I continue to have strange, vivid dreams almost every night. Last night, I dreamed I was at work, but work was in an enormous suburban high school. It was so big that it needed shopping-mall-style map kiosks posted throughout. Auditions…

It seems like my dreams about tornadoes come and go in cycles. I’m in a cycle now where I’m having them frequently. The latest one I can remember involved me and Doc driving south down Plano road, nearly to our house. I saw a big tornado headed our way in the rearview mirror and so recklessly drove the rest of the way to the house, running red lights and all. We screeched into the garage, ran inside, and started gathering things to take to shelter, including the cats in their carriers. In the garage we had a doorway to a set of stairs leading down to a basement, very similar to my parents’ garage stairs to the attic (except down, not up, of course). I flung open the door and suddenly remembered that we were storing a lot of stuff for my parents while they were between houses. Three or four tall bookcases full of books and boxes and junk were piled haphazardly halfway down the staircase, to where it was impossible to get past them into the basement. I found a space for the cat carriers to sit and determined that Doc and I would probably be safe even part way down the stairs. But it was taking so long to gather things, I couldn’t believe that the tornado hadn’t already hit us. I felt this incredible sense of urgency, like it could happen any minute and we were just wasting time trying to think what we should carry downstairs with us. Like most of my dreams, the tornado never actually hits. I just experience the fear and urgency beforehand.