Guitars and Debt Collectors

Dreams 07.19.12
I was living with another girl who was either my sister or bff. We were in our living room which had dark wood panel walls. Our couch was well worn, dark in color and the coffee table was a light creamy shade. We had a visitor, a tall man dressed in a hipster southwestern style. He brought out a guitar. It had sunburst body coloring and I didn’t know it in the dream but looking it up now, it is a Gretsch guitar, with that vintagy mandolin style to its body.

When he started plucking at it, I became super excited because I had one too! Not in real life but in the dream I did. I looked over my girl friend’s shoulder to the corner behind the couch. I could see the top of an acoustic guitar case but thought that was my regular Yamaha acoustic. Now where did I put the fancy one? The visitor continued strumming and I decided to take out the one in the corner anyway.

As it turns out, my Gretsch WAS in there. It had an original wood color and the neck had these weird gadgets on it. The visitor put down his guitar and reached for mine. He looked at the various gadgets on the neck and said, “This is nice but it doesn’t need all this.” To that, he proceeded to flip the gadgets out of the way and fiddle with knobs to reset the guitar to original condition. Then he handled it, playing it as if it was his own.

This next part of the dream I’m not entirely sure happened. I may have incorporated some real memories from real events from last night. Well, I still may have incorporated real events into the dream, in the dream…if that makes any sense. Whoa layers!

I was talking to husband. He tells me he has to be out for a few hours and will be back late. I said whatever it didn’t matter. If I needed to go out I would find a way. So then he left and another male friend came by to hang out with me. It wasn’t anyone I can name, may have been imaginary.

Then this guy, the Project Manager for a company my real life offie team works with regularly, he comes by. I was expecting him but totally forgot. He had come by to pick up some money for services he would provide. What service? I can’t tell but he seemed to work for a bank or finance company. I looked at my male friend and we both knew we had absolutely no cash. All I needed was like $80. It’s not really that much but I had to apologize to the guy and tell him that I will run to the ATM next door to get his money while my friend kept him occupied.

I ran next door. There was a glass windowed white room with 4+ ATMs spaced about 15 feet apart. There were a lot of people waiting in several non uniform lines but it should’ve been fast. When I was almost at the front of my line, I realized that people were willy nilly letting people into line, jumping lines, standing there not moving, etc. It was actually absolute chaos even though it looked like orderly line-ups at first.

I was getting impatient. Luckily when I got to the front, nothing weird happened to delay me so I ran right up to the machine. After inserting my cart and punching in some I.D. verification, I expected to machine to spit out the money I needed right away. Instead, the computerized voice announced that my request required additional approval from a bank manager. Please be patient while we send this through for processing. Then the screen showed a waiting icon, with a progress bar and turning hour glass, playing dull elevator waiting music. I looked around at the other people in disbelief, seeking confirmation of my frustration but no one seemed to notice.

I was starting to feel the eventual embarrassment and shame of going back late to the Project Manager. How long am I supposed to wait for? I could just abandon it and go back to apologize but then I would still not have his service fee for him and he had come all the way to my house. Plus I’d lose my convenience card and when the money did come out, someone else was sure to take it. There would be the hassle of applying for a new card too. And what if I stayed to wait? What could happen then?

I could wait a really long time, the request would go through and I’d have money in hand. Except I may have kept the PM waiting so long that he’d get fed up and leave. Would my friend be upset with me too? Then I decided that he wouldn’t but I did wish I could have a better explanation for him than the truth. Or worse, I could wait forever, the request would not be approved and the PM would get ged up and leave also.

I was thoroughly frustrated by the dilemma over a seemingly mall issue and I knew I would just have to make a decision one way or another, for better or for worse.