Tsunami

I'm pretty sure I was reading some Lacan-esque French theory, something about a sea lion/regular lion and a polar bear, and recognizing the Other or some such business. I'm not sure if I was studying this while at the beach, or if the elaborate literary metaphor sort of just came alive for me, but at some point I was definitely being rocked by the waves.

The tide on this U-shaped beach was coming in, though, and I decided I was done with the water. When the waves pulled back, a whitish pebbly beach was revealed at the bottom of the U, and I ran across to get the backpack(s) and corkscrew (?!) that I'd left there on a ledge. Back on the other side, the door to the hotel/apartment/dorm was locked, so a beach employee (?!) kindly let me in. It was an odd sort of industrial-looking stairwell, so as she was in there with me, I asked her whether I'd be able to get out on my floor. She was assuring me that I would, just as she received a message, which I couldn't decipher, on her radio.

"Up!" she said to me. "Up! Run!"

"What happened?" I asked, as I started up the stairs. "What is it?"

"Up, up!" she shouted, pushing me. "Go!"

I was struck by the realization that we were trying to make it to higher ground, because a tsunami was coming. I tried to run faster, taking two steps at a time, but my legs were tired and then we started to run into crowds in the stairwell, also trying to get up to higher ground. They were quite orderly and not pushing or shoving--primarily just polite and a bit bemused.

Suddenly it got darker in the stairwell, and I realized the wave was coming. There was a window in the stairwell, separated by a gap of several feet from where I stood on the stairs. As I looked out, I saw a wall of water rising, in incredible colors--glowing sage-y green, then golden, then red. It reached up to a few inches above the window, and then sank, and I thought, with relief, that we were all going to be fine. But then came what I instantly knew was the Second Wave, higher than the first, and I could feel the foundations of the building shaking. This wave filled the window with incredible sparkling droplets of water, glowing red. I thought to myself that I might well die, but even if it did, it would be after seeing the most beautiful scene of my life--and that it would be okay.

On a Boat

Of a series of varied and complicated dreams the other night, the one scene that stands out relatively vividly is this one:

I was on a boat--some sort of covered, but otherwise open, deck--with a bunch of other people. A thunderstorm came up suddenly and the lightning was beautiful against the dark clouds. The waves picked up and tossed us around a bit, but it wasn't a problem. What was a problem was that when a particularly big wave receded, it revealed that we were about to tumble over a narrow ledge that hadn't been visible under the large waves, and were going to fall maybe 60 feet to the surf below.

I crouched down into what I thought of as an emergency impact kind of pose, with my head between my knees, as we went over the ledge. We fell for several seconds--longer than I'd anticipated--and landed a bit jarringly, but safely, in the waves below. Then I woke up.

Beach Island

I was on some sort of trip with my entire nuclear family. We were on an island that had blindingly white sand. The beach was pretty, but a little bit terrifying, with massive waves that would spring up suddenly and engulf people playing in the surf. The tide was out, so we drove over the sand to where we could see the water in the distance. It was rather barren and disconcerting. The receding tide had left little pools of water, and there were whales beached everywhere. They were shiny and black and not as big as ordinary whales. I saw a smaller fish-like creature (though it was in the air like a bird) trying to pull one of the whales back into the water with his teeth. I don't think he was trying to save it, though; I think he was trying to take it home to eat it.

My family and I decided to head into the interior of the island, where there was jungle. We were in a hotel room--apparently my brother's--putting on sunscreen. My dad sat on the bed and said he wasn't going to go with us. I didn't really feel like venturing out into the wilds, either, but I rubbed in my sunscreen anyway.

The whole dream left me feeling vaguely uneasy. I seemed to know that I should undertake the adventures, but just felt a slight sense of foreboding and disinspiration to leave the comfort of the car or hotel.

Oceanography

Is it cheating to write up a dream that I didn't have, but that was dreamed about me? I guess I'm going to write it here anyway.

It was dreamed that I was an oceanographer and that, along with the dreamer, I was far out at sea throwing chum overboard in an effort to attract sharks for study.

Ocean

I was alone in a strange coastal city and I was looking for a place to spend the night. At some point it occurred to me that I should head for the beach, as maybe I could camp there. When I would catch glimpses of the ocean, though, it was through chain fences, so I kept walking.

When I encountered an elementary school, I entered to see if there was anything promising there (and maybe the beach on the other side?). As I crossed a glassed-in skyway of sorts that bridged a channel, I noticed that it was raining and that the waves were right up against the bottom of the skyway, making it actually sway or at least feel like it was swaying. I got to the end of the school and turned around, only to discover that now the bridge that crossed the channel was composed of wooden slats and was partially submerged. Kids were walking across it, but it looked like they were walking on water. I was very nervous about crossing, because I felt like I would lose my balance, the way it was pitching and swaying. Finally I decided to try, even though I was wearing leather shoes and didn't really want them in the saltwater. Some other faculty were going to cross, so I decided to go with them. Almost immediately as we started to cross, I dropped to my knees and held the sides of the bridge because I couldn't balance. And then, whether because there were too many heavy adults or because the moorings just broke, we started to sink and had to swim the rest of the way.

And that part was actually okay. The water was warm and felt fine, and I realized that the clouds had gone away and that it was beautifully sunny. I climbed up on the other side and realized that my clothes were folded neatly on the side I had just come from--although I was still, apparently, wearing my black fleece with my digital camera in the right pocket. (Also, I didn't have any sensation of being naked, so I was wearing something else, although I'm not sure what.)

By this time someone had a little kayak/canoe and was using that to ferry across the gap. A nice young man helped me get my clothes back from the other side, and that was that.