who tried to bring this in here?

[asakiyume]

Some people have the gift of telling dreams so that, instead of a confusing mish-mash of incomprehensible (often even to them) signifiers, you instead get a well-turned, strange tale. sovay, for instance, can do this.

And so can Little Springtime--at least, she just did:

I dreamed we drove to Russia, and there were bears everywhere. We got to a train station, and there were bears there, too, and I said, "I'm sure glad we didn't bike." And then the customs people stopped us and one of them held up a potato and said, "Who tried to bring this in here?" And I said, "Are potatoes not indigenous to Russia?" And there were these magnificent fur coats, and I wanted to buy one, but I wasn't sure of the price conversion from rubles to dollars--like is a ruble half a dollar? Or twice a dollar? And so I tried to Google the conversion rate, but the results I got were totally unhelpful--like how many dollars to the pound, and how many pounds in a stone.

Don't try to smuggle potatoes into Russia
(image source)

Comments

[zenicurean.livejournal.com]

I see these fine Russian cavalrymen are used to the weather: They know how to grin and bear it.

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

You have to watch out, though, because if you defy customs, full force will be brought to bear against you.

[zenicurean.livejournal.com]

Oh yes. I hear the outcome is always dire and grizzly.

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

And you had better not try to panda to their base instincts--these folks are incorruptible!

[zenicurean.livejournal.com]

Absolutely. Knowing these guys are on patrol and have the right to bear arms should give criminals paws.

[cmcmck.livejournal.com]

If there were no potatoes in Russia, they'd have trouble producing all that Stolychnya! :o)

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

Maybe it's a coals-to-Newcastle type thing.

[cmcmck.livejournal.com]

I've just noticed- the older cavalryman looks remarkably like the late Alexander Solzhenitsyn!

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

Perhaps he was the model!

[amaebi.livejournal.com]

:D

Conversations with border monitors are the very proper stuff of nightmare and of strange sequence.

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

And you never know what will set them off. Might as well be potatoes!

[amaebi.livejournal.com]

~~~~It easily could be.~~~~

[frigg.livejournal.com]

lol... potato smuggling!

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

Actual smuggling can be any number of weird things. I've heard of maple-syrup smuggling.

[heleninwales.livejournal.com]

That is a splendid dream and it makes more sense than most of mine.

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

It had *interest*, which is more than many do. I think it's in part because of how she told it. She didn't do that stumbling thing of making endless qualifications that don't mean anything to the listener (e.g., "It started out in my grandmother's attic, but not really her attic; really it was more like the storage room from behind the high school auditorium, only if the auditorium had been situated in the south of the building, where the gymnasium is...")

[queenoftheskies.livejournal.com]

Fascinating dream.

I love that image of the soldiers riding bears!

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

Me too! It's amazing what you can find images of, if you google. Though really what I'd have liked to do, if I had all the time in the world, was draw the bears prowling about the train station.

[mnfaure.livejournal.com]

Yes, I imagine they were prowling, but for some reason, I pictured them upright, carrying parcels and running to catch connections, some wearing little clochette hats with flowers and others collars with bow ties sans shirts. :P

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

That's ADORABLE. If you weren't busy with the picture book, I'd humbly request that picture from you . . .

[sovay]

And then the customs people stopped us and one of them held up a potato and said, "Who tried to bring this in here?"

That's wonderful.

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

It was when she got to that line that I knew I had to share.

[khiemtran.livejournal.com]

You laugh now, but wait till the next great potato blight hits..

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

She was wondering if her subconscious was harkening back to reading The Windup Girl, where nonnative-grown plants are a huge threat.

[yamamanama.livejournal.com]

Funny that we'd both dream about Europe.
I dreamt that Norway was a Belarus-style dictatorship.

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

The population of Norway breathed a collective sigh of relief when you woke up from that one.

[syomsong.livejournal.com]

I'm sure :)

[sartorias.livejournal.com]

What a nifty illo!

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

Yeah, there's some great stuff out there!

[heliopausa.livejournal.com]

:D That is indeed a great gift - and to have interesting dreams, too.

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

She knew how to tell the story to make it fun :-)

[syomsong.livejournal.com]

NEVER, never-ever smuggle potatoes into Russia!

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

I promise I never will! Not even if someone offers me a bouquet of flowers :-)