::fragments::

Two nights ago: I alternated from being and then watching a man on a plank made of tree trunks--flattened, smooth--going up and down grassy hills.

Last night: the desert. I was on a trip there, and was readying to leave, but realized I was far from packing all my stuff up in time to leave by sundown, so I decided I would leave the next day. Then I was on a bike coming up a hill very fast, then coasting down into an unfamiliar place--two lakes and some houses in the middle of the desert. I feared I was going so fast I'd land in the water but I managed to skid to a stop.

The apartment owner came in, and she asked if I had the ladder. I told her yes, and led her into the apartment. The ladder was thin and all tangled up in our curtain, and as I untangled it, I told her that I'd also put a note on the door of #205. She actually smiled, which was rare, and we made small talk about the tenants as I freed the ladder.

I was on a long bus ride to Olympia. The bus was some sort of independent bus, and it stopped at places that were also independently-run, like a restaurant that had a lot of people working in it that I recognized as co-op people. But before I even made it there, I got off at the wrong stop a few times, walked in the rain, ran down a sidewalk too close to cars and had other adventures.

When I got to the restaurant I was relieved it was only 11:30 a.m. and figured that Pat would be awake by now, so after I ate, I could go to his house and visit him, which was my plan all along. As I stood at the counter waiting to pay, I noticed two strange pieces of artwork on the walls, and a taped-up advertisement on each that noted the restaurant's inclusion in some books or films. The advertisements were written in black marker on what appeared to be a paper cut-out of an old-fashioned red hot dog. As I looked at them, someone put their arm around my waist, and I looked next to me and it was Pat. I looked up at him and smiled and told him I was planning to surprise him. It wasn't his arm around me, though--a moment later I realized it was Chris, who happened to be staying with Pat.

1.
I was in a large empty gray brick building on the corner of Woodman and Sherman Way. A lot of us were inside--we all lived there. Pat was there, too. A man and a group of contractors or laborers were also inside and we were told to stand still. The man in charge had a large steel wheel in his hands that he turned and as he turned it, the entire building turned until it had been moved 180 degrees from its original orientation. I was amazed--I had no idea they could move buildings like this! Pat was talking excitedly to the contractor afterward, no doubt just as amazed as I was. I noticed that everything was simply switched around now, including the little hot dog and popcorn cart on the first floor.

2.
On the same block, I had a table and belongings set up on the sidewalk. I was typing on my laptop until the realization hit me that I should not be advertising the fact that I have a laptop right out on the street. Moments later a teenage boy and girl approached me and began reaching for my laptop and taunting me. I moved into a crowd of people at a bus stop, clutching my laptop. I tried calling for help, and fought with them as much as I could with my hands full. Finally, I got lost in the crowd and got onto a bus, relieved. I covered my laptop with my blue paisley shirt.

3.
When I got off the bus, I saw some familiar buildings. I was presumably still on Woodman. These buildings looked like something in an old country, though, that had long ago been taken in a war and left to rot, but they were beautiful. The buildings had lofts, and were missing the entire building face, but flowers and trailing green leaves were growing from inside and continuing down to the ground. I walked by them to my house, where I lived with a man and a woman in a threesome. I climbed over the new white furniture in the doorway. There were little signs on the furniture--clearly our female lover had left her mark, wanting us to enjoy the fruits of her labor. She was reminding us to enjoy the sensual and even the surreal. I had flashes of all the ups and downs I had with these two people--she had medium length blonde hair, he looked sandy brown, bearded, and like some movie star. It could have all been part of a movie, we were so dramatic. I was relieved to have my laptop and this sexy place to live. The two of them were in the next room so I put my stuff down and made a plan to return to the corner where I'd left the rest of my belongings.