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18 October 2005

A candy-colored clown For three nights in a row now, I've had dreams where a certain someone from my past is, y'know, reaching out for my hand and saying my name and whatnot. How would you respond to this situation?

post by: box at: 09:17 | 18 comments

I would call that person and tell them that they've been on your mind and ask how they are. If you're comfortable with that.

posted by puddinghead 18 October | 09:20

I'd dream that I hit them with a pie.

posted by warbaby 18 October | 09:25

I do not in the least believe in any sort of paranormal anything. But when I have particularly affecting dreams about someone I know--say, that they're injured or something--I'll call or email them just to reassure myself. What's really weird is when I have a very strong romantic/sexual dream, emphasis on the "romantic" side where I have strong positive feelings for the person...the next day I spend the whole in the glow of those positive feelings as if I were really in a relationship with them. Which can be very disconcerting if, um, I'm not and never have been.

posted by kmellis 18 October | 09:34

Been there, kmellis. Even better is when you forget about the dream until you see them at work the next day, when it all flashes back to you and you turn beet red for no apparent reason.

box, I'd do what puddinghead said. A friendly gesture, no harm in it.

posted by BoringPostcards 18 October | 10:15

So, four comments in, nobody is going in for dream interpretation, Freudian or new-age or otherwise, and nobody is encouraging me to see a doctor or a psychologist or something.

Here's a tiny bit more information: this person and I used to be, uh, romantically entangled. When things broke off between us, we still had strong feelings for one another. We still might. Now, both this person and I are in [what, to the best of my knowledge, are] happy relationships with other people. I doubt this information would sway anyone to a particular course of action, but I thought I'd mention it.

posted by box 18 October | 10:39

I would wake up and go about my business, once again marveling at the slurry of doodah and neurotransmitter that is the human brain (The Human Brain: Still smarter but less good at super fast calculation than a computer). I mean this with all due earnestness and non-dismissiveness.

Me personally, I don't think that shit means shit, although I do have on occasion the dealie kmellis describes, less with romance than with some intensity of a particular emotion. In that case I tend to bug out on it quietly.

posted by Divine_Wino 18 October | 10:47

clearly, god wants you to load the carbine and climb the clock tower.

posted by quonsar 18 October | 11:01

Carbines are not really any good from clock towers, unless you are going for a totally random low kill rate distribution of bullets, much better a plain vanilla deer rifle. God, once again, fails us.

posted by Divine_Wino 18 October | 11:03

Climb the clock tower with one of these, and a dozen pies.
≡ Click to see image ≡

posted by Hugh Janus 18 October | 11:11

ok, i'll bite:
i think it means that there are things about that relationship you miss. Maybe you should figure out what those things were/are and see if those things can be part of your present situation.

posted by ethylene 18 October | 11:16

but that's pretty dependent on how you felt when you woke up or about it in general.

posted by ethylene 18 October | 11:17

Hey, I'm going to be in the vicinity of that clock tower all next week. Don't be giving anybody any ideas!

posted by BoringPostcards 18 October | 11:48

...and they'll finally let you go up there again, too. What an opportunity!

posted by kmellis 18 October | 12:10

Well, I keep dreaming about dead people. In one of those dreams I told the person "sorry but it's not my practice to talk to dead people" and zip, he disappeared. Spent the rest of the dream hoping I didn't hurt his feelings.

(Yes, this was a real person who I knew when he was alive.)

posted by bunnyfire 18 October | 14:05

Box, I think you should give yourself one week to do nothing about it. Revisit it a week from today and see if making contact is still what you really want to do. That morning-after rosy-glow thing could wear off by then. Don't make any moves until you know for sure.

And boringpostcards, if you need restaurant recommendations for when you're near that tower, drop me a line.

posted by mudpuppie 18 October | 14:05

I don't know what you should do, but the title of your post makes me want to drink Pabst Blue Ribbon ala Frank from Blue Velvet.

posted by jrossi4r 18 October | 14:09

Since you bring it up, J, is 'In Dreams' the song that folks claim is about masturbation, or 'All I Have To Do Is Dream,' or both, or neither, or what?

posted by box 18 October | 15:31

Dunno, box. I didn't realize there were accusations against either of them. Either one would fit, though.

posted by jrossi4r 18 October | 16:24

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