Freaky Friday

I have some silly dreams.

In one particularly wacky dream, my mom asked me to purchase a ticket to The Louvre – which, for some odd reason, was located on a yacht in New York City. I was going to have to fly to New York to get the tickets and ordinarily that would pose a problem considering how I feel about flying (I'm not afraid of being in an airplane high above the earth. It’s the idea of being fondled by some icky TSA agent that terrifies me.) For some reason, in the dream, I forgot all about my fear and readily agreed to the task. A few minutes later my boss (who looked very much like my former director) walked into the room and told me that I had to go to Europe as well as New York. Please don't ask me why a preschool teacher would have to jet off to Europe for her job. These things can't be questioned!

Because it was only going to be a simple day trip, I knew that I would only need one carry on bag. I first seriously considered a brown paper grocery bag, but then decided that my son’s backpack would be a better choice. What to put IN the bag was a little more challenging. The only item that seemed to make sense was a breast pump. After all, you never know when you might meet a starving baby as you are traveling. Never mind that lactation was halted here almost 5 years ago. Somehow, someway I was going to nourish a starving infant!

Only after packing was complete, did I realize that I should find out what my boss wanted me to pick up for her in NYC and Europe. I grabbed a pen and an old receipt to scribble on and then asked for specific instructions. In reply she began singing a nursery rhyme- one that I wasn’t familiar with. I tried my best to write the words of the song, but the pen kept going out.

That’s all I remember. What would Freud say about such a dream? Are there any hidden meanings in there? Naw, I don’t think so. It was just silly.

I have had dreams that were more than a succession of nonsense images without purpose. There were several dreams that were, beyond doubt, screaming signs. After experiencing the consequences of ignoring the forewarnings, I eventually learned to pay heed to those types of dreams. Thankfully they are rare.

Then there have been a smattering of dreams that gave just enough of a glimpse of future events to thoroughly freak me out. The following is a recent example.

One Friday night, not very long ago, I did something colossally stupid. I flipped on my alarm clock. I guess it was just force of habit. Saturday morning, I was roused from a very nice nonsense dream when the alarm did its job and yelled at me. Annoyed, I turned it off. I was determined to go back to sleep, but my bladder demanded that I get out of bed for a little bit first. Then before getting all snuggly again, I took a moment to check my email (oh yeah, I do love my iPhone now that I’ve learned how to use it!!!) There wasn’t anything of interest in either my email or facebook, so I put the phone back on the nightstand and let myself drift off to sleep again. That’s when it happened. I dreamed that I was standing near my closet, with my phone in my hand. In the dream, I noticed that there was a new email from a friend in my inbox. I read the email and smiled.

That’s it. That was all there was to the dream. Nothing special, right?

At 7:30ish, I woke a second time, grabbed my phone from the nightstand and went about my morning routine. With the dream still fresh in my head, I clicked open my email. Sure enough, there was a new one waiting for me…from the same friend that I dreamed had sent me an email. My hand shook ever so slightly as I opened the message and read nearly the exact same wording that I’d already read in my dream.

Cue twilight zone music. <- I was going to insert a video of the theme music right there, but it totally creeped me out. Sorry, you will just have to hum it to yourself instead.

So, does this mean that I’m officially psychic? Or was that dream as random as the one where my mom asked me to get tickets for the New York Louvre on a Yacht?

I don't suppose it matters. Getting mystical previews of emails won't help make the world a better place. OTOH, I can't see how it would hurt anyone either. So let's try an experiment. After I post this, I will go to off to dreamland. After you read this, leave a comment. That will cause an email to be sent to my inbox. If I dream about the email before I actually get online to open it, I'll let you know!

If I dream about feeding starving infants...I'll schedule a mammogram.