Friday, April 30th, 2004

I’m in a strange city trying to get somewhere. A group of us (including my mom) ride together to a touristy area. As we mill around, I realize I need to go back to the hotel and take a shower. I also realize that the trains are all screwed up and that I should have driven the rental car here. I tell an old lady (who is our host) that I’m going back to the hotel to freshen up and ask if they’ll all still be here when I get back. She tells me yes and that it’s now 1:30pm. I’m surprised at how late it is.

I head out of the building through a huge funhouse revolving door with a gaggle of kids.

Later…

I’m sitting on a bed trying to assemble a Frankenstein monster with a few other guys. The movie prop pieces are way too small to assemble a life-sized monster. I joke to the guy who brought the pieces that we could make a little bitty version of the monster. He’s a little embarrassed.

Tuesday, April 27th, 2004

I’m in a warehouse building trying to do something. I want to get down to the lower level and a guy who works there shows me down. There are no stairs and he guides me down onto a large soft foam thing. I sit precariously on it, trying not to fall off. He tells me to jump down but I wait until I stop swaying. I drop my umbrella down and start letting myself down the side slowly. On my way down, I grab the umbrella and hook the curved handle into a rope on the side of the foam thing. This slows my drop and I land safely.

I walk around the lower level, which looks like an old folks’ home. I’m looking for Michael Caine (whose name here is Dr. Lynski).

I walk over to a lunch counter to wait for my food. As they prepare it, I realize I ordered too much food (a breakfast sandwich and a Reuben sandwich). They’re taking my Reuben out of a tray filled with oil. The deep fried sandwich is dripping with oil.

Sunday, April 25th, 2004

AJ and I have had some kind of fight or disagreement. It’s gotten so bad that I’m afraid we’re going to actually fight. I head home carrying a stool. I walk along a chain link fence for a while, trying to spy a bus.

At home (which looks like a big bed & breakfast), I search the rooms to see if he’s stolen or destroyed anything. I put the stool down in one of the bedrooms and go downstairs. I see the door to his room closed and consider going in and snooping around. Then I hear a noise from inside and tiptoe upstairs. AJ comes out and says a quiet “Hey.” I acknowledge him and continue upstairs. As I pass a sink by a window, I suddenly feel sick and retch into the sink. A small brown piece of something comes out and I gargle with a little water.

Sunday, April 18th, 2004

I’m in a room with a lot of people. We’re plotting a violent uprising. There’s a form we’re filling out to apply for some position. In reality, everyone who’s filling out the form is participating in the rebellion. When I sign my name, the ink bleeds a bit on the page.

I whisper to one coconspirator about tactics. I ask her if we can make Molotov cocktails. She says they’re illegal. I laugh and say, “So is violent uprisings.” I keep asking her if she wants to go outside and get more cardboard boxes (as an excuse to discuss plans in private).

Saturday, April 17th, 2004

I’m in a city like Baltimore interviewing for a job at NBCi. I’m sitting in a café with Rob talking about salaries. I tell him I’d like to work 30 hours a week and that I currently make $15000 a year. He thinks for a moment then offers me double that. I leave fairly satisfied with the deal.

I wander out of the café to look for Susannah. I walk for a while then consult my map. I realize I’m in a tourist district and that I can just walk a loop back to the hotel.

I stop into a restaurant/café and see Susannah talking with Josh Weill. I’m glad to see her and she shakes hands with Josh. I tell her about my job interview. She tells me there are lots of gift shops that sell Looney Tunes merchandise and that she’s going to get Lucy something Tweety related.

Later, it’s dark as we head back to the hotel. There a re a few other people with us as we walk along a pier. A car skids out of control and almost hits one of our friends. The car skids to a stop and a man and woman get out. The woman is putting on a cocktail waitress costume. The man berates her and calls her a whore as we look on.

Thursday, April 15th, 2004

I’m in a house on the beach trying to reach someone on my cell phone. There’s been some sort of nuclear missile incident and I’m trying to find a way to remote detonate a missile or remote control a fighter to shoot it down.

Outside, I run into some old high school classmates and greet them. I’m very excited to see them.

Later, I see George and Beth with their three kids. I notice the kids are the same age and size as the last time I saw them. We make our way through a parking garage. George is handling the strollers and I have one of the boys in my arms.

Friday, April 9th, 2004

We’re selling or buying a house from a woman. She gives us some paperwork to sign and I notice her handwriting looks like a schoolgirl’s.

Later…

We about to play poker and I decide to play in AJ’s room since he’s gone. I start arranging the chairs and realize that I need to move his bed. I examine his red wooden bed frame and decide it’s too much trouble to take it apart. A few other poker players ask me what’s going on. I tell them that we should probably play in the living room as normal.

Wednesday, April 7th, 2004

I’m standing on the field in a football stadium. I look up and see lots of military helicopters overhead. I watch as they fly past and double back towards us. One of them announces on a loudspeaker, “This is a presidential escort…”

As they get closer, one of them crashes to the ground only a few hundred feet from me. I stand stunned as another, a larger one with a presidential label, crashes even closer. I start running out of the stadium and yell for a guy (maybe Andy Roddick the tennis star) to run.

I run out of the stadium (which is inside a large prep school) and into the hallway. There are lots of other panicked people evacuating. I go down some stairs and past a large window. I see a couple of school kids smoking outside. I pull the window open and step outside. I quickly tell the kids about the crashes and to get away. As I walk away from the school, it’s nighttime and the streets are quiet. I suddenly realize we’ve stepped into England. Susannah and I and another friend all hold hands and walk down the cobblestone street, feeling safely out of harm’s way.

Tuesday, April 6, 2004

Two partners and I enter a Chinese restaurant to rob it. One of my partners tells me to instruct the employees in Chinese to give us the money. The two of them hold down the customers while I force an employee to open a small safe in the ground. He gives me a little cash but I yell for him to show me the real money. He points to a small container with four keys in it. I ask him which one is it and he picks up one of them, telling me that we have to go upstairs to the larger safe.

I whisper to one of my partners to stay in the restaurant and leave if we’re not back in ten minutes. The other partner and I go towards a bank of elevators with the employee. As we enter the elevator, a friend of the employee tries to get on but we shut the door in his face.

Upstairs, we enter a courtroom where a few people are seated. We wave our guns and tell everyone to stay put. A black female security guard gets up and I point my gun at her, yelling for her to sit down. She looks confused and I try to fire at her but my gun doesn’t seem to work. A tall white guy steps down from the judge’s seat and tries to negotiate with us. He looms over me in a futuristic leather judge’s robe. I tell him to back off as my partner and I make out way out of there.

We exit the building and try to look for our other partner. We put away our weapons and walk to the other side of the building where our getaway car is. We see a few cops standing guard near it. After a few moments of waiting, I tell my partner that I’m going to wander past a few stores and get a better look at our car.

I walk through a McDonalds and down into a dark stairwell. There are a few black high school girls going down the stairs. On the way down, lots of young blind people are walking up. I hop the rails down several flights and end up in an industrial part of town. A little nervous, I walk past some people and try to find my way out.

As I continue walking, I realize I’m in Brooklyn (though it looks like hilly San Francisco). I wonder how I walked so short a distance and ended up so far from lower Manhattan. As I keep walking, the scenery changes to a beautiful coastal region with lots of boats in the harbor.

Thursday, April 1, 2004

I’m talking to Susannah about my ex-girlfriends. She thinks that I still have feelings about them and questions whether or not we should get married.

Later…

I’m talking to someone about the small part I had in David Koepp’s movie Secret Window. We’re watching a scene being shot under a highway overpass. It’s dark and raining. As I watch the scene, I realize I’m not in it. I wonder if my scene was cut and might be restored in the DVD version.

We watch the beginning of the movie as a man in a winter coat walks up to a cabin. He checks the doors as the weather starts to turn bad. He lifts off his hood and we see it’s an Asian man (who doesn’t look like me but is supposed to be me). He asks Johnny Depp’s character if the weather’s supposed to get worse. Depp says yes. As they start to leave the cabin, they notice a minivan up the hill. The Asian guy asks, “Hey, isn’t that (so-and-so’s) car?” Depp says, “Yes, but he’s gone.” The minivan starts coming down the hill towards them. The two men get scared and start running down the hill away from it. Their legs are stiff and weak and they have trouble running and getting over some wire fences.

They make their way down a hill and onto a path. A few cars are coming their way on the path and they wave them down. A red minivan stops for them and they get in (along with two other strangers). Steve Martin and his family are in the van. This is all a part of the plot, a thriller takeoff on Cheaper By the Dozen.