Watch repair, Mom & the boy scouts

Last night I dreamt that my watch had quit working.  I took it in to a watch repair shop by the name of O'Doul's or O'Houl's (the name on the sign kept changing) to have it fixed.  There, behind the counter staring blankly, was a friend of mine (a costume goddess and local boutique owner).  She looked at my watch and said it should be easy enough to fix.  I told her, if not to not worry about it.  It was a very cheap watch that I'd bought on a clearance sale - only paid $10 for it - and I really didn't want to pay more to fix it than the watch was actually worth.

Then we were sitting in the kitchen of her house, visiting around the table.  It was a small party of some sort.  I received a call on my cell phone from my mother that she'd been in a minor accident just down the hill.  She was in a hurry to get to an appointment and asked if I would come and trade her places so should could get there on time.

As I was driving down the hill, which was now a mountain, I passed a troop of young boy scouts.  Something had happened at their camp and most of them were injured and needed a ride to the hospital.  I explained to the scout master that I only had room in my minivan for a few of the boys.  He assured me that room was no problem, they could just stack the boys on top of each other in the back.  And they did.  The scout master climbed into the passenger seat, smoking a cigarette and wanted to ash it out the driver's window.  I told him to roll down the passenger window for that.

We needed to turn around in order to get to the hospital but the now mountain road was very narrow and rocky.  There were a few turn-around spots available, but they were all very tight turns meant for smaller vehicles and it would have been too dangerous to try to turn the minivan around using them.  So we continued to drive.

The Return

Last night I dreamt I was returning to work after a long illness.  I was running a few hours behind schedule but, while they were holding my position at work, they really weren't expecting to me to return that day.  I went to the pantry to grab a box of fiber cereal snack bars to take with me only to find that they were all gone.  So, I grabbed a roll of Ritz crackers instead and headed off to work, my husband driving.

When I walked into the office, I found that everything had changed.  My co-workers were the ladies I'd worked with years ago when I lived in Idaho.  The office was in the living room an old Victorian house.  Everybody was sitting in a semi-circle, either on low chairs or on the floor, with strange new phones that did the calling for them - no computers so they had no idea to whom they were speaking or why.  I wasn't ready to return to that, so I decided to go check out the rest of the office.

As I walked out of that room, it became apparent that this was my daughter's house, a very large, old Victorian house in the city.  Her roommates wandered quietly through the rooms.  I went upstairs and found a large room full of young girls, laughing and chatting and dancing.  They all had either freshly washed faces or had drawn (or were in the process of drawing) bold, geometric shapes with bright colors on their faces, necks, limbs and torsos.  A voice from behind me smiled and said, "These are their real faces.  The ones they create for themselves."  I smiled at the joy emanating from them.

I looked out the window and saw the ocean and suddenly I was there, walking over the rocks at the ocean's edge.  I was barefoot.  I was walking with a coworker/friend and an older man.  I was filled with a sense of rightness and belonging as I climbed over these rocks and made my way through the mists to the ocean's water.  I sat there, alone, on a large sea boulder with my feet dangling in the waves and breathed in happiness.

Steve Lawson and Lobelia

Last night I dreamt that my mother-in-law was hosting a house concert in her living room.  The room was large and full of musical elite.  At the front of the room playing were Steve Lawson and his wife, Lobelia.  I wanted to get photos of them playing as well as some of them with me.  I picked up my camera and checked the batteries - there were only three when there should have been four.  I couldn't find the fourth.  Then Steve and Lobelia were done and gone and it was my turn to play.  The room was now very small and we were trying to figure out how to fit all twelve musicians in the stage area.

Exhaust in the Garage

Last night I dreamt that I had pulled my minivan into the garage and had just shut the garage door when a friend of my husband's (a singer from an old band of his) ran up to my window to visit.  I rolled down the window and turned off the ignition to chat.  The engine would not turn off.  The friend reached through the window and took the keys out of the ignition thinking that would cut the engine.  It didn't.  We both remembered, then, that the garage door was shut.  Not a good thing, with the engine still running.  He ran to the garage door and tried to open it manually.  We were both getting foggy-headed and weak.  I remembered I needed the key in the ignition in order for the automatic garage door opener to work so I hollered for him to bring me the keys.  He did.  I was beginning to black out but trying to stay focused on getting the key in the ignition.

(I woke up here and got out of bed to ... ummm ... "attend to business".  When I returned to bed and to sleep the dream continued.)

I managed to get the key in the ignition and push the button on the automatic garage door opener before passing out.  My husband's friend had crawled to me, pulled me out of the minivan and dragged me outside to the fresh air.  As the clean air filled my lungs, I awoke - groggy but alive.

Full of beans

Last night I dreamt I was bathing the animals.  First was a large dog (that behaved very much like my cat) who loved the warm water being sprayed on him.  He kept rolling over onto his back so his tummy could be sprayed and soaped up.  Next was another, smaller dog.  As I was washing him, I noticed that a large, square metal plaque on his collar was cutting deeply into his flesh, leaving big, gaping wounds on his neck and chest.  I went to get some gauze bandaging and medicine to fix him up when I noticed that another cat/dog (I couldn't tell which) also had a tear in his chest.  When I looked closer, I saw that this one was full of red kidney beans.  I didn't want the beans to fall out, so I gathered him up to mend his wound, too.  When I returned to the bathroom to finish bathing the animals and mending the wounds, the first large dog had jumped into the bathtub with my son.  I could not get the dog to leave the tub, so I left the room.

Tornado

Last night I dreamt that I was in a house when I heard a very loud rumbling noise outside.  I opened the door to see a wall of dirt and debris and wind moving slowly past.  Suddenly, I realized it was a giant tornado and that my children were alone in our house on the other side of the field.  I ran outside and around the tornado in an attempt to get to them, to make sure they were safe ... but my house wasn't there.