puffy paint maps by christy davis
i was in the elevator with my mom, charles, some friends of theirs, and sara. i think it was the elevator of my childhood home but fancier. in the dream we were returning from a trip or some big event, wearing fancy clothes and pulling rolling suitcases, and it was late at night. the friends were staying at our house. i was thinking of how sara would get home after we dropped off all my stuff and it was time for everyone to go to bed. then i realized that she could just sleep over. it was the regular apartment now. i mentioned to my parents that she could stay over, sort of requesting but knowing it was obviously okay, when they objected, saying there wasn’t enough room, even though i would be sleeping in my room alone, and we would be waking up and leaving before everyone got up. so i got really pissed off in front of all their friends. we were all standing around now in what looked to be a version of my mom’s studio from our old apartment from my teenage years. i threatened to break the glass on some artwork there, calling all of their art “complete bullshit.” i think there was art by everyone who was present. i felt high on rage, knowing later i might be embarrassed / have to apologize, and not caring one bit.
a moment later one of the guests was holding up some maps of the USA that were painted with slick black fabric paint (like out of one of those squeeze bottles) on clear plastic, and they had clearly been unrolled recently. some of the paint was pink and some other colors. each map was a different map of the US, some state-by-state political maps, some by terrain. i actually thought they were cool except I was so fueled by annoyance in the dream that i said, “what the fuck are these?” i said i thought they were awful. then i realized that christy had made them, and sara sort of nudged me to remind me, and then i realized that christy was sitting cross-legged on a high stool by the door and was crying because i had said that. i apologized profusely and hugged her, saying i didn’t mean it, which was true.
there was also a part where i was on houston st (near lafayette) with a lesbian couple at dawn and also nan, and the couple were making out, and nan had crazy hair and gave me a wide, wild-eyed look of “whoa!” we were the only people around. i said to nan, “i’m glad i know you and you’re not some lady who’s trying to make out with me!” (in real life some lady tried to kiss me at a bar last night.) nan was like, “actually…!” (meaning, “you’re wrong!”) i laughed nervously. i’m not sure if she was joking or not. she had seriously crazy hair.
