Random collection of travel dreamage.  Considered going somewhere by bus or train, but didn't go in the end, I guess. Also, hung around a fairground area; was going to go see a specific exhibit, but waited too long (saw one guy and his friends apparently sneak in but not really as it turned out).  People were breaking down that area.  Might have been 'balloons' (shades of missing the balloons being up at a balloon festival a couple of weeks back).

Was wandering the grounds of my childhood home, but there seemed to be a bunch of people there who weren't usually there, now or in the past.  I went down near where an old barn, now a foundation, used to stand, feeling as though I might be able to fly or float, if I will it hard enough. It was almost as if I might be trying to 'run away' from the people up in the house.  However, I was soon distracted by seeing one of the neighbors (with a few helpers) from the next lot over fell a tree, which fell onto our land, whereupon they trespassed and proceeded to start butting the tree up.  I dithered, wondering if I ought to confront them but not willing to just go do so, when a bunch of the people fro the house came trooping protectively down to confront them. I kind of sighed mentally in relief, as they'd do it, but at the same time I felt a bit foolish - of *course* the trespassers had to be confronted - so they wouldn't just assume they could do that the of thing.

As the group came down and around me, I saw that a workplace co-worker (my workplace's CIO, who shares space with the library operations) was one of the people coming down.  I also noticed the on-going conversation which included the CIO's opinion that this was a nice little plot of land; would make a nice little farm if it were managed that way (it never was a proper little farm though there was gardening and chickens when I was growing up). We were suddenly all also sampling cheese and thin, lacey crackers, I think.  Almost as if a preview of what could be done with the place. Products that could be created and sold.

The trespassers had been sorted, I suddenly noticed - they were gone, but the cut up tree trunk was there.  Not sure what the outcome was -whether  they left and we kept the tree for it being felled on our side, whether they would come back later and take part or all of the trunk, or whether hey'd just outright been run off.  

 Bit shaken after having become aware, earlier tonight, of an internet friend's passing, over a week after it happened. (It didn't help that LJ dutifully reminded me of his birthday just the other day...obviously no response to my unknowing well wishes.)

Though we never met in person, he'd been a followed friend since early in the Internet era, in the mid-nineties, with much fun having been had with the Doctor Who fan gang in #drwhochat, the IRC channel he'd founded. We were an eclectic, diverse bunch, and very open and accepting, all with a love of Doctor Who in common.

While I haven't followed the fortunes of all the regulars from there since IRC stopped being a Thing, I did keep in touch with a number of them, including some who made the migration to Face Book, as George had.

George Solana (Drake online) didn't get out; by that I mean that over the years, while he met at least a couple of the IRC gang when they were able to drop by and visit him in Florida, he never got out to meet the majority of the denizens from #drwhochat in person.

Even so, the salutatory effect that his creation of #drwhochat, a sort of virtual Doctor Who-themed Callahan's Crosstime Saloon, had on many of his fellow fans cannot be understated.

You done good, Dragon. Thanks for creating the place that helped hold all that fellowship and all those memories.

Virtual though you remained to most of us...your presence *will* be missed.

Interior Wanderings.  Got into an elevator in a building, going up to what I thought was my job.  However, it was a 'laboratory', not my current job at all. Got the impression, possibly from some of the other people who were about, that I may have been going up 'early', but still went up. It might have been my 'first day'. I began my usual confused, vaguely anxious wanderings, feeling that I was already behind schedule, that I really needed to get going, get work done, stay organized, and so, keep up with my boss's expectations. Except, I was having trouble even finding our lab bay, as I was wandering the usual laboratory complex labyrinth.  Also, fairly as usual, I didn't think to ask bystanders exactly where it was I needed to go to get back to our area, possibly as that would twig them to the fact that I wasn't in complete control and knew what I was doing...? (Imposter Syndrome, apparently, writ large.)

Somewhat unusually, this time, a man, who appeared to be my boss, approached and interacted with me directly.  Also less usually, he was black (I recall inside noting that this was the 1st time I'd had a person of color as a boss). He crouched or briefly knelt down (I also noted this action as...different than the usual), and expressed to me (not necessarily verbally) a combination of the following: He was my 'boss' (or possibly - I was the person who had come to work with/for him)/Welcome/He seemed glad to see that I was aware of how the work being done there could be difficult/challenging/important.  Looking back at it, it was almost as if he were trying to make me feel better (or less bad) about my anxiety about the 'work'. Or possibly, to 'normalize' my anxiety (but so I wouldn't feel anxious about feeling anxious - if that makes sense). Perhaps an attempt to compliment me for caring so much or something.  I had automatically lowered myself a bit so we were both doing the same crouch or kneeling move, but as he got up again, I did so also, but, missing that familiar gesture of handshake, kind of automatically reached for his hand to shake it. On the order of 'Where's my handshake?  There's supposed to be a handshake.' He gave off an impression of not expecting that, but went along with it (i.e., didn't protest or pull away) as we got up.  Then he continued forward on his way and I went forward on my way, still worrying...

*    *    *

After an early morning waking/pitstop, slept and dreamt again.  This time, was in a complex that felt to my more like my current workplace (possibly due to feeling like my (female) boss was around).  I was poking through some clothing, trying some of it on, I think - not my usual workplace duty.  I got the impression that I was told some of it had my mother's...though I started to twig to the fact that might not have been the case, as some sandals (bright bue-green, with ties that you would wind around your ankles) that I tried seemed to fit me - and we didn't have the same size feet. Another item, a little jacket or shirt hitting at the waistline in back but with some longer points coming down in front, seemed to be a double-cloth, reversible item - beige or taupe/blue-green. Needless to say, none of it was anything that I recall that my mother had worn in Real Life™.

 A myriad of montages - but I most recall being in a room (reminded me of the living room of my childhood home), where people were at some type of gathering.  A former co-worker from my current job (he started out as a student worker, later after graduation got a job with Admissions) was there. My boss, who was also there, made some somewhat teasing joke aimed at him, whereupon he laughed right out loud, seeming mightily amused.  I was sat further in  but close enough to her to reach back and 'high-five' her.

Wandered/travelled in an urban setting, then stopped by a museum.  At least, it seemed like a museum in that there were various areas that one wandered through (that labyrinthine feel that many museum have), with interesting things to see. Within, I picked up this piece of cardstock or some other stuff material which seemed to have some shapes on it, that might be possible to push out, to take off the sheet.  Almost like a craft supply. After wandering around a bit, though, I put it back or left it behind, as if I'd decided I didn't really need it (or that it wasn't mine, and I shouldn't have messed with it to begin with).  While being in this place, there was the usual foggy-mindedness / confusion, that 'Where am I? Why am I here? Ought I to be here at all? feeling. (Taking a moment to ponder: is this what, cognitively, it felt like to be a very young child, for example...being taken on an Outing to an unfamiliar place - but we've all Forgotten?) I recall vaguely coming across or occasionally interacted with people briefly while there; just so unclear.  For all I know, my attention could have been directed to the item, but then I might have misinterpreted (and then it a bit later communicated to me that no, it wasn't available to take home)...like when a toddler child gets interested in something, them the parents gently distract the kid and get him/her to change mental gears and leave the object behind, hopefully without the kid having an emotional meltdown.  This recall  / interpretation reminds me of how in our culture, the legal definition of adulthood is a certain age (by which the majority of people have attained a certain level of cognitive function)...but that lacking that, a person can at times never ever achieve the legal definition of 'adulthood', and remain forever, legally, a 'child', unable to live independently or make decisions as an adult.

So the question becomes...'where' or 'when' am I in these dreamscapes...that I appear, when I look back... to be functioning as the technical equivalent of a 'child'...?

*   *  *

Felt I was at the home I grew up in, that my dad and eldest brother were there.  I paused in the room that used to be my parents' bedroom; it seemed to have my eldest brother in residence.  I could hear or sense them chatting in the kitchen downstairs; I noted (with disapproval) that a red lamp, something hung up (in a jury-rigged way; it could be used as a table lamp, but there was a hole drilled this handle it had coming off one side, so that it could be screwed up to the wall if desired) to one side of the bed, had been left on in the daytime, and so, shut it off preparatory to going back downstairs. (This lamp IRL has been used in other rooms; don't recall it ever being used in a bedroom, but hey; who knows?)

 A mish-mash of scenes...seemed to involve interacting with multiple people, as if there were some threat or challenge, and we were working together to deal with a complicated situation.

In one, some of us seemed to be in some weird, run-down cellar or basement area. We left it, but I returned a bit later.  In another, I may have returned to a location we'd also left, but this time, paid much more attention to these two little creatures, whom I seemed to interact with, possibly 'tame' in some way.  They may have hid in some..'.aluminum foil'...but were wont to fly about; I may have held them and/or fed them something; that seemed to habituate them to me somewhat.  A woman, I guess part of that extended group, also stopped back by the location, and noted what I'd done, looking at the creatures herself.  A bit later, I saw someone coming up a road on a hillside, as if he were on some kind of skateboard (but a hill so steep that he might not have been self-propelling)...

Lots of the usual wandering about.  Thought my dad was about somewhere.  For a bit, had this yen to take a family friend (definitely older than I, completely white-haired) as a romantic partner, I think - then I recalled that he (or at least who I thought he was) was married (had had kids, etc.) and nixed that!  I also backtracked with some possibly stupid excuses - my cat (who was also wandering about) would have no cat box to use!  There may also have been a dog involved who would need walking, I thought.  IE, these were excuses not to go visit the fellow in the immediate short term.  I think I headed back to where I'd been staying before, looking for where my cat was.

Hanging out with a fairly familiar group.  We seemed to be located in an hotel. I went in and out of an hotel suite, feeling probably that common deference (or caution?)that I tend to feel. Some or all of of us or all of us had travelled somewhere recently; we decided to (kind of last minute) go back again. So we were all running around getting ready, packing, etc. I was dithering with getting my ticket (plane, possibly). I remember looking in various closets, trying to pack wha I wanted to bring. In one moment, I saw my eldest brother nearby, commenting on some part of the prep process, then I peeked in my childhood closet, looking for stuff.