Last night!

I entered a competition to see who could be the first one to drink 3 gallons of orange juice. It was expected to take people several hours if not a couple of days, and I finished it in no time like it was no big deal at all. Champion, right here.

Later, I was exploring a giant house. It had a really cool layout, and tons of bedrooms.

Then, I was in Target and I was working out by jogging around the shoe section. Another girl was there with me-- her identity kept morphing -- and she was running slower than I wanted to, but kept getting mad at me if I sped up. I was getting so mad that she was getting mad...

At some point we realized it was raining really hard outside and it was starting to flood-- like, tidal waves coming through the doors. It became pure chaos in the store as people were running for their lives- yet everyone knew it was inevitable bc we were all going to be trapped inside left to drown. This dream just kind of ended. Drama!

Jesus, rain boots, Afros, and reunions

Last night I had a ton of dreams. I can't remember all of them, but here's what I got:

I was in the house I grew up in and there was a "bad news bears" football team playing a giant football team in the foyer. They were getting murdered. The coach told them they weren't playing aggressively enough and they needed to start tackling hard to stand up for themselves, so they did and they started doing so much better! One of the players looked just like Kooab Kosuke from Project Runway, and one time after an intense tackle he came up and someone had pulled out his Afro.

I also dreamed I was in a hotel room with my siblings and we were laying on the beds watching tv... There was a news story on about how we should be concerned with this generation because of how all they want to do it wear rain boots all the time. Everywhere you look you see teenagers and college students wearing rain boots! They even have come out with slippers that LOOK like rain boots to put over regular shoes so you look like you're wearing rain boots. And, as if this wasn't bad enough... They refused to take them off for themselves! That's right! They won't take them off of their own feet, they require that someone else takes then off for them. What is this world coming to?

A third thing I remember from my slumber... I was at a high school reunion... But I really could not remember the names of the people there, or some of their faces.

My favorite thing from my dreams last night was I was sitting and reading a book. It was a Christian Life/spiritual growth book... And I was reading closely and making notes. The section I was reading was explaining the importance of a daily quiet time (a subject I really should be reading about!). It compared it to the concept of raising a child. It emphasized the difference between parenthood, and parenting. It defined parenting as the intentional act of teaching and training your child the specific how's and why's of the way we live. Parenthood is the life of a parent interacting with and loving their child as they go about normal life. This dream book suggests that our times studying the word and in prayer are the times we allow ourselves to participate in God's parenting. Then, we go about our lives under the protection of God's parenthood. That's some good stuff.. Thank you, Lord for teaching me in my sleep!

Dream:

I was back in town visiting college.  It felt like home to me! It must have been some sort of reunion or homecoming, because lots of old friends were hanging out just like old times.  But, these weren't just college friends.  These were friends I had collected through out my whole life.  Everyone was mingling and having so much fun together. 

We were staying in the dorms, and getting settled in to spend the night.  There were so many people staying there that we had mattresses overflowing out of the rooms and spilling out throughout all the halls.  This made it even more fun because guys and girls, new friends and old friends, were getting that much more time to spend together. 

As we all settled in to our ready-made beds on the floor, (after plugging in all our cell-phones) and started the typical 'spend the night' ritual where conversations slowly drift off as people start falling asleep while others keep thinking of things they just have to say. Those are always the best conversations.  It was so peaceful... being surrounded by such companionship, and the sounds of people becoming so relaxed and happy.  The sound of the University Choir was coming from a distance and the music became corporate worship as it floated over us and we thanked God for this time together and praised Him for being the "Rock of Ages".  A few of the people joined in, adding beautiful harmonies to the chords of the already perfect song.  

But, slowly and suddenly at the same time... the mood started to change... We knew something was wrong and people started to worry.  Something wasn't right... something was going terribly wrong with the choir.  The company of slumbering people became a crowd of concerned individuals and a buzz of concerns replaced the peaceful sounds.  Rumors mentioned conflict, suicides, guns, death... I began to panic.  The choir director that had played an important role in my life, was not longer living his.  As I rushed to push through the crowd to get to him, I was unaware that I had no plan of what I would do when I got there.  The fight to push through the crowd was getting harder and harder, until I realized I was completely swimming upstream.  I stopped and listened to the rumors that were swarming around me.  That's when I realized.  The chaos around me had shift from concern for the teacher and student in the choir, to the panic for our own lives.  There was a gunman.  He was loose in the building. We were all running for our lives. 

I immediately stop going against the crowd and start letting the stampede sweep me up and take me with it. Everything was such a blur. 

Next thing I know, I'm in a classroom, in the dark... with at least a hundred other people. Just an hour or so before, I had been surrounded by the comfort of close companionship...now I felt alone in a room of strangers. We're all huddled together in our attempt to hide from the attacker, knowing that it was not going to be good enough.  This killer was blood-thirsty, and wanted us ALL to die.  The silence was deafening... you couldn't even hear the panicked breathing.  I start looking around the room for a better way to shield myself from the inevitable.  I spy 2 close friends, and I notice some tiny cabinets against the wall that could possibly conceal the three of us.  We hurry over and squeeze ourselves into the small, cluttered cabinets, and I regret every vegetable I've ever eaten to make me grow to be so tall.  The silence settles in again... except this time I can hear my own heartbeat... I'm wondering if its loud enough to give away the location of all these people. 

I was sitting in the most uncomfortable position, with my right knee up to my chest, my left leg stretched over my friend’s lap, with my body twisted and leaning most of its weight on my elbow.  I knew I couldn’t hold this position long.  I wished I knew where this gunman was… and what did he want? Why was he doing this?

Out of the silence we heard gunshots. One, then two…then so many you couldn’t count. They were coming from right below us. Because of our silence we could hear every detail… every scream, every plea, every bullet.  I even felt like I could hear every thought, every soul in agony.  Then everything went quiet. 

Was it over? Was he done?  How would this end? How would we know if it’s okay to come out?  I didn’t think my heart could beat harder or faster…

Just then someone busted through the door.  He was here! People scattered. Some froze. But he didn’t shoot… He acted as if there was no one else in the room. He walked straight through the parted sea of victims, straight toward the cabinets! He got down on the ground and inched his way closer to the cabinet doors.  As he opened it, time stood still.  I could see him lying on the floor, on his back, with the gun aimed right at my face. I gasped for air and grimaced I prepared to get shot between the eyes.  His finger pulled back on the trigger.

Click

Nothing.

He was out of bullets.

In that same instant, someone from the room came up from behind him and hit him over the head with a folding chair…

This is where this dream ends.

I woke up frozen in my body; my heart racing… the feeling of danger didn’t evaporate with the dream.  It had no resolution, no moment of relief… no real conclusion. 

Somehow, I went back to sleep.

I continued dreaming scenarios that were just as vivid and just as intense…life and death situations.  But fortunately for us both, I don’t remember them as clearly.

There are more plot lines and details from the dreams of the night that were before and after what I’ve shared… but I think its best to just forget this ever happened and move on.

Sinking, Singing, and Preaching

Ok, this dream came from last night...

I was at a lake on a pontoon boat with my mom and Kep, his two daughters and my brother and sister.  We were just having a normal 'out on the boat' lake day.  But, as the day went on I started to notice that the boat was sitting lower and lower in the water. It was like those two long round things under the boat were losing air.  It became harder and harder for the boat to move. So, we decide to go turn it back in to the place we rented it.  But, when we pulled up to the dock, we realized we were at the wrong place.  But, the boat was too messed up to go anymore.  There of course was some panicking going on about what to do about it.  There was some talk about canceling a credit card, or something.  My mom was trying to figure out a way to get out of this situation without the boat rental place finding out about the problem, because apparently she was hoping to get a new job with them.  Then someone who lived nearby offered us a miniature one person boat (that looked a lot more like a shop-vac) to use to tow the pontoon boat home.  So, I hop on board the shop-vac tow boat and pull the sinking pontoon boat with everyone else on it back to our dock.  Once we got there, we all wanted to swim but soon realized that the water was not safe.(?) Then we had a conversation about how fish could only see two colors. Green and Red.  We were all hungry, so I went and got the bucket full of shrimp that I had caught earlier that day and we went inside to boil them.

Then I dreamed that I was joining a choir... There was nothing unusual about this scene.  It could have been a real life thing.  I was just introduced as the new kid, was sight-reading all the music like a champ, and looking for the slot on the wall where I was supposed to keep my new choir folder.  Nothing out of the ordinary, except I was in some place I've never seen before and with a bunch of people I'd never met before.  I was singing alto.

Night before last I dreamed a really intense crazy dream that I can barely describe.  I was with a group of people and apparently we had all just woken up from a dream (yes, a dream inside of a dream) and discovered that we had all dreamed the same thing! This was a huge deal... and we started to piece together the details of this common dream from everyone's different perspectives.  We soon realized that this dream was given to us with huge meanings and implications that we had to figure out.  We were really scared.  For some reason we had to relocate and so we were rushing down a street trying to get to a new building.. as that was happening, I began praying that God would give us wisdom in interpreting the dream, and that he would keep us all safe.  There was one man in particular that I was pleading with God to protect... this man is a pastor of a church that's on my support team.  When we get to the new location, its a kinda like a banquet room with tables and chairs with a little stage area.  I get up on the stage and get everyone's attention and basically start preaching passionately to the group... Thats all I remember.

Past Pastor...

Here's a slightly more normal (or at least less psycho) dream.  I figure I need to share more of the less dramatic ones..

Last night I dreamt I was at the church I grew up in. (Let me remind all you faithful readers... that I dream about this church at least once a week!)  I went into the sanctuary to listen to the sermon.  The man giving the sermon used to be the pastor there.. but now he lives in another part of the state.  He was laying out the importance of reaching the college campus.  So of course I was so excited!  I was thinking he was going to encourage everyone to join my support team.  But as the sermon came to a close he announced that the church was going to go through a very difficult complicated process to team up with some ministry in Indiana...it was going to take several months to get it started.  I was really disappointed! Didn't they know they could very easily support me?  right now! here in Alabama??  I was really sad.. so I went to the pastor's office and asked him those things... he was beating around the bush, dodging my questions.. so I looked him in the eye and said "Tell me straight up. Do you plan on ever joining my support team?" ... he looked at me with a straight face and said "No." 

So, I started sobbing (my dream self is so much more emotional than my real self...).  I started telling him how hurt I was over that... This was my home church, for goodness sake! I have other churches who are supportive of me! They should be supportive too! Didn't they know that they meant something to me? Did I not matter to them??

That's all I remember. 

[Side note: United Methodist preachers get moved around every few years... so I had a handful of preachers that could have played that part in my dream...]

But... (cue the twilight zone music)...

I got an e-mail this afternoon that said that THAT very same preacher joined my support team.

what do you think? weird? coincidence? 

til next time!

4 months later...

Its been a long time since i've blogged about my dreams... but its not for lack of material! I've still been dreaming almost every night... mostly silly stuff.. its just so time consuming to type them out in all their bizarre-ness.

But, this morning I woke up determined to write out what I had just dreamed, since they were so heavy. I had two different dreams.

The first one:

I was in a dark room with two other people, a girl and a guy.  The three of us were about to participate in some crazy ungodly practices (like witchcraft or something...). Whatever we were about to do, it was highly illegal, let alone probably satanic/blasphemous.. We were sitting in a circle with a small fire pit in the middle with some contraption made of sticks and rope hanging above and around it. I was VERY unsure and uncomfortable about it to say the least, but the situation was kinda like "we've tried everything else.. this is the next logical option to accomplish our task" and the other two were completely sold on the idea that this was 100% necessary.  Apparently we were trying to make some scientific discovery... Right before they started (by lighting the fire) I felt too uncomfortable and I left.  After some random dream time (included a lap around the outside of a walmart...) I decided to go back and check on them.  They had disappeared, and as I was checking out the room, I got "caught" in the room by authorities, and it looked like I had done the whole thing by myself... this was a HUGE deal because whatever it was they did was like a federal offense... fast forward to some extreme interrogation where I'm hesitant to reveal information about the other 2 people because when I was in on it, we had made a pact not to tell anyone anything about it.  But, since I was innocent I decided that it was ok for me to tell the truth.  There was a very slim chance that my lawyers would be able to get me out of it, but my alibi was going to be useful...

just to fill in some details about the emotional setting of this dream.. I was completely devastated, my life was in ruins.. no one trusted me, not even my family... all while knowing I was 100% innocent.

This was national news.. I was on all the news stations (very similar to the Casey Anthony trial).  I dreamt the entire court process, which took place in a huge arena type place (for several dream hours)... including all the emotions of knowing I could be sentenced to life in prison at any moment.  Everyone thought I was guilty... everyone looked down on me... I had no one.

It was intense... very emotionally draining.

this kinda flowed into the 2nd dream..
I just realized that I would have too much trouble explaining it...  it included a terrorist attack, a futuristic system to protect ourselves..it was so unlike any real thing that exists.  It included different levels of existence.. some for different generations..  yeah.. i can't even begin to describe it.

If this is my brain NOT on drugs... I'd never want to find out what it'd be like on drugs.

bizarrrre... typical.

This one's kinda morbid... I'm really tempted to leave out the gorey details... but there wouldnt be much left.

So you know in Inception they say you can tell you're dreaming when you don't remember how you started doing what you're doing, or where you were just before that moment...? Dreams don't really have a beginning... you just start in the middle.  Wellll thats how this is.  it started in the middle of this situation ( the details are really fuzzy). I think I had just met some cousins - a man and a woman- that I never knew existed (on my dad's side... his age) and some how they had died..  We were afraid that we were going to be blamed or framed for their death/murder.  I don't know if we really had murdered them, or if it was an accidental thing that was going to put us in a bad situation...  We ( I dont really know who 'we' was) had to hide the bodies and the evidence and that consisted of chopping one of the bodies up into little pieces and hiding them in a barn that was full of junk and set it on fire..... slowly, characters from GREEK started to morph into the scenario..(probably because of the episodes about accidentally burning down a house and trying to hide it..) So then there were a ton of people that were in on trying to hide the crime and protect themselves from being caught/framed.  At one point, we thought we were going to be caught because I found out that my mom knew my email password and had been secretly reading my emails for months, and she saw where I had met the two people that had gone missing.  

A lot of times the most important aspects of my dreams aren't the situations in them but the emotions that the dream portrays... the thing that stuck with me about this dream was the eerieness and the paranoia and fear and anxiety.  It was just so dark and twisted and scary.

Ha, anyone who reads this is going to think I'm nutty and is going to think twice about being friends with a psycho like me..  Don't be scared.. It was just a dream!