weird miscellany and zombie shooters

I had the weirdest and wildest dreams last night, but I won't be able to do them justice, partly because my memory is a little hazy. Of course there was a group trip, a rather epic one involving travel on a giant bus with my mother and various random people from my past. I tried to find a seat, but each option presented problems. There was a very back row facing backward, which I thought would be okay although I don't like facing backward in a vehicle. But when I tried to sit down I discovered why the seats were empty: it really only worked if you hunched over or lay down across several seats, because of the combination of window and ceiling heights. Then my mother pointed out that there was a row of seats running up and down the left/driver's side, facing out sideways. I didn't like that option either because I thought it was dangerous. I was worried about the lack of seatbelts and what would happen in the event of a side collision*.

I finally sat down (in a rear-facing seat, but in the middle of the bus) next to a guy with a baby. The guy looked vaguely like Sean Bean, and I didn't really interact with him because I was distracted by the baby, who was dangling in front of me without any apparent support (although this didn't seem odd). Acting on reflex, I took the baby and set him on my lap, at which point I realized that he was actually a small freckled boy, maybe 6 or so**. I started talking to him rather animatedly, which surprised me since I'm not normally one of those people who makes over small children (not that I have anything against them, I'm just not the one who runs over and starts talking baby talk to them).

I'm not sure if this was the trip destination, but the next thing I remember I was at a house on a very steep wooded hillside. This was surely inspired by watching several historical British dramas recently featuring those long-term (by modern standards) visits in which a group of random highbrow people would descend on a manor house. There were a lot of people around, a few of whom I knew but most of whom I didn't, and I was trying to navigate the bathroom-use system because I wanted to take a shower.

I had laid claim to a bathroom (one of a pair in an odd layout: they were on a stair landing near the entrance, and had white louvered Western Saloon type doors) and was just about ready to take a shower. I don't remember all the details, but the owner of the house (who I think was the Sean Bean lookalike from the bus) arrived and made it clear that his routine was to use this bathroom at this exact time for his ablutions. So I apologized, gathered up my stuff, and went to wait outside.

I don't know if I ever got my shower, because the next thing I can remember was being outside. I realized that something odd was going on, but it took me a while to grasp the basics (I never did understand the details). In a nutshell, there was a shootout between some people, at least one of whom was a doppelganger of the host. This doppelganger had been activated by some action or event, but was apparently a chronic presence who appeared every so often--locked in semi-permanent conflict with the host.

The most fantastical moment involved a zombie-like young man propped up against the exterior wall. He had appeared to be dead, actually nailed to the wall by a gunshot. It became clear, though, that this was just a disguise to hide in plain sight--as the doppelganger (or maybe the host, I couldn't straighten out their identities) rounded the corner, the young man practically exploded from his position flat against the wall, shooting the doppelganger/host. I finally realized that this was a dangerous situation, and I started running/rolling down the hill. I'm not sure how I managed to avoid all the huge conifers, but the pine needles made a forgiving surface on which to roll, and when I had gotten to the bottom of the rather deep ravine I looked around and appreciated how beautiful it was, even though I didn't know how I was going to get out of there.

At some point a couple from my parents' church made a cameo appearance. In real life, this man has very straight, wiry hair that grows straight out from his head in all directions, and he favors a buzz cut of varying length. In the dream, he had curled his hair in a foppish late-18th-century/early 19th-century style***, and had caused some kind of unnamed scandal of medium-level seriousness. In real life, his wife has a rather old-fashioned haircut styled in a way that might be described as marcelled. In the dream, my sister informed me that he shared her husband's hair woes and that was why she always wore it quite short and curled in a standard "old lady" helmet style.



*I don't want to delve too deeply into this recent dream concern for vehicular safety.
**Nor am I going to meditate on the recurring theme of small boys.
***Thank you again, British historical dramas.

Cleaning, Searching, Seeing, Accepting

At the beginning of the dream, I was riding the bus. I had gotten off the express bus from work and got on another bus to go to tango class. My friend, SO, got on the bus and sat nearby. I suddenly remembered we were going to get out of class very late. At first I thought I should have driven, but then thought maybe another friend, JH, or SO's husband could drive me back to my car. We got to the studio, but the class hadn't started. It took a while for the teacher to arrive. When he did, I realized that the room (which looked like a bedroom) was very messy. I had to move things back in place. There was a small table in the middle of the room that had to be moved back behind the bed. I also pushed the bed to be flush up against the table. I was trying to move things back in place and two other tango students, KS and CC, came to help. I apologized for things being such a mess, for not cleaning up before class started.

I went out of the room into the kitchen to get a drink of water. I ran into two women I knew from college. I was surprised to see them there. We hugged. They asked me where the bathroom was. I knew the place had a bathroom along one of the hallways. I walked them down there and saw my freshman college roommate, JJ, coming out of a room. I said half-jokingly, "JJ is in Raleigh, North Carolina and she didn't tell me?" JJ looked guilty, but didn't say anything. I realized if JJ was there, then the AKA sorority must be having a meeting in the house. I continued to walk down the halls. I remembered the house having two bedrooms on the floor, each with it's own bathroom inside - but they were not open to the public. I thought the public bathroom was one of the doors at the far end of the hall, but the doors I opened were not the right ones. I finally found the bathroom when I walked back to the beginning of the hall.

I walked back to the other side of the house and saw Rev. L, the campus chaplain from college, from across the room. I felt compelled to talk to him. In the dream I knew he was already dead (died at least 10 years ago in reality) and had been sent to talk to me. I walked over to him and he led me to his office. While following him I saw my hands, my body, and my feet in the dream. I made a point to touch my body. I named each thing aloud as I looked at it in the dream, "I see my hands. I see my body. I see my feet." (Saying it aloud seemed more conscious than the rest of the dream). Rev. L and I walked into his office. It was a small room, with a desk that took up most of the room. The desk was cluttered with stacks of paper. The room had a large window, a small whiteboard/chalkboard, and two chairs. We each sat in a chair - the window was to the right of me. (I saw my knees and my hands again.) Rev. L showed me transcripts of people whose names I did not know/remember. He told me these students started with me and needed to graduate. I asked him what he wanted me to do. He asked me to read their papers. He explained they started the research so long ago that many of their ideas have already been made into laws. I got the impression I wasn't supposed to critique the papers too much - just read them. I said I would do it. I said told him I would do whatever it is he would have me to do.