Dreaming with the Stars

I had the weirdest dream last night.

I dreamed I was living with a Hispanic family who ran a family camp out in Montana. I must have worked for them as a nanny or childcare provider, because I spent my days with these very cute Hispanic children.

One day Angelina Jolie shows up with her two kids. (Yes, I know she has three kids, but in my dream it was just Maddox and Zahara.) Anyway, she shows up out of the blue, with no reservations, and politely asks the Hispanic family if she can stay with them. She explains how she wants her kids to experience a real vacation away from the paparazzi. The Hispanic family told her she could absolutely stay with them.

So, I ended up taking care of her kids, along with my other Hispanic charges. I even got to talk to her a couple of times. I tried not to fawn all over her, since she looked really tired and exhausted. I asked her how she liked her vacation, and she told me it was nice to get away.

She kept to herself and her kids most of the time, but I kept thinking, “Wow, I can’t believe I’ve met AND talked to Angelina Jolie.”

It felt SO real, and it was a bit of a letdown when I woke up. I also got gypped because there was NO Brad Pitt in my dream. I’m so mad at my subconscious!

Dream Weaver:
I’ve had vivid, detailed dreams since I was a little girl. It might be because I have such an overactive imagination. It could also be because I’m left handed, and it’s been proven that left handers have significant right brain activities – such as creativity, and in my case (I guess) these crazy dreams.

Not So Happy Days (or Nights)!
The earliest dream I remember involved Tom Bosley (the dad from Happy Days, the sheriff on Murder, She Wrote) being a blood sucking vampire who climbed in the window of my room and tried to kill me. I escaped the room and ended up at the top of this spiraling staircase. As I looked down, I realized that the room below was filed with other vampires. Thankfully, I woke up right as they were all running up the stairs to get me.

Ewwww
When I was in college, I dreamed that I was married to this icky guy from high school and HAVING HIS BABY! Ewwww! I even remember thinking, in the course of my dream, “Why would I do this? I don’t even LIKE this guy!” It was very disturbing.

Accident Prone
The scariest dream I had (early on in life) involved driving a car. Beginning at age 6, I had this dream at least once a month until I actually did learn how to drive at age 16.

I would be in the back seat of an old car, a classic car of some kind. It was dark and icy out, but someone else was driving, and I felt very safe. Then the car would spin violently out of control, and suddenly plunge down into this deep ravine. It was so real and so dramatic that I still remember the landscape today. Tree branches scraping the windows, wet grass flying up and sticking to the window, and eventually the tires giving into the mud and down we would go to the bottom of this hill.

I was always okay. I would climb out of the car and find that the other person was hurt. And I knew I would have to drive the car to get the person help before he died. Since there was another road at the bottom of the hill, I would push the car onto the road and then get in the driver’s seat. This was where the terror would start.

I would be in a blind panic thinking, “I DON’T KNOW HOW TO DRIVE A CAR!” Eventually, I would get the car going, but inevitable, almost instantly, I would steer the car down another hill and wake up right before we crashed at the bottom.

That dream stopped when I learned how to drive, but dreaming about it for ten years was not pleasant.

Before Columbine
When I was nine, I also had a scary dream about my friend’s father. I dreamed I was at a wedding and my friend (Amber Cooper’s) dad walked in with a machine gun and blew everyone away. The only reason I survived was because I ducked down under a pew.

The scary thing was that there WAS a wedding the next day. I told my parents I didn’t want to go, and when they pressed me on why, I finally told then about the dream. THEY thought it was hysterical and said that it was JUST a dream, and didn’t I think I should go just to see what happened? I said I didn’t particularly WANT to see anyone blown away but was eventually persuaded to go.

Then, my parents made it WORSE! They thought it was SO funny, that they told Mr. Cooper all about it. So, during the wedding, when I would turn around and look at him, he’d pretend to pull out a gun and pull the trigger. He would wink and think it was cute, but I was terrified my dream would come true!

Thanks a lot, Mr. Cooper. No wonder I still feel some trepidation at weddings.

Honeymoon Disaster
After Brett and I got engaged, I had a real-life scary dream. I dreamed that Brett married someone else on the day of our wedding, and took THAT girl on OUR honeymoon. I remember (in the dream) standing outside their room and pounding on the door in desperation.

I kept saying, “This can’t be happening. This can’t be happening.”

When I woke up, I called Brett and asked him if he was seeing someone else.

He said, “Are you kidding? Who else would have me?”

When I told him about my dream, he said he thought it was sweet I was jealous of a girl who didn’t even exist!

Brett’s Turn
Brett’s had a couple of those real-life types of dreams. In college, he called me at 2:00 a.m. to ask me if I still loved him. When I asked why, he said he had a dream where I was dating all these guys on campus while still being engaged to him. Then I yelled at him all the time to LEAVE ME ALONE. I told him that yes, I did love him. I also said it was 2:00 a.m., so I (for right now) DID need him to LEAVE ME ALONE. At least until 6:00 a.m., that is!

Since we’ve been married, he’s had similar dreams and has woken me up early in the morning to proclaim his love for me and ask me to affirm my love.

I’m sure you could all analyze the above dreams. I like to analyze them, too, but mostly I use them as inspiration. Most of my writing ideas come from my dreams, and I consider them a gift from God.

I’ve often thought of my subconscious as a playground, and I’m kind of excited to see what it has in store for me tonight!