I Have A Dream. No, Really. A Lot Of Them All The Time

[Due to Bloggers "issues" yesterday, this did not get posted. Even though I was being a good blogger and posting before the end of the work day. BUT NOOOO! Blogger had to go and get all angry at nothing during my prime blogging hours. So let's pretend this got posted yesterday and I'll post something later for today's official post. Mmmmkay? Thanks.]

Last night, I dreamt that I was seven months pregnant. Since I'm not married and am waiting until I'm married to do any of the things required to get pregnant and even though it was a dream, I was confused as to how I had gotten in that situation. When I woke up, I thought maybe I'm just fat and trying to make excuses. I'm not sure why I'm telling you this, but I think you need to know these things. You’re welcome.

This leads me to tell you about my dreams. No. Not in that really boring way where I tell you all of the details of my dream that are only coherent and significant to me and you're sit there and say things like, "Yeah. Uh-huh. Sure. Of course. So weird. Cool. Yep. I get that" but what you're really thinking is, "Why in the world does she think I care about a furry monster who wasn't actually furry, but was kind of furry and also looked like her eighth grade gym teacher except that it was in the future and that guy is dead, so it's weird that he's in Jamaica on her vacation?"

No. Not like that. Instead, I thought I'd tell you about my dreaming habits IN GENERAL and then you tell me about your dreaming habits IN GENERAL and then we comment on the strangeness/commonness of each other's dreaming habits IN GENERAL and we end up having this interesting thing called a conversation. I know. It's cutting edge. It's risky and newfangled and uncertain. But I think we're up to the challenge. What say you? Yes? Good. I thought so.

So, “science" tells us that we all dream every night. It's part of the sleep cycle. If we didn't dream, we wouldn't form memories or get any rest and our heads would explode and we would die and other BAD THINGS WILL HAPPEN. Or something. All I know is that lots of sciencey people say we all dream all the time. And before you say, "Well, I don't!" just stop. Because "science" also says that many of us don't remember our dreams when we wake up, but that doesn't mean we don't have them. And if you're wondering what's up with the quotes around science, I have no answer for you. Sorry.

Moving on. The point is this: we all dream, but we do not all remember our dreams. Since I subscribe to the Temerity Jane Philosophy of Averageness, I'm under no delusion that I'm some kind of Special Snowflake when it comes to dreams, but I also know that among the people I have talked to about dreams, I am slightly unusual. So I'm taking a larger sample, hoping for one of two results: 1) I am not alone! There are people in the world just like me; or 2) I really am a SPECIAL SNOWFLAKE! My money's on the first one, just in case you're wondering.

So here goes. My experience with dreams:

• I remember most of my dreams. Almost every morning, I wake up with memories of my night-time imaginings. I usually have more than one and I can almost always tell you about each of them in detail if you ask (no one ever does...).
• I often dream in linear storylines. I've used quite a few of them as jumping off points for the novels that I... never get around to actually writing... Ahem.
• Sometimes, I am not the main character in my dreams. Occasionally, I'm not a character at all and they’re more like movies (I'm not sure what it says about me psychologically that I'm not the star of the movie even in my own mind, but I'm going to save that analysis for a different day...).
• When I wake up in the middle of a dream, I can go back to sleep and finish it. Sometimes, I don't control this and fall back to sleep to continue nightmares, which is not so fun.
• I can choose my dreams. I focus on what I want to dream about before I fall asleep and have moderate success with influencing those things into my dreams.
• I can also control my dreams. Sometimes, one will end in an unsatisfying way. I will wake up slightly (still kind of half-asleep), realize I didn't like it, and decide to do it over again, but better.

Now it's your turn. Remember, people. We’re trying to have a conversation here. IT will be tricky. We’re charting new territory. And I need your help. Does any of this sound weird to you? Have you experience any of these things? More than just one? Tell me about your dreams. No, not your aspirations, your sleep dreams. Geez, keep up! Okay, fine. You can tell me about those other dreams, too. I’m not strict. Someone just TALK TO ME ALREADY!