7th and 2nd

the kiev and our old apartment
Originally uploaded by jammies.

i was back in the little east village studio apartment i shared with liz for a few months back in 1996! i wasn't sure how i ended up there--but it was wonderful to be back! i couldn't wait to tell her...although i knew i was dreaming and so i'd have to wait until i woke up.

i am always confused by dreams like these. seems like it could be a lucid dream but it didn't feel really lucid. like the me that realized i was dreaming, was actually a dreaming me and not the real me. truly lucid dreams feel more....well....lucid.

anyway, before long liz was there, too. i told her how excited i was to be there and that i had been planning to tell her about it. then i realized she was sharing the dream with me. i tried to get her to tell me a secret code word that, when we both awoke, i could say to her to check to see if it really was a lucid dream. this is a technique people use to see if they really did meet up in their dreams. she did tell me a code word (something like the name she'd give a cat if she got another one) but, sadly, i can't remember what it was. if i did remember, i would call her to see if it had any significance.

this dream made me nostalgic for new york. and liz. in general lately i have been very nostalgic for new york, nantucket, the east coast, and my east coast friends and family. i saw a picture of central park the other day and could practically feel and smell the air. i saw photos of nantucket and the familiarity made the scenes feel both so real and so distant.

in this photo you can see the kiev (a russian/east european deli). our apartment was on the third floor of the little, skinny brick building to the right of the kiev. i think the two nearest windows were ours--the ones next to the traffic light. the ventilation system of our building was connected to that of the kiev, and our bathroom always smelled of sauerkraut.