I dreamed that I was in my kitchen with RJ about to call my mother on the phone. A woman answered it and started talking to me, asking me how I was doing, but I didn't know who she was. Then she passed the phone off to some other unknown man. I got irritated because I didn't know these people so I asked them to put my mom on the phone. I asked my mom who that woman was and she said it was my grandmother. In my head (in my dream) the woman's voice played over a couple times and I realized that it was really my grandmother. In my head (in my dream) the woman's voice played over a couple times and I realized that it was really my dead grandmother. Then my mother said that my grandfather (also dead) was there too, and did I want to talk to him? I screamed "NO" and threw the phone, trying to get itaway from me as fast as I could. Then I started screaming to RJ, "My mother has dead people answering her phone now!" After that I had a night terror for like 10 minutes and I couldn't fully wake up. I kept trying to push the phone away from me (even though it wasn't even near me) and I was sobbing. RJ didn't know what to do with me. I was also very hot and thirsty when I finally woke up.

I'm imagining this is because of stress. I had a lot of tough decisions to make recently, and also one of our gerbils (Sonic) died yesterday.

I haven't posted in forever because I no longer live in the city. I completely reassimilated into my country-self and I am quite content. However, today's events are publish-worthy.

When I came home from work around 3:45 I saw a cop car driving around. This isn't unusual for my complex, there is a cop that regularly patrols and keeps an eye on things. I settled down and relaxed for a few minutes, when I noticed there was a second police car, from the next district over, who was now talking to the original cop that I saw when I came home. I am nosey and I like to know what is going on, so I went on my balcony to "water my plants" and see if I could hear anything. All I managed to hear was, "They're still in the woods." Now my interest was perked. I decided to stay outside and see if I could figure out what was going on. The cars separated and the original cop circled the complex quite a number of times. Eventually he stopped outside of my apartment and started walking down the trail that goes into the woods. While he was in there my downstairs neighbor came home and we were trying to figure out what the cop was doing. Of course the cop left the woods after a few minutes, then he came over to talk to us. He said that they are looking for someone and "if a black guy comes out of the woods we should call the police." I have no life and I decided that instead of playing video games like I usually do while waiting for RJ to get home from work, I would sit on my balcony and read a magazine, hoping that I would get to be the neighborhood hero and catch these guys. An hour passed, no one came out of the woods, the cop circled 50 million times and then stopped in front of my place again. He got out and came over to talk to me. I got some more information: there were two men in the process of a drug deal about a half mile down the street at the softball field. The cops spotted them so the guys decided to run for it, leaving their car at the softball field. The cops chased these men all over through the woods, then lost their trail. There are a lot of police from 2 districts using the K-9 units and trying to locate these guys. They have to come out of the woods sometime, right? My conversation with this cop started to trail off onto how long have I lived here, when did I graduate from Buffalo (I was wearing my good old Buff State sweatshirt, yoga pants, and no shoes since I had just finished exercising), what is my degree in...? He said he was hungry and I offered him food, but he declined. He said, "Let me give you my cell number." I thought this was a great idea; that way I could bypass 911 if I saw the men and get a cop directly. Nope, apparently I was wrong in thinking this was his intent. He followed that comment with, "Give me a call sometime if you want to hang out." And at that I said, "Sure," ran upstairs, and almost peed my pants laughing. I cannot wait until RJ (my fiancé!) gets home so I can tell him about this!!!

(Right now there are two cops talking to each other again. It's 7:15.)

After this fiasco gets settled and I have the motivation, I will write all about the FOUR seniors pranks that have happened in the last couple weeks at the school where I teach.