My Dreams

No, not my goals and ambitions. The vivid ones I have just about every night. Ree, over at Confessions of a Pioneer Woman, had a post the other day about her common dreams. Some people don't dream much, or at least don't remember their dreams. That is not me. I dream often, and in bright color. I usually remember at least some part of my dreams when I wake up. I also talk in my sleep. Amy has some pretty funny stories about when we roomed together in college. I slept on the top bunk, and one night she woke up feeling like someone was watching her. It was me, hanging over the edge of my bed with my hair dangling down. SHe asked me what was wrong, and I said, "My bear is fuzzier than yours." To prove my point, I hauled my stuffed polar bear over the edge to show her. She readily agreed with my crazy self, and, satisfied, I went back to bed.

I would also sleepwalk in college. Several times I would wake up to find myself standing by my desk, in the process of putting my robe on to go take a shower . . . at 4:00 in the morning, or whenever. Once Amy woke up too, and she asked me where I was going. Since I was now awake and realized that in fact, it was not time to wake up, I loftily said, "DON'T WORRY. I know what I'm doing." Then I went off to go potty, coming back to take my robe back off and put my pajamas back on. Yep, I had a plan and I KNEW what I was doing. LOL!

But back to dreams. One dream from college that I remember very vividly, and so does Amy, is one I had after a botany field trip where we walked around the campus identifying all the tree species. There was a big weeping willow in front of one of the buildings, and in my dream, I was trapped underneath it, and I couldn't get out, although I was wildly scratching at the branches and struggling with it. What I found out later was that I was actually scratching at the walls of our room, muttering things like, "Help! I can't get out!" Amy thought someone was up there raping me!

The most common dream that I dream is one where I have to fill in for someone on a cheerleading squad at a competition. They grab me out of the stands and try to teach me the routine in about a minute, and then we go on stage. Of course, I can remember nothing, and it seems like my arms and legs are in quicksand. I wake up very embarrassed and very relieved that I am no longer a cheerleader. I don't recall ever having this dream when I actually WAS a cheerleader, however!

I also frequently dream that it is exam day, and although I have known about the exam, I never attended any classes, and I never even opened the book. I wonder how I could have been so stupid and what was I doing all that time? I try to think of a good and valid excuse, but my brain is in a fog. You would think that having been out of college now for 11 years, that those dreams would die away, but no. My dad says that he still has dreams where he is at the Academy, out on the terazzo, in the wrong uniform or whatever, and he graduated in 1965, so I guess I am doomed to continue dreaming these college dreams!

I also have a lot of dreams where my depth perception is really off, but I have to go up or down stairs or be in some other high place. One time I remeber that I had to sit down on the stairs and scoot the whole way down. Of course, in my dream there never really was a bottom to the stairs, so I kept on scooting and being very scared. No wonder I wake up tired sometimes!

Two nights ago, I had a new dream, and it affected my mood the entire day! I dreamed I was back at college (I think I spend more time there in my dreams than when I actually attended, LOL!), and I had to find a campus job. Like it was some kind of requirement or something. So everyone lined up in the big gym-like building to see what the different jobs descriptions were. I read them all and realized that I wasn't qualified for ANY of them, not even the housekeeping ones. I kept trying to think what else I could put on my resume, but I just drew a blank. Some of the jobs seemed interesting, like being in charge of these different groups of girls, but it was obvious that a million people were more qualified than me, and there was no job for me. I woke up feeling so discouraged! Obviously there is some connection to my deep-seated feelings of inadequacy about being a stay-at-home-mom, LOL! Or maybe about the sad state of my housekeeping here, to think that I wasn't even qualified for those jobs! Well, we all cleaned bathrooms today, so maybe that dream will never return! Anyone else have any interesting or recurring dreams?