01/31/05
Blackout!
I only remember the tail-end of this dream because it was so startling. This is the dream I had closest to when I had to wake up for good.
Basically, I think I was standing in the bathroom before the mirror, doing my hair. Probably brushing it, putting in the anti-frizz serum I use. At least I think that's what I was doing. I was looking in the mirror doing this when--all of a sudden everything just went BLACK. Poof. Just like that. "Oh great," I muttered. It was a power outage...right when I was in the middle of doing my hair. Typical!
Startled...I opened my eyes and did find myself in the dark...though it was only my bedroom. (I sleep during the day, into the evening, and my windows are covered thus my room remains dark.) I was looking right at the clock and it was ten minutes to when I was supposed to wake up (though I miscalculated it as five minutes). I grumbled to myself and shut my eyes. I knew the power most likely had NOT gone out since that was a dream, and my clock wasn't flashing...but some part of me was still confused and wondered whether it had or not, so I even ended up asking my dad after I awoke if it had. The effect was just so startling in the dream that I couldn't be sure it hadn't really happened, and simply worked its way into the dream. (I've been startled awake by power outages in the past when the white-noise machine I kept running in my room would fall silent--the silence would wake me up! But I've gotten past being startled awake by that, for the most part, since I now have a noise machine that turns itself off every so often while I sleep and I have to keep turning it back on. I do not think this had turned itself off yet when I was startled awake, so I don't think that was it.)
The overwhelming feeling in the dream was of great frustration and irritation due to the fact that I needed to do my hair, yet now there was no light or water!! I was also anxious about what had caused the blackout--an outage? Or had they shut it off for nonpayment?
This Is The LAST Time I Try 911!
Goodie, another "I-have-to-dial-911" dream! >_<
I can't recall the beginning but I was at home during the daytime with a couple or a few (or maybe even a small group of) people who were supposed to be friends of mine, mixed genders, though I have no clue who they were. It was overcast outside but nice and warm, probably summer, so I was in a good mood. We seemed to just be stopping in momentarily to do something and were standing out in the dining room near the computer.
For some reason mine or someone else's attention was drawn to the picture window in the living room (just next to the dining room) and then we all looked once whoever had spotted it first pointed it out. There was a fire burning in the field across the road. Actually, two or three fires. Wildfires, too, not controlled ones. The tall dry grass was burning in a few areas and there was even like a stand of trees or something in the middle of the field and there were flames leaping there too. Now this field is rather far away from the house, and across a highway to boot, but in the dream it seemed much closer (our view of it seemed magnified, like a zoom-in), and as we watched we then noticed another patch of flames to the left, which was a lot closer than the others, burning some trees and stuff, and it was threatening to come right onto the property!
We just stood and stared at this fire for a few moments, remarking about it, before the danger of the situation impressed itself upon us and we realized we should not be just standing here! "Oh crap, that one's coming right this way!" I exclaimed in anxiety. "We have to call 911 and then get out of here FAST!"
Oy. I HATE telephone dreams. >_<
Well...this one wasn't much different! The other people seemed to gather their things and go or else retreat somewhere, while I picked up the phone--it was in its regular place, right near the printer, on the table--and tried dialing 911. Now where I live, you have to dial the full seven digits--XXX-9911. Inconvenient, but that's the way it is. And that's how it was in the dream too. I dialed the first three digits and I'm pretty sure they were the same as in real life. Then I started on the next four numbers. I was of course having difficulty since the numbers kept changing or moving and it seemed like I kept losing focus or forgetting what I was dialing--ugh!! Plus I was in a hurry because of that fire! But I really, REALLY concentrated--and at last successfully dialed the number. EXCEPT, in my dream, the number was 4911, not 9911. I specifically remember dialing the 4. The "911" itself, I do not remember dialing; it's like my brain "skipped" over that part, but I knew I did it successfully because a 911 operator picked up and asked me what I needed.
Just my luck that the 911 operator happened to be...this sweet little old lady who seemed a little bit absentminded! "There's a fire in the field across the road from my house," I reported. "It's coming straight toward us so we need the fire department out here."
Now, I cannot recall exactly what we talked about, but for some reason there was some difficulty in communication between us. This lady didn't seem to be getting my point on something. I don't remember what. She wasn't this totally batty senile lady but she talked in that maddening sweet little old lady voice, you know, slowly and cloyingly, like she wanted to pinch my cheek or something...it's like I couldn't convince her of the severity of the situation. I also think she was showing far too much concern for me when I wasn't exactly in trouble yet--I was more worried about the property! She was probably saying things like, "Oh, you should be leaving the house now, dear! If you dawdle too long you might end up hurt! Are you going to be leaving the house...? Do you have an escape route planned...?" Etc. etc....I was getting so frustrated I wanted to pull my hair out!!
"LOOK, I'm going to be leaving the house as soon as I hang up here!" I tried to explain. "I just have to get a few things. I'm fine. But the fire is getting close and we need the fire department so the house doesn't burn down. Can you PLEASE send someone out--?"
"You really shouldn't be staying about in there, dear! You could get trapped by the fire! Bla bla bla bla..." AAGGGHH!!
I think I finally just lost my temper and flipped out on her--"I AM LEAVING THE FRIGGING HOUSE!! JUST SEND THE FIRE DEPARTMENT!!" and hung up the phone. CRIPES! I probably glanced out at the fire but I do not recall ever seeing it after that first time I looked. Now my friends were gone and had been replaced by Ma, Dad, and maybe my brother Eric. Now we were the ones getting ready to leave. I decided I had to be quick and pick the most important things to take with me just in case the fire department didn't arrive in time. And...in this dream, unlike in any of my other "fire" dreams, the items of greatest importance were computer CDs.
They were sitting at various places around the computer. The first thing I grabbed was either a CD or the "JumpDrive" (a removable storage device, the size of a keychain) which contained all my written works. That was the MOST important thing for me to save. All my hardcopies, the computer itself, could go up in flames but as long as I had my written works on this item with me, everything would be okay. Secondly came my digital photos. I found my "MyPics01" CD, which is a CD I do have in real life--it contains many folders of lots of digital images I've taken, nature shots, pets, home shots, hundreds of sunset photos, all my pictures of Gordon Turner Park and Petoskey and Ocqueoc Falls and the Forty Mile Point Lighthouse and Tahquamenon Falls...in short, all my irreplaceable photos I've taken over the years. (Well, almost all.) Again, if I had that, the computer could be destroyed but I would be fine. I snatched up that CD. I might have taken another CD which might or might not exist (I do not think it was my "WebPics01" CD, a collection of images I've saved from the Web, since that didn't seem as important as my own pictures--I was taking only the most important things, not even just grabbing up all the CDs like I would probably do in real life!). But then I knew I had to take ONE more CD with me, the second-most important one (aside from my writing, of course!)...and it was this last CD that gave me trouble.
It was the CD which contained ALL my Mackinac Island photos I have taken over the years--1992, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, and 2004! In real life I do not have these saved to a CD yet (I really have to get around to that), though the photos exist on BOTH computers we currently have. But in the dream they were saved onto their own CD and I wanted to bring that with me...but I couldn't find it!! I remember standing here in the dining room poking around at the disks while Ma and Dad asked if I was ready, and what was I doing, and I kept telling them I was coming in just a minute...where was that CD!! It seems like I FINALLY found it, though it felt like I lost it again and then maybe found it again...I THINK I finally got all the CDs I wanted, and left, since the feeling of anxiety was not so horrible as it should have been, but it was so remarkably frustrating that the other CDs had been so easy to find, yet that one had been so hard! It's like it kept moving or disappearing!
The dream either ended or shifted into "Puppy Genius" around that point.
This may have had a real-life association with the fact that in real life recently I started printing out my Mackinac photos to put in my photobox, so I can look at them when not on the computer--something I've wanted to do for a long time. The thing is there are HUNDREDS of these photos so it would take quite a while, and quite a lot of ink and paper. I had finally hit upon a method of printing which I found just PERFECT to produce great quality pictures, and went through an entire ink cartridge doing this...yet when we bought another cartridge this past weekend, and I resumed my printing...it no longer prints nearly so well! My pictures are stripy like I'm printing on automatic color mode when I'm printing on (the much more ink-expending) natural color mode! I tried realigning the cartridge twice, printing a test page, trying out a sample on different paper...nothing worked. So I broke down crying, feeling incredibly frustrated. I wasted a $32 cartridge and who knows how much expensive matte paper to print these nice photos when I can't even FINISH printing the rest at the same quality! (I have to have all my photos looking the same.) And this NEW cartridge is practically useless for my needs! Why is it so stripy and crappy looking while the previous one worked so well? This made me very angry and upset, and I finally just resolved to figure out how much Wal-Mart charges to print digital photos, and how well they do it. We'd probably save over $100 there by my calculations anyway, but still, I had wanted to do this on my own and now I have to wait until it's convenient. Stupid cartridge! :(
I don't know, but since it was the Mackinac photos I was printing, and which gave me no end of trouble (though it was truly the cartridge in my opinion which was to blame), perhaps this affected the dream, and had to do with why the Mackinac photos gave me such trouble there. I was trying to "save" them, and it wasn't working, just like my effort to "save" them (in hardcopy form) in real life wasn't working.
Puppy Genius
This dream may have been the continuation of "This Is The LAST Time I Try 911!" but I'm not sure.
This is vague. I was outside on the pavement with somebody (a friend, probably female and my age), and it was sunny and warm outside, like summer. We were just goofing around and stuff. There was this CUTE, ADORABLE little puppy out there with us, a little furry mix like a cockapoo or something...so completely adorable. It looked sleepy and kind of bumbled around as if not quite awake yet. Awwww!!
At some point I went over near Pepper's (deceased cat) grave, beside the back door, and glanced down at it to see some sort of creature making itself a cocoon or something!! It was a HUGE, HUGE hairy caterpillar--just GIGANTIC in size, very fat around, like the size of a croissant maybe! With big protruding tufts of LONG black spiky hairs sticking out of its body! AIEE THIS THING WAS HUGE! And it looked even worse in that humongo milky-white cocoon it was building right atop Pepper's grave! Now normally caterpillars, especially the hairy ones, don't bother me--but the cocoon, and the size of this thing, and the place it was building it, REALLY freaked me out in this dream! I started hopping around and whimpering in panic. "Oh, oh, oh, caterpillar, caterpillar!! It's on Pepper's grave! Get it off, get it off!!" I was being such a total wuss, but EEWWW!
My friend just seemed to be watching me like an idiot. >_< I stopped near the little puppy, brought it over toward the grave, and pointed at the cocoon-encased caterpillar (it's like it was still in the process of spinning it). "See the caterpillar, doggy?" I exclaimed in this really harried voice. "Get the caterpillar off Pepper's grave like a good doggy!" And I scurried back, away from the ugly thing. Ew!!
Well...what do you know? But that little bitty puppy bumbled toward Pepper's grave, bent its head down, gently grasped the gigantic caterpillar in its teeth, and picked it up! It turned and carried the offending insect away from the site and deposited it elsewhere! (I can't recall what became of the cocoon if it didn't come with the caterpillar; but it didn't remain on the grave. Maybe the dog got it secondly and placed it with the caterpillar.) My friend and I watched this in surprise as the puppy set the insect down, unharmed, and then sat down itself, still looking sleepy. I could hardly believe it. That dog had understood my command PERFECTLY, and had obeyed!
I turned to my friend and started pointing, my mouth moving in excitement. "Did you SEE that?" I cried. "He just picked it up and carried it away--just like I told him! It's like he can understand me perfectly!" The fact that the dog had not injured the insect, had merely moved it elsewhere, also greatly impressed me--for I had not really wanted the caterpillar hurt or killed, I just thought it was creepy looking, plus I didn't want an insect spinning a cocoon on Pepper's grave! And the puppy had handled it so carefully so as not to hurt it one bit! It just relocated it, exactly as I'd asked!
My friend didn't seem as enthusiastic as I was, but I was absolutely elated by the little dog's intelligence. I don't remember any more after that; just that I was yapping at my friend as if she hadn't even seen what had happened, I was happy that Pepper's grave was clear, and I was thrilled by the puppy's ability to comprehend complex commands. What a smart little puppy!
2005 Dreams
HOME