February 27

 

I am traveling to Iran for unknown reasons. Several other unidentified people are with me. It is understood that we may be caught but it is unclear what we may be apprehended for. The airport is crowded, noisy, and very tense. We are surrounded by people being interrogated with harsh methods and it is frightening to think that if we are discovered, this could be us. We manage to pass through security. The scene shifts to a return trip from Iran. I am returning to the US and this time I am smuggling in a woman, her grandchildren, and their dog. I have coached the woman on how to answer questions and I have told her not to start conversations with anyone. She tends to be friendly so I feel I have to watch her constantly so she doesn’t slip up. The scene shifts again to a parking lot of a rural convenience store. We have stopped for gas. I am driving a car with no passengers, and the woman is driving another car while accompanied by her grandchildren and  dog. Immediately after pulling into the parking lot, I see the woman exit her car and walk over to another car where she starts a conversation. I jump out of my car to lead her back to her own car since I am afraid that she will say something inadvertently revealing that she and her grandchildren are here illegally. While I am trying to convince her to get back in the car, the dog jumps out since it has seen another customer’s dog. The two frolic in the parking lot and one jumps so high that it clears the wires from the utility poles. I try to coax the dog back into the car and finally succeed all the while thinking that hosting this woman will be a much more difficult job than I thought.

February 26

 

Dream 1

I am working in a school alongside one of my friends. I am munching on a slice of pizza holding it in one hand and typing on a keyboard with the other. I can hear a teacher and student in the hallway. The young student is whining because he apparently can smell the pizza and is now demanding some. I poke my head out into the hallway to verify what I think is going on and see that a teacher is trying to reason with the student. I sit back down at my desk and continue to munch on my pizza slice. My friend rolls her office chair close to mine and quietly suggests that I should not be eating pizza at my desk if it’s going to cause a commotion. She proceeds to remind me that there is actually a rule stating that employees are not to eat at their desks. I am annoyed that my friend is lecturing me on this. While still holding the pizza slice, I turn to her and ask, ‘Don’t you ever get tired of following all the rules?’

Dream 2

I am on the side of the road with a colleague near the old parochial school that I used to attend. It is unclear what we are doing there. We can’t help but notice a kid slumped on the back half of a motorcycle parked near us. The child looks to be about 12 years old and is wearing a poncho pulled up high under his neck and covering most of his body. He appears to be either drugged or intoxicated. He is alone with no adult nearby. We approach him and ask him a few questions, but his eyes keep shutting and any comments he makes are incoherent. I am wondering what we should do when suddenly I back away. I cannot help but think that this is a trap – that this child could be a suicide bomber hiding explosives under his poncho waiting to be detonated.

February 24

Dream 1

I witness an Amish woman walking along with her husband. She is unhappy about having to wear her bonnet. What she really wants is a silver wig in a hairstyle like Jane, the mother from the cartoon show, The Jetson’s.

Dream 2

I have been told that I must move out of my office at a community college where I work. I am unhappy as I am forced to do the entire move on my own including all the computer equipment. I  am being relocated to a much smaller room.

Dream 3

I am helping with a project in the ITV (Interactive Television) division of the university where I work. I started out assigned with more responsibility, but I am now tasked with sorting through old photos for an unknown reason. It becomes clear that most of the photos I am sorting through are my personal photos and I do not know why they are in the ITV division. I come across one and I recognize the setting as my friend’s sister’s pool surrounded by attractive landscaping. I tell someone who works in ITV that this is my friend’s pool. I want him to be impressed that I know someone with such an exquisite pool. He calls me out though and I am embarrassed that I tried to make him think that.  

February 21

 

Night of February 21

I am backstage at a show that my son has just been in. It’s a small area with an old wooden floor and it is packed with people. I am waiting to speak to him, but he is on the phone with his girlfriend. I am trying not to eavesdrop, but I can hear him saying things like, ‘No, don’t tell her that. She’ll think you’re serious. I am a safe driver, right, but she’ll think you’re serious.’ While waiting for him to get off the phone I see a woman I want to avoid heading towards me. She has a reputation for frequenting shows and hanging around to complain that she should have been cast, that opportunities were missed, mistakes were made, etc. I try not to make eye contact but since the space we’re in is so small, it’s hard to avoid her. She approaches me while seemingly talking to no one in particular about her dissatisfaction. She is wearing a feathered boa.

February 19

 Dream 1

I am at my parents’ house looking out the kitchen window with a view of the street. I see a pack of wild dogs descending upon a pile of groundhog carcasses piled on the corner of the lawn at the neighbor’s house across the street. I look away as they start to tear into them.

Dream 2

I am in front of my grandparents’ house with my dog Rigoletto. Another dog comes along and attacks him unprovoked. He rips a piece of skin off of my dog’s shoulder. I try to reattach the flap to stop it from bleeding while also informing the man whose dog it is what his dog has done and asking him what he plans to do about it.

 

February 18

Dream 1

I am getting ready to cross a busy downtown intersection with my little brother. He is holding a gadget shaped like a Rubik’s cube, but that’s not what it is. Instead, this gadget has different settings for slow, caution, cross, go, etc. and pedestrians proceed based on what lights up. I have never seen one of these before and I’m a bit nervous when he tells me it’s safe to cross, but I follow his lead.

Dream 2

A new parochial school is having a grand opening. I don’t know what my connection to the school is but I pull open the heavy outer door and enter. A teacher is standing in the hallway while students are neatly lined up behind her. She is clearly annoyed by my barging in, somehow expecting me to be part of the celebration which I clearly am not. I walk through the entire school and notice that each classroom is dedicated to one of the senses (seeing, hearing, touching, smelling, tasting). The characters from Seinfield are also interwoven. I work my way to the top floor where there are no classrooms. The entire floor is covered with snow. From the third floor I look out a window and see railroad tracks extending across the second story roof extension

Dream 3

I am walking on a sidewalk and spot a car with the back door open. I peer inside and see a man sitting alone in the back seat. He has blond dreadlocks and looks very unkempt. He is drinking from a large bottle of liquor. It is early in the morning. I start to make a joke that it must be ‘5:00 o’clock somewhere’ but decide not to. Instead, he jokes about his drinking.

Dream 4

I am getting dropped off by a cab. I am in front of two identical houses and stand between them. My younger brother comes out of one of the houses. My son’s former fiancée comes out of the other. He is holding one hand up in an unusual manner and I notice he has what looks like an infected lesion on that hand. I don’t know what to pay attention to – my brother or this infected hand.

 

February 17

I am a chaperone with a group of middle schoolers who are touring the Interactive Television studio at the university. The students are excited because they are going to meet the ‘science guy’ whose show originates from the studio. We meet him but he is barely recognizable. Instead of his ‘science guy’ persona, he is just a guy in a flannel shirt and jeans who appears bored and uninterested to meet and interact with the students. His arms are crossed and he is leaning on a stack of cardboard boxes. The students appear confused and disappointed until they spot a motorized jeep driving down the hallway. They recognize it as the jeep that is featured on the science show although it is much smaller than expected. The driver invites the kids to hop on saying he will take them for a spin. They all pile on, some of them barely hanging on due to being so overcrowded. As soon as they drive off, the science guy directs me to follow him down a narrow path between stacked cardboard boxes. I do wondering where we are going. We stop walking and he grabs one of my breasts. I am so surprised that I don’t even say anything. Instead, I am relieved when I realize that I am wearing a padded bra and that all he touched was fiberfill.

February 16

I am headed to a family gathering that involves my aunt, uncle, and cousins who live in the country (on a farm). A ceremony is taking place in a church where I am to meet them and I am running late. I am with my friend and with a child of about 3 years old. It is unclear whether the child is mine or not. We get to the location and enter the building. Before I go to the ceremony, I have to find a room where I can leave the 3-year-old who has brought a doll baby carriage to play with. I find what looks like a playroom for children that adjoins a kitchen and I wonder if this is a safe place to leave her. It is unclear to me why I choose not to bring the 3-year-old to the ceremony with me. I decide to leave her there. My friend and I continue walking down a long corridor where there are windows. I am distracted since I now realize that this used to be an old railroad station. I wander outside and start telling my friend about how my ancestors first came to this place by train and arrived at this very station. Eventually I peek into the church and decide that the ceremony must be almost over so it’s of no consequence if I don’t go at all. Instead, I wander back outside and gaze at the railroad tracks.

February 15

Dream 1

I have a meeting with the POTUS. We are in a formal conference room and he is seated across from me. We are the only 2 people in the room. I tell him in a controlled tone what I think of his reign so far. It’s not positive but I remain polite with my criticisms and comments. This goes on for a while with him occasionally commenting. I try to be as approachable as possible because I genuinely want him to like me so I can blindside him. When I feel that he has warmed up to me, I tell him that my son is transgendered. I tell him that whenever he (POTUS) meets someone he never knows personal details about that individual or about their friends and family. I tell him that it is unfair to judge someone accordingly. He starts crying. His face is red and contorted and he tries to speak. I cannot tell if he is crying because he’s disappointed that he has misjudged me, or if he feels remorse for any of the hateful vitriol that he spouts, or whether he feels sorry for me. I leave the room and walk past a staff member who was apparently standing at the door the entire time.

Dream 2

I am walking my dog. It is the third time that I attempt to walk her in this particular area, but every time I do there’s some type of obstacle in my way. There are several trucks parked on the side of the road with workers scurrying back and forth from the trucks to the inside of a building. I can’t get past them. I don’t attempt to cross the street. Instead I stand and wait until I catch someone’s eye. Finally a young man exiting the building stops and makes eye contact. I gesture to him that I’d like to get by. He signals that it’s okay to do so, but I point to the dog tailing him. The dog is loose and I don’t know how the dog will react when I walk by with mine so I wait.

 

 

 

 

 

February 12

 

I am at a ceremony for graduating nurses. Twelve of them are doing a skit for the audience which I am a part of. I notice that 2 of the graduating nurses are much older than the other nurses. While the other nurses are doing a dance number, these 2 are mimicking talking on the phone with each other. I ask myself how these 2 nurses will handle the physical requirements of nursing. There is a large window in the hall we are in. I turn to look outside and see bleachers lined with other graduating nurses in blue caps and gowns. A sudden downpour causes them to get soaked. I leave the hall weaving my way through a crowd and working my way to another part of the building. After walking for a while I realize that I have forgotten the 2 tote bags that I had with me. I backtrack to try to find them. At one point, someone extends a bag towards me thinking that it belongs to me, but it does not. Eventually I find my 2 bags. I proceed to what appears to be a conference table and take a seat. A woman with a clipboard approaches me and tells me she has some information for me. Apparently I have applied to graduate from a master’s program and have been waiting for confirmation. She tells me the reason I have not heard is because I have failed out of the program. I know that this is not true and I tell her so.

February 11

I am at a very overcrowded doctor’s office slumped in a chair waiting. A young man walks in, walks over to the woman seated near me, leans over her and says, ‘I was just checking on you assholes’ then leaves. His comment causes me to look over at the woman. She is cowering and cradling an infant while 2 other toddlers cling to her. She has two black eyes and bruises on her face. It becomes very apparent that she has been abused and that she fears her abuser. I squeeze her shoulder in an attempt to comfort her, but I don’t really know what to say. I decide to advocate for her at the desk to see if I can convince them to call her name next. The desk is set up high similar to a judge’s bench. Several people are pushing and shoving to get to the front of the line and I try as well but no one pays any attention to me so I leave feeling somewhat helpless. I walk home in the cold and snow. It’s a long walk. After I have covered several miles it occurs to me that I have forgotten my car which is parked at the University of Southern Maine. I keep walking while trying to decide what to do. At some point, I trip over someone’s wheeled suitcase, but I keep going. I reach a place with an open porch where a few young girls are playing. They appear to be putting on a staged performance of their own with lots of sauntering about and laughing. One of them smiles wide and I see that she has braces.   

February 9

Dream 1

I am in a room with a young man in an unidentified location. He starts asking me a lot of questions about relationships and I am getting nervous as to his intent. I then realize that he is asking me these questions because he is having relationship issues and believes that I can help him. I decide to hear him out.

Dream 2

I am taking a shower. I look up and see 3 women perched above the shower looking down at me. They appear to be Iranian. They are fully dressed. One of them gestures suggestively to me. She rubs her body and then points at me and I assume that she wants me to do the same. I pretend I do not understand her. 

February 5

Dream 1

I am in charge of a very unruly child. I am unsure if this child is mine or not, and I’m unsure of the gender. The child is under the age of 10 and is very aggressive hitting and kicking me while cursing. I try to hold the child tightly in a bear hug but am being met with resistance. I try to talk calmly and gently while patting the child’s arm, but my hand is promptly swiped off. I feel helpless and realize I have no idea what to do.

Dream 2

I am shopping for a car in a used car lot. I’m with someone but I am unsure who. The lot is a jumbled mess with cars parked any which way and some seemingly mired in mud so deep that I wonder how they will ever be driven away. The cars are dirty and most of the models are outdated. I can’t figure out how I will ever find anything to my liking. I go into the office that seems empty at first. It also is a mess. I start flipping through a newspaper I have brought with me thinking that maybe I can find a used car that way instead. Two women who work there enter the office and ask me if I need help. When I speak to them I put the paper down and tell them what I’m looking for. They have something in mind. Before I follow them, I pick my newspaper up to bring with me and catch one of them giving me a dirty look. I realize she thinks that I’m stealing their newspaper. However, the only newspapers I’ve seen in the office are as old as the cars on the lot and I wonder why she would think that I would want one. I follow her to the lot until we get to an old dark blue sedan which has seen its better days, but I agree to test drive it. I get in the car and she directs me to a garage on the lot. There is a very skinny man with no shirt in the garage and he directs me into the spot he wants me in. I figure he’s going to put the car on a lift but realize there is none. He just wants me to see that it is driveable, and now he tells me to back up so I can see that reverse also works. This makes me nervous since there’s so much stuff in the garage that I’m afraid I’ll hit something as I back out.

February 4

 

I am making plans to move with my son. It will be a long drive, so I have made a huge industrial-sized pan of lasagna to take with us on the drive. I am cooking this lasagna in a convection oven at Walmart. I receive a phone call from my mother just as I am taking the pan out of the oven. She asks me to stop by to say goodbye before I leave, but I tell her I can’t since the lasagna will get cold. My father appears in Walmart. He is off to the side seemingly floating and looking down at us. He is dressed in a very dapper blue and brown checked woolen suit, and he is grinning from ear to ear as if to say, ‘don’t I look great in this suit?’ He says nothing but I comment on his appearance. He disappears for a while then reappears again wearing the same suit. I pack the pan with lasagna into the car and we leave the parking lot. As we are exiting, I see a station wagon with the doors open and a young girl is in the car by herself. This concerns me so I stop the car and run over to see if she needs help. She looks nervous but she says she’s okay. Her father has stepped out with her four younger siblings to use an ATM and she is waiting for him to get back. I can see him in the distance and I get back in my car until I see him walking back to his car with the kids in tow.

February 3

 

I am performing on a stage in what appears to be some type of auditorium. My act is terrible. I am wearing an empire waisted nightgown with slippers and am lip-synching and sashaying around the stage to some sappy song. There is a lengthy musical interlude at the end of the song. I become impatient with my routine, so I reach behind the curtain where a record was playing my song on a child’s Fischer-Price phonograph, and I take the needle off the record. As I do this it occurs to me that I am actually there for an entirely different reason. I was to be included in an act on the pretense of performing, but my true goal is to locate someone in the theater that I have been hired to follow. I spot this person and see that they are ‘on the move’ so I hustle backstage to track them down.

February 2

 

I am somewhere on a sidewalk for an unknown reason. I see my sister so I stop to see what she is doing. She is in front of a building shouting up to someone who is on the roof of the building. He is my former brother-in-law. She has misplaced her jacket and she is telling him that she needs it. She has left it on the roof and she wonders if he could throw it down to her. He holds the jacket up for her to see and she agrees that it’s hers, but he says he can’t throw it down. I don’t hear the reason he gives, but he smiles broadly as he repeats that he can’t throw it down to her each time she asks him to.

January 31

 

I am in a hospital-type setting. It’s unclear whether it’s for mental health, physical health, or advanced aging. I do not work there, but I am nonetheless in charge of the patient in the room I am stationed in. He is a former grade school colleague and although we were never friends, I still do not question why it is my ‘job’ to police who enters the room. I need to make sure he remains calm and quiet although I’m unsure why he is there. He is fully conscious. There is a knock at the door. I can see through the glass that it is another grade school colleague wanting to come in. I tell her that she cannot, but then I change my mind and give her 5 minutes and no more. She enters the room. She and the patient look at each other but no one speaks. I’m confused as to why she’s there if she’s not even going to say anything to him. There is another knock at the door. I shout to the visitor, ‘Don’t open it!’ and I peek in the window. At first it seems to be another patient – someone I refer to as the ‘crazy guy down the hall’ – but then I realize it’s the doctor so I let him enter. He walks over to the bed and starts examining the patient. While all of this is going on I repeatedly tell the visitor that she needs to leave, that she should already be gone, that she needs to go – now, but she just stares at me blankly and doesn’t move. At one point the doctor turns his head away from me. When he does I notice that he has a skin tag growing from the back of his head and hanging off the skin tag is a pair of clipped mittens. I wonder if I should tell him but then I realize surely he must know that mittens are hanging from him, so I try to act like I haven’t noticed. No one else comments either. I consider telling him that there’s probably someone in this hospital that could snip the skin tag off of him, but I don’t suggest it since I figure that he’s a doctor, and he should know this. All the while, I am still trying to get the visitor to leave while keeping a close eye on the door to make sure no one else enters.