I want to ride my bicycle, I want to ride my bike

Last night I had a dream that I was in a cheerleading group which was led by my coworker, Dan.  We practiced our routine and Dan was incredibly unhappy about how it went.  He began to speak in French to us and then all of the sudden 30 bicycles appeared in completely straight lines five by six.

I was just astounded by the bicycles arriving and the perfection of their order but no one else was.  What can I say, I love order.

Did I mention that all of the bikes were pink?  Yeah, they were.

We all jumped on the bikes and started to ride them around a new housing development.  Dan was in the front with a member of the troupe with me riding lazily behind him.

Suddenly, I was alone and I was riding around my parent’s neighborhood.

Just as suddenly, I was inside a building taking a science class.  The building definitely looked like my junior high school but I believe it was standing in for my college.

As the class ended, I hopped on my bike and rode down the hallway to the elevator.  I took the elevator down to the main level where it opened up to a basketball court.  But it wasn’t just any basketball court, it was a basketball court with a rope mesh floor – kind of like a hammock.

I rode around the outside of the mesh floor back to the elevator which now looked like the Old Post Office Pavillion.  I got back on the elevator and now inside were three guys that I went to high school with whom I haven’t spoken to in 12 years.  I don’t think I’m even Facebook friends with them.

And then I was in a department store buying a bedspread.

The brass section!!!

Last night I had a hallucination that someone was trying to hit me over the head with a French Horn.

Dad and Bruce

Last night I had a dream that Dad called me to tell me that he was bringing Grandpa to DC.  I kept asking him when but all he would say was “We’re on our way.”  From Ohio. Western Ohio.  40 minutes from Indiana Ohio. 

For some reason, I was working at a theater that was having a Bruce Springsteen concert that evening and I knew that Dad would want to come to see the show.  Only it wasn’t just Springsteen.  It was a show that had been transplanted from Las Vegas so it had performers from Cirque du Soleil.  Only they were the reject performers from Cirque.  They looked like linebackers hanging from little wires. 

All of the sudden, Dad appeared next to me and asked why the performers on the wires were so bad.  I told him that they couldn’t swing due to the lighting system. 

Then we were standing in the back of the house looking for Grandpa who was talking to Wolf Blitzer.

Tattoos

I have three tattoos.  I’ve been meaning to get more but I just haven’t gotten around to it.  Last night I dreamt that I got a weird tie-dye Ra symbol on my left wrist, three tiny black stars on my left palm, a very strange thing that looked like a Magic: The Gathering card on my left thigh and another mix of all these tattoos on my left hip. 

Apparently my next tattoo is supposed to go somewhere on the left side of my body.

Adventures in Laundry

Last night I dreamt that I was back in an apprentice-like program but I have no idea what we were apprentices to.  Somehow, I witnessed one of the other girls as she went to this rally where whatever they were rallying for or against made her extremely upset.  She also got in a throw down altercation with a young man at the rally which left her in tears.

Cut to me being in an apartment shared by a couple involved in the apprentice program.  We are sitting around waiting for the rest of the group to arrive and the boyfriend starts singing.  (PS, he looks like the janitor from Improv Everywhere’s Food Court Musical.)  We laugh.  We have a few drinks.  I realize that my laundry is in the closet.  I go to check on it and it’s all nicely folded under a pile of coats. I am pleased.

Suddenly, 10 extra people show up to the party including the first girl.  She walks in and it’s kind of like an anime cartoon where the camera begins doing quick zooms onto important thing in the room and then back on the character.  This happens numerous times as she realizes that the boyfriend is the same young man from earlier with whom she got into the awful altercation. 

She is wearing a white crocheted hat and vest and starts to cry. 

Just as suddenly, everything is fine again and I decide that it’s time to go home.  I tell the boyfriend that I need to get my laundry and he says okay but he needs to pull his socks out of the basket first.  I grab the basket nad he pulls his socks out.  I start to leave and he says that it’s a really bad area so he’ll walk me to my car.

I head outside and realize that Husband has dropped off the car to me and I’m not sure where he has left it.  I start to call him and the boyfriend tells me that he’s received a text from Husband that says that the car is at the intersection of Delancy and Winter streets.  We start to look around at these tiny street signs which are hanging from the ceiling (because naturally, we’re now in a hallway.  With cars parked along it.) 

We start to run and I find the car but the I see that he’s no longer holding my laundry.  He tells me to get in the car and he’ll go find the laundry.  I jump in the car and see that there are people right next to the window trying to open the car door and grab me.  I start to drive and I see a bunch of homeless people with laundry baskets running away.  I find the woman with my basket and I stop the car and run up to her.  I tell her that it’s my laundry basket in her hands and I try to grab it.  She tells me that it’s hers but doesn’t really fight me.  I look into the basket and realize that most of my clothing is gone and all that is left is a yellow blanket. 

Then I wake up.

A few minutes later, I fall asleep again and dream that there is a baby in a pool, only the baby doesn’t have a face.  Or a body.  It’s just a head.  Without a face. The baby is definitely alive but the head is wrapped in gauze and there is a breathing tube coming out of the top.  I place it back in the water.

Then I wake up again. 

It was a long night.

Two dreams for one

Last night I dreamt that I was hanging out in my parent’s backyard (in Ohio) with Dad and Sister and I had my laptop and I was looking for a race to run the next day.  I kept clicking on various races that were in DC and randomly clicked on a race that ended up being in Bowling Green, OH.  A marathon.  In BG.  Yeah…no.  Not going to happen.

Out of nowhere, I suddenly had a map of DC and I was showing Dad the path that a 20 mile race was taking through DC – which, for some reason, encircled American University.  I told him that this was the race that I wanted to run.

Suddenly, it was 10:00am the next day and Dad, Sister and I were in Dad’s minivan driving through Hains Point in DC – literally through the race.  I said “See! I told you there was a race today!”  We very quickly passed mile 8 where the elapsed time was 1 hour 35 minutes but we didn’t see any runners, which is a tad strange.  A second later, we passed another mile marker that listed the time as 85 minutes.  Then we saw the front runners coming up on this sign.  Now, I don’t know if you know anything about running but 85 minutes for the front runners to get to mile 7 is incredibly slow.  I run a 10-minute pace and would be there quicker than that.

Anyway, so that part of the dream ended. And then this part started:

When I was in high school and part of college,  I worked at a single-screen movie theater called the Cla-Zel (named after the original owners Clark and Hazel Young.)  I loved this job.  It was amazing.  We showed a lot of art films and every Saturday at midnight we showed Rocky Horror.  And, occasionally, we showed schlock.  Like ‘Titanic.’  Which we had on opening night…and then for the next 14 weeks.  (Did I mention that this was  a single-screen theater?  Meaning we could only have one movie playing at a time.  Meaning that we would hear it all. Every. Single. Word.  I can recite all of Titanic.  All. Of. It.)

Anyway, it was December 17, 1997 all over again.  Opening NIght of Titanic and for some reason, it was summer.  In December.  It was also daytime.  And every couple getting married in Bowling Green wanted to have their picture taken in front of or inside my theater.

The first bridal party arrives wearing red. I run outside and tell them that they can’t come in the theater due to the film.  As I am talking to this group, another group arrives wearing blue.  While trying to tell the red group to leave, the blue group tries to sneak past me.  I stop them and send them on their way.  I turn around to go back inside and somehow yet another bridal party (also wearing red) has snuck into the lobby and arranged themselves around so the photographer can take their picture.

Again, I tell them all to leave. 

Then I hear a commotion in the theater and I look in and there are bridal parties EVERYWHERE!  Titanic is still playing in the background but there are just brides and grooms and flower girls in every row!  I try to shuffle them out and then another group shows up!  Again and again and again.  Over and over.  And then I woke up.

I’m not going to lie – I think part of this dream was about futility.

2 dreams for the price of 1

Friday’s dream: I dreamt I was in a play.  I think it was supposed to be Ragtime and I was the lead.  Only it was the play version, or so I thought.  Then people started singing only I didn’t have the lyrics.  In fact, my script looked like a poem.  No stage directions, no character distinctions.  And we were definitely performing at Kobacker.

Saturday’s dream:  Oh man.  Where do I start?  Let’s start with the fact that I worked for 16 hours prior to this dream and that I might have been a tad drunk on wine by the end of the night.  The dream started at Falling Water.  For some reason, my boss and her partner lived there.  The outside was just as Mr. Wright designed it, but the inside looked like the apartments I used to clean as a summer job – only, well, cleaner.  For some reason, my boss was dating this actor with blue hair from Constellation Theatre Company.  He and I were at the student rec center back at my college going swimming and it never came up again that the boss was dating this guy.

Anyway, I went for a run as my boss’ partner was also my marathon coach (this part is true) and all of the sudden, it was snowing.  I was running in front of her car through the snow but it wasn’t cold.  I kept running and realized that instead of being at Falling Water or in this strange metal park, I was now in my hometown running through the corn fields.  While running through the snow, I looked up and saw lions.  Full furry-headed lions. Giant ones.  4 of them.  3 males and a female.  I stopped running and my coach’s car pulled up behind me. I jumped into the car, and then I woke up.

Caterpillars and holes in the floor

Last night I had a dream that started at work.  I was managing a seated dinner for a large group of older Americans. I’m not sure which group it was but I seem to remember that most of the women had big hair and giant flower brooches.  Midway through the dream, I was suddenly at home waiting for my friends Brooke and Shawn to come over to play Apples to Apples.  After Brooke called me, I realized that I was wearing my pajamas – which means no bra.  Which is not good for me.  So I quickly changed into regular clothes which in this dream meant a pair of jeans and a green OR scrub top.

Brooke called again and I walked to the front of my apartment which turned into the Atrium at work.  I was back at the seated dinner only this time, in the empty area of the room I realized that someone had set up 10 new tables with blue and purple plaid linens.   I looked out of the Atrium and I saw the usher that I had hired to keep the event private was standing outside of the room but he was looking at another usher who had fallen down.  I looked more closely at the second usher and realized he hadn’t just fallen down, he had gotten the entirety of his right leg stuck in a giant hole on the floor.  I ran out to help him out of the hole and realized that there were 2 other identically large holes in the floor. 

I picked up my phone to call the facilities manager and then I saw him across the room talking on his phone.  No matter how hard I tried I just couldn’t get his attention.  My phone rang. It was Brooke. She and Shawn had arrived and they were setting up the game and I should get up there to play.  I turned around again and saw that the previously empty 10 tables were now full of ushers in their red Kennedy Center coats.  I started to get incredibly frustrated because they weren’t supposed to be there.   They hadn’t reserved the room and there was another event happening at the same time.  My coworker ran by me and yelled “They aren’t allowed to be in there.  What are you going to do about it?!”  I yelled back that I would take care of it. 

I watched her run by me and into the room and then I saw that the 10 tables were mysteriously gone as were all of the ushers.  I turned my attention back to the three giant holes in the floor and told three other ushers that they needed to protect people from these holes.  Again, the facilities manager was there, talking on his phone and I couldn’t get his attention.  I walked towards him and as I took a step  towards him, I was suddenly in my apartment with Brooke, Shawn and Husband.  I took another step towards them and was suddenly in the woods.

And then I was taking macro photographs of caterpillars.

I wish dreams could come true!

Last night I dreamt I was on a clothes shopping spree…

Blasts from the past

Try as I might, I simply cannot remember my dream from last night.  I know that it was a good one and that I wanted to write about it, but I keep tripping over my memories.

Instead, I would like to share a few blasts from the past of things I did when I was younger.  Enjoy!

Age 8 – I walked into the living room where my father was playing tetris and said “Where’s Beth?”  My dad calmly responded “In bed, where you should be.”  “Okay” I said, and walked back to my room.

Age 11 – Sometime in the middle of the night my mother awoke to find me sitting on the top of my bunkbed with my hands on the ceiling yelling “I gotta keep it up!  I gotta keep it up!!”  (Which is almost as good as the time my father, a fellow narcoleptic, woke my mother up asking her how to get the pizza down from off of the ceiling.)

Age 14 – My poor sister awoke to find me pulling on her arm yelling “Steph! Steph! We gotta get outta here!!”  Poor Sister.

….and finally…

Age 16 – At the high school thespian conference, I woke up standing outside of my motel room.  Yep.  Outside.  And it was  real motel where the doors opened up to the outside, not into a nice carpeted hallway.  In April.  In Ohio. 

Stay tuned as it gets really busy at work this week and I’ll be under fantastic amounts of stress which means fantastic amounts of dreaming and screaming!