Dreaming, Vol. 5

Last night's dream:

I am at home. I get a call. "You're going to be in a cooking contest."

Then I'm at a loading dock, with a crew of people unloading boxes of cooking supplies.

I walk in, and there are two identical kitchens set up. I think it was on a sound stage, so this may have been a TV event.

The other cook is already at work, and we have like an hour to put together the meal. How did he get a head start? Annoyed.

The meal is Italian. But wait, that other cook looks like the maitre d' from the Chinese restaurant in that famous "Seinfeld" episode. He's cooking Italian? But wait, what am I saying, I can hardly cook anything at all.

OK, I start looking through the cabinets. What, no pasta! I have to get to a grocery store.

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That's it. Either the dream ended, or I just don't remember the rest.

Explanation: After some thought, I realized that I had left the radio on overnight. At 6 a.m., Minnesota Public Radio switched from the BBC to.... "The Splendid Table." I looked on the program Web site, and there was some talk of Italian food on this week's show.

But the maitre d'? That remains a mystery for now.

Dreaming, Vol. 4

Last night I dreamed (I think. I hope?) that I woke up, and there were doors slamming and footsteps in the house. The layout of the bedroom and house were different than my bedroom and house, so I'm pretty sure it was a dream.

In the dream, I pulled the covers up over my head and hid. That's about all I can recall.

Possible explanation? The dog has taken up nighttime residence on an old rocking chair in the bedroom. If she squirms around during the night, the rocker bangs against the wall.

Odd side note... when I got up this morning, I noticed that the back door was unlocked and slightly ajar. I'm usually really paranoid about keeping that shut and locked at night, though I'm sure that, in the course of bringing in some stuff from the car the previous evening, I forgot to close it all the way. But still....

Dreaming, Vol. 3

Last night's dream:

I was living in a dorm or apartment building of some kind. The building had a big, open common room where there were couches and ping-pong tables, and where the mailboxes were located.

For some reason, I had placed a bunch of possessions on one of the couches and was going back and forth between the my room and the common area. Maybe I was moving in or out.

I went to place some letters in the outgoing mail slot, and then gathered up some of the things on the couch. Another guy I didn't know was there, and he glanced at me, then picked up my sleeping bag (the really good one I have in real life) and started walking away. I thought that he thought that these were someone else's things, and that we both were making off with some loot.

"Hey, put that down. Are you trying to steal that?" I yelled.

He put it down, and kind of hurriedly moved away. There were others in the room, and I called out to them that the guy had just tried to steal my stuff.

That's all I remember.

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After waking up, I felt kind of bad. I wondered if the unknown guy had been trying to help me carry the stuff to wherever it was I was going. I had just assumed he was stealing.

Should I feel guilty for rushing to judgment on someone who doesn't exist?

Dreaming, Vol. 2

Last night's dream: My dog was infested with fleas. My house was infested with fleas. Fleas, fleas everywhere.

Possible inspiration: My dog has been scratching a lot - audible at night - but, thankfully, the vet declared her flea-free. I think it's just the dry air in my house.

Dreaming, Vol. 1

I don't often have memorable dreams, but on the rare occasions I do, I remember them in great detail. I had one of those last night. Here's how it went:

I woke up to a noise - inside or outside, I'm not sure. I got up and looked outside, and it was dusk, and there was a old pickup truck in my driveway but no one around. I walked out into my yard, and suddenly a man on an ATV zoomed by me, did a lap around the edge of my yard, and headed back toward me.

-- break in recollection --

Then I found myself back on my front porch, and noticed that the old pickup truck was resting on a newly paved driveway. For some reason, I hadn't noticed earlier that my gravel driveway had been paved over. Then I looked out toward the road, and saw that the pavers had done multiple, elaborate turnarounds (to sum up, a huge part of my front yard was asphalt). But they had not finished - the area in front of my garage had been excavated to prepare for a new paved surface, but it wasn't done, and I worried about how I was going to get my car out.

Then I looked out toward the road again, and noticed it seemed farther away. And then I saw that huge amounts of earth-moving had been done, and my house was now perched high above the road, with a big, tiered embankment.

Suddenly, I looked back toward the garage and noticed, posted on a wall, some kind of work order that indicated that the previous owners of my house had arranged to have all this work done in 2003. Then a man appeared - the owner of the company that had done all the paving and earth-moving; I think the same guy who had been on the ATV - and I told him I hadn't asked for any of that work to be done. He said his company had been really busy, so it took them a while to get around to doing the work, and that he didn't care WHO had ordered it - I was responsible for paying. I said I couldn't afford it. Then he asked for my checking account number so he could verify that I couldn't afford it.

I told him no, and then he said he would call my bank - at which point I worried because my checking account is unusually flush with money right now, thanks to an insurance check to cover my car-deer collision repairs. I ran into the house.

-- break in recollection --

I found myself in my living/dining room, at a table that I don't presently own, looking for a pen and paper to write something down. Then my siblings were there, helping me look for a pen and paper. Then I woke up.

End of dream.

What does it all mean? I had argued with my cell phone company about a charge on my bill the previous day - that could factor in. Home repairs are pretty much always on my mind. I had thought in the past couple of days about some questions I wanted to ask my siblings, and was planning to give them all a call.

Now, I can wait a few months for the next memorable dream.