Very Strange Dreams

I had some very strange dreams last night. Most of my dreams are unusual, but these kind of take the cake. Most strange dreams occur when I'm not feeling well. I ran 7.5 miles after work, and the inside of my elbow has been sore due to over working it at the gym the other day. The elbow's stiffness kept waking me up, and then I'd have another dream. And all I had before bed was one beer.

Dream #1: Scene 1: I was looking at a diagram about how they were going to remove the roof of a building. The roof was made of steel beams and sheet metal, and they were going to use a crane to pick it up in one piece. They were tearing the building down to make room for another. Scene 2: The new building was almost complete. It look a bit like the old one - steel frame that was painted orange and yellow, glass sheathing over top, more than 10 stories tall, curved walls (not a box) - only much bigger and more modern in design. They were working on putting the new roof on, and we (not sure who "we" were, but I was with a group of people) were sitting very close to the base of the building on a grassy hill eating lunch. I had a strange feeling and told everyone that we should not be sitting here as something could fall from above. Scene3: I look up and see someone falling from the top. As the person gets closer I see that it is a girl. Her face is looking right at me, and she's going to land very close to me. She does land not far behind me. Scene 4: The girl is laying on the grass. She has blond hair pulled back into a French braided ponytail. She's wearing a rag-wool sweater and dark jeans that are tucked into black riding boots. Everyone is screaming or crying. Another woman goes to her to see if she needs help, but someone else yells at the woman to let the girl alone, let her have some peace as she lies their dying. I look at the girl on the ground. There's some blood behind her head and her body starts to go into slight convulsions. Another yell to leave her alone. She starts to get up. I'm in disbelief as I assume many of her bones must be broken. She does get up, and her body and limbs are bent strangely. End of dream.

Dream #2: I'm now in that new building. It is a dormitory at the college I went to. I'm there with folks that I now work with. We're near the top of the building in the floor's cafeteria. The workers are setting the tables for breakfast. I think to myself that I had better to the registration office today as I'm going to start living there. This doesn't make sense, I think to myself. Why would work folks be here if I'm going back to school?

Dream #3: I'm at work but not at any place I've worked previously. I know this is work as I see people from many of the jobs where I've worked, and it appears to be some kind of manufacturing plant. We're outside and the sky is getting dark due to a storm that's rolling in from the distance. I think we're near a river that runs along the back of the plant, and I see Phil standing in front of a camera holding a sign that reads "I'm leaving at 3PM". As I keep walking outside Jeremy tells me that he has the stain that we need for the wood. I tell him that I'll get a scrap piece of wood that he can test the stain on. I go over to a wood pile to look for the scrap and I hear Maria talking to me from behind. She's says that she thinks Jeremy is from New Jersey. I think to myself that she wants to talk to me about something else and that's how she wants to start the conversation. (Real life note: I've had a huge crush on Maria since the day I met her. Every time I talk to her I'm as giddy as a schoolgirl. I have that song from West Side Story in my head every time I see her "Maria. I just met a girl named Maria...)

Dream #4: Scene 1: I'm driving a truck in the rain on a highway partially covered by gravel as part of a convoy of trucks. We're driving underneath an elevated highway (sort of like I-35 in Austin, TX). I have to quickly stop as the traffic light turns from green to red. The traffic light isn't the regular kind with three lights in a vertical line - it is just a single light that changes from red to green. Very odd, I think to myself, and even odder to have a traffic light on a highway. We get moving again and we're going too fast for the conditions, too much rain and gravel on the road. Scene 2: Now I'm far above the highway looking down, and I think that it is just a group of toys on a track. But they are going to fast as I can see that there's a traffic jam ahead of them. I try to tell them to slow down. No good. The first truck barrels through the traffic, going sideways and clearing a large swath of the highway. The other trucks behind the first slow down as they move through this cleared area. They must be toys, I think to myself, as none of the cars or trucks are wrecked.

Ok, those were the dreams. I often have the kinds of dreams in which I'm at a place that I've been previously but with acquaintances that don't belong there. The places are familiar, but not exactly as they were. Like the dormitory. I remember having a dream about being in a dormitory in which I lived during junior year in college. Only in the dream the halls were not straight or flat - one would have to go up or down a few steps every so often or turn left then right to keep going down it.

I recently read Selected Stories by Philip K Dick. He wrote the stories that were the basis for Total Recall, Minority Report, Blade Runner, Paycheck, A Scanner Darkly, to name a few. At least he had schizophrenia and drugs to fuel his unique visions.