A Dog at Work

Interestingly, the end of September and the beginning of October find me sleeping well and dreaming regularly. If that trend continues, there should be a good number of dream-related posts appearing here this month.

This first dream entry for October documents a strange one. It contains people from my past, an environment from my past, and a strange activity on my part.

In my dream…

…I was a UPS employee at the old Mexico Center (located in Denver, IN – long since closed, the territory it served now covered by larger, nearby operating centers). The two other people who appeared in this dream were a boy who was a high school classmate and football teammate of mine, and a woman with whom I worked in Bloomington, IN. They were fellow employees of mine in this dream, and we were all nearly the same age, mid-twenty somethings.

The three of us were conspiring to keep and care for a dog at the workplace, and to do so at company expense. The rationale we were using was that the dog was a”watchdog” providing an extra measure of security. We were taking the position that UPS should pay for the dog’s food and care, and that we should be allowed to shop for the dog’s food, take him to the vet, etc. while were on the clock, being paid for that time by UPS.

Within the dream, we were being successful in this little project, though justifying the time and cost to higher-ups was an an ongoing challenge.

Caving, and a darned cellphone

Last night’s dream (well, Wednesday morning’s, actually) combined a few rather common elements, but did so in an unusual way.

There were clearly two distinct parts to this dream, the second part following events of first, and related to them, though involving a different set of concerns.

In my dream…

… I was 1.) living in Bloomington, Indiana, 2.) working as a UPS driver, and 3.) enjoying a favorite sport: exploring the wild caves in that part of the state. All three of these are things I actually did when younger and are things that often appear in my dreams.

There was one wild cave of which I was particularly fond, which had an entrance located only a few miles out in the county from where I was living. Of its many interesting features was a horrendously long, tight crawlway through which one had to pass in order to reach the larger rooms and more complicated passageways deeper in the cave. I came to love that cave and its long crawl, and often visited it alone. (I don’t endorse solo-caving, by the way. It’s an extremely dangerous activity.)

At any rate, in my dream I’d adopted the habit of driving to the cave and doing its long crawl as an early morning exercise: showering afterwards and then reporting for work. And in this dream a couple of my fellow UPS drivers wanted to do the “early morning crawl” with me. I had extra gear (helmets and carbide lamps) and decided to let them tag along.

This was the first part of my dream, and it didn’t go too well. The guys were able to follow me through the crawl all the way to where it opened up into the first big room. Of course, I moved at a slower pace than was my norm. After resting for a few minutes I told them we’d have to move faster on the way out if we wanted to make it to work on time. Now, being late is an unforgivable sin for a UPS man, so these guys said, “Okay, lead the way.”

And I moved quite a bit faster, falling quickly into my familiar rhythm. When I arrived at the front end of the crawl I was alone. I’d expected the other two to be well behind me, so I waited for them to come out. They never did.

Not wanting to be late, I ascended the rope and climbed out of the small pit that formed this particular entrance to the cave system. And still there was no sign of my two buddies. So I waited some more.

The second part of this dream found me still waiting above ground near our parked cars when start time at UPS got near and I had to call the Center to let them know I was going to be late. Only… I’d forgotten how to work my damned cellphone. I was holding it in my hand, but I did not know how to make the phone call.

And I stared at the phone in confusion for the longest time, not having the slightest clue what to do. Then it started ringing. And I knew it was a UPS driver supervisor trying to reach me, but I didn’t know how to answer the damned phone.

And still there was no sign of the two guys I’d taken into the cave. And there I was with a ringing cellphone I didn’t know how to work, late for work, not knowing whether or not my two friends had had an accident back in that crawlway, and…

… I woke up.

Whew! I was SO glad to see by my bedside clock that I’d had a good, long sleep. It was safe for me to start waking up. I did NOT want to return to that dream!

Last night’s three

In terms of both sleeping and dreaming, last night was upside-down for me. Usually my sleep is segmented with a longer, dreamless segment followed an hour or two later by a much shorter, but more dream-filled one. Last night’s first sleep was short, but contained two very detailed dreams, and the second sleep was much longer, and also included a detailed dream.

the first dream: In this dream I was an office worker (I’ve never been an office worker in real life) in a large, cubicled space. I seemed to know all of my fellow employees really well, though none of them reminded me of anyone I’ve ever known in the waking world.

Office politics and office romance were the main themes here. No one seemed to hold any antipathy toward anyone else. Practical jokes, laughter, and “messing around” in a storage closet were the main elements.

the second dream: The setting for this second dream was on a passenger train. Or, more precisely, it was outside of a train as those of us passengers were being transferred from one train to another. This transfer wasn’t being done at a normal train station, but out in the country where two sets of tracks seemed to parallel each other.

Strangely, even though it was a completely separate dream from the night’s first, many of the characters who were my fellow employees in that earlier dream, were fellow passengers with me in this one. And we knew each other in friendly ways.

My main concern in this dream was lost luggage. I almost always travel with two bags, and that was the case here. But in the transfer from one train to another, while all our luggage was laid out on the ground between the two trains, I’d somehow lost one of my bags.

I was almost ready to ask some of my friends to help me look for it when I woke from the dream.

the third dream: This was another UPS-themed dream. It found me making some very late, special deliveries to key personnel in a large, downtown bank that also happened to be a covert, heavily armored government facility of some kind. I was racing from office to office, from floor to floor, trying to get all the packages delivered before the building was locked down for the night. I’d just made my final delivery and was literally running for the door as the security officer stood there, keys in hand, holding it open for me.

A boating dream

It seems that returning to a healthy sleep pattern and regular dreaming (regular dreaming being an important part of healthy sleep, in my humble opinion) is taking longer than I thought it would. But the impact of that early-mid February interruption will fade with the passing of time, I’m sure. And all will eventually return to normal.

Since returning to San Antonio I’ve been having a number of dreams that involve actual, living people whom I know in real life. And you do remember my policy in that regard, don’t you? Those are dreams about which I do not post out of respect for the privacy of others.

Last night, however, I had a “safe” dream: one I can write about.

In my dream…

…there was a lot of water, and me in a boat with other people having fun. This is rather odd because I’ve actually spent very little time, ever, on boats. I’ve never owned one, never been on a cruise, and have never been one to spend recreational time on boats. While I have enjoyed the hobby of fishing at different times in my life, I’ve either fished from piers or from the shore – pretty much always.

But in my first sleep of the night (which is not the one that usually brings me dreams, by the way) I was a passenger with unidentified friends on a respectably sized motor boat taking part in some sort of regatta on Lake Michigan. The boat in which I was riding was one of several traveling in a rather large circle, and there were folks riding jet-skis zooming around us and amongst us.

This was all taking place on a bright, sunny afternoon. Everyone was laughing and having a good time.

I have absolutely no idea where this happy dream came from nor why I had it. But I liked it.

Happiness is a precious commodity and one to be treasured, both in real life and in dreams.

Strange coffee

Last night’s dream was long, vividly clear, and smoothly (though strangely) segued through three main parts.

In my dream…

1st part:
I was brewing myself some coffee in the kitchen of a house in which I’ve never lived. I almost bought the house once, though. It was showed me by a realtor decades ago and, for a short while, I considered making an offer on it.

When I poured out the coffee from the glass carafe, it was a pale yellow color, almost as if I’d only put a tiny bit of ground coffee into the machine. This was a surprise, since the coffee I make is always very strong, stronger than most people like.

Since I was in a hurry and was planning to take the coffee with me in a traveling cup, I looked in the kitchen cabinet for some instant to mix in with the extremely weak though hot stuff I’d just poured. What I found on the shelf was the instant coffee I expected in its store-bought jar. And there was something unexpected, too. There was a large test tube filled with what appeared to be instant coffee crystals.

Looking closely at the crystals in the test tube, I could see no difference between them and what was in the jar. And they smelled the same. So I decided to pour the “mystery” coffee into my cup and see what happened. To my surprise the coffee, if that’s what it was, started bubbling and foaming like something you’d see in a cartoon, the foam spilling out over the top of the cup. Woh!

Since I was short on time, I decided to take the strange brew with me.

2nd part:
The next part of the dream found me walking along the sidewalk of Fourth Street, near the IU main campus in Bloomington, IN. It was late afternoon, and apparently some festivities were underway.

All the little restaurants had placed extra chairs and tables out front of their establishments, bistro style. This made for some very close quarters, and I had difficulty navigating my way along, trying to avoid bumping into folks as they sat eating.

And the coffee cup I carried was still bubbling and foaming. Everybody seemed just as surprised at that as I was.

3rd part:
Someone called to me from the big front porch of a chapter house belonging to one of the campus fraternities.

Walking up the steps I shook hands with the guys at the railing then made my way over to the friend who’d hollered at me. We chatted for a bit, then he started telling me about a common house called the “Cowboy Palace.” He was convinced I should move there. I wasn’t so convinced (he was always giving me unsolicited advice) but I listened anyway.

Then, during a lull in our conversation, I took a deep breath, leaned back and…

…woke up.