9:12 a.m. - 2003-09-25
the jewel heist, or, an ethical quandary
coolest dream in recent memory!
fade in from other, less remembered scenes. i stride down a major avenue with a few friends, all on our way to some sort of fun destination, such as a swimming pool or something. somehow as a joke we begin mimicking a parade, complete with ethnically stereotyped "tribal hooting." as we begin scrambling across the quad at top speed i speculate that this would make a good plot for a heist movie, with the parade facade being used to make the switcheroo between the *real* jewels and the fake ones. sure enough, one of my compatriots, the one i can't remember now, is carrying a small jewelry box, and so it seems we are actually *on* a heist!
for reasons i'm not entirely clear on even while in the dream, they stick me with the job of being the getaway driver. the driver's license they provide for me to use reads "emile zoloft" and indeed has a picture of emily simpson that, somehow, if properly squinted at, *might* look like me. this is good enough and we take to the hills, which are muddy and gulchlike but quickly take us distantly from civilization. for some reason at one point we get out and walk. i have a memory here of chelsea (she is one of the principal heisters) swinging around this very large videotape apparatus - apparently she is filming everything as it happens.
there are gaps here. i know that as we round a particular pass, there is a truly spectacular and strange, unreal sunset in the distance, the great red of the sun making a pyramid above the faraway city spires. chelsea doesn't see what's so photogenic about it, and i tell her to move a few feet to the left, and somehow this adjusts the scene enough that now she sees it, and wants to take a picture. i know my stylus is not up to the task, but our other compatriot (a geeky fringe tite pockets sort of character, identity unknown) claims to know much about lenses and says that if we just have a piece of cardboard with a hole in it, we could do it.
somehow this need propels us on to what was i guess our final destination in the first place: a palatial mansion in the mountains, truly decked out. i wander this place for a while. amish trivedi is playing chess with the camera guy. upstairs there are other tite pockets types reveling in the splendor that the jewel heist has brought us all. i have misgivings. i stare out of the multi-paneled ornate window and have a moral dilemma: is jewel heistery the only way to achieve this comfortable life in which i am happy? also, there is a practical dilemma: inevitably, we're going to get caught, right?
it so happens that at just around this time, sarah winchell has decided to leave the premises, and i have a sudden flash of insight, a dramatic epiphany, and i tell her - 'take me with you!' she protests, telling me i don't need to leave...
(wait, i just remembered - there was a HUGE long sequence that involved my photography professor scheduling an exam in the shed out back - but many of the enlargers were missing! consulting with such photo experts as molly i got only shrugs, and the professor just bitched about it. i have no idea where this all fits in the continuity - probably before all of the above heistery)
anyway, i make clear sarah winchell my desire to flee the criminal hideout, then quickly gather my personal effects from the place so that they will not later be traced to me. i make my goodbyes and we head out - and now there is another curious transformation, for a little ways down the mountain there is a security checkpoint to make sure we have not smuggled anything out from the prison with us!
yes, it seems that perhaps the mansion was a prison all along (???). there is much tedium with the security checkpoint - running my camera through a separate x-ray machine, going through my stuff to see what of it's mine, what belongs to the tite pockets kids, and what's dana's (dana having mysteriously replaced sarah winchell). somewhere in here is where the dream ends, and i wake up and realize that i have overslept by an hour... but it was worth it.
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