I’ve been known for fantastical, out of this world, nonsensical and truly weird dreams.  One night I dreamt I went in for some kind of surgery and came out with tattoos all over my body.  Mind you, I have never been nor will I ever be tattooed, but for some reason this thought invaded my dreams last night.  Imagine, if you will, a tattooed 78 year old woman.  It did wonders for my wrinkles.  You couldn’t see any of them. Last night I landed in a recurring dream which places me on an old rickety bike, riding aimlessly through St. Paul. Which in itself is weird. The idea of riding a bike hasn’t occurred in my life for a number of years. In fact, we sold our bikes when we downsized to our new, old home. Now I wish I had an old bike that I could paint and place in my garden somewhere – but I digress. Kind of like my dreams do.

Isn’t it funny how dreams can plant us in one place and magically move us to another without any commercial breaks? All of a sudden you can be close to the edge of a cliff, ready to spread your wings and fly and then just as suddenly, you’re on the runway of a fashion show in a perfect body. Isn’t it amazing how that happens? I can only “dream” of a perfect body I guess. Usually you can gain something from your dreams – like the solution to a troubling problem, making a point to get in touch with someone you’ve not seen in a while or think of new ways of doing things. Often mine take place in one of three places – a church, a road that goes on forever and winds up in a sea of putrid water, or something to do with theatre.

I do have a dream that places me in the bottom of an ocean. This has given me a fear of ever going on a cruise or large ship – like the Titanic. I dream a lot about my family and their families. I dream of forgetting my lines as I’m about to make an entrance. I dream about being in a bell tower of a church or in the catacombs of ancient times. I guess you could say I have an active imagination, but usually that imagery evades me in real life.

Do you ever wonder where your dreams come from?  Many of mine have turned into plays or short stories.  I even revised the White Queen of Narnia to be a three headed queen because I saw it in a dream and it really solved a problem for us.  We had just held auditions and there were three girls that fit the part and it was a way of including all of them.  We designed a costume that resembled a very large cape and all three of them went into it.

Once I dreamt we adopted a buffalo and brought him home to take the place of our dog.  We bought a truck full of Buffalo Chow, made a bed for him in the laundry room and taught him to catch a Frisbee.  This turned into a story about just that thing, called “A Home Where the Buffalo Roams.” Most of my dreams are quite disjointed and have no end. I still dream about forgetting to make my children lunches to take to school. (Probably some guilt trip I’ve laid on myself for not doing the parenting thing right.)

A shrink would have a field day interpreting my dreams. The possiblity does exist that I better lay low on the after dinner snacks. I wonder if there’s a switch somewere that you can click to turn the dreams off.