"Hidey Ho" The Sandman Goes

I don't eat weird food before I go to bed. I haven't swallowed a toothpick or watched horror movies. So I have no idea why it is that when I lay my head on my pillow at night my odd little brain begins to work overtime as the sandman tries impress me with the bizarre. Usually, I wake up the next morning extremely puzzled. They seem real enough. I laugh, cry, fly, or get stuck in the automatic doors. (I'll explain later) However, when you analyze them later, they are atrociously unconventional.

My dreams, for the most part aren't scary. I don't wake up in the middle of the night terrified, well except for once or twice. As, I told my mom, "When I have a dream, there are usually bad guys and even guns but I never get hurt and I am always the hero." To which my mom replied, "Of course, that sounds just like you." What can I say, I got a little Belle with a touch of Odette in me. The adventurous hero and the distressed princess waiting on her prince rolled into one. I could write blog post after blog post on the strange dreams I have had over the years but I will condense it into just one.

When I was little my reoccurring dream consisted of me standing on the highest point of grandma's brick ledge out in the front of her house, flapping my arms up and down until I was lifted into the air by a magic force and started to fly. Sometimes it took me several tries. But, it was always worth it. Flying dreams are the best. Until, your high in the air and you can't land because your vision won't zoom in. I know it sounds weird, and it is, but it happened. It was as annoying as another problem that often arose in my dreams. I would often go into a building but when I tried to get out, the automatic doors would not let me leave!! Grrr... frustrating!

The people in my dream often cause problems as well. For one thing, they change from one person to another. For example: I had a dream once that I was in a large conference room with random people. Some men burst into the room with guns and started shooting. We tried to escape through the dumbwaiter but there were blades at the bottom that would have shredded us. Suddenly, I am climbing out a window with my Aunt Julie and Benjamin Franklin. After we swam across a swimming pool, I found myself in my grandma's quiet room hiding under a blanket and behind a chair when someone came in looking for me. When he left I knew I had to call 911 but I couldn't remember the number so I pulled out the phone book. (I also can't remember logical things in my dreams.) Instead of my aunt and Franklin, my friends Erika, Aaron and Mark were all hiding in the woods out back. Like I said, people change and it makes no sense. Not only that, people and places look different but are the same. In my dreams I am positive I am with someone or in a particular place but neither look the way they do in real life.

Sometimes people don't change but they are random. People I haven't talked to in ages or barely know make an appearance. For instance, I once had a dream that 2 guys from my home church showed up in.  I hadn't been home in ages, let alone seen them! But, in my dream Paul Snyder came to tell me goodbye as he ventured to a new school and Amos Bloyer asked for prayer on imperative decision of becoming a Taco Bell manager in Decatur AL. All I can say is good luck to Paul if he ever decides to change schools and if Amos is ever offered a managing position at Taco Bell take it! LOL

It's not just the strange encounters with people in my dreams but also where I end up in my dreams that tend to be strange. One of the strangest and most distressing dreams I have had started at Camp Gilead. I was a counselor, and as we were playing games my shoe flew off. Just before we all loaded up in a big yellow bus to go to the high ropes place. I had to take some campers back to the cabin so they could go to the bathroom. I was rushing them out of the cabin and towards the bus when I realized I didn't have a shoe! I ran to my house which was a tree house, and scurried up to find a shoe. I tried to yell at Rob to tell him not to leave me but that didn't work! They left me and I wasn't with my campers! Juan was going to kill me I was sure of it! So, thinking I knew how to get there I hopped in my car and started off. I was driving down a big road through a town with lights, but suddenly, I was without a car walking through a corn field and I was totally lost! Finally, I stumbled across an old run down camp, that consisted of some run down low ropes courses, an old bus that looked like it didn't run and an old farm house. I went and knocked on the door desperate for help. An old man with a can opened the door. I could see his daughter or granddaughter in the background. I told him that I was lost and where I needed to be, asking for directions. He looked at me, shook his head and in a shaky, old voice said, "Don't worry it happens to me all the time! Just sleep for 45 minutes and it will all go away." Exasperated, I tried to explain that sleeping wouldn't help, I was lost! Funny thing is, if I had taken his advice, it would have worked. Don't worry I eventually got to my campers at the high ropes place.

People say that dreams are "a wish your heart makes," or "a collection of your deepest thoughts." I think all my dreams prove is a have a very overactive imagination and my mind works so fast at night that my thoughts get very combobulated.

Simply put: It is not strange for me to have strange dreams....