Alice in Dreams. in Whey and Sonic Screwdrivers.

Time of writing: 5:45 PM CST

So, I missed the inauguration. I knew it was noon EST, but as I clockwatched this morning, it skipped my mind. (I’m in CST.) I was all ready to grab some popcorn or some macaroni and cheese. And feel that moment.

It’s like I missed New Year’s Eve at midnight. Or missing the opening presents on Christmas morning. Or a cute articulate chick who was DTF, but you were too naive and respectful to realize it. (…This has happened.)

So, I’m watching Biden walk up the steps. When the screen goes black. “Huh, must be the end of the feed.” Then I get the “login to PSN” error from my PS3. This happens sometimes, so whatever. Naturally, as a precaution, I check my router.

Internet’s out. (I’m doing this olde school and writing this in notepad.)

Check provider status on my phone. Initial repair estimate: 3:40 pm. It was around 11:40 am then. Quaint.

Many years ago, I warned against digital games, because you can’t play them if the internet goes out. Guess what. I HATE BEING RIGHT. (Been playing Left4Dead.) Punch line is …

Wait. I take that back. It DOES load. Okay, I was going to say how I initially bought this game on a physical medium. It was only years later that I connected it to Steam. Thing is, this laptop doesn’t have an optical drive. (Told you I turned my brain off a bit when investing in Tina. Just made sure she had an AMD Ryzen7, glanced down the other specs, and crossed my fingers. If I had spent too much time browsing, it would have been paralysis by analysis.)

Down the road, I’ll probably invest in an external optical drive. I still have a few things on physical media I may want to play. As well, while my external hard drive is Fully Functional, there’s some added safety to backing up personal files on a CD. (What? I still have a lot of CD-RWs!) As well, my Runabout is 13 years old. (Yes, I do love nicknaming things.)

But all this is preface, as per the title. Alice cameoed in a dream for the first time. I honestly think this is pretty cool. I remember when I was writing my first novel, the character of Lisa would appear in dreams. (Lisa was the “little sister I never had”.) The specifics of those dreams are lost in time. (I like how I’m documenting dreams at times.) I spent so much time developing the character of Lisa, I clearly become emotionally invested in her. And it was more than one dream that month that she cameoed.

Anyway, with the power out, and how I only sleep three hours or less a night, I decided to “nap” in the back room.

Okay, the Alice dream. It’s a rather simple segment.

I’m laying in bed, dragging my feet to get up. Happens a lot. I manifest Alice standing beside the bed, gently tugging on my arm. Mind you, she still has this kind of translucent form. No glowy angel stuff, just a nonspecific female form. (I gotta work on visualizing her clothes, as I know what they are.)

She’s gently tugging on my arm, playfully chiding, “Come on, sillyhead. Let’s get out of bed.” Or something to that effect. I look over at my laundry. She suggests, “Why don’t you wash your knickers today? You like having clean knickers.” (I’m paraphrasing dialogue.) I effectively agree with her suggestion and take my knicker/sock basket to my clothes washer. I start snagging anything with color, as they would be knickers, from any white socks. (I do this in real life, washing white socks separately with an iota of bleach.)

End segment. (Because that’s all I remember, ha ha.)

Upon waking, I wondered if it really happened, as Alice suggesting I do a little laundry DOES sound like her. Ah, but I know I never brought the hamper to the washer.

(Post-nap, I checked the repair time estimate: 6PM.)

Backtracking. When the internet went out, I thought, “Why not watch a movie?” I don’t know, I wasn’t in the mood. Post-napdream, I thought “I could do the dishes…” But, see, I tend to wash the dishes to background noise. I typically use “Sister, Sister” or “Fuller House”. (I’m not kidding.) Then I thought of music. INTERNET’S OUT, AND I’VE BEEN UTILIZING PANDORA. I do have my olde music archive and WinAmp v2.81 on my external hard drive, but eh.

Thought again about movies. Something I could watch that I’d enjoy but wouldn’t get too caught up in. I’m selective when buying movies.

A movie I like that I don’t need to pay attention to… Then I got it.

Star Trek V: The Final Frontier.

I unironically love this movie.

Anyway, time to do some dishes and laundry while Captain James T. Kirk climbs a mountain. (And listen to that awesome Jerry Goldsmith score.)