Sunday, April 12, 2009

The Tooth Temple and Luxembourg

The Tooth Temple
I was brushing my teeth, looking in the mirror, when I noticed that I had an additional top row of teeth 'above' my other teeth. It was set in a separate layer of gums, and was somewhat hidden from view unless I tilted my head back a ways to see it in the mirror. The teeth didn't go all the way around like a full row of teeth, but there were none missing. On each side of my mouth there were 3 molars, and near the front there were an additional three. The gums were a beautiful dark red, and the teeth were discreetly adorned with gold flecks and gems. The whole effect was an appearance of being a cosmic temple. It was beautiful, but disconcerting, as I continued to brush my teeth.


Luxembourg
I was running around a city during the day time. The sky was whitish-blue, it was sunny, and the buildings were primarily sand coloured. I helped a woman (a friend) find parking, and we parked in front of a large sand coloured building. The parking was metered. I was distracted by a friend walking towards us up a street (around the corner from where we were) who had waved as we drove by. I went to talk to him, but the woman beconned me back as a meter-maid was coming to give tickets. I dug out coins from my wallet, while she reparked to make it look like we were not just 're-feeding' the meter.

Later, and later in the afternoon according to the sky, I was wandering around the city. I, though it wasn't really me, had a secret identity as a non-super super-hero, complete with an identity-obscuring costume. I put a bag at a security checkpoint at a parking garage - a black backpack with my wallet in it - and went up the stairs to get a view of the city. The parking garage was about 3-5 flights tall and made of cement, and open, with decent views. I looked out over the city, and learned that there were terrorists running around and planning trouble.

I ran down the stairs, and tried to get my backpack, but it was missing. I met up with a group of friends, snuck by the increasing security forces, and went to the center of town. We passed the University of Chicago, which happened to be in a giant, grey square building adorned with intricate masonry - very Babylonian in its architecture. It was the largest, oldest, fanciest building in this town, which also held the Eiffel Tour, and was apparently Luxembourg. The Eiffel Tour was across a courtyard from the UofC, and we ran up its stairs.

There was a horde of scared people midway up the stairs who were trying to figure out how to avoid the terrorists. We sent them back down to the city streets and continued climbing. We reached the top, and looked out on the city. It was night, and a fireworks display was starting across the whole skyline, erupting from every building, for the holiday. It was beautiful. I looked down on Babylon-University of Chicago and turned to Robin and asked him why we didn't travel more when I was at the UofC, seeing as we were in the heart of Europe and it would have been cheap.

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