Dreams come true

5:55 a.m. the alarm sounds. I bitterly flip it off and immediately start listing the top five reasons why I do not need to get up this early. I easily snuggle back into the covers and this where I start dreaming, or at least this is my earliest recollection of The Dream.

I've just retrieved the mail and in it is a reimbursement check from the church we visited in South Carolina. A hand written note asks if Scott can run the Wednesday night rehearsal and, BOOM, instantly we're in that scene. "Why would they not ask you to lead on Sunday? Why just tonight?" He doesn't know. It must be Christmas time because everyone and everything is very tinsel and red. It's crowed and we're walking through the crowds trying to get somewhere. The scene suddenly morphs into a shopping mall atmosphere and we separate.

Somehow, (I have no idea how dreams connect and disconnect) I find myself aware that Emily and Micah are at the hospital having a baby. I'm panicked and have this terrible feeling like I'm gonna miss it. I feel guilty, like we all forgot and I'm the only one close enough to the hospital to make it there in time to congratulate them. I'm running through the mall trying to reach the hospital that is connected to the mall (what luck). It's so crowded! I decide to go a back way and I'm in a stairwell. There's a black girl with a green cartoonish-looking purse at the stairwell landing doorway looking for the key to the door. I'm impatient that she can't find the key! Emily and Micah are all alone, and I have to get through that door to the hospital. Finally she gets the door open and I'm in the kitchen of the hospital. There's this fat mexican lady with wall to wall tomatoes everywhere! I actually stop and have this conversation with her about how she must feel the same way I do about tomatoes: In the beginning of summer, you can't wait for the first ripe tomato on your plants in the garden, but by the fall, geesh, am I sick of tomatoes! Always picking tomatoes. Always eating tomatoes. Always canning tomatoes. Always trying to give away tomatoes. And the plants are so straggly and ugly in the end.

Anyway, I guess I finish my ridiculous one-sided conversation with the mexican tomato lady because, thankfully, through the next door are Emily, Micah and their little-bidy strawberry blonde baby girl! She's so beautiful. She's burrito wrapped in the hospital blanket and her little perfect head is the only thing showing. I'm crying. Emily's sitting up in the hospital bed holding her and Micah is standing over them just like everyone's first family picture in the hospital. It's then that I realize I didn't bring my purse with the camera!! I'm so annoyed. I feel so stupid. Where is everyone???!!! I feel so guilty again. Then we're all walking out of the hospital back into the crowds in the mall and they tell me what the baby's name is. It's Rolexus. And Emily says they'll call her Lexus, for short. I feel like I need to tell them that that is irresponsible to name a person a name like that. But she says it reminds her of her trip to Texas (Rolexus from Texas) and all the fun they had.

I'm running through the mall again, fighting the crowds. I'm in Sears and all the salesgirls are dressed in those short, red velvet dresses with the white fur trim like a Santa whore. I'm trying to get to my purse with the camera so I can get some pictures of Micah and Emily and Rolexus. I'm back in the stairway again. This time, there are like 20 dirt bikes lined up in the back hallway and someone gives me one to roll down the hall. I guess we're all going to a dirt bike class in the mall. As soon as we go through the back door into the dirt bike store where the class will take place, I dash out back into the mall. The store guy stops me and wants me to pay for the 5 minutes that I was there. I think I profanely told him, "No way!" and run away.

I finally reach Scott in the middle of the mall who is now holding a sleeping Rolexus as he stands in the back of an audience of kids who are sitting on the floor, watching a clown show.

I guess I've fulfilled my goal, because now I feel relieved and wake up a little bit to see that the clock says 7:19! Crap! Natalie's ride is picking her up in 11 minutes and she's not even up yet!

This was my dream and my reality. I think I was feeling guilty and rushed, because I knew that I was over-sleeping. As far as Baby Rolexus, I have no idea. Obviously my subconscience is a) wanting you to have babies, and b) concerned with your choices of names. I'm sure that I'll sleep better if you stick with family names or Bible names (Cedric, Nell, Dathel, Opal, Eloise, etc.).