Dream of a Crossword.

The other night I dreamed I was sitting in my living room doing a crossword.

A Down answer on the very left edge of the puzzle incorporated the numeral 8 in a clue that began to read "GR8..."

And then I woke up.

Dream of a concert.

The other night I dreamed I walked into a dingy lobby of a high-school type auditorium, where there was a fake wood panel ticket booth immediately to the right on the back wall, and some seats set up to the left on the linoleum, facing a few doors through which I could see an auditorium with dirty red fabric seats descending steeply to a stage.

Some people were sitting in the seats, so I joined them.

After a bit, I walked over to the leftmost door, and slipped in without having to pay... The auditorium wasn't that full, but I stood in the aisle and watched as some stuff got set up, and then I walked over along the top row to talk to a few people whose faces I don't remember and who I somehow knew.

As I talked to them, I noticed some stagehands wheeling out from behind a blue-green (but mostly green) divan without arms way down below on the stage, and I notice that Tammy Faye Baker (sp.?) was reclined on it and singing as they slowly moved it over to the left and then up to the front of the stage.

She got up by the front row to talk to people and wave as her song ended, and I waved to her from way away in my seat, and I thought she waved back and may have blown a kiss to me, but I wasn't sure.

Then the people I was next to said it was a great concert and had been going on all morning, and they showed me a paper written out in pencil showing which stars would get ready where for the performance; after one star finished, another would begin somewhere else on the stage, so there was never an empty moment...

I looked, and among the many names, what leapt out at me was "Carole King" written in the middle of a half oval of seats, up on the upper right part of the paper representing the stage.

I found it surprising that so many stars would be in such a bad high school stage, with the wall being of concrete blocks and dirty windows way up on them letting the sun stream in.

Horrible night of chills then hotness.

Two days ago I was at the gym weightlifting for the 1st time in a few weeks (I skipped my weightlifting day last week since I was really tired), so yesterday I woke up feeling like someone had beaten me up with a baseball bat, I was so sore.

I had a nice relaxed evening - no bars, just herbal tea and reading a Peoples Temple memoir at a local, relaxed coffee shop.

I was feeling very tired, so I walked home, and the evening was getting nippy, and so I got chilled when I was a few blocks from home.

Like an hour later when I was in bed, I was really really cold, no matter how much I wrapped myself in quilts and blankets.

I finally warmed up, only to wake up in the middle of the night burning hot, in the middle of all my blankets.

I was up on and off all night, and I never seemed like I could get to be the right temperature...

Like at 4am, for example, I was too cold in just a quilt and a sheet, then I was burning hot, and then cold again.

I was up at 6am for my 8am class and was a bit tired, and other than breaking a sweat on the subway, I seem to be fine, and I've been fine all morning.

I really do wonder what the heck was up with that - was that some weird physiological reaction, or me fighting something off, or what.  For a second there yesterday night when I was shivering I wondered if I had gotten malaria on my trip to Africa.

Sex documentary series: 2 things.

I've kept on going to the sex documentary series as often as I can make it, but it's happening less often (1x rather than 2x a month) and for some reason conversations have been very good and very engaging but somehow less remarkable.

This last one, though, was a showing of a made-for-high-schoolers documentary that clued them in to issues of gender, beginning with expected gender-based activities, and moving into homosexuality and transexuality.

In the discussion, the one (heavier) (white) (S&M) (sci fi fan) girl was saying that she and her friends often say that "geek" is a gender, since to a large extent that it predicts what someone wears, how they sound, and what they talk about.

Afterwards, I was talking with the short, slightly chubby white guy with dark hair, a goatee, and glasses, who does something in computer programming and leads a discussion/support group for submissive males.

"Hey, how have you been doing, [the guy's name]?", I was like.

"Both very good and very bad!", he was like.

"Well, what's the good?", I was like.

"Oh, tons of new relationship energy," he was like, and then he said that he got a new girlfriend, an S&M first-timer named Freya, and both he and his other girlfriend are really excited.

"The other day I got stressed out because between work and running around to see them both I don't have much time, but I get to have a ton of sex with two women I really like, so hey, I figure, what's better than that?", he was like.

Filed a police report before 9am.

So, a few weekends ago, I filed a police report before 9am.

It was a Saturday morning, and I got woken up at 8:30am by some (white) yuppie woman's dog that she left tied outside while she ran in to the yuppie bakery that's now on the 1st floor of my building.

Since this was going on for like 5 minutes, I got out of bed to go to the window to yell like I always do, when I saw the paunchy (white) (I think gay) (probably) owner come outside with a treat to give to the dog...

(I've seen him do that several times, to quiet down noisy dogs.)

Anyhow, when the woman came out - a late 30s (white) woman in black sunglasses and a hot pink spring jacket - I opened my window, and was like, "Hi, is that your dog...?", and I went in to my usual spiel about how the dog seems nerved up and upset, and maybe he shouldn't be left outside alone if he gets that way, etc., when the (paunchy (likely gay) owner just flipped out at me and from the sidewalk began shouting over me, "HEY, SHUT UP, WE DON'T NEED THAT HERE, SHUT UP THIS MINUTE OR I'M GOING TO COME KICK YOUR ASS?  YOU HEAR THAT, I'M GOING TO COME UP THERE AND KICK YOUR ASS!".

Over him, I just said to the woman that she should be ashamed of herself for treating her dog that way, and she yelled at me that she was proud of the way she treated her dog, and walked away, all the while that the owner continued to yell threats at me.

I shut the window calmly, and called 311.  The cop there said that that was a threat to assault, and gave me the report number and said that I'd be getting in the mail a Victim Rights' pamphlet, and to keep the number handy in case I ever got threatened again, because at that point I should call 911 and get the guy arrested.

The guy's reaction was so disproportionate, that I avoided walking by the bakery, and I didn't yell out my window at some (older) (yuppie) mom the next day to have her dog be quiet.  I really did feel intimidated, and bullied...

It goes without saying that I'm not getting my bread there anymore, and I'm def. not going to tutor my one Greek student there every week all summer like I had been planning.

Story of my Grandmother.

I forgot -

Like a month ago I was talking with my parents on the phone, and my mom was like, "You know who I ran into the other day?  [some woman's name]!"

I had no idea who it was, so I asked her, and she was like, "Oh, her and her husband used to own the car lot a few blocks down from the bar, and she had a real distinctive voice and used to drink at home and call into the bar looking for her husband and be like, '[MY DAAAAD'S NAME], IS [THE WOMAN'S HUSBAND'S NAME] THERE?  DON'T LIE TO ME, I KNOW HE'S THERE...'"

My mom also said that years ago, my grandmother and her friend Clara were visiting and went for a drink at my parents' bar, and that woman for some reason didn't like them, and even though she never talked with them, she just gave them a finger from across the bar whenever they looked in her direction.

"Why would she do that?", I was like.

"I don't know," my mom was like.  "Maybe because they dressed so well?  It was kind of stupid, they were all in their 60s."

Bar #s...

Because of an article from a few months ago, I think there are around 1200 tavern licenses in the city.  I don't think that includes restaurants with little bar areas, and since I'm guessing there's maybe 1 of those for every 4 bar bars, my guess is that there's like 1500 bars in the city.

Since I'm almost to 650, this summer will see me hit the halfway point, where I'll have been to 1 out of every 2 bars.