As part of my blog revival, I think I’m going to write more about my dreams in 2008. These will primarily focus on the dreams I have the night before, and I welcome everyone to give me their input into what they might mean, or share their dreams. I strongly believe dreams are an extremely interesting part of who we are, sometimes revealing that 9/10s of the iceberg known as us and our subconscious that’s stuck under the water.
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We were in Australia, driving in a rented white minivan similar to the one I own. I was driving; Noel was in the passenger’s seat; and Don and Soni were either in the car with us or in another car.
We were approaching the area where a major road meets the interstate highway, where a bridge goes overhead and there are stoplights and intersections with ramps to get onto the interstate. Our car was waiting at the red light, ready to proceed forward on the road, when the dashboard lights started coming up, like a miniature red and orange-lit Christmas tree.
“Oh no,” I said. “Not again. This car is so disappointingly unreliable for a rental.”
Noel said, “Calm down. Look, there’s a McDonalds over there. Just park the car and we can grab something to drink and eat while we let it cool down.”
The light turned green and I slowly steered the car (now having a bit of trouble) to the parking lot. I went in the wrong entrance (at that time I was stating I didn’t give a shit) and found some shade to park the car under. We got out of the car (Noel commenting on how proud my Mom would be that I found some shade) and went into the McDonalds.
I remember thinking how cool the interior was (in temperature) but it was one of those 70s style McDonalds that hadn’t been remodelled yet. We made our way to the counter and Don and Soni ordered first. Don went to take a seat with Noel (at a table near the service counter) while Soni waited for his order, and I started to order mine. For some reason, I ordered McTacos — I didn’t even know McDonalds made tacos — but I didn’t have enough money, so I had to ask Noel for some.
He was so busy in his conversation with Don that he gave me the wrong money so I had to badger him for more. I went back to the counter where the nice girl behind the counter said that they were almost all out of McTacos and they might not have the supplies for more, so would I mind having a two cheeseburger combo instead because that cost the same? I said I didn’t mind… and to be honest, I like McDonalds cheeseburgers just fine.
The dream seemed to end with me still waiting for my food and a chocolate milkshake I seemed to have a very large craving for!
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It was a warm, fine day in the United States, and Noel and I finally arrived at what I believe was my cousin’s house.
The houses where the party was sat on a slight bend in a wide road with another road meeting it in a Y shape. There was a car dealer or some sort of low-rise commercial building on the opposite side of where the two roads merged.
I parked the car somewhere and next thing I knew we were walking up a slight hill on a path with lush green grass on either side of it. Two or three large trees shaded the front yard and the sidewalk. The house itself was a dull grey-blue (more blue than grey) and the window frames a sort of yellowy-cream. Some windows were stained glass, beautifully absorbing and reflecting the light coming in to the side of the house. I felt the house was built sometime in the early 20th century by its architecture.
We were welcomed in by whom I assume was my cousin Jack (it just felt like it was Jack and Ginny’s house) and asked to join everyone in the back. Someone was graduating — I had a feeling it was my brother Brian from university — and we joined friends and family in an addition onto Jack and Ginny’s house.
The room had a vaulted ceiling, and was somewhat long in width but narrow in length. There were floor-to-ceiling windows, only broken by where a normal ceiling would rest. A fireplace sat in the middle of the far wall, breaking the wall of windows. We had to step down a few steps from the old part of the original house into the new part. On the walls running perpendicular to the hole in the wall we just stepped through there were sets of glass doors leading to a patio on the right-hand side (the other side led to a sidewalk to the detached garage). Through the back windows I mentioned before, you could see a lush green lawn, a large maple tree shading the lawn near the garage, and a greenway or forest behind the house. Through the doors on the right-hand side, you could see the neighbours’ lawns and houses for a few houses down.
Friends and family were laughing and looking through photos and congratulating Brian and his friends on graduating from university. Something in the back of my head told me I’d need to withdraw from all the high school courses I’d signed up to take earlier in the year — my mind sourcing an earlier dream from months ago where I decided to sign up for classes at my old high school — and I felt a bit disgruntled because I wondered how long the process would take and how complicated it would be. (I was withdrawing because I was taking university classes at the same time and couldn’t afford to put my mind to both).
After mixing and mingling, Jack told me his brother Bob and wife Diane lived the house after the next one, so I should go and visit them because the party was also taking place there. Noel and I went back out the front to walk to Bob and Diane’s place, but we stopped and marvelled at the house in-between.
The driveway led up a steep small hill to another early 20th century house, this time white in colour. A pergola stretched across the driveway with beautiful flowers and vines growing up it. There was a low hedge and wrought iron fence separating their section from Jack and Ginny’s, but the house was beautiful and immaculate with wonderful gardens hugging the house. The neighbours two cats and dog were playing outside or enjoying the sunshine. Like Jack and Ginny, the neighbours had a tree in their front yard, a wonderfully large tree, but it only shaded part of their front yard.
We never seemed to make it to Bob and Diane’s as Noel and I were talking to some of Brian’s fellow graduates on the neighbours’ front lawn. It was a good laugh and a great time and we enjoyed it, although I started to get worried about how we would get back into Jack and Ginny’s place if they had locked the front door.
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We were with the staff in some sort of dodgy apartment building. Standing in a line against a hallway wall that led to two different hallways running parallel to either side of the tight lobby in front of us, we were all solemn and quiet. Noel’s brother Bob had called us here because Noel’s sister-in-law Joan had passed away.
Standing as a guard, silent and sombre, Bob came out with a dark navy blue casket. He was for some reason dressed similarly to my grade school’s janitor, Mr. Jump, who always reminded me somewhat of what an old school train engineer would be dressed like. We bowed our heads and paid respects as he and another man took the casket and placed it on the floor in front of one of the two elevators, waiting for it to come to this floor and open up.
A door opened, and two of Bob’s daughters spilled out. One immediately stood aside, gasped, and remained silent. The other tripped over the casket then gave her father the message for leaving the casket in her way. She stepped over the casket and stormed off.
Bob and the other man, both shaken, took the casket and entered the lift, one of Bob’s daughters in tow. And the doors shut.
Noel’s cell phone went off and he answered it: it was his niece (the abusive one). She turned around and asked him where she could get some watermelon. Noel was pissed off, trying to contain his anger at her. He calmly but sternly stated that Joan, her mother, was dead and why was she thinking of watermelon at a time like this? But the daughter was adamant she wanted watermelon, so Noel told her where she could find some and hung up the phone on her. He was very angry, and the staff at the school said they couldn’t blame him.
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We were in Australia again, Noel and me, and we were sitting at an outdoor cafe at a table that was in front of a hairdressing salon. The hairdresser had a cheeky sense of humour and she was placing a funny sign in her window related to a big rugby match going on. We were laughing at the sign.
Our friend Marg, who many of you may know has divorced her husband and decided to move to Sydney to be with her boyfriend, arrived to say hi and join us for dinner. She arrived with a man who wasn’t her boyfriend, to Noel and my astonishment. We chatted away and I asked everyone if they wanted something to drink or eat, and Marg’s friend said he wanted a pastie, while Noel and Marg wanted beers.
So I made my way down to the bar of this outdoor cafe — this part of the outdoor cafe was covered by a gazebo or something similar — and ordered the things. The guy behind the bar seemed like a nice Middle-Eastern guy, who was chatting away to me. Another group of guys at a table behind the bar asked me if I could get them a mini-football game from the man behind the bar, so I asked him and he obliged. What struck me was how friendly and nice everyone was, and how non-threatened I felt even though I was out of my element.
I didn’t get the order, though… I woke up!
Beam Me Up, Scotty 