Dreamscapes XI

9/7/07
I was at my cabin on the dock watching a guy on a raft fitted with an engine of some type with a glider overhead trying to start up his vehicle. He was planning on getting a plane to land on the lake. The reason for this was, he would latch his vessel onto the plane via a long towing cable to get free rides to where ever the plane was going, because he could only fly short distances with his craft. I got on his vehicle and we would fly up only a couple hundred feet before gliding back down to the lake. It was exhilarating! This dream was a sort of deja vu dream, borrowing from an older Jamaica-themed dream that I forgot to write down.

The older Jamaica-themed dream was actually two different dreams below (dates unknown) and the one from above came from this first one.

It began as my family, including my uncle, aunt and one of their daughters, my parents, CAS and I on a more commercialized version of the raft from the above dream. The raft was latched onto the plane via that long towing cable, perfectly balanced and we were flying at whatever altitude, with no cabin or realistic equalized pressure, our luggage strapped to the back. The extreme wind you would expect from traveling at the velocity we were was instead a strong one, and no one had to hold tightly to remain on the craft. I remember looking over the side of the craft and seeing the islands floating on the sparkling blue ocean, the sun casting shimmers into the deep. When our plane had reached our drop off point (there were other rafts latched on as well), the "pilot", who was just a guy riding with us on the raft of whatever airline we were on, instructed us to just hang on. He explained that he was just going to release the raft and we would fall safely and arrive in Jamaica shortly, and there was no need for a parachute. He somehow remained with the plane. I remember the first part of the fall was just like a steep drop on a roller coaster, but after a few seconds, the "scene" of the fall was cut to us pulling the raft onto the shore. When we arrived, we stayed in a two story house with no walls right (sort of like a doll house) next to the ocean. We began eating, drinking, partying, and having an all around great time. After sleeping off the previous night's events (the dream cut from the beginning of the partying right into the next day), I spent the next day mushroom hunting. As I was looking around, I noticed roughly 2x2 cut wood protruding from the ground in places. There were many children in the area and my family was trying to keep them away to get them not to mess around with our things, after all, our place had no walls. I remember picking up broken glass serological pipette tubes along the shore, but I think they were supposed to be twigs. One of the children asked me to help him find his boar or a boar. After searching one big area in high detail and almost giving up, I noticed the boar sleeping under a wooden plank and some fallen trees in a brush filled area I had walked by many times before.

In the other Jamaica-themed dream, a man named Mitch (his name was very difficult to remember) flew us over to Jamaica in a small, 10 person jet. He joked about taking off and crashing the plane buy pulling up into the air, then diving back down to the ground explaining that, "...this is what happens when you..." (forgotten). My mom or dad had flown with Mitch years ago and they remembered him suddenly, talking to him like an old friend they always visited. This dream is a little spotty here. In the next part I can remember, we had arrived in Jamaica, and a man called me over to him and told me he wanted me to come to his house because he liked me and could tell I was a good person by just looking at me. He somehow knew I was a biology major as well and needed my help. When I went to his place, he told me that his dog had mice living in its ear and it suddenly became clear why he had mentioned the fact he knew I was a biology major. I realized my lack of veterinary skills, and had to call the local vet to get the cure for this ailment, which was lime juice, baking soda, snake oil, and one other ingredient (it took me a long time to remember what the specific ingredients were).

9/3/07
311 was playing a gig in my parent's basement. D.S. (from high school) got in a pic taken with them as Nick and SA were in the middle of this huge circle of people. The basement was clear of all the crap that's usually down there. 311 took a break from their set and my drum set magically appeared and I started playing "I Am One" by the Smashing Pumpkins. We then wondered if the band was going to play the rest of the set here or somewhere else. I remember thinking that I should get my camera to take some pics while they were still there.

I faintly remember a dream of downtown Charleston, S.C. mixed with aspects of the U of M campus. I had an apartment there and after leaving the area for some time, I returned, but my room number had disappeared. After searching up and down the hallway of the complex, I opened one of the unlabeled doors to find that the landlords had attempted to keep me out and steal my things (I can't embellish more on this dream, because I can't even see it in my mind anymore).

8/31/07
I saw Incubus perform on a shore somewhere. Girlfriend and I were on two mounds near the stage but the whole venue was on some type of hill. The venue was inside, though, so the set up must have been encased after its setup. Bizzle was there and he was sitting up closer to the stage. The audience was very quiet for a band like Incubus. I got a phone call, which interrupted the entire concert, the band stopped playing, and I took control of the Mac they were using for their concert for a project I was in the middle of for school or work that was very important. Girlfriend and I left the venue for a moment so I could take the rest of the call, but we came back to find that everyone had left, audience, band and all. My interruption caused the band to stop playing for the rest of the show. They said that they would return the next night and give everyone another show, someone told me. Everyone was really pissed at me because I caused the show to end and I felt terrible.

8/19/07 2 Dreams
I was with two other cohorts, both of which I can't put a name/face to and we were at my uncle's house who is a Northwest pilot in real life. His house was huge, and it had to be because he happened to have a plane actually attached to the house! The plane was hidden to the eye from the outside, but when you went into the basement, which also acted as a garage, you could see the tail of the plane buttoned to a wall by a stretched out piece of material. I can't explain it, but the plane was actually bigger than the house, so the wings and tail would have stuck out of the walls, however, it all worked out in the dream. We were given a tour of the house by my family. Many of the rooms were boxy and rather large, but there were tons of rooms, too many for the four people that resided there. My uncle, aunt and cousins had left for the day and they asked my friends and I to look after the house. After a few hours of house watching, some people akin to Deatheaters approached the house to capture us. We split up, running different ways around the many roomed house attempting to escape the Deatheaters for some time. When we met up again, we debated whether we should release the plane and ride it or use it as a distraction and flee. We chose to release it and then run, which proved to be risky, but our planning paid off. I remember running to the basement, narrowly avoiding getting noticed, struggling to unbutton the plane. Once it was unbuttoned, it started automatically and we opened the garage doors to let it roll out into the yard. We managed to make it to the neighbors' house and hide in the long grass and lawn decorations in one small section of their back yard behind the house. Unfortunately, the hide out was still visible from my uncle's house, but we were grateful it existed, nonetheless. Eventually, the Deatheater-type people drove away after briefly searching the area for us. They were rolling a 90s era, well kept black Buick. When our safety was assured, we bounded for the neighbor's house, knowing that it was too dangerous to return to my uncle and aunt's for the time being. I wish I remembered this next part more clearly because it actually involved magic. We were in a room of the neighbor's house with purple iridescent glowing walls and floors. As we sat around playing with magic, the closet door burst open and out came Gilderoy Lockheart. He immediately began casting magic to imprison us, but we outwitted him. After tying him with magical bounds we pondered our next move.

I was at an aquarium some place far off, probably another galaxy. There were fantastic underwater creatures in what appeared to be a large river shaped tank, swimming under the bridge I was rooted upon. The way I saw it, a building was built around this river, but tall glass walls were inserted on the banks of the river, so people could view what was in the water below the bridge. I saw a white snake which resembled the dragon dog from the Never Ending Story, black sting rays with red embellishments on their fins the size of deflated basketballs, along with a myriad of other strange beasts. After marveling at them for some time, the beasts became hostile and started to jump from the water and attack me. The small stingrays were the first to leap from the water and gnash their teeth at me. I had to hover in the air and kick at them to deter their advances. After a few more leaped at me, I started to ask myself if anyone was bringing help; I could see no one nearby on the bridge. The huge river snake-dragon saw my moment of broken concentration and broke free from the water and lunged at me with a malicious look on its face. I had to flee to the other side of the bridge as most of the water creatures rose from the water and began flying. There was a walled off escape nearby the sides of the bridge where I escaped to wait and see what would happen next...

8/14/07
I was hanging out in my parents' back yard with some friends. One friend (presumably MDT) shrunk down to about 2-3 inches tall and we saw him combating three small women in the grass, all with culturally identifying features. One was a stereotypical dutch woman with blond hair. From what I can remember one of the others was Native American. Our small friend was asking us for help in subduing his enemies. It was CAS and I who were normal size, and we were skimming through some book that was a compendium of sorts for mythical creatures looking for a solution (D&D anyone?). Suddenly, we remembered a picture on a neighbor's garage that resembled the Dutch woman perfectly. She was riding a broom and the date of her life span was branded across the top, meaning she was dead. You could see the picture from the yard, but when we went over to get a closer inspection, the picture was no where to be found.

8/10/07
I dreamed I was in a Slavic country walking along what appeared as frozen rain water. My classification was very specific in the dream. The substance was somewhere between snow and ice, but I couldn't identify it. I went to a shop called ____ with a girl from college. We entered and perused the store a while. CAS entered next with someone else who was made up in my mind as a good friend. All four of us explored the shop's goods. It was a shoddy trinket shop but it had various necklaces with emblems bearing eyes (not real eyes) [This mimics in real life a necklace I had with an eye inside of a triangle, the trinacria, or all-seeing eye. The thing gave me extremely bad luck whenever I wore it, so I ended up giving it to CAS, who mysteriously was blessed with good luck when he wore it]. We were discussing something about the wares, when I wandered to the back of the store. The clerk beckoned me over to a door to show me some more stuff he had stored away in the back of the building. I followed him and I became aware that I wasn't wearing shoes. As I entered the room, and right away I noticed that there were large chambers within sections of what seemed to be a multi room freezer. The first couple of rooms were bare and warm, the floor was covered with a soft plushy material that felt good against my feet. As we advanced onward, I began to feel uncomfortable. I was in a third world country and it became suddenly obvious that the locals recognized me as a foreigner. When we finally reached a room that was cold, my uneasiness hit a peak. I had to escape because this guy was about to do something bad to me, I just knew it. I explained that I had to leave, in no more words than that, and high-tailed it out of the freezer, then out of the store. CAS and the other friend were waiting in the car outside for me (there were only three of us now). As I jumped in the car, I told them to make a quick exit. Suddenly the clerk was standing outside of the window with a piece of wood the size of a large tree stump. He had a mischievous smile on his face as he told us he was going to scratch the car with the stump. At this point I thought that I was glad we were in his car (old) and not mine (new). As CAS pulled away, the guy tapped the car lightly with his large piece of wood. I don't really remember what happened next. I think we got out and beat up the clerk, but then we all, including the clerk, trotted off for a nip at the bar.

Where You At?

It escapes me the last time I wrote something specifically about me on this blog. It's been a lengthy expanse of time at the least. My apologize for any repetitions. I think this post was the last one.

Well, I'm back with non-g/f. We will just call her g/f from now on and not be stupid. I have since moved into an apartment with her, and out of my parents', where I was living for a few months after college. I have two guinea pigs, Linny and Libby, who I spoil completely rotten (I do hope no one is surprised). Maybe I'll post some pictures; I don't know though, everything is slow moving when it comes to me and the internetz these days. Also, I've since been hired full time at my place of business and I totally love it!

As far as the dream goes...priorities have shifted and so have thoughts, ideas, and philosophies. I have decided to be an instrumentalist and play with whoever and whenever I can. It's too difficult to always turn down opportunities because I'm in a "band". Now, there's no hard feelings towards the guys, I just think it's too difficult to get everyone together and actually practice on a regular basis, now that we all have our own lives.

As far as furthering my education, I've really given weight to to the idea of returning to graduate school. I love what I do, but I want to be developing new ideas, not just running assays like a robot. Although I haven't decided exactly what my specialized area of expertise will be, I think I will keep music and writing as hobbies and not areas of intense study. Writing is easy enough as an outlet for my creativity; I don't think I need to go to school for it. This blog is easy enough to publish my writing on and the book I'm writing will take years. If the band thing happens, it happens. I could perform for my friends and be happy that way. I think I've realized that it's easier to just ride with what life gives you, rather than promise yourself things that you haven't put enough effort towards and let yourself down.

This is where I'm at right now.

Bring it on......

Dreamscapes X

7/23/07
I was at the Renaissance Fair with my g/f. Constructed from wood, a new theatre had been built in the likeness of the head of a man wearing a plumed hat. I went over to see it and as I approached some chick told me to tell Mr. Brian (?) my preference for the first video showing that was about to take place inside the theatre. I entered the open mouth of the man's head theatre and sat at the bar where Mr. Brian stood. I asked him what my options were for the video, and he instead told me which beer he was drinking which was a blue Pabst Blue Ribbon. I ordered one and sat down and drank it with my g/f who had since come to see what the hubbub was about. I think I drank two and we left and headed towards the buses to catch a ride home. Suddenly CAS, MDT, and T.S joined us as we waited for a bus. Soon after, the bus came, a yellow school bus, and picked us up. There were a bunch of people still coming to get a ride, but the bus driver took off, whipping a donut as he left. Then he whipped another. Then another in the other direction. Soon I found myself on the hood of the bus doing break dancing spin moves with my hands to break beat music, emanating from the bus, while the bus whipped donuts. After enjoying this for a while, I was aware that no one was driving the bus, nor was there anyone in the bus, and I had to drive the bus myself, whipping donuts as well as dancing on the roof - it got quite complex and difficult, trying to switch between the two. I was now doing this on the playground yard where I went to elementary school, bus and all. Imagine seeing that! I remember then a commercial with a small kid with long dreadlock hair telling viewers to buy his newest release on CD. He promised that there were no "repeaters" on the disc and that the tracks were totally rad. It was my commercial.

7/16/07
I was dreaming of being at home, shoveling out the front yard so my dad's truck could park there. The truck kept sliding off into the street and I had to quickly get in and drive it on the lawn so as not to cause traffic on the road. I then tried shoveling out a bigger spot, but it kept slipping back onto the street. Aaron from work came driving up and and offered to pick me up to drive me to my Grandma's house, but after driving away I decided that he drop me off at home again because I forgot something. He told me that he was going to drop off his g/f first, but after some time on our trek, he came to a stop in the middle of the road and let her out along with a friend of mine who had been along for the ride the whole time. I decided to get out as well and Aaron followed suite; it was about 5 am. We were now going to get breakfast together and he knew some place around the corner (his g/f and my friend had since disappeared). I followed him to this little shop where the menu was practically non-existent. I asked if they accepted credit cards, but they did not, so I was suddenly wandering this strange city to find an ATM. Aaron was trying to help me, but we parted ways and I walked into the warehouse district of town. After entering many buildings looking for the ATM, I stumbled upon L.Y. from my Chinese classes. She was BMX biking in a small room with a tiny 2 foot half-pipe pulling off some sweet tricks. Suddenly I was also BMX biking and I went onto the pipe and struck up a conversation with her, while we were doing tricks. I talked about music and how I got into BMX biking (something I don't do). I became aware of a group of people following us. They were after L.Y.'s eyes because they were a light blue (I have no idea what color her eyes really are, for those readers who will give me grief for knowing another girl's eye color). The dream morphed into an action movie, where we were running from this group of people. We were separated, but eventually met up again in the maze that was the warehouse district. In the last part of the dream I had to let someone else watch over her and protect her because the group had targeted me instead and I couldn't risk her being caught. This has to be one of the funniest dreams I've had, now that I'm reading it. What nonsense!

7/11/07
CAS and I were chillin' near the spot where the Chuck Wagon used to be. It was a valley of blue pillars of jagged ice and standing water at various depths below. We would traverse small areas in the landscape where there were good sized holes, and we would have to cross it by walking along the sides of the ice, on the rim of the holes. As we did, some ice and snow would fall off into the water a few feet below, and we would slip in, our legs and boots getting soaked. As we traipsed this hazardous course, with snow falling out beneath our legs, almost falling many feet, I discovered a tree house constructed between three trees that grew up through the ice. I climbed up to examine it, and Chuck kept exploring. I saw a bear running after me a few feet away, and I jetted up one of the trees for my life. A wooden ladder was standing against one of the trees and I had to climb it to get away. The bear kept jumping and snapping at my feet, but he never got me. I even remembered that bears climbed trees in the dream, except this one did not.

In parts of another dream, I was at a bar with my g/f, J.S., an old roommate and schoolmate, and a few other people. We stole four seats at the bar when their owners left and kept telling other people we were holding them when they approached for a seat while we waited for our other friends to sit down. Ozzie Osbourne, Billy Corgan, and other famous rock stars came down from a catwalk above the bar, down behind the bar, and everyone was going crazy with excitement because this was unexpected. J.S. was asking me if I ever saw some movie where the protagonist consumes a multitude of drugs (I think we've all seen that movie). I remember having to stand in line for a bathroom because one of the other three was out of order and the second was closed for some reason.

7/7/07
I was eating breakfast at elementary school. The school was a log cabin. I had to choose from a menu that was impossible to pick from due to all the good stuff they had. I noticed J.V. was there but she was ignoring me.

7/5/07
This next one was flipped! I had checked into a hotel for the night, and was walking around trying to find the ice machine. A giant T-Rex or gorilla that filled the halls with its sheer size was wandering around the building looking for victims to maul. It could get you in the halls, but you were safe in the rooms. Somehow, it could enter the stairways and get to other floors, although the doorways were too small for it to fit through. I entered rooms whenever I could to escape the beast, and eventually made it back to the front desk. The night manager was unaware of any large beast in the building and didn't really do anything about it; he was quite apathetic about the whole thing.

7/4/07
I was in Jamaica and Bob Marley was performing for many days in a row nearby. I was able to get some free tickets for all of the shows. The first performance was ok, but subsequent ones were sub par (I don't recall hearing or seeing Bob Marley in the dream). I was on a dirt road near a forest, and some fields were nearby. A guide told us (I don't remember who was with me) the police were after us, so we had to wait by one of the open fields where it was safe for white folks (don't ask, I have no idea), while he investigated what was going on. I saw hippies and such living in the fields growing crops as I walked along the road trying to find a spot to hide.

Before that dream, there was one with a talent show at school. I dropped out of it at the very last second. Later, I was at the cabin performing with Dome and a few other old band mates. We were improvising a song. Someone told me that I had true talent because I could just make something up and make it sound good.

6/30/07?
My house was on campus, and I had forgotten to get my car to go to work. I decided the best route of transportation was to take a green plastic bowl and slide down I-94 off Huron. I tried many times to take running starts, but it wasn't working very well. He exit soon became a green hill and it led down to a lake and some docks. The smash hit single, "Hate Me" from Blue October was playing in the dream, or in my head, but in reality although it was actually their song, the band was someone else.

6/24/07
Was in the tropics and saw snails or crabs that had huge (5-7 feet tall) rainbow colored shells in the shape of stacked square containers, each segment of the shell smaller than the next. Those shells that had animals left a black slimy residue behind them as they progressed forward. I had some group activity thing with about 6-10 other people. They were a clique' and I was out of their circle at first. We climbed this concrete tower, which box spiraled to the top (somewhat similar to the rainbow shells), that had those same strange shells strewn about the path to the top of the tower, and we were careful to avoid even touching them. Once we reached the top, we started discussing some personal issue and I said my experience with whatever it was. We all formed a great friendship due to the bonding and returned to the base of the tower.

The last dream of the evening involved my Mac computer. It came to be because I had awoken from the previous two dreams and I was trying to tell myself to get up and write them down before they were forgotten. I fell asleep while doing this. In my dream, I was trying to find a website to analyze my dreams before I wrote them down. I went to dreams.com and then the fun started. Suddenly, my web browser continuously opened new web pages. I couldn't get it to stop, I tried force quitting and using the auxillary power button turn off technique, but to no avail. I kept getting messages that said the computer couldn't quit because there were running programs that couldn't be quit. Then I got the idea to pull the battery out of the computer, but for some reason, I didn't do this. The computer began playing music from whatever websites it was opening. I then proceeded to quick command close all of the websites. I eventually caught up with the computer, but by this time, it had already downloaded and opened other programs which were further destroying my computer. The cycle continued until I pissed myself off enough to wake up.

6/25/07
The college exit ACT was upon everyone and that included myself. I took it thinking I was going to fail, but my friend who happened to be the character Zach from The Gilmore Girls took it with me. Playing up to his character, he ended up doing terribly - I somehow saw his score, and ended up not doing so bad.

Fixin's

Unlike Quizno's where only two bites are taken out of the logo, Jimmy John's advertisement should be a blank screen with the echoes of a crunch.

Their statement is one that portrays a product so tasty, so delicious, so irresistible that your throbbing taste buds will swell with saliva, pooling your mouth with an insatiable urge that, in one bite, will devour the sandwhich whole upon sighting one.

After you can handle no more dramatic pause, a voice will whisper, "Jimmy John's". One more crunch will sound as the screen goes blank, and the next commercial airs. The smell of fresh bread will waft from your television set.

Microbiology Lessons for the Gross Reality We Live In (It's Science Time on Yin Yang)

I forget the statistics, but some large sum of human beings don't wash their hands after using the throne. If you are one of those people, I want you to consider the following.

When you use the bathroom, you are touching yourself in some way, shape or form. It doesn't matter if you just showered or not, the skin from your genitals, or undercarriage, as I like to call it, comes off on your hands. We, as humans, shed thousands of dead skin cells every day. On a little side note, during my cGMP training, I learned that if you lightly touch the back of your hand, thousands of dry dead skin cells "shoot" into the air and go off into the world to accumulate. Most people don't want to touch total strangers' genitals' "leavin'-ings" on the bathroom door, the sinks, or even the doors when leaving the rest rooms, especially when they are at a restaurant, so the next time you don't wash your hands, or just run them under water thinking that your hands are clean of your junk, I want you think of that one person who's "junk" you don't even want to see and imagine that on your hands while you are eating, or that matter, touching your own junk. This was a public service announcement.

Bacteria are ubiquitous; they live in you, around you, and on you. Many bacteria are harmless, some are harmful, but they are nonetheless necessary for our survival. That shouldn't, however, lead you to believe they should all be destroyed, nor does it mean that they should be left to grow out of control.

Next I have an argument for removing one's shoes at the door of a residence. After walking around outside for any amount of time, you will naturally share the variety of walking surfaces our world has to offer with many people of different lifestyles and occupations. Some of these occupations are working with filth (it's a dirty job but someone has to get handsomely paid to do it). You aren't going to be able to avoid sharing whatever bacteria is on some of these peoples' shoes, no matter how hard to you try. When you arrive home, you will have the microscopic feces of animals, food bits in various stages of decay, along with a myriad of other substances including, yes, bacteria, on your shoes transferred from the soles of those who traversed the dank, dark underworld. You may, at that time, want to remove your shoes at the door, so, for example, when your friend visits with his/her baby, who happens to crawl on all fours, the infant doesn't drag him/herself through that wonderful mixture, and being in a world of exploration at that age, happen to put hands in his/her mouth. Then again, we have immune systems for a reason, but that might not do the trick. Remember that time you sat on the floor and watched some t.v. with your hands on the carpet behind you. Dinner's ready! I hope you washed your hands. Oh, wait, you probably didn't want to remember that...

I will drag this out just a tiny bit more. Dial wants you to believe that you should be sterilizing everything - your hands, your house, even your children. This is, in fact, a very bad thing (well, it's impossible according to definition). Bacteria can multiply exponentially in even not-so-ideal conditions in a short amount of time. Intuitively, you want to destroy those mo-fo's as fast as possible, but truthfully, you shouldn't. Pending your beliefs, bacteria, due to this ability to rapidly multiply, have great evolutionary potential. The process of reproduction, although complex yet fine tuned, makes mistakes from time to time. Some of these genetic mistakes can code out genes of resistance for a vast array of things. One of those things is resistance to the chemicals in Dial soaps that is supposed to destroy them. This is actually old news, but washing your hands in regular soap and warm water for 30 seconds, will effectively clean your hands. No, it won't kill everything, but it does the trick.

Physics of Winter on Cars (a Lesson in Thermodynamics), or Do I know WTF I'm Talking About?

Heat flows from an area of high thermal energy to an area of lower thermal energy until thermal equilibrium is reached.

Driving during the subzero winters in Minnesota, I think that driving at high RPMs in the 70-80 MPH range would be detrimental to one's engine, at least more so than driving at lower RPMs, considering that rapid cooling of a hot metal can warp the metal. Also, since heat transfers faster when the thermal energies of two different matters in contact are further apart from equilibrium. Perhaps not, though, since the cycle of an internal combustion engine constantly supplies thermal energy to the metals and the oil. Does anyone reading this know if this process is very bad for the engine? The internal combustion engine process has got to be at least minimally damaging to the entire system with the physics involved in the entire system, otherwise, we wouldn't ever need to buy new cars. I guess this has less to do with cold weather and cars than it does with just the normal wear and tear of a car's engine.

This How Stuff Works article has a few good tips on getting better fuel economy and something about warming up your car.

The Snow It Was A Falling

The other night, Minnesota had a little snow storm. The resulting frozen water which flitered down like dandruff off of an itchy dry scalp, gave the metro area quite a long commute (wow, where did that one come from?). Mine was 3 hours which I left early to preempt, but to no avail. The morning after was a 2 hour commute.

I had pictures of the plows, but they are too blurry to make out. Imagine being the rear flank to armada of snow plows. There were at least six of them. I actually felt like I had camaraderie with them; it was so cool.