Friday August 7th, 2009

The exercise:

The prompt for this week's Four Line Friday Prose is: strange dreams. (Beware the brackets today - they be everywhere)

Mine:

I seem to be having a reoccurring dream about forgetting my laptop in this odd, non-existent (as far as I'm aware anyway) store that's a combination movie rental/public internet shop. The latest version came this morning, in between my Wake Up alarm and my Get Out Of Bed alarm - in it I managed to get all the way back to my old job at Electronic Arts before realizing that I'd left it behind (I think I rode my bike there). I saw someone I used to work with (except he had a ponytail in my dream, for reasons unknown) in the underground parking garage (which looked nothing like either EA underground garage I've been in) and I was begging him for a ride back to the store to get my laptop before someone stole it.

I know the dream is a result of me being prone to forgetting things, and that my subconscious is just worried that I'll forget something more important than turning the dishwasher on after dinner, but I still can't stop myself from being concerned that one day I'll look back on this dream as being a premonitory one.

5 comments:

g2 (la pianista irlandesa) said...

All this writing community stuff I've been doing for the past year might be catching up with me and my overactive subconcious. The other night, in my dream, I was in the hospital for something unknown going on with my throat; during the course of the dream I somehow knew that FaltarEgo was in the vicinity (I never saw him, I just knew he was somewhere).
Although, I did see his glasses on a table somewhere, they reminded me of my bio teacher's glasses: kind of thick, dark, rectangular frames. How this came up I haven't much of an idea...
- - - - -
You're not the only one with an affinity to parentheticals, you know. ^^

Greg said...

(Long comment, and probably insufficient parentheses warning)

Hmm, are you sure it's just about forgetting things? You mentioned just a few days ago that you do most of your writing on your laptop -- and since that's what's being lost in the dream, this sounds more like an anxiety dream to me, the kind you might have before a performance review or important meeting at work. In that case the laptop just represents things you really care about. I'm no dream analyst, but given you're getting all the way back to your old job, I wonder if you're subconsciously very proud of what you've achieved in your current job and are worried that you'll do something small and absent-minded that will set you right back where you started?

Anyway. Being immodest for a moment, I really liked the quoted speech in the poem I wrote yesterday too. It was mostly stream of consciousness so I was surprised it came out so well!

Strange dreams

All my dreams are odd, but I rather enjoy that. I think if I woke up and thought, "Oh, that was quite a normal dream," I'd be disappointed. My favourite strange dream was some years ago but remains vivid to this day: parts of the dream were all in sepia-tone (as you walked in and out of one location it changed from sepia-tone to real colour and back). Halfway through the dream everyone in it changed gender, which I never noticed till I woke up....

Marc said...

g2 - I'm actually really surprised I haven't had a dream involving my fellow Protagonizers yet. Though, now that you mention it, I seem to recall some dreams involving me checking the site.

Greg - well, don't you have a new career in store for you? Greg, Mathematical Dream Analyzer - has a nice ring to it.

"I think if I woke up and thought, "Oh, that was quite a normal dream," I'd be disappointed."

I like that :)

Also - isn't it odd how the most bizarre things can seem totally normal in dreams and then you look back at it when you wake and wonder what madness that was?

Salynne Wilde said...

I'm late on this project and its not four lines but I just have to share my latest "strange" dream. This is really putting myself out there and baring it all! :)

I’m not one to remember most dreams but occasionally I will have a dream that is so vivid that I don’t think I could forget it even if I tried. When I do have dreams that stick in my mind I get a great deal of joy trying to figure out where the dream “came” from or figuring out what events or feelings my subconscious is trying to sort out. Recently, I have been doing a lot of reading about personal style, body image, taking care of and accepting oneself for who you are. Based on my dream I think I can safely say that I’m at a new point in my life when it comes to accepting my body and the “me” who I’ve become.


I was sitting on a chair naked and exposed for everyone to see and then realized that I was in a room being interviewed by a panel of four Simon Cowell look-alikes but who were not Simon Cowell. “You’ll be replacing our host and discussing not only the news but fashion and style as well” said one of the dark suited interviewers.

“I’m sure I can do the job”, I said confidently. I stood up and looked at myself in the tall mirror that stood against the wall to my right. “So, I’m not perfect”, I thought to myself, “but I’m looking pretty good. People will either have to accept me as I am or get over it. I’m a woman of a certain age and this is what a woman of my age looks like.”

The next thing I knew I was walking around with a microphone in my hand at a TV studio. Somehow in my gut I knew that I was now a star and that people really liked me and my journalism. I looked into a mirror again and I felt truly happy with my naked body, with who I was and with my job. I walked forward towards a large news desk moving easily, freely, and completely uninhibited around the studio cameras, over the cables on the floor towards the front of the room.

“I’d like this desk out of here please” I said to the crew that seemed to be hanging around. “I want a chair only. There is no way I’m going to hide myself behind this monstrosity of a desk. There is no hiding. This is me. I’m here and people will have to take me or leave me as I am”.

Somehow the desk moved magically out of the way. I sat down in all my unclothed glory onto one of the chairs, crossed my legs, fluffed my hair and looked right into the camera. “Welcome to the six o’clock news…”

I woke up feeling rested, content and very happy inside. Strange dream....but true and I'm sure Sigmund Freud would've had something to say about this one.
Salynne

Marc said...

Salynne - it's okay, I don't penalize for late submissions :P

Thanks so much for sharing that, I can imagine that's not an easy one to put out there.

Strange as it was, I'd have to say that's an overwhelmingly positive dream you had. Good for you!