All About My Ass

Not really -- like I'd write about my ass on my blog?

I did want to give all my interested readers the results of my GI evaluation from last month, which consisted of an upper endoscopy and a sigmoidoscopy (aka: cameras in both ends).

"The upper endoscopy showed normal esophageal mucosa. There was a hiatus hernia with a hyperplastic-appearing polypoid tissue on the gastric side of the GE junction. This was biopsied and showed intestinal metaplasia. There was marked gastritis in the body of the stomach. This was also biopsied. The duodenum was normal. The colonic mucosa was normal, except for one area in the rectum {sorry that's graphic!}, which was biopsied to rule out proctitis and only showed non-specific changes."

He doesn't say what all this means, except that I'm basically fine. Actually something which I perceive to be kind of cool is happening, which is that some of the cells in my stomach have changed to intestinal cells (I'm a mutant!). You can read more about it, here. It supposedly puts me at a higher risk for cancer, according to that link, which is I think why the doctor recommends that I have another endocsopy (the down the throat one) in a year.

I feel like his comments aren't that clear, though, because there were actually three biopsies, and the one of the GE junction (the part he wants looked at in another year) says that I have chronic carditis with focal intestinal metaplasia, and also notes the presence of attached esophageal squamous epithelium.

Now, I'm no doctor, but I'm guessing from this article that he was able to eliminate Barrett's (basically a messing-up of the lower lining of the esophagus, thanks to too much acid, where stomach cells begin to grow in the lower part of the esophagus, and that correlates with cancer -- see here for more info) by the fact that the metaplasia that was observed did not correlate with the area of carditis. I believe, and I could be totally wrong here, that basically the area that is so irritated by acid (which is the area of concern) and the area that is showing the wrong cells in the wrong place are not correlated to a degree that they think I have Barrett's (I should write a new blog where people without any medical training speculate about what pathologists are thinking when they analyze things!). If you look at those articles and then look back at the quote from the doctor's letter, it looks like the metaplasia I have is intestinal cells growing on the stomach-side of my GE junction, which doesn't worry them, because Barrett's related metaplasia would be stomach cells growing on the esophageal-side of my GE junction (aka: you have inflammation related to acid, but the wrong cells growing in the wrong place that can result from that and be bad you DON'T have -- you have the wrong wrong cells growing in the wrong wrong place).

My concern, then, is that he doesn't say anything about H-pylori infection, which can be another reason for the carditis and metaplasia. From what I understand from this article, H-pylori infection is super common, though, and the treatment the doctor recommended for my overly-acidic stomach would basically be what would be used to treat H-pylori infection anyway...I just wish it would have been looked at to see if I have it!

Basically the doctor is keeping an eye on the GE junction (which I'm guessing stands for gastro-esophageal?) to make sure I don't develop Barretts or esophageal cancer, but isn't too worried.

In lower GI news :), I'm also not crazy about thinking there is an abnormal amount of mucous, since the biopsy from down there says that I have "colorectal mucosa with non-specific inflammation, congestion and reactive-type changes" (which basically means: "we're not sure what is going on, but we think it's within the range of normal and just eat more fiber). The good news is that he's confident that I don't have colitis. YAY!

I haven't been taking the Prilosec that he recommended, because I haven't been that symptomatic, acid-wise (except the past two days, when I did take it), but in this letter that he supposedly wrote a month ago but I just got he says to take it every other day even when I don't need it every day to treat symptoms. I guess this is because we're really serious about not damaging the lower part of the esophagus (interestingly, if you read all the links, you'd see that people with Barretts often experience decreased symptoms related to the dysplasia at the GE junction, in part because the stomach cells growing up in the lower part of the esophagus are, like all stomach cells, acid resistant, so a person with stomach cells in their esophagus can't feel the acid reflux as acutely).

Medicine is awesome, and I'm awesome that I can sift through this stuff at nearly 4AM.

VC

Law, Culture, and Notions of Justice

Here is the intro for my awesome elective with Patricia Williams:

This seminar will look at the challenges that rapidly changing cultural norms present with regard to classical notions of jurisprudence. We will consider the problem in three contexts: crime, religion and science.

1. Crime: We will look at the tension between liberty and security fears; the role of tabloid journalism; and profiling (for both courtroom and medical ends). Topics will include the Central Park Jogger case, the Innocence Project, and the abrogation of habeas corpus.

2. Religion: Here we will examine the legal status of faith-based initiatives; fundamentalism as a linguistic construct and mode of textual analysis; and the interplay between iconography, propaganda and freedom of expression. Topics will include a comparison of Bob Jones University's fight for federal funds case and the Solomon Amendment; cases of "reverse religious discrimination" (e.g., assertions that forbidding prayer in schools interferes with religious expression); comparison of controversies regarding religiously inspired adornment (whether veils, turbans, yarmulkes or tee-shirts) in the US, Britain, and France; and public calls for limitations of expression—from the Danish cartoons to the Westboro Baptist Church's protests at funerals.

3. Science: We will consider how the constructs of personhood, autonomy and community might be informed or altered by cyberspace; how assumptions of political equality may be affected by DNA's growing ability to pinpoint and label every last biological propensity, "defect" and inequality; and last but not least, how the popular discussions of the Human Genome Project's work intersects, for better and worse, with the social discourse of eugenics, race and gender.

Materials will consist of handouts ranging from case law and trial transcripts to newspaper articles, model legislation, and snippets from the disciplines of sociology, linguistics and genetics. The class will be conducted seminar-style, with more discussion than lecture. We will also have a number of guest speakers, still being scheduled. In past incarnations of this class, guests have included essayist Calvin Trillin; former Mayor David Dinkins; Randy Cohen (The New York Times' Ethicist); Nicholas Lehmann, dean of the journalism school; Robert Pollack from the department of neurobiology; and a pair of cartoonists from Marvel Comics discussing the history of the Comic Book Codes.

The class will be graded upon class participation and the submission of three journal-style thought pieces reflecting upon each of the above topics.

Bottom-Line Polling

I just saw this poll on the UNAMA (United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan) website, pretty hilarious in its skeleton approach:

UNAMA Poll

December - Who is most to blame for slow development in Afghanistan? The UN The Government The Taliban View Results Previous Poll

In my opinion, I'd answer something like: "Fear of the Taliban and other misunderstandings of the country have prevented the UN from engaging in the capacity-building that would give the government the tools it needs to create an environment conducive to development," so I guess my ranking would be: 1. UN, 2. Government, 3. Taliban (with emphasis on the Taliban as the least important obstacle to growth, even though the other sorts of obstacles it presents, particularly strongly in some parts of the country, have spillover effects that limit the growth potential of the environment).

VC

Update To New Schedule

I've just read the course reviews of my professors for next semester, and it turns out that Liebman got fantastic reviews, and Hamburger got really awful reviews (although I suspect that I might see through what students complained about to find a really impressive and engaging scholar).

We'll see!

Of to CA for 9 days.

VC

Spring Schedule

Now you all have it...so don't expect me to repeat it lol

I'm excited by Patricia Williams, who Desi says is an amazing scholar and who really impressed me in person when she shopped her electives to the 1Ls, and I'm also excited by Hamburger, who Desi knew from Chicago and who seems like a pretty nice guy. I'm a little skeptical of Liebman, only because I've interacted with him in person a bit this semester, and while he was really nice to me, I'm not sure how much discipline or commitment he'd have as a professor...it's hard to describe my impression of him, except to say that I think he did fundraising for too long, and so, kind of like a guidance counselor or someone who has to schmooze all the time, his substance has been kind of crowded-out by surface chatter, but at the same time he's smart enough to be disgruntled by all the mandatory BS...it's a tough mix.

Anyway I know it would be really stupid for me to talk about all these things on a blog, except for the fact that my readership of 5, which includes no one connected to the law school in any way, is a pretty trustworthy bunch.

Ok here's the schedule:

CRIMINAL LAW (Edgar)
L6108, Section 2	TBA MTW 9:45am-10:35am	3.0
PROPERTY (Liebman)
L6116, Section 4	TBA MTWR 11:05am-12:20pm	4.0
LEGAL PRACTICE WORKSHOP II (Ash)
L6121, Section 2	TBA R 6:10pm-7:10pm	1.0
CONSTITUTIONAL LAW (Hamburger)
L6133, Section 2	TBA MTW 2:45pm-4:00pm	4.0
LAW, CULTURE, & NOTIONS OF JUSTICE (Williams)
L6179, Section 1	TBA MW 1:20pm-2:35pm	3.0
Total points :		15.0

Wonderful Dream & Comment on Hapiness

I wanted to let followers of my blog who were concerned that my dreams were getting a LITTLE too crazy (my particular favourite was last week when I, as Celine Dion's best friend, had to mix the tubes for her artificial insemination) know that I had the most amazing dream last night.

I dreamed that I was in an old Mediterranean city (looked like Italy) with my Swissy who recently visited me for Thanksgiving (if I didn't blog about how amazing it was seeing him, it's because I was too busy having an amazing time -- and not amazing like "swept me off my feet crazy" amazing...it was a BETTER amazing, the kind that is more "it's amazing that we feel so comfortable and content by this"). In the dream, we were touring some kind of old historic sight, like a villa turned into a museum or something, and we were kind of short on time, because he'd made plans for us to go a chamber music concert and have dinner with friends. It was really cute, because he kept saying "I have to go to put on my tail feathers," because he wasn't sure how to say "tuxedo" in English (which makes no sense, because in French they actually call it "un smoking"), but he knew I was really enjoying the museum and didn't want me to have to go back and change, even though this concert he'd arranged was a really big deal.

It was so adorable how kind of insistent he was about wanting to dress up in his special jacket, but how at the same time he didn't insist that I do the same. I remember telling him "I can go change...let's go," and him sort of hugging me with his hand on the lower part of my back and saying "I'm looking at you now and I think you look perfect the way you are" (and I was totally wearing jeans) and he didn't say it in a totally cheesy fake way, but he said it in a really sincere "I accept you as you are" way, which is the feeling I got from him in person. We all have flaws and imperfections, and in the past I'd be really bothered by knowing, for example, that he really likes blond guys -- I'm not blond, and I'm therefore not his ideal, and in the past that would have hurt me, but NOW I can see that there is a difference between your abstract ideal and what you happily accept as wonderful-as-is in real life. I don't think he looks at me and says "it's too bad he isn't blond." I think he looks at me and is happy, and I feel the same way.

Ok back to the dream, so he rushes off to go put on this "tail feathers" (tuxedo), and I stayed until the museum closed (btw: in real life he's totally not into museums, which doesn't bother me at all, and I'm not sure he would ever wear a tuxedo to a chamber music concert either, but that's beside the point). So after he leaves and I and a few other people exit onto the street, there are like no taxis left, and I was a little stressed that I was going to be late looking for a taxi. Then, again why this dream was so nice, I just kind of said "it's ok...I can call him and let him know I'm going to be late and he's not going to judge me because he knows this isn't my fault and I'll get there in the first taxi available and we'll manage."

You can see that there were a lot of warmth, calmness, acceptance themes in this dream, which I think are key to all of our happiness (especially in a relationship).

When I got to the concert, he was as handsome as I knew he'd be (in real life, he's one of those people who every time I saw him, for the fist few seconds, my eyes would always be like "wow he's handsome") and we had an amazing time with his friends who were there.

Looking back on the dream, I can see that there were (unfortunately) some elements of my past relationship with Pookie creeping-in, because in the dream his friends were all his age, very sophisticated, and elegant, but also very warm and just happy people (one key difference is that in the dream there were a lot of straight couples, which does not really describe Pookie's set very well: friends from Harvard and ex-boyfriends).

After the dinner, I'm not really sure what happened in the dream (and no I'm not censoring it because my mom reads this -- I really don't remember what happened! lol) but I do remember that we went back to California (Swissy's DREAM is to be in California -- ironically, he feels as at home there as I do in Switzerland...), and then I had another really nice part of my dream, which is that my mom and I were just walking and talking and I remember remarking that we were both wearing sleeveless shirts and enjoying the warm weather one evening. It was so serene and just very calm and contented.

The whole dream was wonderful in that way. Happy people, but happy in a calm way (not ecstatic). Everyone was just very serene and at peace. I kind of miss that feeling, actually. I think more and more, now (probably because I'm studying for finals) that I am going to work really hard after I graduate to build THAT kind of life. It's not about following the path of going from the most elite law school to the most difficult-to-get high-paying job, to each new competitive milestone I can find in order to be officially selected as unique/special/worthy. In reality, managing to be happy puts one amongst a much more select few than does becoming a multi-millionaire or UN representative. It's sometimes hard to remember that. I think, though, that it might be internal knowledge of that (how truly difficult it is to be happy) which makes me seek out the other things so obsessively -- I wonder if there's not something inside me that says "it's too hard to be happy in fact, but you are capable of wining lots of other things that other people dream about, so do that, and you can be happy by default -- society will be happy about you FOR you."

This isn't to say that I can't one day have it all, but it's to say that I can't start at the wrong end with things. I should focus my efforts on priming myself for happiness (making myself into the kind of person who is a good friend and partner) and spend less time priming myself for success, because the fact is, some of us are likely to feel like we are always succeeding but never successful (never having enough), and that's a very obvious trap that I don't want to fall into.

In sum: wonderful dream; working on happy.

VC

Dolphin Tricks

I've just realized that I am incapable of doing ANYTHING without dessert.

As I was just telling Curie on the phone, I don't just need dessert after dinner, but I need it before and after starting any task.

Need to get myself to study? Better give myself dessert.

Need a reward to push myself to finish studying? Better have a dessert waiting for myself.

I'm like one of those dolphins that can do all kind of tricks but that you have to give fish to after EVERY one!

VC

YLS Case Study

Proof that brilliant people are way less hot than people of average intellectual capacity...and have no fashion sense:














From the Yale Law School homepage

VC

Torts Notes Bloopers

As I wind-down my outline for my Torts exam, tomorrow (Thursday), I thought I'd give an example of some of my embarrassing typos that may only be funny to me, but are making me laugh.

We talk a lot about the "functional goals of tort law," but I seem to be fond of referring to them as "the functional goals of COURT law," because apparently I think when two words rhyme they are synonymous. I think it's for that reason that I sometimes just talk about "the la" rather than "the law," although I could me making a sophisticated commentary on music theory on the note to follow "so."

One of the cases in which we study sovereign immunity, Berkowitz, is repeatedly referred-to in my notes more-provocatively as "Berkotitz."

Finally, in my bondage-and-domination S&M study of employer liability, I say that employees are "better able to avoid the FIST," rather than "the risk."

looooooooool

VC

Leona's Rainbow

It's really unlike me to endorse an artist who I don't know a ton about, but I feel compelled to expose you all to this British artist, Leona, who is currently tearing it up on Idol creator Simon Cowell's show in England, X Factor.

I originally heard of her from the Perez Hilton blog (one of the funnier blogs devoted to celebrity trashing) since the Perezers are in love with her, too.

She apparently does a lot of writing of her own stuff, and is an all-around talent (not to mention multiethnic, gorgeous, well-spoken, etc. -- she's even wearing a print dress that I actually like!). It will be interesting to see where she takes everything in her career.

Anyway, the reason I'm blogging about her is that I *love* seeing an artist take a song that has been done millions of times and TOTALLY make it their own, especially when it works. It requires such talent (and courage). Anyway, I was reluctant to watch her version of "Somewhere Over the Rainbow," because it's such a special song for my mother and I, and Rufus does a version, and it's just not something to be messed with. Although her vibrato is a bit slow for my taste, I have to say that the choices she makes are just incredible. So unpredictable and yet it works so well. I also think it's nice to see an artist demonstrate not just range in pitch but range in dynamics as well -- she really can build the song, contract it, move it along...it's fantastic. Here it is :)

VC

Contracts Tomorrow

Well this is my last post before my first law school exam! :)

I'm trying to either see this as an exciting opportunity to excel and win even more praise for my ridiculous intelligence, or alternatively to see it as something relatively small that doesn't mean much and doesn't warrant any positive or negative emotion. I figure both of these trains of thought would be better than the "oh my god I'm so nervous and this is such a huge deal" approach that most of the other 1Ls are sharing.

It's an 8 hour exam and will have two or three questions that ask me to take on different roles and spot substantive issues of contracts law as applied to the fact pattern presented (the professors try to be cute, but the questions are usually pretty boring and tedious). The professor says that it should only take 4 hours to write, but that we should spend 2 hours just reading it and thinking about our response, another hour editing (there are strict length maximas) leaving an hour to eat and "travel" lol. I thought it was funny that he said "travel."

Anyway, I'm only blogging so that if you read this you can send me good vibes (between 10AM and 6PM Friday) and also to say that I just got a really good omen for the exam:

I had 5 practice exams and model answers left to print and had just put some fresh paper into my printer. Wouldn't you know that the last page of the last answer was my last piece of paper?

I think it's so neat when stuff like that happens.

Well my printer is now re-loaded and ready for tomorrow's exam, and I'm looking forward to either tearing it up and giving the model answer, or doing very averagely and trying not to care.

XO

VC

Law School Angst

Ok I have been sleeping 10 hours a night, and this material is not that difficult, and I'm not miserable, but I am wondering what the hell I am doing.

I cannot STAND having to devote so much money and time to something I don't seem to care about at all, and I find some of these practice exams to be maddening. Just making myself read the questions reminds me of the feeling I have when I've done all the research for a paper -- the interesting part -- and then it's time to sit down and write it. I'm not interested in applying my knowledge. My knowledge is in my head because I felt like putting it there; bothering to learn something is a pretty selfish process, and if I don't feel like I want to know something, then I don't bother learning it. That said, having to reproduce the stuff that I learned for myself and for no other purpose than my intellectual interest totally goes against this principle of hedonistic learning. I get nothing (NOTHING) from writing down what I think, or applying my knowledge to someone else's fact patter than I don't care about. It's like charity, or eating food you don't want to eat.

Ok back to my practice exam. Rant over.

VC

Hannukah Bush

I'm not sure if I've ever blogged about my small obsession with different covers of "A Song for You," my current favourites being, of course, Cher and Donny Hathaway, but I've just found a new version that I like very much.

The ONLY episode I saw of American Idol after college had a guy who I thought had an amazing voice and I later found out finished third, Eliot Yamin, and I just found this clip of him performing a version of the song that is clearly a copy of Hathaway and is quite QUITE good (especially considering the fact that he's had no vocal training).

Not the point.

Keep in mind when I try to say why I'm laughing that the guy's name is Elliot YAMIN and he couldn't look any more Hebrew -- I mean he looks like the Red Sea parted RIGHT before he walked onto the American Idol stage lol -- his mother being an American jew and is father an Israeli of Iraqi descent.

Anyway, the reason that I'm cracking up is that on his myspace page one of the comments he got (it's the second one down and you CAN'T miss it) is from this woman Lisa (careful if you click on it -- she has crazy guitar music) who says she hops (not hopes) that Yamin and his family will have a great Christmas with a HUGE electronic Christmas wreath. looool She's not only a little clueless but she's also a traitor -- on her my space page she lists the guy who beat Yamin as one of the three men in the world she wants to meet, and totally leaves out poor Elliot.

Mazel tov, Lisa!

VC

2nd Tier Ivy

I've HAD IT with Columbia.

Just because it's nearly located in a ghetto (which it's trying to buy-out, but is complaining because now that Bronxville knows that Columbia is buying everything and gentrifying the area they are holding out for higher prices) doesn't mean that it has to BE ghetto.

Yesterday, the student lounge at the law school (the ONLY quiet study lounge, which I like a lot) was off limits because they had to clean it. Couldn't they clean it off-hours or, I don't know, NOT in the middle of the day during reading week? On the other hand, I actually had to wipe-down my carrel in the library, yesterday, with a wet paper towel because all the dust was making me sneeze.

Today the lounge was AGAIN closed because there was a special event that was using it...I mean that lounge usually holds like 30 students, and today the entire floor outside it (which easily hosts another 60 students when its full) was also closed for the conference.

FINE.

I went to the School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA) library, which I like even though it feels VERY cold war (like you can sort of imagine really important scholars sitting around in the late 70s and early 80s talking about things, there), but the private study room I went to (it's like a phone booth with a chair) didn't have a functioning light. How hard is that to change with a support crew like Columbia's which may very well have more than 100 people working for it?

I then decided to just sit at one of the long shared-tables and was horrified to see that there is only one outlet -- ONE -- on the entire lower floor. Keep in mind there are probably 50 seats, maybe more. Combining ALL the carrels and tables and lounge area there is ONE outlet. It's just disgusting.

Anyway, THIS is the meaning of a second tier ivy. It's a school that had all the history and Nobel prize winners and founding fathers as the top tier ivys but was too lazy to get its act together to create the best environment meriting the most generous donations from alums. I'm not saying other universities don't have problems, but there is a weird complacency that comes with being solidly second tier, but still ivy, that I feel is unique to Columbia and probably a few other places. I walk along college walk, or down the stairs in SIPA or the law school, and it feels like the place is decaying at a rate faster than it's being maintained (let alone improved) and that's a really disheartening thing.

On a more positive note, I quickly organized my CDs and DVDs (still have a LONG way to go in terms of labeling, though) and came across the backup CD from my interim computer I was using at the end of my time in Cairo that I then sold to Glam. This CD is really important because it has ALL my India photos, all my Israel/Palestine photos, my text messages and phone photos, AND a lot of academic work, including the humanitarian law in Iraq paper that I wrote and was desperately looking for (and now found one day too late for the summer job aps I sent out yesterday).

VC

Weird Dreams

Well I have been meaning to post the past two days, because I've had really vivid and disturbing dreams that I've told some of you about, and now that, for the third night in a row, I've had more really vivid dreams, I thought I'd finally blog about it.

Since my time is really limited, I'm just going to briefly recap the first two nights.

Dream One

Two nights ago, when I was spending a really nice night with DC Guy after having seen Chorus Line (it was only so-so, but he LOVED it, so I pretended like it was really good until we got into substantive critiques over dinner), and eaten a nice meal at Sapa (which he shouldn't have let me pay for), I was all cuddled-up by DC Guy when I had the most awful Pookie-related dream.

I think it's because he text messaged me a few days ago (replying, of course, to an email I'd sent almost a month earlier), but really I don't feel bothered by what happened with him. It's a little disappointing, but it reflects much more on him than on me, so I don't let myself get too down or self-critical about it, and it's not something I've been mourning at all.

Anyway, the dream: I was living in Cairo in this gorgeous (seaside?) apartment with Shakira (the fact that a Cairo apartment could be by the sea, and Shakira could keep it clean, both would alert anyone to the fact that this is a DREAM), and I kept getting phone calls from friends in NYC telling me that they were spotting Pookie with a new guy. There was all this tension/hesitance/tragedy in their voices. It was really odd.

The call that I remember the most, which was the last one, was from Curie. I asked her if the new guy was better looking than I was, and she was like "well I only saw him for a minute, and it's hard to say..." and I was like "Curie, is he traditionally better looking than I am," and she said "yes." I hung up the phone and just fell to my knees in a ball on floor and was sobbing, feeling first like I wanted to immediately fly back to NYC and see it for myself, and then feeling like I just wanted to die...and then I woke up.

HOW MESSED UP IS THAT? I don't even think about him every day, and when I do, I'm certainly not worried that he's with someone else. If he had the ability to be with anyone, which I don't think he does (actually: I think he does, but I think he doesn't let himself use it), then I'd applaud the personal progress that would entail. What I think, though, is that anyone he's likely to be with at this point will just feed his old patterns and defense mechanisms, and I'm definitely NOT jealous of that.

Our hairdresser, who I introduced Pookie to as a Valentine's Day gift right when we first started dating, is always wanting to talk about him, telling me about how he doesn't want to be with me because he wants to screw around, and about how he has told him that he goes out and has sex etc. and the first time it happened (when I first came back to NYC) it kind of hurt, but now that Pookie (I really need to think of a new name for him) has proven to be a pretty disinterested party, it doesn't hurt at all. The last time I was getting my haircut I just said "well good for him!" and tried to make it as clear as possible that he was not something I wanted or needed to talk about.

When I woke up from my dream and felt DC Guy's arms around me, I remembered that I had a lot to be thankful for, and it's ok that Pookie is not one of them.

Dream Two

This dream was also highly stressful, but just sounds funny when I repeat it to people. Basically, I was a Supreme Court clerk for some judge that doesn't exist in real life, and although the dream started out with us going to stressful dinner meetings (and him warning me ahead of time that "New York shrimp is yellow in the middle, and the dipping bowl will be on the left side, so don't embarrass me" ... me telling him that I'm allergic to iodine, but I'd try) -- and there was a subplot about me really liking some red-headed guy (weird!) who was at the restaurant one of the nights, but I couldn't find his number for our date after that, and I was with a girlfriend who was always running late and was afraid we'd miss him -- but it then became a re-enactment of the Titanic.

All the justices and clerks were on a HUGE ship (like, bigger than any cruise ship I've seen) and we had to share quarters with them. My judge and I were trying to nap, but I was nervous and not happy with the sleeping arrangements, so I went up to the deck where we could exit to the shore where we were docked. Just as I was thinking of going onto shore, something happened with another ship that caused it to sink, and us to quickly realize (but only after we were already undocking) that we were going to sink, too. All the people on deck like I was were scrambling to get down the ramp and jump onto the shore before we'd sailed too far, but I was worried that all all the US Supreme Court judges would drown, below deck, and I was also worried that it would look really bad if, while the ship was sinking, I escaped without warning my judge. I was running around through all the chaos that you can imagine from the Titanic movie, trying to make my way back down to our quarters (which, incidentally, shared the same room number as my apartment number in real life -- 911), but I was so distraught and there was so much chaos, with people running the other way to get up and out of the ship and me running down, that I couldn't find the way to our quarters. Where the dream got really ridiculous was when I ran into the comic, Sinbad, and asked him to show me the way, which he did, at which point I woke up.

Dream Three

This was really two dreams, and they weren't that traumatic at all, but they were VERY involved. I think it's totally my fault, because before I went to sleep I was thinking about how my favourite psychic, Sylvia Brown, often explains that feeling you get when you wake up and your eyes are open but you are still caught a bit in the dream and are paralyzed, as you waking up before your spirit has returned from astral travel...she says that many people don't experience this, because often times when our spirit leaves our body it just boringly floats up to the ceiling and looks down at our sleeping bodies, below (which people do often remember). Anyway, before I slept, I was like "if you want to go somewhere, don't go someplace boring." Well I REALLY didn't, although I think the first part was the only real traveling, and the second part was a regular dream.

In the first part, I started off East of India, I think in Bangladesh, and I don't know why I was there, but I remember sort of flying over all this countryside really fast (like in a movie when you see, from the bottom of a plane, all the land speeding by underneath) and I landed in Afghanistan. I was really happy to be there, but I remember thinking that I had until the next day to get back, and really had a strong desire (my dream is so weird!) to go to Islamabad. Since I was only kind of part body and not really confined to regular physical constraints, I was able to kind of float across the border to Pakistan, at which point I think maybe I was dreaming and not astral traveling (not that it matters) because I sort of came back into my body in order to get some kind of travel visa. This was not a regular government visa place...picture the kind of chaos of booths and games and stuff at a carnival, except instead of ping-pong throwing and frog-flipping games it's government offices, and very rural Pakistanis with their livestock wandering around, etc.

I remember being sort of startled when the woman at the visa counter called me (because, to that point, I was not really a regular person, walking around) and I was quickly scanning the sign above her stall to see if any of the options applied to me. The had, oddly, a $4 1.5 day visa option, and I was asking her if I could get that, and if so, if the 1.5 days (it's sort of 1.5 days = 1.5 trips, so you can't move through multiple places during that period) would cover me getting to Islamabad through Rawalpindi and getting back to the airport (I was concerned that that would be 2 trips) and she said it was fine. I was shocked that it was so easy, especially since I obviously didn't have a passport with entry stamps to Pakistan OR Afghanistan, and it was kind of eerie, because she said to me "don't worry, you can go back tomorrow when you need to," but then she saw that I didn't have some kind of pre-visa "towns approval" thing that I needed at a different office, first, and was kind of disgusted by my unawareness of the bureaucratic process. When I was directed to the towns approval office, it was clear that I'd never get my approval and get back in time, so I was kind of worried at first about what I would do -- was I then stuck in Pakistan illegally? I started to get restless as things were getting chaotic in the dream, and I realized that I could try to fly back through Afghanistan, which is what I was doing when I woke up, except (exactly as I didn't want to happen, since I hate it!) I was really paralyzed and couldn't properly wake up. I was struggling not to fall back into the sleep, but I couldn't move my hands or feet and couldn't make a sound...as I started to return to awakeness I could wiggle my fingers and kind of make the feint long-vowel sounds that a deaf person would make, but it wasn't fun. I was like "ok when you go back to sleep, no more traveling, and if you do travel, don't wake up before your spirit is back" lol.

When I went back to sleep I had a fairly involved dream about being here at Columbia with a Japanese friend from Cairo during some huge festival. I'd just purchased a bike, and was cycling around everywhere even in the rain, and we had to keep going to different parties and events on campus, and even out to this gigantic water park (at night) that was more elaborate than any water park that exists in real life. I don't remember much of what this part of the dream really focused on (certainly the sub-plot about me not having a bike lock is not that important) but the bike did make it to the next travel episode.

In the next portion of my dream, my sister was traveling with me, and it was again weird because we were both kind of flying around not sure where we were going. We talked about maybe going to Turkey, or some other place, and after a series of events that I don't remember well, we kind of emerged in front of a non-existent in real life red palace that I recognized as being in Istanbul (here's where the dream is REALLY weird: I knew all the historical sites because I'd been there before, but it must have been in a prior dream, because these places don't exist in real life...the other weird thing is that in Istanbul they had a lot of relics related to the Virgin Mary, which doesn't make much sense, and which I'll describe more in a minute).

So my sister and I emerged in Istanbul, and I kind of remember the hotel where we were staying (that wasn't like a big Marriott or something, but was more traditional Turkish, and our mother may have been there) being two subway stops (again: not real Istanbul) from the historic sites.

We first went to a small structure outside the palace, at which point my sister was temporarily replaced by Curie, and I remembered as we were going in that, when I'd been there before, it was the site of a tile upon which Mary had supposedly given birth (I know this is weird!). I also remembered that I was sort of put-off by the way the Turkish government had arranged the tour of it. Well Curie and I originally went to a viewing station up above the tile, which was annoying because they'd put a rainbow glass filter between the viewing station and the tile, for effect, so when you looked down onto it the tile had a rainbow on top (very lame).

I remembered how to get down to the actual chamber where the tile was, and sure enough (as I'd remembered) it was awful what the Turkish government was allowing people to do -- they'd leased-out the space to Christian proselytizers who had the tile, which was actually a small tapestry, under a huge magnifying glass while they were playing horrible acoustic Christian music (the kind you'd have in a middle America church on Sunday) and talking about Christianity. They were basically trapping all the tourists into a sermon. I was shocked when they actually had Sarah and I touch the tapestry (thinking that they couldn't let all the tourists do that, and had no authority to permit it, when it's such an old piece of fabric), and then actually tried to sell us replica weavings in the same style! I noticed that the color scheme on the tapestry (brown, black, and red) was really unlikely to be what people actually wore 2000 years ago, and called them out on it. They then tried to say that Mary was actually part of a Bacchus-worshiping sex cult that did wear the outrageously-coloured garments, at which point Curie and I told them we thought it was a ridiculous thesis to assert that Mary, at 14, would have been part of a Bacchic cult, and we left.

My sister was then back, and we were debating where to go next in the palace. Since I'd been there before and knew the signage inside wasn't very good, I kept offering to get on my bike (I told you it would return!) and go back to the hotel and get our Lonely Planet book (which, while flying over, we obviously didn't bring with us). She insisted that I didn't need to, and while we were standing at the entrance to the palace I got a call from the friend who took me to Montreal in August (who, in real life, has been to Turkey countless times). Apparently I'd double-booked, and agreed to meet him in Turkey if we were there at the same time. I was dreading seeing him, and just wanted to be with my sister because we have SO much fun, anything but being with her would be second best, and as I was so focused on a plan to get rid of him, I totally forgot that she was waiting for me! At one point I was like "WHERE IS MY SISTER?" and he was like "I guess you left her at the entrance to the hotel." I ran back, and she was a little mad, but understood when I explained that I was so fixated on brushing him off that I'd forgotten to go back and get her.

My sister and I then began our tour of the palace, which had its own museum (including a rotating modern art collection), and I remembered the layout of the entire museum, and even recognized part of the permanent collection. I was explaining to my sister how they rotate everything around and where my favourite artist's stuff was (this woman who did a lot of great paintings with roses in them, but not as the central focus) and then I woke up!

Well this took me nearly an hour to type so I hope you have read this far lol.

Dreams are crazy, aren't they?

VC

PS: I just remembered, when I started to edit this for spelling errors, that before Curie and I left the place with Mary's tapestry I wrote a letter to the Turkish government saying how awful I thought it was that they were permitting Christian groups to rent out the place and do what they were with the tile (pretending it was a tapestry, Bacchus, the rainbow, etc.) and I remember when I handed it to Curie and she saw how strongly-worded it was she was like "god help us" lol, and it was as if she was one of the people who read the letter I wrote in real life to Cairo's Grand Hyatt about the gym, because she made a reference to it. She didn't get, at first, that we had to protest to the Turkish government, though, because it was they who were turning a profit by renting the space out to the proselytizing group!