I was up far too late reading yuletide stories, as one does, but I got ten solid hours of sleep. (I dreamt that I'd sleep until 3 PM and was a bit worried about that, but man, I love sleep.) I also dreamt that I went to visit runpunkrun, and we went out to this sort of quarry/woods thing that was like a trailer park for people who vacationed in old-fashioned motor homes. We didn't have a motor home, but a big old red Cadillac convertible. We went for a walk, and while I was fretting that someone would steal my laptop (I had unwisely just left it out in near the campfire, on the ground), we came to a theme park, with rides. The woodsy place was apparently a well-known tourist spot because of this extremely HUGE Ferris wheel. Punk didn't much care for it, saying, "Your feet get wet during the zooming part," but she tolerantly agreed to take me on it, her treat, as I had forgotten my wallet and my cash at the campsite. The Ferris wheel had two huge individual blue plastic molded seats shaped like egg cups ganged together in sets, with little yellow plastic scalloped awnings and no lap bars at all. There was a black knotted cord you could hang on to dangling from the awning of the seat, but that was it. When the Ferris wheel started, Punk jumped neatly out of her seat and waved at me as I was whisked away. Then I remembered that I didn't have my money, and Punk wasn't there to pay, and as the Ferris wheel cranked up to a wooden platform where the ticket takers were, they handed me a huge handful of folded money, telling me, "Oh, you're number three, here's your change." I tried to explain that I didn't have any money, but then the ride took off in earnest: it was more like a ski lift/roller coaster-- I went to the top of a mountain, over a park, down along a steep waterfall. Several times, I almost hit people who were walking on the "track"; one family jumped off the track just before I could knock into them, and the daughter, a tall twelve year old girl with pigtails explained, "We can't see you until the last minute" as I floated past. When I got off at the end, there was another more finished wooden platform where earlier riders milled around, and one of them was a burly guy with a tan and light colored eyes and a manperm/mullet combo that oddly suited him. He was wearing shorts and folded his arms to scowl at me from his bench seat. I realized I must have his change, and I saw that it was mostly crisp hundred dollar bills. I handed it to him and he said, "It's not all going to be here. No one knows how much money I had, and they won't believe me if I say you ripped me off," and I was sort of confused and earnest and annoyed, and I said, "No, I always return money." And I explained about this one time I'd found a wallet with $475.00 dollars in it and he just ignored me and flipped though his bills, counting them. One of the older guys on the platform said he worked there and told me he'd take me to where Punk was waiting for me; on the way I got more angry about the guy who hadn't said thank you, so I was all, "That guy is totally a drug dealer. I bet he's just going to use those bills to snort coke." and the guy just nodded and brought me to a very pretty, sunny waiting area where Punk was sitting another bench. She walked me to a large glass door and it turned out the park was part of a giant mall that appeared to be closing for the day, even though it was still light outside, because it was Sunday. As we walked down the dark, wide halls, there were low metal fences put up around the open plazas of the jewelry stores and a young security guard was roller-skating on one of the carpeted areas, and I looked at Punk and admitted, "I really love malls. I know. But it's true." And we walked through this department store that was still full sunlight and folded sheets and older ladies who worked there in chic skirts and jackets, and we got to a place called the Stay and Sip Cowpoke Lounge and Punk said, "I love this place," like she was marveling to see it and hadn't actually been taking me there on purpose and the menu on the wall said they served meatloaf sandwiches and beer and the waitresses had cowboy hats and short skirts and tall white cowboy boots and we had hot teas and grilled cheese and then I woke up.