...early this morning...
I was contacted by an old friend, and asked if I wanted to go to a party with them. I said "sure". We then met a their place and I followed them in my car. I was unfamiliar with the city, which proved important later. I found the soiree dull for a variety of reasons, but stayed for my friend's sake. She brought to my attention at one point, many of the people there were former classmates at, and graduates from, the University of Chicago. The host was an architect. I'm not sure what these kinds of details mean, if anything, but they never cease to fascinate me.
The only creative commons image, I could find, on the internet
that even remotely resembled the exterior of the apartment.
Unfortunately, the Tudor styling was not in the dream.
The scene jumped, and I have awakened in my friend's apartment. They were already at work, so I started my day looking for keys and checking on my car. Shortly along my ultimately fruitless car search around their apartment building, I heard a harsh croaking sound above me. Eyes and attention shifted skyward. A dark bird, sporting a large bill, landed on the pitched roof of the building (a three story, brick, multiplex). After landing, it hopped along the ridge towards the closest tree limbs that bowed over a section of roof. At first, I just marveled at how colorful and handsome it was. After a few seconds, though, it hit me; that's a toucan! A Chestnut-mandibled Toucan to be exact. I'm sure you can imagine the disorientation I was then under. To complete this tableau, a second croak emanated from deep within the branches nearest the roof. A few seconds later the second toucan appeared, and remained partially obscured by leaves and branchlets. They chattered to each other for a few seconds and then flew off together, high and fast, quickly out of view.
Chestnut-mandibled Toucan (Rhamphastos swainsonii)
Fascinating as that exchange was, I still needed answers. I called my friend... nothing. I attempted to write down all detail I could remember from the night before. I didn't come up with much. I called my friend again, and got through. They told me the name of the street and the party host's name; as a phone number did not come to them at the moment. I called information in the hopes of a landline phone number. After trying various permutations, I was politely informed by the man on the other end no such street existed... (((aarrggh)))
The dream fast forwarded to when my friend was home. They then drove me again to the location of the previous night's party. Turned out she had misremembered the name of the building as the street's name. So, upon arriving I discovered both keys and car were still there. Perhaps the moral here is to carpool, even in a dream. Or maybe it's a variation on every cloud having a silver lining: every nightmare has it's Chestnut-mandibled Toucan.
