Dreams: By Tag: Vermont

Monday, January 21, 2008: Driving circles around Vermont, bagel shop

I was driving in a counterclockwise circle around the outskirts of a city in Vermont. To my right were snowy mountains. To my left were buildings. One building was topped with a giant inflatable crab.

I walked into a bagel shop. There were bakers and servers behind the counter. I spied through a doorway on the right metal racks of bagels. I walked over to a rack of bagels on the left. I looked over the fresh bagels. I saw a salt bagel. I reached for it with my right hand. I noticed my right hand. I thought to myself, I am asleep. I tried to feel the right hand of my waking self, and I moved my fingers in my sleep. Then I woke up.

Wednesday, June 27, 2007: Tresspassing in Vermont

I had a dream that my wife and I were driving to Vermont at night. She was driving; I was in the passenger seat. We made a left turn, and the silver mid-sized car went up on two wheels along a paved embankment. My wife managed to get the car under control and parked. When we stepped out of the car, we found ourselves on the rooftop of a building. As we descended multiple staircases, the police arrived. They fined us $50 for trespassing.

The dream repeated itself, starting again as we descended the steps, only more people were with us. The police came and fined us again.

After leaving the scene, we visited a Vermont historical museum.

Sunday, June 17, 2007: Seven Dreams

In the first dream, I lived in a mansion, with cream-colored walls. The air felt cool. In an upper room, my friends gathered to play Dungeons & Dragons.

In the second dream, I entered a dark vault. Several scientist-cultists gathered around a black slab; they seemed perplexed. I looked up. Floating overhead was a wrinkled, skinny old man, naked except for a tangled cream-colored bed-sheet. After-images of himself floated beyond him. He radiated malevolence.

In the third dream, I was lying in bed. My wife was sleeping next to me. A lamp on a side table lit the bedroom; it had cream-colored walls and matching bed linen. A goldfish floated through a doorway. It glided through the air towards me. I brushed it with my fingertips, and it swam away. [In real life, I tried speaking in my sleep to my wife, repeating, “Look, a fish!” My dog must have heard me; he woke me, his paws propped up on the edge of the bed and his nose in my face.]

In the fourth dream, my wife and I were walking along a wooded road in Vermont. We were walking to a bed-and-breakfast. “It’s just around the corner,” I said.

In the fifth dream, my wife and I were sitting on a couch, with a sheet wrapped around us, watching porn on television.

In the sixth dream, I was reading a letter from Trent Reznor to his girlfriend. It was taped to a refrigerator.

In the seventh dream, I was sitting in a sound studio with Alice Cooper, The Rolling Stones, and Metallica. They were jamming on Satisfaction.

Friday, April 20, 2007: Henry Rollins, Vermont Vacation, Crazy Shrew

I was walking up my street when I saw Henry Rollins. I told him that I was a fan of his since Black Flag. I said that I approved of his career choices, and felt that he had in no way “sold out”. He thanked me, and said that he was happy with the choices he had made, too. He said that Alice Cooper was going to be on his show soon. He got into a van that came equipped with a full bath, said to call him sometime. I waved goodbye and walked back to my house.

Next, I dreamed that my wife and I were vacationing in Vermont. We were staying in a college dorm. We only had one day left to our vacation, and we were deciding which restaurant would be the last. We settled on the Trattoria Delia. There was a knock at the door. I opened the door, and a group of college students were standing there. They dismantled the door. I said that they must be mechanical engineers.

In my final dream, I was observing a newlywed couple. They were parked near an aquarium. The husband walked away to do some errands. The wife proceeded to fill up their truck with water from a hose, hit golf balls into the glass of the aquarium, and even jumped into the tank and swam up and down with the fish. When he came back from his errands, she got very angry with him over a trifle, and shrieked that she would put her golf club through his skull. At this, his eyes began to open to her lunacy. He noticed a golf ball embedded in the glass of the tank, and touched it with his fingers thoughtfully.

Wednesday, April 18, 2007: Bicycling

At twilight, my wife and I bicycled on Lincoln Street in our home city. Traffic was light. Soon, we were bicycling in Vermont. We stopped at a bridge that crossed a river. Some workers were fixing the bridge. We bounced a ball, and it fell in the water near the workers; they bounced it back to us. We bicycled on.

Tuesday, November 21, 2006: Vermont at Last

My wife and I wandered Church Street in Burlington, Vermont. We shopped, dined, drank coffee, and listened to street musicians, again and again. We had a wonderful time.

In a separate, brief dream, I tried to climb down from a twenty-foot tall stone pillar to the ground.

In real life, my wife and I drove to Burlington this weekend. We stayed at the Willard Street Inn. Each day, we walked to Church Street. While we were awake, we wandered Burlington; while we slept, we wandered Burlinton.

On a side note, I picked up Little Nemo 1905-1914, a collection of the surreal sunday comic by Winsor McCay.

Thursday, November 16, 2006: Vermont Trip Preparations

My wife and I were outside, preparing for a trip to Vermont. As we packed our luggage into the car, I realized that I did not recognize the car. I examined the unfamiliar vehicle: it was a brown station wagon with a sunroof. On the back seat were several large bags of M&M candies. I asked, “Is this our car?” She replied, “Of course. We’ve had this car for a long time.”

We went back into our house. The interior of the house was a pastiche of all of the houses I have lived in before.

My wife sat down for a moment in the living room. A voice in my head said, “What is missing from this picture?” My daughter appeared, dressed for ballet, in white tights and slippers, dancing around my wife. I thought it was a riddle, but I could not discern the answer.

We said our farewells to our children. I hugged my daughter. Then, I hugged my son. After hugging him, I realized that he wasn’t my son; he was my daughter’s boyfriend: tall, with spiky bleach-blond hair.

As we were driving out of a parking garage, a white car appeared in front of our car. The driver looked like Tracy Morgan with wild hair. He looked angry. He pushed our car backwards with his car. After a brief car tug-of-war, we managed to get our car around his car and drove off.

Suddenly, I found myself inside a old workshop, with off-white walls and a white tin ceiling. There were small desks with sewing machines and old typewriters on them. My wife was not with me. I realized that I was dreaming, and that I needed to get back to my wife so that we could go on our trip.

In a separate dream, a friend and I were getting a tour of a haunted house. We doused any lights we came across during the tour, until the house was completely dark. As I began to wake, I saw circles of blue light.

Saturday, November 11, 2006: Depressed Neighborhood, Waterfront, and Finally, Vermont

I walked in an unfamiliar neighborhood at night. The apartment buildings around me were crumbling apart. The few people I saw wore shabby clothes. Numerous large dogs roamed the streets, and I imagined they converged upon me. I stood in a playground that was used as a dumping ground instead. I climbed between a jungle gym and a stack of miscellaneous construction debris, to escape the dogs. I was high above the ground.

In another dream, my wife and I were living in a house that was built next to the ocean. This made me very nervous. I moved from window to window, searching for any sign of weakness in the house. It was day, so I could see that the foundation was stone. The house was covered with white aluminum siding. The tide appeared to be rising, and the waves rolled into our foundation higher and higher, but never reached above the foundation.

There you have it, two of my phobias: deep bodies of water and large dogs.

The house itself, from the outside, resembles our own house, which has a gray stone foundation and white aluminum siding.

In my last dream, my wife and I had arrived in Vermont, on vacation. It was night. We were in downtown Burlington. We walked along Church Street and Main Street, and on the nearby college campus. The streets and shops were bustling with activity, people of all ages and walks of life. We wondered aloud what we should do first. Half-joking, half-seriously, we both replied that we should look for jobs.

My wife and I are going on a vacation to Vermont soon. Vermont is a dream to us.

Wednesday, November 08, 2006: Vermont Hostel

My wife and I were vacationing in Vermont. We entered a roadside shop that combined a general store, a diner, and a hostel. I inquired about a rest room, and the proprietor gestured towards the back. I stepped beyond a curtained doorway, and found a room with no furnishings except worn pillows, sleeping bags, and a hole in the floor for eliminating waste. There was vomit on the floor near the hole and near several sleeping bags. I imagined that a violently ill hiking party must have spent the night here. I quickly washed my hands, not wishing to catch whatever caused these hikers to be sick, and returned to the front of the store, nauseated.

Before the Vermont dream, I vaguely recall a dream where I am discussing, with an unknown party, The God Delusion, by Richard Dawkins, and why I am an atheist.

Tuesday, October 03, 2006: Burlington, Vermont

My wife and I were visiting Burlington, Vermont. We were walking down Main Street. It was winter. Near a brick school, two snow clouds swirled, one larger than the other.

Later, I was showing my writing to my old friends, Stewart and Matt. Stewart criticized one particular poem, and Matt pointed out that I wrote it when my mother died.

Tuesday, April 18, 2006: Giant

I was in a large monastery or cathedral, with complex passageways and rooms, all made of brick or stone. A prayer was being sung, by a long line of identical monks.

I climbed many stairs to get away from them, and finally I found an exit. As I approached the door, I saw eyes peering at me from the high window. “A giant!” I exclaimed. I backed out of the foyer quickly. As the giant came in through the door, I closed the foyer door and locked it.

As he approached the door, I made myself wake up. At first, I found myself waking up in the bedroom of a Vermont inn, but I quickly snapped awake in my own bed.

Tuesday, August 23, 2005: Bird’s Nest

I watched a robin carrying a nest in its beak as it flew. Another moving dream, perhaps. Ever since my vacation in Vermont, I have been seriously considering how I can move to Burlington in the future.

Wednesday, August 18, 2004: School

I returned to college. I walked into a classroom and sat down at a desk. The classroom looked like any classroom, with desks and chairs for the students in rows before the teacher’s desk, chalkboards, etc.

Mr Longwell introduced me to the class. [Mr Longwell was one of my favorite math teachers in high school.] I was much older than the rest of the students. Mr Longwell had some of my previous work in various subjects, including math, art, and english; he was showing them to his class. One particular item stood out: a painting of a row of houses in a somewhat rural setting. [Vermont?] As he held it up, he pushed a tab on the picture. The picture folded just so, causing the image to change to that of a single large tree, with no houses visible. I supposed if you pulled the tab another direction, the image would have folded into a single large white house. Mr Longwell marvelled at the picture, and my other accomplishments.

I explained to the class that I was a web developer for an integrated circuit manufacturer. I wasn't particularly proud of my occupation; I was merely stating a fact.

After the introduction, the teacher passed back essays we had written and tests that were corrected. I was doing very well in his class.

Recently, I came across a folder of high school and college papers I had tucked away. I did very well in school; I always regard my experiences in school as very positive.

I also have been losing weight after changing my diet. The weight loss feels like time-traveling in my own skin, as if I were getting younger and younger.