"Watch the Sun Come Up"

Last night after an exciting episode of "Lost", a bit of stimulating conversation, and a rousing game of "Signs", what were left of the Lost Party People (the LPPs) hung out in the front room of the ButterKnife Estates and unwrapped lots of Valentine's Day candies to see what was written on the inside of the wrappers, which were sortof like Valentine's Day fortune cookie messages. Both the first and third that I opened read "Watch the Sun Come Up", to which I exclaimed each time, "No!!" ...I mean seriously, do you REALIZE how early the sun comes up?!? If I have to leave the house at 7:45am (which I do on Fridays), I make it a point to never get up before 7:30!

Well this morning I found myself just about to enter Old Main at about 8:10 heading to my 8:30 class when I glanced at the mountains to the East and noticed that the sun was just about to come up over them. "Who am I to argue with a piece of candy?", I thought, and I stepped off the sidewalk to face the arrival of the sun. It was actually quite a relaxing thing to just stand there for 13 minutes watching and waiting. As it turns out, although the sun "officially" rose this morning at 7:24am, the sun didn't peek over the mountains until 8:23am...I know, 'cuz I was there. Standing there, I became very aware of all of the other people who were bustling to and from classes, as I had just been moments before; I hadn't really noticed them when I was among them...funny how that is.

It had been a LONG time since I'd actually witnessed the sun coming up, and I'd forgotten what it looks like at that moment the sun first appears. The edge of the mountains grew brighter and brighter, and I began to wonder if the appearance of the sun may be a let down and that it would almost unnoticably slide into view with how bright it was becoming along the cusp of the mountains. Maybe I would be standing there, watching, and suddenly think, "Oh wait a minute, it's already up!"

A few professors from my department passed me, discussing how it's a shame how so many professors in the C.S. department only want to teach the graduate level classes. I continued to watch. It was SO bright now. "Is this bad for my eyes?", I wondered, "Is it up yet?" I looks around on the ground...no shadows. I checked the blue part of the sky...no clouds. Nope, definately not up yet. I continued to watch.

A car pulled up and girl got out with an armful of books. She thanked the driver, slammed the passenger side door, and headed up to Old Main. I wondered if she wondered what I was doing, just standing there in the cold. As I had walked up Old Main Hill I'd thought about how cold it was, but now that I could just stand there with my hands in my pockets, it didn't seem so bad.

The edge of the mountain exploded. Golden light shot out in four directions where the mountain had been brightest. This definately was noticable. What started out as a tiny point source of golden light was rapidly increasing in size...it was fascinating how long it took the sun to peek over the mountains, and yet once it caught a glimpse of what was on this side, it wanted to fully clear the obstructing pile of rocks as quickly as possible. A gust of air came from the east as I looked around to make sure there were shadows now...there were. "Excellent," I thought,"what a well spent few minutes."

I climbed back onto the sidewalk, turned, and went to class.

Lost: The Musical...sortof

*** Dreamt: June 30 - July 1, 2007 ***

I was at the performance of a musical being put-on by my highschool drama teacher. In fact, the performance was in my high school auditorium, except that it had somehow been converted into an amphitheater; basically it looked EXACTLY like my highschool auditorium, except that (A) it was quite a bit bigger, and (B) there were no walls nor a ceiling. I have no idea what was supporting the stage curtain or backdrops. Surrounding both the seats and backstage was a HUGE grassy field...it was actually quite cool.

Right before the performance (which was to be of "State Fair") my brother's friend Rachel, who was apparently in the musical, ran out and asked if I'd come up and be in the show because it didn't have a full cast. This was no surprise to me, because the director had often done this to make rehearsals easier, then would grab random people at the last minute to fill in the rest of the roles. I said, "sure" and went up on stage and pretty much immediately the show began.

I don't really remember what happened in the musical, but it was more like "Lost: The Musical" than "State Fair". There was a plane crash, and my character had been hit with some shrapnel in the gut during the crash, so I actually spent much of the first act lying on my back acting as though I was in grave pain. Then the song "The Wells Fargo Wagon" - yes, from Music Man - began, and my friend Rachel came and grabbed me and pulled me up to be her dance partner. I kept trying to tell her that this was completely unbelievable, because my character had some large chunks of metal in him, so he really shouldn't be up dancing, but she insisted that some time had passed so my character was much better by now. We sortof danced off stage and she told me, "okay, I'm going to run out there and you follow me; I'm going to jump up and you need to catch me and lift me up high over your head." "WHAT?!" I gasped, but it was too late, she'd already started cruising out on stage again, so after her I went. We got near the center of the stage where she raised up her arms to her sides and lept up into the air fully expecting me to be there to lift her even higher. Being that I'd never fully caught up to her, however, I didn't quite catch her in time to lift her up. Rather, I just sort of got my hands on her waist and she immediately came back down with me not really doing anything to even slow her fall. I apologized, but she seemed okay with it.

Then it was intermission. I walked a little way out into one of the grassy fields off to the side of the backstage area, and Ferrell Cool (an elderly man who lives up the street from my parents) came over from the audience to congratulate me on a job well done, and even gave me an Halmark 'congratulations' card. I thought it was an extremely nice gesture.

Just then Ray, another older fellow from my parents' neighborhood shouted over to us, but then realized that he'd probably interrupted Ferrell congratulating me, so he kinda got embarassed and apologized, telling us to continue our conversation, and that he'd tell us what he was going to say when we were finished.

I never did hear what it was, though, because I - as always seems to happen at the end of my dreams - woke up.

***

Being in musicals is a rather common dream for me. I'd say at least once a month or so I dream about being in one musical or another. It's interesting to me, however, that it's usually for an impromptu performance, and yet I feel no anxiety over it. This - of course - isn't always the case, as you know if you happen to be one of the lucky people whom I told about my dream where I was supposed to be in an all-french version of West Side Story.

The most distressing thing really about this dream was that the musical was set to be "State Fair." Ugh, if you have never seen this stinker of a musical, consider yourself lucky and steer clear of it. The only people known to like it are those who saw the movie version when they were little kids, and since they were too young to realize how horribly stupid and cheezy it is, they grew to love it, and they still hold a special childhood affinity for it in their hearts.

My favorite part of this dream was how the director was known for not fully casting the musical, then just grabbing additional people from the audience at performance time. Wouldn't it be fun if that's how shows really were? Just think, you Wicked fans, if you went to see your beloved witchy musical, only to find yourself getting pulled on stage before it started to be part of the ensemble!