Flying!

The other day I dreamed that by holding these long strings in each hand, presumably connected to some sort of kite or parachute, I could be picked up by the wind and then fly around like I did skydiving a week ago. It was fantastic! I did big loops through the air, like I was on a giant swing, and twirled around with the ground spinning beneath me. I remember wondering out loud, before the skydiving adventure, whether it would be fodder for nightmares or good dreams. 'Turns out that, so far at least, it's definitely the latter!

Oh, except there was one more detail: I somehow got my apparatus wound around the front pillars of a big house where I think I was staying, and knew I was vaguely in trouble. I was summoned, with another person who had been flying, to the upper room of the house, where there were three unhappy older men, one of whom was Dick Cheney. There we were reprimanded for flying.

impulsive family members

I had a short snippet last night in which I was sitting around with my mom and some relatives. One of the relatives was my aunt, and they were discussing her daughter, my cousin Cheryl, who's always been pretty. Someone was talking about how she was bullied as a child by kids calling her ugly (not at all true as far as I know). My mother chimed in, saying, "yes, she was ugly!" I was mortified, and my aunt seemed very taken aback (you could almost hear the stunt music with the downward chromatic scale). I was trying desperately to find something to say that would make my mom's comment seem less offensive, but she carried on breezily as if nothing was amiss: "of course she's pretty now, but she sure was ugly then!"

Then I dreamed that my husband had learned to fly a helicopter. We rented one and took it for a ride, which was quite fun until he started doing stunts and flips as if it were a plane and not a helicopter (oh, and it was dark and rainy). Then he made a deal with the rental company to buy one (I wasn't consulted about this purchase; he came out of their rooftop kiosk with keys and we suddenly had our own helicopter). He was inordinately concerned with finding out the "correct" way to christen a helicopter, as if his future flying safety and pleasure depended on doing it in the prescribed way. I was just still a little queasy after the barrel rolls, and dazed and shocked by the big-ticket purchase.

Swinging

The best snippet of last night's dream, and maybe of this year's dreams to date, was me swinging on a rope swing. I don't know what it was attached to, but it was something very high and the rope was very long. As I swung out in a curving arc, hands clenched around the rope, I saw things far below me, as if I were in an airplane. I was going relatively slowly, but centrifugal force was pulling the rope outward. There was a sense of danger (I knew I had to hold on tightly), but also of complete exhilaration, like I was flying. It was incredible.

In another snippet, I realized I wasn't eating well because I was afraid of opening my refrigerator.