Tag Archives: downtown

Once upon a time, I married a woman and then I walked around downtown

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I dreamed a bunch of weird shit the night before last (and didn’t write about it until now because THE NOVEL is taking all of my writing time). I know normally dream posts are annoying, but seriously? They were so funny and weird that I think you’ll appreciate them.

In the first dream, I was getting married. I blame Jess and Sarah, because they were talking about wedding dresses on Twitter the other night. Anyway, in the dream, I wore this impossibly weird dress. It was made out of doily fabric that looked papier mached, and I have no idea how I got it on. The wedding was inside some house, and everything was ready. I walked down the aisle, and at the end, instead of Michael, was this chick.

She was pretty, I guess; the wedding veil didn’t really let me see her face. She wore the same kind of dress I wore, only quite a few sizes larger. I had no idea who she was.

We said our vows, and then everyone came to congratulate us. “Thank you,” I said. “I’m so happy. But I wish I’d married Michael.” Then people started getting ready for the honeymoon and saying that we should get ready. All I could think of was, I have to have sex with her? I don’t know her!

Just as I started to panic over that, the dream changed and I was in a kitchen with Sandy. We had to go to the hospital to go visit someone, so she and I left and started walking all over downtown. Except downtown was different, and we got lost. And chased by boys on bicycles. Who weren’t actually chasing us, you see. We ended up in an alley with these new, still drying concrete steps a few feet above our heads. Sandy jumped up to get to them, and since I’m a scaredy cat and don’t like to climb, I just stared anxiously up at her.

“Come on,” she said, and disappeared. I had no idea where she went. I grabbed a chunk of the wet concrete and the pieces of her journal from high school that she’d found, and went back to the house.

Her kids and a bunch of other kids were there, waiting for me, so I started rounding them up and brought them to a part of the house where they could play. There was this really small baby who could walk and talk, and then Sandy magically showed up.

“I went to the hospital,” she said when I asked her where she had gone.

Then suddenly I was standing outside of the house I’d gotten married in, wearing a normal dress and standing next to Mike, who wore a tuxedo.

“Your limo’s here,” someone said. “Enjoy your honeymoon!”

We got into the limo and rode off to our honeymoon, whatever that was.

And then I woke up* because I really had to pee.

I don’t know what happened to my new wife. I’m kind of worried that she might come after me for the whole $10 I’ve got to myself.

*Cliche, because I save all of the not cliche for THE NOVEL.

Girl anachronism

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It’s that time of year again. That clean scent is back in the air, daffodils are popping up everywhere, and it’s raining, raining, raining. I’m not awake enough in the morning to remember an umbrella, but as I was walking the block from my parking lot to our office building I was suddenly overcome with nostalgia for our downtown library (which is, ironically, right across the street from my office).

When I was little, the highlight of my week during the spring and summer was when Mom would take us downtown. She scraped up change out of a yellow plastic cup she kept on top of the fridge and we rode the bus to the Green. We walked from the Green to the library, which was my favorite place. I could have anything I wanted, if only I just took the time to look for it. I basked in the old scent of the books — no scent compares, even now — and the wood shelves. I could get lost in those rows and rows of books. I fell deeply in love with the library and my little plastic library card.

After we picked out two or three books each (sometimes more), we would walk to Dominic and Pia’s, a little hole in the wall pizza place that has been around since Mom was a kid. They have the best pizza in the world, hands down. Just go ahead and try to change my mind. Dominic and Pia are an Italian couple. The entire restaurant is run by family and has gained its reputation strictly by word of mouth. There is barely ever a free table, and the little place usually has a long line during lunch and dinner. (I actually just recently went there for lunch with my parents, and both Dominic and Pia were still cooking. They’ve got to be in their seventies or eighties by now.)

When we were finished eating (which was always awesome because it was one of the few times we were allowed soda), we would walk back to the Green and ride the bus home. We’d spend the afternoon reading our new books and looking forward to the next trip. Those are the days I will always think of when I envision happiness, safety, love, and fun. Those are the days that will always immediately come to mind whenever I think of my childhood.

What’s your favorite childhood memory?