I was living on the top floor of a little run-down old apartment building, in a tiny studio. Although it was past midnight, I was really hungry and decided to head out to Burger King. The elevator was just big enough for one person, and it rattled and shook as it crawled its way down eight flights. I was getting worried that it would fall, even as it slowed down further and further. Just as it was about to hit the first floor, it bounced back up and headed up to the fourth. I quickly hit the button for five, and took the stairs down from there. It turns out I had to crawl through a cramped tunnel in the basement to get outside; looking back at the front door, I saw it was completely blocked by a pile of unhealthy-looking gray powder. I got in my car from the garage to the left, but never made it to Burger King.

Next thing I know, I'm pacing back and forth on a street several blocks away, considering whether to walk home or take a cab (as my car had disappeared). By the time I decided on a taxi, there were several other people already hailing for one. I quickly stepped out and waved my hand as well, but the others kept crowding me out. I felt like I was losing the battle, so I ran back up the street further to catch an early cab. For a while, all the ones that went by had their light off. Finally, a whole crowd of lit cabs came on down, and I hurriedly ran up to the first one and asked if she was free. She said, "if you think you can fit." It was then that I realized that they were little girls in Mickey Mouse hats with a taxi light on top, and that their "cab" was a small glass drum strapped to their backs. I was bewildered, but noticed that it looked like they were part of a parade. I finally decided to just walk home.

Instantly, I was in my bed trying to load up Starcraft on my laptop. There wasn't anyone else on the local network, so I called Toan and Seol, my college buddies who played the game with me back then, and asked if they wanted to move in with me. They appeared immediately with their laptops, all settled in, and I shared my game on the network for them to download. Toan got it right away, but Seol was doing something else, and we were getting impatient with him. I went over to download it for him, but soon our laptops turned into large desktops with 40-inch monitors like we were at a workstation. In fact, we were seated in a row like in an office, and I saw my boss coming over out of the corner of my eye. I quickly exited the game and started up Powerpoint. Unfortunately, that's all she saw, as she left, disappointed in me, before I could load up any data. I was more than a little worried about that. Toan had already gone to his beautiful 3-D display of some chemistry reactions or something like that. With nothing else to do, I sighed and walked down the aisle. It turns out that our stations were all part of a high school science fair, one in which all students' families were to help out. Just to my left was an enormous aquarium that reached to the ceiling and was a couple dozen feet wide and deep. Inside were these huge, fat seahorses swimming around, with thick, cannister-like bodies. I boggled at how much work the family had to do to construct the aquarium, fill it up, and transport the seahorses. Amazing.

posted by Larry at 8:56 AM