So in this morning’s dream, I’m in the back seat of a car with an unidentified group of friends as we drive through small-town America. (They’re unidentified not because they’re necessarily strangers, but because their identities are unimportant to the dream at this point, I guess, so I’m as yet unaware of who they are and whether or not I know them in real life.) As we pass one home, sort of a refurbished farmhouse, I note that next to it is an exact replica of the massive perisphere from the 1939 World’s Fair.

It’s so odd to me to come across this unexpectedly in the middle of nowhere that I want us to stop and take a look, to learn how and why the thing is there, but the faceless driver keeps speeding on, turning this way and that through the small-town streets no matter how much I protest. But I so want to investigate the perisphere that I open the car door and tumble out as it continues speeding on without me.

After I stop rolling and bouncing, I start walking back, but long before I find any perisphere, I discover the town’s small museum. Inside, I chat with the caretaker, an older woman, and for some reason she tells me that I might have heard of the town because the name of their sheriff is Wesley Snipes. In the dream, that strikes a chord, and I remember having heard about that aspect of the town in a mocking television news report. (In real life, of course, I know of no such coincidental occurrence.)

As I wander the small building, it turns out to be more gift shop than museum. Mixed in with perisphere-themed objects such as crystal paperweights, drawings, and paper sculptures, are things that have nothing to do with the perisphere, such as ornate editions of Lord of the Rings. As I move through the aisles, puzzling over why these random items should be for sale, one of my companions is suddenly beside me, having convinced my fellow travelers to double back and rescue me.

It’s Julie Watt-Evans, with whom I once took a Chinese language course in real life. Her husband, Lawrence Watt-Evans, is not with her, and I have no idea if he had even been with us in the car in the first place.

I wake up as Julie and I eye the same crystal paperweight and try to decide which of us should end up with it, since we both seem to want it. I never become aware of the identities of the rest of my friends, and I never do make it back to the perisphere.