Red Bird, Dead Ground

I was in a field, but it was also just outside a low building. There was a professor there (Rhys Ifans), and we were talking. I think my family might have been there as well, but I am not sure. In the middle distance there was a ditch. Everything was in shades of pale yellow and brown - like dried ditch grass in the fall.

A small bird/butterfly settled on the back of my shoulder. It spread large red rings across my back. It was a rich, bright red. I remember thinking that this was rare and special. The little bird climbed along my arm and settled in the palm of my hand, fanning its large red wings gently. The bird's body was very small, like a hummingbird's almost, except it had a large hooked beak that was white and black. I was admiring the bird's feathers, which were red but also flashed orange and sometimes had a pattern on them, sometimes they were just tipped in another shade of the same spectrum.

The bird flew away, but returned repeatedly as I walked about. The professor saw this and asked if he could have the bird, because they were very rare and he had thought they had left the area all together. The bird settled on my back, wings outstretched like it was trying to flatten itself against my back. The professor did not ask again, and I did not give him the bird.

This sequence repeated itself - the bird would alight on my shoulder and fan its wings, crawl along my neck or back and settle into the crook of my neck or perch on my shoulder, then perch on my shoulder, or crawl along my arm to my hand, where I would let it sit in my palm and look at me. At one point it was pecking at my palm as if to to look to food.

***

Just on from this dried yellow field there were slot machines set in rows under the pale sun. To the right of them was a series of black, gothic, dead plants in black and white. There was a black iron fence, encrusted with dead flower vines. It was like an Edward Gorey setting, or something from the Addams Family.  There was a girl there, in a black dress, with black hair, and she was depressed and angry. People she'd known had died and were buried and it was her fault and she couldn't fix it. I told her that she could if she was willing to talk to the dead. She walked over to the cornfields and started talking to them, saying she was sorry. From the grey and black stalks, a bright green and gold tendril grew up and out of the ground, shining. The girl started crying, and apologized, and a brilliant green vine erupted from the field.  I put my hand on the dead, gray ground, and said, "You see? She is sorry - Can you feel it?" The ground rolled under me like a wave, and the moss turned green and a nearby plant started sprouting light purple flowers. There was a great sense of joyful reconciliation as the earth sprang to life under my hands, and the girl in the black dress was laughing and crying as people appeared around her, hugging her.

***


There was a middle bit to this dream - which involved much more action. I want to say there was a need to escape or solve something, but I cannot remember it.

Neck boils & Doctor Who

Pretty straightforward to start:

I was in a room with slanted walls - like a futuristic apartment I guess. I had boils on my neck - on the back. When I looked at my shoulder, somehow I could see my neck and saw that there was this giant boil/ strange sore there that resembled a wilted red rose in color. It was swollen and growing out of the side of my neck, and I was panicking.


Then the dream went crazy:

Doctor Who (Matt Smith) and Amy Pond were suddenly there. All I wanted to do was get to a doctor to have my neck looked at, but I kept getting dragged into peripheral adventures. At one point Amy had put copies of herself into a giant wind-up doll, a robot, and a battle tank - all so she could fight an evil version of herself. It made no sense.

Then there was a river with goats jumping up the sides of buildings. An old gypsy clan joined them, jumping up the buildings, then jumping into the water in some sort of ceremony.

There was an elephant?

And none of the surfaces felt even - everything was either uphill or downhill or sideways. Nothing was level.

I kept noticing my neck boils/sores were still there, and I was still worried. But every time I tried to find a doctor, the Doctor kept sort of pulling back into the nonsense narrative. There were more toys, and firefights, and circus-y mumbo jumbo. I really don't remember.


****


I woke up annoyed.

I've been dealing with a rash on the back of my neck for a couple of weeks now. I have medicine, but it doesn't seem to be doing much. I think that my frustration at having a rash on a part of me that I can't see, but only feel, is why in my dream my subconscious made it much uglier and scarier looking than it is. It's a manifestation of my worry. Gross.

Adams

This was a puzzling dream, remembered in bits:

I was in a poor-looking warehouse - small, full of shelves. It was a refrigerator unit, and I kept wanting to grab all the cupcakes. They were homemade by the woman who owned the restaurant nearby. But every sample I took the cupcake was cold and a little stale. So I kept going back. There were boxes of food and supplies. It was all dimly lit, and there were stairs and door everywhere. There were also people, but I didn't recognize any of them. They were friendly, though they looked poor. They had a little girl with them who I agreed to babysit, along with my nephew.

****


Then we were at a hotel. In the lobby, though I had a few rooms reserved. I was sitting at a table with the character Adam (from the HBO series "Girls") and we were talking about absolutely nothing. I remember wondering why I was sitting with him when I didn't really like him. Then, another guy I knew in high school showed up, who is also called Adam, and he was mildly jealous that I was drinking coffee with this new Adam. So they started trying to make me laugh - except neither of them knew anything about me, and thus I was not laughing. I kept asking myself why I was sitting there with these two guys, when their affection for me was clearly above the level of affection I had for them. They then went off to argue about me, and I stayed there.

At one point, I checked on my nephew and the little girl. She had glowing blond hair - she was absolutely beautiful. "Do you know what kissing is?" She asked my nephew while they were stacking toys. "Yes," my nephew replied, and they gave each other a quick kiss.  They then seemed to grow much older in front of me, and she asked him if he knew what French kissing was. They then kissed more passionately, and when they stopped they were little kids again, watching television. I told them it was time for bed, and they fell asleep under the covers. It was really adorable how perfect they both looked.

When it was time for us to go, the concierge came to me and said the two Adams were arguing about who could throw a coat over a puddle for me to walk across. I rolled my eyes and tried to leave.

****

I was in a car, on a highway. The highway turned into dark country road, and then to a dirt road. I realized I was lost when I hit this farm. The farmers had an enormous boar and some wolves as pets. I turned around and started driving back. That was when I realized I left the children in the hotel room, and panicked.  I saw in my mind's eye the map of the area, and where I needed to go. I peeled away.

****

I don't know how this dream ended. I think I got the children back to where they needed to go. I think the HBO Adam eventually "bettered" high school Adam.  It was odd that my subconscious put them in the dream - I had a prickly/friendly relationship with HS Adam, and I don't like the Adam character from HBO very much either. But it is interesting that they both had the same name.

The Charismatic Burglar

So I was sort of by my house, but also outside. There was a lot of movement and shifting of perspectives, but this last part of the dream I remember:

I saw a man getting into a jeep - the kind with the exposed bars and no roof. I knew that he had stolen something from our house, so I walked over to him and asked him to give it back. He smiled at me, and said that he would, but that he'd be back to rob us because our house was too easy a target to pass up. I told him that if he was going to rob us, to please take the computer in the basement, as it was unregistered. That way everyone would win - we didn't need that computer, and he could sell it for money without it being traced.

He smiled and kissed my hand, saying that he would consider it. I asked his name. He said **** Miles, or Miles **** - I cannot remember.


****

I really liked that thief in my dreams - he was disarmingly charming.

Long Ago, I Dreamed

Oops.

I've been dreaming, and not writing it down.

Sorry.


So here is a dream that I remember from some time ago. It still sticks with me:


****

I was by a lake at night. There was moonlight. Next to the lake was a sort of shed/camper. I kept wanting to borrow a pan from the woman inside, but she was perpetually getting dressed, and every time I opened the door to get the pan, she was half-naked.

Outside, an electric bright yellow lizard with bright blue spots was climbing down a mirror. I laughed at it and wanted to take a picture of it with my phone. It shot out its tongue and grabbed my phone. I kept trying to take the picture, but every time I pulled on the phone the lizard grew larger, till it was almost covering the mirror (about 3 feet long?). At that point I got uneasy, and left.

On the water there was a series of shining metallic light wires - it reminded me of how movies show technology. The kept shimmering into being then disappearing. I walked along the lakeshore, and then I saw some evil sheep. I knew the sheep were evil because they were deep red, with red wool and purple horns. Their eyes were flaming red, and they had sharp teeth.  At first they did not see me, but then they did, and they started shifting towards me. I started moving away, and found myself between two rows of theater seats. The evil sheep and goats kept sort of drifting towards me, and I really didn't want them to get too close to me.

On the water, a woman was standing amid the shimmering electric light wires, manipulating them somehow...


***

The big thing here - those sheep and goats were EVIL. I mean, in the dream I felt like they were the most sinister livestock ever.

Wrong Hemisphere

I was on a sort of cruise ship, sailing. It was not a big ship. I was near the stern of the ship, and I saw seals in the water, on an ice flow or maybe it was a dock before we sailed.

It was icy out - the water was filled with icebergs and snow, and I decided that I could swim out and see what was there. I wanted to see wildlife. So I did, I climbed into the icy water and started to swim through the snow and slush. After a while, I found a larger ice flow and climbed up. Not to far from me, I saw a small group of people watching a dolphin standing on its tail. Farther in the distance, there were spotlights for a worksite, and I heard a voice yell out "land ho!" I looked around, and out beyond the lights there were what I thought to be mountains.

Now it was twilight, and I had to get back to the ship. I knew that it was going to get much colder once the sun went down, so I started swimming. It was slow going - my front was so cold in the icy water. I got worried. The icy sea seemed to stretch on forever, but I knew that I could not stop swimming or I'd freeze to death. I sensed the ship in the distance. I was so cold, and I really wanted to stop moving. I thought I heard someone call out that I was in the water.

I reached out for the ladder on the ship, and missed it. The ship sailed right by me, and I cursed my luck for missing the ship by one hand's length. But then I was pulled up by A.T., who was upset at my stupidity. There was this air about everyone who thought I had been suicidal, except I hadn't been. I was a little put out by this.

As we came into dock, I was excited by the fact that I had put my feet on another continent. Then I realized, and said aloud, "Goddamn it - Antarctica is on the other end of the world! Idiot!"

*****

I disembarked onto a giant river delta with steamboats. Young Clint Eastwood was there in his poncho, auditioning for a movie. All he had to do was put a cigarette in his mouth, and he was cast. That's because he was auditioning for yet another western.


******


I don't recall dreaming about ice before - not on an ocean anyways.

Cats and Red Pandas

This dream was a last minute addition to what I believe was a zombie apocalypse dream - lots of running, two warring factions, etc.

*****

I found a baby red panda and took it "home" - though my home had a lot of arbors hanging with bougainvillea and what not. It felt a little Spanish in nature. But at some point I put the red panda in the refrigerator to let it sleep, and forgot about it. Then I remembered it and retrieved it, but it was so cold and small, and it was on a plate surrounded by what appeared to be soy sauce. I held it to my chest and tried to clean it off. I was so worried that it was going to die. I walked about, trying to remember what red pandas ate. Then I thought worried about how I was going to take care of the red panda when it was fully grown, and I couldn't hold it.

Then the little red panda came back to life and started to grow till it was about the size of a cat. I put it on a shelf, and then my other cats were there. One of them hissed and swiped at the panda, which growled back. I realized that it was not the mother cat, but one of toms, and scolded them. Then the panda snapped at me, and I hugged him and told him he shouldn't, because then I would have to abandon him.