Dream: Soft Drink and a Redhead

I dreamed I was in an elevator.  It slowly starts filling up.  Then just as the elevator doors start to close, this redhead stops them and informs us there is a weight discrepancy.  One of us has to leave.  She points to me, but I’m not upset.  I’m holding a can of Diet Dr. Pepper, and I’m aware I’m in a commercial.  The reason for the discrepancy is that the weight in the elevator suddenly decreased as it was filling up.  The whole point of the campaign is how fast you lose weight drinking Diet Dr. Pepper.

I explain this, but the redhead says she knows and just wanted to get me off the elevator so she could make out with me. We start kissing and stumble into this gym locker room.  There are guys there, but they leave and give us some privacy.  One thing I remember is looking at her back in the mirror as I’m taking off her blouse and seeing her ribs and wondering if she might have an eating disorder.

The weirdest thing about the dream?  I’ve never drank Diet Dr. Pepper.

Dream: Waitress with Pie

I dreamed I was driving on the east side of town, past a row of renovated businesses that I’d never seen before.  I think about stopping in one day and checking out this area, especially this cafe I spot.  Then I’m walking into that cafe, and immediately this black waitress starts calling me by my name.  She offers me pie.  She’s so happy to see me.

However, I have trouble remembering her first name, which is a problem I have in real life.  I’m terrible with first names.  But I know we attended school together.

I really want to know her name because she’s so pretty.  She wears a pink uniform with a little pink hat.  Her hair is shoulder length and  there’s something about her smile.  Also, for some reason I keep noticing her arms and how dark and smooth they are.

Eventually, her name comes to me: Veronica.  I tell her I stopped in because my new job involves working outside the office.  In fact, the person I work for needs an accountant.  Because I know she’s an accounting major perhaps she could apply for the position and mention my name as a reference.  We talk some more, and eventually I wake up.   I hope this dream is more prophetic than symbolic.  I’d really like to meet someone like Veronica.

Dream: Won’t Treat a Worm Like a Wick

I dreamed I was in what looked like an old abandoned factory.  I’m pouring gasoline on the floor of this large room.   The floor is covered with a least an inch or two of gasoline.  I can see the ripples in this large, shallow puddle.  I want to cause an explosion to escape the bad guys pursuing me.

All I need is to ignite something that I can toss into the room from a safe distance.  I look on the ground for something, but all I can find is an earthworm.  For some reason–perhaps dream logic–I think an earthworm will light up like a wick or paper.  I flick on my lighter, but I don’t want to burn this innocent worm.  I search for some other material or object.  Eventually, I give up and hope the people chasing me are smoking or somehow create a spark that causes the gasoline to explode.

I continue on through the factory, trying to make my escape.  It’s very dark., but I see the trio of men pursuing me because they have flashlights and laser scopes on their rifles.  Suddenly, I hear a narrator’s voice describing my actions.  I come across this ladder and equipment blocking my way, and the narrator says, “Then, just as he was about to make a clean getaway, he knocks down the ladder and alerts the gang to his whereabouts.”

I think, “Well, I had better be really careful getting around this ladder.”   But as cautious as I try to be,  my leg still gets snagged, causing the ladder to fall on me and make this clattering racket.  I get up and take off running with the bad guys close behind me.

Dream: Rolling a Ball

I dreamed I was driving on I-75 through downtown.   But then I was still on the interstate, but I was on foot rolling this large blue exercise ball.  It was snowing.  I remember a group of kids came up to the interstate to watch me push the ball, and I took some of the snow that was coating it and tossed some in their direction.

Then I was on a bridge with the ball.  I saw a group of people below (perhaps a family).  I was trying to teach a baby how to stand up and balance on top of the ball.

Dream: Bookstores and Murderous Acting Classes

The last few nights I’ve been dreaming of homes that weren’t mine and have never seen before; and yet when I’m dreaming I strongly feel an attachment to them and want to move in, even if they turn out to be someone else’s home.  But in this dream (as well as  another one) there are three square-shaped homes built close together on top of a hill.  And I’m somehow aware that not all three homes are inhabited.  I feel happy because the one that I like hasn’t been bought yet, and I can possibly live there.

Then I’m at this Barnes and Noble type bookstore that I’ve been put in charge of.  It’s large and spacious,  and I’m walking alongside the company president, who is dressed in a very expensive suit.  He’s throwing out all these sales and marketing projections and using terms I’m not familiar with.  I do research them though.

I’m feel flying by the seat of my pants; but instead of thinking I’m unprepared for this position and am way over my head, this doesn’t feel like one of those dreams where I’m in school and unprepared for a test.  Instead, because this position just sort of fell in my lap, I have this feeling like, “Hey, let’s just see where this goes.”   This guy has all this faith in me because he believes my outside-the-box perspective will mean more sales.  He’s even bought me new clothes.  I go out in the parking lot and stomp on rain puddles.   I walk back towards the store.  The boss and another person are standing outside on the sidewalk.  I notice my shirt is splattered with dirty puddle water, but I just shrug it off.

Then I’m in a car driving with Charlie Crews from the tv show Life as well as a woman I believe is his partner.  We’re driving  around Monument Circle in Indianapolis at night.  Crews is in one of his zen reflective moments and going on and on about what makes paper so special and what it would be like to be surrounded by fresh paper all day.  We pass a Barnes and Noble.  I mention how I once ran a bookstore and start talking excitedly about the smell of newly printed pages.  Joining Crews in his excitement about the subject of paper irritates his partner.  I still don’t recognize the partner, but I’m so excited about being in an episode of Life.

We’re on top of this skyscraper with an amazing panoramic view of the city.  We’re there to question a nefarious eastern European couple concerning their whereabouts during a murder.  We have to make it through their bodyguards though.  And we do after some back and forth.  We turn the corner and the couple is throwing what seems like a party.

But the couple informs us that they are observing an acting class lead by a black woman that’s supposed to be this very famous acting teacher.  She conducts an acting exercise aimed at breaking down inhibitions.  Everyone in class is supposed to embody a wild animal.

She starts shrieking and lunging around, flailing her arms about.  Other students, who are also black, do likewise and soon are worked into a frenzy–except for one female student, who sits by a potted tree and tries reading a book.   She’s clearly irritated.  When asked, she says she thinks the exercise is demeaning and enforces negative stereotypes set by Hollywood.

The exercise goes on and the teacher gets closer and closer to the student.  And just when it seems something might happen, it does.  The teacher attacks the student like a predatory animal, clawing at her with a berserk strength.  The detectives tackle her.  Once she is subdued, a little boy appears and identifies her as the “noisy monster” who killed his mother.

At first, it seems the teacher’s motivation for attacking the uncooperative student was because she wouldn’t participate in the exercise.  Then it seems the acting teacher just made up the acting exercise as a cover to attack the student.  But then it’s revealed the acting teacher committed murder because in her mind it made her performance as a wild animal more authentic and allowed her to fully embody the character.

Looking back, my mind was probably thinking about alternative motives for the murder mystery, but in my dream it seemed like I was really solving this crime and discovering the killer’s true motive.

There was also a question about the nefarious couple who had been suspects, and if they had intentionally thrown this party so as to expose the true killer.  Then as the drama was winding down and the murderer led away, a voice that sounded like a DVD commentary announced that this would have been Life, Episode 4.21.  When I woke up I was sad because I so would have liked Life to have lasted four seasons.

Dreams: Missed Keys and Chases

I dreamed about an ostracized woman involved in a small town scandal.  She wants to return to her church and play the organ again.  But this stern woman in charge of the church tells her that she’ll have to prove she’s truly sincere by playing a particular song.  It’s sort of test.  Only someone who is sorry for what they’ve done can play this song without making a mistake.

The woman plays, but she misses the keys.  But here’s the thing: the woman isn’t trying to play the song the other woman told her to, but one she thinks is appropriate.  This is all about the woman wanting to be heard and understood for who she really is.

Then the dream changes and it’s like I’m watching a cat-and-mouse thriller involving high tech gadgets and chases through hallways and stairways in order to capture a criminal mastermind.

Dream: Grassy Meadow and Chapel

The first thing I can remember about this dream is that I’m in a car watching the lead male detective from Law and Order: SVU with this young woman who is supposed to be his daughter.  I don’t know if he has a daughter this old on the show, but they’re arguing about her the treatment she’ll be receiving or the job she’s taking.  But she says she’s an adult and can make her own decisions. 

I feel as if I’m in the car, but it’s also like I’m watching this drama unfold as if it were on television.  I feel we’re in the back of a limo because I’m watching them and can see the scenery as we pass it.  I look out the windows and know they’re driving down my street, so I’m sort of excited that my house will be on television, even if it’s only for a few seconds in the background and nobody knows it but me.  However, just as we’re getting to my house, a large white truck drives alongside us, and I know my house won’t be filmed.  We pass my house, but in the distance it looks as though someone had hung a banner off my retaining wall.  I wonder what it says.

Then the limo gets to the interstate overpass just before downtown, but traffic is at a standstill.  I’m told there’s been an accident.   I see a helicopter land on the other end of the overpass.  So I start walking up the ramp to the interstate, but instead of paved concrete lanes I find a grassy meadow.  I notice large rocks on the ground, especially these rather large flat black stones that I wish I could take back to my garden.  I start looking for more rocks for my garden.

Then a couple is walking near me, and they’re talking about things that don’t really interest me.  I see a flowering tree on a hill and walk through a patch of snow to get to it.  Once I climb the hill I realize that it’s really a high embankment.  Before me is the Miami River and on the other side is Downtown Dayton, but it’s a street lined with little specialty shops.  The couple talk about all the condos that will be built along the riverbank.

I walk further, and then I’m in this historic village with stone buildings.  There are other people milling around.  I overhear some guy talk about how he’s familiar with the era of the village because he’s experienced it in one of his past lives.  I’m annoyed.  As if he’s the only one to believe in reincarnation.

I enter a building that I’m told is a Roman temple being restored.  I notice a silver statue that looks like an angel.   I wonder what life was like for this isolated village and imagine it was peaceful.

I walk the pathways of the village.  I notice a group of black children dressed up as nineteenth century calvary officers.

Then there’s a young black woman fainting.  I support her as we walk down stairs and into a chapel.  I tell the children dressed as calvary officers that she’s having visions.  She asks me to take care of her.  I sit in the pew behind her, but she says she wants me to sit beside her.  The pews are really small, but I manage to squeeze in beside her.  I notice my white socks and feel underdressed for church, but then I notice other people are wearing white socks too.  I remember the chapel carpet being blue and violet in the stained glass.

I write down the things the woman whispers to me.  It seems like the names of teas with so many ounces of each kind.

Offering envelopes are collected by children and placed in a pile in the middle of the aisle.  My mother is there.  She’s written a check but doesn’t have an envelope to put the offering in.  I tell someone that she doesn’t have an envelope and is hesitant to put a check on the pile because people might see the amount and think she’s deliberately showing off.  I’m told they don’t care, so one of the children takes the check and places it on the pile of offerings.

Looking back on the dream, there seems to be a lot of religous and spiritual imagery.

Dream: Vampire

I dreamed this female vampire was sucking on my bleeding finger.  My hand was soaked in blood. It was like I was feeding her.

Then something happened to her, and I was with two detectives from The Closer putting computer circuitry together.  This was supposed to somehow help revive the vampire.  At one point one of the detectives was working with a soldering gun saying this was delicate work and there was no room for error.  Then electricity came off the end of the gun and fried the circuitry.

But then she was back and feeding off my heavily bleeding finger.

Yeah, the dream seems rife with sexual symbolism.  However, the whole time I wasn’t turned on, or scared.

I was confused.  Why the heck am I standing around letting this vampire drink from my finger?  I guess I was irritated more than anything.

Dream: Hummingbirds in a Bottle

I dreamed I was sorting through items in a cluttered room in a place that seemed like a house but then later seemed more like an office building.

I found a hummingbird feeder filled with liquid and inside, submerged, were three dead hummingbirds. I poured out the liquid and held the little birds in my cupped hands. I noticed one was browner than the others. The others had their original color; and I wondered if only the brown was dead and decomposing. Maybe the other two could be revived.

Suddenly I noticed the wings on one start to flex and twitch. I started toward a water fountain, thinking washing and cleaning the living hummingbirds would help them recover.

Then I woke up.

Looking up the symbolism of hummingbirds, the dream might signify “making progress even when it seems you’re stuck”.

The fluid the birds were submerged in could be nectar, which might symbolize “the sweet things in life”, or finances.

The fact the birds are bottled in the nectar could represent drowning in financial trouble. Or some part of my life being submerged or stagnant.

Two of the birds reviving could mean my long financial troubles could be nearing an end. Washing would suggest revival too.

Overall, a hopeful but strange dream. I’ve never dreamed about hummingbirds before.

Dreams: Floor and Wall

I’ve been thinking about home renovation a lot lately. That could be why the most memorable things about my last couple of dreams have involved the components of a buidling.

In the first, I’m watching this guy install wooden flooring. However, standing up in the middle of some of the boards are half pieces of circular saw blades. He talks about what a great deal he got the flooring. And the more boards he puts in place, the more the floor looks like shark fins are poking out of the floor and he’s surrounded.

In the second one I’m shopping in this IKEA-like store. I walk down this wide staircase to the front of the store where there is a large sliding wall. A yet when I touch it I realize that it’s actually made of dough.