A Camp or Conference Like No Other

I dreamed I was at some sort of camp at the church. I think it had to do with the diocese. Alex went with me and made friends with the youth group, and had a great time. I didn’t really see him but I knew he was there. When I arrived I needed to find someplace to sleep. I was sitting on a bed (it looked like a hospital bed on wheels.)  It was in the main room and there was a bathroom down the hall we would all share.  I had a 12 pack of diet coke, but then I looked down and realized it was Diet Dr. Thunder (that my mom drinks.) I started bargaining with people to trade some for diet cokes in the morning. I was also trying to do some emails on my laptop.

Then a group of disabled people came in, and we realized these hospital beds were meant for them. So they took those beds and wheeled away. I asked someone what we should do, and they said that we could transfer to another part of the hotel. I didn’t want to spend the extra money, so I walked around checking in other rooms, but they were all full.  When I came back, more beds had been added but they had all been taken too. (And some were golden bunk beds that were extremely wobbly.)  So, I decided to go to the other part of the hotel.  I walked down the hall, and there was a ride you could get on.  It was a combination water ride/roller coaster (a lot like fire in the hole.) At the end you arrived at a different part of the park. I got off (and was with a female friend of mine.) We walked into the hotel part, and sure enough, they gave us a room there.  It was a shared suite with a guy we knew (short with glasses – reminded me of my old friend Doug.) There were two huge bedrooms and a huge bathroom with several dressing areas plus shower, toilet, etc. It was extremely luxurious and huge. We were thrilled and it was so much nicer than all the places people were staying over on the other side. We went to bed, and when we woke up, we realized we had overslept and missed the morning session. We got dressed, and I was wearing a short skirt with pink, sparkly tights and a renaissance-style coat with a hood. It was very cute, but very unusual for me. As we were walking over to the sessions, we passed through a mall-like area.  There was the chance for groups to take pictures of themselves, so we did. I remember thinking they were very cute, and I wanted to buy copies.  There were lots of places that would put those pictures on t-shirts, but I just wanted prints. The technology was pretty neat though because as you would walk by the booths it would recognize you and show you your pictures.

I decided to stop in a store that was dark with black-lit aquariums. All of the fish were sparkly and glowing and beautiful, and everyone was wearing costumes similar to my own outfit. There were surreal looking trees in some of the aquariums and also some had an octopus in them. It was all beautiful and magical and surreal.

I was wearing skates of some sort, as were the people who worked there. I just wanted to wheel around and look at everything it was so beautiful. I stopped at one point for a romantic encounter with two people I used to work with. One was extremely shy (to the point she would falter and stutter in meetings) yet she held a position of authority. The man was the complete opposite, very outspoken and aggressive about everything. She was trying to satisfy me but I kept asking him to finish. She was disappointed and said that we would have one more meeting and he couldn’t participate but that she would make sure it was exceptional without him.

I continued toward the back of the store, but they had to turn on the lights because of some sort of a safety issue or accident. I was very disappointed because it took away the magical elements and made it look like a normal store. I tried to move forward to the front of the store where it was still dark and sparkly, and there was an octopus that was loose. The employee was trying to catch it, and it almost hit me.  I jumped to avoid it, and that action caused me to wake up.

A Three Hour Tour

I dreamed that we were in a shop and the ship had wrecked. We made it to Mam-ma’s old house but the next ship with the rest of the supplies wasn’t due in for several weeks so we had no communication with the outside world. I tried to go outside because Mam-ma was mowing the yard but in some spots she was mowing and in others there was snow. I had to walk through waist deep water to get from the backyard to the front yard. Then we were in the kitchen and Alex came in the back door with two friends and their mother. Mam-ma was in her nightgown and was embarrassed. He wanted them to come over and play Xbox and she said no. So he went to their house instead. I walked over to talk to him and get him settled. My Netflix remote was on their coffee table in the game room so I took it. I went downstairs and all the adults were getting ready for a big family meal. I was apologizing for being dirty and smelly and explained about the shipwreck. I walked back over and asked Mam-ma if she cared what time he came home and she suggested 15 minutes. I laughed and said that was way too short. I told her we normally let him come home at 10 or 11. She pointed out that’s when he was driving though so walking he could get home earlier. She suggested 8, and I was debating about whether to push it to 9 or 9:30 since she would be in bed.

Wining and Whining

I dreamed I was in the bathroom and people kept coming in. It began with mom and when I yelled at her she said she had been drinking. Then she brought in this man and woman. I was furious they came in while I was on the toilet. I went into the kitchen and started yelling, telling everyone they could do whatever they wanted but don’t come in my bathroom or bedroom. They had high school athletes there and were getting them drunk. I poured myself a glass of tea into a vase  and then tried to pour a glass of wine. The wine was hanging upside down in a wooden holder but it wasn’t dripping for some reason. When I pulled it out, it sprayed all of the wall. Then I accidentally poured the wine into the same vase as the tea so it was ruined. I tried to put the wine back into the holder and it poured out everywhere. I was so annoyed. I went back into the bedroom and was trying to get Buster to come in before I closed the door. He went into another room instead. He finally came in and had a Dentastick so I knew that was why.  The people came in again. The woman and man jumped on my bed in their shoes. I had a waterbed and was terrified it would break. They just laughed when I told them to get off the bed.

While I was in the room, I found a video of myself as a little girl. I didn’t know where it came from because no one I knew had/used a video camera but I knew I couldn’t ask mom.

People also kept coming in to talk about cleaning. Someone had cleaned up and had a bag of trash and there was a purple stuffed animal in the top of it. I was annoyed, thinking that they should have saved that and donated it. Then someone (one of the high school boys) asked if they should have, and I said I do if I have a box started for donations. Then Drew came in and said he forgot that today was the day to clean — (something) and he was going to start now. I told him he was doing a very good job with the schedule, and he asked if I would buy him a ring. I wasn’t sure what kind (class ring maybe?) but told him maybe.

Cleaning out the attic

I dreamed that I had moved into a new house. It was very old. First I was looking in a separate building and it had a restaurant decorated with Coke memorabilia, a couple of offices, a few bedrooms, etc. it was in terrible shape and had a lot of damage but I had hopes to redo it. In the meantime it was going to be storage. There was a small church in one of the buildings and someone pulled it out and put it in the empty swimming pool until we could find somewhere else for it. As I was leaving, the building caught on fire but I realized someone did it on purpose so I took a bellows in and startled fanning the flames. 

Then mom and dad came to visit. I gave them the tour but dad couldn’t walk very far so he decided to spend the night. I got him toward the end of the house and there was a bed and a couch they slept on. I turned on the light in the closest bathroom so they could see it in the night. There were two or three nearby bathrooms but several requires going up or down stairs so I showed him one that didn’t. I slept back there too so I could help him to and from the bathroom. 

Also noteworthy there were several bedrooms and bathrooms that we were not using. Mom and dad took a Christmas tree and boxes of decorations we had never unpacked and sorted them. I put them in an unused bedroom for storage.

Then the scene switched and I had gone swimming (the church was no longer in the pool.) I was in a family much like the Beverly Hillbilliies and I didn’t know how to act. I was naked in the pool and people were making fun of me. Two girls in particular were trying to get me to go to play mini golf naked so I would get arrested. Before they came along I was having a great time swimming. Then my old high school friend Rebecca came over and tried to hold my head underwater. I was so upset she had turned on me. I went running back to the house. Her mother tried to stop me and calm me down. Then she had two brothers (only in the dream). They each came and hugged me and told me it would be alright. I was touched that they ignored the fact I was naked to do this. I started back toward where mom and dad were sleeping and The mom said we were going to the VA hospital to get my benefits- did I have my drivers license? Then suddenly we were in an RV moving and there was a ball of lightning on the road next to us.

A Painful Persona

I was shopping, and helping a young lady (high school age) pick out her first formal dress.  I don’t know who the girl was in real life, but in the dream, she’d had a hard life and really struggled.  She wasn’t popular, and this was the first, and probably last, time she was going to go to a dance.  She was wearing a beautiful floor-length gown, but was concerned if her butt looked big.  I taught her how to use two mirrors to see herself from the back – she had never looked at herself in a mirror before!  Once she got the dress, I was sitting in the food court at the mall.  I was going to try to get something to eat or drink, but they were closing for the night.  I tried to walk behind a man in a wheelchair  to leave, and he grabbed me, and the whole table of men started attacking me.  They kidnapped me, and he put marks all over me.  It was a process similar to tattoos, but they were brown and not as painful, and used a stick to apply.  There were brown lines all over my body.  When he got to my face, I started crying and said, “are you really going to mark my face too?”  I was really upset, but the person was very kind and assured me it was beautiful.

Then Michael was there and it became a very romantic dream and I was no longer worried about the markings.

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This dream was all about persona – how I see myself.  Using the premise that everyone in the dream was me, as the young girl, (perhaps the first half of my life) I hadn’t really looked at myself.  It is now time to settle into myself and really look at myself.  The fact that my “attacker” was in a wheelchair is strange, and I’m not sure what that symbolizes.  A handicap that I’ve placed on myself?  The tattooing process was interesting because I was really upset at the beginning – especially on my face, or that part of me that I show others every day.   But by the end, the people who attached me were no longer a threat and I was not upset about the markings – they became an almost sensual part of myself.  Sexual dreams are supposed to be about bringing you closer to God and spirituality.

An interesting side note – the tattooing process and designs looked very similar to the New Zealand Maori tradition of Moko, although the markings on me appeared to be more like those on a man based on what I can find online.

Of proms and meetings

I was at a conference of some sort. We were away at a meeting and had one final day. Our rom had changed and we were down to four people attending.  I had to go out to a car to help someone carry something in, and they had a dozen pink roses that someone had given to me. My friend I was helping put one in her button hole but then I cut the rest very short and put them in a shallow dish with less than an inch of water. They got very soggy immediately. We ate Mediterranean food for lunch, then I went to see Mam-ma and Sandy. They were in their old house. Mam-ma had a beauty shop chair and sink in her bedroom so she could get her hair done. I pulled Sandy’s sheets off her bed to wash them. I was so tired, I was supposed to be meeting with people but I laid down for a nap instead, and it was a great nap! When I woke up, Mam-ma had taken meat I had started to cook and put it in the oven. I started to make Sandy’s bed but ran out of time. Just before I left, there was a phone call. It was a boy on high school calling my friend Mac. I said he was calling about prom which made everyone laugh since it implied my friend was going to prom with him, so I clarified what he wanted to talk about.

Headbanging Zombies

Dylan had decided to play the drums in the band, and so he was trying to learn the drums.  For a part of this dream, I switched places with Dylan and so *I* was trying to learn the drums.  He was trying to learn on a metal drum of some sort – it didn’t look like a normal drum.  There was a pool party, and there was a ghost of some sort that was making people cut other people’s heads open.  I know for sure that Mr. Baker’s head and Mr. Harrison’s heads were cut, but there may have been others.  When they were cut open, it was a long slash from one side of their forehead to the other.  It could be covered with a baseball cap or hat.

I woke up for a few minutes, then went back to sleep, and the dream resumed.

There was someone else there – I believe it was my Mom. We were standing around, and there was a plate of sushi that included a sushi roll, but also two squiggly jello-like things.  One of the squiggly things was larger than the other.  I was eating the smaller squiggles, but I thought that the larger one (though it was meant to prevent nausea) was going to make me black out and perhaps cause me to cut people’s heads open!  She ate both, though, without consequence.

Later, Alex was getting ready to leave the house for lunch with friends.    A second car pulled up with a car full of boys (but they weren’t quite right – I thought they might have been zombies) and they were handing out boxes of oatmeal, and we determined this is what was causing the attacks.  Our friend Jimbo pulled into the driveway and yelled at them, saying “Never again!”  They pulled out, but he kept yelling and directed it at Alex, but Alex wouldn’t respond.  The boys in the car Alex was in were obviously not quite right either. They kept laughing at Jimbo, and when I asked, “Do you hear him?” They said that all he was saying was “Ribbit.”  They were wearing orange and blue sparkly lipstick.  I told Alex to get out of the car, and he shook his head and said no, so I told him I was taking his xbox.  I ran upstairs, looking for his car keys to take along the way – but I never found them. (we were in our old house in Annandale) When I got upstairs, I was trying to unhook the xbox.  He came up and agreed to stay in and not go to lunch.  I was very angry, but I knew about the oatmeal and hadn’t done anything about it, so I felt guilty about that.

The gift of the magi?

The first dream that I remember, Michael and the kids and I were all on a trip.  We were either in Mexico, or perhaps Honduras.  We were in a hotel room packing up to go home, and someone knocked on the door.  It was three young boys.  They had a baby elephant with them, and they gave me a handful of American money (A ten and some ones.)  I asked what this was, and they said it was a gift.  I thanked them, and I said I would come up with a good way to pass it along.  The main boy gave me a pamphlet, and said his name was Miguel.  A little while later, they came back, and gave even more money.  I was really disturbed and I didn’t want to take the money from them.  At some point, I looked at the pamphlet and it told the story about the elephant and what they were doing, but I can’t remember the story now.

Across the street from the hotel, there was a big community center.  It was designed for teens, and had roller skating, bowling, and all sorts of other things.  You had to be 16 to go on your own, because I was telling someone that this was the first year that Alex and Dylan could go without us.

When we left from our trip, Austin went on his own trip to Mexico-he had booked everything himself.  We told Dad about it, and Michael said that if he was going to do this often, we should buy a timeshare.  Dad said we didn’t need that.

Once I had gotten home from the trip, and went straight to set up for the baby shower.  We had 3 hours to get ready, but there were people already sitting at tables as we were setting up (guests!)  There were 12 tables set up rather than the 8 I had planned for, and I was stressed about not having enough decorations.  But then someone else had brought some of the same wooden cutouts as I had.  Also, I had large stencils and “snow” for windows to put umbrellas (I guess because it’s a baby “shower”?)  on one of the tables, they had set up a grand piano on the table as a centerpiece.  It was just beautiful, with multiple layers of table clothes.  Even on the regular tables, there were lacy tablecloths and they were looking very pretty.  I realized that I hadn’t done anything I had committed to do – there were no flowers, I hadn’t located the vases, I hadn’t printed the stickers and signs for the games, and I hadn’t made the food I had agreed to make!  I was in a panic and said that I needed to leave to go to the store.  I asked Tell if she needed anything else, and she gave me this list:

• Tampons and Maxipads
• Hats (for this guy who was creating a photo booth for the shower)

(Plus of course, I needed the flowers, stickers, sign, and ingredients for the food!)  I was in such a hurry to leave that one shoe fell off. I woke up in a panic!

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There were a good number of things that made it into my dream from real life this time:

• The baby elephant: I saw a Facebook video about a newborn elephant just before I went to sleep
• The baby shower for Sarah in real life is tomorrow, and yes – it’s true, I haven’t yet done anything I need to for it 🙂

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The “rest” of the story…. that same day shortly after , I saw THIS ELEPHANT POST from Dee – Archangel Oracle.  I had assumed that the elephant was in my dream because I had seen the article on Facebook, but as my friend Karen would say, YES, AND….

Perhaps this also pointed to the gift described in this card.  The fact that the young boys with the elephant were giving me a gift (and the fact that I titled my post “The gift of the magi”)… it also points to this gift of caring for one another, of family, of supporting and loving one another, and of gratitude for those gifts.

The singing teens

I was in a restaurant with Monica, Dylan, Hannah and Hannah’s sister.  (In this dream, Hannah and her sister looked almost identical!) Monica asked me to give Hannah $20 a week in allowance.  I was annoyed and didn’t understand why I should give her an allowance.

Once we sat down to eat, a whole table filled with teenagers started to sing, and they sounded great!

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in rest

Monica

Dylan

Hannah + Sister

$20/wk for Hannah

tooth hurt

singing teens