally at our house. For some reason all the paneling and wall and stuff around the windows in my dream was of some sort of offwhite, coarse substance, and it was old and worn, for water was getting in and my tapes had gotten all wet! I picked one up and tried to salvage it but it was just soaked and I did not want to put that in the VCR. Frustrated, I complained aloud to Ma about the bad state of the house around the windows, but all she could tell me was that we didn't have the money to repair it right now. I sensed it had been that way for quite a while, since in real life our house is...ehh...and we aren't in the best financial situation to do anything about it.
I knew Ma could do nothing to solve the situation, I'd just been complaining aloud as I was upset. My program was going to start soon and I had nothing to record on! Of course there were LOTS of tapes stacked around the VCR, but those were all my other in-use ones for different programs that I record. (This is true as in real life.) I then got the idea to recycle an older tape upon which I had recorded something just for one-time viewing--I have some of those, with episodes of Law & Order or random cartoon movies and such on them. It wasn't the best solution, as I feel that a tape that's been recorded on already is somehow "tainted," but it was all I could think of. Like one previous recording will ruin a tape? I rerecord the same things over and over anyway! So I went to dig through the stacks to see what I could find. Such tapes are usually labeled "blank" or not labeled at all, so those were what I checked in the VCR. One of them had some sort of Batman cartoon movie on it--I remember seeing some emblem of the Joker with a hat pulled down over his eyes, smiling or laughing wickedly--and I knew it was an animated Batman movie I'd wanted to see. (Maybe The Killing Joke or something--in real life long ago I read about how violent this particular cartoon was and it made me curious. (Note--I looked it up and I believe the cartoon I'm thinking of is in fact Batman Beyond: Return Of The Joker. Definitely NOT The Killing Joke.)) Well, that could go. I think I started recording over it, or maybe it had been recorded over already...all I can say is that first it showed the beginning seconds of the Batman movie, then it switched to a newer recording of something else for a second or two, then it seemed to go back to the Batman movie, as if I had started recording over it before and had changed my mind. Whatever.
Now I felt I had to get ANOTHER tape--maybe for Dragon Ball GT? I started looking for another one. I looked at one of my Big O tapes for some reason--I would not record over one of those, so perhaps it was an older Big O tape, one I'd abandoned? (I tend to "abandon" tapes that have permanent glitches in them, and rerecord the episodes on a new tape.) This doesn't make much sense, since I would easily leave a permanent glitch in Big O, as I don't care for that toon much; but DBGT is a different story--I would abandon a glitched tape of that and start a new one. So there's no way I'd use a glitchy tape to record that. Maybe I was going to use the Batman tape for DBGT and the old possibly glitchy Big O tape for Gundam Seed (a toon I don't care for nearly as much as DBGT--I even record them in different modes, standard play (high quality, fewer episodes per tape) for DBGT, superlong play (low quality, more episodes per tape) for GS). WHATEVER! I just know I needed TWO tapes, which seemed to be a Batman movie tape and an old Big O tape, to record Gundam Seed and DBGT. At one briefly insane point I even considered recording both shows on the SAME tape, at the same speed, and sparing myself all the trouble of flipping tapes around, then quickly abandoned that thought. Of course I would never do that!
*gasp huff pant* WELL...I guess I got the tape ready and some time passed, then I looked at the clock and it said...10:00!! CRIPES! I started to panic and got the remote and put the VCR in the right recording mode, just KNOWING I'd missed the beginning of the cartoon (Cartoon Network occasionally starts its programming early, and I like to catch EVERY SINGLE BIT of the shows, from themesong to end credits--it's okay to miss part of the themesong, but nothing else). But I was surprised to see that they were just starting the themesong when I started to record--*whew!* So I guess that recording went without a hitch. Oh, except maybe one. I seem to recall that I wanted to pause out the commercial break (I do that on the SP recordings, not usually on SLP ones), but when I changed the channel back to the cartoon I saw that the commercial was already in progress. I paused it anyway, and considered stopping the recording, rewinding to the beginning of the commercial break, and then resuming recording as soon as the program resumed, but then thought, "Nah." Yes, all of this really DOES go through my head when recording. I'm obsessive-compulsive, obviously. -_-
Some time seemed to pass and for some reason I guess I had removed the tape--maybe the program ended earlier--all I know is I looked at the clock again and--10:30!! CRAP!! Thankfully again they seemed to be in the midst of just the themesong, but this time I think I had trouble getting the tape ready. I had to make sure it was at the right point in the recording so as not to record over the tail-end of the previous episode. And I somehow got caught up in checking the tape. I didn't seem to get overly upset by this, so either I ended up recording my show just fine and the rest of this took place later, or I just didn't mind anymore, as tends to happen in dreams.
In any event, I believe this was the tape I started watching. The old recording, I believe (if this was in fact the same dream and the same tape), was some sort of funny videos show. I can hardly remember it anymore but it seemed to be footage of this old guy in a black rubber wetsuit and a younger guy (can't remember what he looked like) going into some water--it was very pale aqua-colored water, maybe in a tank/pen or enclosure for whales or something--and then the younger guy got attacked by these dark fishlike things. They were quite weird looking, almost like sunfish--just big chunky-looking fish, all head, no slender body--only they were black or very dark without distinguishable features. Maybe slightly bigger than basketballs. There were at least three or four of them, maybe more, and as this younger guy stood in shallow water (maybe just past his ankles, or to mid-shin) they swam up around his feet and then I think they might have knocked him over and started nibbling on him or something while the guy yelled and flailed. I don't think they could really hurt him, though he was freaking out, and the old guy in the wetsuit was just standing by watching. I think he had warned the younger guy to beware of the harmless-looking fishlike things earlier, yet the younger guy paid him no heed, and this was the supposedly funny result. The older guy might have been kind of like Jacques Cousteau; I don't remember him laughing, he just stood there and watched with this rather neutral "I told you so" look. Me, I was partly amused by this, partly fascinated, but another part of me felt sorry for the younger man--"Why doesn't that older guy help him?" I wondered.
Ma appeared in the dining room or some such, and I started waving at her frantically. "Come here and see this!" I exclaimed. I really wanted her to view it too, for some reason. She took her time, as she wasn't quite so interested, but I impatiently waited. I might have rewound the tape so she could see the whole thing. She also might have started to turn away before the video was over and I had to tell her, "Keep watching." Then I think it's like we were there and this was really happening right in front of us, this poor guy getting attacked by these dark fish things in shallow water with the old guy just standing off to the left and watching, but I don't remember for sure.
2004 Dreams
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