Wednesday, August 15, 2007

dream a little dream of me

Some dreams are so strange you have to share them. Last night I had just such a dream.

The strangest part of last night's dream is that I was in it twice. I was there, experiencing the action and then there was another me, the omniscient observer. As the dreamer of the dream, the real me (at least I'm pretty sure it was the real me) could hear the thoughts of both participant me and observer me and, here's where it gets really strange, I was not agreeing with myself.

The dream took place in a tattoo parlor. I had just received my first tattoo. The dream started just as the artist was wiping down the finished tattoo and saying, "There you're done. Do you want to see it?" Participant me went over to the mirror, took a look and was thrilled with the result. I couldn't stop looking at it and saying things like "it's so beautiful! I love it!" The artist was there beside me equally thrilled with his work. "It turned out so well" he said. "You've got an amazing piece of art."

And while the party over by the mirror celebrated, observer me was less enthusiastic. "I got it on my left calf?" I asked. "I would never get a tattoo on my calf, left or right. And it's so big, look it goes almost all the way to my knee and wraps around the sides." Observing me was not impressed with myself. Participant me then turned so that the tattoo was visible to the other me and we got quite a shock.

What the first me and the artist had been gushing over was the worst tattoo I have ever seen. Inexplicably it featured a life-size tube of toothpaste, a few playing cards and a hand written list done in the artist's own hand writing. I think it was a list of song titles. The other two continued to marvel at the brilliance of this piece of ink while observing me went a little crazy in the corner. "I got that?!" I asked myself (although I don't think I could hear me). "What was I thinking?"

It was certainly an odd experience to watch myself celebrate and rail against a single thing at the same time. Three dimensional me really never would get a tattoo on my calf. I'd be much more likely to go with back of the shoulder. And I think it's safe to say that it wouldn't feature toothpaste, playing cards or song titles.

I checked my leg when I woke up, just to be sure.

Photo courtesy of Jawad Zakariya. Used with permission under Creative Commons 2.0 license.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

joseph? joseph! where is that boy when you need him?!

wow, and you waited til 8pm to post that? are you mad?! you coulda lost details!!

anyway, next lunch hour we're all going to the tattoo parlor.

◄4Wa||z said...

Thanks for the laugh Claire,
makes the dream I had the other night seem kinda tame:-)

kelly ens said...

i DEFINITELY want to go get that exact tattoo now.

Marco said...

I'm with Kelly. That is an amazing tattoo.

Unknown said...

I think is that you're worried you'll forget your toothpaste when you move, and that you've been watching too much Miami Ink!

DAve and JAnie said...

I love dreams! Wild! That was a pretty fun and anxiety envoking dream! Great description. Dave HATES dreaming because he says it ruins his sleep and to him it means he slept lightly. To me it is the deepest, dreamiest sleep I could have!
Good look taping up the last of the boxes. I sure wish I were! Isn't that funny, you don't want to be moving and I would PAY to move!
See you soon
love janie

Janice said...

I LOVE this post...too hilarious!!