Nothing Gold Can Stay (Even Dreams)

I was driving at night, trying to make a left turn into a parking lot (like that of the Stoneridge mall) it had several sequential entrances & exits but nobody would let me in so I had to go all the way to the end, which was far away from where I wanted to go. Which turned out to be work, which was now attached to a hospital and not a health club. But where I was was basically a tenement, slummy apartment building. So I parked and cautiously got out of my car. There were homeless looking people lurking in the background. I instantly ran into the assistant childcare manager Charnice ( not assistant to the childcare manager) who told me Brittany (co-worker) was in the hospital and we were all going to see her, which we did. I'm not sure what was supposed to be wrong with her.

Then I had to go to class where I met up with Meredith, another co-worker who was also my roommate in the dream. (She's like my old roommate Aly, only kind of annoying.) The classroom was set up like a large bedroom. M and I and a few others sat on this bed with a cobalt blue cover that happened to be laminated. Anthony was also in the class, as well as another Cal High person that I feel ambivalently about. (I think it was Sarah Meltzer.) Even so, this was college and not high school. The prof was Lafaver-esque and told us all we had to do was visit people in the hospital to get credit. But a bunch of kids complained that they wanted actual work to do and I was peeved. (Although, in my awakeness I realize that I would be the one doing that.) So the prof said we could go in groups of three. Naturally, I wanted to be in a group with Anthony but M grabbed me. More people started complaining so I couldn't get Anthony's attention to ask him to join our group. Then Sarah came over and asked to join our group but I wanted to work with A so I had to brush her off without hurting her feelings. Then we had to write something, but the prof was worried we would tear the laminant bed sheet. When we showed her we hadn't, she let us leave. When I caught up with A, he was on a treadmill. He enthusiastically agreed to be in my group. Then I told him about my co-worker in the hospital and we were both excited because it would be easy. Now that I think about it, that's pretty awful. I was wearing gray Chucks with purple laces which enabled me to transport, but only a few feet away. So I amazed him by transporting out the door, ostensibly on my to go my next class. But just outside the room, I forgot what class I was supposed to go to. Then I had to sneak past the door (because I didn't want him to know I guess) to go back to my room and look at my schedule. When I got there, I couldn't read it. Although it was long block of red T/W/Th, so it must have been important. ( I use Excel for my schedule.) I was probably already late anyway, so I gave up. M was there stretching and practicing some sort of swimming stroke, the butterfly I think. She had a large cylinder tube or something with gold stickers on it. I picked it up and the first one had three waves on it. I peeled it off and asked if this was her password. (No, I don't get it either.) She said yes. Then I asked if I could have the sticker and she said no. I tried to put it back on but the other stickers (all Disney related) kept falling off too. I tried to put them back in their original positions so she wouldn't know but they would not stick. I also noticed a necklace: one of those plastic ones for little girls with Ariel on it. At the time it made sense because she was a swimmer but in actuality M is a dancer. I quickly put the cannister down with the stickers and did that slow tip toe sneaky run to get out. She picked up the cannister and howled (although not literally) about how the sitckers wouldn't stick, even though they were brand new. The way she said it made me think she'd had this trouble before so I felt slightly relieved of my guilt. I went back to the hospital, sans group members, to visit Brittany who was complaining and yelling, insisting she shouldn't be there because there wasn't anything wrong with her.

The last half of the dream I had the overwhelming sensation of being sleepy. That feeling that your eyelids weigh about 100 pounds each and you are desperately trying to get them open. Your body wants to sleep but your brain says stay awake and you feel sort of trapped like those partial anesthetic stories. Or at least I have that sensation. Maybe it was the opposite reason. Trying to stay asleep when my brain says to wake up.