1. a. “Readers” on American Idol b. Backstage 2. a. Sex b. Cake c.Costumes

1. 
a. “American Idol” has a new segment/spinoff. Viewers submit their letters to the show to be “read” by singers who improvise (or are they prewritten?) melodies to perform letters about the audiences' lives. The “readers” don’t change erroneous grammar or repetitions or incoherencies in the writing. I find one woman to be very skilled. Most wouldn’t peg her for a TV personality because she is quite overweight. I tell her after the show that I liked what she was up to with her “readings.” She thanked me, left. Afterwards I got the impression that this had happened before and the other “readers” were resentful towards her, because she kept getting the best letters to perform. At first I had thought they just auditioned people from the audience, but now I wonder if they’ve cast for these folks. I wonder to myself if I could do this.

b. I go back stage to see about getting involved. I go into a dressing room where there are two dudes rough-housing with each other and pulling on each others’ afros. I think they are both pretty cute, one propositions me. I look down and notice that my toenails are no loner painted. How did that happen?

2
a i go to a crush's house and he kisses me. oh god, finally. He says “i want to do this,” which in the dream sounds like the most sexy phrase I have ever heard. We announce all that we do- our intention to do it and our acting out the actions. On one hand, this feels silly. On the other hand, I appreciate our emphasis on consent and so I say so. He's shy, stern, serious - so I couldn't read whether or not he was into it. He's into it.. He is on top of me, with his mouth right next to my ear, whispering breathy ideas about what to do our what he wants to do. It occurs to me that we’re actually pretty clothed. His rhythm is incessantly straight, which seems dull, but also strong. He stops, gives me a swat. Ugh I am really quite helpless over him and start begging him for... this and that...Well, yeah it was a sex dream, okay?

b. then there’s a knock on his door and his roommates come in with birthday cake. Up in a flash, fully clothed, he blows out the candles and smiles. It’s a red velvet cake. One girl has wavy hair, one kinky hair, and some guy who is just tall and quiet. I think “What goes in red velvet cake? Wheat flour... wheat flour.” 

c. A few dawdlers are left and I am telling them about something I think we should do- which is dress up like characters of figures from a play or a movie and walk around during carnival times or create little skits.

1. Real teen screenplay & criticism 2. my parents' animal flood

1. I am watching a pilot episode. 7 girls on the day they turn 14. The premise is that they are conscious of who they will be when they're much older, but they're telling the story from when they're 14. All of the girls in the pilot episode are real people who I went to middle school with. There is a voiceover that comes in and foreshadows what will happen next and gives creepy "insider" information. When D is on the screen, the voiceover says that I went down on her in middle school. (There is no mention of what effect this has on D's life.) In disbelief I say "That just didn't happen." There are few others that I don't remember now, the last is a girl- Mary, sits up in a top bunk bed. She says to the camera "I just turned 14 this minute, and I just now got my period." Then the camera does a close-up of her chest. She is wearing a hospital gown, removes that, then starts to remove her bra.  I say audibly -"Now this is in poor taste, I really hope they don't go there." She removes her bra and reveals breasts that have had a horrible boob job, perfectly spherical and with odd indentations in the skin on the outer underside.
I turn to A and start having a discussion with him. I say "So that's my screenplay." He shrugs, and I say "but I was thinking about having this one part where she takes off her bra and we see her terrible boob job." Then he says "You can go that route I guess, but it seems like overtelling. The audience is already going to assume the worst...so if you put that in there it'll just take away the fun of them getting to know her story more slowly."

2. There are a lot of animals showing up randomly: a jackal, possums, squirrells, raccoons, hares, deer, large insects and arachnids, armadillos...etc. They are coming in one at a time to my parents house, and they are neither staying nor running away quickly. I'm trying to help my mom have a yard sale. We are just looking at some bright coral colored cutrains together and a man is about to sing a song. I go into the garage where I pick up an old swimsuit. I open the door and see a jackal bounce away like a kangaroo. There is ocean water coming up over the stairs and it keeps coming. I say to my mom "We have to just keep going." We go out the livingroom window, and walk past the Rolleighs' house and just kind of leisurely relax in the sun. A few hours later we go back home, everything looks kind of fine, really, but I know that we ought to set up an appointment with the carpet cleaners.