Making Sense of Odd Dreams

 

Have you ever had a dream that was so real that you felt as though you were living it in the moment? Why do we have these dreams? I had a dream the other night and for days now I've thought about it over and over again. I'm not quite sure what it means in terms of dream symbolism or if it's just a strange dream and that's it. I cannot figure out why my mind would have taken me into the world of antique circus arcade type stuff. 

The part of the dream I do recall was walking through an old wooden building or tent of some type, with dirt as the floor. Now while this doesn't sound too odd, this place I found myself had old time machines such as arcade type or circus machines that had taken coins for visitors to either play a game or receive something such as a small treat or reward in exchange for the money inserted in the slot. 

I didn't see the face of the coin operated machines. The only thing I saw myself doing was opening up each coin box and removing coins. There were nickels, dimes, quarters, all of which were covered in a layer of dust. These abandoned machines were mine or at least that was the feeling I had. I owned the little arcade or whatever place this was. It was not some place opened to the public by any means, at least not yet. The feeling that came with the dream was that I was not going to open it or at least not until all was repaired. 

Like I said, the operation was set upon dirt. No floors that were in plain view. However, the place was so dirty and filled with dust, so there may have been some old wooden planks underneath all of the dirt, but hidden away by the passing of years. 

Wikipedia "Freak Show"

I could feel the grit between my fingers as I reached in and took all the coins. Each box was full of money, giving the appearance that the place must have been thriving at one time. The musty, earthy smell of dirt and old wood was definitely throughout the place. There was someone there with me. A faceless man, I guess brought in without thought as to who I was with, but a man nonetheless. He was helping me pull money from the machines, speaking to me about the place where all of this was unfolding. While this could have put some detail into where I was, his voice was basically the Charlie Brown teacher voice, heard only in the background and without meaning or clarity. 

Pulling money boxes out of each machine, I looked upon quite a few coins as I opened them and peered inside. I do not recall having any sort of excitement over the collection, but was happy to have this place, this unlabeled place as mine. The feeling came to me that Terry would love this, but he never showed up in my dream. 

That was the entirety of the dream. I collected money from the numerous coffers, wiping dirt and dust from my fingers after each touch. The main theme of the dream was that it was antique, the building or tent, the machines, the entire place and everything there. I'm talking about being from the 1800s or early 1900s. Wild West type of old. I didn't see any other images of the town around me or where I was in terms of the building or tent location. I had the feeling of a carnival or town fair. 

The Golden Age Arcade Historian, Blogspot

I know nothing about what dreams mean. Well, I do know a couple of things, but dream meanings and symbolism is not my thing. I do know that the entire dream concentrated on how old, dusty and gritty things were inside this place and while I do love antique items, these machines were so old I was worried they would be fragile and could be damaged when opening them. The dream was all about these machines and where I was. 

Do we remember things from past lives? Could this have been it? Or do we just have imaginations that flow at night while our brain is supposed to be resting? This is a job for Super Researcher, I'm assuming. It may be time to check it all out. 

Today is Saturday. So far the day has started out with me doing what we typically do. Taking care of fur babies and arranging them for the day. The plan for today is to clean house, possibly bake a bit, although I'm not positive about the baking. 

Terry and I ate linguini with pesto last night. I purchased some garlic bread too, although not the garlic bread that has the thick, greasy garlic spread on it. The loaf had cloves and pieces of garlic throughout. I added the buttery, greasy garlic spread before broiling though. I even added some cheddar cheese on top and broiled them until they were crispy. I did buy salad, but for some reason that never made it to the table. We ate, watched an episode of Castle and then relaxed for the evening. It was another wonderful night. 

I had chosen a large file yesterday, leading me into a long night of work too. Down to 20 minutes left to transcribe, I headed into the recesses of the office, where I spent the next few hours working. Twenty minutes on a file could mean any amount of time to finish. If the voices are heard clearly and the people are speaking English, without technological terminology, then it will take about 40 minutes to complete.

 Alas, my file subjects were talking about manga and anime, so yes, the terminology was there. Japanese names of characters from anime shows or drawn within the pages of manga, so that meant trying to figure out how to sound out Japanese names to see how they are spelled. I do believe I exhausted the Google search engine last night, with all types of spellings, trying to sound out what could be a character's name. Google did reply once or twice, "Hey, I got nothing." 

Not only was the name thing happening, but there were a number of students who were not speaking loud enough to be heard properly. Straining of the ears took place to try to remedy that. Then we have crosstalk or a group of people all chatting at once. Typically this isn't an issue per se, but this was a verbatim file, meaning everything needs to be typed. All this fun went on until about 1:15 AM. Then I could finally crawl into bed and cuddle with my husband. 

I'm not complaining. The files are a good thing and yesterday (Friday) was my last day of the week. I'm grateful to have files and work to not only keep me busy, but to bring in money too. My job does consist of interesting files as well. There are court files, police cam audio and video files, medical files, and on and on. Interviews with suspects in various cases can be fairly interesting. 

Terry works for the Roseburg VA, where he is in charge of setting up rides for veterans to get them to appointments. He loves the job and is working three days a week, which is perfect for him. He is retired but took on this job to help veterans, being the sweet human being he is. Terry is also a hospice volunteer. He's been in the hospice realm for about 27 years before moving to Oregon where he is connected with the work now as well. Actually, he became a hospice volunteer in March of 1989 when there weren't even dedicated hospice doctors at Kaiser, which is where he worked for hospice. His heart is large and beats with love and caring for others.

A trip to the store is in order. We are shopping for Monday, New Year's Day and our turkey dinner with Mallory and Hayden. This is also Harry Potter day, when we begin our movie journey into the series of films that Mallory bought me for Christmas. I love Harry Potter but haven't seen the movies for years. It should be a good day. 

So to all of us, may we have an exciting, happy New Year, filled with laughter, love, and abundance. May all of your dreams come true, even if it's owning antique arcade machines. Bless you all.