To sleep, perchance to dream

I had a weird dream last night. I know almost all dreams are weird. At least the ones we remember.

Anyway, most of this dream I could figure out what brought on the different scenes, but one scene was unsettling and I can't get it out of my head.

• I dreamt about a hospital lobby - We talked about a hospital lobby when I had lunch with a friend yesterday.
• In one scene, a former manager was in the lobby selling trinkets for 5 cents apiece - we talked about the manager at lunch and I had watched an old TV show in the afternoon where a sign on a shelf in the General Store said "Everything on this shelf 5 cents".
• There was a scene in a hair salon - I meant to get my hair cut on Monday, but didn't.
• A hair stylist decided she was going to cut my hair with the top half cut so it would curl under while leaving the top half longer. In the old TV show, one of the women had a do something like that but I couldn't figure out if the top part was cut short or was tightly curled. Or the stylist could have been describing a sissified mullet. I kept saying No, I don't think so, but she wouldn't leave me alone.

Anyway, this is where is gets strange to me. The hair stylist decided to show me the style on somebody else who I assumed was in the next room, but, of course, she wasn't. It occurred to me several times in the dream that I was really stupid for following this hair stylist I'd never seen before to goodness-knows-where, but I didn't want to be rude.

Anyway, when we got to this place where the haircut was, a middle-aged, but well-worn man (if you know what I mean) was in the front room/porch and the stylist showed him my purse and they admired it for a while which made me wonder if I was there to be robbed. He asked where I got it and I tried to answer but his conversation kept darting between the purse and pop-corn shrimp. (We ate lunch at a sea food restaurant and my friend paid.)

When we finally entered the home, it was plain that it had probably never seen better times. The carpetless, scuffed floor was cluttered with papers and bits of stuff, and the rooms that Icould see were sparsely furnished. An old woman and man were in the living room, semi-reclining on the floor, rehearsing a play/movie from the 1920's, complete with costume. (Got no idea where that scene came from - the old TV show was a western, circa 1880's). The old man apologized, but I responded, "That's OK. I've been in lots of homes where people are busy living." (I'm quite profound in my dreams, don't you think?)

Fade out, and fade in to dinner at the same house. OK, here's the really weird part that won't get out of my head.

A young boy was sitting at the end of the table using a cat for a spoon. At least, I think that's what he was doing. He held the cat in one hand (like a fork or spoon) and dipped its paws in a plate. (The paws were held together kind of like they were praying.) The boy put the paws to his mouth and I think he was eating the food that was between the paws, or ... he was eating the cat.