One of the more entertaining aspects of living in California were the number and quality of the nightmares I had there. It would be euphemistic to just call them dreams.
Imagine a corporate party. Drinks, pastries and a crowd of people on the top floor on one of the taller buildings in downtown San Francisco. The building starts to sway as an earthquake begins. It sways further, back and forth, almost enough to make you sea sick, and we're all expecting it to stop since earth quakes only last a few moments, but this continues. With each sway the building swings further over, and then comes back. I hold my cold mixed drink in my hand and look out the window as the building sways so much that the furniture starts to slide towards me. It doesn't stop, and I hear screams as the building continues on that last sway and begins to collapse.
In one of my first dreams I was merely crushed when an old house collapsed on top of me in an earthquake.
A series of dreams had to do with an "end of the world" scenario where the area had been wiped out in some watery disaster. Tidal waves, land sinking etc. I lived on the beach in a tent for a while. I couldn't find my wife and I lived with some woman I had met after the deluge. We had a child. There were some permanent large public buildings that had survived that were being used for public restrooms and I don't know what else. And then later communities were being built on hilltops because the low lying areas were flooded.
One of my favorite self terminating experiences took place in a modern city on the West Coast, although I wasn't sure which one (and it could happen to any of them). I was in a downtown area, and off in the distance was a wall of water about 40 stories tall crashing through the spaces between the skyscrapers. I was running, looking for a place to get out of the way as it got closer and closer.
It all seemed to wear off after I left.
