not so sweet dreams

Aaaahhh...sleep. My old friend. Where have you gone? Between the pee trips, the restless cats, my snoring spouse, the pee trips, my 140 degree body temperature (despite the AC chugging away to keep us at 68 degrees), the pee trips, the leg cramps that rip me from dreamland on a more and more frequent basis, and most recently the crazy dreams....I miss sleep. Yeah, yeah, yeah- I know. Sleep will remain a distant memory for many months and years to come. But the disturbing dreams of late are really getting old. Last night, two in particular stuck in my mind this morning. Some quick internet research proved that my most recent dreams are quite telling....that one about giving birth to a kitten, I'll just leave untouched. I don't care to know. And I've got ultrasound pictures, about 80 of them, to prove there is no kitten in my uterus.

Dream 1: I'm sitting in my dining room, staring out the window, watching a low flying Northwest Airlines plane fly right at the house. It appears to be about to fly over just overtop our roof, when it jerks toward the ground and into our house. It explodes, we explode, gray dust everywhere as I scream for J.....game over. I wake up drenched in sweat clenching my pillow like a life preserver, and turn my lamp on for a moment to make sure we're not actually exploded. And poke J to make sure he's alive. He is, and he's also not impressed by the lamp. Or the poke.

You are “flying high” and whatever happens can reflect wishes/anxieties/progress regarding your life or professional progress, possibly your ability to “rise above it all” risk-taking abilities/attitudes. An accident suggests the perils of pursuing a particular goal or route, possibly a fall in self esteem or confidence. Hmm...the "perils of pursuing a particular goal" could make sense. As does "flying high"- life is good, all is well, but the low flying plane probably uncovers my thinly veiled fear and feeling that we're never "in the clear". God, what IS it with me and all these airplanes? You'd think I had a thing for pilots! Oh...wait....

Dream 2: I'm on Mopac. For those outside of the Austin metro area, Mopac is a highway running north and south. However, I'm lost on a very unfamiliar stretch of EAST Mopac. "East and west?" I repeat over and over in my dream. All I'm passing are storage units and strip clubs. That's it, one after the other. I finally spy a church and pull into the lot, where I proceed to ask for directions, but they're all telling me I'm nuts, and there is no East Mopac. They're also worshipping in the parking lot, and most are dressed in head bandanas and baggy pants- not dressed like the church people I know. The dream continues with me driving back and forth and back and forth, never finding that South Mopac sign I'm so desperately seeking, just sobbing in my car. I jerk awake again, roll over and feel for J beside me, and mumble something to him about how much I hate that stupid Mopac. Then I get up and pee. For the 18th time since my puffy little head hit the pillow just 6 hours before.

Dreams of being lost express anxiety in waking life. You may feel that the path to your goals lacks direction or that you don't know which way to turn in a situation. According to some dream experts, being lost symbolizes fear and anxiety about leaving the familiar behind when moving on to a new phase. (Bingo!)