So I had this crazy dream a few nights ago and I can't get it out of my head. I tried to explain it to one of my prof's and she looked at me like I was crazy. I dreamt that I was in the future: I assume that either I was propelled there or someone 'unfroze' me, I have no idea. So anyway, I was wandering around aimlessly because of course all my friends and family were dead and gone, and I obviously had no futur-y skills to land me a decent job. I'm in this mall, and I'm lamenting that everyone around me looks super-model and GQ perfect. Even the scenery looks like it came out of a Martha Stewart magazine. I feel gnarled and archaic in contrast. But no one seems to notice. When they pass me, they look impressed. I find a mirror and discover that somehow, I too have become super-model perfect. Something about this smells fishy. So I start heading up this escalator and a hot black girl is passing me on her way down. As I'm gawking at her, something strange happens. The 'image' of her short circuits, like a TV with out cable, and suddenly I see her as she really is: average looking by today's standards. Her hair is all frizzy and she's got zits, she's short and her clothes are shabby. I'm wonder struck. I wander around some more and the same thing starts happening to everyone I pass, until finally, no body looks "good" any more. Even the scenery disintegrates into your typical, run-down and littered urban mess. Instead of alarming me, this relieves me. I'm the only one who notices this, however. Every time I talk to someone, it's clear that they still think everything is "beautiful", and I have to go along with it because I'm not sure what would happen to me if they knew I was seeing the truth behind the hollograms. I don't think they're even aware that this other truth exists. It's difficult though, because I can't "turn the hollogram back on", so I have to bluff my way through conversations about things that I can't see. Then I meet a Kevin Spacy look-alike. He knows what's going on. It's happened to him too. So, he takes me under his wing to teach me how to cope. He takes me to a chapel to listen to this preacher who gives secret messages to folks like us that are embedded in his sermons. Then Kev takes me to this balcony over-looking (a rather rough looking) sea front, that everyone else looks at and sees a paradisal get-away spot. He tells me I have to jump. I'm scared. I can't do it. He says I'll be fine as long as I don't panic, and then he just pushes me off the balcony. The whole way down, I'm watching the horizon come up to meet me, and I just keep thinking, "it's okay, it's okay, just go with it. just take it in. relax your mind. it's okay." And then I hit the water. Everything goes black for a second, and then I open my eyes. All I see is bubbles rising and the sun refracting from the water's surface, and getting further and further away. That's when I woke up.