Dream: The Gerontina Waltz, Looking for the Clock

Dream 20021122, 6:45 AM:

I’m in a large dance-hall type space; it reminds me of the upstairs of a really big house. The floor is pale color wood. Everybody is dancing, and I had asked for a song wanting to dance, but all my friends are dancing with each other. I feel really sad, and I lean my head against the wall, being pathetic, hoping somebody will see me and feel sorry for me. Hal and Deborah walk by, and ask me what the song was. I go up to the DJ, and it’s a woman playing CD’s, and I think she says it’s “Gerontia” or “Gerontina,” – it was a waltz. I go into another adjacent room that doesn’t seem to be totally separated from the first, and Hal is in there. We talk for a minute.

Then, I’m in a store. I’m looking for two things: dress shoe laces, and a replacement part for a little battery-run clock that I’m carrying in my hand. It looks like the clockworks that Grandmother puts on plates to make clocks of them, but just the battery case, no hands. I can’t find the aisle, they’ve moved it somewhere; I feel like I used to know where it was, but they’ve moved it. I am stressing out, like I’ve got a deadline, I’ve got to get somewhere. This woman sees me and comes up and asks how she can help, and another woman comes up and just barges right in as I was starting to explain. I look at her, and say, “RIGHT in front of me!” And then they realize that I was starting to ask a question, and the salesperson turns to me because I was there first, and I explain that I’m looking for this little clock part, and it’s barely big enough for two little batteries. I explain that I’m not looking for the batteries, I’m looking for the works, for the piece that the batteries go into. The salesperson starts to explain where it is – it’s over in Section G, way down at the other end of the store. The store is huge, and I head off trying to find it, looking back and forth at the aisles. G is around the corner. But by the time I get to where Section G is, there aren’t any aisles, there are a bunch of people standing around waiting in a line that appears to be for a cafeteria, and there are other people who are playing some sort of a game tossing stuff back and forth. It’s something they shouldn’t be tossing, like plates or cafeteria trays.

I keep looking and thinking it’s got to be around here somewhere. I turn a corner and there are more store shelves, and I think maybe it’s there. I am feeling frustrated because I can’t find it.