Weird Dreams

Much of my conversation seems to begin, "I had the weirdest dream last night..." I've always been a particularly vivid dreamer. As a young child, my nightmares were populated by recurring characters I called my "dream enemies." (This is probably why I enjoyed the recent Jenny storyline on The L Word, despite Jenny's general lack of likeability.) Anyway, I had a couple of doozies this past weekend, no doubt the result of a combination of hormonal flux, allergies, and dissertation anxiety.

In one, I was hanging out with these folks in a seedy part of some city. A few of the folks I was related to, and several were drug users. In the end, I was able to leave the neighborhood, after evading police and gang warfare. I admitted to the young women I'd been hanging out with that I was actually a college teacher. But they decided I was cool anyway.

Later that night, well, early in the morning, I dreamt I was putting on some kind of one-woman show a la Dame Edna at my old college, but I never got all my lines right, or my costumes complete, and I couldn't even speak clearly and loudly enough. In mid-performance, I actually had someone else perform the role for a while (a fellow alum who's a much better actress). It's like it was supposed to be my senior thesis, or the alum equivalent. But it really bombed. And I ended up owing a huge amount of money for the space and food. Later on--I think it was supposed to be several months later--I reprised the role for a large crowd that included folks from my current institution, and it went better. I think the point was to launch a special drama alum group, or something. Mainly, the dream emphasized my perpetual procrastination and lack of preparedness.

Last night's dream was epic in its circuitousness. (Ever read Kazuo Ishiguro's The Unconsoled? It was one of those rambling narratives where I'm trying to get somewhere, but I'm not sure where, or with whom, or how...) My ex appeared, traveling around with a bunch of stuff on her bicycle, apparently launching a new literary magazine. And there was a monster who took over other people's bodies, and a baby I was trying to take care of, and doing very badly...

Very complicated dream. Oh, but one element should entertain readers: I was using a flash drive, and someone asked to see a document I had on it, but then pulled the drive from the computer without ejecting it. Thus corrupting all my documents. Too funny. Even my flash drive problems follow me into dreams...