Return of the Dream Blog

I apologize for my lack of dream-sharing in the last few weeks, and I hope no one's quality of life diminished at all during that time. Today I'm jumping back in:

In my most vivid dream last night (I always say, "last night," but it is probably more accurate to say, "this morning," considering most of my time spent sleeping is in the early morning rather than night... Oh well...) I was training for a race, and had not done a quality training session in a while (uh, that part might be accurate.) I walked out of my apartment, at which point I realized that the race I was training for was not simply running: I had to place both hands on a skate board and push it. I positioned the board in the middle of the street facing east and began to run. I felt tired and knew I shouldn't have put so much time between my training runs. At one point I tried to lift the board up a little so that only the front wheels were on the ground, but it occurred to me that this would be an illegal advantage during the race because fewer wheels mean less friction. I put the board back down and continued to run. I turned left on a street, then left again to make a loop back to my apartment. As I approached the end of my run I glanced at my watch: almost 9 minutes. Terrible. When I finished, however, I looked at my watch again and saw that I had misread it the first time; I actually finished in 8 minutes 25 seconds, and I felt rather pleased with that.

In a second dream I walked through a parking lot and saw the mom of one of my youth sitting on a blanket with one of her younger children. I said hello and kept walking to a freezer (in the parking lot? Yes.) where I pulled out (what else but) a box of waffles. I took two waffles out of the box and began walking towards a toaster (that I never actually saw in the dream.) I remember thinking, "This feels strange... I don't usually have to carry my waffles this far in the morning..." Well, Catherine, you don't usually eat them in a parking lot. On my way to the toaster, the mother I'd seen earlier called to me and asked if I could pick up her daughter's sippy cup that had rolled under some cars and now sat between two of them near where I walked. No problem. The cars were parked very close together, so I walked sideways between them. Before I could reach the sippy cup, however, I realized I was wedged between the cars and could not move in either direction. I called back to the woman and apologized for not being able to fulfill her request, and then I asked her to help dislodge me from the cars. She walked over, took my left hand, and successfully pulled me out. Sorry, sippy cup.

Yes, the dream blog is back in action. Enjoy :)

Warning: Rated R for Violence

(No, really.)

When this nightmare opened I was standing in line at the movie theater, waiting to see New Moon by myself. Immediately after buying a ticket for the 10:24 a.m. show, a friend walked up and told me that a bunch of people were hanging out and that I should join. The next thing I remember is a group of about ten people sitting around the perimeter of a small room. A friend--to disguise his identity due to the content of this dream we will call him "Dan"-- who was sitting to my left, pulled out a handgun, turned to his left, and began shooting everyone in the head one by one moving clockwise around the room. No one seemed scared, and no one appeared to be angry at him. Before he reached me I stood up and walked into another room thinking, "This is obnoxious, but I don't think he plans to shoot me." I poked my head back in the room and casually said, "Dan, why are you doing this?" He said, "It's just what we do," as he pulled the trigger and fired a bullet into my head. I fell backwards, and everything faded to black. I didn't bleed, but I was aware that my head was in excruciating pain. All of a sudden I could see again; I wasn't dead. I stood up and walked back into the room, still in a lot of pain, and looked at Dan as if to say, "What the heck?" He looked confused, then raised the gun again and shot me in the chest. Again I fell and blacked out. This process repeated, and I was shot again in the head, and then once in the gall bladder (yeah, I have no idea.) At that point I became aware that, with four bullets still in my body (still no blood though,) I might be dying. I felt like I had a terrible migraine, and it hurt my chest to breathe. At that point I wanted to die. (Interesting note though: when I realized how much pain I was in I felt annoyed because I knew I wouldn't be able to run in the morning :))

I begged him to shoot me again, to just end it, but then I realized there were people supporting me; I then felt embarrassed that I had been so ready to give up. Suddenly I was sitting on my back deck, and my dad and some other man were loading guns that were much bigger than Dan's. Apparently others had survived because my friend that invited me to the gathering yelled at Dan saying, "This is not a joke! I don't care if it's just what you do... people are DEAD. Kevin is DEAD. It's not funny!"

Then we were inside again, and it was night. I hobbled out the door alone, still in severe pain, but still not bleeding, and began walking down an alley. I reached a point where the light from the street lamp no longer reached, and there was only darkness ahead of me. I sensed something in the darkness and knew I shouldn't go any further. I turned around and hobbled as quickly as I could back to the door, afraid that whatever was lurking in the darkness was right behind me. I made it safely back inside and found a friend (not someone I actually know, but a friend in the dream), crying on the floor by the back door which was wide open. I asked her what was wrong and she said, "While you were gone he came back, and I shot him... I got him..."

I became aware that it was 10:30 a.m., and thus too late to be let into New Moon. Ten bucks down the drain. The dream ended when I said, "Not to be dramatic, but I think I might need to go to the hospital... I have four bullets in my body."

I was glad when I woke up this morning not in excruciating pain, although I opted for blogging instead of running anyway.

FaLaLaLaLa, Santa, Ho! Ho! Ho! (Target Commercial? Anybody?)

I don't eat weird things before bed...usually. Sometimes I'll watch an episode or four of my latest show on hulu.com. Still, when I mentally replay my dreams as soon as I wake up, I often wonder how the heck all those things got in my head. I haven't yet looked into whether dreams cause sleep to be less restful, but I have been needing a good ten hours a night in order to feel rested in the morning. My dreams from last night may require multiple entries:

1. Actually, I can't share this one just yet because it involves Ross's Christmas present. I bought it yesterday and laughed all the way to the register. The dream about it makes me laugh as well, which is why I even bother sharing this: because it's good... real good. I will write about it and post it after Christmas :)

2. I can't always discern the order of my dreams in a given night, but this one definitely occurred just minutes before I woke up. I dreamed that I opened my gmail and received a comment from a complete stranger on my last blog entry. The comment said this: "Your writing is very choppy, and all your sentences are the same. They sound like, 'duh-da-duh-da-duh-da-duh.' Still, your blog is one of my favorites... probably top 10... because your dreams are so vivid." Or something like that. Despite the compliment, I couldn't see past her criticism of my writing. I think I have great sentence variety. Needless to say, I felt relieved when I did check my gmail and saw that I received no such comment.

3. In another dream I had to give Elizabeth a set of questions by Friday. The questions were typed on a strip of paper that was about an eighth of a full page, and the strip was folded twice. I slipped it in my back pocket, climbed on my bike (which I do not actually own), and rode to her apartment. In waking life, there is a somewhat funny story that relates to Elizabeth's apartment. The first time I picked her up, she directed me to the parking lot in the back of the complex, so the next few times I visited her, that is where I parked. I had never seen the front of the complex and didn't even know where it was because there is no cut-through from front to back... they are on completely different streets. It became sort of a joke when groups of us hung out there--when it came time to leave, most everyone walked out the front door together, and I left through the back.

Well, that isn't entirely relevant to my dream, except that when I biked to her apartment I did go to the back parking lot (even though I have since found the front :)) The dream took place during the day, and because I have never been there during the day, all of a sudden there were parking attendants and fees. I decided to park my bike by a parking meter, and I inserted a dime which bought me 20 minutes. Plenty of time to run up the back stairs, slip the questions under Elizabeth's door, and return to my bike. Then it occurred to me that I didn't have a lock for my bike. I panicked. Surely someone would steal my bike in that time. I saw a guy parking his bike by the meter next to mine, also without a lock, and I felt a little comforted; perhaps if I made a run for it, no one would take my bike. I ran--initially the wrong way--found her apartment, went up the stairs, slipped the paper under her door, and ran back down. I could feel and smell the sweat. Thankfully my bike was still there. Mission accomplished.

That'll do for now. But stay tuned... plenty more to come!

Calm the Storms That Drench My Eyes

Last night while watching an episode of What About Brian (my new Hulu indulegence now that I have seen every episode of Greek and The Secret Life of the American Teenager,) I saw a public service announcement from the EPA featuring babies in green socks crawling around a house. The "go green" message (though not the babies) crept into my dream, which was sort of November 22nd T-rexish in nature.

When the dream opened I was standing in a crowd beside two tall buildings. People had been warned against doing something (eco-UNfriendly, I assume) to the foundation of the buildings, but for whatever reason the warning had been ignored. As we stood there the ground began to shake, and I knew the buildings were about to explode, which would then cause a natural disaster. I ran to my car, turned the key in the ignition, and listened to the radio as I tried to back out into the mass exodus of cars. Someone on the radio said, "One out of every three people trying to escape by car will die." Shoot.

I drove until I reached a familiar building, at which point I parked my car and went inside. The hallways were empty and the lighting looked dark blue--reminiscent of Titanic when the ship is sinking and Rose runs back below deck to rescue Jack. Silent except for the sound of impending doom outside. I walked up the inclined hallway and saw two people through a half-open door at the end of the hall. I opened the door and saw that it was William--our media specialist at church--and... his mom? They said the building would only be safe for a few more minutes, and even as we spoke I turned around and saw water rising in the hall. I don't know if prior to this I knew what kind of natural disaster was going to take place, but at this point I knew it was a flood. Interesting though, it never rained in the dream; water was just rising from the ground where the two tall buildings had been.

I ran out of the building, trying to find higher ground, and realized I was standing at a fork in the dirt road. I looked down the right path and saw water rising; left still appeared dry, so I ran. Up ahead I saw a few kids from the youth group, all aware that something serious was happening, but lacking the appropriate urgency. I took one 6th grade girl (Emily) by the hand, and we all ran. I thought, "We are all going to be so close when this is over!" We saw people sitting in boats, waiting, and knew we needed to find a boat.

At some point the group evolved into me, Emily, Ross, Donnie, and Selina, our contemporary worship leader. We decided to go to the bay, figuring there would be plenty of boats. I have no idea how far away the bay was or how we got there, but all of a sudden we were there standing on a dock. It was almost night, and we knew the water was continuing to rise (apparently not at the bay) and destroy things. We waited in a boat house until finally we received word that the flood had ended! Although we were taling about a flood, the news came more with the attitude of, "The war has ended." We jumped and cheered and hugged each other.

The next morning--though we never slept... the scene just skipped ahead-- there was a celebration gathering of all the boats. We (six of us at this point) paddled into a crowd of hundreds of boats wearing white ninja masks and cheering for our ninja team. (Last night during youth praise team practice I walked out of the balcony, singing to myself, and as I turned the corner to go down the dark stairs, Donnie was standing right in front of me. If you've ever spent an hour with me you know that I am very easily startled, so when I saw Donnie I gasped and flailed my arms, hitting my hand on the wall. Without cracking a smile Donnie said, "Sorry... I'm training to be a ninja." :) Hence Donne and the boat of ninjas... I don't know about the rest of it though.)

Is sleep less restful when you dream a lot? If so, I guess this saga of a dream explains why I often need 9-10 hours of sleep at night!

Like A Million Parachutes...

Two dreams stand out from last night. In the first, a lot of my friends were at Nags Head. When I realized so many people were gone, I decided to just pack up and go for a few days. I was in my room at my mom's house rather than my apartment, and I threw four or five string bikinis (which I do not actually own) in a suitcase. As I zipped the suitcase it dawned on me that it was Sunday, and I work on Sunday... I couldn't just leave! I thought, "I will wait until after youth group tonight, and then I will drive down to the beach," but then I remembered that I work on Mondays too. This dream likely came about because last Thursday (also a work day) I did just leave and drive to the mountains to hike because it was a beautiful day. Was it worth it? You be the judge:





In my second dream last night I was skydiving with some friends. Sort of. A group of us stood in a plane which flew fairly low to the ground--maybe three stories high-- and we each held a helium balloon. One by one we jumped out of the plane, and our single balloons slowed us down like parachutes as we floated to the ground. Spotts and I couldn't stop laughing when we landed. Who knew you could actually do that?? We decided, considering our "parachutes" were just plain balloons, that we could do it ourselves, and we planned to buy ten balloons each and take turns jumping off roofs.

What if...

Yesterday's Dreams

I did not write down my dreams yesterday morning because I was busy eating breakfast and drinking coffee with Mallory while half-watching That's So Raven. As you might guess, neither of us are really interested in that show, but we had designated Saturday as our "deep clean the apartment" day, so I suppose it was a form of procrastination. I did have a few pretty good dreams though:

1. I parked my car and walked up the sidewalk towards my apartment. When I reached the door, I turned around and saw that Mallory was pulling onto the street, so I decided to wait for her inside the door. I watched as she parked across the street, stepped out of her car, looked around her, and casually walked towards a building across the street and to the right of our apartment. As she approached, the face of the building opened into a brick archway leading to an alley, which led into a building, and she entered. Through our glass door I could see shelves of books in the alley, and I was intrigued. What was this place, and why had I never seen it before? And what was Mallory doing? I think she was spy, but I didn't follow her.

2. I think this was a separate dream, but I can't be positive. I walked up a flight of stairs to my apartment, except it wasn't my apartment. The building was on stilts--like a beach house-- and had multiple sets of stairs. I climbed the set that I thought led to my apartment, but didn't recognize any of the doors on that floor. I walked back down and tried another set of stairs. At the top I bumped into Rebecca Logan (see my November 5th entry if you have no idea who this is...) and asked her to help me find my apartment. As we walked we were suddenly on a college campus... that looked just like Short Pump Mall. And we definitely couldn't find my apartment at that point.

3. I wish I could recall more of this dream, but what I do have is decent material. It was dark outside, and a guy friend (I don't know who it was) and I stood in the back of someone's house by their sliding glass door. We knew the people who lived there, and we must have knocked because they came to the door, but the man and woman refused to open it. We were confused, and the people explained that we were vampires, and they could not invite us into their home (for obvious reasons.) My friend and I felt sad; we had no idea until that point that we were the enemy. Somehow we did enter the house, but I can't remember anything that happened inside. When we left out the back door I almost forgot my purse, which I had set down on the grill, but turned around and picked it up before we left. We-ird.

4. I was back in Kenya, walking alone (actually, I might have been riding a camel at one point) at night on a dirt road. I suddenly became aware that what I was doing was definitely not safe. A man was walking towards me on the other side of the road, and I thought, "This is why women do not walk alone at night in Kenya..." Then I realized I was wearing my Birkenstocks (which I've had for seven years, by the way,) and they were clomping loudly on the ground with every step I took. They looked like clown shoes. The man walking towards me, and now others who were on the road, criticized my shoes... laughing and saying how no one wears Birkenstocks anymore. Whatever. I love my shoes.

I reached my destination safely, and for some reason I was making a quick trip back to the states, then returning to Kenya a few days later. I thought, "This is going to get expensive if I keep doing this..." I was in the hall at church where my office is located (still in Kenya though), and there were about a dozen other people--American citizens-- sitting on the floor. They were hungry, so I volunteered whatever food was in my office. As I walked into my office to gather food I told them that I thought I had turkey to make sandwiches, but when I opened my refridgerator (which I do NOT have in my office), there was only one carton of milk. Oops. I found some other food in my cabinets, and walked back into the hall and reported that they could have milk, granola bars, or pretzels, but no turkey.

Stay tuned for Saturday night's dreams...

Wash Me, and I Will Be Whiter Than Snow

My dream last night is probably very symbolic, but I don't know the deeper meaning. I woke up and thought, "Oh. That's weird." In the dream I was standing over the sink in the bathroom of my apartment. Looking in the mirror I noticed that one of my front bottom teeth was bleeding... like, gross amounts of blood (not that there is any non-gross amount of blood, in my opinion.) I leaned over the sink to keep the blood from dripping on me or the floor, but as it fell from my mouth I saw that I had left a white sports bra and tank top in the sink. Too late. The blood hit the white cotton and immediately turned both items completely red. I turned the knob for the cold water, which became pink as it hit the stained clothes, but the stains did not fade at all. I scrubbed the clothes endlessly, put them once through the washing machine, but they remained red. Yep. Weird.

For Posterity

I received this text from Andrew Storey yesterday after he read my blog:

"You have some very special dreams :) im still holding out for a sweet dream adventure though...Maybe i should send you a script to try to influence you :)"

We proceeded to have a brief conversation about scripting an epic dream starring Andrew as sort of a scientific study on the subconscious. He has not yet sent me the script, but I gave it a shot anyway. This was the result:

I dreamed that Andrew and I stood in front of an open closet looking up at a large storage bin filled with photographs. We talked about epic dreams. Dream Andrew said, "Can you please just try to make me slay a dragon? Or fly? " I replied, "I mean I will try, but what if I dream something really embarrassing?" He said, "You won't... but if you do, write about it anyway!"

Better luck next time, dragon-slayer :)

Technicolored Dream T-Shirts

My dreams continue to be prophetic... sort of. This morning as I pulled a tie-dyed t-shirt over my long-sleeved Under Armor to go running, I remembered a dream from last night involving tie-dye. I had a large bucket with multiple colors of dye (not mixing together, miraculously,) and about 8 t-shirts, which I had rubber banded 8 different ways. I dropped them all in the bucket and waited for the colors to soak in. Not the most exciting dream, but I find it interesting that I chose a tie-dyed shirt this morning before even remembering the dream.

In another dream I sat in a roller coaster cart at a water park. A girl working there stood behind and held on to the cart like a dog sled. I knew her somehow and knew that she was actually a vampire. Don't worry-- she was more of an Alice Cullen than a Jane or Victoria. Still, I turned around and said, "Can I be neurotic for a moment? Are you sure you aren't going to bite me?" (The first question was a text I sent to Joey yesterday... but I did not follow up by asking if he was going to bite me.) The vampire assured me that she was a "vegetarian" and had no intention of biting me. I relaxed, but in retrospect that was not the wisest move; if she did plan on biting me, would she really tell me if I asked? Thankfully she was a vampire with integrity.

At the beginning of the last dream I remember from last night, I sat on the floor of my room organizing my shoes...which is really irrelevant to the rest of the dream. I heard people talking in the living room and initially thought they were someone else's friends (that's how I conceptualized it in the dream.) I walked out of my room and realized that they were indeed MY friends! After hanging out in the living room for a while Amy Clark said she needed to use the bathroom. I said, "Amy, I will pay you $10 to pee in your pants." Andrew Storey jumped up and said he would throw in another 10. Amy, apparently desperate for cash, stood in the kitchen and peed. Sadly the event was not as funny as I'd hoped; all I could think about was the fact that I was out 10 bucks, and there was pee on my kitchen floor. Bummer.

What. The. Heck.

I remember two dreams vividly from last night. When I first woke up I was more excited about the one I am going to share first, due to the fact that it is more involved. However, something happened within an hour of me waking up that drastically changed my order of preference. I'm still geeking out about it... but don't read ahead :)

In the first dream I was back in Mrs. Baylor's 12th grade English class taking a midterm, which actually had nothing to do with English. There were 64 questions, and each answer required a sentence and a picture. The questions I recall had to do with bees and flowers. This much of the dream came about because I began reading The Picture of Dorian Gray (British literature) yesterday, and there is a scene in which Dorian Gray and Lord Henry are conversing in the garden, and Gray becomes fixated on a bee in order to escape the new emotions that are arising in him as a result of the conversation. I turned to the back of my midterm and drew a picture for question 30, and accidentally used the entire page before realizing I was not even halfway through the test.

Then the midterm became an open-book, take-home exam, and I was back at home. I had to turn in my work by the end of class, but I couldn't remember if class ended at 9 or 9:30... or noon. When I finished I had just enough time to get back to school. I ran out of my apartment and up the street to where I had parked my car. My car was not there. In its place on the street was a work station for some painters who were busy painting my neighbors' house. My mouth went dry. I said, "Excuse me... have any of you seen the black car that was parked here?" One of the painters replied, "Oh yeah... it was towed. It had no business being here." I dropped everything I was holding and threw myself on the ground, cussing as I pounded my fists on the sidewalk. Quickly I said, "Sorry. That was very immature. But I really need my car to get back to school and turn in my paper."

I called my dad and told him what happened, and he generously gave me a ride. I was stressed, and so was he. He told me it would cost $220 just to get my car back. (Yesterday I received by mistake a bill for that exact amount. In both situations I thought, "I shouldn't have to pay this!") My dad dropped me off at school, which was actually church, and I hurried to the office to put my illustrated midterm in Mrs. Baylor's mailbox. I visually scanned the names on all the boxes before realizing I was in the church staff office rather than the teachers' office, located down the hall. The teachers' office was no more than a disorganized closet. Someone instructed me to just leave the midterm on a shelf, and Mrs. Baylor would find it. I was skeptical, but did as I was told. At the end of the dream my dad picked me up (without me even asking, which I thought was great) in the cul de sac where my mom lives.

Okay. Dream numero dos. I had been hanging out with Amy Denton for a little while when she said, "Oh yeah, there is something I wanted to show you." I turned towards her and saw that she was staring at her left hand, thumbing something on her ring finger. She then held her hand out to show me a scratch and said, "I don't know what I did... the scratch just showed up!" I smacked her lightly and said, "Amy! You can't do that! I thought you were going to tell me you were engaged!"

Well, here's the kicker: At about 9:30 this morning I opened an email from Amy telling me that she is engaged! Until this morning I had not talked to her in a while and hadn't given much thought to when Drew would propose, so I don't know what led me to dream about it. Crazy, right?

Ukrop's Has My Yogurt of Choice :)

I have quite a few mental snapshots of my dreams from last night, but not many stories I can piece together. In one of the more lucid scenes I sat at a kitchen counter with Elizabeth, who had just finished work. She said, "I gained another 8 pounds this week." Apparently she had been weighing herself once a week at work, and in the last four weeks had gained 8, 8, 4, and 5 pounds respectively. She looked as tiny as ever. I said, "Elizabeth, the scale must be wrong. You know there is no WAY you gained 25 pounds in a month." (And yes, I did the math correctly in my dream :)) Without looking at me she simply said, "I know..." and trailed off.

I am rather fascinated by the next dream. I was kayaking and paddled ashore a not-very-crowded beach. As I pulled my boat away from the water I saw that there were sharks swimming in the surf. Lots of sharks. Someone posed the question, "Would you rather paddle back into the water with someone, or sit alone on this beach for a hundred years?" I looked back at the water and saw that the sharks were multiplying; some of them even morphed into humans and walked out of the water (in a non-threatening, don't-bother-us-and-we-won't-bother-you kind of way.) I asked if the sharks would eat the kayak, and therefore me, and the question-poser said the sharks would eat the outside of the kayak, but not be able to harm the inside or me. I think the dream ended before I made a decision, but one of my last thoughts was, "One hundred years is a long time to be alone."

Hmm.

Tom Tom the Turkey Will Be Here Soon

If breakfast gods existed, I would have to assume they were out to get me. As it is, I do wonder if God is in the process of breaking me of some of my OCD habits...beginning with breakfast. First the waffles, now the yogurt? A week ago I was pleased to see that my yogurt of choice--Stonyfield organic nonfat plain yogurt--was on Manager's Special (i.e. cheap) at Kroger. When I returned a week later to restock, I discovered that it had been on Manager's Special because they are not selling that particular product anymore. I settled for the most similar alternative-- the low-fat, as opposed to nonfat, version. Yesterday I mixed it with my berries, took a bite, and... it tastes like sour cream. Eww. Today I just poured milk on the berries.

This is day one with a new brand of waffles, since Eggo is currently experiencing some production problems. I saw the sign in Kroger a week ago, at which point the Storeys kindly donated a box of waffles from their own freezer, buying me another week of normalcy. Today, I venture into the unknown: the world of Kashi Heart to Heart Honey Oat waffles. Quite comparable in terms of taste and nutrition to my Eggo low-fat whole grain waffles, but significantly more expensive.

My dreams last night had nothing to do with breakfast, although one did involve eating... or rather, not eating... but I will save that for last.

The first dream I can remember was about a youth mission trip. We were preparing to return to Tennessee, and the leaders scrambled around to fit the last minute details in place. We were scheduled to leave that day, but I waited for a phone call on which our departure depended-- I think the call was to tell me whether someone had packed for the trip. At 11:30 p.m., the call came. At that point I thought it would be better to postpone the trip for the next day rather than begin the long drive so late at night. Plus, I still had to pack, check the tire pressure in the vans, and have their oil changed. A father chaperoning the trip insisted that we leave that night. The team stood in the moon-lit parking lot, and this father (now in charge) handed me a key to the white letter van, and Andrew Storey a key to the red letter van. Andrew and I looked at each other and frowned; we are aways van buddies. He can't split us up for such a long trip! Who would we have to laugh with? The dream ended with that question.

In the second dream last night, I was pledging a sorority (I can confidently attribute this to my recently developed habit of watching Greek.) Our pledge class took a trip to the beach, and as most of us played in the ocean, one shy girl sat alone. Her dad watched from a distance. I knew I should include her, but I had more interest in having a good time myself. A little ways off the coast (close enough to swim) there was a fixture... like a double-decker square pier standing alone. I swam to it, grabbed hold of the beams underneath the first level, and swung as one would on monkey bars. After a few swings I gained enough momentum to flip myself to the top level. I landed in an empty hot tub. My friends still in the water were impressed. To prolong their jealousy, I did not tell them the hot tub was empty, or that it actually hurt when I landed in it. I went on and on about the warm water and the view from above. Finally I climbed over the edge and flipped back into the ocean.

Here's the food dream... kind of. I sat down in my mom's kitchen to eat with my family, and someone (NOT in the family) served us a "culinary delicacy." This person put the plates in front of us, each with a whole burned crow-- feathers, beak, and all. I was appalled. No one else seemed to be bothered by it. I felt my stomach begin to churn, and I ran to the bathroom. I did not actually vomit, but I decided to fake the noises to send the message that I would not be eating the bird. Interesting that on Thanksgiving night I dreamed about a dead bird on my plate... the turkey I ate yesterday was fabulous, just for the record!

We're Especially Extra-Ordinary

I am a self-proclaimed morning person. Mallory is a self-proclaimed *jerk* when she wakes up. I, therefore, on days when our morning schedules overlap, often make it my goal to make her laugh before she can open a kitchen cabinet. This morning as I sat in the kitchen eating my waffles, Mallory walked in, eyes half open, and breathed out a quiet, "Hey." I smiled mostly to myself, then said, "Last night I dreamed that I was in a window decorating contest, and I was decorating my window with bananas. I peeled them, then licked the sides, then stuck them to the window in a cool design." Goal attained :)

That was probably the weirdest dream of the bunch (pun intended) last night, but there were plenty more. As usual, I am not sure of the order of events, but I will do my best to piece them together.

In one dream I stood dressed in all black on the roof of the Athletic Performance Center at JMU with my housemates. We had broken in through a back door one night during construction and happened upon a ladder and trap door that led us to the roof. Standing there we took in the aerial view of our campus, feeling smug, yet peaceful... until one of us peered over the edge and saw a police car directly below us. (Wait. Does this sound familiar to anyone else? I really did dream it... but that part really did happen :)) Down! Down! Down the ladder! We tip-toe-ran through the building to the back door, and as we exited the dream shifted and I was sneaking out of Tuckahoe Elementary School instead. To avoid being seen I buried myself in leaves and crawled (still under leaves) across the grass. I emerged in a mulched area on the side of the building. When I stood up, I was alone. In front of me stood a bare tree--leafless and with no bark. Just smooth and simple. It was dawn, and the way the light came through the branches made me think it was the most beautiful tree I had ever seen. I felt compelled to climb it, but as I climbed, the branches and trunk disappeared. I sat on the lowest branch--perhaps five feet off the ground-- and realized there was nothing else above me. The tree that I'd found so beautiful was not so grand after all. In fact, it was not even alive.

Fast forward a few minutes. I walked in the front door of the school and made my way to the 5th grade hall. Everything was exactly as I remembered. I walked past the library, then turned the corner, walked up a few stairs, and peeked into Mrs. Hayden's class on the right. They were singing. I continued down the hall and stopped in the doorway of Mrs. Neal's room. The class was empty except for Mrs. Neal, my 5th grade teacher. She smiled and greeted me by name. Surprised, I responded, "You remember my name?" Then she said, "Of course. I always knew your class would do great things."

Fascinating.

Jung Girl, Get Out of My Mind

Writing this blog has vastly increased my interest in the meaning of dreams. In one of my earlier posts I mentioned that at some point I would share my theory on dreams, and I think now is a good time to do that; I've begun reading Carl Jung's Dreams, so I will share my simple, unprofessional thoughts on the subject now before I learn how complex it really is.

While many dreams seem chaotic and random, I absolutely think they are significant. I can see in some, though not all of my own dreams the underlying threads of truth... the deeper thoughts and fears that are represented. I think the "players"-- the people and objects that are present in the dream-- are often things we have seen, heard, or thought of during the preceding day or two, even if only momentarily. The players then act out a scene (the dream) that bears a much deeper theme.

For example...
Last night I dreamed that I was sitting in my mom's room with Kelsey and Hannah, two of the 9th grade girls from church. They told me that one of their friends had kissed a boy on a mission trip. Scandalous. In the dream I reacted with great shock... then asked them if I could write about it in my blog (this blog.) They hesitated, then I said, "Oh... I guess I shouldn't. She is probably going to be in a lot of trouble anyway."

This is the analysis, based on Catherine Tudor's dream theory:

The players... Yesterday I ate dinner at my mom's house, which gave me the setting of the dream. On Sunday I saw Hannah and Kelsey at church and thought about how much I love talking with them, so they became the characters. Also on Sunday, someone brought up in conversation a girl who was in the youth group when I was in high school who did get in trouble on a mission trip... not for kissing a boy, but for falling asleep on his shoulder in the hallway.

The themes... Yesterday morning I could not remember a single dream, and I actually began to worry. What if I never dream again? What if I can never write in my blog again? I have no material... That worry manifested itself in my request to write about a non-dream item in my dream. Another, more profound underlying fear represented is the anxiety that comes with the responsibility of leading a mission trip. There has been a lot of discussion lately about the trips for next summer, and while I have not consciously thought about the stress of it all, I know there is a strong association in my mind between mission trips and: Are all the youth here? Did I forget the permission slips? What if there is a crazy driver on the road? What if a youth gets hurt on the work site? What if a youth sneaks out at night and kisses a boy? You get the idea.

The first 16 pages of Jung's book have taught me two things: 1. No dream is insignificant, and thus 2. I am out of my mind to be writing this blog!

Analyze Away

It's 6:45 a.m., and I am blogging. Why? (Or, to quote my sweet niece, "Becausewhy?") Because for the last four-ish hours I have been waking up and falling back asleep into a continuation of the same nightmare, and I'd rather be awake and tired than asleep and afraid. I wake up, sit up to completely shake off the sleep state, and tell myself it's just a dream, but each time I put my head on the pillow and close my eyes, the nightmare continues. And no, it's not about waffles... although you might laugh when you read what it IS about, but I challenge you to enter the dream world... imagine that this were real, and consider how you would feel...

A tyrannosaurus rex terrorized the city. I do not know how it existed, but it was destroying buildings and eating people at a rapid pace, and no one knew how to kill it. For one segment of the dream I was at my mom's house, alone. I could hear the T rex rampaging through the neighborhood, and I was all but paralyzed with fear. I didn't know where to hide. A cat appeared at the back door, begging to enter the house. With a look of panic in its eyes, the cat puffed itself up so that it seemed to stand four feet tall. I opened the door, but it ran away to the edge of the woods. As it climbed a tree I thought, "There's no way it can climb high enough to avoid being eaten..." I couldn't risk drawing attention to myself by calling for the cat, so I sadly (and quietly) closed the door and looked for a hiding place. I knew the downstairs hall closet was my best bet, but I ended up upstairs in the small room connected to my mom's room. The T rex approached the house, and looked at me through the window. Nothing but glass separated me from its face, which was as large as my entire body. I think this is one of the times I woke up shaking.

When I fell back asleep, the predator continued its reign of terror. This time I was in an apartment in the city. Again, I could hear the T rex walking, people screaming, and buildings crashing. I paced the apartment (blinds closed, clearly), and discussed strategy with a few others who had taken refuge there. I cried and pleaded, "Can't I just shut myself in a closet and hide until it goes away??" A couple in their late 30s said, "No, we won't let you hide. We have to get away from here." Four of us (the couple, me, and Allison) walked outside, then made a run for the car. We could see the beast a few blocks away, and as soon as we began running, it saw us too and let out a... growl? Whatever terrifying noise a T rex makes...think Jurassic Park. It ran towards us as we drove away. At this point I remembered that this particular dinosaur relies heavily on motion for its sight, so we pulled the car next to a brick building and held as still as possible. The T rex stood directly beside our car and sniffed us, but we did not move, and he left us alone.

The order of the next few events is kind of blurry in my mind. I saw Gabe in the same part of the city and ran to help her hide. We crawled underneath a tennis court net that was lying on the sidewalk. Again, we could see the monster just across the street. I told Gabe to hold as still as possible, but she kept wiggling and readjusting. The T rex noticed. He ran towards us as I said through clenched teeth, "Gabe. Hold. Still." Our lives were spared. Back in the car we drove underground into a subway station where many were gathered. Someone received word that the T rex had been lured into the water and was in the process of drowning. The crowd began cheering, but I feared we were celebrating too soon, considering the animal was still alive. I urged everyone to wait it out until we knew for sure, but everyone else had hope that this was the end of our living nightmare.

At this point I woke up again. I sat up and mentally tried to sever the dream sequence, but when I fell back asleep...

I was in London (apparently I'd been there along,) and the tyrannosaurus rex was alive but had moved on to Sweden. The survivors--and there were not many in comparison to the starting population-- in London received a letter from Kenya begging them to find a way to stop the beast before it made its way around the world. I remember thinking, "No one knows how to stop it; it's impossible." In this segment of the dream, everyone in London was trying to piece their lives back together post- T rex, although everyone knew it would return. Inside my apartment I received a phone call from the dad of a friend of a friend, who told me not to be afraid (I think the T rex ate his daughter (wow... I never imagined typing that sentence...)) One of the boys who lives next door to my mom entered my apartment; he is in high school now, but in the dream he was four, which is pretty much how I think of him. I asked where his brother and parents were, and he told me the T rex ate them, so I said he could stay with me.

I walked outside my apartment, and saw a plot of farm land with goats and baby pigs alternating in a perfect grid. Those tending the animals seemed naively calm. Did they not know that the T rex was coming back? It could be any minute...

Then word came: the sharp-toothed tyrant had returned. People began running from the field into the woods as the sense of panic settled back in. Then I was back in my mom's neighborhood; I ran into the Common Area--a large field hidden behind many of the houses that's used for neighborhood picnics, frisbee games, etc. A few people had driven onto the field to hide. I sat between a car and a truck, alone. I overheard a father saying to his young son, "In about an hour you will reach the point when you begin reflecting on your life..." In other words, the sense of impending doom was so great and so real that this man had to prepare his son. Before he could finish, a school bus stopped on the street in front of one of the houses; it had come to drive people to safety. I recognized the situation from a movie, or perhaps another dream, and I knew that no one should get on the bus; the T rex could easily catch it, knock it over, and eat everyone inside. No one listened. Men, women, and children flocked to the bus. Then the door to the truck beside me opened. I looked up and saw a kind man, smiling, with his hand outstretched towards me. He didn't have to say a word for me to know that he knew the way to safety.

I woke up again as I climbed into the truck. As I was waking up, part of me felt as though I should fall back asleep to completely resolve the dream. But a bigger part of me was tired (pun intended) of feeling afraid and wanted to wake up and just get on with my day. Thus I blogged at 6:45 a.m. Needless to say, I do not feel well-rested today.

True Story.

The nightmare I experienced in Kroger today:



"Inconvenience" is clearly an understatement...

...Or because it takes a "latte" time to make...

I chuckled a little this morning as I recalled last night's dreams. Because they are all a little stranger than normal, I considered not blogging today, but then I figured, what the heck?

The first is, in my opinion, the funniest of the bunch. I was back in my 12th grade physics class (this came from seeing Miss McGlinchey, who is married and has a new last name now, at the Y last night!! It was very exciting.) Class had not started yet, so people were talking and wandering around the room. Okay, I am legitimately a little embarrassed to write this: apparently there was a tampon dispenser in the projector which was located in the front of the classroom. I approached with my 50 cents, and as I put the money in the slot, the projector turned on, and everyone in the class stopped talking and looked at me. I thought, "This is kind of an awkward place for a tampon dispenser..." (I am laughing out loud right now; I hope you are too.)

In the second dream I was sitting in my nutrionist (Trish)'s office, and she was making lattes on a fancy espresso machine. (Talking about healthy eating while drinking lattes sounds like a dream to me!) It was a recent addition to her practice :) Then the dream shifted; I entered a room and saw lots of lattes sitting on the floor under a coffee table. I knelt down and began inspecting the drinks to determine which was mine. The peppermint white mocha with blue whipped cream tempted me, but then I saw a cup with my name written in black Sharpie: a tall, 4 pump hazelnut, nonfat, no foam latte. I wanted it, but I was a little miffed that it had 4 pumps of hazelnut syrup rather than 2. What was she trying to do to me?? Written on the cup was also a note that said, "I want to discuss this more with you on Friday. -Trish." Again... laughing.

I planned to write about a third dream, but as I think about it now, it doesn't seem blog-appropriate. Sorry.

You Are Cordially Invited

In typical style of my psyche, I still had at least one trippy dream last night. In the one I remember, some friends and I were cleaning floors as a fundraiser to supplement the money raised by the youth auction. We knocked on a door, and a cranky, 30-something man answered. When we offered to clean his floor, he responded in a vague, wishy-washy (pun intended :)) manor, and started to close the door. One of my friends called his bluff-- he secretly, desperately wanted us to wash his floor-- and we entered the house. Before we could begin mopping we had to sweep away inch-thick layers of dust, beginning on the second floor and moving down the stairs.

When I reached the bottom stair, I swept something roughly the size of a ping pong ball across the room. I moved towards it and upon inspection recognized it as a cherry cordial (Grandma Riddle's favorite thing to give, but not receive, at Christmas.) I then looked around the room and saw LOTS of cherry cordials! Some sat in plain view in the middle of the floor while others hid behind chair legs, small appliances, and shoes. I began sweeping as many as possible--not for the sake of cleaning, but more as a game. My friends joined me. In the dream I knew that I had left the cherry cordials around this house the last time I cleaned it. Sorry 'bout that, sir.

I'm not sure how cherry cordials entered the dream, but I can identify some of the other players. To do so I'll have to confess how dirty my apartment is, so don't judge me. Yesterday evening I swept the bathroom...I don't know if it's possible for any two girls to shed as much as Mallory and I do. We probably could have made a wig with the hair I swept off the floor (Gross, I know. Sorry.) This is most likely the source of the inches of dust in my dream. Also yesterday while sitting at the kitchen table, I noticed a lemon on the floor, far under the table, almost under the heater. I ducked my head under the table for a better look and saw a second (uh, older) lemon even deeper. LEMONS EVERYWHERE! Just kidding. It was only two. Or I guess I should say, it IS only two, since they are both still there :-D Not sure how they turned into cherry cordials, though. ("When life gives you lemons..." Maybe like that :))

Giant Leaf Piles and Hot Apple Cider

For most of my life I have been a summer girl, but in the last few years I have switched my allegiance to autumn. I can't get enough of the season. The smell of leaves and cool air, the sight of red, orange, and yellow foliage, the sound of dry leaves crunching underfoot as I walk down the sidewalk...even the lighting is a little more beautiful. The five senses aren't enough to take it all in; I want it to be a part of me.

I am not, therefore, the least bit surprised that I dreamed about fall last night. I drove west on Patterson, as I do many days to go to work, with Jonathan Dreiling. The trees towered into a canopy over us, and as the wind blew we drove through a shower of leaves. And we smiled. Then we discovered that we both love the season, and began saying things ecstatically like, "I LOVE... Richmond! I love God! I love fall!" Over and over and over... We couldn't adequately express our joy.

Milk Drunk

I was recently responsible for an entire-passenger-side-of-the-car-scratcher-denter. It's like a fender-bender except... well, you can probably figure it out. When I picked my car up from the body shop it looked like new, which would have been far more exciting if it wasn't actually new. Yes, I did $1800 worth of body damage to my 2010 Corolla that I've had for three months. Ouch. In another dream last night, my car was still at the body shop; it had been ready for weeks, but I neglected to pick it up. Forrest urged me to go that day to get it... and then he unlocked a closet at church and wheeled out two mopeds. He was insistent that I needed to ride one of the mopeds to the body shop to get my car. A few nights ago in waking life I had a conversation with some friends about scooters. This conversation carried into my dream, and I thought, "Mopeds are cool until you pull up beside someone you went to high school with..." so I told Forrest I would just ask someone for a ride. Then I remembered that I'd had my car back for weeks, but I had no memory of going to get it, and I was very bothered by that. Weird.

On a completely different brain-wave, many of you know that I have a *slight* fear of elevators. There was an elevator in one of my dreams last night, and it was the third time that I can recall dreaming about this particular elevator. I don't know what type of building it was in last night, but in the other dreams it was in a hospital and a sky-scraper hotel (beach front.) In the dream last night the doors to the elevator opened, and as I stepped in I saw Erica, a 4-year-old from church, laying on the floor, surrounded by cookie crumbs. At first glance I thought she was just sleeping, but when I noticed the cookie crumbs I did the math and realized that she was in fact "cookie drunk." She'd consumed so many cookies that she'd fallen asleep right there on the elevator floor. My niece Lauren, who I saw this weekend, is 3 months old, and my sister describes the baby's state immediately post-nursing as "milk drunk. " Erica was cookie drunk :)

More to come... Africa, cell phone, bike carousel (a late arrival to my memory.)

Violin Hero

We recently shortened the large group portion of youth group from one hour to 45 minutes, and it's killing me. At least in my dreams. I have had three separate dreams about running out of time at youth group, usually before I even start the lesson. Last night I told the middle schoolers that I dream about them almost every night... and they thought it was kind of weird. Just kidding. Their response was a chorus of, "Did you dream about ME? I KNOW I was in your dreams!"

In my youth group dream last night I planned a game in which each youth played a song of their choice on a violin (which was actually an electric guitar,) and they were eliminated as soon as they missed a note. Cool game, Catherine. A few youth took their turns before Anthony--a friend from when I was in youth group-- stepped in and dominated the game with a violin-electric-guitar rendition of some country song. I looked at the clock and saw that we only had five minutes remaining; I felt torn between quickly beginning the lesson and continuing the game so that every youth could have a turn.

In what I think was a separate but related dream, I lay in the guest bedroom at my mom's house. It was the middle of the night, and I had my acoustic guitar resting on my stomach. I practiced playing songs so that the instrument sounded like a violin, just as Anthony had done. Then I noticed lights on downstairs, and I heard water running; I knew it was time for my mom to wake up and go for her way-too-early run. Whitney opened the door to her room and went to the bathroom. When she came out, we pow-wowed in the dark and arrived at the conclusion that we were being tricked by our mother: it was actually only 8 p.m. (rather than 4:30 a.m...) I'm not sure the purpose of the trick-- or why we were asleep long enough before 8 p.m. that we could be tricked-- but darn it, the lady was tricking us.

More dreams to come: rental car, cell phone, Africa <--(so I will remember)

Here Comes the Sun (do do do do)

It comes as no surprise to me, given all the rain, that last night I had two separate dreams about wanting to be in the sunshine...

In the first I was on a beach with a bunch of friends from church. We pitched a large tent and began setting up our beach chairs, which were all the long, reclining type. Because we had more people than chairs, Andrew Storey and I agreed to share one-- his head at one end, mine at the other. I let him choose where to set up our chair, and he put it directly in the middle of the tent so it was completely untouched by any sunlight. I said nothing about it but thought, "Why is he doing that? Doesn't he get it?" I decided that I would rather sit chair-less in the sun. Sorry, buddy.

In the second dream I was hanging out with one of the high school girls in the youth group, Emily M. We dug through a closet in my mom's house looking for camouflage clothing (she asked me last night in waking life if I had any that she could borrow for a spirit day at school, so this was not completely random.) Before finding the shirt that I actually have and had in mind, we found another camouflage shirt with some Christian quote on it that I don't think actually exists... if it does, I do not own it. In the dream I thought, "Oh yeah, I forgot about this one!" Good find. In addition to the shirts I found a pair of glasses that I actually lost over two years ago, but in the dream they were very round, very thick-framed Harry Potter-like glasses. I found them in a suitcase I had not unpacked from my last summer working at camp, which is actually where I lost the glasses. Emily shook her head and laughed at me for being disorganized/having not unpacked after so long. Then we were at Barnes & Noble in the cafe area. I told her she could pick any table, and she chose table number two. Yes, the tables were numbered. I looked and saw that table two, although positioned next to a window, was the one table that did not receive any sunlight. I turned back to Emily and pleaded with her to pick another table, but her mind was already made up... table two it was.

In other news, it is possible to have too much of a good thing. I had another waffle dream last night, but in this dream I ate my two waffles with peanut butter and honey and was still hungry so I made two more. As I ate them, however, I thought, "Oh this is too many... I'm not supposed to eat four waffles..." What can you do?

"You will lose it in your gym class...

...If you wait 'til noon to eat."

Yep. More breakfast dreams... but not last night. Actually, I can't remember a single dream from last night; I woke up too quickly. So, since the world already knows that I am very serious about breakfast, I will share two more dreams from Saturday and Sunday night (Oh yes... I had breakfast dreams both nights.)

On Saturday night at the auction, one of the hors d'oeuvres offered was rolls with roast beef. Very pink roast beef. I picked up a roll and looked around the table for something else to put on it-- perhaps some ham or cheese. No luck. In my dream that night I was back at the auction, roll in hand, looking for some protein. I saw a platter of scrambled egg patties (would that be considered a patty?), sizzling bacon, and cheese. I thought, "That's not what I usually eat, but it will do!" then made a delicious breakfast sandwich.

On Sunday night (uhh... very early Monday morning...) before going to bed I remembered that I had eaten my last two waffles that morning and forgotten to go to the grocery store! Problem. In my dream it was Monday morning, and I walked in the kitchen, opened the freezer, and discovered that I still had four waffles left in the box. Imagine my disappointment when I actually woke up that day waffle-less. This is kind of embarrassing, but I stood in the kitchen for a good five minutes trying to decide what to do: Should I eat a bowl of cereal (heresy) to quiet the beast in my stomach? Should I swing by Starbucks for a reduced-fat turkey bacon breakfast sandwich (delicious alternative to the waffles)? Finally I decided that I would probably pass out before I could make it to Starbucks, so I went with the cereal... and was hungry again an hour later.

Chiquita Banana

Another weird one. Forrest and I went to Ukrop's for lunch, as we often do in waking life. As we walked down a long row of booths in the cafe area, we passed a woman who had been to the "salad bar." She sat with a 3 ft x 2 ft aluminum foil-covered tray with giant vegetables on it. I'm talking about cooked carrots the size of arms and basketball-sized brussel sprouts. Forrest thought it was a hat; he grabbed the tray from the woman and balanced it on his head, and one by one the vegetables slid off without him even noticing.

In another dream last night, my skin fit like a shirt and pants: not connected at my waist. It drove me crazy because the torso portion always hung over my actual pants. In the dream I realized that everyone else's skin covered them in one piece, and I felt deeply sad and insanely jealous. Fascinating, and probably very revealing...

Odyssey

Two crazy dreams last night: the first leaves me in awe of the human brain and makes me want to learn more about dreams... the second is just plain trippy.

To make a long story short, dream number one was a high school reunion of sorts. I bumped into one girl, however, that I have not seen since middle school. I have not thought about her since middle school. In the dream I knew who she was immediately, but recognized that it had been a while. When I woke up I thought, "Whoa." then lay in bed for a few minutes trying to remember her actual name: Ashley Oola. I don't know if that's the correct spelling, though I do have a distinct memory of her pronouncing her name for our gym teacher in 6th grade. "Oo-La." I have not seen or thought about her since. How the heck does that happen?? The mind is crazy...

Dream number two. Let me preface this by saying, I promise I have never taken any kind of illegal substance. In the dream I walked into a museum with one of the 6th grade boys in the youth group (shocker.) As we looked down the hallway, it became apparent that there had been a drought. What made this so apparent, you might ask? A beached whale. Above us to the left an enormous whale had crashed through the ceiling and was resting atop the wall. Colin refused to walk down the hall out of fear that the whale would fall on him, so we moved to the right side of the hallway, and I walked between him and the whale so that if it did fall, it would crush me first. Once we passed this obstacle we realized the entire hallway (well, the left ceiling/wall) was covered with beached animals, including a walrus and a giraffe. I looked the giraffe in the face and saw that it looked more like a fixture on a putt-putt course, but somehow it was still a real, breathing, beached giraffe.

Yikes.

Epic Dreams Last Night...

...Stay tuned.

Tape Ball Adventures

I'm not sure at what age a girl stops going to her mom's house to iron dress pants, but it's not 23. Yes, I made a valiant attempt at looking like an adult last night for the auction, but I "hemmed" my nicely ironed pants with safety pins, and my heels lasted less than an hour before I changed back into my Birkenstocks. Oh well. The auction itself was a huge success with overwhelming numbers of volunteers, attendees, and items to bid on.

In the hour leading up to the event, youth volunteers trickled in and moved to their designated posts. I spent some time with the lovely Dodson sisters in the crib nursery while they waited for children to arrive. Emily and I told Maggie about middle school youth group last week-- how everyone was out of control and my response to the chaos (yes, it was chaos) was the closest Emily had seen me to losing my temper. She impersonated me to give Maggie a better picture: "You guys. Seriously. STOP. Talking. I'm not even kidding. You are driving me crazy." This became an element in my dream, which I will share shortly.

After the auction lots of people stayed to help clean up. As the task was winding down Forrest asked me to walk around the building and make sure all the doors were locked... and to take a few middle school boys with me. Josh quickly volunteered, followed by Judah. Josh then recruited Garrett by saying, "Tudor can make ANYTHING an adventure!" :) And off we went. As we walked around the outside of the building, the boys DID try to create adventure; every so often one of them would say, "What's that??" or scream. Josh carried a giant tape ball--I don't think I have ever seen Josh without some kind of ball... the first time I met him I had to confiscate a tennis ball. When we reached the stairs leading down to Eaton Hall, the boys were afraid to walk down and check the door (it's creepy at night... I'm not gonna lie) so Josh threw the tape ball down the stairs at the door. Clearly this could not tell us if the door was locked, so I walked down and checked it myself, then Josh followed to reclaim his tape ball. This is also became an element in my dream...

In the dream I was on a mission trip. Everyone slept in an open room, and my bed was positioned close to the door. I woke up and all the middle schoolers were running around outside. Oops. Then, Josh, Judah, and Garrett appeared in the doorway, each holding a giant tape ball and each with a playful grin on their face, ready to attack me. I sat up and said, "You guys. Seriously. Do. Not. Throw those at me. I'm not even kidding. Stop." And they ran out the door, laughing. At some point I did gain possession of the tape balls, and I took them to a secret underground hallway to place them in a freezer so they would lose their bounce. Uh, tape doesn't bounce anyway, but had it been a rubber band ball my logic would have held up... I like that I knew that even in my dream.

I am becoming slightly troubled by the fact that I dream about my youth EVERY night...

Witty Blog Title

Brief update:

The Mission Possible Youth Auction (we ARE auctioning youth, but not in the way you might think) is tonight, and last night I dreamed that John Peters (my pastor) called me in my office at 2 a.m. to share with me some great ideas he had for the auction. Apparently the team of volunteers pulled an all-nighter in preparation of the event, and even John was pretty psyched out of his mind about it.

This dream is the love child of two events. First, we did have a team of volunteers setting up Trinity Hall last night, and at one point Forrest reminded the women on the auction committee that more volunteers were coming this morning (I'm late...) so at some point they'd just have to call it a night. In my dream, the night was never called. Second, I did receive a call from John Peters this week, though not at 2 a.m. On Wednesday my office phone rang; I saw that it was John, picked up the receiver, and this is the conversation that transpired:

Catherine: "Hello?"
John: "...Well, hello!"
(6-7 seconds of silence)
Catherine: "...What's up?"
John: "...Did I call YOU?"
Catherine: "Yes."
John: "Oh! You know, I didn't mean to do that."
Catherine: "Oh! Well, it was good to hear from you!"
John: "Yes! We should do it again sometime!"

:)

Return of the Eggos

I sent myself a dream-reminder email this morning because so many things happened last night. This is what the email says: "camel/dinner with Daddy, speeding ticket, Africa with Kate/waffles, Rebecca Logan, showing apartment, youth group-running late/playing instruments." That list contains the manifestation of a fear I've had since starting this blog: that one of my dreams would reveal an embarrassing secret. Don't see it? I'll go ahead and tell on myself. Rebecca Logan is one of the main characters on the television show Greek. She was in my dream last night because... I have been watching Greek on hulu.com (it's turning my brain to mush.) There. I said it. Don't judge me.

There was some fluidity with my dreams last night, but I'm not sure where some of the pieces fit in. Bear with me. Mallory and I were moving out of our apartment (yeah, right!) and prospective tenants came two by two to look at it. Two girls let themselves in for a tour, and we walked them around our very messy apartment (that part is accurate :)) We were insincerely apologetic about the mess--we didn't want to move out, so we wanted the girls to hate the apartment.

Enter Rebecca Logan. Actually, exit Rebecca Logan. She and two of her pledge sisters (just watch the show, okay?) ran downstairs, giggling. Our downstairs neighbor is Ryan, but in the dream it was Senator Logan (Rebecca's dad,) and the girls had an elaborate plan to break into the apartment and spy. Two of them entered the downstairs apartment, and one walked out to keep watch on the back porch... which all of a sudden was huge and had a pole for sliding into the backyard. Unfortunately, I couldn't reach the pole from the deck.

New dream? I was in an African desert with Kate and Ryan Joyce. It was dusk, and we looked out across miles and miles of rolling...sand dunes. We might have had a camel. When we returned to our hotel room I opened the freezer to find a box of my low-fat, whole grain, Eggo waffles. Much to my delight, it was a jumbo-sized box containing twenty waffles rather than ten. In waking life I have tried fruitlessly to find such a product. It only exists in my dreams. Anyone who has been reading my blog might think I am obsessed with my breakfast. Well...

Rebecca Logan reappeared, and we engaged in some witty banter. Finally she said, "Why are you being a [jerk] to me again? I thought we were beyond this." I told her that it was a habit and that I was sorry. Then the dream faded.

For the sake of keeping each entry at a reasonable length, I will save my other dreams for later. I hope you've enjoyed this glimpse into my subconscious :)

It's A Love Story

I've been told on more than one occasion that my life is like a romantic comedy. Lately it's been less romantic, more comedic... but a girl can dream, right? That is precisely what I did. In my dream I received a love letter from... someone. This someone (I know who it was, but I am not so bold/unguarded as to share that on a blog :)) poured out his heart on two pages (front and back) of notebook paper which were left twice folded on my desk. I sat in my office, slouched in my chair so as not to be seen from the hallway, and read the love letter. An intimate confession that made my heart beat just a little bit faster.

All of a sudden I stood in the parking lot with a group of middle school youth. They seem to make it into all my dreams, regardless of genre. (Sigh.) A 6th grade girl said to me, "Were we not supposed to read that note on your desk? Oops!" All the girls had read my love letter, and I felt mortified. The funny thing is... if I were to receive a love letter, that WOULD happen to me--inevitably--which is what leads certain people to describe my life as a romantic comedy. I am fairly certain that my life will never be a plain romance but rather will include more than a few pee-your-pants-laughing-want-to-die-of-embarrassment moments... and I like that.

Creepers.

My brain hosted two new genres last night: horror and romance. I suppose the first dream wasn't quite horror... really more of a thriller. I was at a daytime, outdoor celebration of some sort (a wedding reception, perhaps,) and in the crowd there was a man that I knew was after me. He had an unusually large build, with one leg longer than the other so he walked slowly and with a slight limp. His face was hidden by a shadow throughout the dream. I saw the man staring at me through the crowd, and I moved quickly in the other direction, but no matter where I went he appeared just a short distance away... still staring at me. The day turned into night, and I grabbed a friend to make an escape with me. We hopped in a car (a mid 90s blue hatchback,) and zig-zagged our way through the city streets in an attempt to lose the man. When we felt safe, my friend and I parked the car and entered a church. The lighting in the sanctuary was warm and the atmosphere welcoming... and the congregation was hosting a game night! (Yes, in the sanctuary.) We decided to participate. My friend urged me to relax-- certainly the ominous man would not find us there. Still, I continued looking over my shoulder towards the door at the back of the sanctuary, unable to enjoy myself. To ease my mind I came up with an escape plan in the event that the man did find us, and I shared the plan with my friend, who thought I was acting paranoid. I played games for a while, ever looking over my shoulder, and finally the man darkened the door (literally...he walked in and the shadow followed him.) He stood in the back of the sanctuary for a few minutes, and no one seemed to notice, and then he began moving slowly--almost floating-- towards us. Immediately I stood, gave a signal to my friend, and we quickly but calmly left through the emergency exit.

I don't often have nightmares, but this one is lingering; I've felt a little creeped out all day. I will save the romance dream for a separate post...it doesn't quite seem appropriate here. Okay, and it's nothing juicy, so don't get too excited.

(S)Muggle(r)s

At 7:03 a.m. I pressed the snooze button on my phone. Still in my cocoon of blankets I took a moment to conceptualize my dreams before drifting back to sleep. At 7:13 I turned off my alarm, sat up, and opened my laptop to check my email. At 7:18 I realized I had lost the dreams when I fell back asleep. Unacceptable. In a desperate dream-rescue attempt, I closed my laptop, lay back down, and pulled the covers back over my head to recreate the scene. After only a moment of being still, the dreams returned to me... I find it fascinating. Here's what I recall:

Allison and I were in the middle of a long run (evidence that it was in fact a dream :) My mom's friend Bill asked me last night if I had someone that I've been training with regularly for the upcoming half marathon. My response was, "I have someone that I run with... but I wouldn't use the word 'regularly...'" Allison and I share the thought that... why train when the human body can do such amazing things by itself?) Anyway, in my dream we were on a long run and needed to make a water stop at McDonald's. Why McDonald's? Because we looked to the left and saw the golden arches down a steep hill that would only take us a little bit off course. But why did I dream about McDonald's? I blame the media.

We started running down the hill, and a soccer field appeared on our right. Players began disappearing as we ran past them. It became evident to us that we were tracing an invisibility cloak around the field (obviously,) and the players continued disappearing one by one. It was not our intention to make them invisible--nor did we really find it as interesting as you might think-- it was simply happening, and we acknowledged it.

By the fourth side of the field, I was alone... briefly...and then the soccer field became the setting of a youth group picnic. One of the boys in the group asked to use the restroom. I have recently (in waking life) become aware that this particular youth might be a trouble-maker, and that transferred into the dream. I watched suspiciously as he walked across the field toward the building. Through the window I could see that he did not stop on the first floor-- the location of the most obvious, most accessible restroom. Aha. Up to no good. I ran after him, caught up to him on the third floor, and confronted him about his true intentions. He replied, "The first floor bathroom had pee pee in it." Yep. Apparently he wasn't lying, but I was not the one to check. Sorry I doubted you, kiddo.

I only have a short clip of dream two, and I think it came from watching Grey's Anatomy last night. In the dream I was standing in the hallway of a hospital with someone (not sure who, but I am pretty certain it was a woman,) and realized that she was smuggling a patient out. The patient (also a woman, I believe,) was bleeding and may have only had one leg, but she was eager to escape the hospital. I snapped into stealth mode and helped transfer the patient into a deserted room. The smuggler directed my attention to a computer screen with a picture of a newborn baby. The implication was that we also needed to take the baby, which I knew was wrong even though in the dream I "really wanted a baby!" This part of the dream came from talking to Karen last night about all the friends we know who are having babies (how crazy it is... not that we want them :)) The last I remember of the dream was the argument about whether to take the baby in the picture.

Sometimes I don't realize how weird my dreams are until I write them down...

Yeesh

Last night I dreamed that I was at youth group teaching a lesson on loving people the way Christ loves. On the white board I wrote a list of different types of people, including a close friend, family member, teacher, prostitute, drug addict. In the middle of the activity a 6th grader raised her hand and asked what a prostitute is. I panicked; I didn't anticipate that... but I should have. The majority of the group laughed as I awkwardly (and quickly) explained prostitution. For the remainder of the night I couldn't shake the fear that I contributed to this girl's corruption rather than building her up in Christ... or the fear that I might be receiving a few phone calls the next day...

Uh oh. That wasn't a dream.

Twix is my new favorite candy.

Halloween Hangover: the overall feeling one has on November 1st, resulting from eating way too much candy rather than dinner the night before. Yes, I may have eaten two pieces of candy for every one that I passed out to trick-or-treaters last night. Not surprisingly, I dreamed about Halloween candy...

I sat at my mom's kitchen table with a small crowd of people and a massive bowl of candy. The bowl contained all the types of candy that I actually handed out (and consequently ate) on Halloween--Starbursts, Skittles, Snickers, Milky Way, 3Musketeers, Twix-- plus Hershey bars. I don't think I even saw a Hershey bar yesterday, so it must have squeezed its way into my dream through power of association with the other candy. It's all about who you know. While unwrapping a Hershey bar someone made reference to how unhealthy it was. You know in that situation there is always someone who makes a joke like, "Oh, it doesn't have calories!" or "It's low-fat!" even though clearly that is not the case? Well, in my dream, I was that someone... except I said, "Oh, it's made with all-natural, organic dark chocolate!" As if that would put anyone's mind to ease. No one laughed. Thankfully the conversation (or perhaps just the dream) shifted to jewely. Someone said in a very condescending tone, "What do YOU know about making jewelry?" I make a fair amount of jewelry. It's a creative outlet for me, but every time I craft a piece it takes me a little while to decide if I love it or hate it...or if other people will love it or hate it. When this person directed the question at me in my dream, I experienced a brief moment of insecurity, then I looked around the room, and all the women were wearing necklaces that I had made. I responded confidently, "Actually... I know quite a lot."

In another dream last night my friend Elizabeth was in the process of writing a memoir on her teaching experiences. She gave me the privilege of writing the epilogue. She also allowed me to proof read the book, which actually contained no words; every page was a colored-pencil drawing of grass, trees, and sky. Every. Single. One. And I was captivated by the artistry of each page. The fact that the book contained no words was irrelevant. I still found it beautiful.

Then someone wanted to take my blood pressure and test my cholesterol levels; I passed out when I saw the needle.

If anyone is majoring in dream interpretation, wishes that was an option, or has any thoughts on the meanings of my dreams, feel free to leave comments! I have a slight fear that some deeply personal pattern will emerge in my dreams... and that someone else will see it before I do. If that's the case, you can just email me instead :)

Dragon-Slayer

As I mentioned in my last post, I took a road trip to Virginia Tech on Thursday to visit friends and go to the football game. To maximize my time in Blacksburg I left Richmond early Thursday and thus did not blog my dreams. But don't worry... I dreamed.

In the first dream that night I was leading a mission trip. We'd been driving all day in the church vans, which happened to be convertible vans on this trip (holler!) We had a "layover" that night in Louisiana, and the weather was terrible: pouring rain, lightening... the whole she-bang. Apparently someone put the tops back on the vans because that was a non-issue in the dream. We spent the night in Louisiana, and the next morning when we were supposed to leave, the weather was still too dangerous to drive. One of the other adult leaders as well as some youth advised me to cancel the trip and just drive back home (which is funny because... it was still raining regardless of which way we drove.) I refused. Then I thought back to a mission trip planning meeting I had with Forrest (that only existed in the dream world) in which he told me, "Whatever you do, you do NOT want to get stuck in Louisiana!" I knew I'd made a big mistake, and the dream ended.

The second dream came from Sleeping Beauty. There is a scene in which Prince Phillip is fighting his way to Princess Aurora. The evil witch Malificent creates a thick briar patch, but Phillip cuts through it with his sword. Then Malificent turns herself into a dragon and tries to kill Phillip with her firey breath. Enter Dream Catherine. No Prince Phillip, no Princess Aurora... just me and the dragon. I knew the dragon wasn't all evil though; it was helping me learn to fight. Still, it breathed its fire at me. Someone threw me a stick about two feet long that burned from both ends. I examined it to determine which end was the sharpest, then threw it at the dragon, piercing it in the neck, bringing it to its death. Catherine-1, Dragon-0.

What a Nerd

The trick to remembering dreams is to reflect before you even move from under the covers in the morning. This morning as I sit in bed, lights still off, I see snippets of at least a few dreams. There is one, however, that I can't quite harness in. I have a vague sense of it, but the longer I am awake, the further it slips from my mental grasp.

Here's what I do remember, in no particular order:

...The middle school youth were putting on a Halloween pageant and singing the worship song, "You Have Redeemed My Soul." In the dream I heard them singing and followed the sound because I love that song. A few waking days ago I thought about the song and how we should sing it at youth group... I'm not sure how appropriate it is for a Halloween pageant though...

...I spent the night with Amy Clark at Tech-- in waking life on Thursday night after the UNC game, and also in my dream last night. Yes, Amy, I spent the night with you in my dreams :) When we woke up in the morning (in the dream...) Amy realized she had a. failed to prepare for an exam, and b. slept in, and now had to hurry to take the test. I tried to console a very frazzled Amy as we ran across campus to her class. At some point during the trek--actually, as we ran through the auditorium-- I became aware that the entire exam measured the class's ability to distinguish between two flavors of Nerds candies. For the test, although the dream ended before we reached that point, each student had to pour a box of Nerds into their mouth and sort the strawberries from the lemonades. My consolation morphed into, "Amy, you'll be fine! You know what strawberry tastes like, and lemonade is tangy!"

I remember the rest of my dreams last night in 10 second clips, as opposed to actual stories:

...Hundreds of cars sat in a traffic jam. A van fell over on the curb (I think the other cars were pushing,) and the van stood itself back up like an animal would stand from a sleeping position.

...We met for youth group on the stage of an enormous outdoor auditorium. Everyone sat in a line on benches waiting for something to start playing on the big screen. Then someone zip-lined in from a platform that was too high and too far away to see. No big deal.

...I was hanging out with friends in my room at my mom's house, and people brought us breakfast... through the window. I was handed an open can of vegetable soup, which I rudely threw away because a. I make my own vegetable soup that happens to be delicious, and b. I don't eat it for breakfast. In the dream I acknowledged that I was being ungrateful, but didn't care.

I have a few other snapshots floating through my brain--like leaving my facewash on the counter of a public bathroom and watching through a crack in the stall to make sure no one took it, and a friend leaving his lunch box on the bottom level of a parking garage-- but nothing with much substance. By this point I have completely lost the dream I mentioned at the beginning of this post. Bummer.

Morses and Mintons and Miles, Oh My!

I went back to high school last night in my dreams. I sat in my 11th grade honors English class... except it was a different room, and Mrs. Morse was absent (which kept the dream from being classified as a nightmare :)) As we all know, with a substitute teacher often comes busy-work. The substitute walked in the room and explained that we could receive points that day for three things: taking advantage of the reading day, working on our house projects, or both. In the dream the "reading day" was actually a movie day, but in real life the "movie" we were supposed to watch was one of my current favorite bands, Death Cab for Cutie. Very dream-like. The house project? I'm not sure... but everyone in the class had on their desk a small stack of magazines, popsicle sticks, and glue, and no one looked confused when the substitute said we could work on our house projects. I assure you, Teresa Morse never assigned such a project, although the first-grader that I babysit completed something similar a few weeks ago...

After English I ran laps in gym class with my all-time favorite teacher, Ms. Minton (who is now a very happy Mrs. Criswell.) Is anyone surprised that my favorite teacher is one who is notorious for making her students run a mile every day? I loved it. Everyone had a partner, and each person had to run 400 meters, twice, as part of a relay race. In Dream DSF, ten laps around the small gym equalled 400 meters, and while everyone in the class ran, I sat out and talked with Ms. Minton, who told me that the last time she saw me I had a stomach pooch from the summer, and that I look better now. No offense taken. Apparently in this dream, she spoke the truth.

Oh, dreams.

Waffles with Peanut Butter and Honey, Strawberries with Yogurt, Coffee with Milk and Sugar...

In the next segment of last night's dream I was in my mom's house with my brother and sister. Ross needed special furniture for his apartment, and Whitney remembered this great place in Waynesboro. (Seriously? How did Waynesboro make its way into my subconscious?) There was a sense of urgency; We had to go right then. I wanted to take a shower because I'd gone running the night before, but there was no time. Whitney didn't even wear matching shoes: one rain boot, one Croc. Even Dream Ross and Dream Catherine noted the absurdity of this: Whitney would NEVER wear mismatched shoes. I also wanted to eat breakfast, but the sib's insisted that we stop for food on the road. In my dream this angered me, which I find interesting because it's pretty true in waking life as well. I do NOT enjoy going out to breakfast, and I especially dislike stopping for fastfood breakfast on the road. Whenever our family travels with the plan of eating on the road, I still eat breakfast before setting foot in the car. I mean, breakfast sets the tone for the whole day... I'd like to make it myself, thank you. I digress. I don't know if we ever made it to Waynesboro for the special furniture (or if we ever knew what was so special about the furniture.) The world may never know.

I find it funny the ideas that creep into dreams. At some point I will explain my theory on dreams, but for now I am off to cultivate more writing material!

Elephants and Camels and Deer(s), Oh My!

Last night's dream began (I think) on a haunted hayride. Well, not the hayride, but the creepy walk through the woods with people in masks jumping out at me and some faceless friends. The dream shifted, and I stood alone in the woods behind the house where I grew up. I could see my house and my neighbors' houses through lots of trees, and I knew I had to make a run for it: the woods were filled with wild animals--hiding, waiting to jump on unsuspecting nature-lovers. Thankfully, I made it safely through and emerged in the Bartholomew's backyard. I walked up the hill towards the driveway and saw a tiny, baby deer... much like this fella I saw in Kenya:


I expected him to run away, but he didn't. Instead, the bambi-dumbo hybrid approached me and began licking my hand. (When I woke up this morning I smelled my hand to make sure it didn't smell like deer spit. Ew.) Our moment lasted until I made eye contact with his mother in the grass near by, at which point she sprang to her hooves and called the fawn away. Alas.

As I walked up the driveway and into the street I heard music and people speaking in British accents. I looked up the street and saw a crowd of people dressed in colonial garb standing in the Smith's yard. There was live music, a bonfire, and... an elephant? Yes, a very dark, very wrinkled elephant, along with a flat-backed camel. In the dream I thought, "That camel doesn't have a hump, but it's still a camel." This part of the dream came from an email I read yesterday from my dear friend and former roomie, Leah, who now lives up North. Here's the quote, "I OFFICIALLY SAW A MOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOSE last week. YEP. Saw one. ALMOST hit it with my car. BUT I saw a moose. No it didnt have antlers but it was still a MOOSE." The camel didn't have a hump, but it was still a camel.

I observed the historical reenactment for a bit, then continued up the street to my mom's house. The actors-elephant and camel included- proceeded down the street.

My next post, which will be up later this evening, may have been an extension of this dream, or it may have stood alone... but I'll leave you to chew on this portion for a while...

Finally.

"It sounds like you're high... except you're dreaming." -Mallory

No further explanation required for why I am creating a blog of my dreams... which I suspect is the blog of YOUR dreams :) After months of waking up thinking, "What just happened? I should write that down," as well as being told countless times, "You should start a dream blog," I am taking the plunge.

So here it is: the adventures of Catherine Tudor's mind between the hours of 11 p.m. and 7 a.m.

Buckle up.