Last night I dreamt that it was my birthday, of all things, probably because of the mermaid birthday story, and because on ______'s day I kept wanting to say, "Happy birthday." I dreamt that I was up here in my bedroom for most of the dream, and Carl was giving me two presents. I can't remember exactly what they were, but they were kind of juicy things that somehow I could use. They were kind of like utilitarian gifts. And the first one, I think, was some kind of clear plastic clipboard, and it had some words on it. It was like an overhead projector clipboard. The next present that he gave me was like a cone thing that you yell through. It was cardboard, and it had like some blue stars on it. Now what's up with that, I don't know! But he wrapped it up in a box real pretty. And then my mother, a little while later after he left, my mother was going to give me a present and it was supposed to be The Present of all presents, if you know what I mean. It was supposed to be the one present I've been wanting a long time. And somehow I got ticked off, but I didn't want her to know. And it was like a small kind of box wrapped in white paper with some flowers. And I opened it up and it was a baby thing.  And it kind of shrunk a little more as I looked at it, and it was white -- I don't know -- but even though it was small and babyish, I remember being pleased, really, really, really pleased. And then I woke up.