I knew I shouldn't have taken that extra hour to sleep.

I was in this dusty place with parked trucks. It was an outdoor stage of sorts with no inclined portion, just that space in front of a barn-looking wooden building where actors were doing a pre-something performance. I was part of the audience, but also it dawned on me while I was shuffling around that I knew the actors and that they were opening for a bigger event which I was part of.

As I watched, I remembered that I should be taking photos. I couldn't find my phone so I rushed out of the crowd, ducked under the truck toward our van where I thought my phone was. I was rushing because I knew the opening act outside would be short. Then, while running towards the van, I was able to grope on my phone in my left pocket where I didn't usually put it. So I ran back, ducked under the truck again, and passed local people who looked like handymen and mechanics speaking in another language, their local language. It turned out we were in another country. One mechanic was looking at me. He was handsome and pleasant-looking under all that grime and I nodded to him while his less attractive companion jeered my rushing bumbling passing self in their native tongue. I chose to ignore him and rushed towards the spectators. Suddenly, I felt my phone had a charger attached to it. Dammit, I also needed to charge? Again?

I unplugged my phone off its charger, took a snapshot of my girl boss who was currently in a fight scene. I'm not sure if she was my girl boss. In the dream, it felt she was someone of authority, someone I esteemed well enough. The setting was medieval and she looked like Cersei Lannister with the short hair (I do not even watch Game of Thrones so I do not know what that means). Then I rushed to Jo-em Bascon (who's a real-life crush) and I was dismayed to discover that the best of his parts was done. Now he and two others were dead, tied to an wooden execution wall. I longed to take a photo of his handsome face but his head was bent. I was not familiar with the play and when he and the two others started to jerk around and sort of blissfully dance a dead men's dance tied to the wall, I took some photos through my phone, but in my excitement, knew I did not take the best shots. As a photographer, you always know when you have the shot or you don't. Also, my phone was not responding as fast as I wanted it to. I cursed it under my breath.

The opening act ended. The actors dispersed and I saw R, a photographer friend who also acted in the play. As I was late and my focus was fixed on my "boss" Cersei and Jo-em Bascon, I almost forgot he was there. In fact, I didn't really see his performance. In real life, R is a jolly, funny, very talented photographer friend whom other people say have a crush on me. I somehow knew this although he never made any clear advances. He was just excited to see me all the time. He's a kindhearted soul. I really like him but in a teddy bear kind of way so I pretend to be dense. Anyway, in the dream, R saw me and I said my congrats and asked whether they will repeat the performance tomorrow. I hoped I would finally be able to watch it and take decent photos. He said that they will, but this week, only tomorrow, and then the troupe will be back next weekend. I patted his back playfully while he was walking toward the area where there were Hollywood studio-like stoops, and as I am wont to do, complained that I didn't get any good shots of them. He said I made the wrong decision to use my phone and I should have used my real camera instead. It was an expected quip from a hard-core photojournalist. Somehow whenever I see R, I feel guilty of not getting serious about my photography as he'd like me to be.

R sat down the stoop and I saw Rob Ty sitting there. I said, "Hi Rob" like it was not weird that he was there. After I woke up, I blurted out, What the fuck was Rob Ty doing in my dream? It was just a non-speaking cameo but I hadn't even seen the guy for years and we're not even Facebook friends so I couldn't have seen his picture and included it in my subconscious.

Anyway, I said to R that I had better get going coz I remembered they might need me inside. Everyone was now in the barn-like structure. The dust outside was setting. I entered the door which opened to the backstage, not the front part as I expected, and that's when I realized I was playing the lead role in the musical which just started. A musical!!! Lead role! Well, sort of. The lead role was shared by my character and an alter-ego played by Rachel Ann Go who was now singing on stage in a bustier. I froze. I was suposed to enter the stage in a few minutes and I could not remember my first line at all. I paced up and down the back stage and looked for a printed script. I asked a production staff who in my dream was embodied by the mother of my high school honor roll rival--a stern and haughty doctor in real life. She said no script. I peeped through the curtain and saw glorious golden stage lights and Rachel Ann slaying it in front of a delighted full-house crowd. I wrung my hands, felt my  blood drain, felt the world closing in on me, tried to speak my lines to myself once again but nothing was coming. Upon my cue to enter the scene, I gathered all of my will from the deep recesses of my dream-state mind to wake up.

I opened my eyes swearing. What an escapist.