Back Again

[ehowton]

Dreamed photogoot and I were in Korea together (through it was also occasionally Germany). We were attending a dinner party thrown by a local couple who’d invited several service members. We took the long walk from our place at a leisurely pace, musing at how we'd made many similar walks together different places overseas over the course of our friendship.

When we arrived, we didn't know anyone, and Dorian was there! She paired off with Paul - they'd gotten together after my divorce. Around that time he got a call from his [ex-wife, who in the dream was his current wife] who quickly guilt-tripped him into no longer being polyamorous. He was pretty distressed by this sudden and inexplicable behavior, so I told him the story of Cass, how I loved her more because it expanded the way I saw her and was able to appreciate her demonstratively, and her full support of the configuration because she acknowledged all the upsides. We wanted to have this conversation privately, so the three of us found a quiet corner away from everyone, and laid down on the floor facing one another.

Afterward, Paul asked me to bring back some items from our place, and to bring him back a glass a beer. I walked downstairs, out of the building, and all the way back to our place where I grabbed an air mattress and several other items. On the long walk back I stopped to fill the air mattress down an alleyway which also had a free beer dispenser, and an a free snack kiosk. A guy approached while I was filling the air mattress and told me he'd heard there was pizza to be had here - I showed him how he could created his own pizza by assembling some ingredients on bread and toasting it. As he did that I tried to fill the beer glass, but had to set the now filled air mattress on the counter. The glass filled with beer, but the air mattress was so long, that the end had set too close to the open flame of the adjacent stove and melted, causing the air to escape. I pulled it off the counter quickly but then couldn’t also carry my own drink, and the full glass of beer. That’s when someone else arrived down the alley, pulled open a drawer with a stone facade to match the counter (essentially camouflaging it) to reveal fully cooked, delicious Pizza Hit personal pan pizzas ready to go. They looked and smelled delicious. The guy making pizza toast threw me a look. I shrugged in a sheepish, “Oh, right, I forgot that was there" sort of way. I set my drink down (which I only then realized I had try to fill with the lid still on so there was nothing in it (also wondered how I didn't notice this at the time), instead took a sip of the beer I'd collected for Paul, and left both glasses there.

I lifted a corner of the deflating air mattress over my shoulder and started back the rest of the way. My GPS no longer showed the path, so I just winged it, passing a family of six whose kids were rambunctious causing me to pinch my finger in my flip phone. I made a turn and had to cross several busy, multi-lane streets at the light. I couldn’t see both the crossing signal, and the vehicles, so turned my hat around backward and noticed it was already getting dark, so took off my sunglasses and placed them on my hat. A few more turns and crossing one more street and I'm back at the building.

There were a lot more people there than when I left. As I approached the narrow stairwell once inside, I realized it was now Friday night, the busiest day of the convention which explained why there were so many people. The convention had rented out the entire second floor of the building. Right before I climbed the stairs I saw an ex-girlfriend. We made eye contact. She didn’t react, and just turned to go up the staircase. I followed, remembering how upset she was when she realized Paul and I were spies and I hadn’t told her. It had killed our relationship. I wondered if she harbored any bad feelings over it.

I crossed the concourse and reenter the dinner party. There were loads of other people there now (mostly service members) and I no longer had the air mattress with me! I had no idea how I’d lost it. I was sure it had to have been between the pizza station and the hotel. That's when I realized I no longer had my hat either. Or my sunglasses. Or any of the not-inexpensive items of Paul’s I brought back at his request. I almost panicked but there was nothing to be done. Paul was morosely telling his co-workers he was getting a divorce because his wife didn’t want him to be polyamorous and that he wouldn’t be able to attend this years annual disaster recovery exercise in DC because of it.

I went into the kitchen to get us a beer but there was a large spill on the kitchen floor, so I took off all my clothes, grabbed a super absorbent towel, stood on it, and started shuffling across the kitchen mopping it up completely naked. One of Dorian’s retired friends came into help and I thought how funny it was I was naked in another country with this person cleaning the kitchen - you’d never have seen this stateside. Once I squeezed out the liquid from the towel in the sink I noticed the entire kitchen floor was now covered in garbage, so had to clean up the enormous amount of trash. Dorian's retired friend helped me clean. I figured since that was done I might as well do dishes. Halfway through that task dinner caught fire in the oven and I didn’t know the Korean word for tongs so I could pull it out of the flames without getting burned. The hostess' name was Sen, and she spoke very little english, and it was difficult to pantomime the device required to extract the dish without using my actual hands.