Minie' Ball Catch All

    Years ago I took all of my Civil War themed writings: poetry, short stories, a novella, and a novel and converted them into my series of five comic books, Minie’ Ball, that are now available bundled in hardback, paperback, and e-book on Amazon. Audio books can be found on YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3urQOYEHtR22T6dk6upPHw

Dana Lee’s channel.  The poems can be found in Selected Poems by Dana Lee, but although typed and saved to floppy disc, the short stories, Ghost on the Highway, and A Dark Peace have remained unpublished until now. 

It's going to take a while, but I've been lazy and listless through this cold winter. It would be great if I had it done by the April Gettysburg trip. Doubtful, but you never know with me. I don't know what the cover art will be. The cover of Minie' Ball #5, perhaps, or this, inspired by my favorite Civil War literature, Diary from Dixie, by Mary Chesnut, maybe... The original is available on Ebay.

Get the Original (Good By)

What a Dream

2/27

  Very different and interesting dream tonight, it started at Slippery Rock where I was living in a dormitory with Ron. I was a blonde and wore a long hot pink skirt. I had left for my night classes, either grad school or post grad, and passed a burned out recreational building, long and rectangular like a gym. I ran into a couple of brothers, white boys in their twenties with short brown hair. For some reason, unbeknownst to me, I was hiding under a tarp in a boat with the younger of the two who also now had a punched nose. Then I was back with them both. We walked across a campus green. I took two joints from a silver cigarette case from my green tapestry flood bag that I bought in North Carolina and used for years when I taught. The one joint was very loose and badly rolled which I apologized for. The older one was very friendly, and I was supposed to join them somewhere but was separated with a young dark haired woman on the lawn in front of a small office building. That’s when a woman came out, campus police, or something, and started hounding me over my id. The young woman ran off, spooked. I was amiable with the woman and digging through my bag. There wasn’t much in the bottom, just some old ids, none of which suited the woman. I joined her in the office where the younger brother with the punched nose was sitting in a cubicle getting interviewed by an older man. I rushed past them into the back explaining that I could not be seen by Mr. Punched when a heavy set man with greasy dark hair wearing a black suit and glasses joined me and another fellow saying that it was alright. It would be hush hush. I told them that I was in with Ike. Now an older woman was fussing over me. She grabbed me in the crotch. There was another girl with a buzz cut wearing black pinstripe tights and a short denim skirt. This woman did not trust or care for Miss Buzz Cut. Her grown son dressed in black and wearing a black hat came into the building led by a thirteen year old shepherd mix on a leash. I was petting the dog. Like his mother he backed into me and poked me in the crotch, only more subtly than his mother had done. There now was a big fuss about me in the back around a long conference table. I felt as if the entire ordeal was a run around, and that all of these people were inept. A blonde woman basically said that I had to go. The man in charge, slender in a white shirt and black glasses with more slimy black hair told her, “You’d be shitting your pants if Floyd flirted with you.” I was beginning to ascertain that they wanted the older brother for something, something big. Burning down the campus building? I did not know. I was losing my patience with the lot of them. Up until this point they all were very impressed by how calm I had remained. I gathered that they planned on using this against Floyd. I told them that I had missed class. I was fed up with them all and asked them if this was their usual shit show. Mr. In Charge said that did not matter that I worked for them now. He asked me who my hero was. I started thinking and becoming lucid. I told them that I had no hero or love for the Fuckers Butting In nor the Commie Infiltration Agency, that I did not like the government or the presidents besides Eisenhower when I woke up. After jotting down my notes in my dream book, (I turned on the light this time, so that I could make them out.), I fell into other little bouts of sleep where I was in the same dream, and there were piles of white paper on a desk in the same office.

Look at this silly kitty, he's been so bad. Up to page 135 in Dana's Dreams Two, already. It might be the Native American in me. I certainly am a dreamer. 🌜🌝🌛  

Dana's Dreams 

A Room of Their Own, a Master Class in the Art of Display

Duran Duran - The Wild Boys (Official Music Video)

  For my dearest Frankie, who is finally sleeping. I never could have put up with his wild ass when I was young. 😂 That sweet beautiful Anna had it right when she said that she wanted to give me Frankie because how I was. His new 💩 is getting behind the microwave, relentlessly, and peeking out at me. 😂 Sir Frankie Crisp is so precious to me. 💕😂💕 Oh, hex, anybody that really knows me knows I'm wild as fuck. 

Pink Floyd - Money (Official Music Video)

Eisenhower Soldier And President

 

  "Eisenhower wrote that "only a man that is happy in his work can be happy in his home and with his friends." He continued, "Happiness in work means that its performer must know it to be worthwhile, suited to his temperament, and, finally, suited to his age, experience and capacity for performance of a high order."  Stephen A. Ambrose

Jimmy Carter Collection For Sale

  Get Collection on Ebay

  Fund Purple Witch and my April Gettysburg trip, buy my Jimmy Carter collection. The set includes Amy Carter Peanut and paper dolls and four colorful placemats that I remember from my first grade Weekly Reader. The doll is still in her original package, and the paper dolls are uncut. They make for fabulous seventies patterns. This collection epitomizes the seventies and is in good condition. Zoom in and read the description. 

Thank You! 

 

Cher, Turn Back Time Set For Sale

  Get Turn Back Time Set on Ebay

  Fund Purple Witch and my April trip to Gettysburg, buy my Turn back Time Barbie and framed autograph. Zoom in and read the description, her jacket and boots have started to crack. 

  Thank You! ♫

  

 

Deadpool For Sale: Sideshow 12 in Boxed

Buy Deadpool on Ebay at a Discount

  Fund Purple Witch and my April Gettysburg trip, buy my Deadpool at a discount. He's only been out of the box a few times. Sideshow figures are very well made, heavy, and pose-able. I have several, and have sold another. They maintain their value. Wade comes along with loads of extras: a stand, weapons, and words. He has an interchangeable head and lots of extra hands. Zoom in and read the description. 

Thank You! 

 

French & Saunders | Let Them Eat Cake | The Pox | S01E01 | BBC

A Look Inside the Chateau

My Doll Room

Lots to Talk About: Dana's Dreams, Books, & More...

   First, I finished the cover of Dana's Dreams Two which came to me directly from a dream a couple of months ago. They were painted on the ceiling of a dressing room where I was changing my clothes. I have put them on loads of things on ZAZZLE: 

Wallpaper

Acrylic Prints

Ladies' Denim Jackets

Planners

Pillows

  Next, and sticking to the subject, I was telling my aunt how she might remember her dreams when The GOOGLE Monster gobbled everything that I had written up like a bag of cookies. A lot of folks might be interested, so here it goes. Take a glass of water to bed with you. Take a sip and say aloud, "I will remember my dreams". Set the glass on your nightstand. When you wake take a sip. Keep a dream notebook close to your bed. When you first wake, do not stir. Lie there and unravel your dream. Write down keywords in your notebook, so that you might remember upon waking. Share your dreams, talk about them. You must get to them first thing, otherwise you will forget. Pickles and pepperoni are dream foods, pickles being #1. The dream symbolism that you find online goes back to the ancient Egyptian priests. Finally, I had shared tonight's dreams with her: 

  2/21

  First I woke up as I heard Ron yelling, “Dana!”, in my head. This is the third time this has happened lately. It was just a dream, though very real. 

  The next dream was just a snippet: turquoise ladies panties embroidered with an Aztec bird were dancing in my head. 

  The third dream was Aunt Nancy’s summer wedding. Aunt Janet was there. They wore long matching sun dresses with blue and white printed roses on a red background. We were late getting to the church and missed the ceremony. We were waiting at my grandmother’s house. There was a dark haired young man working along the side of the house who I got snippy with. He had two of Mummy’s long stemmed fake flowers that Aunt Nancy was asking about. One was just a green bud, but the other might’ve been one of those dancing daisies. My little cousin had a big naked Jane doll still in the box. I was looking out the window at Aunt Nancy and her groom lying on a patio, snuggling. I told my cousin that Aunt Nancy and I both had Jane dolls too. 

Dana's Dreams

Now, on with my readings. Tonight's quotes are taken from BATTLEFIELD and Eisenhower:

"It dawned on me that I was up against more than an inflexible rule; I was challenging a tenet of economic survival. A utility company was loath to relinquish even one customer whose lifetime of rate-paying would add tens of thousands of dollars to its coffers." Svenson

This book, that Ron got for me at The Farnsworth House for Easter, is brilliantly written by an artist no less. In Farming a Civil War Battleground Peter Svenson gets down to the bones about building his third house.

"MacArthur, the most political of generals, never succeeded in politics, while three of the most apolitical generals in American history, Washington, Grant, and Eisenhower, did. They were true American Caesars, only American soldiers to hold both supreme military and political power." Ambrose

Quotes from Bronte and Cookson

   Binge reading, trying to catch up with the ones I've been reading the longest. Spring cleaning is also coming early this year, so the doll soaps are iffy; they make a huge mess. Frankie doesn't make that any easier. These are from Anne Bronte's The Tenant of Wildfell Hall and Catherine Cookson's The Mallen Lot, finally getting close to finishing that trilogy that is so good. I was disappointed not to find any of her books at the library sale. 

  "Keep both heart and hand in your possession, till you see good reason to part with them; and if such an occasion should never present itself, comfort your mind with this reflection: that, though in single life your joys may not be many, your sorrows, at least will not be more than you can bear." Anne Bronte

  "The conception of children is not dependent on love...." Catherine Cookson

Le Petite Chaperon Rouge

I 💗 Red Riding Hood, she's a fav. 

The High Priestess Original for Sale

 Get The High Priestess on Ebay

Sir Frankie Crisp

   I've nearly finished the cover for Dana's Dreams Two. Up to page 129 in that, and I started it in June. Eventually the original ought to be available on Ebay. It will be available as prints and other fun stuff on ZAZZLE before that. Stay tuned. I'm also going to list an old High Priestess of mine from before Captivating Tarot. It's snowing again. I've been putting off visiting the neighbors as it has been so cold and windy. I don't drive there because I always leave looped on red wine. I miss them. I also miss spring. Anyway, I'll TTYL... 

Dana's Dreams

Captivating Tarot

(Instructions, symbolism, and notebooks are also available.)

Anne Bronte, Eisenhower, & Lovecraft! Oh, My!

   The internet had blown out with the WIND the past couple days. We went to a library book sale over the weekend, and I got a pile of books, so was able to catch up with my reading with Frankie cuddled next to me keeping me warm. All of the drastic renovations I've been forced into making for him have worked out. The aquariums are much healthier and happier in their new positions. I've come to notice that corners of the house towards the outside are not good positions for aquariums to prosper. Frankie still gets up on top of the glass cube as if he was in a Hawaiian glass bottomed boat. He did no real damage to The Collins Port Inn. I was even able to restore the Japanese screen I've had for thirty years. It's much better off against the wall where he cannot check in, out of the sun. I was just telling my grade school girlfriend that I binge everything including reading, always have. So when you witness me quoting Anne Bronte today do not judge to think I've been reading this book, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, about life with an alcoholic, for years. I have. I'm up to about page 400 of 500. Last year was a writing year, so I did not finish a lot of books. I'm still reading Brooke Shield's There Was a Little Girl, Catherine Cookson, BATTLEFIELD, and Hitty too. In fact, I'm reading well over a dozen books at a time, which is a lot even for me, but they are all very good, so I cannot help myself. I'm learning tons in Ambrose's Eisenhower biography including little wonder that like New Orleans, where the author is from, I always knew I loved Ike without reason. As the preface says, he was a good and great man. Mamie, too, is even better than my paper dolls make out. But, I'm not quoting that nor The Bolelyn Inheritence, or The Doll People today. The later quotes are from the second book I picked up at the sale after the first signed Jewish French, (I might have found Shushy & Woo, Y'all: Shih Tzu Chiahuahua mutts), quiche cookbook only now we can't afford $8 eggs at the little market due to New World Order BS, that are going to end up getting wasted as my dream, as nobody is dropping that at the bargain market. Holy cow, tangents, I'm trying to get to Jason Colavito's The Cult of Alien Gods H.P. Lovecraft and Extraterrestrial Pop Culture, a title that gives The Three Witches Magic Shoppe Adventures in Doll Land a run for its money.

 🤘😝🤘  I would send this book to my brother when I am finished if I thought he would read it. I suppose he would not think much of it, not being a Lovecraft fan, bur I think it is off the hook! The author is a lot of fun and spelling out what I've always known about the fanciful alien BS I used to 🤣😂🤣 with Ron's ninety-year-old mother about while my little nonreading brother was watching Ancient Aliens. I'd tell her how they sure thought we were stupid. Anyway, the book begins with Night Gallery and acknowleges Graham Hancock.It's about how all of the alien talk is directly related to Lovecraft, and it is a real hoot! I 💗 it. I have to make supper, so will TTYL, in the meantime, enjoy the quotes. 

"My dear child, I am not. Those are bad words, and wicked people often say them of others better than themselves. Those words cannot make people damned, nor show that they deserve it. God will judge us by our own thoughts and deeds, not spoken, Arthur, remember never to repeat them: it is wicked to say such things of others, not to have them said against you." Anne Bronte

"that not only does the invisible world that encompasses us contain Intelligences vastly superior to our knowledge of the Truth, but that it is possible for man to enter communion with these hidden and silent ones, and to be taught of them the Divine mysteries of Time and of Eternity." Jason Colavito

The Three Witches Magic Shoppe Adventures in Doll Land

Pippa Pixie for Sale

Get Pippa on Ebay

 

Nolan Strong and The Diablos "The Wind" - 1954 Fortune Records

The Collins Port Jamaica Inn

Libby Faery for Sale

Get Libby on Ebay

 

Frankie's First Valentine's Day

   Frankie is a wonderful valentine. I woke up with him snuggled against my chest. He loves his new love bug, catnip mouse, and wand. I think I want to make him a wand for Mardi Gras. He's definitely getting Greenies for Saint Patrick's Day. He has tuna breath. I really wish that the damn' Pawrade would stop tempting me with puppies in Missouri. That is not what I signed up for. I have SPAMMED them, but continue to be tempted by puppies that I want only to be surprised that they are across the country and thousands upon thousands of dollars. 🙁 I did not find Frankie there. A wonderful lady listed him on Adopt A Pet. They are affiliated with Pet-Smart. I suppose we'll find our puppy there too, a brother for Frankie. We had agreed upon a Jack Russell when we got Shiner; we want an Italian Greyhound now, Ron says two, Shushy and Woo. They are very hard to come by in this area. There must be tracks in Missouri and Florida as Pawrade keeps rubbing puppies in my face. Well, Frankie is enough. We 💓 him. He's such a character. Happy Valentine's Day! 💕💖💕

Minou with Rena

   Purple Witch got me Rena for Christmas, and Ron got me Minou, the Corsican Himstedt, several years ago when Shiner broke his hip. She was one of the first Himstedts, besides Tara, the German girl that was my first, that I ever saw back in Bethel Park at Bear Trax next to BORDERS. That was a fun place where I also got a big handmade Raggedy Ann, who was always Mummy's favorite Raggedy. Rena's is spelled Raggady, and she is from the same time, over twenty-five years ago. The handmade dress was made for Himmies and came along with another. The booties are Ron's mother's christening booties, kid leather, and over a hundred. I just got my valentines for Ron and Frankie together. Frankie got a cute new caterpillar as he loves Shiner's old dollar store one that he rips up and drowns in his water bowl. This one is a lot furrier and valentine themed, pink and purple. I'm watching something dumb, an 1895 mystery on free Hallmark channel. Haunted Wedding, on the otherhand, was adorable. I've noticed the same fake Tiffany lamp in three different Hallmark channel movies now. I'm painting the cover of Dana's Dreams Two, it is from a dream. I'm also getting together my gifts for The Farnsworth House, Minie' Ball stuff and Captivating Tarot, as well as an original I did of Elizabeth Thorn long ago. TTYL... Happy Valentine's Day! 💕💘💕

The Black Dahlia

Get The Black Dahlia on Ebay

 

The Love Duchess

  Seriously, check-out Frankie. 😹 Anyway, Purple Witch says she's meeting me in Gettysburg, so I'm trying to list more dolls. I've been suffering a stomach virus, but have recovered. I'm still really lazy. Free Hallmark channel means I'm enjoying Haunted Wedding. 

TTYL...

💝Get The Love Duchess on Ebay💖

 

Eagles One of These Nights 1977

  My fav Eagles song has been playing in my head steady for weeks now... 

Spencer

   Super creepy, not sure if I like Spencer or not. When it's good, it's very good. When it's bad, it's worse. I might watch it again. The acting isn't bad. 

20% Off Valentines Sale

Frankie by Firelight & More DREAMS

  
 2/8

  Terribly sick again last night, so loads of dreams to report. I have to go through my notebook and figure out the four pages of purple scratchings. The first is the hardest, of course. We must have several dream sessions throughout the sleep pattern, three or four. The first dream is usually short, and they get longer. The first dream took place in Oakland, Mummy and Daddy were there. It involved a coffee maker and maybe a woman and a desert or dry creek bed that I’m trying to remember. My coffee maker was stolen, and Alex came. My hair was cut in a short bob, shorter and darker than high school, and I wore tight faded jeans. I confronted a man, a dream person, trying to cuss him out, but the words were stuck in my throat. Only a wheeze escaped. He called me something like a dumbass of a roarer. 

  It gets better. I was in Gettysburg with Mummy, Daddy, and Susan. What I remember first is driving around with Mummy and Daddy and looking for my inn, something like Longwood Inn, but there was some confusion that I’ll come back to. We passed it, a big cream with brown shutters and trim sprawling two storey, and another grand pink brick Georgian style, maybe the Kensington Arms, or something of the like. It was suburbia; then we came to town. I realized now that it was hot, June. We boarded a scenic railway. I was sitting next to Daddy, and Mummy sat across from me. Mummy and I were discussing some up and coming Poe movie that was soon to be released. Daddy was picking at the corner of a postcard with a white carousel horse that began to play an old ragtime music box tune, Beautiful Dreamer.  I told him that Longwood, the same man that the inn was associated with, had carved the Kennywood carousel horse and written the tune. He was very impressed. We were talking about the hotels, and I told him that at The Kensington Arms you had to share a bed with two other people. He said that was not good unless you were a pervert. He might’ve remained on the train, but Mummy and I met with Susan and went to a book shop where Mummy bought me three books: a little paperback, a magazine, and a slender coffee table sized hardback with a shiny dust jacket. The paperback was pale blue with a rough cardstock, felt like, cover. There was a simple portrait sketch of the actress in the Poe film done in magenta ink. The magazine also covered the same movie that we were all interested in. I later gave Mummy back the eighty dollars that she had spent in the book shop. Going back to my notebook, I see that while I was taking the cash for Mummy out of my little leather and tapestry zipped purse, I remembered that I already had a room at The Farnsworth House, The Eisenhower suite. Meanwhile Susan was talking about all of the money that she had spent at the dentist. I told her about my ten thousand dollar mouth. Mummy was surprised. When we got to The Farnsworth House, however, the clerk, a white man in a tan, short -sleeved shirt and brown pants, told me that my room was not booked. I told him to check under Ron’s name. I woke up at this point because Frankie was throwing up. As I was sick watching Aquarius last night the Mansons were dumpster diving for food. At the same time Sir Frankie Crisp was rummaging through the powder room trash. I usually keep that door shut from him, but I was sick. 

  Now I had gone up to bed at 7:30 am, and had the third epic dream. I need another cup of coffee, so glad to have kept the first down. I was in school, post grad, only in a small golden lit posh shopping mall. It began with me in a crowded locker room where I could not remember the lock combination for my little white locker. The numbers were marked in red, and I was surprised that the lock opened only I still did not have my schedule, (a computer print-out I could see in my mind’s eye that I was trying to remember, gray block computer numbers, only three or four classes, three, I think), or my books. The problem was that I had missed some classes. It was still early in the semester. Still, I went to my first class that took place in a top notch men's suit store: nothing but dark wood shelves holding dress pants, shirts, ties, and jackets. There was a long glossed wooden table where my class met. The professor was a young woman who said that she’d wanted the fancy green tea that I was drinking. We all had special teas in swank glassware: concoctions with ice and foam. She called me a gypsy, I could tell she liked me a lot. One of my old students, Westley, was in this class, at the table, with me. At one point we got up from our seats and were standing in the shop. I dropped my brown crochet light, long sweater on the floor. A light skinned black girl with ponytails had her yellow t shirt with a pink sunflower over her face, so that it looked like she wore a lion mask. I asked if she was a Leo, and she was. The professor was delighted and impressed. The shop owner, a faceless cardboard cutout dressed in a real good suit, with a name tag was talking to me. He also was impressed. Seemed the mall had been losing business, so they started sharing classes there. Nothing seemed that big of a deal at the time. After class Westley and I wandered the mall for something to eat. First I got onion rings, really good, big fried rings on a long rectangular cardboard  tray, but it didn’t stop there. Westley got some chicken, and we also had popcorn and maybe even pizza. I had a big bag of leftovers and offered them to a boy, but said that I would take some of the popcorn and pizza, I think, home. He tried to pay me, but his cash was fake paper napkins. Westley and I walked on. He was talking about his law degree, and I said that my friend, Rick, also had his law degree but was not practicing. I saw my old boyfriend Curt, again, only this time he was dressed in brown. He was young and tan and ducked back into a womens’ clothes store. Now a Prince cover was singing from behind some colorful kiddie play balls. There was a big Asian girl who showed me a Peter Pan themed amusement that they were in the process of removing. It had an unplugged neon sign and waterfall. I was sorry I had missed it. We ascended the aqua blue plastic waterfall. The water had been turned off. There were also some leftover Caspar items. She wound a little plastic toy up, and it spun round her hand. There was another Caspar themed plastic napkin ring? I took it. It was time for my next class, and I was hoping I got it right. It was in a bigger open shop that seemed to be for Asian imports and crafts. The class wore colorful paper animal masks and were speaking in German. I was totally lost. The instructor and students let me know that I was in the wrong class, and I was starting to get worried. I wondered what I was doing there. I told myself that I already had a master’s and teaching degree. Faux Prince was still singing when I reached up to take a plush pink flamingo that was in a furry pink ring shape. There were other animals like it hanging near the play balls in a sort of net set up. When I noticed a crowd watching me, I left it, and they were singing a ditty, making fun of me for not belonging at the mall, and trying to steal the flamingo prize when I woke up.

Dana's Dreams

Trixie

Get Trixie on Ebay

 

Sick Dreams

 2/6

  Due to staying up all night watching Aquarius and finishing off a bottle of cheap guinea pinot grigio I was too lazy to write down my first couple of dreams that came with the ice storm. No worries, the third made up for them all. I was back in the house in Oakland only it was different, and there were other occupants including an old balding man. The place had a massive attic, and the old man opened up a grocery store up there. He said it was always his dream. I was flabbergasted by the bins of fresh fruits and vegetables: peppers and bananas. There was a keg of chardonnay, and I filled my fishbowl glass from the floor. But there was more, a lot more. At the far concrete block wall was a set of restrooms and an elevator. Beyond that was another room, a Christmas room, brimming with decorated trees with baskets of ceramics, ornaments, and crafts on the floor. I saw Mummy and Daddy, and none of us could believe it. Daddy was a bit overcome with it all and just sat and rested. The old man took me back to the front of the attic where there was a little room with a window that led out to sea. On a deck were a group of native fishermen and the water was swarming with black and white fish about the size of bluegills with fangs like a terrier. Dreaming, I knew their name, something like spelt. They were thrashing against the glass and broke through, three of them were flopping on the floor. There were a couple other women standing against the wall. I left the room having to use the bathroom. The bathrooms were a surprise: three of them, all different. The third was big for handicapped and pretty standard, but the first two were decorated with wreaths of raffia with red ribbons, hand towels, and other country decor. The first one had a shower with a plastic curtain. None of them locked, however, so I couldn’t use them. Mummy was there, using the second restroom. After leaving I wanted to go downstairs as I knew there were more bathrooms there. First I ran into Tim. He asked me if I could get him a Mountain Dew, and I told them they had Dr. Pepper. Then I met my brother and told him about the natives and fish. There were all sorts of cardboard boxes lining the wall full of an assortment of things including Red Witch who I took. I was wondering what she was doing there and if the old man had looted my dollhouses, only I could not remember seeing them. Then I came upon a girl, who I knew; she told me she was with a guy who I had dumped while taking a bath. I told her that was not how it happened as I was picturing it in my mind: I was in a clawfoot bathtub frothy with bubbles. My hair was tied back, and I had a natural sea sponge. Jess from Gilmore Girls came in, and I told him to get lost or something of the like. Then he, Jess, joined the girl. He was wearing a long dark wool coat and a red scarf. I still had to go to the bathroom, which is common in my dreams because I really have to go. 😂 That’s when I met Matt Koett. I showed him Red Witch, and he asked about the other dolls. I said that I didn’t know that I’d only found Red Witch. I finally reached the elevators where there was a girl with red hair that I’d known in the dream. She was selling fresh vegetables like green peppers and had a sign on her stand that read Live Oats. We spoke for a bit, and I moved on to where a woman was standing at the elevators complaining about missing her flight due to the monstrous market. There was a wall of stuffed animals like pink Squishmallows and lots more behind her when I woke up because I  had to go to the bathroom. 

2/7

  Very sick last night, so I did not dream until morning. I was at a class reunion. It began beneath a yellow and white tent where I was with some dream people that I knew when Janeen joined us, cute and chatty as ever. After she had gone John  came in, and when he heard that Janeen had just been there he said that she was such a slut. I told him that I’d heard the same about him, so he left. I was folding a burgundy satin sleeveless gown and a little black sequined shrug in the back corner that I had planned to wear to the outdoor ball later. Then there was a sort of alumni variety show. Theresa was there afterwards although she wasn’t in my class, which I hadn’t thought of. There were others, dream people, that I don’t really know. Theresa and I were in a dark sort of alcove, a place where two doors met. Curt, dressed in black, came in and stood against the door. He was trying to get my attention, “Dana… Dana”, but I was talking to somebody and had my back towards him. He got huffy and left. Theresa said that he was rude as usual. I told her that he had gotten snippy with Susan lately too. Now we had a kind of This is Your Life spread. It looked like a flea market, (I dream about them a lot), but the items were not for sale, they only represented our lives. I was talking to a woman who at first I did not remember, Cindy, maybe. She was accompanied by an older woman with black tied back hair, dressed in gypsy like silk skirts, her aunt. There was a black and white eight by ten photograph of her with her late parents. Supposedly she was some sort of debutante or lesser royalty. She had silk dolls that her aunt had made. When it got time to pack our stuff up and put it away I was helping her. Then I remembered having met her when we were teenagers. I put a little box with yellow and orange plastic gems in a box and taped it up. Her aunt said that it was cheap, and that she hadn’t made it, perhaps, her sister had. I was so busy helping others that I had avoided my own hoard that Theresa was packing up. I looked under a table, there were lots of big cardboard boxes, but they all had somebody’s last name printed in red magic marker on them. I looked at a box of mine that Mummy had sent. It was full of junk including a naked wooden doll with a primitive face wearing a bonnet. Her body was smooth and straight. She was a bit bigger than a Barbie. I noticed a beautiful black and gold Japanese bed with white silk sheets that a woman who was not in my class had in the front of the room. I was thinking that people had brought their very best. Leaving through a sunny glass door like you’d find at a diner, Jennifer Davidson told me to keep in touch. I was thinking that I wouldn’t, but that maybe we’d have a party and how much I liked parties.

Loreena McKennitt Art Doll

 

Get Loreena on Ebay

Crazy Dreaming

 

  2/2

  Lots of dreaming after finally falling asleep on the couch and moving upstairs with the dolls. First I was with my childhood friend, Kelly Casey, only we were now adults. It took place in a large convention area in downtown Pittsburgh during the day. After class, or whatever we were there for, we moved to a small cafeteria space with a counter for lunch. Kelly got a red paper carton of milk and a plastic cup of tapioca pudding. I got a can of Diet Coke. We were talking about milk, and how I did not drink it as a child. Afterwards we walked outside where there was a mound of crystals surrounding a small cavern. There was a yellow triad quartz at the top of the mound. A fat blonde, who was with her boyfriend, broke the citrine off and stole it. I also had a chunk of quartz with gray, green, and fuchsia dripping colors like candle wax, very shiny. I’m not sure if we were at ground level, outside, or on the rooftop. There were clusters of bronze and concrete statues all around including one of Zeus on his knees. We passed a black obsidian ziggurat on the right. It was about seven feet high and narrow like a Victorian feather Christmas tree, very intricately carved. There were two metal caskets with padlocks on the ground. A woman told us that a wife had locked her husband’s bones within them. Now we walked beyond to a fair. There were lots of crystal geodes for sale on long white clothed tables. 

  Now I was in class and about to present a book I had written and covered. When it was my turn I realized that it was not the book that I wanted to present. It was a big square shape with a black snakeskin type of cover. The title, something like, Lucid, but not quite, was affixed in a mosaic of sequins. Inside were only copies on heavy magazine paper of old black pen script on burnt parchment. The other book had a fabric cover and is an old puppet show script for Cannery Row that I had helped my students with. I still have it. The fabric looks like the sea or an oil spill, greens and blues. I was thinking that I did not want to present either of those books, rather maybe my paperback Selected Poems because The Three Witches Magic Shoppe Adventures in Doll Land and Fanging with Claude were much too long. I discussed it with my teacher, a woman in her forties with short blonde hair, and she seemed irritated. She was not happy with my choices, wanting me to present Lucid. She got kind of shitty and told me to find my book or clean my house.

  Finally it was Christmas at Grandma Andres’s house, only the house was different. I was trying to film two episodes of my dollhouse soap operas, one in The Magic Shoppe and the other in a tall three storey dollhouse. It had a pink plastic staircase that I had to snap back into place at the top. One of Aunt Nancy’s Dawn dolls, Jessica, with the blonde braids, stood there wearing a long faux fur trimmed white coat. I had filmed the first episode then decidedly fixed a brown clay pony, still soft, and wanted to reshoot. I was working on the lighting. Daddy came and wanted me to come through the Cornwall tunnel with him. My Aunt Janet and Grandma were holding up production somehow. I told Grandma that every girl could have a palm sized Cindy doll that I had made. They had blonde bobbed hair and were dressed in white cotton nightgowns. They were seated in the bottom of the tall house, and I was wondering if I had enough. I think there were five of them. I was about to give up filming as there was too much distraction when I woke up.