Compass & Quill

I had an interesting dream last night, and thought I should take some notes. My dreams are often pretty interesting, actually. Surprisingly, I know quite a few other folks who describe their dreams as uneventful or, even worse, don’t remember dreams at all. I’m glad mine stick out – it may all just be in my head, but I’m happy there’s something going on in there! 

Last night I had a dream that I was watching a movie with my family. We were all together in a small room with a large touch-screen TV. I know it was touch-screen since I kept having to pause the movie to get up and go to the bathroom. Once I paused it incorrectly and ended up skipping part of a scene. 

My family in the dream was not my family, at all. I don’t know who they were, but even in the dream I was aware that this was an entirely different group of people than in waking life. In real life I’m an only child, but in the dream I had a couple of siblings – maybe three (?) – and at least one older brother. My father had a full head of grey hair, and was wearing something very preppy, like a sweater vest. Not at all like my real dad.

The movie was a sweeping epic drama based on an autobiography of someone who lived in the mid to late 19th century. I remember thinking that it was important to watch the film since the main figure was important to my life in some way – maybe because she was my ancestor (?). I also remember thinking that the movie was quite boring, hence the need for frequent bathroom breaks.

I was watching the movie with my family, but I was also taking part in some scenes of the film. There was some kind of marriage scene that took place at night, outside. For a moment I was looking down at the ceremony through the camera’s eyes, from a 2nd floor bedroom window. Then I was in the scene itself, and terrified – I was being married off to someone I barely knew, as part of a familial contract. Everyone in the crowd had torches and candles. It  did not seem to be a happy occasion.

Another part of my dreams last night had to do with sitting on a stoop in New York City, in the morning, drinking coffees and shooting the shit with friends. It was a happy snippet of a dream.

The last thing I remember before waking up was dreaming that I was married, and my husband and I had just bought a decommissioned 1940’s-era post office to fix up and live in. The old sorting equipment was still there, and I spent some time looking at all the bins and also examining the front doors and stoop. Later, I was leading a parade of people and we paraded through the building before going off to wherever it is that dream parades go.

The parade is easy to explain – I was just in a Mardi Gras parade last night. The long-winded historical drama also seems like something I’d dream up, just because I watch way too much TV. Not sure why I dreamed up a fake family, although it would be great to have brothers, and the coffee in NYC was probably a result of spending the weekend with one of my best friends, just in from NYC for a few days. Believe it or not, of all the weirdness, the thing that I’ve been thinking about all day is the post office. 

I looked up the term “post office” in a dream dictionary, and it turns out that dreaming about one might mean that subconsciously I’m trying to deliver a message to myself, but it’s not “arriving” as quickly as my subconscious might like. I think I know the message already, though I’ve been trying to ignore it – or maybe move past it. I’m not sure that’s going to be a possibility. 

Wonder what I’ll dream tonight…