Monday, September 06, 2010

My Brain is Weird

The dream started with me getting into an elevator. There was one other person, plus a courier with his bike, and we had to maneuver a little to all fit. He pressed 4. We pressed 2. The elevator went to 4. We pressed 2 again. It went to 1. We pressed 2 again. The elevator went sideways.

Then it went up on a diagonal and left the building, and we were climbing over the city, as if we were still in an elevator shaft. But there was no structure around it, and in fact no elevator, I suppose, since I could see everything around me (I think London). So I decided it was magic.



So at my destination, I was starting a new job. I was going to be working on Harry Potter stuff. Damon Lindelhof was in charge of everything. Meryl Streep was there, so I guess some of what we did was film. I hadn't been assigned to a project yet, but spent much of the bulk of the dream trying to compose my end-of-day "letter" (on a chalkboard, I think) to Damon, with the case for why I should be working on a couple of projects.

I finally left my "office" and went to the area where I check out, apparently. The compound was huge, with names on the sides of buildings, and I guess some of the people involved with the company lived on site. One building said "Baz" (supposed to be Baze, but whatever, brain) and I knew it was the actor who plays the dad on Life UneXpected. I had decided to go over and meet him. It was a reasonable thing to do, since we'd be working "together," and didn't freak me out because he's not one of those actors I would freak out from the pleasure of meeting.

But before I finished in the clock room (or whatever) he came in, and dropped his egg. (I know! Apparently, everyone had eggs.) It rolled across the floor cracked, so it left a long trail of goosh. I helped him clean it up with some big massive pile of fabric-covered thing that wasn't meant to be used to clean up egg white on linoleum. We chatted.

The dream fractured after that.

I flew again.

Then it was Harry Potter. I think we'd fallen out of the sky and were lying on a gravely courtyard. Some guy was barking at us, then told us someone was waiting for us, and Hedwig came running/flapping out of the building. She grabbed my hand with her foot, and I grabbed Harry's, and he grabbed the other person's, and we all got magically lighter and she flew us out of there. (Never mind that it's Fawkes who can do that, not Hedwig.)

Then I was in a car with my daughter, trying to find...something. All I really remember is a sharp hill that I finally decided had to lead to the road and I needed to drive over it. It was, of course, a cliff, and when I looked down and saw how far the fall was, I said "Oh, crap" and turned and lunged us both back to the top of the wall we'd just driven off, like in a video game. The car disappeared, physics reversed, etc. It was all so ridiculous I woke up.

See why I wake up tired every morning?

8 comments:

Susan Gourley/Kelley said...

Elevator flying over London? Charlie and the Chocolate Factory? It sounds like you had a long work day or was it night?

Natalie J. Damschroder said...

I used to only have dreams like these when I wasn't writing, but now that doesn't help, I still do it even when I'm immersed in a book. :(

Cynthia D'Alba said...

I've had those elevator dreams. Spinning elevators. Elevators through the roof. what do they mean, I wonder.

Natalie J. Damschroder said...

Hi, Cyndi! *waves wildly*

I posted this on my group blog, The Gab Wagon, too (I was being lazy!) and Monica said this about elevators:

"When you're on an elevator going up it symbolizes your inner self seeking higher spirituality and knowledge. Inner growth so to speak. The fact that you went up on a diagonal and left the building is sooo cool, because you were exploring your creative spiritual self."

Ava Quinn said...

Why can I never have cool dreams like this? Sigh. My subconscious is jealous of your subconscious.

Natalie J. Damschroder said...

That makes me giddy, because my wit is always jealous of your wit!

Cindy Procter-King said...

When I was in university I used to dream all the time that I was in a factory with a glass roof - kind of like a huge, multi-paned window. I'd put up my arm likes Superman, crash through the roof, and fly above the trees. I'd do somersaults. Then I attended a dream interpretation seminar for an article I was writing for journalism class, and they asked if anyone ever flew in their dreams. I was afraid to admit that I did. Then they asked if anyone's feet ever lifted a bit off the ground in their dreams, and several people put up their hands, so I did, too. They told us that flying in your dreams indicates stress, or trying to get release from stress. Considering I was always trapped in this factory at the beginning of the dream, that made sense to me. Because every time I had that dream, usually on barely no sleep, I'd wake up refreshed and ready to tackle my heavy English Lit schedule.

I stopped having the dreams after learning what they represented, which I thought was weird. Why would they stop.

A couple of weeks ago, I was under a lot of stress and not falling asleep (I wasn't at home). When I finally fell asleep, I dreamt I was levitating. But it wasn't refreshing at all. I thrashed about a great deal.

In the morning, one of our hosts revealed he'd had a bad sleep and had levitated, too! (Cue Twilight Zone musice).

Okay, TMI.

Natalie J. Damschroder said...

Being related to stress makes sense, too. I often dream I'm flying in a plane or a giant Victorian house or something, and whoever's flying it can't land it, or we have to land on a street or something. Not being in control is an obvious theme there, I would think.

Very weird about both of you dreaming the same thing!

Maybe not having the dreams anymore just meant you were more in touch with your subconscious and your baser needs.