there was a little girl who had a little curl and the story of a nightmare

My entry about just some of MaeRose's Marley-like behaviors won one of fifty consolation prizes.
Since then MR has added more to her history of little sweet miss- behaviors. She has discovered a chest, left open from time to time, containing cotton balls, bristly hair curlers, cotton swabs, lotions (no potions). She loves to drag everything out - quite a fluffy, but reasonably clean mess.

After being caught twice, she seemed to realize this was forbidden excavation. Until - yesterday. I heard bumping, thumping, then nothing. A few minutes later MaeRose trotted into my office, put her head on my lap, and gave one of those 'what do I do now?' looks.
Stuck firmly in her hair above a curly ear was a bristly curler. Busted!

She will soon be seven, but lately seems to have been overcome by urges to create a nest -
she totally loves little dogs -longs to have one of her own. I, too, crave another doodle. Our condo limit is two - technically none over 20 pounds each - we broke that rule the first year with our first labradoodle - doing it the second time was easier.

Yesterday was my first appointment to tutor a nine-year old resident of Five Acres, a community home for children who have been abused, abandoned, mistreated. Its campus includes a large outdoor recreational area with swimming pool,
dining hall, classrooms for first through twelfth grades. My pupil attends class with seven or eight boys, one or two girls,
a teacher, an assistant, a classroom with computers and a smart board. He is struggling to learn to read - in part, I feel, because of a very short attention span.

I had a nightmare last night - based on my totally non-nightmarish afternoon. In my dream I was in a large crowd of teachers, assistants, disheveled looking, needing a bath youngsters. The one assigned to me had brown eyes, shaggy brown hair, a sly manner. After doing my best to converse with him, getting short non-informative replies, he disappeared.
I looked everywhere - getting glares and head shakings from unidentified adults (were they counselors, maids,
janitors, teachers?) When he finally emerged he was wearing a dress, long black hair, lipstick. Next thing I knew he appeared with a burr cut - telling me that he had decided to get his hair cut when he left earlier.

Penny Scott-Fox (looking like Ros from MI-5) was in charge of tutor volunteers. After telling us to meet outside, she vanished. During the hour I spent looking for her I heard from other volunteers that this always happened. Our scheduled two or fewer hours always stretched to more than four, although we were only getting paid for two. (my volunteering in real time is non-paid)

Remnants of the dream hung on like cobwebs for hours after I woke -