One dream I’ll never forget is one I had when I was 19. I dreamed I was in Wheaton, IL, where my parents were living at the time, and was strolling through the shopping district naked. I was perfectly at ease, but when I got on the bus, the driver refused to let me on as I was. I took a seat anyway, and kept insisting that I was within my rights, but he wouldn’t move the bus. An elderly woman handed me a sweater. I was going to put it on, but I couldn’t find the sleeves, and when I did it was upside down and backwards, and when I got it rightside and forward, I couldn’t find the sleeves again. Finally I handed it back, saying, “Thank you, but I don’t have to do this, and I’m not going to.”
Another that I will also never forget is one I had when my parents were having a real knock-down drag-out that went on so long I fell asleep before it was over. I was with my parents in a mall parking lot, and my dad had my mom pinned on the ground by the driver’s door and was strangling her. He kept letting up before she suffocated, then doing it again, and I couldn’t stop him. We were the only ones in the lot, until a pickup truck parked opposite us: we were in the two spaces closest to the entrance. A man got out and walked towards the door; he didn’t seem to see us. I couldn’t move, but I called out to him, and woke up still screaming.
When I’m in financial straits, I sometimes have money dreams, but I’m jaded to the point where I can tell myself, in the dream, “This is dream money; don’t bother about it because you can’t keep it.”
Also, since I’ve lately been dragging Hugh Jackman into every thread, I’ll mention that I once had a dream about him. Not like that: I dreamed that I was on the crew of a movie he was in. I was at the craft service table when someone casually mentioned that Mr. Rilch had been hurt on the set of another movie. I freaked and started asking for details, but the person moved on. Everyone else was ignoring my pleas for info, or the use of a phone; in fact, they were acting like I wasn’t there at all. Finally, Hugh handed me his cell phone and rubbed my shoulders reassuringly while I called the other movie, then had his driver take me to the hospital where Mr. Rilch was. How nice!