Sandman, Bring Me a Dream

Yesterday was St. Patrick's Day, but that day doesn't mean much to me. I stayed home and watched a DVD with my daughter. (The Rum Diary, if you want to know. It sucked.) I really don't frequent bars or go to wild parties. I did those things years ago and like to say I outgrew them, but sometimes I wonder.

My life changed. I had children. I have other lives that I am responsible for. I had to make some changes and some of them involved staying home and taking care of my family.

You know how some kids go off to college and then go nuts because they are no longer under the roof of their parents. I wonder if that will be me in a couple of years when my daughter leaves for college. It will just be me with no responsibilities other than myself. That kind of freedom can be dangerous in the hands of a man that hasn't seen it for eighteen years.

My leash is a little longer.

I am not suggesting that I feel that I am shackled down. I love being a dad and wouldn't trade it for anything. I also understand that the parenting doesn't just stop when they move out. However, to have the daily responsibility suddenly lifted when the last child moves out is a little scary and yet I look forward to it as well. What will happen when I don't have to get home because I have a daughter there? Will I actually do anything different? I have no idea. We will find out in a couple of years. My daughter will be leaving for college in the fall of 2014.

Until then, I am happy to be at home. I get into my share of trouble every now and then, but it stays fairly tame. Half the time, I have her right beside me for any trouble I encounter, but last night we played it safe and stayed home.

After a night of emails, TV and checking Facebook I headed to bed. That is when the adventure started.

Like most people I dream in my sleep. Sometimes I remember my dreams and sometimes I don't. On the occasions that I do, it is usually little snippets here and there. However, last night, I pursued the same adventure all night.

I will tell this dream as best as I can remember how it happened. The dream will be in blue. I will add my commentary and possible reasons for these images in regular text.

As soon as I fell asleep, I started dreaming that my daughter and I were sharing a meal at home and talking. She was telling me about her date the night before with her boyfriend. At some point in her story, she gave me the impression that her boyfriend was doing drugs on their date. He does not do drugs, but in the dream, I was aware of the fact that he did. It was not a problem as long as he did not do them in her presence, but he did that night.

I was upset with him for doing this and upset with her for allowing it to happen by not calling me. I was also upset that she acted like nothing had been done wrong. Despite her protests, I had to report this to the police. While she was getting ready, I stepped outside. In the dream we lived in an apartment in a large city. 

There were hundreds of people going from our apartment into a building across the street. I walked across to see what was going on over there, but was stopped by a policeman and asked to show my wristband. Apparently, to prove that I had paid for the event. I explained that I was not going in, but was just curious to see what was going on. He would not answer any of my questions, but I got him to believe that I was not going in.

When my daughter finally came out, we began walking to our car. Due to the shooting that had happened a few blocks away, (I did not see this, but was aware that it had happened) the parking garage was full of panicked people trying to get away. There were also many forklifts carrying some large blue crates. The drivers could not see in front of them, so we had to dodge them to get to our car. We barely made it.

We couldn't find the police station, so we drove to a woman's house to visit with her. This woman had hundreds of cats dressed in varying outfits. However, the cats were the size of large mice. They were on the back of the couch, on shelves and running everywhere on the floor.  My father was sitting in an easy chair trying to dress one of the cats in a fire fighter outfit. 

After marveling at several of the costumed kitties, I eventually became bored and began to photograph the children that were running around the house. I don't know where they came from, but it seemed normal in the dream. Every time I would get ready to take a picture they would make a terrified face, wait for the shot and then run off laughing.

Eventually, my youngest brother Trevor came out of a back room with one of the children and said it was time to leave. I climbed into the back of a police car (driven by John Kiselewski, a deputy I worked with at the Sheriff's Department) and we sped away.

Actual photo of strip mall in Harrisburg, IL
40 miles from my home. (3-1-2012)

After several minutes, I noticed we approached a town that had been destroyed. Trees were knocked down and houses were decimated. The devastating Midwest storms from a couple of weeks ago happened 40 miles from my home. It was raining furiously. I asked where we were and he told me, "This is Yellow Ash." I have never heard of Yellow Ash in real life. There is a White Ash 30 miles south of here. In the dream, I was familiar with it and it was way off course from where I wanted to go.

When we stopped, I was asked to wait inside a high school. My daughter and I stood in the kitchen discussing where her boyfriend's drug use took place. Finally, we got back to the purpose for this adventure. Once she told me where it had happened, I realized that I had been trying to get to the wrong police station. I had been trying to get to the county police department, when the offense had happened within the city limits. This meant we should have been headed to the city police department.

As I was trying to explain my mistake to my daughter, a Secret Service agent walks in to the kitchen and asks us to stand back. As I step to the side, people begin filing into the kitchen. One of them was Rick Santorum. Santorum had just been in our town that day delivering a speech at the airport. This was a current presidential candidate, so I wanted to shake his hand, but he had a coat covering it. I reached out and pulled the coat away as he passed. Despite the dirty looks from the Secret Service agents, he knew what I wanted, shook my hand and walked out the back door.

At this point, I woke up.

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Now, I am left with the dilemma of trying to figure this out. Was this dream trying to tell me that I need to find out more about my daughter's boyfriend? Why was the type of drugs never mentioned?

Why was the shooting only a side note in the dream?

Was it telling me who to vote for...or not vote for?

Is it guilt for not volunteering to help with the relief efforts in Harrisburg?

Since Red is dreaming about me, why did she not make an appearance in my dream?

Of all the cops I have worked with, why was Kiselewski the one driving the car?

Why did the cat woman's house suddenly fill with children? Why did we go there to begin with?

Why did the children make the horrified face before every picture?

What was the significance of the coat over Rick Santorum's hand? Does it matter?

Someone help me out here.