mr. clooney makes a reappearance

I've been lax lately about recording the dreams that I've remembered (which haven't been many), but I couldn't neglect this one, since I find repeats amusing [although, note to subconscious: group trips/group living arrangement repeats are no longer amusing!].

Anyway, my situation alternated in the dream between being an 8th-grader (??), being an older student (as in, I was my age or maybe even older and returning to college), and being on a trip with my husband. I switched back and forth between these situations as they seemed to make more or less sense within the context*. There was a lot of rather tiresome back-and-forths involving being in a younger classroom (a first-day-of-school atmosphere), finding my college classes, and making travel plans with my husband. I should add that at times I was in Paris and at times I was in New York.

Anyway, there was a lot of low-level stress and interaction with peers of various ages, but the noteworthy part of it was another conversation with George Clooney, in which he proved just as agreeable a conversationalist as my first [dream] encounter with him**. It started in the 8th-grade classroom, although I have absolutely no idea what he was doing there. He seemed slightly bemused, and I made a little small talk with him before asking, "Honestly, what is it like to be constantly assaulted everywhere you go by eager females? Doesn't it start to get annoying?" He seemed slightly amused but very deftly answered in a way that wouldn't get him in trouble with his female fan base. Then the situation shifted and I was in college. I turned around to talk to him again, but he was gone.

Other recent snippets that I remember:

1. I had gotten myself roped into knitting a rather complicated light blue lace scarf for a coworker. I had gotten about 8 inches of it done and was showing it to her when she said that she might really rather prefer a cowl. I was proposing various ways in which what I'd already done could be converted to a cowl format, trying to be nice while at the same time annoyed at her presumption since I didn't really want to knit something for her in the first place.
2. [I was living in a group situation when] while walking home one day, I was accosted by a developmentally disabled man. I couldn't find a way of avoiding him, although I didn't want to talk to him because I was afraid he would ask me for something. He did, although not what I expected: he wanted me to look over a book on jewelry making and do a (positive) review of it online. I tried to be noncommittal, but he wouldn't take no for an answer.
3. I had been on a semi-long visit somewhere (living in a group, of course), and was ready to go back, or maybe go on to another destination. I was traveling with my sister, and there was some miscommunication all around as to the time/place of departure. When one bit of confusion was cleared up, another one cropped up, and when we finally cleared up where and when we were supposed to be leaving, it was almost too late and our luggage was still with our hostess. She finally came running up with it, in a weird, construction-tunnel-like part of the airport, and we made it on the plane. Once on, though, we were informed that because of our lateness we had been relegated to "the upper deck". This turned out to be a small balcony in the back of the plane, overlooking the rest of the seated passengers. There were no seats on this balcony, and not even any railing to prevent us from falling on the heads of the passengers below during turbulence. I was really worried and annoyed that the airline*** would think this was acceptable, but finally discovered a few seatbelts coming out of the back wall. I figured that we could strap ourselves in with those and lounge on our luggage (which had stayed with us), and thus be reasonably safe. The other "upper deck" passengers didn't seem worried, and spread themselves out near the edge, looking very comfortable.
   

*I'm not sure this situation-switching has happened to me before, although surely it has.
**Although I can't deny his attractiveness, I feel I should specify that I am not, nor have I ever been, obsessed with Mr. Clooney.
***The airline was African, a detail I'm sure was due to my recent thrift-store purchase of a blanket from Kenya Airways.

more ugh

[Another "ugh" to go along with the previous post.]

I don't remember what led to this, but I was settling into an educational institution. It must have been a co-ed dorm*, because I was in a restroom with a couple of guys I had known at various points in my real-life educational career. They're both fair-haired, and they were wearing similar but not exactly-matching plaid western shirts, lending them the air of a hipster comedy duo.

I was trying to find a toilet suitable for use, but, as so often happens with public restrooms, they all had issues. I finally settled on the one with masses of waterlogged toilet paper covering the seat. I brushed it off into the bowl and tried to flush the toilet (which was fortunately free of unpleasant matter as far as I could see). When I started to flush, it began to spew water all over**, on the walls and--more importantly--on me. It was a spectacular geyser made up of both larger solid streams and fine spray, and it got all over my face and even in my mouth, which I suppose was opened in astonishment and alarm. Of course my thoughts immediately turned to e. coli.

This awakened the sympathy of my two friends, who, it became obvious, didn't remember me at all. They said, "aw, what a bad start to your freshman year!" I was taken aback, realizing that they had mistaken me for someone a good 15 years or so younger. On one hand, it filled me with glee that I (apparently) looked young; on the other hand, I felt like an impostor due for a fair dose of embarrassment when they would inevitably realize that I was not, indeed, an 18-year-old and that I hadn't corrected them. My feeling of fraud increased when they very kindly offered to show me around (it also didn't help that we would be exchanging the relative obscurity of the restroom for the less forgiving sunlight outside).



*Really, WHY do i so frequently dream that I'm moving into or living in a dorm?
**I'm sure this was prompted by my intense hate of those odious auto-flush toilets that start to flush with excessive force right as you're sitting down, spraying your backside with a fine mist of water containing microorganisms I'd rather not think about.

Brits in drag

I don't have time right now to describe the other night's extremely trippy dream featuring a gigantic moth man (yes!), or the movie/crime mystery dream loosely inspired by The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. In the interest of not falling behind again, though, here is last night's dream.

I was in school, although "school" was vaguely defined and included some of my coworkers* in vague capacities as fellow students and/or instructors. We were supposed to be putting together a paper/presentation, and the first group was going to start presenting later that day. Of course I still hadn't even settled on a topic. I had been fairly sure of a topic I can't remember now, involving serving food as part of the presentation. Then I decided that a topic involving Japan and serving sushi (which I'm not an expert on) would be better.

I was feeling okay about my presentation (although I didn't have any material), until I started to deal with the sushi-making. I looked at my raw materials (leftover long-grain rice with bits of carrot), and realized that it was all wrong and I would never be able to pull things together. After some desperate thinking [during which there was a mini subplot in which a boy I had a crush on in elementary school was now divorced with a kid or two and expressing interest, which was kind of flattering even though I thought he might just be looking for childcare], I came up with an idea. My topic would be "why do men in drag feature so prominently in British sketch-type comedies?"**

I thought this was a great topic because it was something I was personally curious about, but I had the wind taken out of my sails when I asked around and none of my fellow students had even seen Monty Python (not that I'm a huge Monty Python fan, but I figured everyone would at least know that reference). I then started doubting once again my choice of subjects, which brought on a full-blown crisis regarding inability to focus and commit to a decision. I hate it when my subconscious has to bring up and rub in these real-life character flaws.



*I've been having an inordinate, and annoying, number of coworker dream sightings.
**Prompted, no doubt, by my recent viewing of said British sketch-type comedy.

Snippets

I haven't remembered many of my dreams lately, just a little snippet here and there.  But I haven't posted in awhile and was kind of feeling like I've been neglecting this blog.  So here ya go...

Last night I dreamed that I was back to working in a salon.  (I used to work in one eons ago and quit there because it wasn't a stable income.)  I had the feeling that I was pretty poor and was excited when I man came into the salon for a haircut.  His first question was if I could shampoo his hair without getting water all down his back.  He also wanted to know if I could blow-dry his hair once I was done.  Of course I told him yes!  We went back to my little area of the salon where I draped him with a haircutting cape.  I then took him over to the shampoo bowl.  His head didn't seem to fit into it and I couldn't figure out why at first.  Then I noticed that there were perm rods in the bowl.  A co-worker (one who I really did work in the salon with but haven't seen in years) came over and had the guy lift his head up onto the counter for a moment while she rinsed the rods and took them out of the sink.  The counter was up much higher than the sink and the way the guy was positioned, I don't know how he could've gotten it up there?!  So she gets all done and I proceed to shampoo his hair.  In the mean time, some random dream guy showed up and was asking me all kinds of questions.  I don't know what he was asking me but it seemed to take a lot of concentration to think of the answers and I wasn't paying much attention to the guy whose hair I was shampooing.  I got all finished and sat up the guy there for a haircut and put a towel on his head.  As he rubbed his hair dry with the towel, I noticed his back was all wet.  He got up and left, cape and all.  As he was walking out, I said goodbye but continued to talk to the second man.  Shortly after, I realized that I hadn't given the first man any of what he'd asked for.  I was concerned my supervisor would be angry that he didn't even pay for the shampooing and wondered what I'd tell her.
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This was a very disturbing dream to me.  I don't have a job in real life and can't seem to get one.  I'm barely managing to keep my head above water each month so I pray this isn't a forewarning of what's to come.

I was walking around my house and there were lots of packed boxes everywhere, some of them sealed shut already and others only partially packed so they were still open.  In real life, I have a room which I call my girly room.  It's sponge painted pink and blue.  In the dream, I went into that room for some unknown reason and noticed the walls had been repainted, they were now all white.  I couldn't figure out why it had been repainted.  In my confusion, I stumbled into one of the open boxes and turned to look at the items in it.  There was a look of horror on my face as I realized that not only were the items not mine, but the house was no longer mine either.
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I was on a campus of some school and was trying to figure out how to sign up to attend.  I have no idea what kind of school it was (college, technical school, etc.) beyond the fact that it was some kind of higher education after high school.  I also have no idea what kind of class(es) I was trying to sign up for.  After walking around for a bit, I figured out where I needed to be.  I needed help filling out the registration papers so I was taken to a classroom with a gentleman who helped me complete them.  We sat in a classroom at a long table.  As we filled out the paperwork, a class was going on around us.  The weird thing is, it wasn't just one class being taught.  There were mulitple classes all being taught at the same time by the same teacher.  One of the classes was a Spanish class and the students spoke mostly Spanish.  After awhile, she's switch to another subject.  Each subject she taught had totally different students so everyone was crammed in together.  I don't remember what other subjects she taught but they were things that were totally unrelated to each other.  Like one subject was for sure Spanish but another might have been Greek History and another could've been algebra.  I knew that I was registering for this teacher's class and wondered how I'd ever manage to not get confused or distracted with all the other things going on around me.  When the class was over, the various students stood up to leave and that's when I got a better look at them.  The majority of them were considerably older than me and several of them seemed to be senior citizens.  The man who was helping me was trying to get my attention so that we could finish up the registration paperwork but I kept wanting to look around at everything going on around me.  I noticed a gentleman I hadn't seen in many years who in real life has actually passed on.  He was talking to a woman about his same age and they were discussing the difficulty of the class.  He didn't seem to notice me and didn't acknowledge me at all.
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I was sitting on the edge of my bathtub in preparation of shaving my legs.  There was a band-aid on my leg and I was trying to figure out how to shave around it without getting it wet or having to remove it. 

harrowing pet and school dreams

I haven't had one of these dreams in a while (I used to have them fairly often), but last night I dreamed that I had some pet birds. The dream followed the usual scenario: I had gotten them and then sort of forgotten I had them*; of course that meant I had forgotten to check their food and water; out of an original number of 5-6, a couple were dead in the bottom of the cage. Another variation I've had on this dream is that the birds are not dying, but escaping from cages with too much space between the bars. I've also had rather harrowing dreams featuring other pets that I've forgotten to feed/water, usually dogs (I don't recall one where the dog actually died, but there have been some close calls).


*Interestingly, I have a vague memory of also recently having a dream in which I had forgotten about being enrolled in a math class for an entire semester. Except at the end of the dream I realized that I had actually dropped the class and there was no reason to be so frantic.

get thee to a nunnery!

I had an interesting variation on the back-to-school/moving-into-a-dorm dream last night: I dreamed that I was going to be living in a convent! I wasn't actually planning on becoming a nun, but I was planning on living there for a year or so and studying. There were actually two convents side by side. One was modern, with great facilities and possibly a somewhat different theological orientation (although I'm not sure about that; maybe I was just going by the cushier environment). The one I was going to stay in, though, was pretty rudimentary, to the point of not even having hot water (?!). There was some uncertainty at first about which convent was in charge of my course of study, and I was a little disappointed to find that I would be in the primitive one. But then it occurred to me that I could view this as a supplement to my year of intense spiritual study and it would be very bracing and back-to-basics.

My husband* drove me and my belongings there to move into the dorm, and after some confusion about parking, we ended up parking on a nice flagstone patio that I'm pretty sure was not intended for parking (the flower pots and seating were a tip-off). We found my room and I started arranging my things; the rooms were more pleasant than I would have thought after seeing their primitive bathroom setup. My roommate was a Norwegian girl whose blog and flickr stream I sometimes visit, and she seemed very nice, so I was getting excited about my school year.

Just before waking up, I was talking to the person responsible for assigning work in the convent. He was telling me that I would be continuing my present job during the year, but launched into an ominous-sounding spiel about having "reevaluated the salary", and "in view of the present financial situation we have concluded..."--and then I woke up before I could find out how much (or rather how little) they were going to pay me. My husband pushed his snooze button and I tried halfheartedly to get myself back into the dream so I could end the suspense, but it didn't work.


*I find it highly amusing that my husband was cheerfully and supportively dropping me off for a year of separation in a convent.

back to school

I had sort of a back-to-school dream last night. I was getting set up in a dorm, my roommate seemed nice, I had some cute clothes and dorm furnishings, so overall it was agreeable. There was an unpleasant bit where I got hung up on getting ready to go to the library to study, though. I kept putting on more and more and more makeup, wondering why I was doing it and why it wasn't making me look better [and now I wonder what that was all about, because it was significantly more makeup than I ever actually wear]. I made a resolution that I was just going to stop where I was, go to the library, try not to worry about looking like a clown, and henceforth be an effortless natural beauty (!). I felt rather optimistic about my future as an E.N.B.

The other disagreeable part of the dream was my ex-boyfriend calling just as I was getting ready to leave. I was puzzled about how he had gotten my new number so quickly, and I was really annoyed because, although I didn't have anything against talking to him from time to time, I had a sense that he was going to start calling really frequently and I wouldn't be able to figure out how to get him to stop without being rude and hurting his feelings.

And I just had a flashback to a dream that I had completely forgotten, from a few weeks ago. I don't remember the story line, just images. It involved a fantastically overcrowded house (not mine) and a blues singer. The whole atmosphere was very Deep South.

swimming contest

The setting for this dream was the default group/institution setting, kind of a cross between a short-term academic program and summer camp. I think everyone, including me, was a teenager, although it didn't register as being a change in age.

The only thing I remember very well is that the people in charge were organizing an athletic contest. Apparently this was a tradition for the group, and the centerpiece of the tradition was a long-distance, cold-weather swimming contest. The location was at the edge of a lake or maybe the ocean, in a Scandinavian-like climate. I think it might have been winter to boot--at least it wasn't summery, and the water was very cold.

The adults in charge of the contest were gathering people up to participate, and when they came to me they insinuated that it wasn't a big deal, something they had done for years, and not even all that difficult. I must have signed myself up, because when they came around on subsequent rounds they asked if I was getting ready for the competition. I tried to find out more about it and began to realize that I might not want to do it after all. Every time the sign-up lady came out with another informational tidbit about it it sounded more daunting. I had just assumed that we were supposed to wear swimsuits, but then she mentioned that we should wear at least two swimsuits, and probably socks. I looked down and realized that I was wearing a pea-green competition-style suit over a darker green retro halter suit with shirring. I kind of liked them both, especially the retro one, and wondered vaguely where I had gotten them*.

It had gotten near enough to the race time that people were lining up at the edge of the dock (in all kinds of weird clothing combinations), and I was getting a little apprehensive. The organizer lady came around again, and asked me if I was sure I wanted to compete. I asked what the distance was and she hemmed and hawed, but then said that it would be about an hour and a half of swimming in frigid water. I said, "Oh, in that case I'd better not. I could swim for an hour and a half, but I couldn't compete for an hour and a half." I think I was also wanting to put on some regular clothes by that time, and picturing young competitors dropping off mid-race and sinking slowly to a watery grave. The organizer was fine with my withdrawal, and I thought the staff were displaying a weird and irresponsible mix of cavalier disregard for safety on one hand and a stifling tendency to assume my incapacity on the other.

There was another part of the dream involving a very nifty old house in the middle of the desert that had been converted into a restaurant/museum and was supposedly haunted; and an episode involving rapidly rising floodwater about which I was very unconcerned--but I don't remember much about either.



*oddly, I didn't wonder why I was in good enough shape to be wandering around unselfconsciously in a swimsuit, or swimsuits, as the case may be.

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!

blah

It's so annoying to wake up and realize that you've been dreaming about work AND school, simultaneously. Right before I woke up this morning I was having one of those dreams where you find out near the end of the semester that you've been in a class you didn't realize you were in. I apparently knew I was in this class (some kind of science, although physical or social I don't know), but I hadn't been studying. I had been squeaking by, but I suddenly resolved to start studying, and was confident that I would immediately start acing it and confound the professor (who, I imagined, would pronounce me a genius).

The only problem was that I was working full-time at the job I have now (except in a different building--actually, two separate buildings--and a slightly different set of coworkers). I had to ask if I could leave early from work so I could study for the class.

What a boring dream. And then I woke up and realized that, although I didn't have to study for anything, I still had to go to work. I was looking forward to that afternoon off.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

A while back I had another job-related dream. I was talking about something random with a coworker (a real one, not a dream-generated one), when he said, "well, it doesn't matter anyway, whatever happens you'll complain about it". I said, "what do you mean?" He answered that I was constantly complaining about everything, that "everyone is always talking about how you complain all the time." I was surprised and alarmed, because I didn't think I complained *that* much, and pressed him for more details. What did I complain about? In what way did I complain? How could I cut down on my complaining so as not to bother everyone? He shrugged dismissively as if to say that it wasn't worth it because I wouldn't change, and started to walk down the hall. I called after him to think about it and then send me an e-mail with the details. Right before I woke up I was at my desk checking my e-mail, and there was no message from him. I had a sinking feeling, knowing that I had a reputation as a whiner and that he wasn't going to e-mail me about it and I would therefore never be able to correct the problem.

That was a weird variation on the dreams I have occasionally where various members of my family (usually my mother) are berating me for being a terrible person because of a whole cornucopia of grave character flaws.

get away from my dream, brangelina!

{I'm annoyed sometimes at how many of the same boxes my dreams check. This one checked most of them (school, group trip, career-related anxiety, procrastination, celebrities, family members).}

In the beginning of the dream I was somehow in school. It was neither college nor high school, really, more or a career-related thing (Remedial Career Planning?). We were either getting ready to go on or already on a group trip (I should just omit mentioning this and let the reader assume that, unless otherwise specified, all my dreams involve group trips). We were being assigned specific projects by a teacher/adviser, and when my turn came I was delighted to be assigned to design a coloring book featuring Texas wildflowers. The adviser hinted that it was in line with my interests in art and plants, and that I was wasting my abilities and should take advantage of this project to Get Ahead in My Career. I was really looking forward to it, but stressed at the same time because I had a sinking feeling that I was just going to procrastinate forever and either do a terrible job or not do it at all.

Against that cheerful backdrop, we arrived at Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie's house (/compound?). It was supposedly outside New Orleans, but the scenery was very western. The house and various other buildings were in a grassy area nestled against some small hills. Behind one part of the house was a big ravine with a magnificent view of a canyon and distant hills (more on this later). I was with an undefined group, but my parents and sister were also there. My sister wanted to take pictures, more because she liked the place than because she wanted celebrity-related pictures. We were both rather upset when I realized that my camera was still broken and that I hadn't brought any other cameras.

I think we were there for a meal of some sort, but it was pretty clear that our presence was an inconvenience, and the meal didn't happen. A haggard Brad Pitt was chasing a bunch of kids around. Angelina never did make an appearance. Brad gave some of us a perfunctory tour of the place, although when we got to the actual house it was obvious that he didn't want to show us the inside, and hadn't really been planning to--it was completely chaotic.

By "actual house", I mean a small old semi-renovated house with bedrooms for all the kids. There were apparently common living and dining rooms elsewhere, possibly in the adjacent newly-constructed house where Michelle Obama's mother was staying with the Obama offspring. She was very cute, pleasant and spunky. Her bedroom looked out over the wonderful canyon/hills view, and she said, "I'm a low-wage woman, and look where I'm living! Look at what a view I have!" I wasn't sure why she and her granddaughters were living there, but everyone seemed to think it made perfect sense.

In addition to the two houses, there were several other buildings, some of them very weird. I was looking at one, a glass building filled with strange apparatuses and tube-like structures, and thinking it was really neat and had great potential when Brad wandered up, apparently having escaped all the children for a minute. He explained to me that the property had been a cleaning business (dry-cleaning, etc.), and that one of the reasons they had bought it was to take advantage of the cleaning-related buildings to modify them into something architecturally interesting. He got very excited talking about it, and seemed to shake off his haggardness for the first time.

I think there may have been some press people there then, because all the kids started posing for pictures, piling up on top of each other. They were stacked like pancakes, flat on their backs, but just before the picture could be taken the top couple of kids toppled off. Brad seemed rather stressed about having to get them all stacked up again.

Wings

I dreamed that I was walking down a dirt road toward a high school called Mayfair High School (no place that I'm familiar with). I was with two other people, one my size and one a child. We were looking for someone named Mandy (a person that I used to know from my elementary/church days in real life). She was meant to be at this school. I'm not sure why we were looking for her.

As we walked toward the school, we were reminding each other that since we'd be in public, we'd need to adjust to hide our wings (!). Yes, apparently we three had angel-like wings on our shoulder blades, and I distinctly remember the action of adjusting my wings so that they were concealed beneath my clothes. (I don't think we were really angels, we just had wings.)

When we reached the school, my companions faded away and I was walking down the corridors alone. There were various features of schools: posters, kids in the halls, tables. I ended up in a gymnasium where I was invited to stay for an event. One of the classes was having an apple-tasting, wherein we would walk around to various tables and sample different kinds of apples (I've actually done this in real life, so there's a precedent). As I stood in line, I met BNB (real life boyfriend) and we started talking as we made our rotation of the apple-tasting stations. I sensed that he was about to ask me to go home with him after the event and I realized that this meant that we'd have to have a conversation about the wings before he was startled by them. As we stood in line, I was considering how to break this news to him: how do you explain that you have wings?

obama drama

so last night was my first dream (that i can remember) about barack obama.

in the dream i was a student at a university. which university? no clue. what i was studying? no clue. all i know is that we had a guest lecture from barack. he came in really frazzled and exhausted and attempted to present but it was terrible. i remember leaning over to a classmate and commenting that he really has too much on his plate and he shouldn't have tried to give a presentation for us in the middle of campaigning. i felt bad for him and kept thinking he really needs to rest.

after class i ran into him outside where he was smoking. i then had a talk with him about self-care and how he needed to rest up and stop smoking for real or else he wouldn't be healthy enough to run a good campaign.

the end.

variety pack

Last night I had a dream involving Curly Sue (one of our illustrious contributors, who I happen to know in real life). I and several other people I knew (although I only knew them in the dream) were enrolling in some kind of educational program. It was semi-university, semi-short-term seminar/summer camp. I don't remember what I was studying--I was probably undecided, knowing me. She was already into her program, though, and it turned out that she was doing some kind of religious studies. She had to teach a class that she was apparently somewhat nervous about, although when she started in I thought she was doing a great job. It was kind of strange, though, because I couldn't figure out whether her course of study was the theoretical study of religion, or whether it was more "practical religion".

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

My husband and I are trying to buy a house (in real life), and we've been doing lots and lots of research on dogs so we can get one when we move out of our apartment. I've looked at so many dogs, both in person and online, that for a while every time I closed my eyes I would see dogs of all sorts. I was having a lot of dreams involving dogs, but the only one I can really remember is being somewhere with my mother and some other family members. There were a couple of very friendly pit bulls there, and my mother was so taken with them that she decided pit bulls were wonderful dogs, the ideal dog! This was extremely funny, since my mother is not a dog person in general and thinks of pit bulls in particular as "those dogs that eat their owners".

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And finally...quite a while ago I had a dream about Madonna, who is not someone I normally devote a lot of thought too.

I can't remember a lot about the dream, except that I was employed in some kind of position where I was supposed to be putting together coffee-table type books, and the editors wanted to feature Madonna somehow (her house, maybe?). So I had to work with her on getting some things, and she was extremely nice, professional and helpful. She gave me some white, gauzy fabric with her initials in loopy red script all over it, and although I didn't like the idea of having her initials all over my garment I was excited because it was really nice fabric. As I was talking to her I was distracted trying to figure out what I wanted to make with it (some kind of billowy blouse). Her house was, as would be expected, very impressive and fancy, with big chandeliers and huge rooms covered in marble. Afterward I kept talking to people about how friendly and nice she was, although I was simultaneously embarrassed to be gushing about a celebrity.

Unprepared

Apparently it's nightmare season? Oh, or maybe it's that my PhD exams are coming up at the end of the summer. Bring on the anxiety dreams!

I was driving through snow. It wasn't very much snow, and it didn't look too slippery, until oncoming cars started slipping elaborately, all across the road in front of me. Then I started sliding, too. I'm pretty sure I ran over a fallen bicycle wheel on the shoulder. And that there was a cop behind me when I did so. I figured if he pulled me over I'd say I hadn't noticed.

I got to the freeway and realized I was taking the wrong way to get to the place I needed to be, and to which I was probably already going to be late. Then (far too late to turn around), I realized that I was headed to my summer teaching job, and that I didn't have any of my supplies with me.

In the building, I put down what I did have with me (my purse?) and saw that the clock said 1:40. That meant I was either 10 minutes late for the start of a 1:30 class, or maybe just shy of the requisite half hour early for a 2:00 class (although we were supposed to be there an hour early on the first day of class, and this was the first day). I went looking for a schedule of events happening at the building, and saw that my reading class was indeed scheduled for that day, from 2:00-4:00. As I was looking at the schedule, I saw one of my parents from last summer, who I really liked. She gave me a hug and told me what a great experience it had been, and that she'd brought her kids back for more. I looked around and saw several parents with small children. I smiled uneasily, terrified about what I could possibly put together in the next 20 minutes without my lesson plan, let alone any books for the kids to read, or even their materials packets. To make matters worse, I realized that that first class was to be a Level 2, the only level I hadn't taught last summer. I was feeling horrified at the thought that I would just have to tell everyone we couldn't have class today on this first day when I woke myself up. What a relief.

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.

Celebrity Cameo

Last night I dreamed that I was attending college again, not my real one. This wasn't a trip back in time. I was my own age and was returning to school for some reason. At this school, the only people that I knew were people that I didn't like for some reason. I was constantly working to avoid these people. I was supposed to meet a couple of people that I did like for lunch, but they didn't show up and my feelings were really hurt. Since I had some extra time to kill, I went to my Spanish class early but there were people in the classroom, so I waited in the hall. I suddenly noticed that J.K. Rowling was sitting outside another classroom, waiting to give a guest lecture. I went over to her (totally out of character for me) and started talking about the Harry Potter series. I told her I was a big fan and we started discussing nerdy minutiae of the HP books.

Teaching

I was supposed to be teaching, and I was running late. (I think I also had long hair and was wearing a skirt--maybe fuschia.) On my way into the classroom, I saw someone important--an administrator type--who then knew I was late. I was a little embarrassed, but it didn't seem to be a big deal.

I wasn't prepared as I started teaching, but my students seemed to really love me--they smiled and nodded enthusiastically at pretty much everything I said. I realized I was kind of a spaz as a teacher, though, but couldn't really convince myself to care much. I wondered briefly whether I could just drop out, since I didn't care.

Too short to make sense?

Following the theme of school and teaching, my dream took place at a university with beige buildings, where I witnessed an overweight man being shot, who I assumed to be a professor. The students around him quickly ran away while saying "Its ok, he wasn't a good teacher anyway", to which I was horrified to hear. I suddenly found myself driving away on a freeway that was going no where in particular. And then I woke up thinking, I hope this doesn't relate to the class I will be teaching in 2 weeks.

Back to school

I had a series of strange dreams last night, but the most notable was this:

I was back in my apartment in Minneapolis with a bunch of people, one of them the brother of the partner of a friend in my department, who I've only met once and who lives in Seattle. Somehow, we decided we needed to clean the floor, and soon everyone was using buckets and brushes in different rooms. The finished product was really amazing; my floor, which in real life has the character that only a century of livin' can impart, and is composed of narrow maple boards, had a warm, pinkish tone and an almost pearlescent luster.

On my couch was a pile of papers, which belonged to the boy I mentioned earlier. He's a PhD student in geology in real life, but looks about 18, and in the dream he was getting ready to start college. He was on the phone trying to figure out his schedule or finances or something--he was worried he wouldn't be able to start school that day.

Then I realized he was enrolled--or enrolling--at the U, and that I, too, was supposed to be starting school. It was 4:00 on Monday! What classes did I have today? What had I missed? Could I make it to my evening class on time?

It was cloudy and rainy, but I was still going to take my bike, and was frantically getting ready to go. Then, slowly, I realized that I didn't know what classes I was taking... because I had been supposed to e-mail a few different professors at my advisor's recommendation... and hadn't yet... because school didn't start for another two and a half weeks.

I was giddy with relief.