03/24/01
Passing Through

Hm...last night...

I'm not certain how it started but somehow I ended up outside in my yard with a group of people. We were standing at the north side of the house, beside the side road, looking north. Something happened with the weather--perhaps there was a brief spat of a thunderstorm or something, but whatever it was, it was dramatic and got our attention. That's why we were all looking up at the northern sky. Whatever it was rapidly cleared up and the sky was full of clouds tinged by sunlight. The sun seemed to be in the east, but in my dream it was late evening. We stared up at the clouds and their tops were tinged gold; it was beautiful. They were moving a bit fast, from east to west I believe, but to me it looked as if another storm was coming on.

The people with me were all around my age; I was either the age I am now or somewhat younger, perhaps a high schooler. One of them was Giovanni Ribisi, I think his name is; he's an actor, he was in Saving Private Ryan, I believe, as well as an episode of The X-Files. (Yes, I just tried a Google search and I believe I've got that correct.) For some reason I noticed his face above all the others. A few of the people started talking about what had just happened and speculated about the weather. I think they believed it was all over, whatever it was. I knew better.

The northern sky was taking on this platinum tinge, a sort of sickly yellow. I've SEEN this before in real life, and it usually means a big storm is coming up. I remember it happening in real life one morning. The sky turned all platinum in the summer and I stood out on the porch looking up in awe. The thunder boomed in the distance, and eventually the sky changed to gray. That was when I went inside and we were hit with this MONSTER thunderstorm. It was eerie, how calm and strange looking the sky had been just several moments ago, how rapidly it had changed.

In the dream, the platinum color signaled that whatever had happened wasn't over. The clouds took on the same tinge. I interrupted the people's talking, shaking my head apprehensively and saying, "No, it's not over yet, a storm is coming, SOON." I acted quite rattled about it. The others stopped talking and looked up at the sky too. I guess they'd never noticed the platinum color it takes on right before a storm, so they weren't sure how I knew.

Well...they believed me, but I don't know if the storm ever came. The dream seemed to shift a bit; the sky began to clear but darken. It was around eight-thirty at night, but still light out--it was like a late summer evening, around nine (in real life, I mean; in the dream it was only around 8:30 and I don't think it was summer, even though it was warm and grassy and there were leaves on the trees, because it being light that late at night surprised me).

We suddenly decided to take a walk down the road. Yippee! I would REALLY enjoy that, walking down the road with this group of people. I wasn't anxious around them at all. I LIKED being with them, even if I didn't talk much. We knew we had to get going soon before it got TOO dark. So we all started off down the side road, heading east, chatting and yakking as we went, this big disorganized gaggle of us. A car came by and we had to confine ourselves to the right side of the road, but only until it was past.

The side road by my house is very short; it intersects with a longer road going north and south, and the east-west side road is a dead end. In summer in real life I ride my bike to this intersection and then north up this longer road, until I reach the end where it branches off into another road, then I turn and head back home. In my dream, we were going to go down to the end of the road and head back, just like my bike route. At least, that was what I WANTED to do.

I'll describe this part here, even though it may be out of order and I believe it happened AFTER the rest of this, as it makes more sense here. At some part of the dream we started walking through some people's yards and I seemed to get temporarily separated. Then it wasn't YARDS we were walking through, but LIVING ROOMS. I walked through one person's living room into another's. This would be INCREDIBLY rude in real life! And in the dream I knew that in a way it was supposed to be. But I was also pretending what it would be like if this were acceptable, or if the owner of the house didn't even care--now THAT would be funny! In fact, as I walked through one living room I picked up a donut or a chocolate or something and ate it, and I imagined the owner coming out and seeing me just passing through, me saying something like "Hi," and just going on my way, without him even caring. Like it was the most normal thing in the world.

As I went through this living room (I was heading west now, in the direction of my house, as I passed through the rooms), a dog came out and waddled across the room. Its fur was...well, like a dishwater blond-type color. I keep wanting to say platinum. ;) A silvery-yellowish-grayish-brownish color. At first it looked normal, a little shaggy dog (its fur was nice and glossy like a Yorkie's), but then it was INCREDIBLY FAT--I mean, this dog was shaped like an OVAL with legs--it DID waddle as it walked. "Oh my God!" I murmured when I saw this dog waddle by. Talk about overfed!! I may have petted it but I had to go on my way. This living room was very nice looking, all light colors--cream-colored walls and carpeting, some dark wooden furniture but with light upholstery, a one-story house like a ranch house. I had some trouble getting out of the room at first--it was a similar scenario to my bridge dream, where I couldn't pass on the left and I couldn't pass on the right. I tried going around on one side and there was a chair there, pushed up close to something, so I didn't want to move it and be rude. So I stepped around the dog and tried to pass on the other side and there was a phonograph table or something and if I tried to squeeze around it, I might knock it off its stand and break it! (For some reason I did NOT want to move anything to get around it, it just seemed horribly rude to do so.) So I had some trouble getting out of the room for a while...I'm not sure how I DID get out.

There also seemed to be a part where I was hopping over or almost tripping over things set up in somebody's front yard, having to watch where I stepped.

Anyway...when I was back with the group of people, we finally reached the intersection where we came to the north-south road, and intended to turn north and walk down there, then turn back and come home. (The houses we/I visited seemed to be on the other side of the road, that is, across from where we were now, still on the dead-end side road.) I was excited and wanted to keep walking because it was fun hanging out with these people!

Only...it was getting dark. VERY quickly.

I had estimated that when we left, we'd have just enough light to take the entire walk and make it home before it got too dark. We'd be stretching it but not by much. But for some reason, when we reached the intersection, it was suddenly like VERY late evening, and I wondered if we had the time at all. The others just continued talking to each other and standing there--it's like my action would determine if they'd keep walking or not, even though they didn't know this and they weren't even paying attention to me. I looked down the road, north, and tried to decide. Hey, everything was still visible--maybe we'd walk halfway and THEN come back. But even as I thought this, BAM, it was like night came on--it was almost pitch black all of a sudden. I considered walking down the road in the dark but the chances of being hit by a car were so great...it just didn't seem worth the risk.

*sigh*

With a heavy heart I decided we'd have to head back to my house, walk unfinished. We all turned back and headed west again, toward my house. The strangest thing is that I appeared to be determining the actions of the whole, yet I was apart from them in a way--like I said, aside from Giovanni Ribisi and the others looking at me and taking my warning when I talked about the storm, these people hardly even seemed to notice I existed. But for some strange reason I liked hanging out with them anyway and didn't feel completely left out like I would in real life. I don't get that at all.

One other strange thing is that this was REMARKABLY similar to my "darkness falling" dreams (the strange lighting, the abrupt darkness, being almost unable to see anything), except I didn't really see the sun itself (because of the clouds) and I didn't get that anxious feeling. I DID want to stay outside, though, in order to finish the walk, and I did feel anxious that we might get hit by a car or something. So...whether this was a new variant on an old theme or not, I'm not sure. It just didn't feel quite the same, emotionally.

I can't remember what happened when we got back to my house, but I was VERY disappointed we hadn't been able to take that walk.



2001 Dreams
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