I had a peculiar mix of dreams last night, mostly fragments that didn't make sense together.

The clearest and most realistic:

I was in a house. I think it was a whorehouse, but it was the middle of the day, so the whores were asleep or out, and the johns hadn't come.

I was friends with the Madam, who was no more than a few years older than me.

"You," she said to me while we sat in her kitchen, "would make a stunning Geisha."

Now, I'm familiar with all the training and rigours of becoming a Geisha, but this was a dream, so gimme a little slack.

She knew about Geisha, because she had a kimono for me to wear, and a belt (obi?) and she knew how to do the hair and make-up.

She helped me into this outfit. It was for fun more than anything else, just two friends playing dressup in the kitchen.

I don't remember the hair hurting me, but it was so magical, I probably didn't notice.

I remember her helping me apply the make-up, and the...oh what was it...'ladder pattern'? Were stripes of bare flesh are left at the back of the neck.

I distinctly remember feeling the neck of the kimono, which dipped low in the back, and high in the front, the opposite of what I usually wore. But still, I felt incredibly sexy.

I was almost finished. I didn't have any socks or shoes on, and my friend handed me a wedge of hard paper and told me to clean my toenails. (That was probably a reflection of my own idiosyncrasies, because I'm anal about the cleanliness of my toenails and tend to cut them very short so things can't get stuck underneath.)

I was sitting in the dining room. The table was missing for some reason, but there were a few chairs scattered around, and a bench set into one wall.

I sat on this bench and propped my feet up to clean my toenails.

Just then one of my friend's clients entered with his son, just for a visit, nothing bawdy. I think the father was interested in my friend (for more than sex; as the madam she didn't do that).

His son caught sight of me, all dressed up like a geisha, and...I don't know of I can explain it.

He was shaking with desire, but so awed, he wouldn't do much more than sit on one of the barren diningroom chairs and stare at me, murmuring admiration as I tried to clean my toenails, my thick legs and slender ankles (it's always been a vanity point for me).

I felt very awkward, like an imposter, but there was a part of me that revelled in it.

He asked if he could hold my hand, so I abandoned my toenails (I'd barely started), and held one hand out to him.

He barely had the nerve to touch it, but turned it up and kissed my palm, with the slow, shaking kiss of someone absoloutely smitten. His fingers felt like butterflies on my hands, they were so light and quivered with nerves.

I felt oddly flattered, and incredibly sexy.

I don't remember much beyond that. But I do know my dreams were altered by the book I was reading right before bed, which had a whorehouse in it (but that's really the only tie; my dream house looked nothing like the imagined other whorehouse, and my friend was not in the book).

But the whorehouse in my dream was right in the mountains, and this one was in a very broad valley.

On other notes, I forgot to take my birth control for the first bit while I was here, and got my period as a result.

BOO on THAT.

And also, I've been working hard on my calligraphy. I'm getting a lot better. I'm writing out my own version of Cinderella in late period calligraphy to practice. It makes me notice how few J's and Q's we use in language. J's the least. I haven't used one J yet.

Anyway, I'm gonna go do more. Hooray!

Maybe I'll go to the zoo today.

.

Rosemart.

PS, Jaxx suggested a shirt that says: "Nerdcore, better than Hardcore." but that's just not quite funny enough to me. What's funnier? Any suggestions?

PPS, I haven't really seen any geisha or anything related in a long time. I wonder what made me dream of being one?

Before&After