Dreams 8/13

 

 8/13

  Dan and I were in the souvenir shop at the inn looking at a DOLLS magazine. A Schoenhut boy that I had seen at the Nazareth auction, refinished with a new wool wig and blue sailor suit, was on the cover. I told him that I knew the doll. 

  The following dream took place at a really posh hotel with many storeys, twists, and turns. Mummy and Carl were there from the start. I checked into my room on the Trafalgar floor, or at least, I think, that’s what it was called. Mummy and Carl were on the same floor. There were old-fashioned, long, mahogany painted lockers outside my room, and I put all of my money in a small white envelope inside. I chatted with Mummy before meeting my neighbor, Mike’s girlfriend, and two daughters. The woman was tall and big, and they all had long blonde hair and blue eyes as big as saucers. We were walking along, chit chatting, and stepped out onto a breezeway. A fat greasy white man with messy brown hair and rimmed glasses stopped the blonde and gave her a squeeze; she seemed distressed. At this point Carl caught up with me, and we reentered the grand hotel with gleaming carved dark wood bannisters and colorful art deco style. I realized that I hadn’t locked my locker, so we attempted to rush back to our floor only to realize that we were incredibly lost and had no idea where we were or how to get back. We entered a golden lit room with a mound of souvenirs tagged for sale, stacked like a layer cake. There were old-fashioned dolls dressed in gingham, cotton and felt worked quilted squares with doll faces, plush stuffed JAWS ghost sharks, enormous Raggedy Ann puzzles, and lots more. The vintage valentine with a little blonde girl dressed in a white snowsuit and riding a red rocket reminded me that I had forgotten that it was Valentine’s Day, and I wondered about it. Carl asked what my favorite thing in the pile was, and I told him that I liked the quilted doll squares, and he agreed. Two little girls, maybe three, but very small for their age, whizzed past us. I stopped the brunette and asked her if she knew how to get back to the Trafalgar floor, and she told us that she did. However, she chased the other up a dark wood spiral staircase like a couple of rabbits and left us scrambling behind trying to keep up. 

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Dolls & Dreams 8/11

 

8/11

  My first dream took place in a big old school where I was working. There was a craft fair, and a woman had a table of crafts and a round basket on the floor overflowing with stuffed primitives. I had a gray rabbit in my hand and sorted through the basket finding more rabbits. An older woman behind me took three rabbits. I found another, black rabbit, with very long arms and short legs. There was a bee who had a $62 price tag on his head. There was a furry gingerbread man with a pattern stuck on his tacky backside. Removing the pattern that featured a small girl on the cover, the ginger man’s backside was covered with gingerbread scratch and sniff stickers. He was $20, and I held on to him. I found a large Holly Hobbie type of doll with a blue and red gingham gown and bonnet. Her face was soft sculpted sort of like a Cabbage Patch Kid only linen, not stockinette. Her eyes were halfway closed. She was $64. I took them both to the vendor who was busy with another customer. I waited, then put them back. I was walking down the hall where a little boy with brown hair was turning somersaults. His dad, a colleague of mine, grabbed him up, calling him sweetheart. 

  The second dream seemed like an extension of the first. Ron and I drove out to a doll show on a snowy night. The show also took place in an old school. At first, we thought that it had been cancelled, because it was dark, and there weren’t many people around. Ron was straggling, and I left him behind. I came across a family. Their boy, a preteen, said that he had gone down the hall looking for his old room, but it was vacant. The floor was dirt. I did see a big cardboard box of old dolls but didn’t want any of them.

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Dreams 8/2

  Ding dong, the dreaming’s back! The dreaming, dreaming, dreaming’s back! Ding dong, the dreaming’s back again! I think it is because I’m down from five days a week to three for summer. I’m having a good time. I’ll likely be back to five days a week come fall. 

  I drank a chocolate milkshake in my first dream, it was filling. It gave me the energy for the second. 

  My dreams have been taking place at markets and fairs, and this was no different, it was a holiday fair. It began with a round table covered with a red tablecloth. I was selling comic books. A little girl with a sandy bobbed haircut was interested in one with a red back cover; she called it her favorite. Then I was taking down beautiful sprays of fir wreaths from the wall and commenting on how Mummy would love them. There was a little quince stuffed ornament. I was shocked to turn over the red stamped price tag to discover that it was $29.95. I hung it by the counter. My ex was there. Also, the fat dream woman, that he had kissed which broke us up, was with her husband. As far as I know they don’t exist. There were big stuffed colorful scarecrows, man and wife, in a cardboard box on the ground outside, beneath a tent. Alex was busy organizing a train of little kids, all dressed up for Christmas, they rode tricycles, wagons, and the like. He called me over to help. I woke up with the same little girl from the start. She asked me to sign her favorite comic, the “one with the pillow”. I thought it was gone, but it was still there.

 Dana's Dreams

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  I wasted another couple of hours trying to resurrect Dana's Dreams Three Revenge of The Dream Hog. I'm about to give up but not quite. 

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Dreams 6/12

 

6/12

  My first dream took place in a restaurant and starred my brother, Glenn. He had a homemade cauldron of soup. 

  I went back to sleep, and the dream picked up where it left off. This is rather rare. Dick Van Dyke stole Glenn’s cauldron of soup. 

  The final dream was really interesting. It took place at an old-fashioned beach resort. I think that I was much younger, perhaps even a teenager. Mummy and Daddy were there as well as another family. There was a fellow, George, with dark hair, who worked there. Nobody liked George, especially not Mummy and Daddy. I had a fishing rod that I’d found abandoned. A lady at the resort told me that I should use it until I could get one of my own. George was fuming mad about getting dissed. A younger boy was teasing me about him. “George?”, he chided. I assured him, “it’s not what you think”. I was about to take him upstairs to explain, but he’d rather, his own “hole” in the broom closet beneath the stairs. That’s when my alarm went off.

Dreams 5/26

 

5/26

  Happy Birthday in Heaven, Daddy! What an amazing night to be a dreamer! I think that the first dream took place in Germany, but I’m not certain, it was Dream Land, after all. It starred two young white men with dark curls, one much taller than the other. The taller one traded a gun for a fishing rod; he had a stash of handguns. I touched one of their heads and told them that I loved them. Then, they both were kidnapped for science. I was working with a young woman trying to find them. I found a table of toddlers who had been vaccinated. They all had one horribly mutilated leg. I could not find the young men though. 

  The second dream was awesome, probably the best. I’m pretty sure that it took place in Austria during the late nineteenth century. It starred a ginger vampiress wearing a teal silk gown. She was gorgeous. I put a large piece of tissue paper into a white porcelain bathtub full of hot water. It dissolved and fizzed. The vampiress became round and soft like a ball with a head. She was still dressed and talking, but her gown had changed colors, gold and rust. There was a tall, slender, fancy, white plastic doll house, taller than me, empty, and loaded with glass, so transparent. I was running through a shop with a young blonde woman and wanted to go back and fetch a wooden doll pen topped with a doll wearing a gray woolen coat and cap. Back in the vampire’s palace we found some dead boys. There was another room full of antique stuffed animals, all kinds. There was another wooden puzzle pen of the vampiress, complete with the ginger curls and turquoise gown. I pulled it apart. 

  The third dream was out of this world and took place at a swanky establishment where Ron and I were attending a late doll show and auction. After the show, before the auction started, I was trying to get my green trimmed, knee length, houndstooth coat off of an old redheaded woman who was wearing it. I wanted it back because it had some cotton balls stuffed in the pockets. When I got it, I realized that the cotton balls were pink. The woman opened her carpet bag and revealed a bag full of them, all colors, plus a couple of knitting needles. They were not cotton balls, but wool. I told her, never mind, that she could keep the coat. Now, there was a young man with dark hair wearing a suit, who I conned the old women into presenting the auction. He wasn’t happy about it, and I did not care. I knew that he liked me and set him up. I told him that I could not help it, that I had been up all night. I was walking out into the night going for the parking lot, looking for Ron. A young white man in a red jacket was shooting at me with a pistol and nearly hit me. Why I confronted him, who knows. I had a hold of him, and he was talking about my bra, how he could feel the strap. I joked that it was no big deal. He confessed that he liked me and didn’t really know why he wanted to shoot me. I was now back inside the building with Ron, and there was a huge flea market set up. A man had four miniature poodles with poodle cuts on leashes. I was petting a white and gray one when I noticed a cardboard sign with red lettering that said that Charles Schwab was for sale. I told the man about Arthur, and he asked me if he was brown. I told him that he was white and brown. He asked if he was brindle, and I answered, no. Then I walked down to a table on the far right where Paulina was sitting with another woman, selling antique trinkets. I was telling her about Rachel coming from a family of ten, and how her mother just had another baby.

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Dreams: 3/3

 3/3

  Well, it wasn’t the corn chowder! I have loads of dreams to report. The first one took place in a lodge in the country and starred Ron. I was shopping for eggs and pushing a little buggy. The women that worked there laughed at me, and I soon discovered why. There were all kinds of eggs: big, small, brown, pink, and pale green. I tried to put the long blue egg carton in my buggy, but it wouldn’t fit. 

  Next, I was at a lake with a boy. He had a worm at the base of his head behind his neck which caused his spinal cord to be crossed and tied like a helix. 

  The soundtrack began with the third dream: Air Supply’s “Sweet Dreams”. It took place in a barn store with four kittens. They all were fluffy with long hair, Persian-like. Three of them were tortoiseshell colors and were climbing up a cord like monkeys. The fourth was red, white, and blue, amazing, like a catcake. 

  Dream number four took place in a splendid old house. It might’ve been a boarding house; there were a lot of young women staying there. I had given a heavy-set dark-haired girl a catalog which she was so happy about that she hugged me. I think that she was planning to start a small business. I moved to a living room where a tall blonde Canadian man in a suit that looked like something that Elton John would wear was speaking to a group of musicians, all men. His coiffure had to have been a wig, it looked like Dolly Parton’s. He said, “What a house!” He asked me if I had ever seen such a house before, referring to the decor. I told him that once I was in a house with six drummers. He was not impressed.

  They just kept getting better. I have six pages of scribbly notes to go on, and the fifth dream was my favorite. It starred Theresa, and I feel as if she has really visited with me. I sent out Thomas’s birthday gift yesterday, a copy of DOC that he should’ve gotten for Christmas, lost at my brother’s, since Theresa never came to pick it up. She was really acting up, the old Theresa, I knew, before life sucked the soul from her. We were shopping in an exclusive and very expensive gift shop full of glass cases, shelves, and delicate precious things. There were miniature fairy rooms, dolls, and furniture. I was thinking about asking the price of a small wooden chicken and a tiny porcelain fairy. Theresa was at a huge old-school Halloween mask rack. She wanted the Wednesday Addams mask at the top, and said, “I have an idea.” She wanted me to climb up the rack, but when I wouldn’t she started laughing and shaking the rack. 

  In the final dream I was with Ron in a strange dark shopping center. It wasn’t a mall or a market, something entirely different, more like Epcot Center only less glamorous. I think that my parents were around because I had a ton of left-over fried food like chicken fingers and french fries with gravy, in the biggest doggy bag ever. It was plastic, like a bag, very colorful and printed, (there were mermaids at the top), and looked like a large suitcase. I was trying to figure out how it opened at the top. There were two flaps to tear and reinsert. There were a couple of siblings, probably in their twenties, with dark hair, maybe Spanish. They were begging, sitting at a small table set with glasses of water. I said that the boy was a motherfucker. The girl was pretty and embarrassed. I told her that she wasn’t a motherfucker. Then I walked home in the dark. I passed by a crowded, lit tavern where I was talking about Shiner, out loud, to myself, before remembering that he was dead. When I got home I expected to find Ron. Instead, my ex, Paul, came out from under the stairs wearing a black band t-shirt like he wouldn’t be caught dead in. He was working in a shop. He said, “It’s me.”

   It was a record night for dreams. I had been watching Grantchester when I fell asleep, but I think these were more inspired by New Castle After Dark’s Images from 1972 starring Susannah York.  

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Revenge of the Dream Hog

Dreams: 2/18

 2/18

  The new moon meant massive dreaming for me! First, a horror: I was lying on the couch, here, watching television. An adorable tiny white lion cub, complete with a mane, jumped up on the couch with me. Then, his father, who was also white, strutted into the room followed by a white bull African elephant who gored the father and child. I cried over the bloodied cub. 

  Then Ron and I moved into an enormous apartment building. I had to go shopping but didn’t know where my car was parked. Ron told me that it was on the third or fifth floor of the attached parking garage. I told him about the dream with the elephant and lions. I went to the fifth floor first; there were concrete steps. There were loads of people that I had to climb over including a teenage white girl with sandy hair who was wrapped up in a handmade afghan, reading. I could not find my car and wandered over to an old-fashioned elevator decked out in red Persian rugs. I decided not to use it and went to the fifth floor. There was a room with a small court in session that I did not disturb. I passed an old organ against the wall. In a lobby was a display of gorgeous flowering aquatic plants in a large tank of sparkling water. I took a yellow pamphlet concerning them. A small girl carrying a Wendy Lawton doll in a box stopped and asked about Frankie. She said that she had a friend in Whitaker who had told her all about him and that she was from Pittsburgh. Just then a huge black and white bob tailed cat, big as a sheepdog, jumped up and gave her a warm hug. A blonde woman came out from her apartment talking about the cat. She was wearing turquoise silk Chinese capri pants with a flouncy blouse. I followed her into her apartment. It was very messy, dirty. She stood in front of a full-length mirror and applied blue gel beneath her eyes, really rubbing it in. Suddenly her face looked like a dinosaur with stripes of yellow and green colors across her nose. I told her that I liked her pants, and she said something about everybody doing tai-chi. I left her apartment and could hear the song “Me and the Devil” playing over a speaker. I went outside down a few cement steps and into the mud where there were three little dogs; one of them was called Arthur. There was an older woman out there talking about all of the dead Indians. I went back up to our large empty apartment that was painted all white and in need of a paint job. I told Ron that the place was a dump and that I couldn’t find my car.

Dana's Dreams

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Revenge of the Dream Hog

Dreams 12/19

12/19

  My first dream took place in the Dark Ages within a fort where we were being assaulted by demonic monsters. Each time that I’d grab a weapon, whether a spear, sword, or other, something would happen to it, so that it was useless. The spear tips would break off, the swords would warp into a soft mess, and even my favorite make-shift weapons became child proof. Most of the battles seemed to occur within lofts and barns with straw floors. 

  Then I was inside a colorful old house. Dame Darcy was there. The walls were painted with murals in soft romantic hues. There was a trap door up on the wall behind the fireplace that I was trying to access but couldn’t. The same demonic monsters from the first dream were there and still after me. 

  Ron and I lived in a different house in the country in the third dream. We had Arthur who was very shaggy. I was in a crawl space off of the kitchen, it was something like a pantry. I was looking for Christmas decorations for the porch. Arthur was wearing a beige punch needle Christmas sweater with a reindeer and peppermint candy design. He ran off to the neighbors on our right, and I had to go after him. 

  Finally, the last dream was a reality show. Ron was there. A man wanted to marry a woman. The woman’s mother was present. Supposedly the woman had to wait tables after the wedding. It was revealed that the suitor was twenty-six million dollars in debt, so the marriage wouldn’t happen. He seemed like a real smartass. Ron was lounging on a veranda wearing a tan and brown knit turtleneck sweater. He had a gold medallion with numbers etched into it: two, and others I can’t recall. It might’ve signified a date. It was resting just beneath his throat. The mother of the contestant thanked him and told me that I would be the reigning queen now.

Dana's Dreams

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Revenge of the Dream Hog

Dreams 8/31

  8/31

  I dreamed that I had been sick or hurt, and a certain Doctor Julian had sent me to stay in a trailer with a young mulatto woman. The place was a dump, piled high with clothes, mostly. I was a good sport about it, beggars can’t be choosers. The trailer was on the wrong side of the tracks in town. I don’t want the first dream of the book to be a cliche, because it was not. The woman was friendly enough and had friends. The first visitor was a little black man with a long opium pipe. The pipe looked ancient, dried old wood like the bottom of an old puddle. The woman brought out a big glass water bong and wanted to share, but I told her that I was sick and should not. The second guest was a smallish sort of Bigfoot, maybe more of a swamp monster with long dark hair. He didn’t stay long. The third guest was an old high yellow black woman with long grizzled white hair who reminded me of Mama Odie from The Princess & the Frog. She wasn’t blind, but she had the air of magic. She was complaining that my bunk was piled high with the girl’s wardrobe. I could see some black and white sheets and a thin mattress, but the girl said that there was no bed beneath the pile. The elder said that Dr. Julian was going to have to do something about it. The girl went out, and the front screen door kept falling off the hinges. I wanted to lock the door. There was some sort of lock. I couldn’t even keep it on the hinges. Arthur woke me early. Welcome to Dana’s Dreams Four, I suspect it’s going to be a long one.

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Dana's Dreams Three Revenge of the Dream Hog

Sir Frankie Crisp is The Most Handsome

Dreams 8/26

 8/26

  This dream starred the actress Anna Kendrick and Bobby, one of my grade school friends. We were interviewing to teach at a small complex that consisted of three schools. The oldest was also the smallest, constructed of stone; it might’ve started as a church. The other two were more recent, probably from the fifties and sixties, and made of brick. The three were huddled together. The room where we were interviewing was nearby, but not in any of the three schools. Anna thought that the oldest stone building was really posh and historic, I agreed. I had a big wedding portfolio with a couple of homemade linen calla lilies tied together with a bow. The artist’s, Lois, business card was affixed to the inside back cover. I think we all got the job because I was sitting in the passenger seat of Bobby’s car. He said that we should have a celebratory drink, something feminine like white wine, and I laughed and said that the occasion called for whiskey, brandy, or scotch. There was a garden party at night, and Anne Rice was the entertainment. She was dressed half naked like Cher. Her long cone plastic skirt was transparent, and she wore white hot pants beneath her matching bandeau top. Young and slim, her hair was cut into a bob. Her song was atrocious. Everybody agreed, just awful. Was it French? I don’t know, but it was bad. I was setting up my classroom, both Anna and Bobby were there. There was a paper flower hanging by the clock. That’s when I woke up. It wasn’t a bad dream.

Dana's Dreams

Dana's Dreams Two

In the works: Dana's Dreams Three Revenge of the Dream Hog