obama & me

(Disclaimer: the piece below is raw and unprocessed. Just wanting to write it down to keep up with the blog and make sure I don't forget the dream. I almost NEVER remember my dreams these days, which made this one feel especially potent. With a bit more distance I might riff on how it feels like some kind of strange amalgamation of Grey's Anatomy, the Jesus story, the Clinton mythos, and (sadly) a runaway slave narrative...someday, I might. But not right now)


I dreamed this morning that President Obama, who in my dream was definitely the President but also a surgeon of some sort, and I were in a freight elevator talking to each other (he was still in his scrubs). I think we had started chatting earlier and he had allowed me to observe his surgery for some kind of educational or professional reason (maybe I was writing an article about his work).


We were enjoying our conversation, which was completely platonic, but we both knew we had to be really careful because there were all these people out to get him and if they saw him with any unknown female they would frame it as if he were having an affair to get him kicked out of office. Later we ended up at the same house - I don't know if it was my house or a house that belonged to him, or one of his friends - but somehow I was in the bathroom when some investigators came to the door. I couldn't see them, only hear them, gruff and presumptuous, "We know why you're here." Reeling off names of different women - "Is she here? Is she? Is she?" Finally they said my name. As he had with the others, he said I wasn't there. I locked the bathroom door and got ready to climb out the window. Dream end.


There was a sense of flirtation around us, but I knew what it was about: me being attracted to and admiring him. Nothing from his end but his usual universal charm, just directed at me for a moment or two as he took off his surgeon's gloves and smiled my way. 


I felt protective of myself (don't fall for the very charming and quite obviously completely unavailable and uninterested  president/surgeon and get dragged through the tabloids for no good reason) but so much more so, I felt protective of him. It was so clear there were wolves at every door, sniffing out any weakness, salivating as they waited for their moment to strike.