Can you tell me the last president with his own action figure?

Sure, almost all if the former presidents have their own action figures. George W. Bush even has a Top Gun version. But I’m not sure how many come with their own samurai sword, 9-mm pistol and an assault rifle.

Barack Obama doesn’t even need Secret Service protection, he packs his own handgun. Operatives of the  ‘axis of evil’ should also be on alert, he has his own street sweeper …And his own katana and wakizashi!

Interpreting Dreams

I know it’s been way too long since I last posted and I promise I’ll pick up the slack in the coming weeks, but I felt compelled to share with you this random dream I had last night.

Before I discuss the dream I had, I need to mention that Daša and I had a conversation at dinner last night about dream interpretations. She said that night before last she had a dream where while she was smoking a cigarette, she found out she was pregnant. After learning she was pregnant, she tried to put out the cigarette for the sake of the baby, but for some reason she wasn’t able to.

So after she woke up, she referenced an online snář (a Czech dream book), which told her that her dream, with regards to being pregnant and single,  meant that her boyfriend was being unfaithful, which is not the case. Anyways, this led to our next conversation about recurring dreams and their respective interpretations.

I have had two recurring dreams that I can remember. The first is I will be doing some outdoor activity (riding a bike or walking down the street) and all of a sudden I’ll be hit by an ambulance. The second of my recurring dreams revolves around me exploring a house I have never been in before. It’s always the same house and I’ve been inside so many times, I could draw pictures of each room and where they are located within the house. The only catch is that this house is always in a different location each time I visit it. Once it was on top of a mountain; another time it was on a deserted beach, a normal ‘Dennis the Menace’ neighborhood street, and in the middle of a city.

Now, I don’t have the slightest clue as to what these dreams mean. I suppose I could look them up in a dream book and search for some far-reaching interpretation, but I feel as though if I were to do so, I would stop having these dreams. Granted the ambulance recurring dream isn’t ideal, but I find the idea of recurring dreams fascinating and I wouldn’t want them to stop, no matter how disturbing or interesting they may be.

This leads me back to the original story about the dream I had last night and why I hope it will turn into a recurring one. In the initial portion of my dream, my mom, my dad and myself are driving around in a black Suburban. We are all wearing dark suits and sunglasses. My mom is driving and my dad and I are in the third row seats. In the vacant middle seat is Barack Obama, and we’re off-roading in Baja, Mexico. No one is speaking to each other and everyone has a serious look on their face as we’re charging up the front face of a sand dune, lurching the behemoth vehicle into the air, and crashing down the other side. It’s business as usual it seems. After finishing with off-roading, I am dropped off at a swanky dinner party in what feels like Southern California. After some drinks and hor’dourves, I make my way out to the back lawn where the Ghostbusters (in their brown jumpsuits and proton packs. And I’m talking about the live action Ghostbusters: Dan Aykroyd, Bill Murray and Harold Ramis. Ernie Winston wasn’t there for some reason. I forgot to ask) are engaging in a lively debate. I join in the conversation and they inform me that they have all been elected as the local mayor but none of them will accept defeat. So what do they decide to do?  Bocce ball, of course. The last thing I remember of this dream is that Harold Ramis went first and his ball was pretty damn close to the jack.

Random as it may seem, I am quite interested to find an interpretation for this dream. I couldn’t even begin to guess what may come from a dream interpretation, but I think it would be worth it in this case. On the other head, I’m not even sure where to looking for an interpretation of a dream of this nature. Would it be filed under Barack Obama off-roading or Ghostbusters lawn-bowling? Maybe it’s a dream that needs no disecting or meaning. It is what it is. I also really do wish this is a recurring dream because I’m dying to know who wins that game of Bocce.

Barack Obama: A new dawn of American leadership

Never have I been as proud as I am today to be an American.

America, we have come so far. We have seen so much. But there is so much more to do. So tonight, let us ask ourselves – if our children should live to see the next century; if my daughters should be so lucky to live as long as Ann Nixon Cooper, what change will they see? What progress will we have made?

This is our chance to answer that call. This is our moment. This is our time – to put our people back to work and open doors of opportunity for our kids; to restore prosperity and promote the cause of peace; to reclaim the American Dream and reaffirm that fundamental truth – that out of many, we are one; that while we breathe, we hope, and where we are met with cynicism, and doubt, and those who tell us that we can’t, we will respond with that timeless creed that sums up the spirit of a people:

Yes We Can.