I dreamed that my mom, sister, and I were running late. We were leaving for school from her old house, but I don't think we were children...I think I was an adult. There was a lot of rushing around for lost articles of clothing, books, lunches, etc while we were inside the house.
We got into the minivan that she drove in the early 90s and as we started to back out of the garage, a big van/truck zipped up the driveway and blocked us in. Apparently they were some kind of roadside assistance company who were responding to what they thought was a distress call. Mom didn't realize this. The man in charge rolled down his passenger window to talk to her. He was talking and she was nodding, but we couldn't hear him because she hadn't rolled down her window. I said, "How can you hear him? Roll down your window!" She did, but it was too late to explain. They had already opened her gas tank and were trying to refill it. The guy kept talking about how they'd gotten a call from this house. I was trying to shout across mom that they had the wrong address, but he wouldn't listen.
Finally, I turned to mom and said that they were going to charge us a lot of money for this emergency service, and we'd better just leave. Showing uncharacteristic disregard for damages, mom inched the van forward to make room to back up. We heard the gas nozzle rip out of the van, gasoline spraying everywhere, and the men shouting at us. Then she backed up and gunned it out of there.
We drove down the road, and mom made some comment like, "Well, that girl should have known not to call such an expensive service," which implied that the new residents of our old house (flashing forward into reality, I guess) were wimpy for calling roadside services.
As we drove, we noticed that there were lots of people burning piles of leaves, and we realized it was to keep down the mosquitoes.
Showing posts with label out of character. Show all posts
Showing posts with label out of character. Show all posts
Monday, June 8, 2009
Thursday, May 28, 2009
breaking and entering
Speaking of dreams in which people are out of character, I had one last night in which my parents were completely out of character (they're normally extremely law-abiding and very concerned with propriety).
We (parents, me, sister, and possibly grandmother; I don't remember either of the sons-in-law being there) were on a road trip somewhere in rural southern or central Arkansas. Apparently no one had planned for lodging, and it was getting late. Since it was so rural, there were no hotels around, so my parents stopped at a little cluster of houses in the middle of the woods. Somehow it was decided that one of the houses was where we would spend the night. I'm not sure how this was decided, but I was so taken aback that I didn't even question the decision at first, thinking surely they would come to their senses.
They started unloading the car and carrying things into the house, which was fully furnished and clearly lived in. They were commenting on the furnishings and dishes in a matter-of-fact way, and my mother started puttering in the kitchen, although she seemed a little disapproving of the cookware. My dad removed a screen from one of the windows, saying that it was double-screened for winter, and since it was no longer winter the screen should be removed. I thought at first that he was getting ready to do some repair work, which I had mixed feelings about. On one hand, this wasn't his house; on the other hand, maybe he was looking at it as payment for staying there.
When I realized that they were serious about staying there, I started freaking out and saying that we had to leave right now because someone lived in the house and we could be charged with breaking and entering. When they weren't fazed by that, I brought up the possibility of the owner coming home late, finding his house full of strangers, and opening fire with his shotgun and killing us in our sleep. That didn't make much of an impression either, and I was more and more stressed about how to extricate myself from the situation. I was also disturbed at not getting any backup from my sister, who in real life is sensible and very cautious about anything that could provoke a violent reaction from a random stranger. She had shut down and wasn't saying anything, just wandering around almost invisibly in the sidelines (maybe looking to make her exit unnoticed?).
After we had been there for a while, with all the lights blazing and the windows opened, a police car drove by. It circled around, left, drove by again, and parked facing the house. The policeman just sat there staring at the house, with a civilian woman in the passenger's seat who looked like Grace Jones. I thought that surely that would move my parents to change their plans, but they remained calm in their bedtime preparations.
I don't remember how all that ended. I think it just phased into another story line. I was at work, looking at pictures (or footage?) with my boss. The pictures showed the bend in a creek that was supposedly part of a cave/creek system here in town. The bed was eroded stone with very steep edges, like a very miniature western river canyon, and the water was gushing through. He wanted me to go out and explore the creek system and take more pictures, but I was a little worried about the safety of getting into such rushing water. He said it was only about waist deep, but I thought he was being a little cavalier because he's a very tall and large person and would be a lot more stable in such a rapid current than a medium-sized person. I also wasn't excited about spending my free time on a work-related project, even one involving such beautiful scenery, and hoped he would forget about asking me.
In the other snippet, I was shopping with my mother, and it's only significant in a dream-analysis sense. She was rushing me along and didn't want me to look at some things I wanted to look at, which is one reason I don't shop with my significant other (the other reason being that I don't generally like shopping with anyone but myself). It's one of a few examples of dreams in which I transfer annoying husbandly traits to my mother, which I find odd.
We (parents, me, sister, and possibly grandmother; I don't remember either of the sons-in-law being there) were on a road trip somewhere in rural southern or central Arkansas. Apparently no one had planned for lodging, and it was getting late. Since it was so rural, there were no hotels around, so my parents stopped at a little cluster of houses in the middle of the woods. Somehow it was decided that one of the houses was where we would spend the night. I'm not sure how this was decided, but I was so taken aback that I didn't even question the decision at first, thinking surely they would come to their senses.
They started unloading the car and carrying things into the house, which was fully furnished and clearly lived in. They were commenting on the furnishings and dishes in a matter-of-fact way, and my mother started puttering in the kitchen, although she seemed a little disapproving of the cookware. My dad removed a screen from one of the windows, saying that it was double-screened for winter, and since it was no longer winter the screen should be removed. I thought at first that he was getting ready to do some repair work, which I had mixed feelings about. On one hand, this wasn't his house; on the other hand, maybe he was looking at it as payment for staying there.
When I realized that they were serious about staying there, I started freaking out and saying that we had to leave right now because someone lived in the house and we could be charged with breaking and entering. When they weren't fazed by that, I brought up the possibility of the owner coming home late, finding his house full of strangers, and opening fire with his shotgun and killing us in our sleep. That didn't make much of an impression either, and I was more and more stressed about how to extricate myself from the situation. I was also disturbed at not getting any backup from my sister, who in real life is sensible and very cautious about anything that could provoke a violent reaction from a random stranger. She had shut down and wasn't saying anything, just wandering around almost invisibly in the sidelines (maybe looking to make her exit unnoticed?).
After we had been there for a while, with all the lights blazing and the windows opened, a police car drove by. It circled around, left, drove by again, and parked facing the house. The policeman just sat there staring at the house, with a civilian woman in the passenger's seat who looked like Grace Jones. I thought that surely that would move my parents to change their plans, but they remained calm in their bedtime preparations.
I don't remember how all that ended. I think it just phased into another story line. I was at work, looking at pictures (or footage?) with my boss. The pictures showed the bend in a creek that was supposedly part of a cave/creek system here in town. The bed was eroded stone with very steep edges, like a very miniature western river canyon, and the water was gushing through. He wanted me to go out and explore the creek system and take more pictures, but I was a little worried about the safety of getting into such rushing water. He said it was only about waist deep, but I thought he was being a little cavalier because he's a very tall and large person and would be a lot more stable in such a rapid current than a medium-sized person. I also wasn't excited about spending my free time on a work-related project, even one involving such beautiful scenery, and hoped he would forget about asking me.
In the other snippet, I was shopping with my mother, and it's only significant in a dream-analysis sense. She was rushing me along and didn't want me to look at some things I wanted to look at, which is one reason I don't shop with my significant other (the other reason being that I don't generally like shopping with anyone but myself). It's one of a few examples of dreams in which I transfer annoying husbandly traits to my mother, which I find odd.
Monday, May 25, 2009
Beer Foam Races
I dreamed that I was part of some kind of promotional contest taking place in a grocery store. I was going to be racing another contestant (nameless, faceless guy) through the grocery store, down aisles lined with our supporters: my race course was lined with mine, and his course was lined with his. Apparently, this contest was attended mostly by kids--about fourth grade through high school.
Apparently this contest required a lot of strutting around, a lot of trash talking, and a lot of high-fiving and saying, "YEAH!" (all activities foreign to my personality). Anyway, after a lot of this "bonding" with our fans, we lined up with our backs against the meat counter (??) and the race finally started. It turned out to be a very short race and I don't even know who won. We ran down a short aisle, made a right turn, and sprinted down the final distance. Both of us then strutted and high-fived our ways back to the starting point. I guess the older teenagers were sitting together near the starting point and they had been holding beer bottles behind the meat counter, shaking them up. When I arrived back at the starting point, the teenagers opened the beer bottles and started spraying me with beer foam in celebration (remember, I don't actually know if I won).
I started laughing really hard (again, really out of character) and shouted over to the other contestant to take a picture of me, covered in beer foam. At this point, the foam was in big piles, like snowdrifts. When I went over to look at the picture on his digital camera, I was surprised to discover that I was wearing an above-the-knee, white, pleated skirt and a navy blue shirt with (possibly) saddle shoes. I was surprised to learn that I had been running in a skirt and the possibility occurred to me that that might have been the reason for all the support from the teenage boys.
Apparently this contest required a lot of strutting around, a lot of trash talking, and a lot of high-fiving and saying, "YEAH!" (all activities foreign to my personality). Anyway, after a lot of this "bonding" with our fans, we lined up with our backs against the meat counter (??) and the race finally started. It turned out to be a very short race and I don't even know who won. We ran down a short aisle, made a right turn, and sprinted down the final distance. Both of us then strutted and high-fived our ways back to the starting point. I guess the older teenagers were sitting together near the starting point and they had been holding beer bottles behind the meat counter, shaking them up. When I arrived back at the starting point, the teenagers opened the beer bottles and started spraying me with beer foam in celebration (remember, I don't actually know if I won).
I started laughing really hard (again, really out of character) and shouted over to the other contestant to take a picture of me, covered in beer foam. At this point, the foam was in big piles, like snowdrifts. When I went over to look at the picture on his digital camera, I was surprised to discover that I was wearing an above-the-knee, white, pleated skirt and a navy blue shirt with (possibly) saddle shoes. I was surprised to learn that I had been running in a skirt and the possibility occurred to me that that might have been the reason for all the support from the teenage boys.
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