zombie lambs

I had a really weird and disturbing dream just before waking up this morning. I wasn't clear on all the details, and I think there were some double meanings/significances that I barely caught at the time but now can't remember.

It started out nicely enough. I was in a beautiful open field that sloped up on three sides to more wooded areas (there was a road in the distance at the uppermost point). I was just walking slowly and enjoying the scenery when I noticed a deer. At first I thought it would run away as I approached, but it didn't because it was very intently searching for something. Rather creepily, it almost brushed me as it went past in its quest.

I was a little alarmed and hoped that it didn't have some kind of dangerous rabies-like illness that was causing it to throw caution to the wind, but I soon realized that she (it was a she) was looking for her fawn. Just when I realized this, the fawn hopped into sight, but kept on going after something further up the hill.

It turned out that the fawn was going toward what looked like a group of lambs. All very idyllic, right? Almost syrupy-sweet? BUT. When it got to the group of lambs, I saw that they were writhing around on the ground in various zombie-like states (I guess my fears of a malicious infection were well-grounded, if misplaced). Some were motionless, apparently having died from their malady, others were wriggling around weakly, and still others were aggressively jumping at the fawn and trying to bite it.

As if that weren't disturbing enough, I suddenly found that I was responsible for either a small child or an animal (a dog? a kitten?). I really can't remember what my child/pet was, exactly, but I suddenly had to protect some sort of relatively helpless being from the zombie lambs. The whole thing was extremely creepy. I think some of the animals may have had speaking parts too, but I can't remember what they may have said.

very weird miscellany

It seemed like I woke up every 20 minutes or so last night thinking, "that was so weird. I have to remember that." Of course I forgot most of it, but I think the few I do remember are representative of the rest in weirdness.

• My husband was going to do some interplanetary travel. I'm not sure if I was going too, but at any rate I wasn't concerned or worried, just excited for him and the other two people who would be traveling in his little "pod". It was a very rudimentary metal construction divided into three stall-like compartments, almost like a flat-topped horse trailer, minus the wheels. Each stall had a round porthole-like window that the traveler could look out while en route. He and the other two travelers were getting inside the pod to accustom themselves, but not yet leaving. Oddly, I don't think there was even any glass on the windows. Apparently there had been such great advances in space travel that things like pressure and oxygen were no longer a concern.

• I was staying in a largeish cabin with my parents and sister in the woods somewhere, on a family vacation. I'm not sure who else might have been there, but I had the impression of more people there than just my nuclear family. At one point when we were all sitting around in the living room, I began to talk to the cat. It was a large, mottled gray cat with a slightly cartoonish air. I asked it some question of little consequence, and it answered me immediately as if to have a spoken interspecies conversation was completely normal. I looked around at my human companions and said, "See, that's why I like cats so much. They're so much more intelligent than dogs."*

• [Same setting, cabin in the woods, raised up on a very high foundation/stilts; on the front porch this time.] I was just loafing on the front porch when a redneck-ish man with a junior-high-age redneck-ish son sauntered onto the porch. I wasn't at all alarmed, because it felt like they had some business being there. I just kept reading my book, until I started to feel like the son was infringing a bit on my personal space by staring at me (the father was completely absorbed in the view of the woods and not paying any attention at all). The son said, a propos of nothing, "I'm kweeping!" which in this alternate dream universe meant, I knew, that he was *ahem* very excited**. I was pretty offended by his forward declaration and also didn't want to encourage his attentions, so I went back in the house without really saying anything. On one hand I didn't want to hurt his tender young feelings, but really! A few minutes later a [very corny] rejoinder came to me: "You're kweeping me out! I'm mawwied." [Get it? Think "mawwiage" from The Princess Bride.] I don't know where my brain comes up with these things, and I find it even more alarming that in the dream I considered it a brilliant example of l'esprit de l'escalier.

• Then there was a very brief vignette, maybe a movie, in which a bimbo-ish blonde woman was threatening a used-car-salesmanly man*** with a ludicrously tiny gun, cocking it and holding it to his head. It was some kind of revenge thing for his ostensible past mistreatment of her, and I never did see what actually happened. I had the impression that she was all just hot air (and whether such a tiny gun could do any damage was another legitimate question).
  

*This coming from a person who in real life very much likes both cats and dogs.
**What can possibly be with this recurring theme of inappropriately young boys expressing interest in me?
***Although I know that there are many exceptions to this, my stock impression (based on extensive experience being dragged to car dealerships) is a stout man with a greasy, bloated face and moist, meaty hands with one or two large rings jammed on to his fat fingers.

the easter robot

I can't remember much of last night's very long and involved dream, but there was an episode in which a group of retirees had an elaborate Easter tradition: every year they buried a robot, with great pomp and circumstance. I'm not sure if they then dug it back up or not, but it was a very elaborate ceremony.

anthony bourdain strikes again

All I can remember from last night's dreams are that Anthony Bourdain showed up again, which alarmed me a little. I don't think he had a major role, just a short cameo appearance. The main plotline involved a huge boulder-like formation of very hard red clay. At irregular intervals it would turn orange and then change to a pudding-like or jello-like texture, which was dangerous for anyone who didn't get off as soon as the color started changing (I think there was also a warning siren). There were a couple of kids playing on it, and some panic about where they were and whether they would manage to get off in time or were too absorbed in their play to notice the warning. There was also someone who had a big drilling machine* and was getting ready to drill into the rock/clay/pudding. Maybe that was where Anthony Bourdain came in--maybe he was the guy with the drill?

On looking at this written out, I feel like I should issue a disclaimer: I am not obsessed with Anthony Bourdain, and the part about drilling should not be interpreted in a...let's say Freudian...manner.


*I blame this part on the fact that we recently bought some used drill stem to use as fence posts.

Snippets

I had a lot of very strange dreams last night, many of which I can't remember. Of the ones I can, here are some snippets.

I had a series of dreams (interspersed with waking up and turning over) that involved updates on the legislative session in the state of Texas. I kept dreaming that I was reading/seeing/sensing various movements in the Austin government. I was both bored and confused by this in my sleep.

Then I had a strange and terrible dream that the top layer of skin on my right hand was peeling off, in the manner of post-sunburn peeling. It was really gross and I was afraid my boyfriend would yell at me, that he would think I wasn't taking care of myself. I tried putting lotion on it, but the skin was coming off in one big sheet, so lotion didn't really help.

Then I dreamed that a coworker and I were going to attend a coronation or inauguration. He decided to wear a large silver earring, in the manner of a pirate. I kept my mouth shut, as he obviously thought it was a good fashion choice.

Then I dreamed that I was poking around in a crumbling, falling-down house with passageways and tunnels. In one tunnel, I discovered a large number of new-looking backpacks set out, as though on display. I thought that there were a couple of nice ones that I'd like to go back for. One was a kind of cream color with a retro-style red trim. I was vaguely disappointed when I woke up and realized I couldn't go back for them.

Gritty Opera

I dreamed that my friend Beth* and I were discussing casting an opera (in real life, she works in opera), as though we were coworkers. We were talking about getting this person named Pam* (who is one of my current coworkers, a librarian) who I thought would be more "authentic." We were comparing Pam's performance in, I think, Aida, with what she might be in Carmen. I thought that since she had lots of tattoos and sometimes shot up with heroin (totally not true of coworker!!!!) on the stage (!!!) that she was more authentic than the person Beth was considering. She were arguing that we should hire someone else because, after all, why else are they trained as actors?

As we were discussing Pam's attributes in a role, we would see a replay of her performance in that role, like a montage summary. There was one scene in which she was singing in an opera (not sure which now), looking like a total junkie, crouching at the corner of the stage smoking a cigarette and handling a crack pipe or something. I was pointing to this example as one reason that Pam should be in this opera, for her authentic gritty qualities.

*Not their real names.

extremely surreal

I just remembered a snippet in which a scarecrow divided into two scarecrows. Then one of them handed me a lengthy letter. I really wish I could remember more.