Strange Dreams and Ordinary Days

I had another strange dream last night. I dreamed that I was kicked out of a luxury hotel. (Basically, in the dream, I was escorted out because I questioned (forcefully) the quality of some of the services the hotel was providing and the overall quality of the facilities). I have no idea why that dream surfaced - I've had a few confrontations with hoteliers over the years - but I've never actually been kicked out of a hotel. My most recent hotel stay (at the Town & Country Resort in San Diego) was excellent.

It started thinking about the recent flurry of strange dreams I've had and I have an inclination to lay the root cause on my apartment floor - specifically, on the new carpet. Not the new carpet itself, but the extended game of Tetris and the very significant re-ordering of the interior of my apartment, the significant changes in my living spaces. I suspect those have reached fairly deeply into my subconscious and have caused those deep and still waters to be stirred, resulting in the strange dreams. They haven't been bad dreams - they've just been vivid, unusual, and strange.

I've been moving slowly in my game of reverse Tetris, but I am going to pick up the pace this week. The property management firm wants to come through and inspect the plumbing and the smoke detectors (a yearly inspection), so I'll have to move a few boxes so they can get easier access to the kitchen. I've still got the boxes to be sorted through in the kitchen.

With the start of waking from the strange dream, it has been a good day. I met T. and B. at the Hickory Pit for breakfast. From there we went and saw "Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes", which was very well done and enjoyable. A stop at the bank, a stop the gas the car, a hair-cut, a quick stop for lunch (sushi and Miso soup), then a couple of simple errands wrapped up the day. I swung home in the afternoon and took a short nap, then ordered pizza for dinner. Dinner is now done and I'm lazing my way into the evening, watching "The Last King of Scotland" on IFC and playing a bit of my game of reverse Tetris.

Minimalist Tetris

Thursday, I spent the entire day playing Tetris will all of my physical possessions. Basically, I took the entire contents of the apartment and moved it into kitchen/dining room or patio - stacking it into the kitchen in the reverse order I would need to stack it out.

Amazingly, it all fit and with some room to spare. (That is a tribute to the distance I've traveled on my journey toward a more minimal lifestyle.) At about 8:30 the workers showed up to rip the carpet out and replace it with new carpet. They did a good job and were done by about 2:00 in the afternoon.

In between, I spent the morning wandering, running incidental errands, getting some service done on my car (including a detail), and picking up a new bedroom lamp and a pair of incidental stands. I've completely redecorated the bedroom in a very minimalist style. So far, the only things in the bedroom are the bed and the two new stands, with the lamp and clock. I have a new wall hanging (a collection of empty frames, which caught my eye and was inspired by T.R.) which I haven't hung yet because my toolbox is still behind a pile of boxes.

As I play the reverse game of Tetris and shift my worldly possessions back into the apartment, much of the stuff is not going to make the shift back. Since everything was moved into the kitchen, everything is up on the block. As I move each piece I am asking - do I really want this, do I really need this, and do I really use this? At the end of this particular game, I am going to end up with significantly left stuff. I might even make it as far down the path of minimalism that I need to go.