A dream of service

I had not worked for the owner of

Court Square Tavern

for a long time, but somehow I got roped in to work a shift at his other restaurant. A very rich guy and his uninterested wife were the only customers for the longest time. The rich guy was a stranger to the owner, and when he asked for a particular kind of meal, the owner got upset and refused to make it and said something you'd expect Gordon Ramsey to say.

This made me feel uncomfortable but I wasn't going to say anything. I rely on needing to work multiple jobs and you never know when a gig will drop in your lap.

The guy's wife went off to do something in the shopping mall attached to the restaurant. That's not where the restaurant is, but dreams don't always follow reality.

The owner was in the kitchen, and I watched him as he at smoked salmon from off the line, tasting this ingredient that was to go in the rich guy's meal. He offered me a sample, but I refused it. I could taste it anyway.

It was around this point that suddenly the restaurant got busy. I didn't recognize any of the other servers. I had not been there for a while. I wasn't there necessarily to wait tables, but I thought I would help out. But I didn't know how to work the credit card machine, and I was so out of practice with the patience you need to hide your emotions and smile when dealing with difficult people. I could feel myself about to snap, but I had to keep it in.

The other servers kept getting annoyed with me, and I decided to just walk. I knew this would not be good, but I was increasingly in an emotionally unsafe situation. I walked out into the shopping mall to cool down a second, in the hopes I wouldn't quit yet another job this year. (two in real life, if you're keeping score).

There were many fire trucks just outside. The firefighter in charge told me we had to evacuate the mall because the water mains had broken, and there was a massive flood that was going to come into the restaurant. I turned back into the restaurant to tell everyone the news.

3Lloyd Goad, Lonnie Murray and 1 other

A dream of compulsion

Last night I somehow ended up in New Hampshire for the first time since 1999. I'd ended up there suddenly for some reason. I had a relative who had moved there, and I went for a visit. I've had this dream once before in the last year, but this time was different. I speak a lot about having vivid dreams, but this one was populated with hundreds of people. I can't describe it all, but I had long, long conversations.

This was a pre-COVID dream, and I had no anxiety about that at all. I was so glad to be in a crowd of strangers. At one point, I told one of my new friends that it was so exciting to be in a place where nobody knew who I was. I decided to stay, and get a job back at the restaurant I used to work at (which is still open at both the Nashua and West Lebanon location!).

Toward the end, at a party in this gigantic hall with a big band playing, I knew it was a dream because I saw an old girlfriend and didn't want to talk to her, embarrassed at the way my actual life has turned out. And then the dream faded and I woke up alone in my bed in the real world, certain that nothing in my real life will ever approach as alive as I felt in that dream.

And now the day begins in a town where I am well aware that I have many enemies here. Or at least enough that have done a lot of damage to me over the years.