Stephanie Treece

Last night I dreamt Mom, B. Rugone, and I went to a political rally in some half indoor, half outdoor artsy, funky shopping mall that reminded me of a Pike's Market and Gurnee Mills lovechild. We split up at one point, wandered around, and when Mom found me she yelled, "I just saw Stephanie Treece! She's here! She looks great!"

Stephanie Treece was my brothers and my babysitter when we were kids -- she was always fun, sweet, cute, and full of energy. She had lots of love for our family: we got my cat Spot from her; she'd go with us to Michigan sometimes and "babysit" while my parents had nights out on the town in Saugatuck; during the divorce, she was there for us through and through. Earlier this week, I'd told William a touch about Stephanie -- we were having a we-love-our-pets-here's-their-history discussion -- and I'm sure Stephanie got snuggled in a spot in my subconscious, and she'd been there for a couple days now.

In my dream, I ended up finding Stephanie, and she even recognized me first, and we hugged as she pushing her shopping cart out of the way. She wore an adorable sweater, and a cute hat that would make Debbie Gibson proud. And then....turns out she was one singer of many for the political "intermission" and she busted a move onto the stage in front of everyone! I'd describe her performance as very Imogen Heap-esque....she had that same raspy, electronic voice....she used two keyboards, her red hair was flying, and yes, there were Tori elements to her performance. Still, there was just something very "Stephanie" about the whole thing -- like my Dream State took some artists I loved and took my memories of Stephanie and combined them into a unique, powerful experience. I wish I could remember the song she played; I swear, it was an original Dream Song! Afterwards, Mom and I went to the right of the stage, where there were all these dolls in those big cardboard boxes with the plastic see-through fronts so you could see which doll you want. They were Band Dolls of all the performers; we found Stephanie's and looked at all the cool writing and artwork on the sides of the boxes and smiled.