5 Jul 2025
Dream
I was with my parents in a large house. I didn’t recognize this house, and the outside world looked like a pretty orange desert with cacti. I was collecting books to return to the library in a dark bag. Some of them I hadn’t read, or tried to read but didn’t like. Mom and I left, her driving, to head to the library. Before we left, we heard that several neighbors financial info had been hacked, including our own. I wasn’t concerned about myself personally because I have so little money. Mom and I stopped for gas when Dad called, asking us to come home. He told us calmly that compromising info had been released about him, and we needed to figure out what to do quickly. He was calmer and kinder than he would be in real life about such a situation. He said that the hacker could be traced to a chicken coop at a neighbors’ house, and the hacker had gotten key info about several wealthy folks in the area. I told Dad Mom and I were 15-20 minutes away (Google Maps in the car said 16), which was a longer delay than he wanted, but that’s all we could do. I spoke clear and honest but comforting words, and watched Mom clean the outside of the car with an angled sweeping brush and water. Mom and Dad and I were briefly back in the house, and then I stepped outside where a few people were standing very still and at odd angles on the street. I didn’t know them, but recognized something was wrong. I was wearing a backpack for much of this dream and here the backpack felt prominent, like I was just more aware of it. One of them was a blonde woman with partially braided but mostly loose hair, her back to me and her head turned, gaze fixed on the road. As we walked further, more folks were pouring out of their homes, and there was a huge silent march on the street. Everybody was quiet and shocked and aware of the futility of their situation and reaction to it; whatever had been lost, which was lots of money or info, was irretrievable and the damage had been done. We joined the march and tried to understand the chant, which appeared to be a plain, sardonic “Ha Ha Ha” imitating a laugh. I saw a thin spotted grey dog refuse attention or food from its owner and run counter to us, dark eyes squinting. I asked Mom twice to put a sugary pink drink in a Chipotle cup inside my backpack, but for some reason she couldn’t or wouldn’t. I resolved to dump it out and get water inside, still carried in this cup. We followed the silent and troubled crowd into a stadium, where there was an impromptu concert with a famous male singer on the piano. His song was troubled and sad but consoling because it was music during a disturbing time. When we entered a row to sit down, the seats looked like huge brown lazyboys, and the crowd was filling in. A couple white adolescents with brown hair and expressions of consternation, a brother and a sister, sat in the row such that my parents couldn’t all three of us sit together. The siblings acted strangely and moved to accommodate us, but they were slow and something was off in their demeanor and movements. Around this time I woke up.
I remember another part of the dream where I was deciding whether or not to wear low rise jeans that reveal my buttocks, and Mom asked me if I wanted to wear the lower tighter pair, which revealed my buttocks while standing up, versus a more conservative pair that showed my buttocks when I sat down. I decided on the ones that only exposed me when I sat down, and Mom endorsed this choice, and I recall putting on a T shirt and flannel and devising how to expose myself to a passing car, which I didn’t end up doing. When I went out to do this, I recognized the side of my childhood home and the area that connects our lot to the neighbor’s driveway.
For most of this dream I felt a little confused but extremely resilient and knew how to think and what to say. I was not afraid.
