New York City Dreamin'... Doesn't Have the Same Ring

I haven't written a blog post in months. This will probably seem like a crazy post to come back to. But oh well, my life has been a little topsy-turvy lately anyway. This post is about a dream that I had last night. I'm used to having crazy dreams, but this one struck me as different for some reason.

The setting is New York City, and it's apparently September 11, 2001. Note that date... I'm sure you already have. I'm on the streets of Lower Manhattan, suspiciously close to the World Trade Center towers. I think it starts with me, early in the morning, hanging around outside a coffee shop. I see people going to work, with their Starbucks in hand. Then I wander into a subway, and there is the first peculiarity - I see former WCW/WWE wrestler Dean Malenko, the "Man of 1,000 Holds". Yeah... I haven't thought about Dean Malenko in yeeeeears. So that would be weird enough. I think I may have asked Dean something about when he'll resume his wrestling career. Either way, I know that we greeted each other like old friends.

Next, I am in some kind of store, looking at, I believe, touristy-type merchandise. The store owner seeme to be this hippie woman, with red hair in braids, but she was very friendly. I walk back outside, and that's when I look up to see one of the two planes (I'm not sure which one) striking one of the World Trade Center towers. It seems like it may have been the second plane, but oddly, I had not even reacted to the first one if I knew it had hit. Either way, I do remember feeling very shaken by this (duh).

I'm not sure what happened in between, but next I am listening to a man giving a speech outside the store I mentioned above. It was apparently about terrorism and what our response should be to this tragedy. That's when I look up, and see that the building is starting to collapse. Naturally, I'm terrified. I duck into the store again, trying to outrun the now wave of smoke and debris making it's way from the tower down the street in front of me. It grows dark as night in the store and people are screaming. All of a sudden, instead of being in the store, I'm in some sort of SUV with my now ex-fiance, Amanda. We are trying to outrun the still-charging cloud, but there's only one problem... the SUV will apparently only go in reverse. I'm looking out the back window as we continue down a hill, and I see a park with a lake. For some reason... we apparently cannot turn OR stop the vehicle either. Sure enough, we continue on, and crash into the middle of said lake.

I think this is where the dream ends, sort of anti-climatically. If there was more, it was the kind of situation where I had forgotten it by the time I woke up. That always frustrates me actually. I have a strange dream in the middle of the night, wake up, fall back asleep, and then have ANOTHER dream that causes me to forget much of the first one. The dream I described here was striking enough that I woke up in the middle of the night and almost wrote down these thoughts. But, it was also important enough that I am able to remember details twelve hours later (though probably not all details). It involved such an important event in our lives, that I think it really struck a nerve.

Very strange, and not a type of dream I would like to have again, any time soon.

Crazy Dreams

I can dream almost any time I fall asleep. If I hit "snooze" on the alarm in the morning, and drift back to sleep in that nine minute period, I can usually have another dream. I've been told that this means I am not getting a very restful sleep, though I seem to be doing okay. Nevertheless, my mind usually tells some interesting stories during the night. I just thought I would share some of last night's.

It starts with my parents and I riding around Chattanooga (if you are in Nooga or familiar with the area, we were apparently on Amnicola Hwy). Somehow I take a wrong turn before I get to Dupont Pkwy, and end up in an area near the river that I had never even been to. This area had all sorts of shopping establishments and restaurants, including a mall that I didn't even know existed.

So, we go in this mall and start looking around. Before we know it I look at my watch and notice it's almost 2:00 in the morning. This security guard comes up to us about this time and tells us the mall is about to close (I wonder exactly what kind of shops were in this mall to be closing at 2?). When we step outside, the sun is up and it's bright as day outside. Naturally, I'm freaking out. We start driving down the road, just wondering what the heck is going on. Suddenly the "sun" starts moving across the sky. We realize that this is not our sun, but actually a comet. A few moments later, it apparently explodes somewhere in the earth's atmosphere. We heard the explosion, but apparently it didn't do any damage around us. Still, scary stuff.

Apparently I woke up after the comet explosion, but went back to sleep. That is when the second dream took place. In this dream I was being released from jail (!) and the year seems to be 2012. Strangely, I get out wearing a dress shirt and slacks, and I am desperately searching for a necktie. I find myself in an old, rundown factory where I must have had some items stored while I was incarcerated. Unfortunately my items are not there. Of all people, Larry the frickin' Cable Guy (I'm not a big fan) was there to tell me that while I was locked up, the country had completely fallen apart (I could make a political rant here, but I'll spare you all). Cities had been burned and communism had apparently taken over. At this point, I don't know what to do.

I somehow find a phone, and now call my parents for help. My mom answers and I tell her that I have been released from jail, and want to come home. She is hesitant, though. Apparently I was locked up for "supposedly" killing somebody (!), though I know that I was innocent. My own mother isn't sure though. She doesn't know if she wants me to come home. However, in the next instant I am back in Florence at my parents' house. My brother begins to tell me what all has changed in the three years I was in prison. For some reason, instead of telling me how the country became full-on communist, he is more concerned with updating me on TV storylines. I was happy to learn that my current favorite show, Two and a Half Men, is still on the air in 2012.

So there you have it. I believe there were a few other parts of my dream world last night - I recall being in the backyard of my childhood home, looking over the fence at a pool party happening next door. But this "story" is very hazy. Unfortunately I tend to forget my dreams almost as soon as I wake up, unless I write them down. Hopefully you have enjoyed the parts I did remember.