Reading about other people's recurring nightmares in yesterday's comments reminded me that I in fact left out a few from my list. So I'll take up from where I left off:
9. The Can't Get To Where I'm Going Dreams
Like my brother Joe, I have the dream of not being able to get to where I need to be. Though sometimes I'm driving in this dream, I'm often walking or running, sometimes with a child in tow, and getting exhausted. Did anybody see the movie "Melancholia?" It's a great flick, though not for the faint-hearted, with a scene in which a woman with a child can't get to where she needs to be. I swore somebody swiped that scene from my head while I was having that nightmare.
In a variation of this dream I can't even get out of the house, again my childhood home on Byberry Road in Philadelphia, to start getting to where I need to be. In this version I'm always looking at the wall clock that hung in our kitchen and panicking that I'm already so late.
10. The Going To The Wrong Class Dream
This is one of the College Dreams that Randy and Joe reminded me of because they have it, too. In this dream I'm back in college and have been going to the wrong class all semester.
11. The Chaos Dreams
there are two Chaos Dreams:
-The Original Chaos Dream
In this one I'm again at my childhood home on Byberry Road...
9. The Can't Get To Where I'm Going Dreams
Like my brother Joe, I have the dream of not being able to get to where I need to be. Though sometimes I'm driving in this dream, I'm often walking or running, sometimes with a child in tow, and getting exhausted. Did anybody see the movie "Melancholia?" It's a great flick, though not for the faint-hearted, with a scene in which a woman with a child can't get to where she needs to be. I swore somebody swiped that scene from my head while I was having that nightmare.
In a variation of this dream I can't even get out of the house, again my childhood home on Byberry Road in Philadelphia, to start getting to where I need to be. In this version I'm always looking at the wall clock that hung in our kitchen and panicking that I'm already so late.
10. The Going To The Wrong Class Dream
This is one of the College Dreams that Randy and Joe reminded me of because they have it, too. In this dream I'm back in college and have been going to the wrong class all semester.
11. The Chaos Dreams
there are two Chaos Dreams:
-The Original Chaos Dream
In this one I'm again at my childhood home on Byberry Road...
| I really don't know what my deal is that so many of my nightmares take place in our house on Byberry Road. That's my sister Romaine standing on our front porch when she was a teenager. |
...and the house if full of people and noise and clutter and mess and I can't find any place to be.
-The Chaotic Piano Lesson Dream
In this version of the Chaos Dream I'm trying to teach a piano lesson but there's so much chaos in the house I'm teaching in that I can't get the lesson taught though I keep trying to. A half-hour goes by, then an hour, then two, and I still haven't been able to teach the lesson and now I'm anxious and exhausted and hours late for my next lessons.
12. The Traveling Dream
I'm back traveling in Europe but don't want to be because my family needs me at home. And besides I'm having a lousy time.
13. The Going To Hell Dream
This was one of my recurring childhood nightmares which I stopped having by the time I was 9 or 10, thank goodness! In this dream I'm falling down a black cute at the bottom of which a big-horned evil laughing red Devil sits on a thrown and holds a pitch fork for a scepter. As I fall I'm getting closer and closer to the Devil. In truth that was probably the worse of all my nightmares. I used to wake up crying. I do hope that bad old horns-and-pitch fork devil has been retired from the children's religious education curriculum.
So there you have the official monograph of my nightmares. I have so many it's a wonder that I have enough time to dream them all over and over again. But I do usually get in one or two of them a week, so that's probably how I manage so many.
But as it turns out I also have a recurring good dream. Just one, though there are a number of variations. Anyway, in my good dream I'm in Europe, sometimes Italy, sometimes France, sometimes Germany, but these places are so much more beautiful than in real life. Sometimes I'm in a lovely garden or on a beautiful street or looking at breath-taking buildings like nothing I've ever seen before. I wake up from this dream wishing I could go to the places I dreamed about.
But here's the thing: the recurring good dream is rare while the nightmares are standard fare.
What do you make of that?
-The Chaotic Piano Lesson Dream
In this version of the Chaos Dream I'm trying to teach a piano lesson but there's so much chaos in the house I'm teaching in that I can't get the lesson taught though I keep trying to. A half-hour goes by, then an hour, then two, and I still haven't been able to teach the lesson and now I'm anxious and exhausted and hours late for my next lessons.
12. The Traveling Dream
I'm back traveling in Europe but don't want to be because my family needs me at home. And besides I'm having a lousy time.
13. The Going To Hell Dream
This was one of my recurring childhood nightmares which I stopped having by the time I was 9 or 10, thank goodness! In this dream I'm falling down a black cute at the bottom of which a big-horned evil laughing red Devil sits on a thrown and holds a pitch fork for a scepter. As I fall I'm getting closer and closer to the Devil. In truth that was probably the worse of all my nightmares. I used to wake up crying. I do hope that bad old horns-and-pitch fork devil has been retired from the children's religious education curriculum.
So there you have the official monograph of my nightmares. I have so many it's a wonder that I have enough time to dream them all over and over again. But I do usually get in one or two of them a week, so that's probably how I manage so many.
But as it turns out I also have a recurring good dream. Just one, though there are a number of variations. Anyway, in my good dream I'm in Europe, sometimes Italy, sometimes France, sometimes Germany, but these places are so much more beautiful than in real life. Sometimes I'm in a lovely garden or on a beautiful street or looking at breath-taking buildings like nothing I've ever seen before. I wake up from this dream wishing I could go to the places I dreamed about.
But here's the thing: the recurring good dream is rare while the nightmares are standard fare.
What do you make of that?
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