Shopping with Leena in Dream City

Had an interesting variation of a regularly recurring dream this morning, between the first time I woke up and when I finally woke up and got up… For years I've dreamt of a city, a bit like Portland, Oregon, but not exactly, but many of my dreams take place there. And they're mostly about shopping (being that the dream city is mine, there's a disproportionate number of bookstores, of course).

This one had Leena joining me…

We began somewhere out in the suburbs, each on our own scooter. Leena, of course, had no trouble negotiating the freeway (for those familiar with Portland, this would be like coming from Hillsboro into Portland on 26) on hers, while I struggled, getting confused over driving on the left side or the right side. Every so often I'd realize I was on the wrong side of the road, and facing oncoming buses and cars, forcing everyone to screech to a halt, or me to swerve off the road. And then confusion again about which side of the road to go on…

Leena got into downtown Portland way ahead of me, and was already in the small, classy mall by the time I parked and want in. I caught up with her in a store selling miscellaneous stuff, but where I've usually bought toys in past dreams, including a kitty cat stuffed animal (which in the real world I actually bought at the Oregon Historical Society museum gift shop, which looks realistic enough that kittens who've wandered into my Beaverton apartment in the past when the door was open have seen it and started crouching down and moving towards it slowly). She bought a white hat there and was just paying for it when I arrived, so she handed it to me and I stuffed it in my white backpack.

From there we went to one of the other stores, a store selling lots of feminine sorts of things, lacy tablecloths, candles, scarves and what-not, with dark, antique-style wooden display cases and matching benches and framed mirrors all around. I'd been in there before, but mainly just to walk through on my way somewhere else.

This time, however, the store was closing and most of the display cases were empty. Leena was enjoying browsing around and picking things up, while I just watched, more or less thinking about the bookstore in the mall.