I find that when I can remember my dreams, they tend to have a particular theme or setting over time. This winter, for example, I was having lots of drum corps dreams, mostly of the unpreparedness variety — can’t find my horn or my uniform parts, or I have to play a weird instrument (a valve-rotor bugle instead of a three-valve, or a woodwind instead of brass), or I get lost on the way to or from rehearsal, or I can’t get my gear packed up in time and the tour bus leaves without me.
Lately, I’ve been having lots of college dorm dreams, mostly involving moving my stuff in or out, and either not having enough time or losing track of time. The most recent one was me having to move out of two dorm rooms at the same time the day before graduation, and me having no idea how I was going to get all that stuff packed up and loaded into my Mom’s car in time. There was another one where I moved in and was trying to connect with my roommate, Amy, but kept getting held up by one thing or another and missing her by a few minutes.
What does it mean? What is my brain trying to parse?
I know I’ve been thinking about my clutter lately, and my growing list of tidying-up and cleaning-related activities, so it’s probably related to that. But why would my brain put that in a collegiate setting? Maybe because I felt so behind the 8-ball during my entire college career (except maybe one or two semesters), and that reflects how I feel about getting stuff under control now.
But why would I also have a dream about bringing Snoop Dogg a bottle of marshmallow-flavored rum in bed, then him asking, “But what else can you do for me?”
My brain is a weird place.