Manta rays, $1,000 bills & Paris

Time once again for me to jot down my dreams for future references and entertainment.

With the BP oil spill in our Gulf of Mexico, there's little of anything else on my mind when I am in my hometown of Venice, Florida, a gulf coast beach town. Thoughts during the day lead to dreams at night. Listening to these mongers talk about what they are going to do 30-something days after the fact is maddening. I realize that I am not exactly apt to give my meager opinions and solutions to this mess, but it *is* maddening nonetheless to feel so helpless.

I digress. I dreamt of reasoning for the golf balls they suggested to throw into the gapping leak on the ocean floor: I am swimming in the midst of the oil in the gulf with others. It's hot. The oil is smelly and hot, I'm commenting on it as I wade through the sludge. I hear from somewhere that whales are dying. This is breaking my heart. I can see hundreds and hundreds of whale flukes fleeing from the oil. All of the sudden, golf balls are flying from the sky into the water. I start to realize why they are doing this: Golf balls float and so the tar balls would cling onto the golf balls and float, so then they could just scoop up all of the golf balls that had tar balls stuck to them. Genius (ha!)

Dreams later on in the week consisted of being at the beach, and going for a run on the shoreline. After outrunning some people, I am on an empty beach and the tide is trying to pull me in a bit. From afar, I can see that there are lots and lots of stingrays and manta rays in the water. I saw a very, very large manta ray and made sure to keep my eye on it. I was getting pulled in a bit by the tide still and finally I realize the manta ray is approaching rather quickly. I jump out of the water and start to run. I find myself running from this manta ray and have decided to hid in my parents' bedroom. They have a pocket door and so I'm trying to lock it as I see the manta approaching. All of the sudden as this manta is sliding closer to me on the tile, 3 greyhounds (two of which are my sister and brother in-law's) come running through the door opening. The manta's wings are up and it is getting closer and closer, it opens the door and starts cuddling with one of the dogs, then turning into some burley man who is playing with the dog. I realize my mistake in thinking the man was a manta ray.

Next up to bat, I find myself in a train station in France with my Aunt. We are trying to get to Paris. There are some really beautiful old, red, trains that we can take and I suggest that we wait for those trains. I'm debating on how to pronounce, "Paris" to the Frenchmen. I awake. No Paris for me.

Oh-somewhere along the dream timeline, my Mama and I have found or have won a million $1,000 bills. Damn. That's a lot of money. We hide it somewhere in the trunk.
Z end.