Perchance to Dream

I had a really odd dream recently. I was with a girl who had just discovered she had awesome super powers, but who was really stupid. She could morph into a bird-like creature and fly, and also a sort of a dolphin. Some bad guys were after her, though, and I was trying to protect her. She kept leaping into the air and soaring around, or diving into the water to be a dolphin, laughing and squealing in a carefree manner, heedless of the danger that I felt lurking everywhere, and I was very nervous. Plus I had to go to prom. And I was going with a guy who was insisting on wearing a dress, so I was quite disturbed about that. I didn’t even like the guy! My dream ended with me getting my prom dress off of a long rack of dresses (it was a deep blue dress, and quite pretty!) and worrying about both the silly blonde girl and my date.

Where do dreams like this come from? It has been a very long time since I went to prom, and I don’t actually know anyone who can fly like a bird or swim like a dolphin. I mean, I don’t think I am a disturbed person in my waking life, just in my dreams!

It got me to thinking about other strange dreams I have had.

When I was pregnant with my second child, I dreamed that I went to see my midwife for a check- up. She removed the baby (it HURT!), examined her, said, “Nope, not done yet”, and put her back in. I was crushed. She did end up arriving two weeks late, so maybe it was a sign!

Another set of bad dreams I had as a child were actually recurring nightmares. Have you ever had those? I don’t recommend it! In one, I was in the very back of our family’s teal Volkswagen Beetle (we called that spot the “way-back” and I LOVED to ride back there--this was before seatbelt laws). My mom and dad were in the front seats, and my dad was driving somewhere. We went up a LOOOOONG grassy hill, and they stopped at the house at the top. I was asleep (yet totally aware), and so they got out and left me sleeping in the way-back. The car started rolling backwards down the hill, going faster and faster, and there was nothing I could do. That’s when I would wake up.

I think I was around five years old when I had this dream, and I had it several times.

Another nightmare was very strange. I was in the woods with my mom. We got to the edge of a large, newly paved area that was totally surrounded by trees, and she had to send me across to my dad, who was waiting on the other side. She put me on a magic carpet, which started flying me across the new asphalt, but only about a foot above the pavement. The problem was, there were tar sharks swimming in the asphalt, and they were trying to get me. Yes, TAR SHARKS! I was rightfully terrified, with those tar sharks leaping and snapping and trying to eat me. Fortunately, I finally made it to the other side, although just barely. The magic carpet ran out of steam just about a foot past the paving and as I ran to my daddy, one lunged out of the tar onto shore, snapping at my heels.

I had this dream several times, also, at about the same time as the rolling-down-the-hill-backwards dream.

The last recurring nightmare that I remember was also when I was five.

I was in the house where my family lived, and there was a witch who was coming to get me. My daddy and mama hid me in the way-back of the car (see how important it was to me?) and covered me with a blanket. The witch didn’t find me that night, but later I was walking by her house, and fell into the drainage ditch that ran in front of it. I was swept down into a little room that was full of other children who had gotten caught there. It was a stark, square, white room, and there were probably around ten children in it. A couple of children were dead, and most were in an extreme state of emaciation. As I realized that there was no way out, I would wake up.

So apparently I WAS a disturbed little child! Also very insecure. I am glad that I don’t have those dreams anymore.

On to other disturbing topics:  Here is a picture of me in the protective gear that I SHOULD have worn for my lawn-mowing escapades last week.  I tried to get my husband to pose, but he's not into public humiliation.  Anyway, I look pretty hot, right?