I came down with something flu-like. It started with fever and throwing up. I slept most of the day yesterday. I woke up this morning at 4:00am and checked my email. I had work on my mind when I went back to bed. I fell into a dream.
Instead of going back to bed, in my dream, I had gone to NASA. I looked at the clock and it said 5:00a.m. Nobody should have been there. People were setting up for the "Model Level Demo". I accidentally bit my lip. There was a piece of skin I couldn't chew off. I checked my lip for blood. There was some. I didn't want people to see me with a bloody lip or skin hanging from my mouth. I kept chewing on it. The blood stopped. Then I realized I had beer on my breath.
A man came out on stage and said he needed somebody to blog the event. His eyes turned to me and he said, "Keith Vetter, it'd be something special if you could blog this year's Model Level Demo." I nodded and found a pen and paper.
It began with a singer who had his microphone too low. We were in a small auditorium. I blogged the performance. I couldn't find the paper I had just written on. I missed the next two singers while scrambling to find new paper and the one I had just written on.
Another singer came out and sang "outlaw country". A group of guys with cowboy hats on hooted and hollered. Things got routy. I noticed beer and whiskey bottles laying around and was relieved because I had beer on my breath.
I had lost the paper I was writing on again. Another singer came out. The cowboys hollered for country and I heard, "Rock and Roll!" from another group. He let off into something like Hank III but immediately stopped. I had a syringe in my hand with a brown liquid. I passed it to the singer. He stuck it in his arm and then stumbled off the stage.
Two boats pulled up behind the stage. We were on the bay. With a bull horn he gave his apology as the Model Level Demo was running a bit ahead of schedule and had forced the previous performer to perform before his planned insulin shot. The boats then sped away.
The country singer came back out and sang a few more songs trying to please both country and rock-n-roll fans. The place was filled with notebooks and I couldn't find mine. In cheers, the announcement came out that this years Model Level Demo was a success. This was the first annual Model Level Demo.
I still needed my notebook. The place was like Kemah. It was night time. I walked up wooden bleachers and ran into Zack. He said, "I am looking forward to your blog on this. I expect it won't be another scan." I said I'd try. He said that this was the east end of NASA. He said that there were two directors and that this one ran things differently. He said he was looking forward to the two reconciling. Zack hinted that this whole experience should be part of the blog post.
I turned around and there in front of me were fish swimming in the air - one was a big clown fish. I thought, "I have to be dreaming." I asked Zack how to get back and he said, "Right past that fish and watch it that you don't touch the urchin".
I sat on a wooden patio at the top of the bleachers and began writing. A brown metallic low rider honked for me to move. The driver, in a porcelain black hat, eyed me as he passed by. I went down from there and a porcelain black cat was in my walk way. I kicked it like a football. Kids were playing on the bleachers. One kid fell. I heard a splash below. All the kids laughed.
I sat back down to write on a bench next to a tree with orange and red glowing leaves. I saw a huge wave in the distance pound a house out on a pier. An old man asked me if I'd like some ice cream. He took me to a crowded small dive. Zack was there. He said that the line was long. I told him that I knew the secret entrance and dropped below.
There was a white brick wall with a tiny white button. I pressed it. I heard a bell inside. A young college kid opened the wall. He held his arm up and gave me this new high-five where you hit your arms together, not your hands.
I then woke up... and that is the blog post for The Model Level Demo :-)
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