C.I.A. Testing and Paul Hollywood
In a dream last night, a call to come in for testing was sent out to the majority of people I knew. The test consisted of many personality type questions, along with situational, and taste preference questions. I went up to test with my best friend right at the end of the window that was available for us to do so, and on the way up to the testing location, the people we passed seemed taken off guard just a bit as we saw them. Once finished with the test, I was directed to go to a new location where they would administer a physical test, and issue me all new governmental documents, as they had taken and destroyed all of my old ones. In the lobby, everything felt off. The people I saw there were familiar from the earlier testing facility, but would not engage in conversation, and at one point I saw a planter in the large ornate lobby move by itself.
I saw Paul Hollywood and his wife in the parking lot as I left the previous testing facility, and had said hello briefly, but didn’t keep them long, as I know celebrities are busy people, and don’t know me, or really care one way or another who I am, or what I’m up to. I am directed to a room where I would take my physical test, and find that it is half full of people also taking various tests. It seems that they are distracted by me, as they keep reacting to my position in the room, and the direction of my gaze more than I would expect from a group of random people. The tests go fine, but my running is heavy footed and awkward as it often is in dreams. As I finish my tests and leave the testing area, I notice the others in the room have ceased testing, including people I had seen in the midst of a test, but I say nothing as I leave. They seem like extras on a set. While waiting in the lobby with my friend, I decide to investigate the planter that had moved earlier. As I approach the planter, I feel myself push against it with my perception, trying to deduce its purpose and true nature. As I do, the planter first rotates a little, and then rolls away on unseen wheels, not in a controlled manner, but hitting things and breaking pieces off of it as it went. One of the men who I could now obviously see was pretending to be taking the test with me earlier quickly moved to remove the pot, and the receptionist looked very uncomfortable. Just then, I saw Paul Hollywood coming in from the parking lot, and I struck up a polite conversation about the day’s testing, (it was government issued, and therefore an interesting topic of discussion). When I came to the part of my physical test, he asked, “Adam, have you ever seen a video of yourself running?” To which I sheepishly replied that I had. He pulled up a video on his phone, and we laughed as we watched footage from the testing I had just finished. After a good laugh and a standard goodbye, he headed to the concert being held in the testing hall which I had heard getting ready to start (it sounded like a reward for the staff of a large company, the crowd murmuring in a way that only an unenthusiastic group of people being forced to attend entertainment their boss thought they would love can). I chanced another question.
“Paul, how is it that I am physically so remarkably unremarkable, and yet you remember my name?”
White a chuckle and a grin, “I don’t know Adam, maybe it’s the post schizophrenic gleam in your eye, but definitely not the running, that left much to be desired”
We both laughed, and I bid him a good evening. As I left the building I could feel that I was still being watched, but I was in good spirits. I saw more of my friends arriving for testing as I went. They did not do so well.
