Business Trip

I have to drive to ?Oklahoma? for a business trip. I’m a little nervous and afraid of getting lost, being on my own. I decide i’ll split the trip into two parts and that makes me feel a little less nervous. I have a map and i have a piece of paper with the numbers of the roads i’ll need to take to get there. I set off on a nice sunny day. It feels good to be on the road alone, knowing i can go as fast or slow as i want and stop whenever i want. It’s getting dark now, dusk and i decide i’ve driven far enough for the day and should find an exit and get a motel for the night. I see the highway sign ahead showing motels and restaurants next exit. The sign says Mebane. I’m not sure how much further i’ll need to go to reach my business meeting but I take the exit. At the bottom of the exit i can go either left or right. I notice Hampton Inn is to the left so i go that way. Something’s not right. The road is white sand and only one lane. The buildings of the town are right up on the street so people walking on the road have to squeeze up against the buildings as i drive by. It’s gritty and hazy looking and i get the feeling the place is almost abandoned. I think i should turn around and get back on the highway but don’t know how to get turned around again. I keep driving along this horrible little road hoping it’ll widen out. In my mind i can see that even if i’d taken a right turn back at the stop sign i’d still be in the same predicament. Now all i’m hoping is i’ll be able to find my way back to the interstate somehow. I come upon a building that could either be a courthouse or an inn. I can park around the back and i do. I get out and enter the building. It’s old with thick oak hardwood floors and intricate crown molding around the ceilings. The dream changes and now i’m with a man. He’s looks older but i know he’s really not any older than i am. He approaches the secretary and tells her he wants to speak with ??.  She points up to a monitor and show ?? being interviewed in the roof. He’s a politician of some kind and the man i’m with is adamant about talking with this man. He starts up a stairwell and i follow. The stairs and banister are the same dark, old hard wood as the floor. We reach the top floor just as the politician is coming back inside from his interview on the roof. The man i’m with approaches the politician and begins telling a story. I think it has something to do with Vietnam. I can’t really follow the story and i can tell that the politician isn’t following either. The man i’m with finishes telling the tale and has a satisfied look on his face as if he’s just conveyed something very clever. The politician is polite and nods his head but doesn’t know how to respond or if he’s even SUPPOSED to respond. I feel lost and worried and don’t know if i’ll be able to find my way back to the main road again.  Awaken feeling tense. Happy Monday!

Rabbit, Lion, Snake, Man

In the part of the dream i remember, i'm trying to save my friend. He's been captured by a madman and is being held prisoner. I follow the clues (can't remember what they are now) to the hiding place. I'm peering into a large wooden room. Sort of like a set for a stage play. Even though i know it's a very large container, it's made up to look like the outside. So, to follow the imagery, it's a large "back yard" with green grass and shrubs and a couple of large trees. It's very nice at first glance. I see my friend. He's running inside a wooden wheel - like a water wheel but without the spokes. There's a rabbit on his left from where i'm looking (his right) and a very large cat, i think a lion (i'm not positive now. Maybe it was a tiger) that's on the other side of him. They are all facing towards me and i'm unclear at first what's going on. Then i see that there are dozens of blackish gray snakes in the grass. They are long and lean and aggressive. Some kind of deadly poisonous snake. Black mamba? As i follow the snakes back along my line of vision towards where i'm hiding, i see a man in a smaller box watching the scene play out, just as i am doing. The difference is he made this scene happen and is very gleeful, waiting and watching. I see now that the lion is there to protect the rabbit, the rabbit is there to attract the snakes to where the man is, and the man can only survive as long as he can keep running in his wheel. Occasionally a snake or two get within a few feet of the trio and the lion kills them. Eventually though, i know that the snakes will overwhelm the group. The man can't keep running forever, the lion can't keep the rabbit safe without eventually succumbing to the poisonous bites himself....  it seems hopeless. Even though i'm not sure i can beat them, i grab a ?hoe and burst into the scene, chopping away at mounds of snakes. I kill every snake i come to as i make my way toward s the man. I just hope he can keep running long enough for me to kill them all. The snakes makes a satisfying  "chop" noise as i hack away at them. It reminds me of the sound of silly putty breaking when you pull it apart very quickly. Snapping noise really. 

That's all i remember. 

And then i flung my pillow across the room….

Strange full moon dreams last night. In one that i remember, i was running through some desolation of junk piles and dirt hills that separated two fighting factions. Bullets were flying and i was dodging and weaving to reach the other end of the road where the “leaders” were situated up on the bluff. Something, a bright light? Or event illuminated me and i realized i was bullet-proof. Then i just calmly walked up the road through the hills of dirt and junk to reach the end. I think i was a Rastafarian.

In another dream, i can’t remember what led up to the scene i remember, but it picks up where i’m leaving an office building. There’s a ?pizza delivery boy in the lobby with two other men. They’re looking at something and i see it’s a spider running across the pizza box. Dominoes pizza? The pizza boy makes a move to pick it up and i’m happy that he’s “like me” (won’t kill a spider just for being a spider) but when he gets it in his hand his quickly lets it go because he’s afraid of it. I tell him i’ll get it and take it outside with me. I get the spider and have it cupped in my hands. It’s a fairly large spider, the body is about the size of a dime and the legs are long. The way the legs come off the body makes the spider look a lot like a crab. It’s not an attractive spider and it makes me a little nervous that it might bite me but i’m committed to getting it outside to safety. Another girl who is leaving with me opens the glass door and we go out. I begin moving faster to get to some greenery to release the spider and i can feel little creepy crawly sensations on my arms. I’m wearing long sleeves and can’t see anything but realize that the crab-spider has babies and they’re crawling on me. I release the spider and brush the babies off me as best i can without hurting them. Then the girl and i continue walking until we reach a deck-like structure. It seems like maybe there’s going to be a concert.  The ‘deck’ is several different levels – maybe four – and, like stairs, eventually lead to the ground. There are people at picnic tables drinking beer and having a good time. It’s a large place. I notice that the boards under my feet have a lot of “give” and i’m trying to step carefully because i don’t trust the planks. They’re old and faded and dry and seem like they could split and break at any time. As i get down to the final level, the boards are really bouncing and i’m sure the entire structure is going to collapse. I warn the girl and the people at tables nearby to get off quickly but, other than the girl, the people at tables just keep drinking and having fun.

I’m not sure if this is a different dream or part of one of the earlier two. I reach a point on my path that has some obstacles. At first i’m maneuvering between them but something is on my trail (hellhound?) and i’m running in fear. I come to an old 70’s style convertible ?Lincoln, big boat of a car and i grab it by a fender and TOSS it over my shoulder towards whatever it is i think is pursuing me and in real life i rip the pillow from under my head and throw it across the room and that wakes me up. 

Secret Rooms

Had another one of those dreams where i’m in a large house that i thought i was familiar with but has a whole section i didn’t know about. Those are usually really cool dreams and this one was pretty cool too except for the story line. It was my dream mixed with some sort of drama storyline like from a movie and it was all running simultaneously. The rooms were fantastic! The storyline was something about the owner of the house building on new rooms for some people who are coming (back) to live in the house. As the omniscient dreamer, i’m watching three workmen sawing boards and 2x4’s to frame up some rooms in a large empty barn-like place. One of the men is smoking a filter-less cigarette while he works and the cigarette is smoked down to about an inch. There’s a lot of straw on the ground around him and i’m concerned he’s going to cause a fire. It’s Johnny Depp! One of the workmen is a woman. I can’t see the other one but it’s a man, i’m pretty sure.

For the dream me IN the dream, i’m wandering through a really huge house, like a plantation house from the civil war times. I’m going through the living room up some stairs. There’s a door i never noticed before that leads up to what i guess would be the attic. I go up these stairs and can hear the sound of wood being cut and hammered. I don’t want to be seen. I don’t think i’m supposed to be here. Something about some people coming to live here and i think i’m one of those people…. (dream merge) and i want to see how the news rooms are decorated to see if i can tell which one is for me. The workers are in another part of the house/attic so i’m not too worried that i’ll run into them. I look in the first room. It’s painted in bright primary colors of blue, red, and yellow. The carpet is green like grass. It’s a race-car theme as for a child but there are two beds in the room, like for brothers, except the beds are big ones. King sized. But because the room is so huge, the beds don’t take up all the room. I think how fun it will be to have a slumber party in this room when the others get here. The next room is also complete but i can’t remember now how it was decorated. More formal i think. Nice but it didn’t feel like mine either. The last room i look in draws me in and i know it’s mine. It’s painted psychedelic swirly patterns and has interesting lights everywhere. Lava lamps! I always wanted one.  It’s also a large room but there’s only one big bed in the center. I love this room and want to stay but know it’s supposed to be a secret and i have to wait until i’m invited to live there.

Workmen are being yelled at by a woman. She fires them all, including the three that were in the earlier part of the dream. Those three (yep, one is a woman) get on one of those train things. Don’t know what they’re called. You have to pump the level up and down and it rolls on the tracks… They’re just going to move on to the next town. Johnny Depp still has that cigarette but it’s between his index and middle finger. I’m surprised it’s not burning him. Just when they start getting the train car thingy moving, the lady who fired them runs over and tells them to come back. She never wanted to fire them in the first place but needed to get rid of the other (four) workers but didn’t want them to feel singled out.

Hmmm. What ARE those train things called? I don’t think i’ve ever known a name for them. I’ve seen them in Bugs Bunny cartoons all my life though.  

The feeling i had in the dream was the same feeling i used to have as a kid when we had to move. When dad would get transferred and they’d shop for houses, the real-estate agent in the new town  would take us to model homes. Audree and i (and Lois when she was old enough) would run from room to room looking at how they were decorated and would claim “our” room. I vaguely remember one of those rooms i claimed when we moved to Virginia. The furniture was white. The bed had a canopy. I remember a lot of yellow in the room too. Maybe the curtains? It was a very “girly” room, even down to the perfume tray on the dresser and the hand-held mirror. Pretty cool, model homes.

Mechanical spiders, contacting the dead

I remembered some good dreams this weekend!

Saturday night, i’m in an office complex for some reason but don’t remember why. I find an office and let myself in. The office is deserted. It looks like architects work here. There are drafting tables and long tubes to put rolled up documents in. There’s a ?map hanging on the wall. It’s got what seem like pins in it but when i look closer, they’re spiders made out of metal parts. I take the map down, roll it up and leave. Now i’m in a bedroom. I guess it’s mine but i don’t ever remember my bedroom being arranged as this one is. I open the map on my bed and the spiders start walking off the map and onto my bed. Some fall off onto the floor. I’m scrambling to catch them all and put them in a little wooden box. This box feels heavy like it’s made of good hardwood. The lid is the kind that slides closed along a track carved into the box. I collect all the spiders and get them in the box.

Now i’m at the beach. There’re not many people at the beach and none are near me. I let the spiders out of the box onto my towel spread on the sand. These mechanical spiders are very beautiful colors and the sun shines brightly off their little metal bodies. I pick on up and notice a little switch. I move the switch position and it “shuts off” the spider. I quickly collect all the spiders and turn them off. One of the spiders has a little sack (?an egg?) and when i pick it up, it bursts open and is full of very tiny mechanical creatures. Shrimp, slugs… stuff like that. Starfish. I want to turn off these little creatures too and pick up the shrimp, find the switch and turn it off. Then i pick up the slug and it’s disgustingly squishy. I’m not sure if it’ll have a switch but it does.  I try to put the little creatures back in their sack but can’t figure out how so i just throw them into the box with the spiders.

I pick up my towel up and shake off the sand and walk inside a building. A clubhouse? There’s some kind of party going on and i’m not dressed for the event but go in anyways. I go to the little kitchen area to use the sink to rinse off the mechanical critters. While i’m doing that, a tall man in a casual suit comes over next to me. He is talking about piano keys and how he doesn’t like the simplified kind. I notice pictures/prints on the wall over a piano by the little kitchen. They are all pictures of simplified piano keys. One picture shows a couple of octaves of keys and the letter of each key is written in script onto the key. Another picture shows a single octave of keys and there are pastel colored pictures of lullaby animals (lamb, puppy, kitten) across all the keys. There’s a third picture that, at first, seems like it just shows black and white piano keys but the man points out that there is a vine with leaves entwined with the keys. As he’s pointing out the vine he’s leaning up against me and i can feel he has an erection. I know he’s a “reverend” and married and i’m shocked at his action but don’t want for him to know that i am. I finish rinsing my mechanical spiders, put them back in the wooden box, grab my towel and leave. It seems like i need to return the chart and the spiders back to the architect office and wonder if i’ll be able to find it.

Another dream from later the same night. I want to shower in the hall bathroom and get my shower stuff together to go in but somebody is in there. I go back to my room to wait for whoever is in there to finish. After several minutes i try again and the person is gone. I have difficulty turning on the lights. There are two switches but neither seems to work. I’m getting annoyed that i can’t make the lights come on. There’s a window with a blind on it so i pull up the blind to let light in. It’s enough light to shower by but then i notice that the wall doesn’t attach to the floor and there’re gaps so that i can see grass from outside through the holes. It’s like somebody put in a new bathtub but it was smaller than the original and didn’t fit properly and left the gaps in the wall. I’m worried that somebody’ll see me naked if i try and shower in this bathroom. I’m quite annoyed and put on my robe and go ask dad what happened to the bathroom. He doesn’t know and follows me back to the hall bathroom. He’s as shocked as i am about the condition and starts planning on what he needs to do to fix it. I go back to my room, quite pissed about the bathroom being “out of order” and wonder if i should just use the shower in the master bedroom instead but all my shampoo and stuff is in the hall bathroom.

Last night i dreamed the motel dream. I’m sharing a room with somebody. I leave the room to meet up with my friends who have gone ?to the restaurant ahead of me. When i get to the dining room i can’t find my friends and i realize i don’t know my room number. I have a key card and THINK i was on the second floor but i’m not positive. I find an elevator. There are several people waiting for it. The door opens and a black lady and i get inside but the doors slam close before any of the other people can get on. I make a comment to the lady that we’ll have to be on our toes to get out of the elevator or else we’ll end up on a floor we don’t want to be on. She laughs and when the bell rings and the door opens we hop out. This is the fourth floor though and i wonder if maybe my room is on the fourth or should i just try to get down by elevator again. When the elevator stops and opens in front of me i jump in and almost get caught in the doors. Zoom, down to the first floor again. The person ?robot working the concierge desk gives me a dirty look (i guess because it thinks i’m playing on the elevator). I decide to take the stairs up to the second floor. The stair case is wide and carpeted and easily scaled. Once i’m on the second floor though, i’m not sure which room is mine. All the doors to all the rooms on the hall are cracked open and i think that if i just peek in to each one, i’ll recognize my stuff and it’ll be okay. The first couple of rooms are empty and as i get to the next one, a housekeeper in the room confronts me. I’m pretty sure this is my room but all my stuff is gone. I ask the housekeeper where she’s put the stuff that was in the room because i need to see it to be sure. She denies she’s moved anything and i feel lost, alone and confused and Strawberry Fields wakes me up.

Oh yeah! This was another one. Probably occurred between snoozes. I’m sitting at a computer looking at email. I feel the need to contact an old man that was a friend of the family. I find his page (facebook?) and see that he’s now 95 years old and i realize i better hurry and make contact because he won’t be around much longer. As i begin writing the letter with Dear Mr. ?Custer? or something like that and i’m writing that he’s my last living grandparent (even though he’s no relation) it occurs to me that’s not the right name for the person i’m thinking about. I’m thinking of Lester Caine. I find his page and remember he’s been dead for a long, long time. 

Mr. Caine. Haven't thought about him in years and years. I thought he was my grandfather for the first five years of my life. He SEEMED like he was a relative. My mom loved him like a father is probably why. He was a good soul.