Category Archives: Dreams

Entries about my dreams.

Tornadic Activities

Cast of characters:

  • A handful of random clients.
  • Me

Historical context:

  • Reoccurring dream… tornadoes!
  • I work with clients, all day, every day.
  • Sun Prairie is a medium-sized town near my home town of Waterloo, WI.
  • I visited the Institute for Underwater Archaeology in Istanbul, Turkey, for work last year.
  • Hilary was one of my best friends while growing up in Waterloo.
  • I handle operations in both Tanzania and South Africa.
  • I’m still known to write my phone number on a piece of paper for people, rather than having them just enter it into their phones. 🙂
  • I like to ride bikes.

Last night’s dream:

To continue a trend, last night’s dream was anxiety ridden.  Ahhhh… tornadoes.  So I was sitting in Hilary’s house, which was located in Sun Prairie instead of Waterloo.  It wasn’t an accurate depiction of Hilary’s house, though it had some similar features, notably, the two-story tall ceiling and cedar rafters.  Initially, I was sitting among a bunch of my clients.  We were all sitting and waiting for someone to give a presentation.  There was a podium in the southwest corner of the room, against the south and west walls, which had windows from floor to ceiling.  There was a small little woods immediately outside the windows, with the town visible beyond.  The trees were bare, and it was winter, though there was no snow.  The room we were in was one story above ground level.  Suddenly, everyone else in the room had disappeared, except for me and two older women.  We walked over to the podium and looked out the windows to the West.  The trees were now gone, and we looked out towards an open golden field.  The sky was gray, and then, out of nowhere, two whitish-gray tornadoes appeared.  The tornadoes were headed straight for us, but we stayed by the windows.  The tornadoes disappeared, and in their place, this gigantic, silvery blob appeared in the middle of the sky.  The blob was morphing into different shapes, and we wondered what it was.  We thought maybe it was an alien.  It started approaching us at a high rate of speed, and right before it slammed into the windows, we ducked for cover onto the floor.  As soon as the blob slammed into the windows, we realized that it was a big blob of rain, and then it started pouring outside.

All of a sudden, the two women and I were standing in the hallway with the other people from the meeting, taking a break.  The hallway was supposedly right outside the room that we had been sitting in when the big rain blob hit the windows; however, the hall was an accurate depiction of the second-floor hallway at the Institute of Underwater Archaeology in Istanbul.  We were all mingling in the hallway, drinking water from the water cooler out of little Dixie cups.  I was talking to some guy, who had traveled with us to Tanzania and who was now interested in traveling with us to South Africa.  I wrote my phone number on a little piece of paper so that he could call me if he had any questions.  Suddenly he was gone, so I started wandering down the hall to the East, trying to find him.  The hall got darker the farther I walked.  Then the two women appeared before my eyes, and they said that they were running late and had to get home to Waterloo right away.  They didn’t know if the bus would be coming to take them home.  I said that it was no problem and that I could take them home to Waterloo, since I was going back there anyway.  I seemed to be riding home on a bike, but there was plenty of room on the bike for them, if they wanted.

The end.

Little Blonde Me’s

Cast of characters:

  • Becky – One of my best friends from study abroad in Bonn, Germany, in 1999.  Lives in Huddersfield, England.
  • Two little blonde boys.
  • Me

Historical context:

  • There’s a picture of me at maybe around 2.5 years old, that was taken at Sears’ or JC Penney’s photo studio in the early ’80s.  I was wearing a plaid and white outfit of some sort and holding a fake red rose.  I had bright, strawberry blonde hair and a big ol’ grin.  This is how I always see myself as a toddler.
  • My great-grandfather’s name was Leo, and I love the name.
  • No significant context for the name Elliott.
  • I want kids.  Don’t have any yet.
  • Becky has two little sons.
  • I have been to my friend Ryan and Amy’s house in Madison, WI, once, maybe twice.  I remember the island in their kitchen.
  • I’ve never been to Becky’s house in Huddersfield.

Post killer-catfish dream a few nights ago:

OK, so I forgot to tell you!  I had another dream after my killer-catfish dream that I wrote about a couple posts ago…

I was sitting on a stool and leaning on the island in Becky’s kitchen in Huddersfield.  The kitchen was actually Ryan and Amy’s kitchen, but in Becky’s house.  The kitchen cabinets were made of oak, and the kitchen was warmly lit.  It was dark outside.  Becky was standing on the other side of the island and digging in the refrigerator.  We were talking casually, when two little blonde boys ran up to me.  I picked them both up and put them on my lap.  They were my sons, and they looked just like me when I was little… strawberry blonde hair, fair skin, and big blue eyes.  Elliott was three, and Leo was two.  I gave them kisses and loved them so much at that moment.  As they sat on my lap, I continued talking to Becky.  And then an uneasy feeling started passing through me.  I said to Becky, “Becky, I don’t remember getting married.”  She gave me a strange look, and then tried to change the subject.  Then I said, “I don’t remember having these children.”  Becky looked at me, looking sad.  Then it clicked; these weren’t my sons, they were Becky’s.  I was so sad.

Boo.  All stress dreams this week.

Tanzania Calling

Cast of characters:

  • Jessica S. – A current coworker.
  • Albert – My head guide while on safari in Tanzania last year.
  • Mom

Historical context:

  • I went to Tanzania on safari for the first and only time in October 2012.
  • I borrowed a really nice work camera for the safari, and the battery melted inside the camera, so that I couldn’t recharge it.  I was devastated that I couldn’t use the good camera for the entire safari, but thankfully, I had a little point-and-shoot back up.
  • I have seen the wildebeest migration in the Serengeti and have been to the Mara River, but I was not fortunate to have seen the wildebeest crossing the croc-infested Mara.  We waited… it didn’t happen.
  • On Wednesday night, I saw a Nature documentary on PBS showing the wildebeest crossing the Mara, and crocodiles having a feast!
  • Seeing this documentary made me long to return to Tanzania and reach out to Albert to say, “hello.”
  • I just put together my 2014 budget at work and made it a priority to outfit all of my guides in the field with new branded t-shirts.
  • I’m not sure that Mom ever wants to go on a safari.  I know that Dad does…
  • Jessica S. is a sweet coworker who really has nothing to do with operating my Africa trips.
  • I was at a fabulous hookah lounge in Georgetown Friday night, where there was just one tiny bathroom with nothing but toilet paper with which to dry your hands.
  • In 2001, I squatted in an apartment in Amsterdam for about two weeks with my friend, Mara, her host brother, and his friend.  We had to step up into the bathroom, and I remember the bathroom being green.

Last night’s dream:

I have really been missing Africa, a sentiment that was manifested in last night’s dream.

I was in a modest, but colorful, apartment, somewhere in Africa.  It was dark outside, and the curtains were open.  Jessica S. was sitting on the couch, reading a book by lamplight.  I then realized that it was her apartment.  I asked where the bathroom was, and Jessica pointed to a little room around the corner in the hallway.  I opened the door and took a step up into the bathroom.  It was a dirty little bathroom with mint green paint on the walls, lit by one bare light bulb above the small mirror above the sink.   The sink was straight ahead of the door, and the toilet was to my right.  After washing my hands, I wiped them off with toilet paper from an almost-empty roll.  When I walked out of the bathroom, I saw Albert standing in another dark room to my left, and Jessica was still in the lit room to my right.  He had the face of Albert, but he was shorter and had a big belly (in reality, Albert is tall and lean).  He was wearing a properly branded, white t-shirt and khaki pants.  I told him that I missed him.

Flash to me being in a safari vehicle with Mom.  We were in the middle of the Serengeti on the banks of the Mara, surrounded by wildebeest.  We could see the hungry crocodiles in the river, just waiting for the wildebeest to cross the river.  I was fumbling with my camera and couldn’t get it to work.  Mom didn’t care about taking pictures.  All of a sudden, the first wildebeest jumped into the Mara, and then thousands followed him in.  We wondered if we’d see a croc kill a wildebeest, and just then, a croc jumped out and bit a wildebeest on his snout, dragging him underwater.  I couldn’t get my camera to work, but it turns out that I had accidentally shot a slow-motion video of the kill in hot-pink technicolor.

The end.

Mexico’s Killer Catfish

Cast of Characters:

  • Jess J. – BFF in Madison, WI.  We’ve probably traveled to 20 countries together, no joke.
  • Cardinal Jessica – One of my BFFs who I met about 10 years ago.  She was the door girl at the best bar in the world, the Cardinal Bar, in Madison, WI, where I spent a large portion of my time in the mid-2000s.  We both then moved to Chicago, where we became great friends.  She now lives in Minneapolis.  We have traveled together to five countries… and counting!
  • Jackie – A current co-worker… the “dark-haired ginger.”
  • Sarah M. – A current co-worker.

Historical Context:

  • Jess J. and I traveled together most recently to St. Maarten last year.
  • Cardinal Jessica and I traveled together most recently to Mexico earlier this year.
  • I love Mexico!
  • I used to go fishing for catfish with my dad in rural Wisconsin.  I haven’t eaten or touched a catfish in probably 25 years.
  • We have a lot of meetings at work, and Jackie always seems to be the one taking the notes.
  • Sarah is in charge of our loyalty program at work.

Wednesday night’s dream:

There were three separate parts to this dream.  The dream started in a hotel room in Mexico, though it was a pretty accurate spacial depiction of my last room in St. Maarten.  I was standing there alone, in anticipation of Jess J. arriving.  It was very dark, and I had all of the curtains closed (in real life, I never close the curtains wherever I am at any time of day).  I knew she wasn’t going to like the room.  I went outside to the beach.  It was cold, windy, and gray outside.  I was overlooking a gray, choppy ocean, and there were sticks and seaweed littering the shore.  The beach was empty and the air absolutely silent, though there were waves crashing ashore.  I knew that Jess wasn’t going to like the beach either.  I went back into the room, and Jess was there.  She said that she was fine, but that she wasn’t going to leave the room.

Flash to me standing in a different hotel room in Mexico.  I opened the safe and took out my credit card statement.  I saw that there was a charge on my visa for another hotel room in a Mexican beach town farther south than where I was staying.  I looked towards one of the beds, and Cardinal Jessica was there packing.  I asked her about the charge, and she said that the charge was for the place she was going to stay later that night.  I asked her to please put that room on her own credit card, and I reached into the safe to pull out my phone.  I told her that I’d be happy to call the hotel for her since it only cost me $0.50 per minute in Mexico.

Flash to me laying on a lounge chair in my bikini in the middle of our Traveler conference room at work.  It was our real conference room at work, but it was located in a hotel in Mexico.  Jackie was standing at the white board with a blue dry erase marker.  Sarah M. was sitting across the table from me to my right.  We were meeting to discuss whether or not to make one of our clients a member of our loyalty program.  We were brainstorming pros and cons.  All of a sudden there was a slimy, wet catfish lying on my stomach.  I was grossed out and didn’t know why there was a catfish there.  It was squirming around.  All of a sudden, the catfish was soft and velvety, and I started to pet it.  It inched its way up to my chest, and then out of nowhere, it lunged towards my neck and locked onto it, sucking harder and harder, trying to swallow my neck.  I grabbed it with both hands, trying to pull it off, while screaming to Jackie for help, over and over again.  She said that she couldn’t help and that we had to get back to business.  I just kept screaming and eventually started to suffocate.  I woke up from my dream choking.  How pleasant.

Korean Air to Paris

Cast of Characters:

  • Mom – My mother, who lives in Waterloo, WI.
  • Robin – My older sister, who lives in Chicago, IL.
  • Chrissy from Master Chef – The chef/mom from Philadelphia on the most recent season of Master Chef.

Historical context:

  • Reoccurring dream – being late for a flight!
  • Dad and I are flying Korean Air to Bangkok next month.  I flew Korean Air from Bangkok to Chicago in 2008.
  • Mom mentors international university students.
  • I went to Paris as a high school student in 1995.
  • I am a reality TV junkie and watched the most recent version of Master Chef on Fox.
  • I studied in Bonn, Germany, in 1999.

Last Sunday’s dream:

Sorry guys, I’m a bit behind on my posts. 😦

So last Sunday night, I had a typical anxiety dream, including being late for a flight.  Mom and I were going to be accompanying a group of high school students on a trip to Paris.  We were very late for our flight that we were taking from some random place in the US.  Our airline was Korean Air.  I knew that I was going to miss the flight, so I sent Mom ahead to the airport by herself.  She met the students at the airport, and they all made it onto the flight and flew to Paris.  I promised that I’d be able to make the flight the next day.

So the next day, I was also running dreadfully late for my Korean Air flight to Paris.  I was immediately transported from some dark room where I was packing to a fountain in the middle of a city.  This was the fountain from the middle of Kaiserplatz in Bonn, Germany, though, in my dream, it was somewhere in the US.  Robin was playing in the fountain, and I begged her to stop, as I needed to get to the airport.  I don’t know why I wanted her to get out of the fountain, as she was not coming to the airport with me.  All I knew is that she had to get out of the fountain before I could go to the airport.

All of a sudden, Chrissy from Master Chef showed up driving a black Town Car, and told me she’d take me to the airport.  She drove me to the airport, and drove me to some back alley at the airport, from where she thought I could bypass the lines and still be able to catch my flight.  I went up a half a story of stairs and found the door into the airport locked.  I pleaded with Chrissy, who was now outside the car, leaning against the front, and smoking, asking her to call Korean Air to tell them I was there and to hold the flight.  She said that there was nothing she could do.  Flash to me going through security clearance at the airport, with about 12 minutes until my flight left.

The end.

Chinese Flight Attendants in my Pool!

Cast of Characters:

  • Kristiyan – The 20-year-old, Bulgarian lifeguard at my pool in Arlington, VA, this summer.  He’ s like my little Bulgarian brother from another mother.
  • Random Air China flight attendant
  • Random guy
  • Me

Historical context:

  • My pool closed for the season on September 2.  On September 3, I looked down at the pool from my balcony and saw that they had already removed all of the lounge chairs from the patio and covered the pool.  It pissed me off.  BOO!  (FYI, you can’t swim at a pool in Virginia without a lifeguard… state law!)
  • I’ve went to China and flew Air China in 2008.
  • The purple referenced in this dream is what I call “Puke Purple”… this kind of icky medium purple color with a hint of pink.  A shade lighter than Barney purple.  The outside cover of my 1996 high school yearbook in Waterloo, WI, was Puke Purple.  I coined the term Puke Purple when I saw that yearbook cover for the first time.
  • I googled “Air China flight attendant,” and found that the flight attendants in my dream were a hybrid of Air China flight attendants (pillbox hat) and China Airlines flight attendants (pretty purple dresses).

Last night’s dream:

This one was pretty quick.  It was a cloudy, gray day, and it was pretty cold outside.  I was standing on my balcony at my apartment in Arlington (accurate), looking down at my covered pool, when I realized that the right side of the pool cover had been pulled back just far enough for someone to be swimming laps against the wall.  She had lots of black hair piled on top of her head, and she wouldn’t put her head in the water when she swam.  Kristiyan was standing on the patio watching her.  I screamed down to Kristiyan, asking him what the hell that woman was doing in our pool?!  He said that she was a an Air China flight attendant and that they stay in our complex during their layovers in DC.  He said that they had special rights to swim in the pool after Labor Day.

Flash to me standing in the hallway on the entry level of my complex, just outside the game room.  The scene was accurate… lots of tan and orange-y marble.  I was talking to a random guy (do not know what he looked like or sounded like), and we were looking at a poster of Air China flight attendants.  There were three female flight attendants on the poster, each wearing a plain, but pretty, short, purple dress and a matching purple pillbox hat.  They each were smiling, had their black hair in a bun, and looked like perfect flight attendants.  I said that they had to wear the pillbox hats because they were repressed.  The guy I was talking to thought that maybe the pillbox hat was a sign of liberation.

The end. 🙂

Lavender Snow Pants and Tunnel Robots

Cast of characters:

  • Jess J. – BFF
  • Maddie – Jess’s 4-year-old daughter.
  • Tunnel robot
  • Random extras (one with popcorn)
  • Me

Historical context:

  • Reoccurring dream! – Being late for a flight and rushing to get to the airport.
  • I miss Jess and Maddie.
  • I’m going to San Francisco at the end of the month.
  • I watch lot of crime dramas on tv that utilize two-way mirrors during interrogations.
  • No connection to lavender-colored snow pants, tunnels, or robots, per se.

Last night’s dream:

Surprise… three nights in a row with mentions of Jess.  Guess we know who’s in my thoughts. 🙂  This dream was definitely anxiety ridden.  I  haven’t been sleeping well at all.  The dream started as I was standing in the middle of Jess’s living room.  It wasn’t her real living room.  This was a HUGE room raised at least a story above ground level, overlooking a birch forest in the middle of winter, facing West.  It was carpeted in tan carpet and had brown wood paneling on all of the walls (anyone remember the brown and tan Ford Explorer from last night?).  The ceiling was a cathedral ceiling, about two stories tall, with a brown wooden ceiling fan at the top.  It was completely empty other than for a bunch of random cloths and toys strewn across the floor.  I looked over into the other room behind me, which was about three steps up from the living room.  Jess was standing there and told me not to forget the lavender snow pants that she bought for me.  I then remembered that my flight to San Francisco was leaving in less than an hour, and I was late.  A duffel bag magically appeared in my hands, and I knelt down on the floor to start packing.  I first packed my lavender snow pants, and then started shoving some of the other random crap into my bag.  It would not all fit.  I kept trying to shove stuff in, but the bag was too full.

Suddenly, I was not in the middle of the floor with my duffel bag anymore.  Rather, I was standing along the North wall of the living room.  There was a light pink curtain hanging over a portion of the wall.  Maddie suddenly appeared, wearing a horizontal striped red, white, pink, and turquoise shirt, and bubblegum pink pants.  She pulled the curtain aside to reveal a black tunnel leading out of the living room.  I went in, of course, and all of a sudden there were a handful of other people with me in the blackness.  We followed the tunnel East for a few dozen yards, when we game to a giant window into another brightly-lit white room.  It turned out to be a two-way mirror, not a window.  We could see into the white room, but anyone in the room could not see out into the tunnel.  Suddenly, a gigantic, silver, man-shaped robot appeared with a black face mask.  He started to smash his head against the mirror, over and over again.  The mirror glass started to crack, and we all started running away down the tunnel.  The robot finally broke through the glass and started chasing after us.  One lady flew her arms up while running and spilled a bunch of popcorn into the blackness.

The end!

The Price Is Right!

Cast of characters:

  • A Bob Barker/Drew Carey hybrid
  • The audience
  • Michael Jordan
  • Me

Historical context:

  • I used to loooove The Price Is Right when I was little.  When I stayed home from school sick, I would set my alarm for 10:00 am so that I could wake up and watch it.  I also used to get weekly allergy shots at the clinic in Columbus, WI, and while waiting in the waiting room for 20 minutes after my shots to make sure I didn’t die, I used to make my mom play The Price Is Right with me.  And I always made her play the same game… the price tag game.  I’d make two sets of four price tags with different prices.  I’d hide one set behind objects in the waiting room… a lamp, a piece of doctor’s office art, a chair, a plant, etc.  Then I’d give my mom the other set.  When I said, “Go!” she’d have to run around and put each price tag next to the object that she thought was that price.  Then I’d check, and if she had any wrong, she had to do it again until she got it right.  Bob Barker was the only ever real host of The Price Is Right.  Yes, I loved The Price Is Right.
  • You couldn’t pay me any amount of money to get on a big-box cruise ship.  They are death ships, or ghost ships, in my opinion.  See “Carnival Cruise.”  Jess J. and I once watched a 4000-passenger death ship in Aruba sail off into the darkness with no sound at all.  Creeeeeeepy.
  • I have no particular affinity toward Michael Jordan or Ford automobiles.
  • I used to work a lot in Miami and kinda liked my airport transfers in big, fat, black Cadillac Escalades.
  • My Prismacolor colored pencils were some of my most treasured items in high school.

Last night’s dream:

Yayyyyy!!!  I was on The Price Is Right!  I was standing with the host, sometimes Bob Barker and sometimes Drew Carey, staring out at the audience.  I remember that I was facing North (directions are always really important to me in dreams).  And low and behold, it was my turn to play the price tag game!  It wasn’t the mid-1980’s version of the price tag game that I would have expected.  It was a cheaper, older, 1970’s-ish version of the price tag game.  There were hand buzzers (like you use in Jeopardy) involved.  I don’t know why.  The colors of the game were peach and goldenrod.

I had about six price tags that I had to put on different items, and about three seconds to put the tags out until my time ran out each time.  When my time was up in the end, it turned out that I had priced two items correctly.  YAY!  Victory!  But what had I won???  Somehow, even I didn’t know at the time, because it turns out that I couldn’t see the items I was pricing.  They were printed on a piece of paper and folded up on a table.  I opened the first piece of folded paper to discover that I had correctly priced a set of Pentach (not Prismacolor) colored pencils at $175.  I then opened the second piece of folded paper to discover that I had correctly priced a super combo pack of prizes at $26,000.  And what did I win for $26,000?  I won a brown and tan Ford Explorer!  I won a trip for four to Miami to hang out with Michael Jordan at some basketball championship, complete with limousine transfers to and from the airport (they showed a video clip of Michael Jordan standing in front of the limousine at this point… he was excited to meet me)!  AND, I won a trip for four on a cruise ship in Europe!  YEAH!!!

That’s it, friends.  The end.

Close Quarters

Cast of characters:

  • Jess J. – BFF since 1999.  Met during study abroad in Bonn, Germany.  Mother of my godson.
  • Drew J. – Husband of my BFF, Jess.  Father of my godson.  Cool dude.
  • Mark – Friend and one-time roommate.  Godfather to my godson.  Overall great guy.
  • Michele – Met during study abroad in Bonn, Germany.  We keep in good contact.  Cool chick.

Historical context:

  • Ummm… not much.  Lum Ave. holds no particular place in my heart.  Piggly Wiggly does, however.
  • I miss my friends in Madison.

Last night’s dream:

So last night’s dream was very quick and pretty uneventful.  Jess and Drew lived in their same house in Madison, but their street in Madison was actually Lum Ave. behind Piggly Wiggly in Waterloo.  Evidently everyone was trying to move closer to Jess and Drew.  Michele had just bought a house next door… a raised ranch with an old deck overlooking Piggly Wiggly.  She had an old 1970s fishing boat in the back yard, and there was a black and white cat slipping in and out of view in the grass around the boat.

While talking with Michele on her deck, she pointed out a small, angular, and cramped house on the other side of Drew and Jess’s house.  She explained that Mark has just bought that house.  I was stunned and asked her why the hell Mark would give up his nice, luxury condo in downtown Madison to move into that little house.

Done. 😉

Mexican Chickens and Semi Trucks

Cast of characters:

  • Max – A good friend and former colleague who lives in Burma.  I haven’t seen him in about 5.5 years.
  • Unknown semi driver
  • Me

Historical context:

  • Jessica F. and I went to Ixtapa, Mexico, eight or so years ago and visited a glass-blowing workshop a way out of town.  We took a public bus to the middle of nowhere, at which point we walked along a dusty highway in the desert to get to the glass-blowing workshop.  Many semi trucks passed us along the way, and they invariably all had a button that they could push when they passed us that whistled a little cat call at us.
  • Semis of all sorts scare the crap out of me.
  • I love Mexico.

Last night’s dream:

There I was, standing in the middle of the Mexican desert… hot and dusty with a bright blue sky and silence filling the air.  I was looking for a pottery studio, walked around for a bit, and found it.  I purchased a set of six pottery chickens that nested inside one another, just like Russian nesting dolls.  The chickens had big round bellies with small head and tails.  They were all painted identically in bright red with floral decorations on their sides in purple, green, and white.  I took all six of my ceramic chickens to the highway and proceeded to line them along the white dotted line in the middle of the highway heading East.  I lined the chickens up from biggest to smallest, all about eight inches apart from one other.  After the chickens were properly lined up, I left the road.

Flash to me standing in a dusty parking lot next to a semi with Max.  The driver was in the truck, and the motor was running.  I explained to Max that I had a present for him but that we’d have to get in the truck to drive to go see it.  Max and I jumped into the truck; I sat in the middle next to the Mexican driver, and Max sat in the passenger seat.  We slowly drove North toward the highway where I lined up the chickens.  When we reached the intersection with the highway, I could see that my chickens were still lined up in the middle of the road and that no one had run them over yet.  I specifically told the driver that he could not turn right into the first line but rather that he must turn into the far lane.  As he turned right into the far lane of the highway, I told Max to quickly roll down his window, stick his head out, and look down.  The driver drove slowly past the chickens so that Max could see them lined up in the middle of the road.  After we passed them, Max and I sat cheering in the cab of the truck.

That’s it! 😀