January 30

 

I am on an island with several others living in a rustic community that we’ve built. We’ve been placed there by the British army (Redcoats) who are on the mainland. There are only 2 women on the island - we are outnumbered by several men. We feel safe among them but somewhat invisible. It’s unclear why any of us are on the island but it is clear that we have to earn our way to the mainland. The latest challenge is an ice fishing contest. The one who catches the biggest fish is the winner, and the winner gets to move ashore. Anyone who wants to can compete. As women we are allowed to participate but only after we cajole the others into letting us do so. The eventual reaction is that since we are ‘only women’ we have no chance at winning anyhow so what’s the harm in letting us ice fish. Meanwhile, I and the other female hatch a plan. We go to the fish market on the island, buy the biggest fish available, wrap them in newspaper, and shove them under our skirts. Our plan is to ‘catch’ them when no one is looking so we can be declared the winner. We have to get to the mainland to speak to the ‘Crown’ about an idea we have. We don’t want to share it with any of the other islanders since we fear they will claim the idea as their own.

 

 

 

January 28

 

I am in someone’s house using the bathroom. The door to the bathroom is a screen door. As I relieve myself, I say aloud to myself in French how exhausted I am. My mother walks in the room adjoining the bathroom and repeats what I just said in French. I do not respond and there is no further conversation. The scene switches to a setting where there is a lot of disarray. I see boxes and bags with items hanging out of them as if someone had packed or unpacked very sloppily. Two young men are walking in and out of the rooms. It is understood that I am there to fix the toilet, but it’s difficult to do since the two are in and out and often in my way.

January 27

 

I am on horseback riding into a town with my posse in old western days. It’s unclear whether we ride into town knowing that we will receive an inheritance or whether we find out that we are receiving an inheritance after we arrive. We receive the news that only 2 of us are receiving anything. Someone brings out two gold bars – one for each heir. I am not one of them. We look at each other feeling very misled. No words are spoken. The two heirs walk off with their gold only to return shortly after. We see that they have smashed their bars into several pieces, and we are each to get our share. To celebrate we decide to go see a local show. We have heard there is Native American entertainment. We find a female Native dressed in traditional clothing. It is obvious that she is trying to get another female Native to join her in putting on a show. The second Native is Queen Latifah. Queen is not dressed in traditional Native clothes. The first female holds a stack of clothes and is trying to convince Queen to go change into them. Queen is adamant that she will not portray Natives as caricatures simply because we want to watch some entertainment. She finally relents and storms off clutching the clothes and we assume that she will change into them.  

January 25

 

I am home and 5-6 kids under the age of 10 come knocking at my door. They want to know if my kids can come out to play. Home is not my actual house, but instead it is my parents’ house. I recognize the neighborhood kids, but I tell them that my children won’t be joining them. I am unsure of the reason I gave them or even whether my children are home at the time. The kids walk off and return a few minutes later with the same request. I repeat the reason that my children won’t be joining them. They leave and come back again. This goes on a few times with the kids banging loudly on the door each time. I finally lose my patience and call them a few choice names. They call me names in return. When I think they have finally given up, I see them walking off with several outdoor toys that belong to my children which the neighborhood kids have pilfered. I recognize my little brother’s red wagon among the items, and I am livid. I let them have it again. The kids ignore me and walk off with the toys.

January 24

 

I am somewhere cold and snowy, and it’s understood that we’ve been outside for a period of time. I and the two people I am with are ready to leave. One of the people is a previous boyfriend. We get into a big pickup truck and I am in the middle. Oddly enough, the steering wheel is in the middle (as opposed to the driver’s side of the car). Although I have never driven a truck before, it is decided that I will drive since I am already in the middle where the steering wheel is. The set up is very uncomfortable and disorienting. I have to sit with the shifting gear between my legs. The gas pedal is on the right to be operated with my right foot while the brake is on the left to be operated by my left. We leave and soon meet a steep left hand turn which is hard to make with the snowy conditions, but we make it. We arrive at our destination and get out of the truck. I turn to the previous boyfriend and tell him that this is the last time I will ever drive a truck. As I say this, I wonder why he didn’t drive since he always owned a truck.   

January 21

 

I am at some type of exhibition where tables are set up for others to peruse. I am in charge of several tables and I need to make sure that there are no spelling or punctuation errors on the displays. The displays all look the same – they resemble a giant division symbol used in math with some writing on them on a white background. They are very boring and it’s unclear what they are supposed to represent. Maybe because I find these displays boring, I start looking out the window instead of paying attention to setting things up. I spot three kids walking on the side of the road along the curve close to where my house used to be. There’s quite a lot of snow outside so two of the kids are dressed in snowsuits. The third kid has a snowsuit hanging off of her that she is limply holding up. As the kids walk by I can see them from a different angle. They are now facing away from me. Now I can see that the kid holding up her snowsuit is doing so because she has pooped herself and does not want the snowsuit to brush up against her. Therefore, her bottom is bare and very messy. I assume that they are trudging home so she can clean up. The three kids turn into my old driveway, but it is understood that I no longer live there. A fourth child is playing in the front yard at the house. She sees what is going on and starts miming to the girl with the messy bottom that she should sit in the snow and wiggle around to clean herself off. The little girl sits her bare bottom in the snow, moves around a bit, and content that her bottom is now clean, she pulls her snowsuit back on and runs off to play with her friends leaving a messy brown patch of snow behind.

January 20

 

My son and his close friend who live out of state fly to Maine to visit. We seem to be in an airport, but the scene suddenly shifts to being in an employment agency. It’s understood that the friend is looking for a job, but when a staff member approaches it is instead to give her the college diploma that she has just earned. The scene shifts again to an outside venue which is a talent show. The friend who is a singer is one of the finalists. The vote is tied. To break it, the two finalists must putt a golf ball on a course that suddenly appears. The one who putts the ball closest to the hole will be declared the winner. A long blue pool noodle is placed on the course. If the ball goes to the left of the noodle, the person will be disqualified, and the other contestant will be declared the winner. The friend putts the ball which rolls past the first hole and towards the second hole where she makes a hole in one and is declared the winner.

January 18

Dream 1

I am in an office setting that seems quite formal. It’s unclear whether I work there and am getting let go or if instead I was there for an interview which I failed badly at. Either way, I am being dismissed. I get up to leave and start walking away, but instead of exiting the building I decide that if I go to another part of the building no one will know if I was fired/not hired and I can just act like I work there. 

Dream 2

My son and I are going to a church sale. We’ve heard that there is an incredible assortment of winter coats for $1 or $2 each. We walk into the building hosting the church sale and find the room with the coats. There are racks with coats along each of the four walls. We soon realize though that although some of the coats are actually only $1 or $2, that some of them cost as much as $20. I pick a large flashy golden muumuu off of the rack and say to no one in particular, ‘who would wear this?!”

January 17

 

Dream 1

I produce/write a bird-themed newsletter. I am working on the November/December issue and one of the articles I am writing is on Blue jay DNA. In the article, I refer readers to the September/October issue. When I include this, it occurs to me that although I wrote the September/October issue, I forgot to publish it. I wonder if I should admit this to my boss or whether I should just publish both issues at once.

Dream 2

I am in my old house holding a toddler who is not my child. As I look out the back door, I see how crowded the back porch is with doll-related toys like baby cribs and highchairs. It occurs to me that I never see this toddler playing with these toys. I decide to get rid of them.

Dream 3

I am at what appears to be a wedding reception although I do not know who got married. It’s in a nice setting but very informal with guests seated in wicker chairs. Most people are heading towards the dance floor. I and one older woman are the only two people seated. I realize that the other woman is my former neighbor who has lost a leg due to health complications. I approach her and we begin talking as we always did when we lived near each other. I get the feeling that she is uncomfortable in the chair she is sitting in and due to having only one leg cannot easily, if at all, maneuver to another more comfortable chair if one is available. I don’t say this to her, but I start scanning the room for a seating alternative. I don’t see anything, but there’s a porch adjoining the hall we are in, so I head towards it. I run into George Constanza from Seinfeld who starts flirting with me and I shamelessly flirt back. With no luck finding a chair, I head back into the hall, and he follows me. Other wedding guests are now occupying the hall and some tease us about going off together to the porch. I tell them they’ve got it all wrong. George starts to walk away from me and as he turns, I see that he has several blades of wet grass stuck to the back of his jacket. I wonder who he's been lying with on the lawn.

 

January 16

Dream 1

Six to ten upper middle-aged men are in the backyard of my parents’ house. It is understood that they are all colleagues of my father although he is not there. Gone is my father’s yard length garden. Instead, the lawn is well manicured and lush green. The men are all positioned symmetrically, evenly spaced apart from each other with 3 men facing each other from across the width of the backyard and 1 or 2 additional men at each end of the length of the yard. It is understood that they are there for some type of exercise or physical fitness routine.

Dream 2

I am taking an intense employment assessment probably related to state or federal government. I am alone in a room with a closed door and have been working on this ‘exam’ for quite a while. I can’t leave the room until I have completed the assessment, but I have to go to the bathroom, so I wrap it up. I walk out of the room and hand the exam to my uncle who is administering it. I don’t speak to him because I want to keep things professional, and I also badly need to use the bathroom. I find the bathroom which is for one person at a time, and I can hear someone in there. I can tell that it’s a mother with a young child and they are taking very long. I can hear chit chat with the child asking lots of questions and the mother patiently answering them all, and I am annoyed thinking, why can’t they have this conversation out of the bathroom so someone else can use it? There is a sink outside of the bathroom in the hallway so I decide to run the water in hopes that the mother will hear it and realize that someone is outside the door possibly waiting to use the bathroom. She finally exits with her toddler......I exit the building and get in my car. I am a couple of blocks away when I see blue lights behind me so I pull over, roll down my window and wait. I then realize that the cop is walking up to the car behind me who has also pulled over. I can hear the conversation, and it is apparent that the two know each other as they start talking about a surprise party planned for someone and whether or not they pulled it off. My car is near a convenience store and I can see several people working and shopping there. It becomes clear to me that the party is for someone in the store. Besides myself and my uncle, everyone else in the dream is Black.

January 15

 

I run into my old high school friend. She invites me to her ten-year-old son’s birthday party. I have not seen her in years, but I still agree to go. I go to her house and proceed up her walkway. While approaching her house it occurs to me that I have no gift, not even a card. Then I remember I have cash with me. I pull a crumpled $20 bill out of my pocket but I decide that this is too much, so I fish out a $10 bill instead. I walk into her house and there is no one around. I stand and wait. A teenage girl with long brown hair, a scarf used as a headband, and a blue midi style winter coat walks into the kitchen. She smiles at me, says nothing, and goes to get a drink of water before leaving. I watch her leave and wait.

January 14

 

I am in some type of team-building activity with my coworkers. We are in a grocery store which apparently is closed to others while we are tasked with our activity. There are about 6 of us. We must each select a food item that we believe will feed all of us and that we will all be willing to eat. The rules are we must not speak to each other while we are making our selection in the allotted time and if we run into each other, we must not make eye contact. I select a huge slab of salmon. It is about 2x3 feet, unwrapped, and I am holding it with the tips of my fingers and 2 small pieces of wax paper. I head towards the register where we have to check out our selection (we’re not paying, but we still have to proceed through the checkout). As I approach the register I spot a coworker in my peripheral vision. As directed, I avert my eyes and quicken my steps since the salmon is so unwieldly, it is difficult to hold. I plop it on to the register where it lands with an unpleasant thud. I wonder what the next step is in this activity and hope that it involves a kitchen since I either need to refrigerate or cook this salmon. I begin to regret my choice but we are not allowed to change our minds.

January 12

 

I am taking my son to a YMCA camp in the summer. He’s about 9 or 10. We stop at my uncle’s house first. He is living where he used to live where a Walgreen’s now stands. My uncle is sitting in the kitchen, but it’s actually the kitchen from my childhood, not his, and he is sitting in a rocking chair that was in my kitchen. I teasingly poke my uncle’s arm and call him ‘old man.’ I comment on how good he looks for a man of 90, but I do not add that I can tell that he colors his hair. If my son were 10 then my uncle would have been about 60 so the ages are skewed, but I do not seem to realize this in the dream. There is an air of busyness in my uncle’s house. The woman that he lives with is flitting around packing boxes and not stopping to talk. I ignore her since I don’t really know her well and consider her to be a replacement for my aunt who has died. My uncle says that they have to move in a hurry, so I take that as a hint and I leave. I drive to the YMCA camp and am faced with a stapled packet of paperwork I’m told I have to complete. I comment that it seems to be a lot for a one-day program but am told that it’s actually a two-week program. We have brought nothing with us (extra clothes, etc.) so I say we are unprepared for this and I’m not sure if I want him to stay for two weeks, but my son is excited. I’m told I can drop some things off for him later.

January 11

 

Dream 1

I am in a public parking lot. I spot an elaborately built igloo and walk over to it. As I approach I hear a child crying. I poke my head in and see a boy of about 7 wearing a snowsuit. He is crying loudly. I ask him what the matter is and through sobs he tells me that he wants a specific type of lego kit (he named it, but I don’t recall which one he said). I tell myself I will track one down for him. Then I notice another person in the igloo. A woman old enough to be his grandmother or great aunt is crouched down in a corner with a long winter coat flaring out. She pushes part of the coat aside to reveal a stack of lego kits so tall that they almost reach the ceiling of the igloo. I replace my look of concern for this child with one of annoyance.

Dream 2

I am attending a ceremony in which my sibling will receive a work-related award. Speeches are given at this drab and boring occasion. I wonder why my sibling is holding a wire hanger throughout the ceremony. When the ceremony is over, my sibling takes the hanger, attaches it to a huge crucifix and a pole and ceremoniously walks out of the ceremony holding the crucifix high as would a priest while performing certain rites. Some members of the crowd are in awe of this and I think to myself, well, I know who the Catholics are. I’m annoyed at my sibling for what I perceive is showing off.  

January 8

Dream 1 

I am working in a dark and poorly lit restaurant/bar with narrow corridors. I have to wheel a loaded bar cart across this vast establishment from one end to the other. My friend/ coworker helps me maneuver the cart while we bump our way across old carpets and sharp corners. We think we are finally at our destination only to find that we are at the top of a steep staircase with about 12 steps. There is no elevator. We look at each other wondering what to do. The cart is still at the top of the stairs when I wake up.

Dream 2

I am frantically working my way through a busy airport. It’s very important that I meet someone on time. She is not there but it’s understood that I need to keep searching for her so I do. I am now on a path in the woods where I eventually find the woman I was supposed to meet. It is only now understood that she is to hand over her young child to me for reasons I do not understand. After she does, she walks through the woods and boards a rustic raft that is headed down a stream and is being steered by a man. The woman looks very happy. I suddenly realize that I need to catch up to her to take her picture thinking that when this child is older, he will want to see what his mother looked like, but it’s too late. The raft has floated too far way.

Dream 3

I am in a busy noisy nighttime establishment that looks like a bar or a concert. I was told that my son will be here and so I am looking for him. Just when I plan on giving up I spot him leaning against a wall in the corner. He tells me he’s tired because he was a ‘roadie’ for a Grateful Dead concert and when he says that, I notice he’s wearing their band tee shirt. I wonder if this is a one-time thing or if he has a new job but it’s too noisy to have much of a conversation there so I don’t ask. He tells me that he’s sorry but that he had to park a truck with equipment on our lawn but it’s just for one day.

January 7

I am holding a toddler and trying to get some things done while watching this toddler who is not my child. At some point I am in a backyard with the child and as we are headed into the house I see my son’s friend (a different friend from a previous dream) who is walking into the house and greets me warmly. I wonder why he was entering my house. 

January 6

Dream 1

I’m in an elevator with George Constanza of Seinfeld who is talking very excitably about a 20 question IQ test that he just discovered. I’m not sure if he’s talking to me or not. 

Dream 2 

I am a hostess leading guests to their seats at some type of establishment (restaurant? conference?) I lead a tall woman with an ill-fitting wrap around dress to her seat. 

Dream 3 

I am home (nowhere recognizable) where there’s a pounding on the door. It’s about 9:00pm but I cautiously open the door. A man I don’t recognize is standing there holding what looks like an old varsity jacket. I turn to tell whoever else is in the house that it’s okay, I’ll go outside and talk to this guy for a minute. He’s upset because my sibling has sold him some type of cleaning product and he has used it on the jacket and has ruined the cuffs. I’m confused since I don’t know why he came to my house or why my sibling would have sold him a cleaning product.

January 5

Dream 1

I am at my parents’ house. My mother shows me a pair of sneakers she bought for me. I notice a huge scuff mark on one of them, very noticeable because the sneakers are off white. I tell my mother that I’m going to return or exchange them, so I go to the store. My friend is working there but she’s on her way out. There’s a terrible snowstorm going on and she doesn’t want to linger. It wasn’t snowing when I left to go to the store to return the sneakers, but suddenly there is so much snow that we realize we will have to walk since there is no way we can drive in the blizzard. We head out and see rows and rows of backed up traffic visible only by their headlights. I mention that this must be because of the storm but my friend says no, it’s a murder suicide that occurred that afternoon and police have blocked everything off.

Dream 2

I am in my old high school (I might have been working there). I am planning on going somewhere after I leave. A young man comes up to me and asks me if I am going to the place I am headed to (apparently several people were meeting up at the same place). I say yes, and he says ‘good,’ and gives me a passionate kiss that completely confuses me and literally throws me off balance. He walks off. We arrive together at this place which I realize once I get there is the home of my son’s friend. The house is in shambles. It’s dark and cold and there are holes in the walls and ceilings. I am caught off guard and trying to act like I don’t notice anything unusual. 

Dream 3

I am walking or driving on the road I passed all the time as a kid since my street abutted it. I see a mother and toddler on the other side of the road. The mother is watching her toddler. The little girl starts running and starts sliding down the steep banking that leads directly into the busy road. The mother can’t catch her in time. I wake up before I can see whether the toddler gets hurt or worse.

January 4

 Dream 1

I am in a dark cathedral-type setting with lit sconces and lots of shadows. This is obviously some type of ceremony. I am walking into an alcove completely naked except for a dark blue or black velvet cape that drapes to the floor. I have long dark flowing hair, milky white unblemished skin and I am thin and tall. I am holding a velvet pillow with something balanced on it (a tiara, bracelet?). As I walk into the alcove I see 5 or 6 attendants in a semi-circle waiting for me. I hand my pillow to one of them and take off the cape. Then suddenly above me appears what looks like a shower head. It’s understood that I’m supposed to use the shower but before I can, someone shouts ‘stop.’ One of the attendants who is apparently in charge of watching the others notices that one of them has looked at me. They are all supposed to avert their eyes as I walk in and can only look at me once I am in ‘the shower.’ This means that I have to exit and enter all over again, so I do but I wake up before I shower.

Dream 2

I am at a Business and Professional Women’s Club meeting. I am not a current member but I have heard that the group meets there so I show up. I hang back and listen carefully to their plans which include working with the elderly. I finally speak up to say that I appreciate their work since so many projects in similar groups benefit young mothers and their children with few projects done for the elderly. They stare at me as if to say, who asked you? I try to explain that I used to be the President of a local BPW chapter so I have some experience with project planning but every time I start to talk, one of them interrupts me and talks over me. It feels very aggressive and uncomfortable. When they are silent for a while, I start to talk very quickly about my experience and how I think I could help their club if they allow me to join. They stare at me and fire off a round of questions which I answer. Then one of them looks at me and says, ‘you think you’re perfect don’t you?’ I stumble through an answer and wake up.

January 3

A decree was issued in the academic institution where I worked that beginning with the October/November session, students would be prohibited from using words that had a double ll consonant (like pillar, e.g.). As of the December session, students would have to use only one syllable words.

January 1

Dream 1

There’s a big commotion in an unknown location. It’s understood that a gunman is at large and instead of everyone hiding, crowds of people are looking for him. We find him, I’m in the crowd, and instead of being arrested, he is dragged into an arena where he is shot at close range in the back of the head. Before he is killed, the crowd taunts him encouraging the officer to shoot him. The officer who shoots the gunman is my cousin who has never been a policeman. After the gunman is shot, he is left on the pavement, and the police just walk away as the crowd disperses. 

When I advance towards the dead gunman I can see that he is not holding a gun at all. Instead, he’s holding a banana. Near the gunman I see the remaining bunch of bananas from which the gunman’s banana was removed. I decide to collect this ‘evidence’ and proceed to the police station. When I arrive there are lots of security levels to get through to eventually access the building. Once I get in, I present the bananas to the officer who also obviously think the bananas are important as they are placed in a glass case. In the dream, I wonder why the bananas are being handled so cautiously as opposed to the gunman who was obviously not wielding a gun at all and was shot point blank and left to rot.

Dream 2

My son is about 11 or 12 years old and he’s having a sleep over birthday party which appears to be either where we lived when he actually turned 12 or my brother’s old room at my parents’ house. It’s understood that he is having a party, but I don’t witness any of it. I enter the dream when I walk into his room where about 20 young boys are lined up on the floor in tightly compacted rows where they are expected to sleep in a hot room with no AC or fans or open windows. (At this point of the dream, when I look around the room the window placement is like in my little brother’s room.) They are all very quiet and well-behaved, but I can tell they’re not sleeping. I realize it’s only about 8:30 pm and I wonder who made them go to bed so early. I also wonder why there are so many of them. Due to being hot and hungry, they start to leave except for a couple of them who hang in there. I tell my son that we’ll order pizza since it will be much cheaper now that all the others have gone.