Dream between 2:30am and 9:30am on October 29th, 2009

I slept almost through the night, but Julia didn't. She woke up around 7 o'clock, thinking about Perfect Strangers.

Dream:

Work had just implementing a training program. We didn't go to training classes, it was more video-game-y in that we had a training ledger that we would write down skills to learn, and the skills would be learned over time.

I was requested by the higher-ups to keep an eye on certain employees to make sure that their training doesn't exceed a certain point, as they were only supposed to be temporary. I had a full page full of training for the first day, and I guess that was my cap until I learned some new skills.

I remember there being an old mechanic with wispy white hair and big glasses. He was advice-dispensing and kindly. He gave me something that I can't remember.

I was assigned to work with inner-city youth. I ended up chasing them around for a bit, talking to them and so-forth. I remember chasing a group of them through a park, and there was an enormous slide that formed a big circle. The way it worked was that you ran across it repeatedly until you built up enough speed to slide across, so that you were sliding in a circle. If that doesn't make much sense when explained, that's because it didn't make much sense in the dream. I remember sliding on my stomach, but there was a memory I had in the dream of someone saying that one was not supposed to slide that way.

When I exited the slide, I spotted a little kid digging in the playground sand. I plopped next to him and watched what he was doing. As I sat there, I found buried in the sand a long toy train, with the train cars held together with magnets. Each train car was cartoonishly anthropomorphized, sort of like in Thomas the Tank Engine. I was very excited to find the train, however the little boy told me that it was "common" and that the reason that the traincars were buried in the sand was because everyone already had them. But I didn't have them, so I kept them. My train! Mine!

Nearby, I found a blue duffel bag to carry them in. In the bag were stuffed animals - one of them was a very adorable and bright blue cat. I was excited to find that and show it to Julia, as she would likely be delighted by its cuteness. I began to feel guilty taking these toys, so I told myself that I would report them as found items at the lost and found, and return them if anybody claimed them. If there was more to the dream, I don't remember it.