Falling bricks

My family and I are inside of a large brick building. There are hundreds, if not thousands, of people inside. At equal intervals, sliding metal gates scroll down from the ceiling, cutting sections off from other sections.

The gates malfunction and come down hard, and I scramble to locate all my family members and to keep them together in the same section. I want to get out of the building, but everyone thinks it's fine -- it's just the gates and everything will be fixed soon. No, we have to get out of the building now.

I finally convince them to leave. We go outside and are right in front of the building, and I don't feel safe there. If something were to happen, we'd be crushed by the bricks. So I tell them we have to move back. Back. Back farther. Still farther. All the way to the very back, as far away as possible.

There's an earthquake and the building shakes but stays together. Then, half the bricks come tumbling down, crushing hundreds of people both still inside and just outside. Then it collapses completely and hundreds more die.

We are safe. Every last one of us is safe, way in the back, out of the way of the bricks.

How did I know it was going to collapse? they all want to know.

I was just afraid it might, and it did, and I went to each of them and hugged them and thanked them for listening to me.

Windows

Someone rings the doorbell and is standing just out of sight when we approach the already-open door. I slam the door shut and run back to my office, noticing the window is open. I desperately try to close it and finally get it closed and the shade down, when I notice the entire window is coming out of the window frame, leaving a huge gap. Cold air is rushing in. I frantically turn out all the lights so that if the person from the front door has come around to the side, they won't be able to see in while I struggle with the window.

The window is always open. No matter what I do, it's always open.

Bears on a tree

I look up at the huge tree and notice dozens of pine cones hanging from it. Then I look closer and notice they are moving, just slightly. Then one drops to the ground, and I watch in amazement as a baby brown bear unrolls itself, shakes itself off, and takes its first step before lumbering off into the woods. I look back up at the tree and the rest of the baby bears begin to fall from the tree, all rolling around and frolicking, then skipping off into the forest.

So that's how baby bears come into this world, I think to myself. I wonder if that means Mama bears give birth to pine cones.

The bride

I'm at Disney World. We're walking around inside the park when I suddenly notice a voluptuous woman with long brown hair running toward us, by herself, in a wedding dress covered in red dots. The bodice has small red dots all over it, while the rest of the dress is covered in much larger red dots. I realize it's a Disney-themed wedding dress, and I smile and congratulate her as she runs past.

The realm

There are two realms of existence that are represented by a building, like a long shopping mall. One end is for those who have passed on, and one is for the living. Those who have passed on have a gatekeeper/watcher who helps those who are new, and almost acts as an events coordinator. I'm a small child -- boy -- who has passed, and I have no idea what's going on.

I notice that most around me are couples, either parent and child or husband and wife or siblings. There are pairs everywhere. I also notice that some of the pairs have scary scars running the length of their bodies and they're constantly arguing. Loudly. I begin to think that maybe they killed each other and are doomed to bicker for all eternity together. I start to get a little scared and uncomfortable so I start to wander toward the exit of the room, which is the entrance to the living side of the mall. The door has glass panels so you can see the other side easily. It looks like the hallway at one of the casinos in Vegas, full of people. I decide I want to go to that side, and I understand I am allowed to because no one will see me, but that those who are living cannot enter the back room.

I turn the handle of the door and push it open and am given some papers to bring with me -- similar to paper dolls, only much larger. Carrying them is a burden. I've only taken a few steps when a man approaches me and I'm shocked that he can see me. At first I assume he is alive, then I notice his eye is messed up and I think there is a hole where it should be. He looks at me and there is urgency written on his face but he doesn't speak  -- can't speak? He grabs the papers from me and throws them in a large trashcan in the middle of the hallway, then takes my hand and begins to run.

He's leading me through the throngs of people, then turns a corner into an adjacent room that has windows and a door. He stops and looks at me again for a moment, then starts running for the door with me still in tow.

I'm not afraid; it feels like somehow I'm running toward freedom and a better place.

Unprepared

I was at work and was leaving to be picked up and taken to an after-school event for my son. Since I had a ride, I decided to leave my purse at my desk at the office so I wouldn't have to carry it around.

I walked a ways to a local shopping center where I waited and waited over an hour for the ride from the friend to take me to my son but it never came. I even saw other people I knew but didn't ask to ride with them because I didn't want my ride to arrive and find me gone, which would have been rude. I eventually realized it wasn't coming and everyone else I knew had left long ago, so I went inside a local business and borrowed their phone to call a cab. The cab dispatcher kept me on the phone for an hour, telling me the rules and how the ride would work, and one of the rules was that he would need his payment immediately when I arrived. Then I remembered I didn't have my purse, and the office was now closed and locked and my key to the office was in my purse, so I canceled the cab.

We recently canceled our home telephone number to save money since we always use our cell phones anyway, but it took several minutes and several tries to remember my husband's cell phone number (usually I just selected his name from my cell phone contacts) so I could ask him to come get me. He was very put-out, since he would have to cancel some long-held plans, and it would take him an hour and a half to get to me, then to drive to where our son was, and then two hours to get home.

I wandered around the shopping center while I was waiting for him and then realized I didn't tell him where to pick me up at the mall, and I had no cell phone for him to call and ask once he got there, so likely he would never even find me.

I was cut off from my family, my son was abandoned (unless someone had taken pity on him), and, because I had left my purse at work, I was completely unprepared for the turn of events.

I felt hopeless, and wandered aimlessly around the shopping mall for days and days, hungry, cold, homeless.

The jogger

J and I are driving down the rainy road, when a huge branch of a tree appears in the middle of the street. I point it out and then notice a woman in a pink top is jogging right next to it, seemingly pulling it along with her. Then she falls, hard. We swerve around the branch, coming to a stop in front of her and I quickly get out of the car to make sure she's okay and to see if she needs help. A bright white light appears on the other side of the branch, and then she screams at me to get lost; she doesn't need my help.

I turned around and got back into the truck, thinking, You're welcome.

What did you say?

I'm at work, but it's the end of the day and I've just changed into a long, beautiful party dress for some special occasion. As I'm about to walk out, my boss calls me in to her office and is talking to me about something very important. Meanwhile, I'm twirling and admiring the dress, and then suddenly realize it has pockets!

My boss finishes speaking and I look up at her with a huge grin and say, "I'm sorry, I didn't hear a word you said. My dress has pockets!"

Cats

I'm eating lunch out in an open courtyard with some family members and friends. Out of the corner of my eye I see a man riding a bicycle pulling an ornate train box-car type of cat house -- with the sides all fitted with glass so you can see the cats frolicking within. There were 11 of them. The bicyclist stopped at our table and just stared at me.

The bug and the squirrel

There is a bug in my ear -- I don't know what kind, and I'm not sure I want to know -- and I'm begging my father to get the tweezers and take it out but he is busy and I can't find the tweezers.

And we have a pet squirrel who is running around getting in the way of trying to find them.

Left out

I was given a prominent role in a relative's wedding. Just before the ceremony, I was told to go look for the bride's parents, who hadn't arrived yet. I went out to look and didn't see them, and by the time I came back the ceremony was almost over and I didn't get to participate. And the bride's parents were there already.

Tom

I won a contest with the prizes being millions and millions of dollars, and Tom Hanks being your butler for one day.

He helped me fold my laundry.

The address book

I had a tan tri-fold leather address book, but when I picked it up and opened it I saw the inscription in capital letters, "IAN MCKELLEN". Somehow our address books had gotten mixed up and I had his and he had mine.

Space shuttle safety

I can see the space shuttle outside my window. It's not being used; it's just sitting there basically in storage. There's a storm, though, and it is getting worse and worse, and it looks like people are starting to get worried that the shuttle will get damaged. So they strap it to a plane, the plane takes off, and the shuttle disconnects and goes into space. All to keep it safe while the storm surges below.

John Deere

My husband and I are walking around a strange city, when we come across the entrance to John Deere's headquarters. We walk inside and notice immediately that in addition to it being a place of business, it's also a huge hotel. Evidently this allows the business people who come to John Deere for meetings to have a place to stay that is the most convenient possible. We take a seat in the circular lobby and start people watching. A business woman dressed in white is saying goodbye to a young, blind man who obviously was there for a job interview. She smiles and shakes his hand, and turns around and walks away. The young man goes to the sofa just across from us and, after sitting there for a few moments, looks over at us and starts a conversation. So I think to myself, "He fooled the woman who interviewed him! He's not blind!"

Then we walk back outside into a run-down, empty carnival-type place. Imagine Disney mixed with a state fair and a circus, but abandoned. It was super-creepy seeing clowns with their heads dangling, dark buildings, and dust over everything.