- What's the last vivid dream that you remember having?
Last week I had some dream that I can barely remember at all now, but it was vivid enough to pick itself back up again after I woke a couple of times in the night. Somehow it was revealed to me that Dad had another daughter only a few years younger than me at most and her name was Sharon. I think that was the part that bothered me the most: how could he allow this woman's mother to select a name so close to mine? (What a Whitney Houston / Bobby Brown moment.) And this Sharon, she was expecting or had just had a baby named Caroline. (Father's Arcane Daughter by E.L. Konigsberg (sp)? Read it in the eighth grade and always meant to reread.)
My paternal grandparents and aunt had known about this other family all along. My mom didn't know, but I'm not sure if she was bothered. I was mostly incredulous, and a little put out because apparently we were all supposed to be putting on the dog for this Sharon because she'd produced an offspring (something that is definitely not a valued trait amongst any of this side of my family In Real Life - the S*mondses are very negative population growth, I'm afraid). On the other hand I wanted to meet her and - wow - I had a sister! Overall I was optimistic, but also worried that she would have no interest in me. (After all, she had gone her whole life without a sister, and possibly always knew I existed, plus she had Caroline.) So in the end I was just kind of annoyed and tired.
- Do you have any recurring dreams?
I don't really have recurring dreams, but I do have recurring locations with rules that never changed. Some of these locations are entirely fictional. I think I was about 10 when I realized I was having recurring dreams about a fairground that doesn't exist. Many of the locations are based on places I've been, though, and the majority revolve around Romeo, Michigan. For years the main cemetery there was a central component, but now I dream more about the old junior high. However, none of these places are like the originals. They're just close enough to recognize, otherwise they are their own entities. And when the odd change does happen, it's over time, as if there is some dream dimension where set construction takes place in our real time.
- What's the scariest nightmare you've ever had?
I'm not prone to nightmares but I did have one in the past year that had to do with aliens. Can't remember exactly when or what. I think I was being hunted down. Alien dreams are usually different but with a few strong similarities. This one was perhaps scary because instead of waking up or fading into another scenario it didn't stop and the aliens most certainly were not benign.
- Have you ever written your dreams down or considered it? Why or why not?
Obviously I like to write them down, when I can be bothered. :) Why? Because it's the only thing I can think to do in an attempt to make some sense of things. I'm fascinated by how something so vivid can be so easily forgotten. An idle daydream I had last month while waiting for a TV commercial to end is more easily recalled.
- Have you ever had a lucid dream? What did you do in it?
Fly! Isn't everyone supposed to fly in lucid dreams? That's all I really want to do. I played with lucid dreaming for a very short time and had some success, but it's something I'm not going to bother with again until I can work at it more consistently. It sounds corny/hokey/stupid/daft/overlydramatic, but I didn't really like that awareness. Or whatever it was. You don't have to believe in lucid dreaming to acknowledge that there are different types of dreams, and some are more comfortable than others.
That's a funny thing about dreaming - if it wasn't an involuntary situation experienced by many different people, it would probably be written off as New Age Mumbo Jumbo. I mean, c'mon. Not to plagiarize Asimov, but at the end of the day our bodies shut down and we hallucinate in such a manner that we can become upset, happy, angry, or afraid. Then our bodies wake up and we rather quickly forget it all. Sixteen hours later, it starts again.
You tell me.
sleep, sleep
Last week's Friday Five:
