Dream; transit curse continues; Spartans

[quislibet]

[Update: lj-cuts added.]


In real life, I have had to miss the last four wedding- or engagement-related festivities to which I have been invited. In my dream last night, however, I am at such a celebration; the Happy Couple were not people that I can readily identify while awake. For some reason I am manning the phones in a part of the house separate from the party itself. An aunt of the bride (or bride-to-be) calls to ask if the bride (or bride-to-be) needs any yarn of a certain color. I go off to inquire, and for some reason that involves walking down a forest path at night. I can hear the sounds of the party away in the distance, but I can't find it.

As I wander, I become aware that I am being followed by an adult male lion -- clearly out of its geography, Burt Lahr aside, but that's not an issue in the dream. A few times he gets too close and I manage to scare him off by growling. That tactic becomes less and less effective, however, with each repetition, and it is clear that he is hungry. Up ahead on the right I can see a well-lit compound with numerous pickup trucks; maybe I can get inside one. But no; I worry more about being shot at by the owners of the trucks, and so I decide to face the lion. As there are Tensabarriers all around (of course), I manage to grab up one of the heavy stands just as the lion leaps to attack.

In the end, I am improbably victorious, but I feel bad about hurting the lion.


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Today's MBTA karma report: one hour extra travel time; one train door closed in my face; two long waits; one lost favorite pen; one train creeping along and halting for no apparent reason. That's roughly two weeks now since I have had a commuting day without at least one extra hour added on to my travel time, and all for different reasons every time!

Eye_Abstains suggests that I push a baby or an old lady in front of a train to appease the Dark Gods of Mass Transit.

The commuter rail portion of this morning's ride in was pleasant enough, at least. And there was a guy with his sunglasses up on his white baseball cap; he was leaning down to read, and so from where I was sitting there was the illusion of a certain "face covered in white cloth with sunglasses" Invisible-Man thing going on.


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Watched a documentary about the Battle of Thermopylae on the Discovery Channel last night; your basic "talking heads with cheesy dramatic reenactment scenes in slow motion" kind of thing. Got to see what various well-known classicists actually look and sound like, so I've got that going for me.

Few of them are people I'd suddenly think to talk to if I were focusing on Sparta or the Persian Wars, but I guess they were just the classicists the documentary makers had heard of.

Comments

[c-m-i.livejournal.com]

I saw the promos for the "Spartans at the Gates of Fire" thinggy and it showed modern soldiers poking at each other with spears. Was there a reason for this?

Then again it could have been because I was watching some documentary about four fuddyduddy Brits in southern Turkey trying to make an Assyrian war chariot and "modern folks doing ancient things" seems en vogue nowadays.

-ia.

[quislibet.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I meant to mention that: the mostly gratuitous cuts to some Lt. Col. at Quantico and his boys every so often. The Lt. Col. would talk about how similar the USMC ethos is to that of Sparta. The Marines would be exercising, or listening in rapt attention, or, at one memorable point, standing in a big group hug while he talked about how the Spartans worked as a team.

[c-m-i.livejournal.com]

...except for, you know... the buggery.

Sarge: Allright, maggots! Pair up and grab a jug of olive oil. It's time to learn about Spartan Teamwork!
Pvt.Pyle: I picks you, Joker.
Pvt.Joker: Crap.

-ia.