I dreamed I was watching US Olympic gymnastics team trials because my high school alma mater had sent a team, and I happened to be in the city where the trials were being held. Among the athletes, I recognized my friend Kerri, who was trying out along with them. There were fives slots being filled, and Kerri was selected to fill the fifth slot, and was set to compete in the Olympics, which were starting the next day.
Once the trials were done, I went and found them, and congratulated Kerri. All the girls from my hometown were in awe that I was close friends with THE Kerri. We had a chance to talk for a bit, and it turned out her family hadn't been able to come support her, so she was there mostly alone. I agreed to try to make it to as many of her events as I could, to loudly cheer her on.
In addition to the usual gymnastic events, like floor, parallel bars, vault, etc., a new event had been added: water gymnastics. Basically, this was a combination of beam and diving, in that the routine was performed on a narrow ledge submerged in shin to waist deep water, and splash should be minimized. All of this took place in a wave pool. Even the spectators and judges were seated in the pool. I was glad I'd brought my swimsuit on my trip because that was one of the events I had time to watch.
I was actually in town for a conference for work, though, so I couldn't spend all my time watching Kerri compete. Still, the convention center hosting my conference was also hosting the Olympic gymnastic events, so that was convenient. Kerri and I planned to meet up one day for lunch.
When I got to the food court, all the gymnasts were heading into a conference room. Kerri saw me and said she'd be back in a moment. The food court was an open-air market sort of set up, with food counters tucked amid tall trees. Nearby they were building more indoor conference space. As I was looking around, waiting, the light dimmed. The sky filled with roiling dark clouds.
You see, we were all in Tampa, and the hurricane was coming.
There was a huge hall under construction with tall openings for floor-to-ceiling windows. As I watched, debris and dust inside the hall began swirling into a pillar, broadening up near the ceiling several stories above. A tornado was forming inside the building. I ran toward the conference room, where everyone was now coming out. It turns out they'd been meeting to plan what to do because of the storm. We all needed to get into a safe indoor spot, but obviously not even the indoors was safe, if a tornado was forming a hundred yards away inside of a structure.
It turned out, though, that this was an expected phenomenon during construction, and all of the buildings being built had special "disruptor" fans installed. These huge fans would break up the air flow patterns inside of these buildings so that they couldn't start spiraling into whirlwinds. Someone was explaining it to me and said it was similar to how bridges got designed now to prevent resonant oscillation like what had destroyed the Tacoma Narrows bridge.
All this time I was trying to hurry to somewhere, anywhere, where we'd be safe, but Kerri was limping. It turns out she had fractured her leg in an event that morning. It hadn't felt too bad earlier, but now, maybe because of the air pressure fluctuations, it was really hurting and she could no longer walk on it. She suspected she was experiencing compartment syndrome. Finally, we got into a fairly sheltered area, though it wasn't as secure as I would have liked. Kerri sat down and took a pocketknife out of her pocket and she cut open her leg to ease the pressure.
We got her bandaged up, but she needed something to eat and drink, so I walked into a little convenience shop and got her some sort of pastries and a Coke. I shoved them at Kerri so she could start eating and drinking as I paid. I was rifling through my wallet to find the two more dollars I needed when I woke up.
