Dream 12.22.13

The craft studio was sort of like the one at camp. I don't know why I was there, but so was Steve Martin. There were a lot of people milling around this studio, but no one else recognized him. When he didn't seem too busy I sat next to him and tried not to gush. "I love your work, all your work," I said. I quoted my favorite poem of his from Cruel Shoes. He smiled and asked me about my life. He set to work at his table covered in cheesecloth.

James Earl Jones was kitty corner at a wheel. He had overhead our conversation and presented me with a clay figurine. It was brown and sort of looked like an offensive rendering of a black baby. James Earl Jones told me it was a talisman. Steve Martin then presented me what he had been working on. A big card designed with light blue clouds. In cursive he had written encouragement about my future, my writing, my life. At the bottom in bigger font he had scrawled, "For I am not long for this world" over a doodle of his feet in 50s loafers floating to heaven.

Mainstreet Mems

It's this time in the semester I get nostalgic for childhood. I rarely wish for times before the present. For the most part, I'm always the happiest I've ever been. I didn't like my childhood. I don't want to go back there...most of the time. It's nights like tonight though--nights where I already greased up my inner kid with a comedy group dinner and playtime at Dave & Buster's, nights where I come home exhausted to a huge stack of scripts to grade--that make me long for the littlest things.

Blockbuster. It was half a mile away, and I could spend an hour browsing.
Pressing the "on" button for the tree-lighting ceremony after Thanksgiving.
The tan paper mache shapes in Ben Franklin.
Penny candy baskets. Mary Janes and candy cigarettes.
Green River at the counter of the 50s drugstore. The big medical RX on the awning.
The orange bubble letters of Golden Shoes.
The big padded chair at the window of the library, right next to the water fountain.
The sweet sugar cookies, stuck together with fudge and dipped in chocolate. Grooves like clams. The cartoon wedding cake on the bakery front sign.

I repeat, I have so much grading to do, but, I might just fall asleep. I wish I could be a bad student--or even mediocre--for these next two weeks, but, no, I will knock myself out. It's just what happens.