I'm back!!

Sorry I haven't posted in so long! Life got a little cRa&ZYyyYYY for a few weeks there. When life is that crazy, I don't really have too many dreams either.

Thankfully, things have settled down and my dreams are coming back!

First, there was the "boating" dream. Actually, I think it was more about yachts than boats. Anyway...I was at a country club type building (or yacht club). A lot of my former coworkers were there (from different places of my former employment). There were a lot of white clothes and we were all sipping on mixed drinks. We were right on the edge of some body of water and it was a very relaxing and fun atmosphere. I was informing them that I wasn't going to be working with them anymore. They wished me well and we continued on with our merriment - drinking and hanging out by the water.

Then last night, there was the dog dream. It didn't start out like a dog dream though. It actually started out where I needed a place to stay. Somehow, I ended up at the house of L (a former coworker who I am not on good terms with). She was also not in the boat dream with my former coworkers. I remember thinking everything physical was very...pronounced and over-positively exaggerated. Like I remember thinking in the dream that L had such smooth, clear skin and was really pretty (She is pretty in person, but in the dream it seemed over-emphasized). She also kept changing her outfits and I was admiring her dresses and thinking that this one green one looked like the type of clothing you would get at Anthropologie and that it was so cute. Her two children were also in the dream and they were extremely blonde. Not like blindingly blonde, but there was just this  glowing aura around their hair like it was "pure" or something (and her kids aren't even blonde in real life). I was staying at L's house and we were playing in a pool for a large part of the dream. The sunshine was also very exaggerated. It was very bright, but warm and comforting.

Then we skip ahead to where I'm in a field. I'm holding a black puppy that I realize I helped deliver (even though there's no other dog around) and the dog is not all covered in goo. It's fluffy and cute. I start bringing it around to people telling them that it's name is William but I'm going to call it "Willie."

I find it very interesting that I had two dreams about coworkers and they both involved a body of water as well. What do you think that could mean? If it's any help, I recently got a new job offer (so I guess that's why I'm dreaming of former coworkers) but I'm not sure about the water part...

Moving to North Carolina!

I'm not moving to North Carolina, but that was what my dream was about last night!

In the past few weeks, I've only had 2 dreams that I can still remember to this day (sorry I've been a little busy and forgot to post them).

One was about shoe shopping with Bollweevil. We must have been at a Macy's type store because we had both found a pair of shoes we liked but there was a sign telling us that if we got one more pair, we'd save money so we went shopping for another pair of shoes. I think we settled on a pair of blue wedges although I don't know how the both of us were going to share one pair of shoes.
                                                 
Another dream was...I was in the backyard of a big house and the backyard was quite expansive. For some reason, in this dream I think I was a child - maybe around 10 years old or so. Apparently, my brother had just died and I was trying to think of a way to memorialize him. I made this plan to build this dirt/flower/stone type contraption in a fire place that was already in the backyard so I asked some adult (I can't think of who it was) to take me to a Lowe's to get some dirt. I remember we went to Lowe's and got the dirt. Then I went back to the fireplace in the backyard. You know what it looked like? Picture a square box. Now take off the top and the panel that would be facing you. So now you have a box with a bottom and 3 sides. That's what it looked like. It was made out of gray stone. I had another panel of gray stone that I stuck vertically right in the middle of the fireplace and then on the two sides of my panel, I filled it in with dirt to keep the middle panel in place. I don't even think I did anything with flowers but I remember looking at this "creation" and feeling how proud I was that I made it and that I had honored my brother.

Last night's dream....Padawan and I were moving to North Carolina because I had gotten a teaching job down there. I remember we were looking at houses with a realtor and they were some nice houses. For some reason, we knew, we could get "more house for our money" down there. Then the realtor showed us one house that cost $55,000 and it was super tiny and we both said that one wouldn't do. Then I told Padawan that I had to leave because I had to go check out the new school I was going to be working at. I get there, and head in to an office. I remember there were lots of staff members in there - maybe having lunch or a party even. I chit chatted with them and they kept telling me how nice I was. Then, the Principal called me into his office and told me that because everyone liked me so much, they weren't going to just make me a teacher. They were offering me the job of Vice Principal, which I took.  Then...I remember sitting in my new office, working. I was thinking I was going to be there until 5:00 and I was thinking that it was going to take me forever to get home and cook dinner for Padawan but my Principal left at 2:00 so I thought "Well if he's leaving, then I'm leaving" and I was driving to our new home thinking "these hours might not be so bad after all."

I probably had the teaching dream last night because today I have another interview for a teaching job. I probably dreamt about the driving and the moving because this district is a little haul from our house so we would probably have to move. I don't know about the North Carolina part though. Either way, maybe it's a premonition that I'll get the job?

Breakfast Buddies

Last night's dream ONCE AGAIN took place at my childhood home. No lions this time though!

In this dream, my old college friends, JZ & CZ had bought the house and were living in it with their 2 children (Although they are married, they don't have children...although they are expecting one). I'm Facebook friends with them both still, although I don't really talk to them and I haven't seen them in years so I don't know why they made a dream appearance last night. CZ was upstairs doing something - I want to say some kind of carpentry project. JZ was in the kitchen trying to make breakfast for the two kids (who were in the other room) but JZ had one broken arm with a cast going almost up to her shoulder so she needed my assistance bringing the dishes to the kids.

I think I had a dream about breakfast because I had been thinking about trying something new for breakfast today and I was excited about it. I'm a dork, I know.

Dream Round-Up

So....life has been just a little bit cRaaZYyyyyy so I haven't been as good about updating. Things are settling down now though and boy do I have some weird dreams to tell you about!

So for my "sun" dream...

It all started off when I was sitting in a little tiny office all by myself. I was sitting at a desk and I was checking my email. I kept waiting for an email from the secretary telling me who was out for the day. She always sent it first thing in the morning and I hadn't gotten it yet so I kept checking my email. (This is something that really does happen where I work although I don't have an office). I still wasn't getting anything so I figured that must mean if she wasn't at work, nobody must be, so I left for the day. When I was outside, people were running around so I asked them why no one was working and it was because.....(get ready for it)......the sun was supposed to turn off that day. Yep, the sun was supposed to turn off. Like a light switch. I went home and opened my pantry door, which was already filled with several months' supplies of food.

That was all I remember. No idea if the sun was ever going to flip back on or not...

My "ocean" dream...

I'm not exactly sure if it took place in the ocean or not but if not an ocean, definitely a big lake with very deep water and this picture is almost exactly what it looked like where there was a swimming contest. I wasn't even in this dream, but yet I was dreaming about other people having this swimming contest. There was a large group of people in the water, probably about 40. They weren't really swimming so much as they were treading water. The people seemed to be split up into 2 groups of 20, separated a little bit, but both by rock outcroppings. On at least one of the rocks, there was definitely a person standing there with a stopwatch, giving directions to the "swimmers." At one point, my "movie" switched gears to go below the water. I watched a man dive down to try to touch "the bottom" although (here's an interesting twist...) he had a mouthful of Scope. Like the mouthwash. He was also holding the empty bottle of Scope while he was diving. (I don't even use Scope so I don't know where that came from).



My "painting" dream...

This one I was in. It was kind of like HGTV's show Design Star (which I used to watch but I haven't seen it in forever). I was with a group of people and we were in a big abandoned factory. We were each given a "room" to design and we were told that the judges would be coming by later to check our work. My room was long and rectangular with super high ceilings. I remember at first I couldn't decide what to do with it. Then, all of a sudden I'm on a ladder, painting. I painted the 2 long walls powder blue and the 2 short walls on the ends of the room burgundy. I had also set my room up with some furntiure. I don't know where it came from or how I put it there but it was just there as I painted. Design-wise it was very poor. The room looked very sparse but I was out of time because the judges were coming. Then, I was in a group of people as we accompanied the judges to every room and my sister was in the group with me. We went to one room that was set up like a dining room and was very tasteful. We then went to another room (although I don't know how it was designed) because I was distracted by a shoe rack on the side near us that had a cute pair of shoes on it. I pointed it out to my sister. She reminded me that we had a plane to catch (????) but that if I was quick, I could take the cute shoes without anyone realizing it. I think I said something along the lines of that's not a nice thing to do....but she assured me that they were just used as a design prop so I snuck them in my bag, then hurried onto the airplane, buckled my seatbelt, and woke up...

My "lion" dream...

So this dream took place at my old childhood home. I was there with all of my cousins and aunts and uncles. I had gone outside and was talking to a woman on the far side of the pool (which is interesting because as a kid - we never played on that side of the pool because it backed up to the woods). Before we knew it, there was a male and female lion trying to attack us (moreso the male lion though). Out of nowhere, there was a neighbor lady there with 2 young daughters and she ran and locked the three of them into the shed we had by the pool. I debated rather to run into the shed with them or if I could make it back to the front door (peeps...the shed was a lot closer to the pool than the front door was). I decided I could probably outrun the lions to the door (HAHAHAHA) and I would be safer in the house than in the shed so I made a run for it and made it! Once I was inside and out of breath, my Dad was there and was asking me what happened. I told him that there were 2 "mountain lions" in our yard. He asked me what kind of mane it had and was I sure that it was a "mountain lion" or some other kind of lion. I think I got kind of hysterical and said "What does it matter? There are LIONS in our yard!" and that's when I woke up.

Even though the attempted lion-attack was scary in my dream, I didn't feel like it was a nightmare. My heart was racing a little bit but I was able to fall right back asleep. I find this interesting though because almost exactly 6 months ago, I had this dream...which took place at this same house and also starred lions, only in that case...the lions were Grandpa N and Grandma A. Strange.

College in Winter

My brain has been very busy at night this past week. I was having a conversation about this with my friend Roxie yesterday. My life has been very stressful this past week, yet my dreams have been fun-filled and super enjoyable. Her life has been hunky-dory lately and she continues to have bad dreams. Except for very rarely when I was a child, I really don't have bad dreams. I wonder why some people do and others don't. Either way, I told Roxie that my dreams have probably been so crazy and busy this past week because my brain has been trying to heal itself emotionally. I think it's working :-)

Three nights ago...

I had a dream that took place at my Alma Mater. I was there with my Boss (in real life). Together, she and I were designing and implementing the Winter Olympics. Yes, that's right. The Winter Olympics. At my teeny, tiny Alma Mater. We had blueprints and we were looking at them and determining where each event was going to take place. Then, we walked over to a spot where there was a giant, roller-coasted sized ice-luge set up. Boss was saying that we really should test it out to make sure athletes wouldn't get hurt on it so I told her I would be the guinea-pig. I went and got a sled and all my snow gear on and then I went ice-luging (is that a word?)

Two nights ago...

I once again had a dream that I was at my Alma Mater. Rather than being outside like in the previous dream, this one seemed to take place more in the academic/classroom buildings. I remember I kept looking at a wall (you know - where people posts flyers and ads) although I think I was looking at a schedule. I remember I was holding a lot of things in my arms and I knew I was very busy (sounds about right for my life right now!). A dark-haired guy came up to me (seemingly one of my college-mates) and said something to me like "oh you're back again? I'm so glad. I wanted to ask you out before but then we left and I never had the opportunity" (kind of implying I was back at college for round 2). I told him it was a sweet, appreciated compliment, but that I was seeing someone else.

One night ago...

This dream did not take place at college but rather...what seemed kind of like an abandoned office-type factory (I know, that seems like an oxymoron). I remember pulling into the parking lot and it was night time and very dark outside. I parked next to a truck and we were both parked in front of a retaining wall (and just beyond that was a grassy hill with a few trees). The parking lot was lit with street lamps. I was there to do something (although what that was, I'm not sure of now). I entered the building and roamed the halls for a little bit, since I was unsure of where the room I needed was. The halls were white-walled (maybe white bricks?) and the floor was a shiny, grey cement. Oh, and the halls were very, very wide. They were well-lit but very much devoid of anything else. Some of the doors I passed were labeled with what was inside. I passed only one door that was open. It was a large gymnasium and inside, there was a man with probably about 30 kids around him. They were all throwing bouncy balls (and maybe beach balls) up in the air and blasting some music. It looked like they were having a grand old time!

That's all I remember. If I ever ended up in a room or found out what I was doing there, I'm not sure!

Bicycling for Pie

So two nights ago...

I had a dream that I was living in a house down the street from my Mom. We were literally on the same street but it seemed really far away. She kept calling me on the phone to come over and visit her for dinner sometime but I kept saying it would be too far to bicycle (since apparently cars didn't exist in my dream). One night (apparently this dreamed spanned over a week or so) I decided to surprise her and bike on over unannounced. I remember it was 7:00 at night, and it was dark. My "Aunt I" was there with my Mom. They had already had dinner but they were still having pie (I believe it was apple pie). So I stayed for some pie and then I biked back to my house.

I probably dreamt about "Aunt I" because she's coming to town this week for a family event. At some point this week, I was talking to a friend about how it would be fun to ride bicycles (even though I don't have one). As for apple pie, I haven't seen any of that lately or talked about it....I guess I was feeling patriotic??

Better Days

You know the saying "When God closes a door, somewhere He opens a window?" Well....I'm sorry if anyone out there reading this is super religious but sometimes I think "When God closes a door, sometimes He'll deadbolt it just to tick you off." For a little background:


Here in my life in upstate NY there are different seasons than what you might experience where you live. We have:

• approximately 4 weeks of "Beautiful Fall"
• approximately 4 weeks of "It's Winter Even Though the Calendar Says It's Still Fall" Fall
• approximately 6 months of "Hell Hath Frozen Over And You'll Never Feel Warmth Again" Winter
• approximately 2 months of "I Refuse to Let Go of Winter" Spring
• approximately 2 months of "It's So Unbelievably Hot and Humid, You'll Wish It Were Winter" Summer

Sprinkled betwixt the seasons of "I Refuse to Let Go of Winter" Spring and "It's So Unbelievably Hot and Humid, You'll Wish It Were Winter" Summer, is the secret season. The season seemingly only I get to experience year after year after year, without end.

Interview Season

I feel as though I had a particularly bad interview yesterday. I was pretty bummed about it (and still am), which is why I found last night's dream so interesting (I love the human psyche!)

I was in a big conference-like room. (For anyone that went to Middle School with me, it kinda reminded me of the "Squeaky Chair Room.") I was there with a couple of little kids - one of whom I was supposed to be tutoring. She is a real child and is actually one of the kids I work with at my current job. I was tutoring her, and she wasn't "getting it." She started to cry and she was very upset that "it's just too hard" and "she's never gonna get it." I, trying to soothe her, told her that "It's OK. We all have bad days. And we all have good days. Today is over and tomorrow is going to be a good day, okay?" And then literally as soon as that was said, I opened my eyes and woke up.

Way to give yourself a pep-talk, brain! Here's to a better day today! Cheers! *clink* (don't worry - I know it's 7:30 am. It's just my coffee mug!)

Grandparents' House and their Clowny Neighbors

I know I haven't posted in a while and it's mostly because I have been exploring some new hobbies that have kept me VERY busy. But I have decided that I do still want to keep track of my dreams so that later in life, I can look back on them.

So last nights' dream was about my Grandpa N and Grandma A's house. Granted, because it was a dream - it didn't really look exactly how their house used to look but some features were the same. So the basis of this dream was that Padawan and I were looking at it with a realtor. I remember we were upstairs in the "Master Bedroom" which had a red carpet, red velvet-paneled walls  that went 3/4 of the way up the wall, and the only furniture was one single bed with a white cover with red, orange, and pink flowers on it. I remember thinking the red velvet was hideous but that Padawan and I could have fixed it. Our realtor suggested we go look around at the rest of the house so we left that room, but because I guess you're omnipresent in your dreams, I still knew what was going on in that room. All of a sudden our realtor was in the room with a teenage boy. She was giving him a speech about how "now that he was 18, he was going to understand what it meant to be a man." So then, the boy/man leaned downed and kissed her and then even though I didn't "witness" it in my dream, I knew they were getting it on.

At that point in time, I was in a yellow room that was facing the road and looking out over the maple tree in the front yard. The sunlight coming in through the window was really bright and I remember thinking in my dream that it was the most beautiful room I had ever seen in my life. I remember deciding I would repaint it (just because it was so old) but that I would definitely keep it that pale yellow color that it was. At that moment (why? I don't know!) a little boy (probably around 4-6 years old) walks into the room. I'm suddenly aware that I'm wearing a blue silk nightgown, but I don't feel uncomfortable. I say "hello" to the boy, but my voice goes up like when you pick up the phone because you don't know who it is. He runs back out of the room and Padawan comes in. He agrees that it is an awesomely beautiful room. We go to inspect the closet and there's a little chute on the side of the closet that goes up the attic (I don't know why). I shine a flashlight that I magically have in my hands up this chute and illuminate all the dust and I remember thinking "well that's gonna be difficult to vacuum."

In the next scene, we're all downstairs and I go out into the yard to investigate. I was about to go around to the side of the house to the use the "side bathroom" (????!?!?!) but as I'm walking around, I see two men across the street taking out the garbage. Knowing that my grandparents' house is in a bad part of town (it was in real life), I run back into the house and make sure the door is locked. Then, I'm talking to a man I think but it's not Padawan. Get this - I'm asking him if the men across the street are CLOWNS because I got a brief look at them as I was running back inside and I detected clown makeup on their face but it was in muted orange colors so it didn't look prominent enough or colorful enough to distinguish them as clowns. The man I was talking to assured me that indeed, the neighbor men were clowns and that made me feel all better about the neighborhood (because I'm sure there are no clowns with criminal records right?).

I go back to exploring the house and this time I'm alone. I remember looking at objects (although I don't remember what they were specifically) and getting all teared up remembering the "hey days" of my grandparents' house.

There were definitely a lot of awesome memories in that house! And I definitely would never buy it in a million years because of the "clowns" that live across the street! ;-)

Celebrate One More Time

So it was determined that I indeed did have pneumonia. I'm not gonna lie - Wednesday and Thursday were pretty craptastic. Wednesday my lungs decided that they no longer wanted to be inside my body and were trying to exit via my throat through severe spastic episodes. But by then, I had been diagnosed and had the good ol' drugs - antibiotics and steroids. Yes! I slept like absolute shit that night and on Thursday morning, I woke up literally feeling like someone had used my mid-section and chest as their personal punching bag for apparently the last 800 days. It hurt to breathe, talk, move, walk, you name it. Coughing had me ready to die because of all the muscles it involuntarily moved. And apparently you can't cough without using your mid-section muscles. I tried. I spent the entire morning on the couch with a heating pad on various parts of my body which helped somewhat. I had also started all the drugs, which by 3:00 left me also feeling nauseous, without appetite, and thinking that my skull was going to split into two. The headache was far worse than even the muscle pain. I read all the drugs pamphlets (which said headaches were a possible side effect) and it also told me I couldn't take lots of my normal painkillers, such as Ibuprofen. So I lay in the fetal position, clutching my head so that it didn't in fact split into two pieces. I called the Dr by 4:30 - closed. Of course. So then I called the pharmacist. Besides taking my lovely drugs, I could also return to my lovely diet of liquid NyQuil. The problem with NyQuil is...you can't take it until bedtime (or shouldn't at least). So I called Padawan before he got home and asked him to pick me up some ice packs (shockingly, we didn't own any before Thursday). He brought those home and I used them repeatedly until 9:00, when I couldn't take it anymore and guzzled my NyQuil. Because God must have felt some sympathy for me, I slept through the whole night and woke up feeling remarkably better (not completely - I was back to my pre-Wednesday stage but that was much better!) I was feeling so much better that I decided to go to work (no kiddos that day, just meetings all day so I figured sitting in a chair all day wouldn't exert me too much).  I was still feeling decently enough that I released Padawan to a play date for a few hours. I didn't even bother taking NyQuil last night because I had been coughing so intermittently last night that I figured I would probably get a decent night's rest without over-dosing myself and I did! Until this morning.....when Padawan's alarm went off at 7:15 and the SECOND my eyelids opened, the skull-cracking headache was back. As was the disgustingly phlegmy cough. Awesome. So by 7:30, I had broken out the ice pack again. I laid there for a good 15 minutes but was then bored and figured it was gonna be a mighty long day if I was gonna have to hold an ice pack on my head all day. So I took the sash from my robe and tied that sucker right to my head. I now have a hands-free ice pack!

I'm slightly pissed that I'm feeling worse again because it's Saturday and I LOVE Saturdays because it's a "me" day. Padawan was going to have breakfast with his parents, then was gonna take a look at taxes, then he said he had to help his brother Billie. He apparently got his finger or hand caught yesterday on a conveyor belt, had to go to the ER, and it turns out he might need surgery to fix a tendon in his finger. He needs to pick up his truck from work because someone else drove him to the hospital. Their dad offered to help him but Billie flat-out refused because he doesn't want their parents knowing he smokes (apparently there's cigarettes in the car). Anyone who is within 5 feet of Billie or has ever been to his house KNOWS he smokes. Everything he has reeks of smoke. His parents already know he smokes but they don't say anything unless they see the physical proof, and then they lay into him. Whatever. It's all messed up. I wonder how long Billie will have to be out of work for this injury (and how he even got his hand caught in the first place).

Today is my wonderful Mom's birthday. I was kinda planning before to maybe go over the house, bring her a lovely cake or cupcakes I made and give her gift. Well all this week I've felt way too crappy to cook ANY food, let alone bake something creative and pretty. And I haven't even gotten her gift yet (bad daughter), although I do know what I want to get her. Even if I had all that ready though, I guess it's better if I wait until I'm better so 1) I don't infect everyone there and 2) I don't make myself worse by over-exerting myself.

I think because of what I heard about Billie yesterday, he made another dream appearance...

My mom was planning on throwing me a birthday party (ironic since today is HER birthday, not mine). She called Billie, who offered to host it at his house. In my dream, I had never been to Billie's house before so we went to go inspect it. When we entered, there was a petite Asian woman sitting on the couch. I introduced myself and said "Oh, you must be Julie" (apparently that was Billie's girlfriend's name in my dream, even though that's not in her name in real life). She shook my hand and explained that she was not this "Julie" person but was in fact Billie's ex-wife (who he was also currently dating) and she had no idea who this "Julie" person was.  Non-Julie gave us a tour of Billie's house - which looked much like his real life house (last time I saw it) - very messy, dirty, bachelor-like. Then, we went down to the basement where there was a finished room. It was in warm  red tones, was nicely decorated, and even had a Christmas tree up. I remember I called Billie to tell him that I was so proud of him for having one decent room in his house. Then, non-Julie took us outside where we ran into Billie's dog, Woo. Except in the dream, he wasn't his normal black color - he was a mix of light brown/grey. At first we were both afraid of him in the dream because he looked mean but once we got up close, he was just as lovable as in real life. I remember my Mom concluding that this would be a fine place for the birthday party and that was it!

Alright, I'm gonna go lay down - for the 14th day in a row...and try to feel better!

Care to Dance at Softball Practice?

Holy smokes it's February already! And time has become mumblejumbled because I thought I hadn't posted here in 3 weeks when really it was just since Jan 23rd. Which is still way too long. But I can explain my absence! Back on Jan 5th, I posted about how I felt like a cold was coming on but it hadn't really hit yet. Well...it hit alright. Jan 21st I started feeling way more "off." By the next day and for a few days after, my throat became sore (but not to the point of where I thought I had strep - which I have often enough) so I didn't go to the doctor. Then the sore throat went away and I could tell it settled down into my lungs because I started coughing more for a few days. Then that took an upswing for about a day or two before this past weekend when it took a turn for the worse again and the coughing got worse. I know you wanted to know this but I have coughed up some crap that is just soooooooooooo disgusting (and how sexy do you feel when you're hacking up loogies in front of your spouse?!). Since this past Monday, I have continually felt like my lungs are being seized by coughing fits (which also makes my tatas hurt). What's weird though is that apart from the absolutely horrendous, disgusting-sounding coughing fits, I feel pretty fine. Maybe a little more tired than usual but I don't feel "sick." And even though I have been on a constant diet of Mucinex, my asthma inhaler, and NyQuil...it has not helped enough and today I buckled. Today I called in sick and made a doctor's appointment. I know I'm being judged right now. One of my coworkers told me she thinks I have walking pneumonia (which I've had before and this does not feel like that although for all I know it could be). What I hate most about the doctor is having to shell out money for them to tell me to do what I've already been doing - rest and take Mucinex (I think my doctor's salary is sponsored by Mucinex). I'm not leaving there today without SOME type of different medication. The worst feeling is not even the disgusting loogies, or the horrible coughing fits, but just the feeling that I can't take deep breaths and that my lungs are being "squeezed" - that does need to be fixed pronto. But if I know them (and I do because I go to the doctor at least 2-3 times a year with illnesses), they'll put me on a nebulizer for 5 minutes (which will help for the time being and then when that wears off, I'm right back to where I was) and then they'll send me home. Darn it, I'm going to get some help today!

So, on to more important matters. My dreams have been mightily scarce lately but I think that's because I've been in a self-induced NyQuil coma more nights than not in the past 10 days (but hey - it's better than being woken up by those coughing fits!) There have been some doozies, such as the night that I played "matchmaker" and hooked up George Clooney with a male Orange Julius worker. George was shy and didn't know how to introduce himself to the worker but I encouraged him to "go for it" and they lived happily ever after (you heard it here first!) There was also the one where Mom was wrapping tin foil around Bollweevil's head (and I'm not sure why). But the best one, was this past Monday night.

I was telling Padawan in my dream that I needed to invest in some new hobbies. (This isn't surprising. I would like some new hobbies as I have a lot of time on my hands). I informed him that I would be joining a softball league and also taking dance classes. Then, I was in a locker room looking at my new softball uniform. There were a lot of other girls in there with me and we were all discussing our softball try-outs (I thought mine had gone very well). I kept looking at the time and thinking how I wasn't going to make it to my dance lesson in time so I hurried out of my locker room and to the lesson. Once there, the male dance teacher put me in a chintzy black dress and sat me down to do my makeup (Why would I need makeup for dance lessons? I remember thinking in my dream that it was going to be weird to go home after my dance lesson with this makeup on and wondering what Padawan would think). He put dark, dark shadow on my eyelids, glued false lashes on, and smeared on a dark red lipstick. Then.....and trust me, I know how weird this sounds but I'm just tellin' it like it is.....he kinda did a "chest bump" of encouragement to me. Only it wasn't a chest bump. It was his pelvic area bumping into my butt but was done in the same fashion as a "chest bump." He said it was to get me in the right frame of mind for my dance lesson. And then I was released to go to my dance lesson with my dance partner (a different guy), where there was no butt bumping of any kind. And I remember coming back home, feeling tired from all my hobbies that day.

Alright, I am off to lay on my couch in a prone position while not moving (holding still seems to ward off the coughing fits). I get to be lazy all day today until this afternoon, when I have my appointment. We'll see what it brings!

Shop 'til you drop

So last night's dream was sort of story-like, but was also sort of piecemeal. I'm gonna go ahead and attribute that to the fact that I think some girls at work have shared their germs with me so last night I was probably not in the right frame of mind.


It started out with shopping. I was in some sort of a store (definitely a boutique and not a department store). I was just browsing but they had a lot of good sales so I picked up a few dresses. Then, I decided to go to my "parent's house." When I arrived, I was hanging out with some other girl (unknown) in a parking lot (which was supposed to be the driveway). We were talking about those girls who wear itty bitty bikinis and walk around all slowly while holding a sign. We were saying how we could do a much better job than them and before you know it, I was in a little red bikini and I was laying on the hood of some car. Now, in my dream..I thought I was being all sexy like the sign girls but in reality, I was laying on my back with my head down by the hood of the car and my legs propped up on the windshield (I guess if someone was driving they'd have a primo view of my butt). Then, all of a sudden the other girl isn't there, I'm not wearing a bikini anymore, but I am holding my shopping bag and I go in the house (it's almost as if my brain was like "oh yeah! That's what I was thinking about!") My Mom and Bollweevil are there as well as a third lady (who I believe is African American). My Mom and sister see my bag and get all excited because they had been shopping at the same exact store today! They wanted to see what I got so I took everything out and showed them (2 out of the three dresses were white/off-white. The off-white one was covered down the front in pearls and crystals in a very tacky manner). My family was all impressed and once they saw what I paid, wanted to know how I got such a good deal because they could only afford to buy one thing each. I told them I had a coupon and I would be more than willing to share (even though when I was at the store, I definitely bought the dresses off of clearance racks, so I don't know why I said I had a coupon). Then, I heard noises coming from the basement so I asked what that was. The African American lady said "Oh, that's my son. He's playing video games." I remember in the dream I was just like "oh.....??" because my Mom doesn't have an African American woman-friend, let alone one who has a son so I wasn't sure who this woman was. And I never found out because it either ended or I woke up!

Blowing Every Which Way

In last night's dream, I was in a very large stone building (kind of castle-like) and at first it appeared to be a school. I appeared to be there to work (teach) but then I walked up a large, wide flight of stone steps and this floor I was on was a hospital ward. All of a sudden, I was in a hospital bed. I was wearing the white robe with the blue triangles on it and had a thin, white sheet covering me. I remember I had an IV going into my arm. Then, a doctor came up to me and handed me a red balloon and told me that if I was going to get any better, I would need to continuously blow up this balloon so I sat there by myself, blowing in the red balloon, letting it deflate, then blowing it up again.

Then, I was back on the bottom landing of the stone steps and I was standing with my friend Halene and we were just conversing as if this stone castle-like building was a school. There were tons of people walking all around us. Suddenly, I pointed out that there was a funnel cloud that had just formed a tornado and it was headed our way (as we could see it through the floor-to-ceiling window wall opposite of us). It was a skinny little thing of a tornado, not too scary looking. Everyone else ran to hide but Halene and I decided there wasn't enough time to run anywhere and it didn't look so bad so we simply "hit the deck" and covered our heads. The window broke, and little tiny glass bits flew everywhere but it felt more like a gentle breeze blew over us. We stood up, continued our conversation, and walked down the next flight of stairs.

Have cake and eat it too!

So I am officially 30 today! I am having a very low-key 30th. We had craptastic snow the last two days but today has actually been quite sunny and beautiful (as beautiful as it can be for a cold winter day). Padawan and I went out to breakfast at Dunkin Donuts. Since then, I've been watching guilty pleasures (such as Teen Mom) while he has been cleaning the apartment (and refusing to let me help, even when I offered). Right now he is off grocery shopping (because again - he knows I despise it). What's funny is that before he went to the grocery store, he asked me if he should buy me a cake for my birthday. In the almost 4 years that we've been together, he's not once bought me a cake for anything. We've bought cake just because we felt like it, and I've certainly made cakes but he's never gotten me a cake, let alone a birthday cake. Did he know what I was dreaming about last night???

Last night's dream didn't make much sense story-wise, but I know it's main character was cake. I was at my friend Hattie's house (although it wasn't her real house now - in fact, it resembled my Grandpa N and Grandma A's old house). I opened up about 3 refridgerators and in each one was a cake. I remember that one of them (the one I remember most clearly) was a sheet cake and the actual "cake" material was a deep rosy-pink. I don't remember if it had any decorations or candles on top but I do remember that it was eaten by about half. 

Like I said - not much to it, but I know there was lots of cake!

We'll see what kind of cake Padawan brings home. Tonight the laid-back birthday continues. We'll probably get take out from one of our favorite restaurants - P.F. Chang's (or if we're feeling brave enough for the crowds maybe we'll go there). Then, we'll probably watch a movie and enjoy my cake. I know it's not a crazy, party-filled birthday but it's exactly what I want and I love it! :-)

Ol' Southener

Well it's been a super busy week! Which is odd, because in this last year, with my super lazy job, I don't really have busy weeks anymore. But this week, I had doctor appointments, an interview for a job (which I didn't get....shocker), and all that lead up to my birthday this weekend (you know - a girl's gotta go out for all her free dinners and drinks!).

Tangent: It's my last day of being in my 20's today *quietly sobs*. Yeah right! I'm not one of those people lamenting that my 20's are gone. Maybe because I was never a wild child to begin with but I'm very much looking forward to what my 30's have in store for me!

So anyways...busy week...and I slacked on posting some of my dreams, which I'm a little ashamed of. Including the one last weekend where I was working in a restaurant and was all kinds of frustrated because I couldn't make an omelet correctly. (Because you know...if you don't make an omelet correctly....you're just having a rough go in life!) Admittedly, I also had a few dreamless nights this past week (which is very unusual for me). I was very tired this week though (Gawd, those 30's are creeping up on me already!). Maybe I was too tired to dream!

Which wouldn't make much sense because last night I was EXHAUSTED by the time I went to bed and I had big, long dream. So big and long in fact that even when I got up at 5:00 to pee (dammit, 30!!!!) and went back to bed, I still continued the same dream! How often does that happen, huh?

Now, be forewarned. This dream also places a large emphasis on houses (I don't know what the hell my brain is up to lately). I could have understood it if I had a rash of house-dreams last year, when we had cable and I watched HGTV almost exclusively but we don't anymore and I don't watch HGTV ever anymore *really sobs* Maybe I'm in HGTV withdrawal?!?!?! Anywho, here was my 2nd-to-last 20's dream:

I was driving "out west" only really I was going somewhere like Missouri or Alabama or Mississippi. Stop calling my technicalities! It's ever so slightly in the westward direction but indeed I was driving "out west." I remember my car (I believe a station wagon) was packed with lots of things so apparently, I was going there to stay. When I arrived, there were quite a few women in the house although I don't know who these women were. All of a sudden, I was on the 2nd floor, looking out a window with some other girl/woman and we were admiring the vast sky. It was a cloudy day. The clouds didn't look too ominous but I hurriedly told the girl that I was getting the hell outta dodge because "Them there be tornader clouds!" (ok I didn't say it like that) I don't think I ever went and hid anywhere, but the clouds did change a few colors of brownish/greenish but no tornado (or tornader) ever did come. Fast forward in my dream, and suddenly the girls/ladies of the house and I are painting it - getting the house sell-worthy. I was in the kitchen, helping them paint. We went with mostly white sprinkled with splashes of super-loud neon lime green. And then while we were still painting, another woman (with a blonde bouffant, a cardigan tied around her shoulders and a purse over her arm) came in to see the house. It was my job to show her the upstairs so up we went. We got to one of the bedrooms and there wasn't much in the way of furniture (just a bed and one dresser) but on top of the dresser there were several photo frames (apparently, my dream-girls didn't watch HGTV and learn about staging and de-personalizing your house!) Interestingly, all the pictures are of women as well. There are two pictures of myself and Bollweevil although in one picture there's two other women with us and I don't know who they are. The bouffanted woman bends over to closely inspect one of the photos and it's me holding a baby girl (even though I don't remember there being a baby in the house). She seems to be acting all judgey-judgerson about it and I was all "What?! Are you offended that I have a child?" That promptly led to the bouffanted woman leaving the house.

Tangent: This is the 2nd dream in the past year that I've had a dream about having a baby. Both times it was a girl and she looks the same exact way. She's gotta chubby little cheeks (then again, don't they all?) but she has black hair (I have red, Padawan has brown/black) and lighter colored eyes (either blue, green, or lighter brown). I find this completely freaky. If it happened just once, that's one thing but to see the SAME baby in TWO dreams?! And no it doesn't mean I'm pregnant because there are things lined up specifically so there is no possible way I'm pregnant right now (or was when I had the other dream). All I know is that if we ever have children and it's a girl and it looks like my dream baby, I'm gonna be freaked out. And demand that I win like $10 billion for correctly predicting what my child will look like.

Painting Houses

I've been dreaming a lot about houses and moving lately and the colors of my residences have been very prominent and important in my dreams lately. I'm not sure why that is!

Last night, Padawan and I were looking for a house. We seem to be looking in the old neighborhood my Grandpa N and Grandma A used to live. As it was/is sort of a "ghetto" area, I was very concerned about the possible violence in the area. We walked past one house that had a lovely wrap around porch. In front of the main door, there was a hanging lamp that had inscribed in it something about "police investigation" (Because inscribing a lamp is so much easier than just putting up that silly caution tape!) We eventually settled on a corner house - a large 2-story home that was clearly older but had nice woodwork and "character." I had decided my first order of business would be to paint. Billy had come over to help us paint and Cheryl also made an appearance, although she didn't do/say anything. (First time dream appearances for both!) Billy started painting the main foyer area, which also seemed to be some type of sitting room. He was painting swatches of lots of different colors to see which one would look right. I was focusing on styling a living room in a different part of the house, which was done in black and white modern designs (so not my style!) and had lots of framed pictures of Padawan and I all around the room. I went to the foyer area to check on Billy and I had to yell at him because he was painting phallic symbols on our wall and thought it was humorous (I don't think this means anything - Billy would do something stupid like that in this kind of situation. That's just what he does).

I'm so glad it's the weekend! Lots of laziness planned for this weekend!

Desertion

Not much too new going on here. I returned to work this week. People's general levels of stupidity never ceases to amaze me. At the very least, it provides entertainment for me in my very, very boring job. (Note to self...need to find a new job!!!) Padawan seems to have shared a cold he had with me. Either that, or I caught something from the people at work. It doesn't feel like it's progressed into the full blown cold status yet - the one where you're miserable all the time - but it is an annoyance in it's current phase. Last night, Padawan encouraged me to take NyQuil (even though I assured him I didn't need it because I can pretty much sleep through anything) but he kept persisting so I took about one third of a normal dose. I think it caused me to have some weird dream....it was about my life but it was extremely disjointed (very unusual for my dreams!)...

Padawan had left me for some woman named Amy (that bitch!!!) He told me had had grown out of love with me and was leaving.  At another point in my dream, I found myself looking around at my furniture (not my real furniture but my dream furniture I share with Padawan) and wondering how much money I could get if I sold it. At yet another point in my dream, I saw my first boyfriend ever (The Politician - who I haven't spoken to in 14 yrs) climbing a rocky cliff in the desert. (So really my brain was just trying to dream of as many meanings of the word desert as possible). Either way, I woke up around 1:30 right after having this disjointed dream and felt incredibly sad at the thought of Padawan leaving me, especially for another woman. Thankfully, it was only a dream and I was able to drift off again! I'm definitely not taking NyQuil tonight!

Thank goodness tomorrow is Friday! I already need a few days of relaxation and hopefully kicking this cold officially in the behind! Now, I'm going to go veg and catch up on my trashy TV shows that weren't on TV for 2 weeks! Hooray for the lazy American dream!

Whale of a good time

Yesterday was a very ho-hum day. I took down all of the Christmas decorations, which never happens right after New Year's. I usually postpone this as long as possible. It's true that we might have had a Christmas wreath on our door one year until March. But yesterday I was feeling productive so I completely de-Christmased the apartment. I also did a thorough cleaning of the kitchen, did some laundry, and watched 2 or 3 episodes of 16 and pregnant as a guilty pleasure. As another guilty pleasure, I didn't get out of my pajamas all day long. So it's only fitting that I had such an interesting dream last night. It was more like a movie than about anything personal. I was not in it, nor did it have anything to do with me. It was quite entertaining though...

A "local" high school boy had been killed.....by a whale. It was all over the news. Yes, news reporters were flocking the neighborhood, covering the latest tidbit of news - broadcasting his grieving parents to televisions all over the town. It was later discovered that this news report was not factual, at least not all of it. The boy was not dead. It turns out he had faked his own death because.....he forgot to turn in a homework assignment (This just goes to show how lame I am because missing your homework is grounds for fake suicide). The part that was real....was the whale! Yes, this boy had a PET WHALE...living in his inground pool in the backyard. (Who doesn't have a full grown pet whale?) There was actually very little water in the pool, as the whale took up most of the space. His parents understood why he faked his death (????) but they made him apologize to the whale, for the whale's feelings were very hurt. And that's how Free Willy my dream ended.

Ah, my brain is so funny. As for right now, they who predict the weather are predicting a "lot" of snow for us tonight/tomorrow. Uncharacteristically, this will be the very first "real" snow of the season (and it's unseasonably late!). Naturally, everyone is acting as if this isn't New York, they've never seen snow, and the world is going to end (although if you ask my Mother, she'll tell you we have approximately 353 days left). I'm going to celebrate by watching another guilty pleasure - the return of the Bachelor! Ah cheesy, staged fake-romance, how I missed thee!

Not the pink room!!!

Happy 2012 everyone! I hope everyone out there had a fun and safe evening. Padawan and I had our typical, low-key New Year's. In the afternoon, we headed over to my parent's house. We used to do Christmas festivities with my Mom's (New York) side of the family on Christmas afternoon but now that a bunch of us cousins are grown up and married and starting to populate...it's been moved to New Year's Eve. It's funny now because when my cousins and their spouses are over...it means we have 3 vegetarians/vegans at the house and my Mom has to go out of her way to please everyone. It's in her nature. Never mind that that side of the family NEVER goes out of their way for us (not that we have any special requirements) but I know they don't/wouldn't go out of their way for us. But here was my Mom making 3 separate main dishes for lunch, just so everyone could eat. Wonder Woman. Nothing special or new to report, other than that The Vegans are expecting their 1st child. They got pregnant 2 months after getting married. I'm all about "when you have the right person, you know" (obviously, since they got married) but GEEZ give it some time to settle down and get used to being tied together legally before you start reproducing. With the exception of The Vegans (who I'm not too fond of because they are the pushy type), I get along really well with my cousins and so does Padawan. The enjoyment was short lived however. Festivities with that side of the family always last for very short periods of time. Even though they're all adults - for some reason when one of them leaves, it's like an exodus and they all leave together. Saturday's activities lasted for 90 minutes. Not even. Slightly shorter than 90 minutes. That just seems rude. Like a "Thanks for the grub! See ya!" We barely even visited. But like I said, that's that side of the family for ya!

Padawan and I stayed around for 2 more hours to hang out with my family - listened to my Mom explain how there were only 355 days until the aliens destroyed us all, had ourselves a giggle, etc. Soon, we were back home and feeling lazy! Too lazy to cook even! Padawan wanted to go to P.F. Chang's (our favorite restaurant) but being as it was New Year's AND a Saturday...that wasn't about to happen. So instead, we broke out our lazy-dinner (TGIF's pasta/chicken/broccoli frozen dinner which is surprisingly delicious). Poured ourselves a couple of glasses of wine, popped in Sherlock Holmes #1 (to prepare ourselves for #2) and settled in for a nice, quiet evening. We were in bed by 10:30! Oh we're so wild. That night, in my dreams...

I had a dream that I was moving. I don't know why or anything else behind it, but I was moving and was having a hard time finding a place to stay. At one point, I had checked out a houseboat that some snobby girls (reminiscent of the Kardashians) were living on, so I promptly ruled that out (never mind the fact that I am terrified of boats). Eventually, my friend Rick (I don't have a friend named Rick...) let me rent out a room in his ranch-style house. He showed me to my room - which was a big point of the dream. The room was bubble-gum pink. This frustrated me to no end and I couldn't get over the fact that this room was sooooooo pink. But I had no other choice, since my houseboat plan had fallen through.  Yes, I was stuck with the Barbie-pink room. I remember I moved with only a garbage-bag full of belongings but in a "few days" (several seconds later in my dream), a truck arrived to deliver the rest of my belongings -  a stainless steel refrigerator and...that's it. A fridge. We had to take out Rick's fridge and place mine in the kitchen. It was a really big fridge too, we had a difficult time getting it in there. And that was my big move.

Now granted, I'm sure I dreamt about moving since I had just recently helped Roxie move but it was still a little strange.