I dream in recycled movie plots, apparently

Last night's dream was an epic. There was a family who lived in a ramshackle two-story house on the edge of a chasm high in the mountains, with no yard but just rocks up to the sheer drop down hundreds of feet to certain doom. They were a close, loving family, and the father had chosen at some point to turn himself into a ghost, as he had a magical sword that could return him to the living at any time, and the abilities he gained as a spirit were useful. They had one servant, a girl from a high-class family who had fallen on hard times and was forced to work for people she considered lowly and worthless.

They got on Hera's (the queen of the Greek gods') bad side. That was their first mistake. I'm not sure what they did but she sent her army of minions to kill the entire family, led by a warrior woman under her command. The minions wiped out the whole family, even the father-- they managed to destroy his spirit and send that to the underworld so he could never return to his body. Only one son escaped, because he had surprised the warrior woman in charge by jumping out from behind a curtain and stabbing her with a knife, and accidentally hitting an artery. She died, but miraculously, the blood vanished form the carpet as she lay.

The son ran down a narrow tunnel through the mountain to the village, where the servant girl was talking with his best friend, a boy who worked in one of the shops. He told them what happened and they all agreed that he needed to run, as did the servant, because she was so closely tied to the family. His best friend also agreed to go with them, because he might be linked to their disappearance.

They went into flight, and were chased all across the earth by Hera's replacement for the original warrior woman (another woman), and several thug types. The woman in command has several magical abilities in her power, including the ability to call up rainbows for transportation, like the Greek goddess Iris-- except Iris' rainbows weren't made of candied fruit and Skittles in different colors. There were several close calls, including one time when they took refuge in a young woman's house, and then she chose to go with them because a) they left rather abruptly in the middle of the night, under attack, and she was afraid she'd be captured and tortured by the hunters, and b) she fell in love with the family's last son.

Meanwhile the best friend and the servant girl fall in love and are having a side-story relationship, but at some point, they have to leave her behind or she vanishes, and they assume she's dead. The best friend is heartbroken.

They reached a run-down old Colosseum-style arena, long since out of use, and planned to spend the night there. As the love interest and the best friend set up to sleep under the stone bleachers, the son wandered, and he entered the gladiatorial arena. Suddenly the once-empty bleachers started to fill with Greek gods, including their king Zeus, who sat in the old emperor's box. He declared, "I've taken pity on you, boy, and I'm ending this silly chase. You and my wife will compete in one-on-one combat, with her in a human form. If you defeat the human form, I will make her stop chasing you, and you and your friends can return home and bury your family and live in peace." The son wasn't given a chance to say anything, but was instantly attacked by the warrior woman who's been chasing him-- who, he realized, is Hera in human form.

Hera quickly gained the upper hand, as she still had godly strength even in human form. Just as the son was about to loose, she whispered a taunt in his ear, reminding him of his family and his failure at this chance for revenge so he'll suffer more. The exact opposite happened-- the remark spurred him, so he gained a burst of adrenaline-driven superhuman strength and strangled her human form.

Hera, naturally, reappeared sulkily next to her husband, but the son was declared the winner, and all the gods vanished. Triumphant, the son told his companions what had transpired, and they all happily headed back to the mountain village. The best friend was already plotting a quest of his own, taking the father's magical sword and finding the body of his love, the servant girl, and returning her to life.

Before returning to the family's house, they visited the villagers, telling of their adventures and why they were gone so long. The best friend is all prepared to offer up excuses to his boss, but the boss silenced him, saying he doesn't need to explain, and while he's been replaced, the boss will personally make sure he gets another job in the village. "Who is my replacement?" the best friend asked, and out walked the old servant girl who he loved and who had been released from Hera's control months ago. He immediately ran to her, joyous and ready to kiss her, but she stopped him with her hand, and pulled out from the back room another man, a former co-worker of the best friend. "I'm sorry," she said, "but I thought you were dead, and it's been a long time." She leaned her head on the new beau's chest and he wrapped his arm around her.

The best friend was sad, but he understood, as he'd mostly gotten over thinking she was dead anyway, and knowing that she was alive and happy was enough for him. The love interest, best friend, and the son headed happily back to the family's house, ready to start the rather unpleasant cleaning and burial process, considering that it had been years since the family had died and no one had wanted to risk offending Hera by burying them before then.

Then I woke up. Yes, that all happened in last night's dream. It was like a whole movie going on there. Kinda cool though.

"You are a Person of Culture, Cultivate It"

It's the festival of Hecate At the Crossroads, today. You may have heard of Hecate, but if you have, it's probably as the witch-goddess because that's how disaffected Hellenistic Neopagan teenagers like to see her, so they can call her their patron goddess and dress all in black and pretend to communicate with the dead. Or maybe you've just read Shakespeare's Macbeth. But in reality, while she was goddess of witchcraft and necromancy, that wasn't the most important aspect of her.

As goddess of crossroads, Hecate was depicted as having three faces- a young woman's, a middle-aged woman's, and an old woman's. Three masks would be placed on a pole at the crossroad (a Y-intersection) so each faced a different direction. This festival honored that aspect of the goddess-- as a deity of the wilderness and untamed areas. Travelers left her food as offerings to ensure safe passage through dangerous areas-- especially women who were traveling alone.

If you go onto Hellenismos discussion boards talking about who people feel is their patron god or goddess, a lot of people claim Hecate. This amuses me because half of them haven't a clue what she's about except that the witchcraft connection will annoy their parents.

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Last night at lab I switched partners, but I swear it wasn't because the girls kicked me out. My new lab partner just joined the class and she knew me from Classical Mythology last semester. I'll mention her enough to name her, I guess... Her name will be Maritima ("Of the sea," because she's studying marine biology). Anyway, the lab thing worked out anyway, for last week-- turns out the group section of the lab wasn't that big a deal.

In other lab news, turns out I don't have to worry about lab reports for Biology. You have no idea how happy I was when I learned this. I was dancing. On the inside, because I was in Chem lab.

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Today's Bio lab took forever. I was so proud that I left yoga early enough to get there on time, with enough time to make sure I looked reasonably presentable and didn't smell (which meant five minutes early). But then I was looking at bacteria and protists for hours and I had to squeeze the wood-digesting bacteria out of a termite's butt, and the first time I didn't do it right and the second time I squeezed too hard, killed it, and still didn't do it right, so the professor had to do it for me on account of my lab partner being adverse to the squeezing of termites. The professor didn't even try to be humane, like I had been- he just disemboweled the little bug and tossed him aside, without even crushing his head so he'd die fast. And the professor didn't even do it quickly enough! Termite butt bacteria-- which, in case you're curious, are the things that make it possible for termites to digest wood-- can't survive long exposed to oxygen, and he waited too long before he put the cover slip on so the bacteria was dead anyway. I mean, we saw them, but not for very long.

Plus Maritima, who is also in Bio, was asking for a partner for this project we're doing on phyla, and I thought to myself, "I'd love to, as long as we aren't expected to work with our regular lab partners" but it came out as "Well, uhm, okay, but I have to, uhm, ch-check with my lab partner, but if she doesn't, like-- if she doesn't want to work with me, then I-- I mean, I guess..."

At that, she said, "Oh, okay, it's cool," and then another guy came up behind us and said, "Maritima, I don't have a partner for the project" (except he used her real name). So she partnered with him, on account of his actually being able to talk correctly, and then I learned that my lab partner already had a project partner and I would up having to wait around until everyone else partnered off. Luckily the girl who wound up without a partner was my lab partner last semester, so it's not a total stranger. Or a guy.

I really do talk like that, by the way. And Maritima's a girl, so it's not just guys that make me stammer. If I don't know someone, or I only know them a little, or I feel uncomfortable around them for any reason, it comes out peppered with "uhms" and half-finished sentences trailing off into new phrases. I basically have to have my words prepared ahead of time, in my head at least.

I wasn't exactly expecting Maritima to ask me to work with her right after she asked Incredibly Hot Guy (who's best friend, Flirts With TAs, is in the class so he had a partner already). I mean, like, hell of a comedown. Thus, I was hopelessly unprepared.

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Anyway, lab had plenty of awkwardness, for me, and it let out at 4:45, giving me fifteen minutes to run back to my dorm, get my personal statement for the Healthcare seminar thing, and run back to Dimond Library for the 5:00 meeting. Then I read my stupid personal statement on "Why I want to be a doctor--" you know, I had the worst trouble writing that, because I honestly haven't a clue why I want to be a doctor. But that's an issue for another day. I spouted off something about fascination with human physiology that made me sound cold and a great deal like Dr. House, and then ran back here at 5:30 to quickly change my shirt and go to dinner with Loquatia before swing class.

I was tired and under dressed-- I was still wearing workout pants and I'd just thrown on a T-shirt in my rush, and everyone else looked like they were going to class-- when I got to Swing, and emotionally, I was completely frazzled. Add in the fact that this week, the numbers of attractive guys without pre-determined dance partners (I don't know if they were single-- but they didn't have dance partners) was double last week's number and that we were learning new steps very quickly, and you have me stammering and stumbling around for an hour, watching the clock and wishing my hands weren't sweating so much.

Great.

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What is it about Wednesdays? They sucked last semester, too.

My Social Anxiety Level: 68%

"You have high social anxiety. You have a pretty serious social phobia, and it effects your life more than you may realize. It's possible that you've made yourself comfortable by avoiding situations you dread. But don't be fooled - you still probably need professional help." Yeah, well, tell me something I don't know...

Are You Socially Anxious?