Thena

Went to bed at 2:25 AM (damn novel keeping me reading until the very end!). It took me 24 minutes to fall asleep, with minor awakenings at 4:45, 5:24, and 6:30. I was really restless around 8:30 AM. That was when I decided to do a WILD while half-awake, but I didn't think it was working. In reality, once I gave up I started dreaming.

I was at work. I had my new clear water bottle with me, and at one point I realized there were bubbles in my water. On closer inspection, there were bubbles coming from the bottom of the water bottle. I couldn't see anything that could be causing the bubbles. I showed it to a coworker, who checked her water bottle and found the same thing. We set both bottles down, side by side, and watched the bubbles. I laughed and said it was probably Thor's fault, because gods do this kind of thing, right? I was willing to bet Thor or Odin would pop-up at any minute. My coworker and I went down an access corridor back to the main sales floor. Just inside the door to the sales floor, there was a family with two small kids. I asked if they needed any help since I had a feeling that they were looking for the bathroom, and the woman said that they didn't. Then I told them that this was an employees only area and they would have to leave. The woman gave me a dirty look, and I moved on without checking to see if they left the access corridor. I took a quick glance around the sales floor, then I ducked into another corridor to make my way to the bathroom. It looked nothing like our work bathrooms. The stalls were stainless steel but looked really aged, as if they hadn't been cared for in years. There was dim light coming from a window but no interior lights. I was shocked to find another woman already there. I moved past her, went into a stall, and realized it was too narrow to even turn around. Then I woke up.

At this point, I wanted to try for a DEILD. But I was acutely aware of sweat beads rolling down my nose and the sounds of a garbage truck making its way down the street. Plus I really could not bring myself to re-enter that awful bathroom. I rolled over and figured that I'd probably blown it, but I wasn't willing to give up yet. I watched some of the HI, which reminded me of daisies, then clouds, until a solid image formed that I could interact with…

And the image that came to me was a young Tom Hiddleston with his pre-Thor curly hair. I remembered the task of the month was to hug the first DC you come across, so I told him, "Okay, I'm hanging onto you until I get my chance." He looked pretty confused. And then I realized that I had to engage more of my senses than just sight since I could still hear the damn garbage truck outside, so I went to touch Tom's hair. Actually, I did more than just touch -- I started running my fingers through his curls. Now he was really confused, although I saw the hint of a smile. His hair really wasn't very soft. It was very coarse and felt a little bit like straw, which was not what I expected. But it seemed to do the trick and the dream finally solidified around us. We were in the upstairs hallway, but where there was supposed to be a light fixture, there was a miniature version of the sun. It was way to bright to look at, so I rushed downstairs and outside. The sun was much less intense out here.

I still felt the need to touch things, and the grass seemed like the next best thing. I plopped down on the ground and started rolling around in the grass. Tom stood over me and laughed. Then an animal appeared next to me, and at first I thought it was one of the dogs. Instead, it was a sheep. I got up and plunged my fingers into the sheep's wool, which was really soft. And then, for reasons I couldn't understand, I ended up climbing onto the back of the sheep and riding it like a horse while Tom led the sheep down to the street. Then I directed him to take us to the local park. There was a field we had to cross to get to the park, and the grass kept getting higher and higher until it was brushing my knees. I looked up and saw mountains in the distance behind the houses. "Guess we're not in my neighborhood anymore," I said to Tom and the sheep. I trailed my fingers in the tall grass until I hit something gooey. It was like a little hill of -- cream cheese? Okay, that's weird. Fortunately, I see a nearby stream. I bend down and plunge my fingers into the water to clean them off. The stream becomes more of a fast-moving river with a steep bank, and Tom has to hang onto my feet to make sure I don't get carried away by the rushing water.

We find a bench and sit down. I can feel the hard bench underneath me and realize that I'm pretty much done waiting for this dream to feel real. I tell Tom about how much he means to me, how I started with "The Avengers" and then went back to watch all his movies, then all of the interviews he's done, and how I really appreciate him. He seemed pretty flattered. Then I asked if I could give him a hug and embrace him. At first, he seemed a little stiff, but then I felt his arms close around me. He grabbed my butt and pulled me closer while I rubbed his back.

And then someone rang the doorbell, the dogs started barking and there was no way I could block all of that out to stay in the dream.