OK, no more full meals just before bed.

I just woke up from one of the strangest dreams I’ve had (or remembered I’ve had) in a very long time.
This one involves a road trip, a parade, a “stolen” car, and a screaming angry woman.

It also manages to include HAM radio, a CB shop, two gay men winking at me, and my walking down a street in a bath robe.

The first part starts off completely unrelated to what I’ve described above.  It involved a much younger me, a new boyfriend ( a really nice guy, good looking too. I’d sure like to meet him in the real world! ), the home of my family, and of somehow trying to share a bed in a room that was full of other relatives, too.  Relatives only in the dream world, though, because none of my actual relatives were there.  And sharing the bed was only for sleeping in, this dream didn’t involve any “recreational” activities.  (I seldom have those. Or, if I do, I don’t remember them. Dammit.) Anyway, at some point, I throw on a robe (because I’ve been naked up until this point) and head outside for some reason.  I’m walking down the sidewalk, and I’m passed by a couple of young teenagers on bikes.  They’re all dressed the same, some kind of black, tight fitting outfit, including a hoodie type top and black gloves.  They ride their bikes past me, and reach out and touch me as they ride past.  At first, I think this is a bit odd, but, OK, they’re teens and they do odd things.  As I’m walking around, others ride past me, all dressed exactly the same and riding exactly the same type of bike, and every one of them reaches out and lightly touches me as they ride by.  Dream me just continues walking, thinking “how odd”.

Now, either that dream ends, and another begins, or the oddest (well, maybe not odd for a dream) segue occurs.  Now I’m dressed, and walking in the downtown area of a small town, where they’re getting ready to have a parade.  I decide I want to get a picture of the beginning of the parade (to post to Facebook, obviously!) so I start walking towards my car to drive a few blocks and get set up to take the shot.  As I’m walking, I look over and see two men.  One is in a wheelchair, although I’ve not noticed that yet.  The other is crouched over behind him, with his arms around him, their heads close together, side by side.  Clearly they are gay, but not stereotypically so.  They notice me staring at them (it’s a small town, and the dream has altered to me being there as part of a road trip, and I’m surprised to see two men being affectionate in public there) and the one standing behind the seated one gives me a wink, and starts pushing the wheelchair with his partner up the sidewalk.  I remember dreaming “that’s really nice!”.

So, as odd as the boyfriend, crowded bedroom, bathrobe, parade, and two gay men scenario is, the dream now gets even weirder.

I get in my car, and drive a few blocks up the road.  On the right, there’s a CB radio shop, with a few people parked at one end of a parking lot, in front of the shop.  They’ve all got ginormous antennas on their cars, as is (was) normal for CBer’s in small towns in the 70’s.  Yeah, time warp type stuff, but the dream is still taking place in the here and now, because I’m driving the car I own now.  Or I think I am.

Now, the parking lot of this place is really only angled slots in front of the building, set back from the street far enough to keep parked cars from sticking out into the street.  I decide this is the perfect place to take a picture from, as the parade is coming up the street.  As I’m making a rather awkward maneuver to park, I notice some front end damage to my car.  I’m wondering how the hell that happened, so I get out to check it out.  The whole front end of my car has been tweaked, the panels twisted up and bent.  That’s when I notice that it’s not my car.

Not my car?  It’s not even a Ford Taurus!  It’s some kind of similar looking Chevrolet, it has a HAM radio antenna in the same place as mine, and somehow my keys, which I’m holding in my hand, started the car.  I’m (in the dream) trying to figure out how I got into a completely different car, had the key fit, started it up, and drove it several blocks, without noticing it wasn’t mine!

Well, I decide I better take it back, and find my car!  My key fits, although it’s more like the ignition is just completely jacked, and anything would work in place of the correct key, and I start the car.  As I try to back out of the parking spot, I manage to run over several trash cans, at least one of which is being used as a burn barrel, and it’s on fire.  (like I said, road trip small town in the middle of nowhere) I scatter the cans, as I’m trying to get moving before the parade gets there.  As I’m trying to get the car to move, since now it’s acting like it’s accelerator pedal isn’t attached to anything, the angry woman makes her appearance.

I’m driving through an alley, trying to get back “downtown”, to find my car.  An angry woman is waddling/running towards me, yelling.  Seems those trash cans I just smashed were hers, and she’s not at all happy that I’m “getting away”.  I manage to get past her, and head on down the alley, but the car is still barely moving, and I’m in a panic.  “Stolen” car, small town that’s gotten more hick-ish as the dream progresses, and no clue where my car is.

Then I wake up.

I have no idea what it all means.  At least this time I didn’t try calling 9-1-1, and not be able to get through. (that was a recurring dream for a long time, when I was trying to get the job I have now.)

I suppose I should not eat a TV dinner ( oops, they call them ‘microwave-able meals’ now, don’t they?) just before bed.

Although they do make my dreams more memorable.  If really strange.