dream

Last night we were talking about dreaming in Spanish, and I had to say that I hadn’t done it yet. As if to prove something, though, I then went to bed and dreamt in Spanish:

David and I were living in Houghton, except it was sort of Buenos Aires, with Argentine people and colectivos. We lived at opposite ends of town and I had to take a colectivo up and down the rolling hills of Houghton to visit David. I spoke some Spanish on the ride over, but somehow I kept switching to English, merrily talking along until I realized that nobody could understand what I was saying, at which point I would apologize and switch back to Spanish: “lo siento – no sé que pasó!”

David’s aunt lived next door, and we were taking care of her house for the weekend. Unfortunately, we forgot to close the front door and a large, aggressive gray squirrel came in and spilt blueberries all over the floor. I was the one who discovered this and had to try to scare the well-fed, not-very-afraid animal (a little larger than gray squirrels in real life) out the door.

Apparently I left the mess for somebody else to clean up, because the next thing I knew I was biking home dangling three or four full grocery bags from each hand/handlebar. Have you every tried to do this? Turning corners is tough.

Making up for having left the mess in David’s aunt’s house, I stopped at the nursing home next to my apartment and held the door for an old woman who was hobbling back home. As soon as she was safely inside, another old woman appeared, then another. It was looking like I’d be there for some time. Then along came a woman who was unable to go in the regular door. She asked me to open the heavy, metal door (like those on walk-in freezers) used to bring large shipments of meat to the people in the nursing home. The step up into the meat storage locker was shorter than the one by the normal door, and it was easier for her joints. A friend was with her, helping her in. “She does it this way, every day,” her friend told me (in which language I’m not sure).

I knew these women were making their daily pilgrimages to the bathroom (across the dark alley on which I lived). It was their one excursion of the day. Suddenly I felt terrified by the prospect of being old, stuck in a nursing home but for one painful trip outside each day. How could I possibly take such a life!!?

I woke up in a panic.

previously there was free-dom
afterwards you have ya viene el 20

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