Original Commentary
Yes, just a dream. Or is it? Showing thoughts or showing both sides of a phone conversation adds narrative truth to a story. Showing dreams takes it away. I'm not sure either should be done lightly - Terrence

Modern Commentary
It moves by a strange dream logic because it was a dream

Now, a sitcom can do a quick two-minute dream sequence that Gets Weird because it's immediately followed by another fifteen minutes that do things in the normal way. A three-panel-a-day webcomic does not have that luxury.

I'm not going to say it cannot be done in this medium - there are people working on webcomics with different talents than mine - but the medium is working against us here.

Which is a very long way of saying that it was funnier in my head - Terrence