Musing on Dreams

I have heard that a lot of people don't remember their dreams on a regular basis. I can't relate to that. I remember at least one dream a night, usually more. I don't always remember them in detail, and they rarely make total sense, but I suppose that it would be accurate to state that I dream prolifically.

I will go through phases in which there will be a recurring motif in my dreams. There was a time period where the recurring motif was a movie theater. It was not typically the same movie theater, nor would it be a movie theater as we would know one, but it was always a movie theater and I knew that I was safe in the movie theater. Amusingly, I rarely actually watched a movie there, though I recall one dream in which movies were being shown in a large room on multiple screens. I was more concerned about the acquisition of popcorn in that particular dream. People were talking more loudly than the movies.

At some point (I don't remember because against the recommendation of many professionals, I do not keep a dream diary - some things shouldn't be written down I think) I stopped dreaming about a movie theater and started dreaming about amusement parks, usually Disneyland. Often I would be alone - unless I was with my sister Julia, sometimes these amusement parks would contain a casino. I recall one dream in which I left Disneyland and went to a casino where the slot machines dispensed raw fish. I shoved the raw fish into my purse assuming that it would spend somewhere. I rarely would go on rides at these amusement parks, though I can think of a dream in the last few years in which I went on an amusement park train ride which took me into Chicago then left me there. This segue ways well into the next motif, which is subway stations. I have found myself dreaming that I am running around subway stations either in New York City or Chicago. I always can tell the difference because Chicago's trains talk, and New York City's don't.

I am still dreaming off and on about subway stations, but I have also dreamed about waiting for the bus. I typically don't actually get on the bus.

I dream about people. I dream about people I know (which is kind of why I don't want to write it down). I dream about people who look different from how they look in the waking world, sometimes drastically so, but in the dream I *know* that it is them. It isn't until I wake up that I realize that they didn't look like themselves.

Sometimes it's obvious that a dream is my brain processing things. Sometimes, I think it's a meeting of souls in the ethereal plane. Sometimes, it's just for fun (in other words, sometimes a cigar is just a cigar).

I will probably never keep a dream diary, but I will always be fascinated by my own dreams.