That one time I sang with MoTab

It's been a really long time since I have posted one of my weird dreams. To be honest, it's been a long time since I've had one that I remember. And I have not one to tell you- but TWO!

This first one was an amazing nap dream!

A couple of weeks ago I dreamt that I was going to general conference with my sister and nieces. While were standing in line I suddenly remembered that I was in the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. Wait, was I? I couldn't remember. I remember trying out, but did I make it? I needed to call my friend Katie. She would know. She's in the choir.

I racked my brain trying to remember if I was in the choir or not. I remembered going to a couple of rehearsals so I must have made it into the choir. Oh my gosh. I hadn't been to a rehearsal in months! Would they still let me be in the choir? I had just forgotten to go. And eventually I had forgotten that I was in the choir at all. Why didn't anyone ever call to check up on me? Did they not care? Or was I making it all up and I really wasn't in the choir?

I left my family and ran through the conference center trying to find the prep rooms for the choir. The general public I imagine does not have access to those rooms so I had no idea where they were. I just went down corridor after corridor. I finally found them and when I was stopped at the door I told them, "I'm a member of the choir!... I think..." I didn't have my name tag with me to prove anything. Someone had to look at a roster and I was indeed on the list.

General Conference was moments away from starting. I didn't know where I was supposed to sit. I had never had a fitting so I didn't even know if I had a dress! They tried to find me a dress but one had never been made for me since I was not there for rehearsals. The lady with the clipboard told me I would have to sit this conference out and maybe next time I would be able to sing with them. I was so sad. My first general conference as a member of the choir and I wouldn't even be able to sing with them.

So I had to try to track down my family who I had told to go find seats. Again I went through room after room looking for them. I ended up in a production room, you know, where the director sits and tells you which camera angle to use. I wandered through hallways and eventually found my sister sitting out in the hallway. I asked her where our nieces were and she said they'd found a place with some people they knew. I asked if there was a seat for me. But there was no room. I went from having a choir seat- to having no seat at all.

The second one I had last night and woke up from this dream.

I was at a work retreat. We were in the forest. There was a Native American demonstration going on when suddenly a child was stolen from the group. We had to work together to find the missing kid.

We hadn't realized it was part of the retreat. As we went through the trees we came across this arena and there was a big plastic statue of a man. He was on kind of a teeter-totter thing- at the bottom. at the top appeared a super fake looking Yeti-Sasquatch thing, all white and covered in fur. At the command of the person in charge, the Yeti was let loose and it rolled down the slant of wood toward the plastic man where they were to engage in some kind of fight. That's when I knew this was all fake and part of some elaborate team building thing. Whatever.

As the Yeti made contact with the man his face (the yeti's face) melted off and there it also became another man.. so he'd been defeated and the man inside the monster was unleashed? I don't know. I just know that the next part of the training was that we were to follow a trail to an unknown destination. It started out as a trail of pennies in the snow. We hiked out until we were in a field and it became a trail of painted Native symbols. Some of us went faster than others, but we had to follow the trail as it  twisted and wound around. even though you could see where the trail went ahead, you still had to follow it like a maze.

I got ahead of a lot of the group. People kept joking around and cheating. I hate cheaters. So I just worked alone and followed the trail through the field. I led to a neighborhood. It was now a trail of pins. I followed it into a house, through several of the bedrooms, bathrooms, upstairs, downstairs and back outside. Into another house where it became a trail of stringed black beads. Again, through nearly every room in the house, upstairs, downstairs, bedrooms, bathrooms, kitchens and so on. In every house I went through the type of trail changed. Beans, beads, buttons, push pins, tacks, furniture tacks... you name it, i followed it. And no matter how small the curve of the trails, I made sure to not miss one single trail marker.

This went on for miles. For hours. Finally I came to my mom's house and my boss was there. I asked her if it was almost done. "Keep going". I ran into the instructor in the dining room and asked him how much further. "I think you're about half way there." Ugggghh. really? only half way? But I kept plugging along. In the very next room, my mom's kitchen, the fish wire that I was now following went into a big plastic tub, like a plastic jar that whey protein comes in, and in the bottom of the jar was the spool of fish wire. Was I supposed to pull out the string and undo the whole spool?

Ain't nobody got time for that! I just reached in and pulled out the spool thinking I would  follow the next piece and move on. But there was no more. The spool of fish wire was the end of the trail. In the bottom of the bucket there was a paper. I pulled it out. It was a check for $50. What? I asked the instructor who was just around the corner in the dining room what this was all about. He explained that there had been donations made from several organizations for the winner of the trail hunt. I looked in the jar again and there was more paper. Some of it cash, some were more checks- some personal checks that had been hand written, others were big cashier's checks.

They hadn't announced it to us, but the winner of this little exercise would receive a "cash" prize of $4000 and I had just won it! Whaaat? That was amazing! I dug in to pull out the rest of the booty...


and woke up.


You don't need to tell me I'm bonkers. I already know.

Fired. Hired. Promotion. Homeless.

Somewhere in the world there are people who are afraid of Friday the 13th. I'm not talking about the movies, but the actual date. Triskaidekaphobia, the fear of the number 13 is a real thing. (not to be confused with the fear of Tricuits) I am not afraid whenever a Friday the 13th rolls by. I mean, I'm always reminded of that one time... well... let's just say that I will never look at Cocoa Puffs the same way again.*

There are a couple of dates that make me nervous though. Oddly enough there are no 13s involved. The dates of September 15 and 16 make me break out in a cold sweat. These two dates are infamous in my personal history. They are either really, really good. Or notoriously bad. I never know what kind of day it's going to be.

This weekend is the anniversary of getting fired from the bank. Bad... but also kind of good. I hated that job but being fired always sucks. And I probably would not have left of my own accord so for my own good I had to be forced out.

It's also the weekend that I got hired at my current job- which I love. so good thing!

A few years later it became the anniversary of when I got my promotion to my present title at work- which has been an amazing change for me and allowed me to be more active at church and meet new people and get involved in things I couldn't have done while working in the ER.

And today is the one year anniversary of losing my home. I'm still so angry about that I don't even want to talk about it. It's not very Christian to hope that Karma comes round and kicks that lady in the face and removes what's left of her teeth. I know I'm supposed to forgive- but some things take a little time. There is no where in the scriptures that says you have to forgive RIGHT NOW. I'll forgive someday. But at the moment I still mentally flip her off whenever I drive past her house.

BUT then again, it's been a good thing because I was super comfortable there and probably would never have moved on. So being forced to move on has put me in a place to meet new and awesome people and make new friends. I'm still homeless. And house hunting is the biggest........ pain. So many houses looked at, offers made and rejection after rejection. 

And all of these things happened on these dates. Getting fired, getting hired, getting promoted, being homeless (alright.. not homeless in the I'm-living-on-the-streets sense, but in the I-don't-have-a-place-to-call-my-own sense)

I mentioned on Facebook today that I can usually tell what kind of day I'm going to have by the song that is stuck in my head. A lot of times I wake up singing Zip-a-dee-do-dah or this song...

I can be a morning person if I want to.  

Then there are days where I wake up and have stuff like Moves Like Jagger ricocheting through my brain.. I don't know. I don't even listen to stuff like that. I don't listen to the radio at all. I don't know where it comes from.

This morning I woke up with a Phoebe Buffay song stuck in my head. One of her more depressing ones. It sounds chipper at first- but then has a very morose second line. I wondered what kind of omen that was for the day. For the weekend.

One friend suggested something about finding beauty in the world as well as thinking about the darkness of her message... which led me to thinking about this weekend of impending doom... or delight. I made it through the first day of the weekend- mostly by hiding in my room. There's still a whole other day so I'm not out of the woods yet. But hopefully this year will be a neutral year. I don't need great things happening all the time.. but I'd really like to avoid the disastrous ones, thank you very much.

Oh, it is also my Sister's birthday. Happy Birthday, Lisa!

*For the truly curious, when I was a teen my friend had a sleepover that was cereal themed. We all brought a cereal that we'd never tried before. One girl ate a whole box of Cocoa Puffs and then that night she threw them all up.. in my hair... that was the Friday the 13th that will live in infamy.