I lay in bed willing the next new scene of the work in progress to present itself. Between sleep and awake, cozy under the blankets, glad it was Sunday and I could sleep in.
Instead I was rewarded with a dream. We lived in a highrise city apartment. I was in the lobby in a hoodie, sweatpants, no bra and having gone two days without a shower. It suddenly occurred to me that I was enrolled in some seminar that morning but I couldn't remember a single detail or whether or not I'd received a registration confirmation.
MathMan arrived in the lobby, Sophia in tow. He was putting her in a cab to go somewhere unexplained. Nathan and some of his friends sat at a concrete table on the sidewalk. I peered through the window of the building next to me and realized that was where the seminar was happening. I'd dash upstairs, have a quick shower and get back maybe ten minutes late. Not a lost cause.
I yanked open the glass door and bee-lined for the elevator bank. It was only after I stood for a moment in the immobile elevator that I realized I'd gone into the wrong building. I'd have to go back to the lobby and into my own building.
I punched a button and nothing happened. I pushed another. Still nothing. Fine. I hit the open door button. As the doors opened, the elevator lurched. First up, then down. The doors partially opened, I could see the innards of the working system.
The elevator expanded, growing to at least three times its initial size. It was a large, moving room. The doors continued to open and closed but now they looked like a mouth with a crazy grin, sharp teeth.
There were windows in the walls and up on one window ledge sat a large Foo dog with two legs instead of four. More like a garden gnome with a Foo dog head.
The elevator reached the first floor where the seminar was beginning. The attendees were seated on sofas all facing the speaker. In the audience were my childhood friend Tanya and Raj from The Big Bang Theory. Everyone turned and looked at me. I was acutely aware of my lack of hygiene and proper breastwear.
MathMan stood outside on the sidewalk talking to Nate and his friends. I opened the door and joined them.
"I thought you were going to the seminar," MathMan said.
"Not until I've had a shower," I replied.
"Okay." MathMan was looking at me funny.
"I'm going to take the stairs....."
I don't remember many of my dreams, especially not with this level of detail. Do you?
My dreams are quite vivid and strange, all of which I love. Some I have are reoccurring since childhood. Dreaming is one of my favorite reasons to be asleep.
ReplyDeleteObviously, there's several issues within your dream. The first, which cannot be spoken, involves national security.
ReplyDeleteFor the rest of it, there's the typical topics of sex, adandonment, fear of Luddittes, TV commercials and, of course, fear of cannibals (children) ...
Please call my office for an appointment, I'm certain, with months of therapy, you'll once again be dreaming sweet dreams of dinosaurs, shoot outs with cops and sailors and millions of butterflies sitting on you head.
I pity the Foo!
ReplyDeleteHeh heh, couldn't resist.
I had some very vivid dreams go by last night, but I tend to forget them way too soon. I think the only way around this is to have a pencil and notepad next to the bed...a thought I've had before but have yet to try.
~
I rarely have such detailed dreams, but having one is like getting an unexpected present, isn't it?
ReplyDeleteNope hardly remember dreams. In fact post op w total knee replacement & having to take steroids for strange skin flare ups has made me lie awake, unable to sleep. One med leads to another?
ReplyDeleteI have had to resort to Rx sleeping pills, because being sleep deprived & doing 2 months of gnarly physical therapy makes a girl cranky.
Believe me the sleeping pills are a worthwhile trade off!
Strange though I would get EXACTLY 5 hours sleep on one generic Ambian pill.
Getting better though- slept 7 hours last night because I was able to get some exercise.
I am an occasional lucid dreamer, meaning I understand it is a dream and actively seek to control events.
ReplyDeleteI remember dreams I had years, decades ago. Particularly nightmares. Some, I could describe in the same detail you do.
Most of the time, when I awake with a dream in my head, all I'm left with are scattered images, with no context. Other times, the whole narrative is clear.
A few times in my life I've had nightmares so bad I've awakened screaming. It's been a very long time since that happened, and let me tell you I am so very glad that is the case. Once - thankfully only once - I was so frightened I couldn't go back to sleep.
I've had a couple vivid ones before, and I immediately woke up and take notes.
ReplyDeleteThis is an interesting one alright. I'd love to hear Bobbi's take on it...
Morgan - You're so lucky to have those dreams and to remember them. This was a rare treat for me.
ReplyDeleteBill - I'll be in touch. Obviously there is much to discuss.
Thunder - Get that pad and pencil!
kirby - It really is.
Fran - I'm so sorry to hear you've been having a rough time of it. Lack of sleep is horrible. I'm glad the pills help.
Geoffrey - Do you write them down? And yikes to those nightmares. I've only had one or two that really frightened me. I can live without that kind of thrill.
Sherry - I think it really helped that as soon as I woke up, I repeated the dream and then wrote this post otherwise it would be gone now. I'm going to have to see what Dr. French thinks. I'm curious.
That's a pretty vivid dream. Are you sure you just didn't drop acid?
ReplyDeleteThe dreams I can usually remember most clearly are the ones that occur when I've had enough sleep but don't feel like waking. In one recurring dream situation I'd find myself on an elevator with no sides heading straight up at high speed and would get so frightened I'd wake up. A friend told me it's likely meaning was that I was trying to bring something to consciousness. The next time I had the dream I stayed with it and discovered a huge light filled atrium at the top of the platform. I walked through an intricately curved stained glass doorway just as a flock of doves took wing.
ReplyDeleteI took that to mean I should take the stairs back down.
Jayne - I hadn't dropped acid, but it could have had something to do with my prevacid?
ReplyDeletesusan - what is it about elevators?
It is strange because I think when I wake I will remember, then poof they disappear like that.
ReplyDeleteI love dreams...
ReplyDeleteMore important than the actual dream would be the feeling you experienced in the dream. It seems high in anxiety, but you may have been relaxed, apathetic, etc., etc.
Let's say you felt anxious.
Here's what I get. Your family is ouside of your writing ambitions. You're watching, as an outsider, what everyone is up to, but they are moving about without you.
You know your ambitions are in that room, but you are inferior. Your are unshowered, underdressed, and don't feel you belong. You try to get there, but the road (elevator) is fraught with things preventing you. The elvator has teeth and the foo dog, and you're alone. Scared?
But you still want to go. And you are trying...but not fully? Your husband asks you whether you're going...not until you shower. There's something holding you back...there's always something, a real reason, an excuse, real or self-imposed bullshit...something.
BUT, you have control over it, you're just afraid you don't belong the way the people on the couches do.
I play a doctor on tv...
This is what happens when one is late, missing the opportunity to toss out the first Mr. T reference.
ReplyDeleteI rarely remember my dreams, and they're almost never about naked, er, Marge.
Verrrrrrry interesting....
ReplyDeleteWhat's up with that dog, do you think? Sounds important to you. And the inner workings of that elevator....
Wow, Lyra. That's great. I think you're onto something.
ReplyDeleteI find the walking into the wrong building to be the most interesting part of this. The way I see it you've got two roads. You're clearly enthusiastic and motivated. You can either ignore your personal issues (or, better yet, embrace your inner stink) and find a front row seat at that seminar or you can allow societal standards to control you.
You've written much about your need to clean to gain control of you surroundings so it's no wonder it has found its way into your slumber. I say it's time to get dirty. The essential oils in your body are screaming out to be saved. Unclasp that bra. If you can breathe easier, you'll write easier.
Foo Dog looks scary. I was dreaming this morning that I could not shut my alarm off. It had all these buttons and I pressed everyone. It finally had me so mad, I woke up. Otherwise, I don't remember most of my dreams.
ReplyDeleteI am aware of detailed dreams like yours, but rarely remember them when I go to writem them down or tell the story - the whole image in my mind just becomes a mist.
ReplyDeleteI often can recall every last vivid detail of dreams. Not all of them, of course; some are much stronger than others. I dream a lot, every night, and was surprised when I asked my husband about his dreams and he said he didn't remember them much at all. My dreams always seem to be there on the edge of my consciousness, waiting to begin again.
ReplyDeleteWhat an awesome dream! And with such detail! I rarely remember mine.
ReplyDeleteThe last dream I remember having was when I was being chased by an unknown scary person, and I was running, and running, and running, but the ground started to feel strange under my feet. Then I saw metal walls closing in on me. I looked down, and realized it wasn't "ground" I was running on at all. I was running inside of a can of chick-peas. WTF is THAT?
I've had a few. I still remember two of them. One I had while pregnant; the other was a recurring childhood nightmare.
ReplyDeleteThe recurring childhood nightmare involved going into an abandoned mansion and pulling dead babies out of a wall. [The building was a REAL building back in Passadumkeag, ME. It was rumored that girls would go there to give birth and leave their babies there to die.]
I only had the dream after watching "The Wizard of Oz"; the abandoned house looked like the witch's castle.
I rarely remember my dreams, but when I do, they are kinda like this one. Think visiting Rome with my mother, stopping at the J.C. Penney's in Rome (I know) because we were told to pick something up and it is a catamaran. Then the dream gets really weird.
ReplyDeleteI was just beginning a warm erotic dream this morning when my alarm went off. Not fair! With a lovely man I didn't even know I had the hots for. Do I? I worry about the way vivid dreams project you into another reality which has also permeated your skin! Not to be trusted, I say.
ReplyDeletePlease, what is a foo dog?
I dream every night and I remember only fragments most of the time. It seems to me that very vivid dreams are easier to remember. These dreams can be happy or sad or a warning of some sort. I figure the dream is vivid because my unconscious is trying to get something through my thick head :)
ReplyDeleteWeird one, Lisa. I remember many of my dreams, in great detail. One of them even made it into my book--something about a dog's head in a pot of soup. Terrifying, like that scene with the bunny in Fatal Attraction.
ReplyDeleteain't dreams grand? breastwear...i see a new online business here. take a shower and continue...
ReplyDeleteLike you, I rarely remember my dreams and rarer still with such detail. What does it mean????
ReplyDeleteB