Oh Foul Pager!

I've been having this rather interesting recurring dream over the past several weeks. The first time, I dreamed about this old, dilapidated hotel in the middle of a rather dangerous part of downtown. In the dream, I was wandering the halls, trying to imagine what the hotel had been during its glory days. Then I woke up.

The dream has returned many times, starting at the same entry way of the hotel, but it's turned into quite the story! There's a woman and her business partner who have purchased the hotel for renovation. I really enjoy their love of this old building. Over time, it's begun to transform. The carpets were cleaned and rethreaded. The walls scrubbed and polished (maple - so gorgeous!). Occasionally, the woman and man make strange choices - I really don't think the "group bathroom" concept will fly as a lower-priced alternative to supplement the pricey suites, but whatever - I'm just an observer.

Last night, the story formed a more cohesive plot. The ballroom had been completely restored and the dream opened on the woman, dressed in work clothes, finishing up a fine scrubbing of a beautiful bar. She looked out the freshly cleaned glass and seemed very proud of all she had accomplished. The man was busy in the corner, overseeing the lifting of a chandelier. I was impressed by the change in the hotel.

The woman exited the ballroom and ran into the first tenants of this building - the man's sister and her fiancee. They discussed the changes in the hotel. Then a very polite and pretty woman entered, crossed the hall, and flirted with the man. She seemed very sweet, natural and exactly the kind of woman that many men dream to find.

My main point of view, I can't really call her a protagonist, seemed annoyed but not jealous about the interaction. I supposed she considered the new woman a distraction, not a rival. Then she went to a back hall - where much of the work has been focused. It's a long hallway that used to serve as a coal port, but now serves no function. The man and woman have spent much of my dream time discussing this hallway.

She was hidden as the rest of the cast wandered the more evident parts of the hotel. She overheard something interesting - the man was planning a party in her ballroom! At first, she was excited to picture all the people enjoying her hard work. Then she overheard something more puzzling - they were planning the sister's wedding and the invitations had already been sent...this hardworking woman had not been invited to, nor even informed about, the culminating event of her work in the hotel's transformation.

She was understandably livid. She rushed out of the coal port to confront the man.

Then, in a place far from the hotel and a time called reality, my beeper sounded where it lie in the train bag, awaiting the light of morning.

My beeper's number is surprisingly close to the overnight on-call resident's beeper. I get paged frequently in dead of night. This was no different. I made the requisite response and then rushed off to bed, hoping to recapture the action.

No go. All I saw were improvements on the hallway.

Drat! You beeper! I've threatened repeatedly to toss you off a bridge....and today, your days are very numbered, you foul-tempered, evil-sounding, dream-shattering fiend!