Dream Journal #3

I can't stop thinking about the dream that I had last night. I had an 8:30 class this morning and I woke up naturally at 8:10... quite miraculously as I somehow forgot to set an alarm. I was very tempted to skip class so that I could sink back into my dream, but alas I did not. It wasn't that it was a particularly good dream, but for some reason parts of it were just very beautiful to me.

I was walking with a friend to a restaurant called the 10th Frame (the name of the bowling alley that we go to on Thursdays for free bowling). It had an amazing neon sign and it was surrounded by old buildings. It reminded me a lot of being in Dam Square in Amsterdam when there was a huge carnival going on-- the juxtaposition between the beautiful old buildings and the tacky, loud carnival. I was taking pictures of the neon sign and of the restaurant, but I stopped when the bouncer started questioning why on earth I would be interested in taking pictures of those silly things. We went inside of the restaurant with a group of people, and we had to walk down several flights of stairs and narrow hallways to get to the dining room. On the way I stopped to do some laundry, but I realized that I wouldn't be able to choose the items that I wanted to put in the dryer and which ones I wanted to air dry so they wouldn't shrink. It was very stressful at the time. The dining room was very familiar. I can see it so vividly in my mind, but at the same time I find it very hard to describe. I know there was a lot of deep red, it sort of seemed like it was on a boat, the ceiling wasn't very high, and it seemed somewhat cluttered but in an organized way.

It was night time when I went to the restaurant, but it was daylight as I was walking home. I lived on the beach in Scotland. It was beautiful. I've never seen anything so gorgeous in real life. The house was on a small cliff right on the beach, but instead of there being sand there were huge smooth rocks. I looked out over the water for a long time, several times throughout the dream. This is the part of the dream that I most wanted to revisit when I woke up. Even now, 3 hours later I can see the image so clearly in my mind as if I am still there.

I was standing out on the rocks with a friend (I wish I could remember who I was with) when I heard bagpipes. This is how I knew I was in Scotland. When I rounded a corner I saw a bunch of rugby or maybe soccer players. I think one team was British and the other was American. The American team had some really silly name and at the time, even though it wasn't really a dream where I was aware of the fact that I was asleep, I knew that that team didn't really exist. The traditional bagpipe music started morphing into something funkier and cool, but I remember being disappointed because I wanted to hear traditional music. The rugby/soccer players were having a sort of pep rally and they were about to do some sort of stunt with a lion.

I was transported from the beach to the Co-Op house where I live. The lion was inside too, but the rugby/soccer players were replaced by my friends. The lion was really scary to me, but not really to anyone else there it seemed. I thought that it was going to attack someone, but it was all a part of the stunt, and someone shot a tranquilizer dart at it, and it fell asleep on the stairs landing. I think that all of the people disappeared. I wanted to get out of the house before the lion woke up, and I also wanted to get outside to the beach again because it was so beautiful. I was having a lot of trouble finding my keys and finding clothes to wear. I can't remember if I ever found the keys, but I think that I did. I put on a pair of yellow cheerios socks. I don't even like cheerios. I was about to leave my house when I heard someone say "help me!" I think that it was the lion. He knew that he was waking up and that he might attack someone because it was in his nature, but he didn't want to, so he wanted me to give him a shot or something. I think the lion ended up running into the kitchen and disappearing. Then, I saw my friend Liam twitching on the ground. For some reason he was dying, or maybe someone had tranquilized him too. With his final breath he let out the word "home." Someone responded to this with "he misses his girlfriend."

I'm not really sure about the order of all of this, and it might have skipped around a bit. Also I know there was another bit where I was with a professor doing some research or something in a library. I think it might have been a real life job or something. I'm not really sure about that. This dream is going to be a bit harder to interpret, as there are so many elements to it... but I'll try to pick out the parts that seem most important.

Ocean/ beach: merging of conscious and subconscious; harmony; peace
Bagpipes: pleasant music means satisfaction and bad music means bad times are on the horizon
Soccer/rugby: mask your perspectives and beliefs regarding frightening sexual attitudes, watching a sports competition indicates that you are confronted with contradicting perspectives and rival thoughts.
Bowling: sexual triumph
Hallways:a sign of a changing aspect of your life
Stairs:implies a new beginning and development
Photography: a preoccupation to cherish and cling tightly to memorable images and events from the past
Laundry:You are conscious about how others perceive you and you wish to adjust to earn their approval
Restaurant: suggests a preference to seek emotional assistance from people outside your present social circle
Lion: you have many problems to solve
Keys: indicative of fearing the loss of seniority or rank in life, or even of losing self control
Death: you are missing certain traits that the person possesses
Home: It is a very special and private place to any person where one can be himself without any constraints

I was going to look for something similar to the beach that I saw in my dream on youtube, but as soon as I started looking, the image in my head faded a bit. I'm just going to try to hold on to that image for as long as I can. But here is a lovely clip of some good old bagpipe playing. And it just so happens that the setting of this clip is by the water. Woah, coincidence. Enjoy!