I have a lot of really good stories to tell, but I have a lousy memory. Part of the reason that I’m keeping this journal is so that I can record things before they slip through the cracks and start fading. So here’s an interesting story that I don’t want to forget.

The weirdest thing that ever happened to me was a dream that came true, down to the smallest detail.

I was about 17 years old, living in a cottage on the Balboa Peninsula with Charlie Brown (no joke!), my much older boyfriend of 37 . That’s a story in itself, but we’ll just stick to one story at a time for now.

I had a dream one night. In the dream we went over to Charlie’s friend Mike’s apartment for a party. Some nondescript party stuff happened, people were milling around chatting and eating and drinking in the kitchen. Suddenly I wondered where Charlie was, so I went walking through the apartment to find him.

I found him in the next room. As I walked through the doorway from the hall I saw him in profile, siting in a chair next to a birdcage. He was feeding turkey to a parrot.

WHAT? I was shocked and appalled. How could anyone on their right mind feed turkey to a bird? Why, it was cannibalism! Disgusting!

“STOP THAT RIGHT NOW!” I screamed.

He didn’t see why he had to stop feeding turkey to the bird, so we started arguing about it, and ended up having a huge fight.

The dream ended, I woke up. It was morning. Hmmm, that was one *crazy* dream. I wonder what it meant?
“I had a dream that we went over to a party at Mike’s”, I said to Charlie.

“Hmmmm”, he replied.

Four or five months later, the dream was long forgotten. We were at a party at Mike’s house and I was milling around in his kitchen, chatting and eating and drinking.

Suddenly I wondered where Charlie was, so I went walking through the apartment to find him.

I found him in the next room. As I walked through the doorway from the hall I saw him in profile, siting in a chair next to a birdcage. He was feeding turkey to a parrot.

WHAT? I was shocked and appalled.

Wait, was I really shocked and appalled? Yes, but mostly because my dream came flooding back to me and I knew exactly what was supposed to happen next. I even knew what I was supposed to SAY next. And I already knew what Charlie would say back to me.

It was a picture-perfect replica of my dream. The room, his profile, the bird, the turkey in his hand, my perspective on it all. Did Mike have a bird before? This was the first I knew of it. Holy fucking shit!

Rather than say anything, I just stood in the doorway stammering.

“What’s wrong?” Charlie asked me.

“Oh my GOD I had a dream about this! This exact moment and situation! You were feeding turkey to a parrot, and then I wondered where you were and I came in looking for you and saw you do it and I was SO pissed and I yelled at you and then you yelled back at me and we’re supposed to get in a fight now!”

My mind completely blown, I had no idea what to do next. I felt like I was breaking some universal space-time law by not following through with what I was supposed to say.

But honestly, I didn’t give a crap if he fed the turkey to the bird or not. I’m not hung up on cannibalism. It wasn’t my bird. What did I know about birds anyway? Maybe it was perfectly OK.

So I just stood there watching Charlie do it, not saying anything at all. I couldn’t believe what had just happened. What WAS that? I felt like I was going to be struck by lightning after not speaking the line that had written for me, and not following the destiny of the fight afterwards.

I guess we do control our own destinies. I don’t know that anything would have been any different in my life if I had said what I was supposed to say according to my dream. But maybe it *would* have been different somehow. Maybe I avoided a whole negative repercussion that would have been sent spinning into action by my scream. Like “Sliding Doors” or “A Wrinkle in Time”. I have no idea, and I have no explanation for what happened that day.