06/24/01
Escape From The Pet Store
All right, I finally had some more...
This dream involved some kind of class thing, an experiment or outing or some such. The way I remember it starting, it picked up somewhere in the middle and I was with a group of other students and we were getting ready to leave a lab class, to follow the teacher. I remember walking past one of those "electrical storms," those big plastic (?) balls that you put your hands over and colorful lines of electricity come up to meet your fingertips. As I passed it I brushed my fingers over it, but just briefly because those things can get warm. I think I worried a bit that my hair would get all staticky. I passed it by so it was on my left.
We filed out of the lab after the teacher but stopped in the hallway while he turned and started telling us something. It was quite detailed; he went on for a while. We just stood there in this disorganized group listening to him. There was a student near me that I remember from elementary school, her name was Tory. She stood slightly behind me and I can't remember who started it, but one of us spoke to the other, and the other replied, and it ended up so she was telling me something while I tried to listen to both her and the teacher at the same time. (I may have been observing us from outside my body at one point as I can't be sure which side of me she stood on. We seemed to be dressed in heavy clothing, puffy coats and such.) I wanted to hear what she said, yet I didn't want to be rude to the teacher (professor?). He heard her whispering to me, however, and stopped talking, then asked her something...I don't know...you know how teachers act whenever they're interrupted while talking. He wasn't rude about it, but it was kind of a warning, so we shut up. (Well, SHE shut up.) The hallway was kind of low...the ceiling I mean...and sloped downwards, white painted brick (cinder block) walls, sterile lighting, looked suitable for a hallway just outside a lab. We then went on our way.
We came to a sort of pet store inside the same building, this big strange room. I can't describe it adequately. The WHOLE ROOM was the pet store. I believe it was round. Very high walls with all sorts of stuff upon them, maybe balconies and I know that there were ladders. (More in a minute.) Everything in browns and earthtones and textures. Carpeted. Warm lighting. And lots of animals. There were birds--I remember them chirping and screeching, perhaps finches and parrots--but what I remember most of all were the lizards. In the center of the room was a sort of cage or enclosure of some sort for the...well, they looked more like iguanas, but perhaps they were supposed to be chameleons. It's like they were up on this round carpeted platform atop a pole, like something a bird would perch on. There were three of them on this platform, though there were more lizards elsewhere. They varied in size--a kind of medium-sized one, perhaps a foot long not counting the tail, a smaller one, and an even smaller one. And...they were chewing each other's skin off. Not in a bad way, mind you. They were shedding or something, and needed to get rid of the old dead skin. And so the big one was gnawing on the smaller one's back, while it gnawed on the smallest one's back. They just sat there munching on each other. It was kind of gross, but also interesting how symbiotic the relationship was. I could see patches of new skin underneath the old thick brownish skin they were chewing off and eating.
Well, now we needed to leave this "pet store." (I don't think it was a store, but I have no other name for it. Perhaps it was merely an extension of the lab?) And I was having trouble getting out of the room. Like I said, it was big and round and high, like the inside of a giant can. And there were ladders and poles and such leaning against the walls--um--wall, but they were all very crooked and rickety and such. I think most everybody else who was leaving had done so, but I couldn't seem to get to the upper level, which was where the exit to the outside was. I think Ma was there, up above; "Hold on, wait for me!" I called, not sure if she heard. I tried to go one way up some stairs or something but it was blocked. (Of course.) I tried another way; no luck. I finally decided that if I ever wanted out I had to take a ladder. *Ugh.* I'm TERRIFIED of heights and of ladders.
I found one and tried going up it, but it was difficult. It was not a normal ladder. It seemed to tilt and go every which way. And parts of it were blocked as well, so I had to hold onto parts of the wall and put my feet on precarious surfaces. I think I FINALLY made my way to the top, but it was very difficult and frightening. I don't remember exactly how I reached the top.
Now we--myself and whoever was with me--were going across tarmac to board a plane to go home. I guess I was out of state, perhaps in Georgia or Texas (where relatives live, the only other states I've visited), and now was the time to go back. I felt homesick. It was overcast outside but I can't remember if it was warm or cold. I reached the plane--it was small, but for some reason had a lot of room to move, more like the inside of a bus with some seats removed and with a black rubber floor and then red carpeting. I think the pilot was the guy who was the pilot on The Langoliers, and I also saw him just last night in Twelve Monkeys. Friendly guy. [David Morse.] But again I was having trouble getting things done on time. I had to pack my stuff and he didn't seem to be aware I wasn't finished. I had a big bag or backpack and I kept shuffling stuff around in it, putting stuff in, shoes, books, etc., not sure what I should choose to include. Once more, no memory how this got resolved, but somehow I ended up at home.
Well, now, at home, I was AGAIN digging through my stuff, near the dining room, trying to find just the right thing. I was looking for my blanket and I said so. Dad was getting angry with me because I was slow or bothering him or something. I think it was morning. I started griping back--"All one has to do is wake up in the morning for you to start an argument with them!" Then I said, "You can sit and argue with yourself all you want, I'm not getting involved anymore." I get so tired of his pointless fighting. In real life yesterday while he was working on the ceiling I heard a crash and peered out of my room. I managed to get out "Are you okay--" before he snapped, "Go back in your room and never mind!" I had been worried that he or the cat had been hurt, and when I say so all he can do is yell at me to shut up...thoughtful of him.
Anyway...in the dream, the heater came on, and it was cold in the house, so I quit my digging and arguing and went over to sit on it. I sighed. And you know what? I think I was naked!! Sitting here on the heater in broad daylight with Dad and possibly Ma around, NAKED. ! How embarrassing. Fortunately it didn't seem so in my dream, even though I eventually realized it...
A Field Trip With The Freemasons
This dream involved me traveling through the woods with some others, possibly a school outing? I feel the others were around me, behind and in front, but not beside me. I was working my way down a woodland trail and I was having trouble moving right, so as before, I was sort of pushing myself along with my hands. I seem to remember seeing this very light-colored sand/soil. I think I wanted to run at one point, but just had to push myself along faster, sometimes veering in the wrong direction, and I wondered if anybody would think I looked funny.
I came to a split, where the trail went off in two directions. I started going one way but then stopped. "Wait--what if I want to go that way?" A couple of women came up behind me and I was sort of blocking them--they had to work their way around me--and I felt sorry for holding them up even though they just kept chattering with each other and didn't pay me any mind. "No, I think I want to go THAT way," I said, and I THINK I took the trail I had originally started to take. I believe it was the one on the left. It was sunny and warm out, everything was green, and there were lots of trees around but they were a bit to the sides of the trails so the sunlight hit the path in front of me. When I had been pushing with my hands the soil had been very light, creamy colored and sandy textured, but now it was like regular soil, brownish gray and fine.
I can't remember what happened next but I ended up in a big old building in the woods along with the others. There was a big group of us--I think most of the people were now older than I was, unlike my other dream where we were all young except for the teacher--and the ones in charge were a couple of middle-aged men, not fat, and I hesitate to say chubby, but not thin either. Very smiling and friendly. May have been wearing something on their heads. The building was abandoned, windows knocked out (maybe--I never actually saw them, so maybe they weren't!--could have just been grimy), all in concrete and gray. Dim inside, with white light filtering in. Lots of rooms and hallways, very disorganized. I can't describe it adequately, but it makes me think of those dreams I have where I go into tunnels or crypts underground, which lead in every which direction, and should be dark only white light is filtering in through high windows. This building was sort of like that--seemed it should be dark, but that white light filtered in, and there were lots of strange rooms leading to who knows where. Some were cluttered with weird items; I remember specifically passing a big old bathroom on the right--it seemed kind of far away, like you'd have to proceed through several rooms to get there first--seeing this ancient tub perched against the wall, the kind of creamy-colored cinder block walls and tiled floor...I briefly wondered what it would be like to have to live in this building for a while, and having to use that tub. It was strange, but not a completely unpleasant thought; I thought it might be cool if I could stay here as long as the others were with me. Meanwhile we all kept walking, in one big group.
We stood at the end of one hallway or else in a small room cluttered with odd items, possibly old rusty metal tools--I want to say stove, as there may have been one, or a furnace/piping, but I may be mixing it up with another dream I posted, "The Lost Heir"--and I looked at the wall right beside me to see a tiny blue-glazed ceramic plate mounted there, with a Masonic symbol on it. I touched it, intrigued. I knew this building had had something to do with the Freemasons, and these older guys were Masons too. I may have said something aloud about the plate being Masonic, and I think the older guys were pleased that I recognized the sign, because they smiled at me. I liked that they did.
I think it ended somewhere around there...
2001 Dreams
HOME