All Bedrooms and Forests Are Connected

A conglomerate room of rooms lived in: all connected by sharp cupboard doors, countertops, and crumbled thing-collections. I couldn't open my eyes but could see in flashes. There were dolls in one corner. I found the brown haired one. I put my chin on the top of her head like I did when I was a child. The odd plasticky smell of it was very pleasant and exactly the same. And then there was that same old nightmare about dying and escaped gerbils.

...

I went to visit Friendship Village (a retirement home where I used to work). Ryan came with me and managed to remember everyone's names. I was impressed by this. We watched a movie where the main character is cutting up paper and coloring it in a manic-familiar-nonsense fashion. We sat in the balcony of a cafe- old, wooden, and dark, something like 4th Coast in Kalamazoo or Valentine's in Portland. It was raining outside, and dark. The windows had beads of rain on them and the lights from outside made it seem like we were watching aquariums. He put his arm around me, as if predicting that when we left Friendship Village I would begin to cry. Which I did.

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Mom and I were walking the the woods near where Tabor and Kalamazoo meet. She told me to take her somewhere she's never been. I thought of a trail which connects the Redwoods to the woods outside of Prague... of course all the forests (in dreams) are connected, and this one wasn't that far away, just over the Kazoo School/Klienstuck hill... We passed through a mess of intersecting train and tram tracks, a maze of sidewalks and machines...a fountain that you step on and it sends water jetting up into the air, a man sitting outside a restaurant with a little dog (very European). "I thought we'd go a little way and then turn around," I said.

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Planning a trip to Washington with Dad and Nick. It's going to be cold. Everyone just kept telling me how cold I'd be. There was a pile of various coats from throughout my past piling up on a countertop. I go to my bedroom (which looks more like Tess's bedroom from the house on Winchell and feels high up and incapsulated like a rocket ship. I start packing. I turn around and see that Brad has suddenly appeared. He picks up a pair of my underwear from my suitcase and puts them on over his clothes. He starts dancing around and making hooting noises. I am very embarrassed but glad to see him.