Bad Dream 192 -- Getting to the Test Site

In my dream, I am walking along a path.  There are a few trees nearby, but most of the surrounding area is mown grass.  It almost feels like a park.  

I'm working at a controls company and we are about to do a test of a new system while it is still on the company's test floor.  A representative of the customer is here at our facility to confirm that the system works as it should.  

There are five of us walking from one building (headquarters?) to another building where the system is set up and -- we hope -- ready for testing for the customer.

Walking roughly 20 feet in front of me are two people: my supervisor and the engineer who designed the system we are about to test.  They are busily discussing the system and the upcoming test.  

Walking roughly 20 feet behind me are two other company employees.  One of them is a Field Engineer, who will suggest  whatever adjustments are necessary during the test.  And the other is a secretary from the office who will take notes for whatever changes are required and write out the requisite acceptance form for the customer.

I am a Technical Instructor.  I visited the customer's site some time ago and presented a talk about the hardware and software of the proposed system to the maintenance people who will be responsible for keeping the system running effectively.  

I know who is here from the customer's company to oversee the test.  He was a student of mine when I taught the course there and we got along quite well.  So I'm pleased to seeing him again.

I feel a little awkward walking by myself between these two groups, but don't feel I can participate in any meaningful way.  And I might interrupt the conversation in the group ahead -- and the Field Engineer and the Secretary seem to be chatting along quite happily and "two's company, three's a crowd."

We come to a brief rise in the ground, and all five of us are gathered fairly closely for the first time in our walk.  We've been depending on the two guys in the lead to walk us in the right direction, but now they seem confused.  Where is the building that has the system test all set up?  The five of us stand there looking around in all directions, but none of us has any idea where to go from here.  

Bad Dream 191 -- Trying to Get to Calgary

In my dream, I am standing on the sidewalk in a small town in Canada. The sun is getting low in the sky and I have a task to do:

For reasons that aren't explained in the dream, I have to get to Calgary -- which is in western Canada and a considerable distance from where I am now.  

Since the population centers in Canada are mainly in a horizontal line running east to west.  (That is, Montreal, Quebec, Toronto, and so forth.)  Since I know that I am not far into Canada from the USA border, all I have to do is travel west on the biggest road out of town and that should get me to Calgary eventually.  (In real life, this is known as the "Trans-Canada Highway.")

But I am totally unfamiliar with this town, and don't know which direction is west from where I'm standing.  As I look around, I realize that there are several streets that would take me out of town, but they all go in different directions.  There is no easy way to determine which way is west just by looking at the streets.  

I realize that, if I had a GPS, I could easily determine which way to go plus which road would be best to take plus roughly how long it will take to get to Calgary and so forth.  So now my search is for a GPS device in one of the local stores.  None of the stores I see is likely to have such a thing for sale, but I try them out anyway.  Everyone says no, they don't carry such things, and I become more and more distressed about ever getting started on the trip to Calgary.  

Finally one store clerk says, "No we don't carry them, but you can buy one at Fat Ollie's store, which is just a few blocks away."  He gives me some general directions and I start off to find Fat Ollie's.  

Getting back outside, I see that it is almost completely night and realize that the clothing I'm wearing is not going to keep me warm if the temperature drops -- which it's likely to do, since this is Canada.

I wake up.

Later, I realize that at no time in my dream did I ever have or even think about whether I owned a car.  Or could get any other vehicle that might get me the hundreds of miles I would have to go to get from my dream location to Calgary.  I also never considered the GPS function that I have on my cell phone.  

Just details, but they may be important for understanding the dream.

Bad Dream 190 -- Where's My Briefcase?

In my dream, I am back in my childhood home in suburban Baltimore.  I am in the house preparing to leave for an assignment, which is either a presentation for my work or a college-level class.  The dream doesn't make it clear which is the case.  

I'm pretty much ready to go.  All I need to do is retrieve my briefcase, which has documents I will need for this upcoming assignment.

I go to the spot in the house where I normally leave my briefcase and it isn't there.  I can't imagine why not -- I almost always leave it in the same place.  And the time available to get to the assignment is running short, and I really don't want to be late.  

I move around the house looking in each room (which are actual rooms I recall) for my case, with no luck.  As I keep moving, a younger sibling sidles up to me and tells me that Richard -- our older brother -- had taken the case.

I go upstairs to where I think Richard will be and find him lounging on the bed.  He looks up at me, sees that I'm distressed, and gets a smirk on his face.  I explain to him in loud and rapid-fire language the inconvenience that he's causing.  He almost looks apologetic.  Not quite, but almost.  He points to a collection of things against a wall and tells me that the case is in that pile of stuff.  

I go to the pile and examine each and every object, but the case is simply not there.  I look at Richard and tell him that. His face changes and he gets up off the bed and comes over to the pile.  He then assures me that he left it there, and now has no idea who might have taken it or where it got off to.  

I am thoroughly aware that his comments might simply be Richard ratcheting up the prank to a higher level, but there's no way I can be sure whether he's still pranking me or is genuinely unsure what happened to the briefcase.  

He looks as if he's about to start looking for the case himself, but there's no reason I should hang around him when I should simply be continuing the search.

By this time, I am boiling mad and deeply concerned about what my absence at this assignment will mean for me.  The excuse of "I'm late because I couldn't find my briefcase" is just too close to "My dog ate my homework." 

I go back downstairs to repeat my search while trying to think of what else I could be doing to minimize the damage that's being done to me and my career.  

I hear my Dad say softly "Being angry is not going to help."  And I understand that, if I could let the anger go, I might be capable of more rational thoughts and activities, but just then I want to hang onto my anger and frustration.  

Bad Dream 189 -- Spinning Plates

In my dream, I am standing in a field on a nice sunny day.  I have a few friends standing nearby and some other folks a little farther off.  They are visitors to our little gathering.  I am holding a spinning plate in one hand and the appropriate spin stick in the other.  

The deal is that I'm supposed to spin the plate up onto the stick and perform a few tricks to educate(?) impress(?) convince(?) the visitors of my skill with the plate -- but my dream does not inform me as to exactly why I'm doing this.  My friends seem to think it's important, and they are telling the visitors how terrific my skill is with the plate -- "Just wait until he (that is, me) gets this thing going!  It's amazing!"

I toss the plate in the air with a flick of the wrist to give it some initial rotation.  But I misjudge the procedure somehow so that the plate bounces briefly onto the stick and then falls to the ground.

My friends assure our visitors that that happens occasionally.  Not a problem.  Boy, are you going to be impressed!  

I pick up the plate and try again, but the result is the same.  My friends smile weakly at our visitors as I pick the plate up off the ground again.

Third time is not the charm.  Yet another failure.

My friends try to make a joke out of the situation, but it doesn't help much.  The visitors have clearly seen about as much as they need to.

After the fourth failure, the visitors turn and start to walk away.  

One of my friends, Kurt Rheinheimer -- a boyhood best buddy -- walks over to me.  He's quite angry.  Looking straight into my face but talking loudly so that all my friends can hear, he says that I screwed up on purpose.  Why that's the case isn't clear in the dream, but he obviously felt that he had something to gain personally from my success at spinning the plate -- something that now simply wouldn't come to pass. 

At this moment, I become aware of an explanation as to my failures and tell Kurt equally loudly that it made perfect sense for me to fail, given all the pressure I was under as the visitors looked on.  To help make the point, I pick up the plate and successfully spin it on the stick.  I'm not at all sure that my reasoning was honest and true, but it felt good to say.  In fact, I'm pretty sure I just made up the explanation to bring the total event to a conclusion.  

Bad Dream 188 -- From Years Ago -- A Car Experience

(I wrote out this dream long-hand, which suggests it's one that occurred to me at one of Renee Crauder's retreats.  That makes it a long time ago.)

In my dream, I am driving a car.  A sedan.  It feels like Deb's (green) Honda.  Martha is in the car with me.    

I pull off to the side of the road and park.  (Don't remember why.)  Martha gets out and tells me she will be back shortly.

The car is parked next to a large green field.  No trees.  On the far side of the field, there is a collection of buildings that loos like an apartment complex with brick facades.

Now, there is a young woman walking around the front of my car.  I think she is standing near another car, but I'm not sure of this.

She is quite pretty -- maybe in her early-to-mid 20's.  Black hair cur in a Page Boy cut.  She is wearing a one-piece bathing suit with the top neck strap untied and the top of her suit draped down her body to her waist.  She is standing with her back to me and I wait until she turns around so I can see her breasts.

She looks very "well cared for," and carries herself with an attitude of privilege.  

She walks over to another young woman who is clad identically.  They hve a brief conversation that I can't hear, since I'm still sitting in the car.  They are in front of my car.  

The second woman disappears and the first woman walks behind my car, removes her slip-on shoes one at a time, and tosses them onto the trunk of my car.  They land with a loud thump and I'm concerned they may have dented the trunk lid.  I've watched them land in my rear view mirror.  

I open the door and call out to her that if she did that again, could she do so more gently.  I realize this is a nebbishy thing to say, but there it is.

(A bit later in the dream, I think that  proper response would have been to get out otf the car, pick up the shoes one at a time and throw them as hard as I could into the grassy field.  As my dream's mind plans out this thought, I "see" that the shoes are the rubber slip-on type that people use for gardening.)  

Martha comes back to the car, gets in, and we drive away.  

We stop again in the parking lot of a rustic-looking store which seems to function as a restaurant and something of a general store.  I'm hungry.  I walk inside.  It smell s tgood and it's crowded.  I realize that getting a sandwich to go would take a great deal of time and I'm not ready to wait that long.

I leave the shop and am standing in the parking lot  when the owner(?) of the place appo=roaches me and clearly wants to explain what's going on and invite me to return inside the shop.  He's speaking gibberish.  (He's a heavy-set man, partially balding, and looks middle European.)  Some of the words he's speaking sound like English but much of it is clearly not.

I'm not convinced to return inside and walk past his shed (away from my car).  The person I'm walking with is Deb.  I feel it's important in a small way to explain to her why I walked away.  (This is something I do in my waking life all the time.  It's a pointless exercise, but i do it all the same.)

We have walked past the shop to what may be another parking lot and I'm standing as I launch into my (unnecessary) explanation.  We start walking back and Deb says "Well, I don't want to hurt your feelings, but..."  She stops talking but continues walking..  This verbalization of hers is well known to me and I know my part.  She wants to tell me her version of the interaction with the restaurateur and is asking permission to say so.  My response is "No, tell me what you think."  It's my way of giving her permission to tell me something I may disagree with.  

I wake up. 

Bad Dream 187 -- Strange Golf Course Experience

 In my dream, I am out on a very strange golf course.  (This may tie in to the fact that I took my golf clubs out of the locker yesterday for the first time in 5 or 6 years.  I found that swinging a golf club would not likely cause any recurrence of my right shoulder issues -- so I could consider trying to get together with my younger brother again to play.)

Normally the maximum number of people in a group to play on a regular golf course is four.  In this case, I am joined by a group of 5 or 6 or 7 other people in the same group.  

We are walking through an area that looks like the sand dunes that you might find at the seashore or a desert.  The group stops at a spot that doesn't look much different from any other place we've seen, but the group seems to know that this is a teeing-off spot for this hole.  There's no grass anywhere, but some desert plants growing here and there.  I feel as if I'm just starting to play, but that this isn't Hole #1.  I don't mind much, as I'm simply out here to knock a golf ball around and get some socializing and exercising.  

We can't tee off because there's a young man in front of us who is looking to his his second shot.  His ball is located in the sand close to and directly behind a tall weed of some sort.  The plant would seem to be right in the middle of the fairway, given how he's addressing the ball, but there's no particular physical evidence that's true.  He just has a plant directly in front of his ball.

Now, golf course rules might allow him to move the ball sideways around the plant without taking a penalty.  If not, the sensible shot is to hit the ball sideways to the plant so that his next shot would be clear to the target.  But he doesn't seem to know or care about either option.

He's walking around in small circles, gesturing rather wildly about his bad luck in having the ball where it is, and trying to figure out what the best plan of attack might be.  

My golfing partners are starting to get a bit peeved at the young man's histrionics, but they're ready to wait until he resolves the issue.

The young man finally decides just to blast the ball directly into the plant, hoping it will break through the foliage.  It doesn't.  The ball hits the leaves and stems and then bounces directly backwards.  

There is a rather large sand dune about 50 yards or so in front of us.  As the young man's ball stops rolling backwards across the sand, a pair of camels show up at the top of the sand dune.  They are running quickly.  One of the camels is much larger than the other -- and it appears that the larger one is either Mom or Dad (I think Mom...) and the kid.  And the parent is teaching the kid how to best to run across loose sand.

Bad Dream 186 -- Getting Into My Bed?

In my dream, I am in bed.  Wearing pajamas.  Having recently woken up.  I am, however, fully functional mentally and am sitting up in bed.  I'm past the "still sleepy" stage.  

So I must be on the verge of getting up out of bed.

I think there's another person in the bed with me. Likely that would be Deb, but she doesn't enter into what happens in the dream.

At the foot of the bed, there are two or possibly three men.  They are wearing business suits.  They don't seem to be interested in me so much as they are interested in the bed.  They talk to each other in short sentences -- something about the bed or the bedclothes (sheets, blankets, etc.).  They point a bit at the bedclothes and chat with each other.  

They then move along the side of the bed, thereby getting closer and closer to me.  They're still chatting with each other.  There seems to be a question about something about the bedclothes, and they occasionally point to one of the sheets or the blanket or maybe the pillows.  

I watch them, first with curiosity and then with growing concern.  I haven't a clue why they are there or what they're doing.  

One of them reaches over the bed and pulls down my blanket so he can better see something about the cover and/or what's beneath the cover.  He turns to his partner and says something I can't quite hear.  

They get closer to me and more intense in their looking at the bedclothes.  When one of them climbs onto the bed and seems to be ready to pull the sheet and covers over him.  I don't think he wants to take a nap, but discover or display something about the bed and the bedclothes.  

I raise a strong objection to what they're doing, but they are ignoring me completely.

 

Bad Dream 185 -- Where Is My Car... and

In my dream, I have finished with some project or obligation and am looking to find my car so I can drive home.  

I begin by looking up and down the street where I'm standing.  The street is a nice small-town kind of street lined by a few trees and a number of parked cars.  It reminds me of West Chester.  Traffic is light -- just a few cars passing by.  So it should have been easy to spot my car, if it were located on this street.  But I can't see it anywhere.  

The scene changes to a parking garage, and I'm pretty sure my car is located somewhere in here but can't recall a parking space number or a row location or even which level I parked on.  

I start on the lowest level, looking right and left, but quickly decide that my car isn't here.  I think there's an elevator somewhere in the garage, but decide to use the stairs to get to the next level up.  I'm concerned that, given the fact that I know so little about this garage, that the elevator could skip over one or more levels without my knowing about it.  And that could complicate the search a great deal.  

I am getting confused as to how many levels there are in this garage.  I get off the staircase from time to time to look at this level or that one.  Something tells me that there are only two or three levels, but every time I go back to the stairs that number seems to change.  Sometimes it goes up and sometimes down. 

On one occasion, I find another staircase. All metal and all painted green.  As I start climbing the stairs, I see that there are low gates installed across maybe every third or fourth step.  The gates are maybe knee high.  I can't imagine why anyone would install these, as they represent a challenge going up and a serious obstacle going down.  While I stand there trying to figure out what it is I'm looking at, a woman speaks up from behind me telling me to keep moving or get out of the way.  I allow her to move past me, and somehow, she manages to climb the stairs without any interference from the low gates.  

The scene changes again, and I find myself in a much larger stairway and as I move up or down (I forget which) I come across a young woman -- certainly not the one I met on the other stairway.  She is very slender and gives the impression of being under fed.  She looks like she's missed a considerable number of meals.  She also looks tired and cold -- clutching her light jacket closed.  I pass her by and continue to look for my car -- level after level.

Going down a staircase, I come across the same young woman, who is now accompanied by a young man.  Something tells me they are brother and sister.  But he looks quite healthy and well-fed.  She leans up against him seemingly for safety but also for warmth. But I understand that they are both essentially homeless and looking for a place to stay and a job for him.

I take out my wallet and find that I have two $20 bills and a couple of singles.  I'm tempted to give them all of my money, but I may need a 20 to get my car out of the garage and possibly fuel to drive home.  So I hand him a 20 and try to say something supportive.  He pockets the money without saying "Thank you" or any other acknowledgement.  But the young man's pride requires him to adopt a "We are getting along just fine.  We've only recently arrived in the US, and we're not settled yet, but where we are much better off here than where we've been."

I would like to provide additional assistance to the two of them, but the young man's attitude -- coupled with the fact that I still don't know where my car is -- suggest I should simply move on.  

Bad Dream 184 -- Where's the Functional Drawing?

One of my favorite jobs was being a Technical Instructor for Leeds & Northrup.  I taught a two-week course in control systems for utility power plants.  My students were all competent to excellent electrical technicians already but their plants were getting an upgraded controls system that was considerably more efficient -- but more complicated than their existing system.  My dream takes place in one of these power plants just as I begin the course.

In my dream, I am standing in an equipment room in one of these power plants getting ready to begin the course.  

The drawings that describe the system are twice the size of an ordinary piece of copy paper -- and there are typically 300 or so drawings that describe the overall system in detail.  Fortunately there is also a set of drawings twice as large as the details that provided a flowchart-type description of each part of the system.  And looking at the system (wires and electrical components) itself without understanding the drawings is absolutely useless.  

So understanding the details of the system design is essentially impossible without a clear understanding of this overall design.  With that understanding, all the detailed drawings are easy to follow and thereby allow the technicians to troubleshoot the system should a problem develop.     

I have grown somewhat complacent about preparing for these courses, as  the overall system design is repetitive.  The critically important details about any particular system, however, were unique.  So if I don't have either set of drawings -- the overall or the detailed -- immediately to hand, I can't teach the course.

In the dream, my students are now gathering in the room to begin the class.  I look around at the students, hoping to find a copy of the drawings that might have been sent to the customer prior to my visit.  No luck.  

I look on every table and in every closet.  I move from room to room without finding anything useful  In essence, the course couldn't begin in earnest until I found the drawings.

I described what the drawings looked like and asked some the students if they had seen anything like them.  No luck.  

In continuing to look, I come across other drawings from my company, but had no idea whether they described an earlier set of controls or this newly installed set.  So I didn't dare consider using them.  

I consider getting in touch with my factory to generate copies of the new system and FedEx them to me -- but I know that would likely take most of a week for the drawings to get to me.  

I think that, at least, I might provide the students with a high-level overview of the new system and introduce them to some of the new vocabulary they would need: terms like "Pressure Ratio," "Energy Demand," and "Heat Release Computation."  But then one of the system designers from my company appears from nowhere and said: "No!  You can't do that.  There are special considerations for this installation that require a unique approach to understanding."

Understandably, some of my students begun to drift off.  They had other projects that they could work on -- and they promise to check back with me later.  

I wake up.

Bad Dream 183 -- Got My Satchel Back

 My dream starts off with me standing on a beach with the ocean off to my right.  The weather is wonderful -- warm air with a light breeze.  A few fluffy clouds in the sky.  I am also standing next to a picket fence which leads from my left down to the ocean.

Hanging from one post in the fence is a green satchel that looks a great deal like the satchel that Deb and I use for all our critical documents when we travel (passports, maps, reservation documents, tickets, vaccination cards, casual reading material).

I take the satchel down from the fence and notice that it seems to be either completely empty or almost empty.  Holding it, it continues to look a great deal like our satchel.  I zip open the main compartment and start fishing around to see if there's anything inside.  And much to my surprise, I find my set of keys: house keys, car keys, etc.  Unzipping the compartment on the outside flap, I find a document or two that confirms that this not only looks like our satchel, it IS our satchel.

Totally unexpected.  Didn't know the satchel was missing.  

The scene shifts to me standing in front of a friend or two with me telling them about this remarkable event.  I don't recall anything about our surroundings. In my telling them about this, I realize that if I had been at the beach any day before or after this day, the satchel would probably not have be there.  That the person who placed the satchel there would possibly have come back to collect it. Further, if I had been at the site of the satchel any earlier or later that day, the satchel might well not have been there.  In addition, if I had been at any other stretch of beach, I probably would not have seen the satchel.  So finding it was little short of miraculous.  My friend or friends humor me by nodding their head or heads and saying "Gosh, that's nice" or words to that effect.  Obviously, they are not impressed.

The scene shifts again, and I am standing in what is likely a high school cafeteria.  The room empty except for me and the three people sitting at a classical cafeteria table.  One of the people is Allison and the other two are male friends of mine -- and clearly they're engaged in pleasant conversation.  I gently interrupt them to tell them about finding the satchel, and none of them seems impressed either.  As is often the case, I feel a twinge of jealousy when I see Allison talking to any male person.  But only a twinge.  

I try to make them understand the remarkable nature of my find, but they're even less interested than the friends I had been talking to previously.

I wake up.  

Bad Dream 182 School for... Something

In my dream, I am sitting in a classroom with roughly 20 other guys.  We are all in our 20's and 30's and casually dressed.  Each student has his own desk and chair.  I understand we are here for some kind of training, but it's not clear to me what kind of training is involved and what the end objective of the training is.

This is my first session here, but it is clear that the class has been going on for a considerable time -- weeks, maybe months.  I'm initially concerned about being so unaware of the subject or subjects being taught and how far along the rest of the class already is.  I feel I can catch up with the rest of the class, if given the proper support.  But I don't have any idea whether I'll get any additional support at all.

There are two male instructors -- a little older than the students, but equally casually dressed.  And they take turns describing situations where "Things" went well or "Things" went poorly.  Some of these stories include video of the events.  When things did not go well, participants would often wind up dead or seriously wounded or under arrest.  I don't recall what the result is when things go well.  Given the ambivalent nature of the stories, I begin to wonder if we're supposed to learn about being law agents or more successful criminals.  

I try to take notes concerning the stories, but I can't figure out what we're supposed to learn from the stories.  So rather than taking notes, I find myself just doodling on a piece of notebook paper.  But then I get concerned that someone might see my doodles and accuse me of not taking the course seriously.

It's not clear to me whether the end result of this training will be to help us obey and/or enforce the law or whether it will teach us how to avoid the law instead. 

There is also a very pretty young woman in the classroom who seems to be part of the teaching staff.  She walks around the classroom occasionally and smiles, but doesn't take any particular part in presenting material.  

I recognize that, whatever the material is about and whether its for law enforcement or law breaking, I don't want to participate.  I don't feel I need to leave the room immediately but just wait until the session is over and then never come back.  I'm concerned that if I get up and start walking towards the door, people will notice and someone might try to stop me.  But I then I have the feeling that even after I left the room today, I might not be allowed to leave the program: have I already committed to being part of this... whatever it is?  Do they have my home address, phone number, etc. etc.?  Would they come looking for me if I didn't show up again?

As I am considering my options, one of the instructors calls out, "Okay enough of this, let's clear away the desks and chairs and play some Bonanza!"  All the students (except me, of course) cheer loudly and start immediately moving the furniture.  They know the game and enjoy it immensely.  I notice that the young woman also seems quite pleased with moving on to play Bonanza.  

I wake up.

Bad Dream 181 -- Juggling Stuff Gone and That's Okay

 In my dream, I'm kind of hanging out with two boys -- one of whom is an earlier version of Ryan Shiflet.  (I am probably a bit younger in the dream than I am now, but a full adult.)

We're walking slowly from somewhere to somewhere else and between the three of us, we're carrying two bags of juggling props.  These are my props -- the ones I've used to practice, teach, and perform.  Or so I think...  

We set the bags down so we can open them up and do some juggling.  We're not seriously practicing or performing, just kind of taking it easy.  If people stopped to watch, that's fine.  If we come across something cool to share, that's okay too.  

When we open the bags, I see that most of the stuff in there are twiddles that I picked up along the way in case they proved to be interesting and/or useful.  Most of them never were.  The useful juggling props -- the ones I used for performing -- simply aren't there 

There is a Diabolo in the bag that looks kind of tired and beat up, but should work fine.  The boy who isn't Ryan takes a liking to the Diabolo, but I don't think I've got the sticks to go with it.  

So there's not much to do.  I walk away from the bags for some task that's not clear to me -- assuming that the boys will be watching over the bags.  But they don't.  And someone steals both the bags.

One of the bags was red.  It was pretty large and shaped like a Duffel Bag.  As I try to figure out what's going on, I see once... twice... people walking by dragging a red Duffel Bag, but neither one of them is mine.  

The younger of the two boys (not Ryan) seems really concerned that I'm going to be mad and somehow punish the two of them.  But I realize that neither of the bags had anything that I valued.  And that having lost them makes me feel lighter and considerably better off.

I look at the boys and wonder out loud what do we do now?  And Ryan smiles.  He tells me that there is a confectionery store nearby that's really terrific, and he starts to name some of the treats they have for sale there.  Going there sounds like a great idea -- and will allay the younger boy's concern that I'm angry and will punish them.  

Bad Dream 180 -- Allison #3

 Don't remember much of the detail of this dream, but:

In my dream, Allison is describing something to me.  She has an opportunity with several options as to what to do about it.  I think it was about taking a new job but it might have been about going some place -- possibly for a trip or possibly moving.  The options include just taking the opportunity, taking it with some adjustments and/or requests to the person offering the opportunity, or just not doing anything and let the opportunity pass her by.

As she is explaining some of the details of what's being offered, I am thinking of creating a "spreadsheet" or checklist of different items that would be affected by her choice.  By ranking or rating each item for its importance, she could perhaps get a clearer picture of which choice would be best for her.  But I never get a chance to suggest this.

The scene changes and Allison is now sitting in the driver's seat of her car -- a red MGB with the top down -- and she's obviously getting ready to drive away.

There's something in her face, her voice, and the way she drives away that lets me know pretty much for certain that she's cheesed off at me and just wants to get away.

When I awake from this dream, I realize that proposing this spreadsheet/checklist would be a serious case of "Mansplaining" -- something that I do far too often.  And somehow, Allison knew that I was about to launch into my idea.  

The problem here is that my Mansplaining suggests that I know more about what she should do than she does.  I'm not supporting her or looking for clarity in her explanations.  No.  I'm essentially telling her what she should do.  

Bad Dream 179 -- Allison Again

 Much to my surprise, I've just had another erotic dream which involved Allison.  This one was different in a many respects, but still...  

I was awakened by an alarm at 5:15 this morning, so much of the dream vanished before I started thinking about saving the details.  Rats.

The one image I can recall -- and this may not be what I really dreamed, just something my Unconscious suggested afterwards -- is my carrying Allison in my arms from someplace to some other place more desirable.  I think she was wearing little or no clothing in the process.  

The dream did not involve having actual sex with her, but that may have been something that had recently happened or was about to happen.  In any case, Allison was okay with that taking place -- not as eager as she was in the previous dream.

The nature of the dream was that conditions surrounding Allison and me were not good.  And we needed to do something and/or go somewhere to alleviate any concern.  

Upshot being that Allison was okay and that she and I shared some common concern -- which I think was going to affect her more than me and that I was aiding her to get her and me to a safer better place.  Not something horribly tragic awaited us, but something we would really want to avoid.  

Most of my dream life has been completely different scenarios and subjects, so having these two erotic dreams -- especially about someone I know -- is intriguing.  

Stay tuned!