I had one of my vivid dreams last night - the kind with colors and smells.
I fell asleep, completely unaware that today (September 18) would turn out to be #NationalCheeseburgerDay. In my dream, I ended up on a personal quest to find the best cheeseburger.
It started with finding myself with some friends at a fair-like event. Game booths were here and there, and there were several white tents where you could buy food. One of my friends wanted a salad, maybe a tuna salad, and a person wearing a white apron and a chef's hat said to go to the yellow tent.
We looked around for a yellow tent, but every tent was white.
Finally, we approached a tent to see if anyone inside could help us, and there was a tiny sign above the opening that read "SALADS" in yellow lettering, with a tiny picture of a salad bar.
So my friend got her salad.
Another friend wanted barbeque, and had to look for the red tent. And someone wanted cotton candy and had to go find a brown tent. And on and on. So we split up.
I wanted a cheeseburger. A person (not the same one as before) in a white apron and a chef's hat said to go to the blue tent.
Finally, I spoke up. "All the tents are white! You keep telling us to find these different color tents, but they're all white!"
She pulled herself up to her full 5'1" height and looked up to me and said, "We are sensitive to the needs of people who are colorblind, so we made all the tents white."
"Then why," I asked, "do you tell people to look for red or blue or yellow or pink tents?"
"Because the signs are on the tents, and they are written in the colors you are looking for, of course."
[My dreams often don't make sense, but she spoke so convincingly, I believed she made sense]
"Okay," I said. "Could you at least point me toward the blue tent? I really want a cheeseburger."
With an exasperated-sounding huff, she waved her hand in a vague direction NW of where we were standing. "It's over there," she said. "Geez, can't you read?"
"Thanks," I replied, shaking my head in wonder at how weird this was.
I thought about how much the Knights of the Round Table had while questing, and how Galahad came closest, perhaps even getting a glimpse, but never actually touching the Holy Grail.
I
came close, much like Sir Galahad (sure, he SAID he was looking for the
Holy Grail, but he was a young man and hungry for adventure and all
things grilled).
I found a white tent, and the little sign above the tent flap said "BURGERS" in blue, with a tiny picture of a hamburger on a plate beneath the lettering.
I walked into the tent, and there were three people seated on folding chairs at a small table.
I said, "I'd like a cheeseburger. Some fries, too, please. And a drink and also a hamburger with jalapeno slices."
They looked at me like I was some kind of nut. One of them said, "Do we look like cooks?"
"Well..." I began, but realizing this was probably a rhetorical question I said, "If I wanted to get a burger, is there somewhere else I should go?"
The back of the tent was wide open and there was a sidewalk between it and a wide, low building.
The person who had spoken waved his hand toward the building and said, "You might try there."
So I ended up at a building where the people at the door
asked strange questions. Convinced of my sincerity, they had me wait while they prepared my meal - which included the cheeseburger, a hamburger, some fries and a drink.
I
wandered into an area with two arenas. One arena had small (in number)
marching bands competing, and the other arena had a bicycle rodeo. For
the little ones there were tricycle acts.
The
finale was a guy on a weird bicycle that was also like a Tron
Lightcycle, which he rode about to a high speed and shot into the first
arena that had just finished with the last band.
He
rode on a track that had a couple of loops, and at the bottom of the
biggest loop he release about 8 - 10 Lightcycle mini-bots that rounded
up a herd of other mini-bots into a net.
It was amazing.
I woke up before I could get the cheeseburger. But it was there. I could smell it!
