I'm in a craft store looking at hooked rug kits, and thinking that I might make hooked rugs for all my relatives and friends for Christmas. I'm looking at all the kits and picking out one for each, and trying to figure out how much it would all cost and how long it would take.

There's a kit for a huge rug, and I comment to someone standing nearby, "Can you imagine what my wrists would feel like after finishing that?? Still, it's only April, and a long time 'til Christmas . . ."

I take my choices up to the counter, and when they're rung up, they amount to more than $500, and I laugh, and say that surely that's a mistake, and start going through them again, adding them up.

I was a secretary at a company, and my main job seemed to be making lunch for a somewhat elderly executive. I was setting out shrimp and fruit and vegetables, and making kabobs with them, selecting just the right combination and placing them on skewers.

Another secretary, perhaps one more senior than I was, and picked up a cellphane packet of oyster crackers off the tray, and said, "Who told you to use these small crackers?"

I was offended that she was questioning me, and I said, "No one told me anything. I just figured I'd do that I liked and amend it as I find out what he likes and doesn't like."

She asked, "Do you like lettuce?" and when I said I didn't, she glared at me, and I said, "Just because I don't like it doesn't mean I can't serve it!"

Then I was looking in a supply closet that seemed to be half-full of Burger King boxes holding sesame-seed buns only in individual boxes.

I was celebrating Christmas (or maybe my birthday) with Barb, and she gave me a leather purse that was okay, but not terribly exciting, and a couple of cool pens, but the best part was a very cool dollhouse, completely furnished down to dishes in the cabinets and on the table, and even tiny goblets.

Then there was something about a Jose Canseco baseball card, and a ticket to see the Beach Boys when they played in Kansas City, but most of that one is lost.

I was in some sort of bible study group at someone's house. I was annoyed because they assumed that if you were in the group, you were a member of a church.

I asked, "What if you don't belong to a church?" I was a church member, but it bothered me that you had to be, and also, I didn't have my information with me. So instead of giving me a real book, they gave me a coloring book, which made me mad and made me want to go home. But someone had dropped me off, and I didn't have my car, so I couldn't leave. There was a car that they had given me to use, but they hadn't given me the keys, and I couldn't find anyone who had them, so I was going to have to call someone to come pick me up.

I was at work, although not where I work now or anywhere I've worked in the past. There was a jewelry store in the building, close to where I sat, and it was late in the day and the people who worked in there were gone. I went in to look at the jewelry at my leisure, because normally you couldn't really look at it closely because you were watched so closely by the employees.

I hadn't had a chance to really look at anything or pick it up. So I was looking at pendants, and there were lots of cool ones, mostly with tiny Buddhas set with precious stones. Most of them were too large for me, but there were a couple that were really nice. As I was looking at one of them, it broke into two pieces. I put it down carefully and sort of snuck away, hoping that no one would notice, but as I did, I hit the support poles that were holding up a sort of tent over the area, and it started to come down.

Dave was there, and he helped me catch it, but he was having trouble getting it back together, and I knew I was really going to be in trouble.

I went back to my desk, where I closed down my computer and started gathering my things to leave, then I heard a manager telling another employee that it wasn't time to leave yet, and I thought I probably better not leave, either, so I started turning things back on. I woke up feeling like I was going to be arrested.

A bunch of us from the office walked over to the deli for lunch. We were going to bring it back with us, not eat there. Jared was with us. He had to wait for his food longer than the others, and I was going to stop at a store on the way back, so everyone else headed back to the office.

When I came out of the store, I saw Jared on the other side of the street with his bag from the deli, and he started skipping, and I started skipping, too, and I realized that we were going to have a race. I really didn't want to race, but I tried, and when I got back to the office, I came in laughing, and said, "We skipped back," and when they asked why, I said, "We're off to see the Wizard."

"Oh."

I was on vacation in Scotland by myself. I went into a restaurant and stood in front of the bar for awhile, but no one ever offered to help me, so I went and sat in a booth, but it turned out there was already someone sitting there--he scooted over to make room for me, but I was embarrassed, and apologized and got up and moved away.

I stood sort of awkwardly, then decided just to leave. I scooped several matchbooks out of a bowl in the entryway on my way out, and stuffed them in my pockets, then went out to the parking lot.

A lot of snow had fallen, and I got snow in my shoes as I went, but I slogged through the snow to my car, which turned out to be also full of snow--I had apparently left a window cracked. It was kind of annoying--I would have liked to have gotten into a nice, warm car, but it didn't bother me overly.