extreme changes of mood

I woke up in a great mood yesterday after dreaming several pleasant things (I don't think any of them involved Johnny Depp). The only thing I can really remember was that I had made a lot of headway on a freelance translation career and had been engaged to translate a real book, and a work of fiction at that! I was hopeful that this was going to be a launching pad for a specialization in translating fiction and that I would end up being one of those translators the merits of whose versions get debated in scholarly papers.

Last night's dream was awful. My husband and I had decided to take a little jaunt to Paris. I don't know where we were, but Paris was within driving distance. The only problem was that I wasn't dressed appropriately and couldn't figure out what to wear. I was very flustered and nothing was coming together, although I was pretty sure that my rose-colored turtleneck* needed to figure in somewhere. He got really annoyed really quickly and stormed out to drive away in the car because I was taking too long, ignoring my tearful entreaties to wait.

It turned out that he had only gone for a short drive because he was feeling antsy and didn't want to sit there while I had a closet meltdown, but it was still pretty harrowing. He came back after about 15 minutes, not mad at all, but I think I woke up before we could get to Paris.

*Notable because this is one of the very rare occasions when an item I actually own shows up in a getting-dressed dream.

Score!

I dreamed that I got the fellowship I really want for next year (the application for which is due a week from Friday). There was a message on my voicemail, and as soon as I heard it, I went rushing into the office, whooping and hugging everybody. I mentioned it to the chair of the department, and he said, "Oh," exactly as he did in real life to my neighbor when she told him of her fellowship award a few weeks ago. It didn't dampen my spirits, though, and I woke up feeling great.

I'm awaiting the outcome of several applications in the next few weeks, and hope this is a good omen!

Update: I got the fellowship!

A White Christmas

My dream started in the middle of a Christmas party. I was at my parents house up north, and the house was bustling with all sorts of people. All of a sudden I found myself babysitting this 4 yr old child (I used to babysit him when I was a teenager; he used to live in the neighborhood). He was having so much fun running around. I sat with him, played with him, talked to him, hugged him, and carried him around. In the midst of his adventures my parents' house he started walking on the top of the couch. My dad caught him and told me to tell him to stop, I did, and suddenly I started calling him a different name "Brandon". He didn't seem to mind, but as I told him, I noticed my father sitting on top of the couches. Musing to myself that this seemed hypocritical, I rolled my eyes and then went back to playing around with the child. His mother was supposed to come over and pick him up but we wanted to surprise her.
Before she came over I noticed the tree was now done from being trimmed with decorations and white snow. I marveled at how beautiful it was with "Brandon".
Suddenly someone came over. We were hiding in the dark so I couldn't tell who it was. We thought it was Brandon's mother, but it was my sister. We still said "surprise", and she came into the party, and started talking with me, my mom, and my dad about her life. I didn't want to be around her because she started to smell with the odor of old oil, so I quickly ducked away. And then I woke up.

Pregnancy and a Crush: Happiness all around

So..I have had two dreams over the last two nights that I can actually remember! I haven't been remembering my dreams for awhile now, so remembering these dreams is great news to me :)

The first dream I had was about a friend that I work with. She was pregnant in the dream, almost 8 months, and glowing. Once I saw her, I remembered that I have never felt a baby kicking inside the womb. So I asked her if I could touch her belly to feel the baby kick, and she said yes. Once I touched her stomach, the baby stopped kicking. I kept waiting for it to kick again, but it didn't. I was still excited anyway with the opportunity to try to feel a baby kicking in it's mother's stomach. It was a happy dream.

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The second dream I had was a little more exciting. I was walking in a store and knelt down to look a product (which I don't know, because I only remember seeing the white florescent lights and being in the greeting card section). All of a sudden, a man with dark brown hair climbs over me and starts to kiss me. (It was like the kiss between Toby McGuire and Kirsten Dunst in one of the Spiderman movies, where he is upside down and she is right side up, and removes his mask and kisses him.) It was a awesome kiss and apparently, I recognized the man in the dream as a current crush, however, I never saw his face in the dream. When I woke up I knew he wasn't a mysterious or random stranger, but I didn't recognize who it was in the dream either. Suffice i to say, this was a dream that was hard to wake up from.