Is it just me, or is it that when anyone has a strange dream it comes in a neat little group of other strange dreams?
This has been my week. Lots of people (I hear) have dreams about dying every once in a while, but this has never happened to me. Until now. Okay, I haven't actually died in any of my dreams, but those of late have all been near-death.
Dream One: I am working in a local hospital that just happens to be in the middle of the African jungle. And I am sent on a quest with two people who apparently are my siblings (trust me, neither was a relative that actually exists) to save the life of this sick orphan child staying in the ICU. And may I just note, the one time I saw the baby boy in my dream, he was smiling and giggling and running around the hallways. So off on this quest we go. How? A 12-person raft down a treacherous river. Literally feet from the hospital walls. So there we are, none of us know anything about wilderness survival. We all sit nervously in the old raft, just letting it follow its own course. Until it tries to turn us down a side stream with crocodiles infesting the water. Oh boy, did we get out of there fast! Two more times after this the raft tries to turn down side streams with deadly jungle animals ready to rip bones from flesh. We are so relieved to escape these that we miss the next one . . . and we end up in this deep, dirty water crawling lazily along. Then they attack. The hippopotamus's converge on our raft, knocking against it hard and lifting it almost on its end. Somehow I end up halfway out of the raft, up in the air, trying to keep my feet out of one terrifyingly brown mouth. And then they tip us. I can feel the water swirling around me. I'm afraid a hippo is going to brush against me and it'll all be over. Of course, if I escaped their flat, crushing teeth, I still had to escape to the surface for air. And I'm almost out of air (I lasted a lot longer than I thought I could) when some random jungle-master Aussie saves us. As he appoints himself head of our quest,
I wake up.
So yes, strange dream. I think the strangest of them all. And now I don't know which would be more terrifying: facing a herd of hippos or facing a very hungry shark.
Dream Two: I'm in the middle of some random elementary school I don't recognize (which is saying something because I've been to dozens of elementary schools) and I'm just running around after school's out. I guess as a teacher's aid or something I can do that. I run to the pool (because of course all elementary schools have large swimming pools with water slides and diving boards) and randomly decide to take the slide–not realizing I'll end up in the water. Hmm, apparently I'm brainless in this dream. Splash! I land in the water and get sucked under the side. I'm stuck. My littler sister is standing at the edge of the pool, back to me, ignoring my thrashing and gurgling because she warned me not to use the slide. Pay back. Eventually some teacher comes by and tries to hop in a small canoe and save me, but by then I've figured out how to "climb" the hard tile I'm caught under and I get out.
Not quite as strange. But still strange.
Dream Three: I'm driving to work and there's this random bridge/overpass that swings out over an open bay then comes back inland. The construction of the road? Pretty much nonexistent. The curve I'm supposed to navigate over smoothly is literally a system of long thin bars spaced at least 20 feet apart. And did I mention there are no side rails of any kind? As you might guess, I drive my car off the bridge and plunge into the water. But I don't freak out. Oh no, apparently I've driven off a bridge by mistake before, so all I'm thinking about is getting out quickly and how much I'll be mocked when everyone finds out it happened again. Freeing myself was fairly easy and, at the surface, this group of training marines pulls me out of the water into their little dinky raft. Several of them are brothers, so they take me to their dad so I can get some help. Outside this gasoline stained gas station I watch his 10-year-old daughter (with her pink jumpdrive-sized cell phone) playing in the oil shines while he treats me like a homeless person he really wants to help. He tries to give me some money, but every time I refuse to take it, he tries to give me even more. He ends up forcing me to take 13,000 dollars and the deed to all their family property along with making me promise to take care of dear Gran if they all end up dead. Then his daughter lets me make a quick call on her freakishly small phone. La Fin.
Ummmmmmm, I'm still very confused.
I think dreams can be really cool, even when they're extremely absurd. I'm a fan of thinking dreams are your subconscious's way of communicating with your conscious about what's going on inside your own brain with your own problems. How these three dreams solve my current problems, I have no idea. But they were fun to share!
Anyone have dreams to rival mine? I'd like to see how crazy all of us really are.
Awesome_
