Dream Analysis

I had the weirdest dream a few nights ago - well, wait, let me back up just a bit... So for the last couple of weeks the theme seemed to revolve around dream analysis. Everywhere I turned I would hear some segment about dreams and what they meant. Oprah's XM channel had an older segment I was listening to regarding the topic and I have to say as open-minded as I usually consider myself to be on these things (I know, I know - it doesn't seem that way! I'm open-minded, but I'm cynical - it's complicated. ), this was a little weird. The man was talking about how a man can be running after you in a dream and instead of running from him, you should stop and go towards him. First of all, if you are able to do this, are you really asleep? Second, what if this person is trying to kill you in your dream? I don't know how everyone else feels about sleep, but my main goal is to sleep, not analyze my innermost desire or contact relatives from the beyond or to be stalked by and then embrace axe murderers. I'm tired and I want to... uh I don't know... actually sleep? Anyway, then I was listening to a local station and they were discussing snakes in dreams and how they can mean many things, but some people feel they represent death? Then I remembered my daughter waking up the other night saying she dreamt about snakes, which made me a little nervous. Then on the Oprah thing the man was saying snakes can be all sorts of things, good or bad. I can't help thinking of Freud's old adage here: Sometimes a snake is just a snake.

So back to this weird dream. First of all, I never dream. Okay, wait, the dream officials would say that I simply "don't remember" my dreams, but I have to dream. My theory is that I don't actually dream because I never actually sleep and that is why I am always exhausted and wake up every night at three in the morning. The only time I really remember dreaming a lot was when I was pregnant and I think it was because I finally passed out from exhaustion. Anyway...

Lately I have had quite a bit of company staying at my house, so I can see where this part of my dreams stems from: I had company staying at my house. It was my husband's best friend, his wife, baby, my husband's brother, his wife, and baby and they were out shopping together. So I guess I didn't want my kitchen to be messy or maybe I didn't feel I had enough room in my house, so I dreamt I broke into the house across the green belt behind my house and started cooking in their kitchen. I was also cooking in my kitchen, so I had run back over to my house to check on that food when I discovered these neighbors had come home and discovered someone had broke into their house. So I ran over to their house and asked "What's going on?" They told me about the cooking and the break in and I pretended to be shocked and offered to help clean up (I mean, it's the least I could do considering I was the one who made the mess. It was messy too! I must have been making some kind of beer bratwursts or something because there were beer bottles on the counter and stuff boiling on the stove? Weird). So I was cleaning up and afraid someone would discover I was the criminal, when the woman started telling me all about her marital troubles. I felt bad for her, but I SO just wanted out of there. It was like the girl cat in those Pepe le Peu cartoons. Then I woke up. So...I wonder what Oprah's dream guru would have to say about that dream! : (