Dreams

So I usually do not have any recollections of my dreams, but recently I had two that I vaguely remembered. I think it is because I haven't been sleeping well. Read more if your interested.



I had a somewhat funny dream this morning. I was watching a rather strange movie featuring a teenage Eliza Dushku and sort of a cross between a young Judi Dench and Jenna Elfman (I don't know how that works!). My sister walked in and I explained to her who the characters were, "that lady in the red dress is a wannabe designer, but she's terrible at it, and the girl is the best friend of that guy's daughter." She gave me a look that I've come to learn means she is uninterested and is just humoring me. Anyway, the best friend and the father are heavily flirting, and the lady in red seems to approve. Now this is very much in character for the early roles Eliza played, and Darhma (Jenna) might have approved, but Judi Dench's characters would definitely not, and I had thought that red-blondie was interested in the lecherous father. Oh well, I suppose I should not expect dreams to make sense.

The other was a nightmare I had a couple of weeks ago about being lost in a hospital. Quite understandable considering I had recently spent the weekend in a hospital. They had taken all my clothes and stuff, and my "man purse" (Chuck? Are you reading this?) and even my medical bracelet. I don't know how they got the bracelet off: sometimes they try but have never succeeded (ha! take that!). I was more bothered by my man purse, which is kinda like a survival kit and safety blanket to me. As many of you know, I very rarely take it off and freak out if I don't know where it is. So they took all my stuff, dressed me in one of those horrible hospital gowns, and set me loose in the hallways. I hate those gowns. People frequently ask me if I get claustrophobic in MRI and CT machines. I don't. In fact, I find them oddly comforting. But I get severely claustrophobic in those gowns - sometimes to the verge of hysteria. People say I'm so brave and fearless, but I'm terrified of a simple piece of cloth and freak out if my bag is taken away. So there I was, running through the labyrinthine halls that characterize hospitals, with nothing but one of those gowns that scare the beejebies out of me, and I couldn't talk at all, so couldn't ask for help and didn't know anyone. Several times I came to familiar and friendly places I've been in in various hospitals, but the people had all been replaced with strangers. I managed to get outside to a crowded bus stop, but it was the middle of the night and I couldn't make sense of the signs on the buses, and couldn't ride them anyway as I didn't have tickets.

Speaking of dreams, I've been rereading the Iliad and just came to this amusing passage:

Now the other gods and the armed warriors on the plain slept soundly, but Jove was wakeful, for he was thinking how to do honour to Achilles, and destroyed much people at the ships of the Achaeans. In the end he deemed it would be best to send a lying dream to King Agamemnon; so he called one to him and said to it, "Lying Dream, go to the ships of the Achaeans, into the tent of Agamemnon, and say to him word to word as I now bid you. Tell him to get the Achaeans instantly under arms, for he shall take Troy. There are no longer divided counsels among the gods; Juno has brought them to her own mind, and woe betides the Trojans."
(from MIT classics)