The Fortunate One

I've been reminded twice over the last 24 hours just how lucky I am, how blessed, how taken care of. These were in separate conversations with two different people: a former colleague and a fellow student. One of them has been laid off in the last three weeks and is now $46k in debt due to her Master's degree. The other's department at the university won't sign the form that says her degree is job related so she's been dealing with a garnished paycheck for the last four months (minus $2500/month, which on any salary (esp. a non-profit one) is a major blow to the finances)in order to catch up on the taxes she owes on the additional "income" she's earned in the form of tuition remission. Both of these people are now in a rather painful place and their situations remind me that the things I think are big issues just ... aren't. Concerns over relationships that aren't movie-perfect, or whether to buy jeans this month or next, or over when to get homework done, or boredom at work just don't amount to much. I have so much to be thankful for and I'm hoping these people's stories will keep my own situation in perspective for a while.

Dreams

I had the WEIRDEST dream last night. It took place in Vienna, but it wasn't really Vienna. You know how that is right? When the version of a place in your dreams is different than in real life and looks different every time you dream about it? This version of Vienna reoccurs, as does a version of my parents' house. Anyway, so I was there with one of the actresses from Gossip Girl (a show I don't even watch) and some other random people. We rode out to a really huge outdoor market on the outskirts of dream "Vienna" in a yellow school bus with most of the seats removed, stopping along the way to pick up some other random girls from the side of the road. For whatever reason I was shopping for jeans, but also looking for a library to check out a specific CD for my friend. I tried on some jeans and discarded them as being too expensive although Gossip Girl actress said they weren't, then I looked briefly at a rack of deodorant and thought, EUR1.79 was a really good price but I didn't have time to buy it because I needed to get to the library.

I spent the next long while winding my way through this market, which reminded me more of some sort of Middle Eastern or African market than anything I'd seen in Europe, with stalls covered with bright fabrics and lots of random tennis shoes and Chinese fans. I finally found the "library", which was arranged as an outdoor market stand itself, with precious few books on the shelves that you could approach from anywhere, even though the entrance to the library had a turnstile that you had to go through to get in the library. So I looked through the aisles and was unable to find the CD I sought after (by Wir Sind Helden). Suddenly I realized it was really late and that the other girls may have left in the bus without me, so I hurried back. They were sill there and the Gossip Girl had bought me the jeans I tried on. I told her I couldn't find the CD and we'd have to go to a store like MediaMarkt (the Austrian Best Buy essentially) and then I woke up.

So what the heck does all that mean? And why were some of those things/people present in my dream?! I had said something to my roommate about Gossip Girl earlier that evening, because she watches it so that might explain the presence of Serena Van Der Woodsen in my dream. I don't know why I was looking specifically for the Wir Sind Helden CD, but I had heard one of their songs on my iPod earlier in the day while I was running. I am in the market for a new pair of jeans and I did run out of deodorant just two days prior, so I guess that might explain both of those. By why in Vienna? Why the yellow school bus? Why did the market look like it did?

Like I said, weird.

Maybe when I'm done with school I will buy a book on the explanations of dreams.