Underwears!

I dreamed that I was shopping with my sister and my mother. We were in my mother's bedroom, which was also a department store. Probably Carson's. My mother kept showing us dresses and they were all shiny and glittery. We had to help her pick out two, but each one kept changing colors and moving, so I couldn't pick one.

My sister sent her into the dressing room, and at the last minute, I realized she'd sent my mother in with a few pair of swimming trunks to try on as well. It made me feel weird. I looked at all the underwear and wanted to buy all of it. In this dream, I kept feeling a lot of love for underwear. All the underwears of all the world.

Jess Meets My Mom

I dreamed that my mom and I were driving around Madison in her car. We needed to stop by my friend Jess's house to drop off one box of Girl Scout cookies, even though I wasn't sure if they were hers or not. My mom pulled up and I jumped out of the car while she turned it around and parked it on the side of the street. I saw Jess in front of her house and handed her the box of cookies. She said she had something funny to show me. I was, of course, intrigued.

She held out a white tshirt and shook it so I could see what was on it. There was a giant Mickey Mouse and the phrase "If you fly this often, sometimes you have to reach for the ground." It was some kind of play on words in my dream, and it was referencing some other phrase about "reaching for the stars." We laughed and laughed and talked about how funny it was. She was giving it to me as a joke gift, and I was like "No! I don't want it! It's stupid!" and we laughed and laughed some more.

Then my mom came strolling up the walk. "Oh good," I thought. "She'll get to meet Jess and Mike." I looked at Jess to introduce her to my mom, but suddenly Jess gasped the word "DISNEY!" and was looking at my mom in horror. My mom was wearing the very tshirt we had been making fun of! "Um, this is my mom, Louise," I told Jess as I watched her hurriedly fold up the tshirt she was holding. They shook hands and everything was lovely and cordial.

I was happy that my mom and my friend were getting along so well and chatting like old buddies, so I'm not sure why I turned into a total asshole at this moment. I interrupted the conversation and asked Jess "So what's that tshirt you're holding?" She looked at me with a sort of "what the hell?" look and held it out to me. The whole time I was thinking "Why am I doing this?!" but I kept going. The shirt had transformed and the phrase was now written in French on the back of the shirt. My mom thought nothing of it and everybody was friends in the end. Whew. Sorry, Jess, that I was such a d-bag. This will not happen in real life. I promise.

Russell Simmons, Mom, and I in the Minivan

Well sir, I had a funny dream last night. I dreamed that Russell Simmons was driving my mother and I around in a minivan. He sat in the driver's seat, and mom and I sat in the way back.

We got pulled over because none of us were wearing seat belts. Russell insisted it was racial profiling. Later, we competed in vaguely olympic-like events that required wearing backpacks and crossing a room that looked like a pool with no water.

Mission Dolores

I dreamed last night that I was walking in the Mission in San Francisco. I was looking for Mission Dolores. I circled a city block and I saw it looming in thy sky around the corner. The old church stood stiffly next to the curves and clay of the old Mission. I moved faster, eager to get inside.

I walked the grounds remembering the last time I was here with my mother in the fall last year. I looked for the graves of missionaries from my mother's home in County Tipperary in Ireland. I looked for the thatched hut. From across the grounds I heard a voice calling my name eagerly.

When I got to a clearing, I saw it was a woman named Maryam. I should clarify that in awake life, I've never met this woman or know who she is, but in my dream I remembered her from Iraq. I also remembered that she was Persian, then I corrected my memory that she was French. I remembered she was married to a kind, brilliant older man who wore tweed and smoked a pipe. I also remembered she was a professor of Women's Studies. I can't recall another dream I've ever had where my mind created so much history about a figment. I called out to her excitedly, "Bonjour!"

Maryam gathered up her girls around her, they were on a trip abroad from the university. She invited me to have tea with them. She quizzed me excitedly about how my parents are doing. We moved under an archway into the shade, and one of the girls laid out a sparkly, gauzy blanket that we all settled down on. A clay tea pot was produced and a plate of flaky cookies was passed. The conversation was exciting and delicious as the snack; I felt inspired.

When we finished, the girls got up from the blanket and I noticed that the blanket now bore symbols like seashells, some zodiac signs and other images I don't remember. I knew it was time to tell our fortunes. We all tossed the remnants of our tea cups onto the blanket and amazingly, the tea leaves started spinning in the air. As they would drift toward each of the symbols, the group would cry out what it meant. "Travel!" "Love!" "Swimming!"

Maryam kissed me on both cheeks as we bid goodbye. I walked back through the grounds of Mission Dolores and stopped at the sight of Mary framed by a golden orb. The paint was chipping and it looked like tears on her face. I pressed my palm on her cheek and thought of my mother, my grandmother, my sister and my sisterfriends. I thought about unexpected visits from Mary in Fatima, in Egypt, Guadalupe, Lourdes. Pieces of the paint-tears crumbled into my hand and I put them carefully into my coin purse. I felt so fortunate, so lucky, so blessed.

Groceries, The Mall, and Bathrooms, As Usual

I dreamed I was in a supermarket with Marc and his son. It was a fancy kind; all the shelves were wood and all the produce was displayed impeccably. I avoided the meat section, just like in real life. At some point, I heard music coming from around the corner from the produce section. There was a noise band playing. Somebody's voice told me that this was the new location of the Wisco (for non-Madisonians, the Wisco is this dive bar that smells like pee). I felt strange that I didn't know about the new club. It looked like one of those youth centers I used to go to in high school - yellowish plaid couches and bulletin boards on the walls. And all that produce!

Later, I was walking along a black gravel driveway on the side of the mountain, looking for Marc, who was my ride. I couldn't find him so I got into my own car, which was being driven by Sarah. As she was driving, she lost control of the car. I looked over at her and realized she'd pulled the key out of the ignition and couldn't get it back in. I grabbed the steering wheel that was all of a sudden conveniently located right in front of me and pulled us off the side of the road. We sat there for quite awhile, unable to start my car.

I was all of a sudden in a mall, looking for a bathroom (which has totally happened before) and looking for Boston Store (aka Carson's). I walked past my mother, my sister, and a former teacher. None of us acknowledged each other, and I woke up confused. At some point though (I'm unclear on when) my mom told me that Boston Store had gone out of business. I was upset because I really needed a bathroom.

Castle Lobby

I dreamed I was trying to get dressed and get ready to go somewhere. I was putting on several outfits at once and was being incredibly indecisive about what to wear. It was really hot and I was all sweaty, so I decided to wear a skirt and tank top. I also remembered that I'd be going on a field trip to a movie theater, so maybe I should wear a sweater. At the same time, I worried about getting a sunburn on this field trip.

Once I thought I was ready to go, I looked down and realized I hadn't shaved my legs in a really long time. This was pointed out by some guy, and my mom tried to take a picture with an old fashioned camera with a giant flashbulb. I tried to hide my legs.

Then, as I was trying to pull on my tights, I was in the "lobby" of a castle. I think it was Buckingham Palace. There was a busy woman, who I assumed was the castle receptionist, on the phone answering questions faster than shooting bullets. It sounded like this:

April 19th. No. There aren't any. No. No more.

I was very impressed with how quickly she was able to answer the questions. At some point, somebody was saying how the princes were catching up in age to their father, so there was probably going to be some sort of competition to see who would rule all the land. I assumed they were talking about Prince Charles, then Prince William and Prince Harry, and that there would be a duel of some sort.

Then I got distracted by cases of jewelry - everything was really fancy, made of different jewels and fancy beads and silver. I assumed they'd each cost hundreds of dollars, but one pair of earring said $74 and one said $69. I found my favorite, black and silver with colors here and there, and my phone rang and I woke up. It was the prettiest part of the dream...

Unsatisfying Breakfast

In my dream, I'd just met my mom in a restaurant. We were supposed to have breakfast together, but they'd just stopped serving it. She'd already ordered, so she was safe. My only two choices were "Meat Pie," which looked like a mixture of meatloaf and dirt, or "Berries and Cream," which was blackberries mixed into this whipped cream. I knew that it would taste just like this stuff my ex-boyfriend's Belgian father used to make...one of the most delicious things I've ever tasted.

Jacob was our waiter, but he kept looking at us and laughing, shaking his head, then going to other tables. Everything was loud and crowded, and I kept thinking to myself "It's breakfast! All I want is an egg sandwich!"

The next day, in real life, I had a delicious breakfast: a garden skillet with two eggs over medium. It totally made me feel better about the dream.

Yikes

I dreamed that I was about to have sex with this older German man but his penis was shaped like a tulip and then my mother walked in.

Cardinal in the Kitchen

I was in the kitchen at my parent's house. My mom was there, cooking dinner. I realized there was a bird inside the house, which is something I'm terrified of (bats and birds alike...flying things indoors = BAD NEWS to me). It looked like a gray bird with red specks...maybe a female cardinal. It flew back and forth across the room. I was really upset and nervous.

My mother tried to calm me down. She opened the sliding glass door and told me to try and get the bird to fly over that way. The bird flew right towards me and I put my hand up, thinking I could somehow guide it towards the door. Instead, I accidentally swatted it. It fell to the ground and I sort of screamed. I looked at it - it was a male cardinal now, and about 8 inches tall. One leg was extended and it's wings were spread. It was, like every other effing animal dream I have, frozen still as if it were a stuffed bird (see here, here, and here).

Mom moved a shear white curtain away from the door and the bird's wings fluttered slightly, then it quickly made it's way out the door.

$11,000

I had a lot of stressful dreams last night. I had just bought a new car, a "Jetta" but really it looked liked a Prius. We went to a club and parked it outside. When we came back out to leave all the tires were gone from the car and it had been booted. When I called the number to deal with it this woman I used to lobby with answered the phone. She looked up how much it would cost me to get my tires back and the boot off. She said "11". I said "11 dollars?" and she said "11 thousand." Apparently I had broken some bigass law.

This car problem followed me through the night in other dreams. In one I had to help this woman escape from her abusive husband while he stole all her stuff, but uh oh, my getaway car had no tires. In another, I moved into this awful house with Reem and this scary woman who had rabies kept trying to get inside to get us. She basically looked like a clown with whiteface, too much blue around her eyes and lipstick smeared big around her mouth. When we tried to get away from her, the car had no tires and we were stuck.

Finally, there was the dream where I called my mother and confessed to her of my car fuck up and that I had an $11K bill to deal with. She called the company and it turned out it was all a big mistake. All of a sudden a marching band that included my cousin Layla came marching out carrying my tires which had been painted white. They laid them next to my wheeless Jetta.

Dream Journal

It might seem odd that I have decided to start a paper-bound dream journal what with the One Second Time Machine at my fingertips, but even the act of getting out of bed can erase a good chunk of dreams. So here is my new dream curiosity journal. I found it as I was unpacking - a gift from mother and now its found its proper use.
Remember dreams are like bunnies, but you will wonder whether it is a a cuddly one or a not-so-cuddly one until you catch it.

The Blue Feather and Butterflies

Also short and sweet: I dreamed that I woke up and realized that the beautiful blue feather that Jill recently sent me - that I hung on my bed above where I sleep - had been eaten away. It was skeletal but for a few wisps and the silver spiral remained.

I showed it to my mother who said "Looks like the butterflies ate it. Those butterflies eat everything."

Quilts

Short and sweet...

So I moved into my room in Ashevegas and last night it was pretty durn cold.  This I was not prepared for and had a slight shiver through the night.  Consequently I dreamt that I was in a room full of quilts my mother had made and was looking through them to pick one out.  They were all marvelous and with bright, warm colors.  I found one she had sewn an electric blanket into and I said "yes, my mom is this awesome."  I then woke up cold and without her magnificent quilt.