Thena

Because I hadn't been able to sleep the night before, I took 3 mg of melatonin before going to bed. Woke up at 6:15, ran to the bathroom, and then put on a sleep mask to block out the light while performing MILD. And wow, was I successful this time!

I had to run down to the basement to grab something. When I turn on the lights, I notice that all the boxes and assorted junk that had been in the basement are gone. Maybe Dad moved them? It doesn't make sense, though, because there was a lot more stuff than he would be able to move without help. I head upstairs to see that Carrie has arrived. It feels weird to see her come over by herself like she did when she was single. Lately, every time I see her, she's got her husband and kids in tow. But things start adding up. I take another look at the basement and this time I notice that the floors are tile when they should have carpet. Puzzled, I go to the front window and look outside. It's dark, but I can see that multiple cars parked on the driveway. I can remember parking my car on the street last night because the driveway was seal-coated last night.

This has to be a dream, then. I head outside and shout, "Hey, where is my Sorting Hat?" I probably would have tried summoning it, except I remembered that I hadn't gotten a wand yet. I notice a few carnival booths set up on the corner with the Circus Circus logo in bright lights. Finally, a hat appears on top of one of the cars in the driveway. It's a striped paper carnival hat, though, and definitely not a Sorting Hat. I put it on, but it doesn't do anything. I guess I'll just have to head to Hogwarts in the morning. (Looks like I forgot that I can control the dream.) I go around the corner and find an area surrounded by hay bales and bordered by a fence. It seems like as good a place as any to spend the night. Cameron walks right through the fence to join me. He gives me a look and suggests that this is like one of those times when we used to make out in the hay loft of his dad's barn. I'm so distracted by him that of course I forget my plan to go to Hogwarts.

We must have fallen asleep, but when I wake up, I'm indoors looking at someone's custom closet installation. The hangers are all out of order, something that tends to irritate me. I quickly take the hangers and organize them so the closet looks much neater. The owner of the closet (not to mention the house) appears and thanks me. She's an older women dressed in a red pantsuit. The closet seems more like a long hallway instead of a separate room, and it has windows. I notice outside of one window that there's a system of water-lined ramps and conveyors. I ask about them, and the homeowner explains that before she bought the property to convert into a home, it had been a race track. Did they race greyhounds? "Oh, no! They used to race turtles," she explains. I'm horrified at the thought of the poor turtles. It doesn't still work, does it? The homeowner smiles and winks at me. She flips a switch and the conveyors start moving, but instead of turtles, thousands of rubber ducks start floating down the ramps. I'm absolutely thrilled by the sight, and the homeowner seems pleased to see me so amused. I start to wonder if she might be interested in me. (Poor Cameron! I seem to have forgotten all about him.)

The woman starts laying out an elaborate plan to get revenge on the people who have crossed her. I don't get it, but I want to help. I head outside to see a group of men taking the roof off the house next door. It has something to do with her plan. I realize that I should do something to secure her house. Heading back inside, I notice that there are four cars parked in a garage built to hold just two. They all seem to fit without a problem, though there's a white sedan parked in a way that the back bumper would block the garage door from coming down. There was plenty of room for the sedan to pull forward another two feet. That's my plan, at least, but instead I hit the button to lower the garage door. As expected, it hits the bumper of the sedan and reverses direction. I hit the button again. This time, the door curves outward as it reaches the sedan to close around it. I'm pleased that I've been able to secure the garage, but I quickly realized that the garage door is made of glass. There's a group of kids that stop outside. One of them shouts, "Hey, that's Iron Man's car!" They start banging on the window. I fly into a rage and head out to confront them. I'm so angry that I don't pay attention to the fact that it's snowing in May. Someone, maybe the woman from earlier, pulls me back. She shuffles me a few steps away into a Cracker Barrel store. I see Ron and Hermione sitting and making goo goo eyes at each other. I roll my eyes at them, but it reminds me that I was interested in someone. I start thinking back over the last few moments, realize that I'm dreaming, but wake up.