Stressful Jacuzzi Dream Purchase

Recently, I was reading the Sleep Issue of Reader’s Digest. There were some interesting articles about insomnia, sleep, and lucid dreaming. Of course, everything that I read eventually permeates my brain, so I’ve been having some very vivid dreams lately. As with most people, I don’t always remember all the details – but I do remember some incredibly vivid tidbits! The mind is a wonderful thing.

Last night’s dream was an epic-long dream. Ever have those dreams that seem to last forever and ever? In this epic, I was at a convention center and there was a presentation about to start. The auditorium was full of hundreds of people all sitting in front of a large screen, waiting for the presentation to start. I was dressed in a skirt and a blouse for some reason. I think I might have been going to a different event in the building. I walked in just to have a look around, and was immediately ushered to the seating area by some smooth-talking sales people. Before I knew it, the presentation had started, and I had a pamphlet in my hand.

Childhood dream

As promised in last week’s post, I bring you one of my childhood dreams. I believe that I have only had this dream once – but it was so vivid that I will likely remember it (and all the details) for the rest of my life! Keep in mind I was only about 6 or 7 when I had this dream.

I was in my family home (if you’re not familiar, we lived in a house in Niagara Falls – there were 6 of us in total: Mom, Dad, Peter, Julie, Chris, and me). Except I wasn’t me (but at the same time I was) – I was an ANT.

My family had been commissioned to punish criminals. How were they doing this in my dream? Boiling them in oil! IN THE KITCHEN! Criminal offenders were lined up on stools in the kitchen awaiting their fate. My family was busily working to make sure the oil was hot enough, and stirred properly in this huge trough on the kitchen floor. It was rather gruesome.  They would dunk someone in the boiling oil (I could hear their screams), they would wait until the screams stopped and lift the body out onto a giant piece of waxed paper and wrap them up (for disposal, I assume).

Where is ANT-Samantha? Well, this is the weird part (as if boiling criminals in oil in the family kitchen was not enough) Not only was I an ant, but I was the servant of a Lawyer who was in line to be boiled in oil. Apparently I had been this guy’s servant for a long time, and he was waiting for me to bring some papers that would exonerate him from the charges against him, saving him from the boiling oil! I arrived in the kitchen with an insect-arm full of papers and handed them to the Lawyer.

I watched my family boil a few more people in oil as he read them, making sure this was what he needed to get off the hook (and out of boiling in oil). It’s disturbing to watch people become covered in black slime, and watch it fill their eyes, mouth, nose – and smell their skin burning. What SIX YEAR OLD thinks of this stuff?!

The lawyer began to get very upset. He started yelling at me, and telling me that these were the wrong papers – and that there was no time now to get the correct ones. He was angry that he was going to die and it was all my fault. His face went all red and he continued yelling louder and louder, making a scene in the kitchen. I remember feeling incredibly bad that I had not gotten the right papers, and I remember feeling sad that now my boss was going to die.

The last thing I remember is his giant hand swooping down on me to crush me – as punishment for not saving him from the death penalty. I do believe he squished me in the dream – but I woke up…

I still remember all the details. I remember all the sights and sounds. I remember the screams from those being boiled in oil, the smell of the oil bubbling away, and the burning flesh. I even remember the sweat running down the Lawyer’s face, as he realized I had brought the wrong papers. I did not feel any pain when I was squished.

I don’t remember dreams as vivid as this one very often. I think I have a library of a dozen or so very vivid dreams that I can still recall in quite a bit of detail. Usually they dissipate into a fine mist of forgetting as soon as my eyes flutter open. This one stuck 😛

Dream

I had a disturbing dream. They happen… Here’s the bits:

I was on vacation with my family (not altogether weird, as we recently came back from a week together in Aruba) and we were on our last day there. We had our things all packed up and knew when the bus was taking us to the airport, and were spending a few more minutes at the front of the resort enjoying the place. It wasn’t the same as Aruba – it was weird and different (as Dreams sometimes are). Instead of the resort ending up on the beach, it was built up on a huge wall to protect it from the water… we soon understood why.

Not how my dream looked

The sky had gone dark and a storm was rolling in. The waves were increasing and washing over the first and second tiers of the wall – where there had been people sitting at tables. People from the resort began *battening the hatches* to protect the lower levels of the resort. Rain was beginning to fall and we still stood outside – watching the storm unfold around us. The waves kept getting higher and higher, and the resort kept closing more and more doors and windows against the incoming water. We were standing on the top-most level. It was like looking at a painting I once saw:

The water rose and rose. Then – you know how weird things happen in dreams that seem perfectly normal?..  Well, a mini-van pulls up with some of my friends in it (who knew they were vacationing with us? And how did their mini-van get there?!) and offered us a ride. We declined (we being my brother Peter and I, and one of my bestest friends, Leila). We said no, as we’d like to travel to the airport together with the rest of the family. Just as they pulled away, waves began lapping over the top of the wall. I remember saying “The waves have reached all the way to us,” and looked at Pete and Leila.

All of a sudden, the waves began to recede, so we decided to walk down to the lowest level and assess the damage. We walked down a huge cement ramp at the bottom that led directly to the beach and the ocean. Then Leila looked up and said “Oh no… Guys?” As we looked up, we saw the HUGEST tsunami wave. It had to be at least 10 stories high, and it was headed straight for us. I remember in the dream imagining what would happen to me when it hit. I knew I had to hold on to something, but was afraid that the force of the water would rip my arms out. Peter and Leila found something to hold on to, and were yelling at me to grab on. I found a metal bar to wrap myself around (the wave was taking forever to crash down on us) and kept looking up and anticipating the moment when I’d take a deep breath and hold it.

With a force that felt like a thousand mack trucks hitting me, the wave crashed down…

And then I woke up.

It was so vivid. I remember the feeling of the raindrops on my skin, the smell of the salt-water in the air. My dream had so many details – textures, sights, sounds, tastes, smells. The brain is an amazing machine… It never ceases to amaze me how dreams are so much like movies that we are the players in. We experience everything as if it were first hand – not only the physical feelings and sensory input, but also the emotional stuff that comes along with it.  I often wonder if dreams are just our brain’s way of entertaining ourselves while we sleep. If so – why do we have such turbulent and disturbing nightmares sometimes?! Next week – I’ll share a childhood dream that haunts me to this day!

Weekly drawings: it’s not tribal, it’s Su-Chi!

Ahh.. ok, so it’s been a busy week, weekend etc. It was a LONG weekend, so theoretically, I should have had tons of time to get drawings done. Alas, I have only finished three. No excuse, I know. But I have included a BONUS! I have taken one of my drawings a step further and created a super fun computer generated character: Su Chi.

Here goes…..

A quick sketch of two-headed Levi from the creepy dream I had last week

I started out thinking I was going to draw a tribal tattoo inspired .. something. And - well - it's not tribal, but here it is!

I was typing to a friend across the internet and accidentally spelled Sushi "Suchi." The regular mockery ensued, leaving me inspired to draw Su-Chi (all you can eat) 😉

Here she is in all her glory! Like I have on many occasions she has overdone "All you can eat." She comes adorned in special patterned pants and shirt! "All you can eat" Su-Chi! © 2010 Sami

Disjointed

My brain hurts. My face is hot. But I feel happy. Tired, but happy.  *knuckle cracks* [I gotta quit that…]

Yes, hot cheeks. They get all red, like I’m embarrassed – but really I’m as cool as a cucumber. I have weird reactions sometimes.

I had lots of smiles and laughs today – but also some serious frustration. I have some great people who help me keep an even keel – or just REALLY distract me well so I forget about my frustration. I’m not into religion, but I think I’m blessed to have all the friends I do have. They put me up in their houses, they listen to me when I’m sad or grouchy, they hang out with me, they give me smiles and laughs. I’m one lucky kid.

I wish I was lying on grass in the sun next to the ocean with a cool breeze blowing across me. I’d go swimming, floating, gliding, kicking, pulling, breathing, bobbing. I feel so free when I’m swimming – like I could swim forever.

Thanks universe, thanks life, thanks friends, thanks family – you’re the best!