I dream. Often. And vividly. Most nights I can trace origins of my dream back to events from the previous day. People I meet, stories I hear, and sights I see all weave their way into my subconscious during the day and flow out in my dreams. This is not unusual, I'm sure. The unusual ones are where I am rescuing small things (usually fish) or having to swim my way through dark, murky, seaweed-filled water. Well, I say unusual because they might be for some people but these are regularly recurring themes for me.
So, I wasn't surprised this morning when I had dreams of going to a movie preview for Pixar (though it should have been Disney, my subconscience apparently edits for preference. I do love an old school Disney though so what gives?!) where I met both Bradley Cooper and Margaret Cho. She was the bad guy who dressed as a ninja and silently led the good guys, siren-style, silent-ninja-siren-style, to a steep cliff where we had to find our escape or die. As we ran down the less-steep, grass-covered hillside conveniently located around corner, we heard a crunching noise. It wasn't until we were a safe distance, however, that we could really stop to listen.
Author's Note: one other thing you may need to know is that sometimes my dream world and real world collide a little. I have been known to interact with my external environment while my internal environment is completely dreaming. Some may call it sleepwalking, I call it sleepwriting, sleepleavingtheapartment, sleepsearchingforsomethingIdesperatelyneedbutdon'trememberwhywhenIwakeupholdingit.
Back to the dream...Crunch. Crunch. Crunch. I opened my eyes to my dark room, slowly aware of a slight rustling sound nearby. To be specific, in the garbage can next to my bed. My mind was so confused. Was that real? Did that really happen? Was it the gravel we ran across in my dream? When the noise continued, I thought....hmmm perhaps it is a little bird who fell in through my window. He merely needs a hand getting out so he can be free and then surely he will grant me three wishes. Crunch. Crunch. No chirping though. Hmmmmm...perhaps it is a mouse. A cute little adorable mouse. Gus gus!!! I love Gus Gus. Maybe he is rustling up some odds and ends from the garbage to make me an adorable little necklace. It won't fit, but he doesn't know that. Silly mouse. He tries.
Then I thought. Hold on! I know! I totally know. I read a blog post yesterday about a mouse. Someone saw a mouse in an unusual place and had to decide if he could kill it. He could. But my dreams are all about saving little things. So clearly this is my subconscience struggling with the moral dilemma proposed on that blog. I am dreaming within a dream and just have to shake the garbage can to see that nothing is in there.
But I seem pretty awake....
Lights on......crunching stops. Shit. Not a good sign. Pause.....wait.....lean....wait.....lean....CRUNCH! Fuck! Ok. Poke lightly....poke less lightly....shake a littMOUSE! Out of bed...grab the garbage...take it outside and shake it like it's a baby who won't stop crying.
Back inside, I sat in my bed contemplating the scene. I was sleepy. I hadn't slept well all night. That could have been a dream. One of those really awake dreams. It would not be weird for me and makes sense in so many ways that I would have dreamt that last night. What are the odds of reading about killing a mouse and seeing one that same night when you never ever have in your life ever seen such a thing in your room??? By your face?? I had to have been dreaming. Ok. Back to sleep.
Lights still on. Quiet...peace....calm....nothing....scuffle...claws on wood...scrape scrape scrape. Dammit. Really? Sigh of resignation. I looked over and saw the mouse on my dresser, weaving between my bottles of lotion. And that was when I learned that the answer to the moral dilemma differs greatly between my dream world and reality.
