05-27-2013, 09:15 PM
This is the first of what will likely be many Beijing worry dreams.
I'm in a hotel room in a tall building in Beijing. The wall is mostly glass, providing a precipitous view. Lady Cranefly is with me, and so is my mom; that is the sense I get, though neither actually appear in the dream. I'm gazing downward out the window and notice movement in a room in another building. Someone is wailing away at a wooden dummy. Cool, I think. But as I take a closer look, I realize it's actually two people playing ping pong. But wow, are they going at it! Then I notice someone beyond them really working out hard, and I'm thinking, Well, this guy has to be doing martial arts! But once more, on closer inspection, I realize he's pounding away at a drum set. He's got big drumsticks in his hands and he's pounding the piss out of cymbals, and he's kicking the snare drums like mad.
I want to get a better look, but the room is slipping from sight. Why? Because the hotel I'm in rotates. It will be 45 minutes before I get another chance to look at that room.
Then I become chillingly away of just how fucking far up I am in this hotel. Really, like the hundredth floor. And I'm wondering what would happen if there were an earthquake. Still, I've heard that the Chinese have built all their skyscrapers to the highest quake-proof standards. But at the same time I'm recalling that the Chinese sometimes say things that just aren't true. So now I've got the heebie-geebies.
I decide to use the bathroom, and the moment I set foot in there, I'm shouting, Jesus fucking Christ! Because the toothbrush holder is empty. Wouldn't you know it? I forgot my fucking toothbrush! But the weird thing is, I know that the toothbrush is in my apartment across town, and all I have to do is go over there to get it -- only I don't want to go across town. All of which begs the question, what the hell am I doing with an apartment in Beijing? Did I lose my passport and get trapped here? Has the Chinese government decided to block my departure? Inquiring minds want to know!
But the answer is not forthcoming, because that's when my alarm goes off.
This Beijing trip will be okay, won't it? I mean, nothing could possibly go wrong. Right?
I'm in a hotel room in a tall building in Beijing. The wall is mostly glass, providing a precipitous view. Lady Cranefly is with me, and so is my mom; that is the sense I get, though neither actually appear in the dream. I'm gazing downward out the window and notice movement in a room in another building. Someone is wailing away at a wooden dummy. Cool, I think. But as I take a closer look, I realize it's actually two people playing ping pong. But wow, are they going at it! Then I notice someone beyond them really working out hard, and I'm thinking, Well, this guy has to be doing martial arts! But once more, on closer inspection, I realize he's pounding away at a drum set. He's got big drumsticks in his hands and he's pounding the piss out of cymbals, and he's kicking the snare drums like mad.
I want to get a better look, but the room is slipping from sight. Why? Because the hotel I'm in rotates. It will be 45 minutes before I get another chance to look at that room.
Then I become chillingly away of just how fucking far up I am in this hotel. Really, like the hundredth floor. And I'm wondering what would happen if there were an earthquake. Still, I've heard that the Chinese have built all their skyscrapers to the highest quake-proof standards. But at the same time I'm recalling that the Chinese sometimes say things that just aren't true. So now I've got the heebie-geebies.
I decide to use the bathroom, and the moment I set foot in there, I'm shouting, Jesus fucking Christ! Because the toothbrush holder is empty. Wouldn't you know it? I forgot my fucking toothbrush! But the weird thing is, I know that the toothbrush is in my apartment across town, and all I have to do is go over there to get it -- only I don't want to go across town. All of which begs the question, what the hell am I doing with an apartment in Beijing? Did I lose my passport and get trapped here? Has the Chinese government decided to block my departure? Inquiring minds want to know!
But the answer is not forthcoming, because that's when my alarm goes off.
This Beijing trip will be okay, won't it? I mean, nothing could possibly go wrong. Right?