I was at a house much like the house I grew up in, but it was before there had been any additions done to it. I was in the "old kitchen" with Em, my wife, and it was dark outside. We were cooking something, and I think it may have been donuts, and we were trying to fry them in grease in our medium sized sauce pan.
Shortly after this, we got together with Em's mom, who I guess was staying with us, and we got into Em's car and left. It was now lighter outside, but it had the feeling of being midday while it was dreary and raining heavily on a cold autumn or winter day. Em's mom was driving, and we went to a local mall. I think Em and her mom went off shopping elsewhere because I had to get a gift for Em's birthday. I went into smallish bookstore, and somewhere along the way my youngest brother Matthew showed up and was shopping with me.
We were looking at this long table that had a bunch of puzzles on top of it and underneath it. I knew Em would like a really cool puzzle, and so I looked for a while to find the perfect one. I picked up and looked at a couple to see what they were, but put them back because they didn't seem quite right. One of them that I picked up was by the same people that did a poor and fuzzy puzzle of St. Peter's Cathedral that Em, her mom and I put together during one of her visits in waking life. I was disgusted at seeing this one in the selection, so I put it back.
After looking around for a bit more, I found a couple of really cool ones. I knew right away that Em would get a good kick out of them. I took them to the counter and told them to hold them because I'd like to pay for them when I'm done looking around. As I went back to browsing, Matthew and I found a bunch of tables that had all sorts of different types of teddy bears on them. There was one type that looked like a well-worn Paddington Bear, there was one dressed up as Santa Claus, and a bunch of generic ones all dressed up in different ways and in different sizes.
I was wondering if there were people waiting on me in order to be able to pay for their selections, too, and I think I either decided they were, or I was told by the cashier that they were. After paying for them, Matthew and I left.
We got onto a bus with a bunch of other people that were going to Em's birthday party, too. Em was sitting up close to the driver, and I was about halfway back in the bus because I didn't want her to see the gifts that I had bought for her. A number of people around me were asking me about the puzzles.
Finally we arrived at Em's birthday party. We were in a huge castle like building that had a ball room that was several hundred feet wide and long, and about 30 feet high. Everyone was all dressed up in formal attire and standing around the entrance to the ballroom. There was a side door on the left that Em's mom came out of. She looked more like Julie Andrews, and she came out with a spotlight on her, and she started singing something for Em's birthday. She was dancing around while the spotlight followed her.
Then Em came out of the side door, dressed up in a dress like Shirley Temple would have worn. She had something in her hand that was like a glittery fairy dust, and she was tossing it around while she danced, and throwing it into the path of her mom. As they danced over the dust, it caused the floor around their steps to appear to ripple like gold glittery water, although it was still quite solid. My viewpoint of this whole thing was one of following them around while they danced, but it was nothing more than a "camera view" as I knew I was still standing with the crowd and watching from afar.
After the song and dance were done, everyone applauded and gathered around Em to present her with their gifts.
After the gifts, we left to go home. Well, at least that's how it started. We were in Em's Lancer, and her mom was driving again. We were all in our normal daily clothes, and the feeling of formality and fun were completely gone, as if we had never had the party for Em. As we came up outside our house, which was a house I've never actually seen in waking life, I saw that the road went across in front of it and then turned and went up past the right side. We were coming from the left. The driveway, rather than running straight into the garage, curved around, entering the yard at the front and leaving the yard on the right side, connecting the two portions of road that went around the house.
Across the road that ran past the side of the house, there was as chain link fence, a huge cement parking lot, and then something that looked like a huge factory that may have been about a half a mile away, although it was VERY tall. It was the airport, and it turned out that we were on our way there to drop off Em's mom, even though she was the one driving.
For some reason she had gotten the idea that she needed to drive through our driveway in order to get to the other portion of road that went up to the chain link fence and gate. It wasn't until a lot of arguing happened and we had almost turned into our driveway that she relented and went around the yard instead of through it to get to the airport. We went up to the gate and drove slowly in.
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