Missing kids (as in, loving and missing them, not "victims of kidnapping"), Bono, and Dave the mechanic

Random snippets of recentish dreams:

*Riane is my dentist. Or at least, she plays one in my dream. I'm in a little room with a window, sitting in the dentist chair. She keeps numbing my cheeks and gums, because I'm getting my wisdom teeth out. The novocaine is taking forever to kick in, but I'm not sure if that's because Riane doesn't know what she's doing or cuz I'm on laughing gas and everything is in slow motion. I look out the window, and realize that I'm on a boat because I see a deck out the window and the lake/ocean/pond/river beyond the deck. Riane's mom walks by, on the deck, and I see Giles and Deb and *Evan in a little blow-up raft in the water. I decide to get out of the chair, cuz as much as I love Riane, I just don't trust any dentist on a boat.

I'm on a long journey. I decide to walk back from this long journey. Evidently, the end point of this long walking journey is Naperville, and I need a place to spend the night because I can't get back to Wheaton in time for bed. (Weird how that mattered in my dream.) I walk past *Lissa's house, and realize, hey her family is nice and I know her; I should stay here. (Note: in my dream, it was Lissa's house. But, the house in the dream was very clearly *Dan Jacobsen's house, cut and paste from real life.) I decide to see if I can stay there, but I think for some reason it was morning at this point. I knock and ring the doorbell, but no one answers. The door is open, so I decide to walk in. I go downstairs, figuring I can sleep in Lissa's bedroom, but oops, it's her parents room, and I see them sleeping. *Awkward.* I quietly exit and go back upstairs, and see Lissa in the back yard.

I'm at Dave Chelsen's, aka, Newark's only auto mechanic, which is out in the country (not to be confused with out "of" the country). I'm picking up my car, and I realize I have to pay—but he's not there. So I go inside the shop to leave him a check, and I see pictures on the wall. Tons and tons of pictures, mostly of kids whose parents are loyal customers. I realize there are some baby pictures of me—and all the pictures have captions that tell the name and age. It's not scary a la One Hour Photo; it's endearing like when doctors' and dentists' offices post pictures of their clients on a bulletin board.

Then I arrive at Cozymel's, because I'm supposed to be meeting Karin Harper there, but she's late. Also, Cozymel's is somewhere between El Famous Burrito and itself in my dream—a different interior with blue stucco walls and florescent lights. I decide to get a table and wait by myself, and I'm a little scared because it's late, no one else is eating (I only see wait staff), and flourescent lights on bright blue is scary. Then, I see *Ashley and *Tori, and it was the most. surprising. thing. ever. I'm all, NO WAY ... what are the ODDS that you'd be here?!? They basically rescued me, but I think I just played it cool (after my immediate surprise). They were like, hey sit with us. So I did. And we ate chips and salsa and were so happy.

U2 is in concert. I am there. (And also, WOOOO.) They're playing a gym somewhere, and I'm in the bleachers with the other attenders. People who arrive late are locked out and can't get in, so they knock on the door. Every time there's a knock at the door, Bono makes the trek from the stage to the door to let the tardy person in, mid-song, and the narrow part of the stage he walks around (the exterior of the "bomb shelter") leads directly to the door. Eventually, though, the gym becomes a two-story house and he has to go upstairs to answer, through a narrow stairs hallway with framed pictures on the walls and a curtained window at the top of the stairs. I remember that Susan Sevey, a girl I knew from college, was one of the people he let in.

* Riane, Evan, Dan J., Lissa, Tori, and Ashley are all "former" youth group kids of mine—graduating seniors from the spring; currently college freshmen. I don't actually own them, although I like to think that subtle mind control means I'll always be somewhat responsible for how they turn out as adults. They're cute and fun and great.