Wire transfer, Western Union Scam, Brian Fields

I received a check for $995.76 via UPS with no real information about the sender and nothing else enclosed in the envelope. I then received emails from "Brian Fields" stating that I was to cash the check at my bank and then wire transfer most of it (less my fee as a Mystery Shopper) to him via Western Union.
I was smart enough to figure out the scam before I cashed the check. I had a great time wasting "Brian's" time and money over the next four/five days. I had him so convinced I sent him the money that when I had "problems" finding the tracking number, he called me from Africa (although he told me he was calling from a payphone in Florida). After many days and dozens of long, drawn-out, mildly confused phone calls where I played it just dumb enough, I finally tipped my hand and blasted him with the threat that our calls had all been being traced by the FBI and Interpol. He hung up promptly :-)

SCAM ALERT!!!
Correspondance from:
Mystery Shopper LTD.
jeffthrasher@rogers.com
mysteryshopperltd.brianfields@gmail.com
all fraudulent!

Dream--Great Horned Cat 1-10-09

As the great horned-cat I enjoyed stalking my prey in the tall grasses of my home world. Unsuspecting people going about their daily routine would erupt into chaos whenever I would pounce into their view, as if they could change their fate. I had already chosen my victims by the time they knew I was in their presence. I never missed.
The humans would go down like salty snacks and I was so happy. Until a giant human, even more cunning than me had devised a trap to end my free and happy time on my planet. I heard some voices in the tall grass and went to get a bite to eat and to be happy. Suddenly there was a bright and blinding light which hurt my eyes. The giant had thrown a very large sun disk into the tall grass which began to incinerate everything around me. I tried to jump far away from the heat, only to find that I had been trapped in a very large jar with the sun disk. I kept falling toward the sun disk and leaping off of it soas not to get burned. Every time I would try to bounce away from the disk, I would hit my great horns on the side of the large, black jar creating pinholes which allowed the light to come through from outside.
By the time fatigue made me no longer able to jump away from the burning disk, I had created the stars in the sky and finally fell to my incineration onto the sun. My bones exploded into the planets which became the solar system.

Dream--3 Kids and a Ghost

Parish house, larger than life with little furniture.
Chuck haunting the house, luring three children to the door.
1st is a retarded boy who explains that he was lured there by someone who lives there. He leaves.

I find a little girl's bike wedged in the front door jam and search for the owner in bathrooms, recalling my own tragic need to pee as a four-year-old child. I had entered without knocking into a neighbor's home to pee when confronted by the owner's explanation that I need to knock first...scarring me to tears that I may be locked out of any given home. I aim to find this little girl and more effectively explain etiquette without making her cry. After searching the bathrooms, I don't find her. I figure she is not really there when suddenly she materializes before me in the hall. It is the little girl in the yellow dress that haunted Parish, but claiming that her aunt Marilyn abandoned her after seeing Chuck outside and making some sort of deal. She was told previously that this was her uncle's house and thought I was her uncle. I pried for her info: asked where her parents were, who who parents were, where she grew up, when she was a little girl who she lived with, etc. All of my inquiries were met with the same response "I don't know."
A ring rolled down the hall that was understandably Chuck's. I knew he was here. Gathering what I might need for me and the girl, I rushed around the house while Chuck made threats to kill us. I grabbed a knife and started swinging it around, somehow I cut off Chuck's hand, making it visible. I pick up a poker for wider range and swing it aimlessly about, hoping to hit him. The girl points out that I am swinging at nothing inquisitively. I learn after a brief exchange that she can see Chuck and urge her loudly to tell me every move he makes so I can track him. I swing, the poker sticks in the air while blood spurts from mid-air. The poker falls to the ground. Chuck becomes visible; dead. The little girl disappears. I labor over whether to call the police as I have just killed a ghost.
A knock on the door is a little boy who is very precocious looking. He keeps asking to come in. I keep telling him lies to keep him out which he keeps calling me on as a liar. He stares me down as if to say that he won't leave until he hears the truth about why he can't come in. I swing the door open out of frustration to reveal the dead body as the reason I would not grant him entry. He simply and sincerely says "thank you." He disappears.

Dream--Wonderfully Painful

A dream From Sept. 25, 2008

I just woke up at just before 5am from a dream, sobbing deeply and uncontrollably. The images of a beautiful dream still cutting through my soul like a photon reaching over the Grand Canyon, that rushes to become the most spectacular sunrise ever seen.
In my dream it began with my house in a shambles. This couldn't, be my house/ I just came back from a trip to Angel Island with a friend and a person who was not so happy with us. In fact my friend was not as eager to be with me as to get on the ferry back. While I was reading about the amazing wildlife of the islands cliffs (birds and underground dwellers) this urgency became apparent. Once back at home the streets were flooded with the shrapnel of a throw away societies ultimate explosion of failure. The house was like a third world country had sat on it. People were trying to make sense of it all. I decided to check my studio in back where I found that some artists I knew were trying to keep it as a working space. There was a kiln load coming out and folks were excited. I was trying to critique a woman's little body of work she had done in Terra cota. They were her gods. I was asking why gods needed noses, eyes and mouths. This pissed her off and she asked my to leave her alone. The woman who was running the groups demo came over with a cell phone running a video on the screen to share with me. The video has a man from the group address me as if it were a video conference that was rather silly as he obviously knew it was not, but rather just a recording. He said I can't see you, you are a bit fuzzy, but here goes. He broke into song and was soon joined by dozens of others as they formed a theatrical wave of familiar faces rushing the camera singing this song of how much they all missed me and wanted me to come back to assist them. This gave way to my being surrounded bu molten clay in the form of day-of-the-dead like skull sculptures, still in reduction and flaming, scorching my Muslim, mosque garb slightly as I brushed against some of it while navigating through to the other side. here a larger portable DVD screen was being baptised in a sink of soapy water when I exclaimed that it was not water proof, saving it from a a watery short circuit. This had a more elaborated version of what I had seen on the the phone screen, with staging involved. The main character came bounding into my view with a notably large penis flopping about, without care, and wearing a jesterish outfit of a felt cape and large collar. He was jovial and made use of a set nearby that was like in the video. It was was at first quite Hollywood, made of construction paper and very elaborate, and painstakingly thought out. as he worked his way down the set, singing and dancing, he brought to light that the set was gradually becoming quite real and made of cast iron. He was cooking pancakes and English muffins with peanut butter and jelly, all from scratch while making us of everything articulated to make his music in a very percussive manner. The song made reference to how the birds and other animals underground needed me. Suddenly I had a little black bird and a little black mole-like creature next to me, sick and injured and snuggling next to me for protection. As I was comforting them and letting them know by telling them that I was going to be there for them, and indeed we were all going to be there for them now that we knew they needed us, I was presented by the jester. He gracefully laid out a beautiful meal of them most wonderfully warm breakfast while wrapping his cape about me and singing to me soulfully and sincerely how that what I was telling the animals is all that the group of familiar faces from the videos were trying to say to me. We were all here for one another. We all love. Love is our new community.

I woke up sobbing in a pillow drenched with tears and snot of joy and overwhelming humility.

Dream of flying

Had a dream last night that was noteworthy in it's amusement. I was in a world (Marin specifically) where global warming had allowed the freeways to become obsolete and taken over largely by wetlands. We all got around by boat or air. The air transportation was particularly interesting. Kind of a hybrid of plane and copter, podlike and pyramid shaped. They were built for three people. I was a passenger in one with an unkown pilot and some older guy. The weather patterns necessitated such a design in air-vehicles as it was always gusty. This was a particularly gusty day and we were having trouble approaching the small runway, which like most runways was a bit of old freeway that remained above the waterline. One gust found the older man bumping into the side an forcing the unlocked door open, so I grabbed him to prevent his untimely exit. We joked about an invention that would detect the seated passenger and automate the closing and locking of the door. He at first exclaimed that he would not want tot be trapped in the vehicle if he needed to escape quickly. I looked over my sunglasses in him and quietly reminded him that we are several hundred feet in the air and would not likely desire a hasty departure from the vehicle. We laughed heartily as he conceded that he was of the old school where folks sometimes were afraid to wear seatbelts for fear of being trapped in cars.
Our pilot decided that doing a series of loop-the-loops as we decended over the runway was the best course of action and we landed safely albeit a bit dizzy/adrenaline-filled.

Dating in the Zone

My thinking is that I am falling into the "friend zone" if indeed I am not already there. How does one know when they have entered the friend zone?
A while back I decided to visualize and manifest a relationship built on a foundation of caring, friendship and mutual respect. I specifically included in these visualizations a less sexual emphasis than previous encounters with love interests. I may have wanted to be more careful about what I wished for.

I have been dating this really wonderful man for a short while now. We have been on what I would call two official dates, with a few other meetings which included various other people. After each of our first date I got the unmistakable signals that we were both on the same page regarding our level of interest in one another. After the second date I got a very nice goodnight kiss but was still left wondering if I had just entered the friend zone. You see, the kisses are passionate and magical; the rest of the date could just as easily have been with a good friend. I know what you are thinking..."isn't that exactly what he asked for?"
The answer is "almost." I haven't heard a compliment yet that would indicate any kind of flirtatious affirmative that he is interested in anything other than just hanging out. I certainly wanted to at least hear some mention he is interested in me as a man, a sexual being, as well as being interested in my life outside of sexuality. My contribution to this confusion is obvious:

I want a guy who I can have a conversation with that makes me feel good. This guy gives me that in spades.
I want a guy who rocks my world with his kisses. Again...CHECK!
I don't want someone who blurs the line between sexual attraction and sincere bonding. Could be?

I would be thrilled to have this person as a friend. He is awesome! He is very smart, kind, funny, considerate, has similar values, and is absolutely adorable! I definitely feel that if we were to move on to something beyond friends that I would feel confident that it was founded in something wonderful and respectful. Not that I want to speed things up, but rather I just want some litmus test as to whether we are friends or if he is as interested as I am in exploring further. Am I asking for too much? Am I being contrary to my visualization?