RKNet Blog... Thing

This morning my mother copied to me via IM an email or a page she had found. Within contains the most complete list of paranoias, hoaxes, wishful thoughts, and general falderall ever generated via email chain letters. It is a tremendously entertaining read and I absolutely have to share with you all. Oh, and if you don’t digg, del.icio.us and put this on your facebook then bad luck and extreme misfortune will infest your pathetic soul for all eternity. Bill Gates told me so. Don’t say I didn’t warn you!

This is pretty cute and I thought you’d get a few healthy chuckles from it. :) I just want to thank all of you for your educational emails over the past year. Thanks to you, I no longer open a public bathroom door without using a paper towel. I can’t use the remote in a hotel room because I don’t know what the last person was doing while flipping through the adult movie channels. I can’t sit down on the hotel bedspread because I can only imagine what has happened on it since it was last washed. I can’t enjoy lemon slices in my tea or on my seafood anymore because lemon peels have been found to contain all kinds of nasty germs including feces. I have trouble shaking hands with someone who has been driving because the number one pass-time while driving alone is picking your nose (although cell phone usage may be taking the number one spot) Eating a Little Debbie sends me on a guilt trip because I can only imagine how many gallons of trans fats I have consumed over the years. I can’t touch any woman’s purse for fear she has placed it on the floor of a public bathroom. Yuck! I must send my special thanks to whoever sent me the one about poop in the glue on envelopes because I now have to use a wet sponge with every envelope that needs sealing. Also, now I have to scrub the top of every can I open for the same reason. I no longer have any savings because I gave it to a sick girl (Penny Brown) who is about to die in the hospital for the 1,387,258th time. I no longer have any money at all, but that will change once I receive the $15,000 that Bill Gates/Microsoft and AOL are se nding me for participating in their special e-mail program. I no longer worry about my soul because I have 363,214 angels looking out for me, and St. Theresa’s novena has granted my every wish. I no longer eat KFC because their chickens are actually horrible mutant freaks with no eyes or feathers. I no longer use cancer-causing deodorants even though I smell like a water buffalo on a hot day. Thanks to you, I have learned that my prayers only get answered if I forward an email to seven of my friends and make a wish within five minutes. Because of your concern I no longer drink Coca Cola because it can remove toilet stains. I no longer can buy gasoline without taking someone along to watch the car so a serial killer won’t crawl in my back seat when I’m pumping gas.. I no longer drink Pepsi or Dr Pepper since the people who make these products are atheists who refuse to put ‘Under God’ on their cans. I no longer use Saran wrap in the microwave because it causes cancer. And thanks for letting me know I can’t boil a cup of water in the microwave anymore because it will blow up in my face…disfiguring me for life. I no longer check the coin return on pay phones because I could be pricked with a needle infected with AIDS. I no longer go to shopping malls because someone will drug me with a perfume sample and rob me. I no longer receive packages from UPS or FedEx since they are actually Al Qaeda in disguise. I no longer shop at Target since they are French and don’t support our American troops or the Salvation Army. I no longer answer the phone because someone will ask me to dial a num ber for which I will get a phone bill with calls to Jamaica , Uganda & Singapore and Uzbekistan I no longer buy expensive cookies from Neiman Marcus since I now have their recipe. Thanks to you, I can’t use anyone’s toilet but mine because a big brown African spider is lurking under the seat to cause me instant death when it bites my butt. And thanks to your great advice, I can’t ever pick up $5.00 dropped in the parking lot because it probably was placed there by a sex molester waiting underneath my car to grab my leg. I can no longer drive my car because I can’t buy gas from certain gas companies! If you don’t send this e-mail to at least 144,000 people in the next 70 minutes, a large dove with diarrhea will land on your head at 5:00 PM this afternoon and the fleas from 12 camels will infest your b ack, causing you to grow a hairy hump. I know this will occur because it actually happened to a friend of my next door neighbor’s ex-mother-in-law’s second husband’s cousin’s beautician… Have a wonderful day… Oh, by the way….. A German scientist from Argentina, after a lengthy study, has discovered that people with insufficient brain activity read their e-mail with their hand on the mouse. Don’t bother taking it off now, it’s too late.-

In this mix, for your listening pleasure, I thought I’d slow things down, and stretch things out a little. Kind of get you all in the mood for some late night philosophy and spooning. I’m too cheap to ply all of you with booze so I thought I’d make you a mix tape, kind of give you a little something to ruminate on before I discuss the merits of an open view of love in this century and bum drinks off you all night. Hope that’s cool, ’cause we’re totally friends right broham?

Anyway, the background image for this tape is Sisters G from Gatochy’s flickr stream. I can think of no nicer image to go with the theme of “everything is better in pairs”. Except for maybe some extra-adorable mittens, but it’s Spring now and no more of THAT! Anyway, for the sake of not writing all over the lovely ladies’ faces, I just titled the tape “Pairs”.

Pairs are exactly what you’ll get on this tape. Let’s explore the contents, shall we?

1. Jesus and Mary Chain - April Skies
• I listened to this song the other day on the way to work and it improved my mood like nothing else could at that very moment. Music to soothe the savage neurotic.
2. Jesus and Mary Chain - Darklands
• The second J&MC track is one of my favorites. “I wanna move, I wanna go, oh I wanna go, do-do-de-do-do-doo…”
3. Donovan - There is a Mountain
• Heard this on the radio the other night and thought “WOW, Donovan was on a lot of drugs“. Pure listening enjoyment, here.
4. Donovan - Epistle to Dippy
• I went with one I’m unfamiliar with, to avoid the folly of ignoring deep tracks. It’s got a bit of a Velvet Underground feel. Check the pedigree though!
5. Jonathan Richman - Satisfied Mind
• I chose this track because it’s a classic (1955 by Porter Wagoner), and Richman’s treatment of it is a great introduction to his style.
6. Jonathan Richman - Springtime in New York
• Truth be told, all I can think of when I read this is Stephen King’s The Wastelands. It’s all those dreams about NYC they have.
7. Cocorosie - By Your Side
• Takes a helluva woman to offer to wear someone’s black eyes. I love the way they layer sounds.
8. Cocorosie - Butterscotch
• Why DOES butterscotch taste so good? Dig the sweet singing and electronic rooster noises.
9. Harry Nilsson - You’re Breaking My Heart
• The guy who wrote “one is the lonliest number” says fuck. Several times. AWESOME.
10. Harry Nilsson - Moonbeam Song
• From the sounds of this song, you can see where he fits with Richman and Donovan. Rich metaphor paired with a bare-hearted, literal approach combine for maximum enjoyment.
11. Jeff Tweedy - California Stars
• Just Jeff and the guitar singing a lovely tune from Mermaid Avenue that was originally penned by Woody Guthrie.
12. Wilco - Jesus, Etc.
• Rounding out this mix is Jeff with the rest of his usual band, Wilco, in a tune off of Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. The opening violin reminds me of Yoshi’s Island.

I hope you all enjoy this! What are some of your favorite pairs of songs?

Editor’s Note: This is a direct copy of a stunning email sent by one of my brilliantly hilarious co-workers recently. Some items have been redacted/changed/edited to protect various information out of respect for their overall privacy.

Hey Hey Hey!….

It’s that time again:

no, not for that!…..

yea, thats what im talkin about, more micheivous,

BUT A LITTLE LESS FUCKING SCARY!!!!

some kids might see this.

NO! I’m Serious!

th- , that’s, b-, better?

ok, well, anyway, it’s page writing time. a little fun with 400-5. if any kids are seeing this now, dont try this at home. only for the seriously jaded.

just to make sure you’re qualified,

there. if anyone is still reading after that, youre obviously jaded enough. you may continue.

Your mission, should you choose to use your god given talent, is to write about,

this place.

where is that you ask? Spain! obviously!

Looks like youre gonna need a bit of brushing up before you get going here,

uhm, yea.. if you think that will be helpful.

but I was kind of thinking….

yea, more like that!

It might help our readers too, if you want to talk about what you learn. So in case they go to Spain, they dont look like a victim….

Especially in the lower regions….

I kind of meant, lower regions, of Spain…

yea! You know, Lower, Regions of Spain, like, Costa Blanca, Benidorm, Alicante, that sort of thing. You know, where you can find,

Stuff..

And do all sorts of cool stuff, like,

cut yourself…

Or not!

I mean, some people prefer just reading; theres something for everyone in Southern Coastal Spain.

Just take a look at this site:

[redacted] - You can write a whole page for this site! Check out what this guy has! Get inside his head…

What does he think on average?

How does he want others to see him?

or…

How does he see his site?

How does he want viewers to see his site?

Find out his fears, what he eats, where he sleeps and where he shits…..

What are his motives?

How do people get away with this where children can see?

What are people looking for when they move to Spain?

Maybe a rental so they can explore the country before they move there?

Or do they just want what everyone else wants?

You’re the wheel(wo)man here, Its kind of up to you and your judgement. Im counting on you. And anyone else who gets this message. If you want to, and youve made it this far, maybe submit an article, and we’ll have a contest for which one I send. (j/k Amy, there is only you)

On his homepage, hes putting “…rise in tourism, and hotels and rentals[sic] , which may be a good way for you to explore the country before you move here”.

So, hope that helps…that is, if you need some idea of an angle before you go in….

You can write about this:

or this:

Maye even both. Maybe one of those lower coastal Spain regions like the Costas, “have something for everyone, whether you’re into beaches, or eating zebra carcass.” type deals.

Either way,
I believe in you.

you’re a crack agent.

Again, not quite what I meant, but thats ok. Youve never let me down before.

Except that time,

But hey, I’m over it. That was years ago. Now I just want you to take your creative style, and show me a page like no one’s ever seen before….

yea.

s’what Im talkin about….

totally edgy and unique.

Completely fresh, and without label…

not given to societal norms.

way out in edge city

Like, completely defiant, cuz no one understands.

And no one ever will.

Got it?

k thx bai!

<3

While covetously staring at the ATP Festival site, I noted the following announcement:

An extra date has been added to the ATP Festival featuring My Bloody Valentine.

There are still tickets available, from what I can see, but they probably won’t last long. They’re 25 pounds each (approximately 48.95 USD according to xe.com) and absolutely worth every penny.

And because the brains behind ATP can’t be satisfied with taunting me with just one absolutely unmissable show, they’re also heavily promoting a large, multi-act show. Pitchfork is assisting in curating this show, featuring the likes of the mighty Ween, the soothing sounds of Sebadoh, and the always enjoyable Of Montreal.

The details of the festival itself make all the US festivals I’ve read about look tragically bourgeois and haphazard by comparison. For your festival ticket price of 140GBP (274.07 USD), you get:

The event is held in a holiday camp so your ticket includes a pass to the festival + 3 nights chalet accommodation which is self catered and has private bathrooms and private bedrooms, a kitchen with cooking facilities and a lounge with a colour TV. The TV has one channel programmed by Pitchfork and one by ATP.

~ ATP Festival Website

To put that in perspective, VIP treatment for the Gathering of the Vibes cost $385(USD) and was still basically camping, unless you were lucky enough to have a camper of your very own. Campers are not cheap items by any stretch of the imagination, and neither is a quality tent set up, so staying comfortably for the entirety of the festival was by no-means cheap. The festival was held in a very large public park, which - to the best of my knowledge - was not set up for camping.

Doesn’t really stack up, value-wise, with the proposed admission/accommodation deal ATP has to offer if the information provided in the FAQ is to be completely believed. Unless I win the lotto, knock over a liquor store, or find some kind of sugar daddy (or momma, I’m flexible), I’m not going. If any of you are, be sure to take lots of photos and share. If recording is allowed, encouraged, or doable by way of l33t skillz, please do.

You can hang out there as long as you want. It’s just dark. Take long, slow breaths because the air is very thin. It makes it hard to re-arrange the car if you’re light-headed, afterall. The thin air is going to give you killer drymouth, too, so be prepared to step back into the oxygenated area from time to time and grab a swig of water or - better - juice. There’s simultaneous instances of gravity and no gravity, and the assignment of these states is completely arbitary. You can unhook a car from another car, swing it (gently so you don’t hurl it off into The Black) and hang it from a hook where it will float while you stand firm upon a platform with no visible means of restraint or support.

This of course doesn’t have anything to do with the fact that my toe was dark purple, or that I had a large lump in my side that had a hair sticking out of it I just couldn’t tweeze. It was secondary to some of my other concerns, like the big storm that was coming. It was however pretty shocking that my toe could be that livid shade of plum without hurting and awful lot. Still I had bigger fish to fry like checking to see if I left anything besides stuffed animals and some random tchochkes in the safe in the hotel. Nope. A quick step outside to ask Kento to update my blog or something for me. (Where did Jay disappear to in all this? He was just in the room a minute ago. I don’t remember what he was doing though, preparing for something I think.) We climbed into the car and somehow Ian was driving from the passenger’s side, not following directions and not really paying attention. When he missed a right that threw us off course, with cars piling up behind us is when I demanded the keys. We had to get out of town before that huge storm hit.

Synopsis of totals available behind the cut:
Radio Rock: 1
Country: 2
Psychobilly: 1 (I would like to see Unknown Hinson in either country or Psychobilly. He’s great, you should google him and check it out!)
Pop: NA
Emo: NA
Original Emo: NA
Ambient: 0
Chillout: 5
Indie: 5
Metal: 0
Metalcore: 0
Hardcore: 0
Post Hardcore: 2
Grindcore: 0
Doom / Sludge / Experimental: 0
Powerpop: 2
Punk: 1
Pop Punk: 1
Street Punk: 0
Crust Punk: 1
Rap: 0
Hip-hop: 4
Ska: 0
Classic Rock: 12
90’s Alternative: 6
Industrial: 2
Electroclash: 2
Electronica: 2

My heritage wins out overall. If any bands are missing from my listening loop, please, fill me in! I really only checked off artists I either have albums for, or have a strong familiarity with. Which means there are several in these categories that I “sort of” know, but not enough to stand behind them for the purposes of this survey. Read the rest of this entry »

Wednesday -

Walked all up and down the strip. The shuttle from the hotel dropped us off at the Tropicana. We milled around uncertainly, then decided to just start walking. A lot of the routes are very roundabout, but we managed to make it over to the MGM Grand without too much trouble. We milled around in there for quite a bit, and wound up making dinner reservations at Shibuya. Once that was taken care of, we wandered off in search of more adventures.
If you don't mind doing a hell of a lot of walking, the on-foot route up and down the strip is actually quite enjoyable. Minus all the timeshare presentation solicitors, of course. It's funny, I went on vacation to get away from salesmen for a while. I found myself confronted with several, and not on a strictly conversational/business level either.
From the MGM, we made our way down and breezed into the Hawaiian Marketplace that's hosted by Polo Towers. I stopped in this little Japanese-run shop called Yokohama Okadaya and bought a little purse so I could go out without my jacket. (The weather is really too warm during midday to warrant a leather jacket.) From there we walked to Aladdin, and I convinced Ian to peruse their shopping arcade with me, since I noted they had a Sephora and wanted to check it out. Didn't end up buying anything during that trek. There were a lot of really high-end designer shops, and if I were richer and thinner I surely would have gone into a couple of them.
We went past Paris Las Vegas and their reproduction Eiffel Tower. I have no idea if it's a completely to scale replica or not, but I'd assume it would be.
We popped across the street to the Bellagio, which had several more high-end designer shops that I didn't patronize, and a gallery of fine art that we really should have gone into.
We left there and got close to Caesar's Palace, but only to each grab a lemonade with tequila and midori. It was extremely refreshing, given all the walking we'd done. It doesn't look like much on the map, but to get most places, you have to go from casino to casino, and that involves circumnavigating their pit to figure out where the restaurants, shops and exits are.
After our lemonade, we decided to head back in the interest of not being late for our reservations. One of the sister casinos to the one next door to us, Barbary Coast, was past our route, and it looks a fair sight older and in poorer shape than South Coast.
We made it back early and exhausted to the MGM, and decided at right around 5:30 to see if the restaurant would take us a bit earlier than our 6pm reservation. Luckily they were happy to accomodate, and we had what is probably the best dinner of our entire lives to date.
We had our napkins laid in our laps for us, a book of sake selctions before us, and a menu that was appointed with some of the most elegant choices I think I've ever seen. We had not one but two servers, really. We ordered a carafe of Tengumai sake, warmed, although we were cautioned that most of their selection of about 150 kinds of sake was better served chilled. When the miso soup kicked in we finally overcame the shock of the decision-making process, we got an appetizer of sunomono, two kinds of seaweed and eggplant. The eggplant was a little funky, but the rest was beyond good, and I found it hard to keep from just constantly stuffing my face until the food arrived. He got a tray of vegetable maki, I got a tray of crab, avocado, and mixed greens. They both came in modest portions, but it was all so good I had a difficult time keeping a respectable pace yet again. The sake ran out at the same time the food did, which worked out nicely, since the sake paired with the food in a way that was indescribably fitting. We each had a glass of chilled plum wine, served in snifter-like wine glasses. This was perfect as it allowed the wine's aroma to really sock you right in the face when you went to sip. He got some banana-rum flambed crepes. I only had one bite and decided that I didn't care for it overly much. It wasn't bad by any means, but it wasn't what I was after at all. I got a selection of little sorbet scoops. There was peach, apricot-ginger, lychee, and a dark red berry. I adored the berry, and the lychee was almost like rose water sorbet instead. The apricot-ginger wasn't quite my speed, so I left most of it for Ian, and the peach wasn't quite as distinctly fruity as I'd hoped, but it was very good either way. Total for the whole experience with tax and tip? About 150$. Granted it took quite a chunk out of our vacation funds, but it was more than worth it. Again, were I a richer person, I'd be going back there on a regular basis.
The rest of the night was spent wandering about. We made our way over to Excalibur, whose one redeeming quality was that they had a bar right inside the door. This was a relief because it took a great deal of walking just to get inside. The arcade was shockingly devoid of Joust, or any interesting games for that matter. They had 3 DDR-knockoff machines, one of which was working (and occupied).
We left there and made our way to the Luxor. I really really like the architecture and the decor of this place. Although as a pretty hardcore RO player, I kept expecting a mob of ancient mummies to jump out and attack my face. XD The shops with all the neat egyptian junk were just starting to close at that point, so we decided to see what the story was with the shark show at Mandalay Bay.
My suggestion is not to walk to Mandalay Bay from the Luxor. We did that, not knowing there was a shuttle AND a tram between the two locations. After discovering that the Shark Reef thing is cheap, we vowed to return at a more appropriate hour and decided it was time to hop the shuttle back to the hotel. We took the tram from Mandalay to Excalibur and popped across the street to the Tropicana to wait. I misread the schedule sheet and we had a half hour to kill, so we went inside the Tropicana from a side entrance and wasted some change on the slots. That was pretty much that.

Yesterday -
In the interest of resting all our worn out body parts, we opted to pretty much just stay in. We went next door, had breakfast, got booze, came back, grabbed a movie from the front desk, and settled in. I can at this point recommend watching White Noise. I didn't know it had Michael Keaton in it. That's almost always a selling point of a film for me. :) I cannot, however, recommend Red Eye. Cillian Murphy should really be ashamed of himself for this blah, short, basically pointless film. My theory is that Wes Craven decided to try his hand at a 24-like situation. He failed.

Today -
Since we napped away a good deal of yesterday, it was about 3am when we decided it was time to go have breakfast. We went back to the same cafe we'd had breakfast at before to take advantage of their Graveyard Shift specials. That was the most food I've ever eaten for 2$ in my whole life. Awesome.
No clue what's on the agenda for today, but I suppose that sitting here isn't getting me any closer to anything awesome. I want to try to hit The Palms today, and hopefully the art gallery at The Venetian.

I am enjoying my vacation well enough thus far. This from the girl who is wretched at taking vacations (as some of you may well know). Still, let me outline some of the more memorable notes before I vent about the horrible nightmares I had last night.

Pros and Cons of Delta Song flight 2047 from Boston to Las Vegas
Con - Plane was an hour late in bording, an hour and a half late in arriving, meaning I didn’t get to Vegas (did I mention I was going to Vegas by the way?) until about midnight.
Pro - I got a Cosmo (of sorts) some really nice fruit and cheese, and got to watch Adult Swim during the flight.
Con - I was in the middle seat, poor Ian is too tall to fly in anything but first class, and there was a guy in the window seat. Result: I was one squished little passenger.
Pro - For 5$ I got to play Bookworm for most of the flight. 5$ is way too much for a shockwave game on a touch screen that doesn’t work very well, I know, but for me it was totally worth it.
Con - I didn’t have room to take my jacket off and it was hotter than blazes as a result. (Finally managed to divest myself of it before the end of the flight, thank god.)
Pro - There was a way to monitor the progress of the flight via a series of general flight data and satelite mapping. It was pretty cool.

The airport itself in Vegas was a little unimpressive, although mum was right about the slot machines right in the terminal. That was just nuts. The cab ride was pretty standard, and I overpaid the guy because it was really frigging late by my standards. Although I did groggily note that I had offically seen a palm tree in person for the first time. Unless I saw one when I was in Florida and just spaced it off. Okay, so it was the first palm tree I ever remember seeing, how’s that? Blah.

The hotel couldn’t find our reservation, at all. Still, the night crew managed to get us into a room and up we went, to the 12th floor and our nicely appointed hotel (timeshare) room. Is it a suite or a condo if it’s got a full kitchen? Either way I’ve got lots of pictures to upload and I’ll be posting them separately.
The drama continued into what felt like the following day but was really the same day. After lots and lots of phone calls, and still more phone calls (mostly on the part of Ashley I’m sure, I <3 you!!) it was finally all straightened out.
I had some of the best mexican food I’ve ever had - that is not just the 2 strawberry margaritas I had talking - at this restuarant in the casino next door to the hotel called Baja Miguel’s. If you ever find yourself in the vicinity of the South Coast casino/hotel, I strongly recommend paying them a visit.
Anyway, aside from some general stress that was all RCI’s fault, I am really enjoying the Grandview. The staff has been really helpful, the room is really pretty, the view is pretty cool, & I look forward to hitting the pool and the gym at least once while I’m here. I do have to remark that the bed has the expected “unattractive hotel bedspread”. Still, I can’t complain when there’s a freaking jacuzzi bathtub not 20 feet away from where I’m writing. Haven’t fired that up yet, but I so totally will.

I think today we’re going to hit the Strip and see all the huge pretty buildings. Unless I mis-read the flyer, the Natural History Museum is there, and I freaking love those kinds of things. So does he, so it’s a really good idea we pay the place a visit. I’m pretty excited about the whole thing.

Now it’s time to get cleaned up, wake the boy-o, and as my google talk sub-title states get “my freaking vacation on”.
Peace!

I dreamt about vampires and serial killers and dragons. I dreamt some crazed bitch tried to kill several people, myself included, with pencils. What was disturbing, is that she attacked, we all blackedout, and came to with pencils sticking out of our chests. This in and of itself was bothering, BUT with the added twist of my cat, my Ducky, staggering up to me with a pencil buried at least an inch and a half deep into her below the collarbone. I pulled it out and looked at it in horror and disgust, and she snuck away hopefully to someplace safer.
There was confusion, I guess I was a vampire, I ran outside a room and blocked the doors to keep people glowing purple from killing me with swords.
Dragons started to appear from somewhere and began to kill any of my kind who were exposed. I ran into some juice bar with Kat, fretting over the exposed nature of the windows and hid under the counter. It was totally empty, but people started flooding in and at some point in my hiding I was asked for a ticket. I didn’t have one and after some serious bitching, I fled, running into some kind of hotel stairwell. I ran into several actors who were characters in this farce. Couldn’t tell you who all. I was just looking for someplace underground to hide.

I found this area that seemed secure, there were strange crates and stuff everywhere. I remember sorting through shaped eraser thingees (like the kind you’d get as a kid in school, only way stranger shapes). I remember Jay going out through this huge blast door thingee with some kind of box, he was in hiding too. I regretted not telling him that I cared about him before the door was shut, and I worried that it might be a sign that he’d be taken. There was strange sorting of egg-crate-looking thingees.

At some point after all that I woke up, feeling like crap because I stayed up too late watching movies.
Pi and The Day After Tomorrow, respectively.
There were some cinematic similarities between the movies and the dreams, but that’s the only connection I draw.
I wanna know why Jay keeps showing up in the more epic dreams I’ve been having. I so rarely dream about people I know.

The other night I dreamt that Ash got a phonecall, and grabbed me right away. Ian was in Texas being held after some kind of something went wrong. Texas was for some reason only a 4 hour drive, so we got all our shit together, and me, Jay’n'Ash piled into my car and headed out. For whatever dumb reason we had to drop off movies or something, so we made a stop in this plaza, it was ill-lit and there were people I knew from the mall and other such places acting very strange. I got sort of lost just in this one lot, and we wound up behind what I assume was Care Pharmacy. There was this major downgrade leading to a bridge that looked almost like it was constructed from popcicle sticks, that’s how secure it looked. It was sort of like 4 bridges stuck together side by side. There was only one older man down there picking his way across. The bridge was blocked by some signs stating it was unfinished and brown paper bags with candy in them. It had started snowing and I was a bit nervous. I’m pretty sure this is the part of the dream where Jay gave me shit from the back seat about my driving. I basically told him to shut it, and went down. I drove down, but when I got to the bridge I was walking (alone) and I moved the bags, taking some baggies of carmel creams as I went across. After I got across, it was back to the car, and we were finally headed towards the highway exit. I was like “95 south, right?” and Ashley told me it was actually 95 north I wanted to take, strangely enough. I did, and it was a twisty-as-hell exit, narrowing as it went, and it went on for some way. I wound up at these train tracks, and a trestle, which I climbed across, and went down a short elevator, only to realize that there was no way this was going to work at all. So I backtracked long enough to see the highway down a short embankment, and I thought that if I walked back up the highway, through the exit, and then back to my car, I could figure out where I went wrong. I scrambled down to find myself knee-deep in snow, trying to avoid cars and get back to the side, because I’d gone too far. Off to the side, things started to appear, first movie props and then models of cities that might have been. Some kind of voiceover, or maybe it was internal monologue, started explaining that these were the remains of ancient civilizations. I ended up entering a cave filled with water that was only shin deep or so, and there was someone at the entrance carving a boat, and the interior of the cave was huge, and had pictures painted on the walls. I remember thinking that Ian would just love this, apparently the fact that he was in Texas being held captive or soemthing was no longer an issue. It was about this time it either transitioned into another dream, or I woke up. I remember telling a mostly-asleep Ian about it, and he said that A) he forgot most of it as soon as I finished telling it to him, and B) I should write it down. So I’ve written it down, and it’s still weird.