I dreamed I was sitting in the dim living room of the “San Marino House.” That’s the in-family name for the house my great-grandparents, John and Isabel Way, and later grandparents, John and Alice Way, lived in in the San Gabriel Valley east of Los Angeles. The house was in the family from the 1910’s until its demise in the 1990’s. I had the opportunity to live in the house for about half a year in 1992.
With me in the crowded living room were some coworkers from Karma, and some other people that were allegedly in my family but that I didn’t recognize. My emotional state, in the dream, was strong: I was seething with anger and frustration, but it wasn’t clear what had brought this about.
The people around me were chatting about the built-in bookshelves in a kind of deprecatory way, and I finally went outside, only to find there was a giant canyon yawning where the back yard and 1920’s-era swimming pool used to be. There were tour buses parked and people milling about. I was feeling claustrophobic but found I couldn’t escape the crowds.
I went back inside. The dim room and the complaining people depressed me as I lay on the floor. Seeking some kind of distraction, I found a trail of ants leading into the kitchen, and followed it. My grandmother was in there, boiling silverware (she was a bit of a germophobe and always boiled her silverware). She had a collection of guns on the kitchen table (this was especially strange given she was a devout Quaker and pacifist in real life).
My grandmother spoke to me in Korean, and I stared at her, uncomprehending. Finally, I left, going out into the driveway area, where I found a handsome black horse. The horse was spooked but tethered and unable to move much. It rolled its eyes and snorted at me. I untied it and watched it run away down California Blvd toward Cal Tech.
I woke up puzzled by this dream. I don’t know what it means. I would give it a cuil number of 5 or so.
The San Marino House no longer exists. Here is a scan of an ink portrait I drew of the house in 1992, from the southwest corner of the lot looking toward the front porch, with all its encompassing greenery.
[daily log (11 pm): walking, 5 km]