The One Where I Get to Hug Wil Goodbye

In real life, my friend Wil recently died suddenly and I did not get to say goodbye, and his funeral was family-only.

In the dream, we were standing in an open field playing catch with a wiffle ball.  He was throwing the ball firmly and directly to me and I was catching it easily with one hand.  I was throwing it back in a little more complicated ways, but he also caught the ball; we didn't drop it once.

Eventually, I realized that he had died, and that it was a dream.  I ran to him and gave him a big hug and woke up crying, but feeling a bit happy that in some way I got to hug him goodbye.

The One With The Frog Dissections

I have a class today on instrument-assisted soft tissue mobilization (IASTM) and last night I had a nightmare where I was in class but we had to do frog dissections. 

We were given tadpoles that were frozen and we had to reconstitute them by pouring "440" over them, which was an alcoholic beverage like 151 rum but a different number.  We'd leave them in a container for a few minutes and very quickly they went from tadpoles to frogs, of all different types and sizes.

Then we had to kill them before dissecting, so people were spread out all over trying to kill the frogs - I was walking around trying to find a spot to do it, even though I didn't want to do the dissection at all.  People were around the room, in stairwells, everywhere, trying all kinds of methods to kill the frogs with varying success.

Some were using ligatures to try to strangle the frogs, I think I was going to try drowning the frog.

That's pretty much all I remember.

Dying In Your Dreams

I've heard several times in several places that if you die in your dreams, you die in real life.  I've even seen debates about how you can't prove it because if someone dies in their dream and dies in real life you'd never know.

Yes, you can verify it because I died in my dream and I'm still alive.  I had someone poke me with a stick just to be sure I wasn't a ghost like in my dream after I died...

Dream: The One Where I Die

Have you ever died in your dreams?  If not, how close have you come?  I'd love to hear about it... post a comment and let me know.

The One With The Liver Cancer

Last night I had a dream that I had a tumor on my liver that had metastasized.  The dream occurred on a Friday and a dentist was due to remove my liver on the following day, in the evening.  It wasn't a transplant - they were just going to remove the liver, but it meant I was going to die - they essentially were going to put me down.

So the whole dream, I knew that I had about a day and a half to live and most of the dream was trying to get everything in order.

I wrapped up work where I'm currently employed and went to the place where I worked previously and returned a folder of work that I had kept with me for many years for some reason.  I was trying to make sure that all the loose ends of my life were tied up.  Mxxx, a lady I worked with was still there and I returned the work to her and updated her with what needed to be done.  Outside her office was Kxxx, I guy I worked for at my current employer and he was sitting at the desk in his office, but the desk was pushed against the door frame, with him facing out.

Next, I remember being in a house with a little African American girl that I don't think I knew in the dream, but I was telling her about stuff.  She was probably about 8 or 9 and she said, "Do you know what you're doing?  You're saying goodbye."  I said that I knew, and I started crying.

Then I was outside in her yard and the kids from her large family were walking in a line, single file, toward the house.  There were probably 10 or 12 kids.

I went to my parents' house next, and my mother and father were doing some work in the garage.  I asked my mom to call the dentist and ask for another week so I could have more time to get my life in order.  I wanted to sit down with my parents and let them know how my stuff and money needed to be allocated out.  My mom said that they wouldn't do it, but I remember telling her that it doesn't hurt to ask.

While my mom was making the call, I left the garage and stood in the driveway with my sister.  The little girl down the street was playing in the road near her house and I hid behind a tree so that she wouldn't see me and come over.  But the little girl's mother threw a frisbee into a large bush in my parents' yard, so the little girl headed over.  While I was in the driveway waiting, I heard my mom tell the doctor's office that the little girl had said that she was upset because Uncle Dan had pouty lips and looked confused.  She made that up to try to convince them to move the appointment.

My mom finished the call, and the administrative assistant named Joanne told her that the doctor wouldn't or couldn't move the appointment and that I'd just have to resent it.

I woke up in real life, recorded my dream on my phone, and when I went back to sleep I re-entered the dream.  The only thing I remember from the second round was that Jxxx was ignoring me even though I was dying.  He said that he had other stuff to do.

The One With the Movie About Violent Sleep Disorders

I was in a large department store in the men's department looking at some sandals that were just basically regular black shoes with lots of the leather cut out to make them strappy - there were lots of straps.

I was trying to find a pair that was 1/2 a size smaller than the ones I tried on but I was surprised that the size 31's fit me as well as they did - they ran small obviously because I normally wore a 29 or so.

Being in a department store in a normal situation turned into it being night, after closing, and instead of being the retail sales floor, it was the warehouse or storage area of the store.

It was after closing, but there were a number of people in there looking around.  I remember a girl and a blond guy in addition to me.  I think the girl either had a bike or was looking for one.

I had a weird role in the dream.  The idea of the dream was that it was actually a movie.  I was kind of at the same time just a 3rd party observer and one of the main characters, it seemed.

The premise of the movie was some people that had sleep disorders so when something in life bothered them (say, being touched by other people), they would react in their sleep (like sleepwalking).

One guy with dark hair (I couldn't really tell if he was me or not) didn't like to be touched and would kick people in the head (I think he explained it that he would kick you in the eye) in his sleep.

But, I also remember "being" a different person (feeling like what it was to be inside them, kind of) and his reaction was just less-specific violence.  I remember the feeling picking someone up by the neck and holding them against a wall.

There were two other guys looking for shoes (sneakers) but they were moving stuff around.  They put stuff really high up on a fixture in the middle of the floor, and I remember while looking around some of the shoe boxes fell on me.

These two guys were up to no good, unlike the rest of us who were just looking around.  Once the boxes fell, the bad guys got agitated and wanted our contact information.  We questioned that and the blond kid explained that they wanted our e-mail addresses, etc. so they could place us in the warehouse to prevent us from snitching on them.

While the bad guys were agitated, they were pushing us around and grabbing our arms and stuff and at least one of us warned them not to touch us because of the disorders.

Next thing I remember was being "inside" another guy - a black guy - who was walking home.  I think he was in the warehouse (good guy - one of a total of 4 good people in the warehouse who were the main characters in the movie with sleep disorders) but don't remember seeing him beforehand.  He walked by this hooker who was lying on the sidewalk and people were pouring gas on her and set her on fire.  She was strung out on heroine so she didn't know what was going on.

They tried to lay another hooker (not as strung out) next to her and do the same and they snuggled up to each other, as if to protect each other from sleeping on the sidewalk.  They were both on fire, but it took a while for the first hooker to exhibit some distress - she was waving her arms around and the second wrapped her in a the foil lined blanket they were lying on.

The first hooker died, but the second was fine (even though she was exposed to the flames), so one of the bad people (I think it was a short woman that reminded me to Snookie) stabbed her in the stomach with a really big kitchen knife - shaped like chef's knife but much wider.

It seems as those the bad guys in the warehouse were in a gang or something and were killing people to establish a serial killer or something - maybe as something to implicate us in?  I think they wanted to find six people to kill.

The dude I was inside kept walking toward home, up a hill, when some guy jumped him from behind, pulled his hoodie over his head and tried to tie the strings.  I remember thinking this was a normal risk in his neighborhood - to get mugged this way.  The guy/me ended up throwing the guy over his shoulder, Judo style, kind of down the hill.

The guy left because there was a cop car whose dash camera was filming the whole thing.  The car belonged to the guy's uncle or dad, who he lived with.

He got to the porch where his aunt or mom was with his dad, and they were like "What the hell's going on?"  In his head he knew these bad people were trying to get something or had something on him.

The One With the Grim Reaper

One of my horror movie dreams.  There was a town and this serial killer / mass murderer was hanging out there killing people off.

A kid said to me in the dream that the killer was there just to make headlines but he had a feeling he would end up killing off about a third of the town’s population.  I remember going to some dinner when I knew he would be coming and killing people but I hid in some little room that kind of was like a confessional.  I also remember him appearing on top of some big structure dressed like the grim reaper and killing some kid with the scythe.

"What Did I Dress For Halloween"

Somehow this dream had a title: “What Did I Dress For Halloween”. I’m not sure how that happened, but I knew it when I woke up. This dream was a bit different because although I didn’t open my eyes, I’m pretty sure it happened in the middle of the night instead of the morning close to waking. I went to sleep very early last night, so I guess that it happened around midnight or so.

At the beginning of the dream, there were two boats - canoe-ish boats that are pushed along by oars (not rowing), not unlike the water taxis in Venice although not as nice.

A fight of sorts was imminent, so we had to descend (with the boats) underwater to a two-room shack. On my side of the fight was Mohinder (or someone that looked like him) from the TV show Heroes, an older man and perhaps two other people. There was a young boy, perhaps 6 or 7 years old but I’m still unclear which side he was on.

While underwater, we could either hold our breath indefinitely, or we could breathe underwater. I’m not sure which. I don’t remember feeling the sensation of breathing during the dream, nor the sensation of holding my breath.

On the other side of the fight was at least one old American Indian man. I believe there was a young boy on his side, too, but I can’t remember if there were two boys or not.

We sent Mohinder down in a boat on his own as bait to distract the other side while we set the shack up as a base or sanctuary. I remember there being a light in the boat with him, glowing green I believe, and knowing that it was a sacrificial move.

The young boy drowned somehow, and the old man from the other side someone got into the first room of our shack. I fought with him by forcefully slapping his forehead with both of my hands, each time causing his head to crack open (like the movie Kung Fu Hustle when the old woman breaks the top off the funeral bell). Each time it cracked, pumpkin seeds came out of his head, kind of oozing out of the crack. I don't recall him really doing anything to fight back physically.

When his head was cracked about halfway, he said that he wanted to stop but I told him that it was too late, because he was already dead.

At that point, it became apparent that for some reason, when people were dying they were hanging around. I wasn’t sure if it was because we were underwater, because it was dark (it was nighttime) or for some other reason. But I knew that it wasn’t permanent - if something changed, they would “move on”. I speculated in my head that perhaps once they were exposed to sunlight they would die for real. Mohinder died and moved on because he was going to die anyway and it was his time.

Toward the end of the dream I realized that other famous people had spent time in that underwater shack. I “saw” a poster of faces but I don’t think it was a real poster - I just visualized it. It was of famous people that either had disappeared or died or were hounded by paparazzi. I remember Princess Diana and I think it included Amelia Earhart.

The One with the Hostage Situation(s)

The first part of the dream that I remember was that I was having dinner with some people, or at least we were in a place where people were having dinner. A group of hit-men came and threw these long grenade-type missiles at a table that blew up. I remember them being white and spinning around in the air.

These men were either assassins or mobsters that did jobs, and it seemed that I was often in the general area...

As I was running away from the scene, it became clear that somehow, unwittingly, I knew at least one of the hit-men. Someone was either asking me how I knew him or commented on how I got mixed up with the wrong crowd.

Next, I remember being in a bookstore, near the entrance, perhaps in a mall. It was like Borders or Barnes and Noble. The hit-men had followed me or something, but they weren’t chasing me specifically. At this point they all had guns and we all were lying on the floor. I think they were dressed in all black like SWAT guys or something.

A man near me was gathering little pieces of paper and was going to write something on it (on my dictation machine I used to record some dreams I said it said, “I can see it, can you?”) and he was going to try to do something to stop them. Like maybe a gun was going to fall and he was going to grab it. The guy needed a pen, and was going to actually try to get one from one of the gunmen, but I ended up giving him the pen.

But then this younger woman was trying to get money out of the ATM. I think she was one of the assassins’ targets. They knew that she was going to try the ATM, the card wouldn’t work and that’s how they were going to find her and confirm she was the one. She also needed a pen to sign a check that I think she was going to deposit.

All this time, we’re lying on the floor and the other guy with the paper and I were between two tables that books were on, or between two bookshelves, because it felt like a small place but relatively safe. They told her to come with them because her ATM wasn’t working, and I said, “You know, they’re going to shoot that poor woman, but don’t worry about it because we’re going to get through it.”

They started loading us onto the bus/train and I said, “Don’t look, they’re going to do it.” As we were driving away, they shot her by the ATM.

The inside of the train/bus was kind of like school bus - with seats that sat two, maybe three adults, and there was a longer, bench-type seat in the back that went all the way across the width. The train/bus changed shape a couple of times in the dream, however. It went from the bus configuration to more of a freight train car with a big ramp later on.

While it was the bus, I was sitting with an older woman as we were hostages, and I told her to move toward the front, because I had a bad feeling about our situation. It felt like I had the dream before, so I knew a little bit about what was going to happen.

A guy got onto the bus with a dog that was handicapped - it looked like it was missing a foot and was in general bad shape, and the guy looked like he might be homeless or something. But I knew in the dream that they were both faking it (including the dog who was trained to feign injuries) - they just wanted to get on the bus. I think the man was secretly a policeman or SWAT person or something.

As the guy moved to the back (at this point it transitioned to more of a freight train car type of deal with the big ramp... going up to a second level for storage or something), I followed them to the back and got like a greek salad. The salad dressing was like urine mixed with something. One of the hostage takers was like, “What is that?” I replied that it was some sort of ethnic food. But it turned out to just be Greek salad and I offered to give it to him, and he took it and put the dressing on the salad.

Then all of a sudden the train had stopped suddenly because we hit something and I was running forward toward the open front of the train car (the whole front was open). I would have been sliding or flying forward because of the sudden stop, but I was definitely running. I went flying out the front of the car onto the ground.

Something then slammed into the back of the train and the whole thing caught on fire. People started running out, including the hostage-takers. I ran in to try to save some people that were still in there - the old woman from before and another older black woman that reminded me of the older black woman in Speed.

But the old woman that I was talking to before decided to stay in there with her little dog - a little white dog - I think it was a poodle. I think she said something like she had lived long enough. I think the other woman was going to stay with her.

In the dream, I knew ahead of time that the train was going to get hit from behind but that I was going to be ejected just before that happened and that I wasn’t going to be injured. I also knew ahead of time that the woman was going to want to stay in the train.

The One with the Mugging and the Dead Vice Principal

In this dream, I was someone else... like I was watching it in the first person. I was at the mall in my father's car. I was in college student and I was waiting to pick up my father who was at the mall doing something. Some kid either opened my door or came to my window and robbed me. He held a knife to my throat and wanted to take all of my money. I gave it to him (which wasn't a lot) and my father came and ended up giving him all of his money as well and the kid left. A guy from work was in the dream at some point; I think he was a police officer. I think we filed a report with him, or something.

I ended up finding out who the kid was that robbed me somehow. I had to go around a neighborhood trying to find where his house was. Once I found him, I ended up being nice to him and we ended up being friends. We had a class together in school.

The classes took place in classrooms that were in storefronts in the mall, kind of interspersed among the other, regular stores in the mall. So this kid, I can't remember his name exactly but I thought it was three letters but I want to say it was Alex, became kind of someone I was trying to take under my wing and turn him around.

At one point we were in a hallway (at this point it seemed like a regular high school and not a mall) and there were a bunch of people outside gathering around an event that was happening. It turns out Alex had strangled one of the vice principals of the school (Mr. XXXXXX, it seems, from my high school in real life). We looked outside and we saw the VP lying in the road covered in a blanket or tarp. There was a girl near us - I think she was taking nursing or something - saying she tried to help him in his last moments.

We all went back to class, including Alex, and were sitting in a classroom, but on the floor on the perimeter of the room (this is how we always sat, it seems). Alex came in last. He sat in the middle of the classroom because he knew no one would want to sit next to him, but then he asked if he could next to me and I said he could. Everyone was staring at him. There was one guy that was getting all up in arms against him and I stood up to defend him. I was going to tell the story about how he robbed me and how he had made so much progress.

There was a girl named Temika in the classroom that we knew and her sister opened the door to the class and pointed a gun at me and fired. But Temika had put a blank in the gun, almost knowing that she was going to do that. I followed her out into the hallway and tackled or tripped her and ended up bashing her head into the wall until she was unconscious.

I came back into the classroom and started telling people that Alex was one of the most misunderstood people I had ever met. People thought he was stupid, and he's not. People didn't know that he had a hard life. Then I started telling the story about how we had met and how he had robbed me and that I had gotten to know him and we became friends even after that. Temika was going to defend him too.

It was a very long dream and there were a lot of other details I can't remember.

The One Where I Die

I had a dream that I died. I was in an elevator with this guy I think I knew, his name was ‘Rom’. I was teaching people to jump when you’re at the top of a building just as the elevator starts to go down and you kind of free-fall for a second. Somehow we found out in advance that we knew we were going to die.

We tried to get off another floor but it opened onto the same floor anyway (the one that we were going to die on) like you couldn’t avoid it once you found out. I think I knew that I was going to be killed by a helicopter, like we would walk out onto a roof and the helicopter would crash into us and I actually would end up getting cut in half by the blades.

And then I remember going back to kung fu and watching some of the kids do forms and the was one little girl that was talking through the form, she was like, ‘grab and step and shuffle and step and step.’ Then I remember seeing my dad and I was surprised that he could see me, but it was like I was getting a chance to say ‘goodbye’ to everybody and so I did that but then I went back home and it’s like I was like a ghost – like I wasn’t leaving anywhere. And it was like they knew I was there, and they would even set a place setting for me at dinner and at one point I was like, ‘Can I have a blue soda?’ and they gave me a blue soda. It was like I wasn’t really dead.

And then I remember in another part I was with friends and they didn’t know I was dead. I was like, ‘well, Rom and I have to get going…’ and I looked at one friend and thought it was someone like Marty (or maybe it was Scott?) and I said ‘Oh, I’m probably never going to see you guys again blah blah blah.’ And I looked at Scott and said ‘Oh, I’ll try to visit, don’t be scared, OK?’ I left and I think Rom was going somewhere else. I think we were going somewhere like purgatory, but I’m not sure. And we got these like whistles I think someone was about to try one, but then I woke up. I was thinking after I woke up maybe they called you to go wherever it is you were supposed to go. I also remember looking at the back of the kung fu building and kind of realizing I’d be drawn back to that in another life. Like, we always come back to the same places and hang out with the same people every time.

The One When Charissa Tried to Kill Me

I had a dream during a nap that this woman (she looked like Charissa from work) was trying to kill me – shoot me with a gun. I ended up killing her after she got the police (who had come to arrest her) to put the right handcuffs on her that allowed her to shoot me. The cuffs had the right letter or writing or something on them that matched up with either my middle name or my middle initial. They had to match before she could shoot me.

Somehow I managed to hide and miss getting shot and somehow got the gun and shot her. I shot at her once, I think it either hit her in the head or missed her or hit her in the head AND didn’t really hit her, and then I got her once in the face hear her nose and a policewoman was like ‘oh [ew] look at the hole.’

I ran upstairs to where my mom was (somehow I get the impression that she was sick and had to stay in bed but don’t remember anything specific about it). I looked over the balcony (I think we were in a hotel with this weird play-type of equipment and I recall seeing photos of her and a friend playing on this water equipment – it was like air filled plastic balloon like play set type of things similar to McDonald’s equipment) and saw them putting her in a body bag. I was so unsure if she was really dead.

Then I had to get ready to go to some function – Veronica’s baby shower I think. I was going to call Jeff to see what he got her because I didn’t have time to shop for a present like I was planning on. (Lisa’s baby shower is coming up in real life). I woke up discombobulated - it was a really long nap – I went to take a 20-minute nap at like 5:30 when I got home and woke up at 8:08 (my alarm said 8:15). I thought it was the morning but was confused because it was dark out so I thought it was just before my alarm usually goes off. Since I thought I was late, I was going to call in sick to work, but then realized it was night and still Thursday.

The One with the Coffins

I was helping the guy that did my home inspection prepare some coffins (well more like wooden crates) for a family that died. I was helping him with the kid’s coffin – I was helping him remove burned-on lettering like on lumber from the store. We were using paint thinner and Q-tips. The kid’s clothes, a tennis racquet and some other plaything to be buried with him were in a paper bag. I saw cockroaches coming up from a hole in the ground and I was freaked… I didn’t know what they were at first and my Mom identified them. The inspection guy wasn’t going to bury the kid – he said that was an old law (that they actually had to bury him). I think he was going to sell the body? The cockroaches were huge – like 4”. I don’t really know what a cockroach looks like, but these kind of had these little shield things behind their necks.

When the inspector first came, he drove a pickup truck, and starting putting duct tape around the bottom edge of it, saying they were supposed to have measured it – like he was going to run out of the tape. He didn’t.

Another weird thing: Today I read CNN and there was a story about a man that was arrested in Atlanta for not actually cremating/burying people!! He kept them behind the crematory.