Five Years Before

y guess is it was a blog post recapping Warren Buffett's letter to the shareholders of Berkshire Hathaway that planted the seed for the dream that has me up at such an obnoxious hour. His letter mentioned some things he wished his company had not done, and some things it should have done even more.

So following logically from that, I had a dream that took me back five years (of course it is the dream world, where I know it is five years, though I didn't look at a newspaper or ask someone who the President is or any of that cliché time traveler stuff). Aside from knowing I was five years in the past, the only things I remember in the dream are warning an English major that the economy/job market is going to have a downturn, and while it is always a bad time to be an English major, this is like the worst time ever. And a young, thin, bearded, Paul Giamatti was the friend/teacher? of this star-crossed student. The other part of the dream was me and Paris Hilton and her mother shopping in some boutique for Paris' 21st Birthday. I was sort of their personal assistant, and was the only one of the three who had small enough bills to tip the boutique assistant for the free bottle service to sample, in two ounce plastic cups, a fine Champagne we'd gotten in a two pack, (Classy, I know. The two pack was two Champagne bottles in a decorative pink paper gift bag).

My take away from the dream is that I wouldn't change anything. In the dream, I remember thinking, I don't need to tell myself to do anything to change his future. Now that I'm awake, there are some things I'd like to tell my past self, but nothing more than exercise more, Christ hasn't come in five years, and maybe some strategic relationship advise, nothing big.

How about you? Are there some things you wish you could tell yourself five years ago that would change your current life?

The drop cap is from Jessica Hische.

Three Movies, Four Flavours.

Today was three movies: Ponyo, Inglourious Basterds, and District 9.

Ponyo, from the same director as Howl's Moving Castle and Spirited Away was not good. The animation wasn't as revolutionary as it might have been ten years ago. You see one group of fish swimming you've seen them all.

Inglourious Basterds didn't feel as long as it was because Tarantino is good at breaking his film into chapters, with literal chapter cards. Pitt's performance was great given the material. It seems Tarantino is most effective with two or three actors in a scene. As I think back on the film there are great vignettes. And aside from some scalping and carving into foreheads with a Bowie knife, this wasn't as violent as many Tarantino flicks I've seen. (I keep on typing Tarantion.)

This is a good time for me to point out that Pitt has worked with a lot of great and renowned directors. David Fincher (thrice), Tarantino, The Coen Brothers, Guy Ritchie, Alejandro González Iñárritu (Thank you, Michael.), Soderbergh, Tony Scott, and like passing a torch: Robert Redford. My chicken/egg deal is whether these directors are more effective because they are working with Pitt, or if he is a better actor because of their direction.

District 9 is much beloved by my friends who like playing 1st person shooter video games like Halo, Call to Duty, and the like. I thought it was the best of the three films, for its story telling, if any reason. It is a fine example of the sci-fi genre and if the rest of Neill Blomkamp's films are this good, Peter Jackson might be a better talent scout than he is a director.

And now for the four flavours.

Wednesday, Ivanna Cone, through Facebook, said they would have their Salted Caramel for the first time, and that ol' standby Chambord (I remember Ellen loving this flavour, and it was my first half gallon from them.) I was also interested in their Hot Cocoa, so I brought a contingency of friends with me. I had those three aforementioned flavours, but the star of the show was the surprise Sweet Basil. It was great, sweet, basily, and all within the great ice cream of Ivanna Cone. I am curious about the Wild Plum they have in the works, and when I know about it, you will.

Remember

Remember that French chef that enjoyed my black raspberry pie? Here's a more accurate description of him with a picture even.

Walter Cronkite, Frank McCourt, and . . .

So I'm getting better at faking discipline, though I really needed to make a blueberry pie tonight, I also wanted some pie. I haven't had a piece yet, but the overflowing juices were pretty tasty. I'm curious to see how the blueberries from the Garden State taste.

One of my favorite new music videos is Taller Children from Elizabeth and the Catapault.

Dappled and Drowsy and Ready for Sleep

Ed McMahon, Farrah Fawcett, Michael Jackson, Robert McNamara, Steve McNair, Karl Malden, Oscar Mayer, and I almost forgot Billy Mays.

I'm sure part of it is a heightened attention to celebrity deaths, but this seems like a lot in a fairly brief period of time. Usta be these sorts of deaths came in threes, but maybe there will be another before the end of the week which makes nine, or three sets of three.

I had Cardamom Rose Pistachio ice cream from Ivanna Cone tonight. If it were only pistachio, it would have been amazing because of the high ratio of whole pistachios, but there were also some bursts of cardamom flavor. I was also pleased that I couldn't detect any rose; I always find rose stuff to taste like a perfume.

Last weekend I watched Away We Go and Public Enemies. I enjoyed each of them. Maya Rudolph, John Krasinski, and the rest of ensemble cast performed wonderfully. It is also well written, my favorite line coming from the child in the resort hotel lobby. The writers take three or four family scenarios as a foil to the central characters of Burt and Verona. The success is that they make the fairly cliche family types interesting while furthering the development of our couple. The music by Alexi Murdoch was also nicely done.

For interesting crossover, Sam Mendes also directed Road to Perdition, another 1930s crime film with Al Capone and Frank Nitti. I love Road to Perdition. Directing, acting, score, cinematography, set design, costumes, writing, I can't think of a thing I don't really appreciate about it. But we're talking about Public Enemies (I prefer both to The Untouchables, which I found to be weak except for Sean Connery's lines.), and it was what I expected from Michael Mann, an incredibly accurate, taut film. Johnny Depp was probably not in the greatest role for his "charisma," but it works. The actor who really struck me was Stephen Lang, in the role of Agent Winstead (a fed from the Southwest requested by Melvin Purvis, who has actually been in gun fights before). There was something about him that I recognized, then I looked him up on IMDb and it came rushing back to me. He played Ike Clanton in Tombstone.

Jules Cazedessus did something for the film too. Another thing I loved was the hood ornaments on the cars. Not necessarily in the film, but appreciated by me are the Packard swan/pelican, the Nash flying man, and the 1931 Buick.

Now for something completely different. You can order a milk shake as a chocolate malted. Can you order a root beer floated? Or is it classier to order a float as root beer ala mode.

Paved Paradise

Since I last posted, I had a wonderful weekend in MN with my family celebrating a cousin's high school graduation and my twin uncles' 50th birthday. This trip included a black raspberry pie whose berries had been picked not 12 hours before they came out of the oven in a pulchritudinous pie. One of the people who came back for a second piece (and was still talking about it the following morning) was Jean-Yves, a retired French chef who started as saucier at La Caravelle in 1969 in NY and moved to sous chef at Le Cirque before finishing at the University Club as Executive Chef. I'm still quite proud that I was able to make something for him to enjoy.

The parking lot behind Prescott Hall, in front of my work, is being refinished this week. Monday they sprayed a new coat of tar/asphalt, and today they painted new yellow lines. I find the immaculate lot to be a thing of beauty and wish I had the means to take some aerial pictures before it is spoilt by use and the bleaching sun. The black lot and yellow lines are striking. Then again, it could just be the tar fumes talking.

Leap Year

This is my 366th post. One for each day of an olympic/election/leap year.

For no reason, the phrase "rassin' frassin'" got into my head today. Everyone I shared this with was under 25 and had no idea what I was talking about. I initially associated it with Yosemite Sam. A quick Google search, only 1010 results, revealed that it might also come from Snidely Whiplash's dog and the Wacky Racers.

Another thing I learned today, when my Google Reader recommended I subscribe to my own blog, is that I have 9 subscribers. So I thank each of you, and I'm sorta delighted that I could conceivably host a party at my apartment for all of you. I might have to make two pies, but that wouldn't be a problem. (I'm also sorta thinking I should have a Summer membership drive like my local community owned radio station.)

Speaking of pie, Saturday I made my rhubarb custard pie with cardamom instead of nutmeg, and it worked pretty well. Later on Saturday, Marcy, Michael Thurber, and I went to a David Sedaris reading/book signing at the UNL bookstore. I was fortunate to get my book signed before the reading. While he was signing my book with a wonderful drawing of a turtle with a human head that wore a top hat and had an Abraham Lincoln type beard, he asked me questions.

DS: Are you a student?

DM: No.

DS: What do you do?

DM: I working in a shipping department as an order coordinator.

DS: Do you have a home?

DM: Nope, I'm in an apartment.

DS: How much is the rent?

DM: 630 a month.

DS: That's not too bad. Is it clean?

DM: Nope.

DS: You don't clean your apartment?

DM: Well, I clean the kitchen when I bake. I made a pie today.

DS: Really, I wouldn't have guessed that. (Shares with helper woman that I'd baked a pie.) I wouldn't have picked you as the person who made a pie today.

Seriously?

I copied this from the MSN article linked to from their front page, emphasis mine.

"Bo charmed the first family, a source who was there said. He sat when the girls sat, stood when the girls stood. He made no toileting errors and did not gnaw on the furniture. Bo has, after all, been receiving lessons in good behavior from the Kennedys' dog trainers. These lessons have been taking place at a secret, undisclosed location outside Washington.

Bo, though he was raised elsewhere, already has a keen sense of who's in charge inside the Beltway. When the president walked across the room during the visit, Bo followed obediently.

"He's sooooo cute," the source said, referring, let us be clear, to the puppy. "It's very exciting. They had a great meeting.'"

Celebrity Pivot Questionnaire Answers (or me clearing space on my DVR)

I'll provide the sets of answers and you match with the celebrities that answered during their Inside the Actors' Studio interview with James Lipton.

Here's the questions for a refresher:
1. What is your favorite word?
2. What is your least favorite word?
3. What turns you on?
4. What turns you off?
5. What sound or noise do you love?
6. What sound or noise do you hate?
7. What is your favorite curse word?
8. What profession other than yours would you like to undertake?
9. What profession would you not like to attempt?
10. If heaven exists, what would you like to hear god say when you arrive at the pearly gates?


A. 1. Laugh.
2. Hell.
3. My (spouse).
4. Arrogance. Arrogance, definitely.
5. My daughter laughing.
6. I think a lot of people have said this before, but I think the sound of a child in distress.
7. Bollocks.
8. When I was younger, I always said, if it didn't work out for me, that i would have been very interested in being a make-up artist I think. I just always loved painting faces.
9. I would not like to attempt being one of those poor people who are forced to work in factories filleting chickens and things like that. That would just be horrendous.
10. Care for a glass of champagne?

B. 1. Panache.
2. Should.
3. Food.
4. The dentist's drill.
5. I love the sound of an auditorium, like when the curtain goes down and the orchestra are tuning up. I love that sound
6. The dentist's drill. Any guess where I was today?
7. Bullshit. I think curse words should all be two syllables. A little more to get your mouth around.
8. I would like to be like the host of a variety show, you know like a Dave Letterman.
9. Chef. I've been a waiter in too many places, and I've seen how they . . . no. Chef for me.
10. The food is excellent.

C. 1. Honor.
2. My least favorite word is the n word no matter who says it, what context it's said in. I've known all my life that it was a word that was only meant to do harm. I hate it.
3. Words, not mine, but words.
4. Humiliation, especially toward a defenseless child.
5. It's the most precious and underrated sound in our lives, and that's silence.
6. The din that passes for pleasure and joy in public places like restaurants where people think that the only way they can show that they're enjoying themselves is to scream.
7. Mine is very dull because it is neither scatological nor obscene, it's profane, but it's offensive to some people and I apologize when I say it, Nowbut you can really tell I'm upset when I say it, Jesus Christ.
8. I would like to be a premier dancer. I would like to be a classical dancer, but with this provision, forever young and never injured.
9. That is very easy, one word, executioner.
10. You see (name), you were wrong, I exist, but you may come in anyway.

D. 1. I am fascinated with reality, the word reality.
2. Reality.
3. I like to see people happy. I like the feeling of community, it makes me feel safe.
4.
5. I guess when my kids laugh. That feels good. When a crowd laughs, that feels good. Laughter, I like laughter. But not that humiliating "ha-huh."
6. Anything that will intentionally inspire fear.
7. I don't know if I have a favorite, like if someone was cursing me out and I go, "I'm really glad you used that one 'cause it's my favorite." But I usually start with golly and it gets progressively worse.
8. After seeing Ironman I thought maybe being a crimefighter, but in all honesty, employing the skills I already have. These hands have not done a hard day of work, all my heavy lifting in life has been psychological and emotional so the inside of my mind looks like Denzel's back in Glory.
9.
10. Good job, congratulations. Something welcoming.

E. 1. Chambers, you know, "let's retire to chambers."
2. Bowel.
3. Enthusiasm.
4. Snobbery.
5. An egg dropping in milk.
6. A ringing phone in 1970s television
7. Motherfucker, is the best, just cuts through everything.
8. I'd love to be a rockabilly singer for like a year.
9. I think pornography.
10. (name), how did you do it?

Celebs:

Hugh Jackman
Kate Winslet
Conan O'Brien
Dave Chapelle
James Lipton

Flame, Match, Set List

I don't know what Willie opened with before Whiskey River, but it sure does simplify things.

2. Still is Still Moving to Me
3. Whiskey for My Men (Beer for My Horses)
4. Ain't It Funny How Time Slips Away
5. Crazy
6. Night Life
7. Sister Bobbie on saloon instrumental from Red-Headed Stranger [Update: Down Yonder is the song]
8. Me and Paul (his drummer)
9. If You've Got the Money Honey, I've Got the Time
10. Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain
11. La La La (instrumental)
12. Georgia
13. All of Me
14. Mama Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up to be Cowboys
15. Angel Flying Too Close to the Ground
16. On the Road Again
17. Always On My Mind
18. Good Hearted Woman in Love with a Good Timin' Man
19. Help Me Make It Through the Night
20. Bobby McGee (It was different from any version I've heard of it, but still really great)

One hour into the show he finally played something from his new album

21. Over You Again
22. Moment of Forever (written by Kris Kristofferson)

"How 'bout some Hank Williams?"

23. Jambalaya
24. Hey Good Lookin'
25. Move It on Over
26. Boogie Woogie from Bobbie's debut album Autobiography
27. I Ain't Superman ("Doctor says, 'You ain't Clark Kent, and I ain't Lois Lane.'")
28. You Don't Think I'm Funny Anymore (another song off his new album, "Did you hear the one about the dirty whore? Oh I forgot . . . You don't think I'm funny anymore.")
29. I Saw the Light
30. Instrumental
31. Pick Up the Tempo
32. Bloody Mary Morning
33. Yesterday's Wine
34. Will the Circle Be Unbroken/35. I'll Fly Away

Encore "Every once in a while, I get so pissed I write a protest song."

36. Peace Revolution

Encore 2

37. Beer Barrel Polka

The concert started right at 8 and got over around 9:30/9:40. So each song averaged about 2:42. He was booking through, but the energy was up, and he was on his game. I know some 75 year old people, and some musicians in that same age range, and none of them are as capable as he was Sunday night. I can't say he still has it, because I don't remember much of the time I saw him at a festival as a child. But I can say that he does have it. Oh, and I got a pick.

Smitten.

I think it took me by surprise the first time I realised that I was attracted to Samantha Brown. But I've fully embraced it now, and I appreciate her plenty. I'm going to look her up on Wikipedia now so that I can hyperlink her for you, and so I can learn more about this crush of mine.

Another TV host I'm taken with is Alton Brown. I've praised him in this space before, but usually just his recipes. I always thought he was gay because he never mentioned a child or wife, but had a sister and nieces and nephews and a dog on the show. Plus he just seemed kind of quirky like a fun gay person like a Ted Allen vibe. I was wrong. I don't know if I was disappointed to find it out or relieved. I think I was disappointed in the fact that I was wrong, but indifferent to his sexuality.

In non-gaydar related news, I'm going to go to a cherry harvest (notice the Latin) festival tomorrow in Nebraska City. They have Montmorency cherries, which are the cultivar that New Glarus Brewery uses in their Wisconsin Belgian Red. The orchard is also propagating a rumour that those cherries are good/better for baking. So I'll be making my first cherry pie in the coming week, just in time for the Fourth of July.

After all of that hubbub, which should be early in the morning so I can pick the best cherries, I'm going to Omaha to shop and read and then watch King Lear at Shakespeare on the Green. Should be a good day.

Another celebrity type, I've started to enjoy more, and who happened to be on Craig Ferguson tonight, is Bengt Washburn, a stand-up comedian.

Spear Ritual

It is the artist, not the audience, who should be doing the suffering.

Ivanna Cone's peanut buttered ice creams are great because they use crunchy peanut butter.

Nyx and Niles are a black and grey cat respectively. Nyx is the goddess of night, but Nyx the cat is actually a boy.

Katie, Jesse, Kayla, Tamara, Cassie, Spenser, Amanda, Jemaine, Bret

There was a recent study released by Penn State University that concluded that satisfactory sex can be achieved between 3 and 13 minutes. I first heard this on a sports talk radio show The Herd with Colin Cowherd. Colin said he was happy to hear this because he's already half way there.

The following night Conan O'Brien relayed the same study in his monologue, and his funniest moment of his entire monologue that night was when he said that the 13 minutes for him even includes the apology.

Craig Ferguson was answering viewer email and a rabbit or bunny was mentioned. Craig said he always thought Warren would be a good name for a rabbit. I thought this was brilliant.

I've been sold on Herman as a name for my next pet for a while now, but Norman made some headway today. I don't know if Amy would mind if I used Fred too.

What does Sophonia mean? Can it mean "knowing sound," with double duty from the "ph" or is it one or the other?

Stennett Brooks

I Couldn't Recommend It

Cooperative Somniloquence--when I start talking, they start sleeping.

Like Bill Belichick and the New England Patriots, I'm disappointed they lost the Super Bowl. I was rooting for the Pats because I don't like how the 1972 Dolphins (the only team in the Super Bowl Era to win all their games) celebrate their accomplishment, and I wanted them at least to have company, and possibly have to move down a chair at the table of perfection (the Patriots would have been 19-0 while the Dolphins only had 17 games). However, I'm very happy that it was a great game with great plays. The 3rd down with 5 yards to go where Elisha Manning resisted being sacked by Adalius Thomas and then threw a beautiful pass that was equaled by the prestidigious catch by David Tyree may have been the greatest play ever in a Super Bowl.

I watched the first episode of Jeeves and Wooster from the BBC on my Netflix. It is taken from P.G Wodehouse's stories and stars Stephen Fry as Jeeves and Hugh Laurie as Bertie Wooster. I enjoyed the first episode and am looking forward to the rest.

In closing, it is that magical week of getting rid of your eggs and dairy so you aren't tempted with their delectablity for Lent.

Yael Naim

I am very happy right now for two reasons.

1. There were two new episodes of Chuck on NBC tonight, and I really like that show. I enjoyed it before, but the writers did a wonderful job this time more smoothly integrating the Buy More life with the Spy More life. Also for the first time watching the show tonight, I started to appreciate Devin, or Capt. Awesome, who is Chuck's sister's fiance. He is played by Ryan McPartlin, who reminds me of a young Patrick Warburton.

2. I finally googled the lyrics to find the song that Apple uses for their MacBook Air commercial. The YouTube video is here (the lyrics are in the info to the video). Her MySpace page is here.

Good Eats

Maybe one of my favorite shows on all of television is Good Eats. The host is Alton Brown. Each show he takes a food topic like Macaroni and Cheese or Egg Nog or Water. He has quirky characters that propound various myths he dispels with his arsenal of food experts, scientists, nutritionists, chemists. He usually executes two or three recipes during the show.

Even better than all that information that he provides, the recipes actually work. I've gone to his recipes frequently, and I have yet to be disappointed. My most recent delight from him was his eggnog recipe. So even if you don't watch the Food Network, or Good Eats, if you are looking for a recipe, go to foodnetwork.com and then choose what ever Alton Brown is offering because it will be . . .

Good Eats.

Gary Wright 2

So Monday night I watched Planet Rock, which did a profile on the Foo Fighters, on Fuse TV. My friend Brian has been leaving me nice comments on MySpace recently, including invitations to visit him again in West Lafayette. Last week I made my first Thanksgiving dinner. Last night with Klaralyn, we were chatting about her dream, and she was also telling me how I should try to assimilate Cary Grant's style and meet a girl in a bar as such. I think I've laid the subconscious matrix for the dream I had, so here goes.

I was driving on the Interstate and with the vehicle in front of me another car pulled up to them two times while a woman got out of one vehicle and into the vehicle with her presumed beau. So there were two guys in the car in front of me and twice did women climb out of a van type car to get into the car with their mates. Whoever I was driving with, I was trying to explain how stupid it was that they were doing this and that they should have just met at the same exit with the other vehicle and made a much safer transition. Also, at least twice, I saw the drummer from the Foo Fighters, Taylor Hawkins, on a Ninja/crotch rocket type motorcycle. Most of the time I saw him on his bike, traffic wasn't going anywhere, and he was leaning forward, flat on his bike looking over at me. I would wave and call out his name, but I didn't get much response from him.

After I reached my destination, I was welcomed into the hotel room that Casey, Gretchen, Mindy, Brian, and I had. We weren't ready to go out, so we put in a movie, something that the girls enjoyed. While we were watching the movie, I was sitting next to Brian, and we were like really good buddies. It was a hockey movie with Richard Gere and Rob Lowe. I had managed to be in the movie as well and spent most of my scenes reprimanding Richard Gere. After losing interest in the movie, the five of us decided to go out, so Mindy gave me back my cell phone which she had apparently taken the liberty to take from me and turn off during our movie viewing (I don't actually own a cell phone). I had a text message from someone, sorry I can't remember what it said. I am sure it wasn't from Taylor Hawkins, whom I did see a third time on our way to the night time establishment.

At various times throughout the dream, I would visualize people separating into cubic squares. I think it had something to do with worrying about whether I had made enough turkey for the cubic volume of my guests. Which brings us to the last part of my dream, I was a Thanksgiving meal hosted by our associate accountant at AdventSource, Cassi, who used to be a student worker in my area. Mike from the Production department was also there. She brought out the turkey and was struggling greatly to carve it. She got pretty frustrated, so I offered to help her with it. It was an all dark meat turkey. I guess my dream ended with me offering some turkey to Mike.

So what does it all mean?

Celebrities and Their Voices

The latest celebrity voice I've picked out is William Hurt doing a commercial for Hyundai. The campaign has thinkaboutit.com at the end of it. There are a couple in the series that I've seen. One has a woman driving down the highway with a voice over and then it is just her floating in air while a semi barrels down on her. The other has a man driving.

I've shared in this space previously how I don't care for actors who get perfectly good money in front of the camera, stealing even more money from those who make their living not only behind the camera, but behind the microphone. This isn't to say I don't like William Hurt's voice, quite the opposite in fact.

Another celebrity endorsement that confuses me is a Cadillac commercial (Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit) with Bob Dylan. So much for being the face of the counter-culture. If I were Pete Seeger, I'd be more upset about this than I would've when he went electric.

Bataan Twirler

I think I might be a little sick in my head.

I was driving to the College View Post Office to drop off AdventSource's mail for the day and at the stoplight to turn onto 56th from Calvert I was behind a soccer mom type vehicle that had a decal on the bumper, similar to the "Calvin urinating" decals on the back of pickup windows, of a girl doing the splits and holding a baton above her head. The text accompanying the decal said "Twirler on Board." This was accompanied by a license plate cover/holder that said "I'm a Baton Twirler."

Meanwhile, I'm thinking it would be clever to use the pun Bataan Twirler--blending a horrific event in human history with possibly the perkiest form of entertainment this side of pom-poms.

In doing research for this blog, I found out I'm not the only sick bastard, and even worse, the sick bastard before me gave that phrase as a name (scroll down toward the bottom to Saaraap).

That's all I have.

[While writing this, I've been listening to a This American Life episode that aired on the 10th. The episode is about spokesmen and Act 1 is about Rachel from north London who blogged about her experience after being on the subway in London when it was bombed. I clicked TAL's link to her blog and horribly, her mother died on Wednesday morning.]

Three is not always a charm.

Bill Walsh, Ingmar Bergman, and Tom Snyder have all recently died.

There is a superstition that deaths come in threes.

Gary Wright

Back in time my dreams did take me.

The first part of my dream I was staying in a spare bed in someone else's rental cottage and had to ask each day if they space for me to stay in the spare bed in the cottage they were renting out to someone else. The cottage had cats in it. This part of the dream also had Paul McCartney and John Lennon and John Lennon's young son, but not actually Sean or Julian. The son and I were from the future in the dream so we both new about John being shot and there was a moment in the dream when the four of us were in a car and the son and I were deliberating how to tell John, but I think the son had already told him or something.

There was a part in my dream where I felt like I was in Central Park in New York and at the Strawberry Fields Forever thing, because a lot of people were standing in circles around stuff taking pictures, but I didn't actually see the "Imagine" mosiac, or whatever.


The last part of my dream I was going to space for some reason and at the end of my dream but the beginning of my arrival at my space destination I met Joe Montana. This dream I was also going to the past with my present knowledge. Joe was moonlighting as a worker on the space shuttle/ship and was standing by the door with another worker like a flight attendant, during the flight. At the end of the flight, during which I was standing closest to the door, I noticed who he was and gave him a knowing pat on the shoulder. Then I asked which year it was, 1983, and feeling I had acquired some kind of visual assent from Joe that it was okay I reveal who he was, I said loudly enough for everyone to hear, "Hey, you're Joe Montana; I'm Daniel Murauskas." and shook his hand. He then said, "It's nice to meet you Dan Morerewski." I then spent the next three attempts at my name working with him on the pronounciation of it, ensuring he called me Daniel too.

After Joe and I got my name down pat, I let him and the other worker on the ship know that one of my uncles was an alternate on the Olympic team in Greco-Roman wrestling (which was true, as my Uncle Dennis was an alternate for the 1984 team). Worker number 2 asked how much he weighed and what weight class he wrestled in. I said he wrestled in the 220 pound class and weighed about 220 or 221. He said, "He'd better lose that weight so that he doesn't get disqualified." I then proceeded to parse out that it really wasn't that bad and calculated out to him having to lose like an ounce each month, which he could do as easily as shaving different parts of his body. After a space trip to our destination that lasted about as long as these two conversations, we arrived and I saw both of my twin uncles in their teen years, but closer to Freshmen than Senior age. This was an anomaly because they would have been older in '83, but I guess that is how dreams go. Then the dream ended.

Commentary:

So I'm pretty much a dick, first for giving a man who had won the Super Bowl two seasons previously and would win another a year later a hard time about pronouncing my name correctly. Maybe his timid role on Saturday Night Live made me think I could be such a tough with him. Secondly, I'm a dick for jerking around with John Lennon about whether to tell him how to he would die. Finally, I wasn't too nice to worker number 2 either about my uncle cutting weight. These celebrities in my dream are pretty fun though. I could get used to it.