In Dreams

Well hello there.  Fancy meeting you here. 

I’d like to kick things off by telling you about a dream I recently had about an ex-boyfriend. Fascinating, I know.

This is the latest in a months-long string of dreams I’ve had about said ex-bf.  Let’s call him Utah.  May I mention that we broke up YEARS ago.  And that until about 5 months ago, I had exactly zero dreams about him.  That last spring he had infact moved with his girlfriend to a different city.  So I haven’t laid eyes on him in many a moon.  Other than the occasional brief email exchange, we have had little contact in the past five years, and almost no contact in the last year or so. 

At the beginning of 2004, I started having dreams about him.  Not real down-n-dirty dreams, but they were awfully romantic.  Even in the absence of any serious dreamland action, these dreams left me swooning. 

Co-incidentally, he moved back to town a few months ago, sans girlfriend.  And despite the fact that there has been zero contact between us since his return, the dreams persist.  On to last night’s dream. 

It was my birthday, or some such occasion on which I was receiving gifts.  All the guests were gone except Utah.  I was sitting on a small crème-colored loveseat, a la Ikea, infront of a fireplace.  Utah walked over to me smiling.  He unzipped his jacket and pulled out a giftwrapped package that he handed to me.  There was much exclamation on my part.  I was particularly surprised by the gift b/c despite dating for 2 1/2 years, he had never once recognized my birthday (true story – he was a real peach that boy was). 

I unwrapped the package to find a copy of the New Yorker.  The date on the cover was February 23, 1927.  Utah asked me to open the magazine to a specific page.  On that page was a crazy love poem of which I remember nothing except for the syrupy love poem-y-ness of it all.  Then Utah looked at me, reached into his jacket, and pulled out another copy of the New Yorker from February 23, 1927, opened it to the poem, showed it to me and just stood there with a big sappy smile on his face. 

Ah yes, a story interesting to no one but me. Welcome to the world of Shelby Gelato.