Saturday night, I dreamed that my mom bought me a car that was simultaneously a digital camera. When first describing the dream to Jeff, I couldn’t recall if the car actually shrank to the size of a portable camera, or if the camera detached from the car. As I’ve continued to recall details from the dream, however, I believe it was the former.

As a car, it looked like something out of the heyday of wide bodies and fins, with a convertible top and a smooth chrome steering wheel as large as a hula hoop. However, this car had a secondary dashboard and steering wheel on the driver’s side door, permitting it to be driven widthwise rather than only lengthwise; in my dream, for example, I drove up to a parallel parking space, and then turned 45 degrees in my seat to face the secondary wheel and display, so that I could back into the spot rather than actually having to parallel park.

But although the car itself had a classic 1950s look, as a camera it was definitely high-tech and digital. There were slots on the dashboard for two of each common kind of storage card, and the car’s GPS navigation system digitally stamped each photo with the location where it was taken. If you turned the switch on the glovebox to the right, it opened normally for storage; if you turned it to the left, however, it opened onto a digital photo printer with a variety of specialized photo papers in various paper trays.

One of the details I’ve remembered that leads me to believe that the car actually shrank–a la the Jetsons suitcase-car–when being used as a camera, rather than the camera being a detachable part of the car, is that in camera mode the headlights acted as the flash, while the closing and opening convertable ragtop gave the car-camera the appearance of a folding Polaroid SX-7.