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Sunday night I had a dream. My sister T and I were headed over to the post office to drop some letters off for my mom. She was driving our family’s van. We chatted about nothing special as we made our way to our destination. It was about 8:45am.

As we pulled up we saw a huge crowd gathered in front of the door. It turns out they didn’t open until nine.

“oh man! this is going to take forever,” tree noted.
“why don’t you jump out and get in line,” I offered “I’ll park the van.”

Theresa hopped out of the drivers seat. I took the car and did a three point turn. Then I went turned left into the parking lot. Despite the large amount of people in front of the post office, the parking lot only had a few cars.

As I pulled into a spot I felt the car thump heavily. I used the auto-mirror on the passenger side to let me see if I’d hit anything.

I had run over and killed a toddler.

!!!!

I woke up totally horrified wondering why on Earth casual dreams seem to get overly horrific without any warning. Despite waking up, I still felt like I was on Cape Cod. I pulled the warm blankets up over my shoulder and started drifting back to sleep… when I heard a sound from downstairs. “who would be downstairs at this hour?” I pondered.

And just like that, I realized I wasn’t on vacation in Cape Cod. No. I was at home. And it was Monday morning. And in 45 minutes, I’d have to get up and go to work.

What a lousy way to start a week.

I had a pretty nasty nightmare last night.

I was driving on a highway at night. I was in the third lane, going south at a reasonable speed. There was a light fog and my headlights had limited effectiveness. The general environment was a bit like the bat for lashes video. Dark. Cold.

I don’t know where I was coming from, but I do know that I was headed home to the House of Rock. I was tired and anxious to get home. The trip was proceeding rather boringly. Just driving, nothing more.

Until the check engine light lit. I looked down at the dash and groaned. Just earlier this week I had spent some money to get some work done on the car and looking down at the dash, I wasn’t too excited to spend more. I returned to driving but had this impending sense of doom.

Moments later I passed a car in the breakdown lane. It was a small four door, gray and beat up a bit. Just after the car, my headlights suddenly illuminated a crowd of people standing in the road. In front were two guys. One faced east, the other north west. They just stood there. I slammed my foot against the brake, but nothing happened. I swerved the wheel hard right, and the car fishtailed out.

I woke up as my car plowed through the crowd of people.

I once had a great dream. In this dream, I was the winner of a contest. The prize was a coupon with strange properties. I could use this coupon to get free fajitas at any restaurant that served them. If fajitas were on the menu, I could get them for free, no matter where I was. If they weren’t on the menu, I was out of luck.

What a great dream!

Recently I had a dream. It went as follows:

I had to go back and play tuba for my high school band. But the Tuba sounded terrible! Halfway through the song, I realized the tuba was full of water. I emptied it, and it sounded a lot better.

It was a pretty short dream. But clearly, full of symbolism.

I e-mailed out the DREAM TEAM to help me figure out what was going on. Here are a few of the responses:

Ryan Schenk said:

Despite being unsure on how it will impact the other parts of your life, you still really want try TUBA DIVING!

Megan Ledger said:

In short, the dream represents your inner desire to become an extremely hairy kangaroo.

The tuba is the continuation of your life as something other than yourself. The fact that the tuba is a low brass instrument shows that you wish to carry out your life somewhere low - as in, under the equator. John William, a famous composer and tuba lover, had a second cousin that grew up in Australia; a second cousin that he was madly in love with, I might add, and he dedicated every one of his symphonies to this cousin. This narrows “under the equator” down to Australia.

The fact that you are going back to high school is reminiscent of a small animal going back to it’s parent, as a small Joey returns to it’s mother. Tubas have long been regarded as strange instruments. Kangaroos have long been regarded as strange animals. Tubas sit upright. Kangaroos sit upright. Mike D, as you play the tuba, one could say you were serving as it’s locomotion. Kangaroos are the only large animals to use hopping as a means of locomotion.

The water represents two things; when the tuba is full, the water represents your constant desire to take a shower and thus grow a thick and glossy head of hair that will protect you for the rest of your life (also note that a tuba in a symphony serves as a reinforcement to the strings section, and string is the essence of hair), but by emptying the tuba we know that in the future, you’d like to cast off showering desire, and live as an animal in a very dry place. We’ll combine this clue with the Australia clue and conclude that you wish to live in the desert.

Or maybe you had to pee really bad.

Ruth predicted:

You will be asked to preform a task that you once considered yourself proficient - nay, even good at, and people remember, and they will ask you once again to perform this duty for them - they are depending on you! Unfortunately you’ve been resting on your l laurels - too happy to simply sit back and think of glory days gone by, and haven’t been actually practicing it at all.

You will set to the task at hand with the vim and vigor you used to posses but will quickly come to a roadblock, and you will be consumed with frustration - BUT, take heed!! there is a simple solution that you may have overlooked, and rather than struggle against this allegorical road block you will simply be able to walk around it, or perhaps pole vault over it. But be creative! Stay sharp! practice Tuba 20 minutes a day lest they ask you to play at the next company picnic and you aren’t prepared!

Alicia connected the dream to common symbols:

What was the FEELING you had in the dream?

Some symbols -
high school = returning to your roots?
Tuba = something that you chose to be unique - something singular. With the saxophone, you were one of many. With the tuba, you were a soloist.
Water = something that is impeding your performance.

Is these something that’s getting in the way of you being as unique/important as you felt in the high school marching band?
If so, it seems like it’s probably easy to get rid of.
LIKE SANDER

Devin suggested:

I think that it hinges on whether or not you played tuba before. I’d say that if you did, you dream is just symbolic of your return to something in you past, but now that you have had so much more experience, you will be able to overcome things that you would never even dream of experiencing(tuba full of water) when you had done such things(playing tuba) in the past.

Irene believed:

I think the tuba full of water represents your secret desire to play in an underwater marching band. You think it sounded better when you emptied it, because you couldn’t convince anyone to join you in your underwater crusade. You secretly knew that underwater the tuba sounds ten times more powerful and you would definitely be the all star of your underwater band and lead everyone to harmonious glory! Nonetheless, you had to empty it so you could fit in with your lame high school buddies who won’t risk their lives in the face of good music. Obviously, this dream was set in the past because you left those losers behind.*

*Disclaimer: If any of Mike D’s high school friends read his website, I was just kidding about that last part.

And of course Theresa’s:

Two latent themes resonate from the manifest content of your dream: that of incompetence and that of self-efficacy. First, the image of the tuba. Music generally has a positive, self-affirming, and relaxing role in your life, but in this case the image of the tuba is situated in a negative context: that of high school band. Instead of signifying happy recreation, the tuba playing is deliberate and required (”had to go back”), and playing is work. The tuba, therefore, represents your work life: effortful and (unfortunately) leading presently to feelings of incompetence and ineffectiveness.

Water, here, represents the pressure and overwhelming feeling suppressing your ability to be effective in your work. Perhaps the pressure is on, and it is frustrating. Note, you are not drowning in a pool, nor are you submersed in the ocean facing a tidal wave. Rather, only one part of your life is affected by this particular feeling of overwhelmedness (a word? maybe!). The rest of your body is dry, meaning you find satisfaction and success in other areas of your life outside work, and your self-worth is not completely tied to your occupation. Further, you pour the water out of your tuba, which suggests your agency in improving your work situation. This emptying of your tuba signifies your ability to take action and change how you feel about your work performance. You have the ability to let loose your potential for feeling good about your ability to do your job.

So there we have it. If you’d like to contribute your dream interpretation feel free! Special thanks to all the members of the dream team for today’s post.

The other night I had a dream that Roland finally visited the House of Rock and, of course, we decided to play some ultimate frisbee.

Turns out, Roland is unstoppable.

There we were, on the field, Roland about 50 meters to my left. The frisbee was thrown about 5 meters in front of me and Roland engaged some sort of super human thrust and reached it before I did. It didn’t help that I was experiencing dream-slow running. His fitness was alarming.

Also, he didn’t have an english accent. who knew?

mike d: Jesse, what’s been your weirdest dream?
Jesse: … probably the one with Mr. Spaghetti face. where this chick was totally making out with a plate of spaghetti that thought he was sooo sexy… in a hot tub no less.

Be careful today, I had a dream last night that someone fell down a flight of stairs. They were badly broken.

Of course, I also had a dream that I was a robot being hunted by someone with a laser cannon.

I had a dream last night that could make a pretty decent sitcom.

I was living in an apartment with three friends. Two of whom were women. At a young age I had found my destiny with Woman A. Woman A totally agreed. I proposed, she accepted. After some years of dating we decided that we should date other people. But we both had full exptectations to return to the engagement. It wasn’t a “we should see other people.” it was a “hey we’re still young, before we get married we should have some fun with some other people and then get back together.” But now, I’m dating woman B. and my fiance is dating Dude 2. Around the house I would call my fiance “fiance,” and girlfriend “girlfriend.” I guess it was kind of like polygamy without bonus rings.

It was a strange dream.

Last night I had a dream that my hometown’s pastor had organized this huge scavenger hunt. We went from location to location picking up small items. My team wasn’t doing too well, but we finally found our last clue at the church itself. we had to pick up a card from a deck of cards. I got a 6 of clubs. Then we got another clue that led us to the town hall. At the entrance there were more cards, but they were all the King of Diamonds. Inside the town hall, we compared our cards with those of a mediator. Whoever had the winning pair got a small washer. We were then led to another room where someone dressed up as Santa gave out free engagement rings to anyone who had placed the washer on their finger. Everyone in my group got the rings. It was an odd dream.

Last night I had a dream that I was going to this ski paintball invasion event. We all wore mini-skis and we had to travel to this remote snow-filled barren place via metal pull tabs and elevators.

And Tom Morello, one of my favorite guitarists, was in one of the elevators. I got his autograph.

Then in the waiting room a cute girl came up and informed me that I should try a new hair style.

and finally, I got to the house and was given a paintball gun. It was my job to defend against 5 invaders. I ended up getting overwhelmed early on, so I ran upstairs, jumped out the window, and flanked my opponents. It worked perfectly.

I woke up wondering who the cute girl was.

When I have dreams, I usually have them for a few nights in a row.

Last night I had a dream that I was dating a beautiful Hispanic girl. She wore a necklace with shells on it, a flower in her hair, and long flowing skirts with lots of embroidery. She had long dark hair and bronze skin. She was very pretty. While we were together at a musical event, I met a cute redhead with serious green eyes (thinking back, I guess that’s kind of christmassy. It didn’t seem that way in the dream). I asked the redhead out on a date DIRECTLY IN FRONT OF THE HISPANIC GIRL. Was it crass? yes. in fact the Hispanic girl started crying a little bit. But really? I had saved her family from a car stuck in quicksand earlier in the dream (I pulled it out of there like a champ), so she shouldn’t have been too upset with me.

Unfortunately she had some friends who did not like the fact that I had been so insensitive and they came after me with knives. Then the dream went from romance into action and there was hiding, knife throwing, and fast action kung fu.

Overall, it was a pretty awesome dream. Though I do feel kinda bad about getting the number of that redhead.

This weekend was good. In addition to tons of guitar playing, there was a jam session, kung fu, cooking, gaming, and plenty of work on the acclaim. I also managed to clean out a good portion of junk that’s been cluttering my room. I’m going to try and get rid of as many of my unused posessions as possible over the coming weeks. Old Clothes, old papers, old computer files, everything. Simplification is the goal and the trash barrel is the means.

Update:

I forgot to mention, last night I had a dream that I won the grand prize in a contest. as a result, I got to spend a whole afternoon with the entire cast of the hit 90’s TGIF show: Step By Step.

Last night I had a dream that I was in a King Kong movie. note: I haven’t actually seen the king kong movie. But in my dream I was on a giant platform of branches and leaves with a few other people. And we had to perform tasks to try and escape the strange island. The first task was to jump off the platform and land on a different platform that was spinning around the base. If you were unsuccessful you fell into a deep pit of bananas which would cushion your fall. You then had to climb up the bananas and up the pillars of the platform so that you could attempt the jump again.

I really thought this would be a simple task. But it wasn’t. And on my first attempt I fell into the banana bin. As I climbed out of the bin I found a path that snaked off in a different direction. I took said path and found myself in a strange town that was part town part temple. I met a guy with thick rimmed glasses who offered me a place to stay for the evening. Then my alarm went off.

I’m feeling much better today.

Got me a library card yesterday. It was fun and exciting because seriously… it’s like having a really book wealthy friend who’s always willing to let you borrow their books.

If anyone wants to read along, my first book to tackle is SALT, A World History. Everyone I’ve spoke to who has read it, loved it.
The library gives me three weeks, so I intend to take exactly that. First deadline: November 15th. Feel free to find the book at your local library and read along.

I also had a very vibrant dream last night.

I was feeling a bit sick at work and decided to see the company doctor. I signed up for a 6:30 appointment right after my friend Steve Werlin. Meanwhile robots were taking over the company. thankfully there were a bunch of classic cars and motorcycles hidden underneath the floor and people were jumping into them to race away from the killer robots. I hooked a ride with a girl in a red dress who drove a red Karmann Ghia. A co-worker of mine was making passes at red dress girl’s sister (who also wore red). In all the robot fleeing, I forgot about my appointment with the doctor and didn’t show up until 7. Thankfully they let me still see a doctor. When I reported to my patient room, there was a free fruit buffet. Strawberries and pineapple. oh, it was great. The Janitor said I was welcome to have some food.

Last night I had a dream that my co-worker Eric’s (fictional character) birthday was fast approaching, and the company sent me out to get him a gift. Accompanying me was Antonio Banderes, Angelina Jolie, Jake Lloyd (episode 1 anakin), and some younger famous female who I can’t remember. maybe Dakota Fanning?

Antonio and Angelina kept pushing me to buy Eric a giant toy gun, but I didn’t think that was work appropriate, so I was encouraging the model car.

At one point I remember complimenting Antonio on his excellent singing in Evita. At another point I remember telling Jake Lloyd that he wasn’t great in star wars episode one, but maybe if he keeps acting he’ll do better.

At the end of the dream, we were all getting into our respective cars, and, figuring I wouldn’t have another such opportunity, I asked Angelina out on a date. And with that, my dream ended.

I had another dream last night. This one was in black and white.

I was swimming, near a large nuclear warship, with an anonymous friend. We were trying hard to keep quiet so that we wouldn’t get caught. As we dove underwater we saw a porthole in the side of the warship. There were people looking out from inside! They were being kept as prisoners. I swam further underwater to get a closer look. But something was different. I could suddenly breath underwater! I quickly swam back to the surface and told my friend to come swim next to the porthole. He did, and realized that he could also breath. That’s when the realization came. The government was keeping these people as prisoners because they were merpeople. And as a result, when we got close enough to them underwater, we could breath (I think this same magical effect was in the 1984 hit movie: Splash).

Well, I needed to free the merpeople. So I started unscrewing the bolts around the porthole. I could take my time, since I didn’t need to surface for air.

As I finally opened the window, a woman sergeant walked through the prison’s door and saw what I was doing. But it was too late! the merpeople and I swam away madly, in fear of the sergeant. But then… then, I witnessed something that wasn’t in “splash.” By the sergeant’s orders, it started to rain. And the sound of rain will destroy the ability of the merpeople to share their underwater breathing skills. I had to surface! Fast! As the rain poured down the previously gray-scale water turned bright blue.

and that’s when I awoke.

I had a dream last night. And it was bizarre.

I was in a stadium. I was there with Jill and my family, and I have no idea what we were planning to see.

While we were there, a newscast came on informing us that the Earth was being invaded by aliens. Suddenly a huge alien bomb explosion ripped apart part of the Earth and gravity got all weird. The Aliens, wearing creepy white space masks, started landing and pouring through the stadium which had turned into a strange steel tubing compound.

Enter the USArmy.

An epic firefight began. Aliens killing Americans, Americans killing Aliens. But, then something unexpected happened. The moon crashed into the Earth.

Every once in awhile there’s a scene in a movie that is so awesomely explosive that everyone remembers it. The destruction of the death star in Star Wars, the Aliens destroying the White House in Independence day, the tragic death of Jack in Titanic… really the examples are endless. But nothing compares with this dream. Never have I seen something so awesome as the Moon crashing into Earth. I tried making an MSPaint image of the action, and I couldn’t do it justice. So you’ll just have to use your imagination.

Anyway, back to the dream.

The Earth broke up into pieces, with lava exploding forth all around us, and chunks of earth flying off into space. The continent sized chunk that we were on broke off and started flying through space. As we hurtled away I couldn’t help but wonder why the atmosphere hadn’t desolved. And with that, I woke up.

I had another weird dream last night.

I was out for a run in the early morning before work when I decided to stop in at the local Worcester art museum. So I strolled up, and walked inside. A blonde bombshell ran up to me and said “Mike D! welcome, we know you like the art scene so feel free to come with me” I replied “how did you know that?” and she said “we know. You and Jill really enjoyed the exhibits last new years eve at the museum when you went to the star room.”

I thought it was strange that this strange girl knew a strange amount about my museum going experience but I continued on with her anyway. We went through a few exhibits, and then I saw a flight of stairs so I escaped my blonde guide and ran up the stairs. They led to a huge ball room.
“funny, I don’t remember the worcester art museum having a ball room” I thought to myself.
Suddenly I heard footsteps behind me. I turned around and there was a curly haired brunette there.
“mike d. you shouldn’t run off like that”
“sorry, it’s getting late. I should probably get my bike* and go”
“nonsense. it’s snowing”
and so it was. Snow storming is more like it. There were three feet on the ground and I couldn’t budge my silver bicycle. So the brunette took me back to the blonde and the plot thickened. I soon learned that the two girls were sisters, and that they both were deeply in love with me. But I turned them away commenting on how much I adore Jill**.

We went through the rest of the museum and as I was leaving I realized it was well after 5pm, and I had COMPLETELY missed the day at work. In all my frustration I started running out the door when my high school physics teacher stopped me.

“Mr Mongeau!” I gasped, “what are you doing here?”
“dad?” said the two sisters
“Mr Mongeau is your dad?” I said confused
“of course!” Mr. Mongeau replied, “you’ve never met my daughters before?”

And that pretty much ended the dream.

*at the time I didn’t question the fact that I had Run to the museum, not biked.

**this is true. and Jill, I should be awarded endlessly for my faithfulness even in the subconcious

I had a dream that my barber took out all the barber chairs in his barber shop and replaced them with small boulders. When you were getting your hair cut you had to hold onto the boulder while wearing bubble wrap gloves.

Dramatic Illustration:

well, Kentucky was pretty exciting, but I’m glad to be back.

DREAM:

last night I had a dream that I was running my second marathon. (in real life I have not yet run a first) There were only about 8 of us lined up and as we started I set out on a really smooth pace. In fact, I was doing great. At one point my friends from the companies Genuitweet and General Electweet came out to cheer me on. And wouldn’t you know, but my old friend Dan Charbeneau from General Electweet was there as well as Nina Simon who now worked for Genuitweet.

I felt that I was running really well. I was getting near the end and wasn’t the least bit tired. Then I saw the old lady. The old lady had started the marathon at the same time I did but she had run too fast in the beginning. now that she had slowed down I was able to easily coast by her.

the race ended in the town courthouse. We would run through the building, up a winding spiral staircase, and through the courtroom past the judges. I ran past the old lady as I started up the spiral staircase. One of the running officials standing halfway up the stairs said:
“keep it up, there are only ten minutes left before the race is officially ended.”
to which I thought: “sweet. I’ll have no problem getting to the finish by then.”

That’s when it happened. The old lady suddenly picked up speed. She was gaining on me. I screamed aloud: “engage legs! engage legs!” but I couldn’t increase my speed. The old lady passed me at the top of the stairs and zipped into the courtroom. I was running as hard as I could and I managed to almost meet up with her as we ran towards the front of the courtroom. Just as we reached the finish line I dove forward my body suspended in mid air as I desperately reached out to beat the old lady.

Microsoft Paint representation of finish line drama:

and with that the dream ended. yes, I may have been beaten by the old woman. But I also may have triumphed at the last moment and taken all the glory. just like Seabiscuit.

Last night I had a dream.

Scene: Fenway park. It had just recently been remodeled. It was not nearly as cool.

People:
Me.
Childhood friend Steve Werlin.
Worker at the Rock Climbing Gym Paulina.

Factoids:
1. Steve was having relations with Paulina. This isn’t quite as crazy as it would be in real life because in my dream Steve wasn’t engaged and Paulina wasn’t married.
2. Steve played trombone. (he really plays sax)
3. Paulina also played trombone.
4. In order to get into the bathrooms at Fenway you had to squeeze through a door 7 inches wide.
5. Steve played for the red sox.

Dream:
I was searching Fenway for a bathroom. I hadn’t been able to squeeze my head into the door at the main bathroom stalls so I was extremely annoyed. I REALLY had to go. As I’m strolling around the perimiter of the park I find some bushes. I considered going right there, but it was in plain view of the baseball field. Suddenly I notice that Steve Werlin is in the batters box. I hurry to a better place to watch and momentarily forget about the bathroom.

Steve steps up to the plate. Somehow, he’s holding both the baseball bat and his trombone. The crowd grows silent.

the first pitch.

Strike!

Steve, all depressed, raises his trombone straight up into the air above his head he places his lips to the mouthpiece and pops off the first 10 notes of “la cucaracha”
Suddenly, Paulina standing not ten feet to his right raises her trombone to her lips and finishes with the last 7 notes of the song!

this was HILARIOUS in my dream. The whole crowd broke into laughter! everyone was cheering! then… all got quiet for the second pitch.

Strike!

steve again raises his trombone to his lips in the same fashion and throws out the first four notes of Beethoven’s 5th symphony.
Paulina comes through again, playing the NEXT four notes!

Everyone CRACKS up. It was hilarious. I was laughing my pants off.

. . . and I woke up. It turns out I really did have to use the bathroom. So I had to get out of bed. it was 3:45 am.
feel free to leave your interpretation of my dream in the comments.

I had a weird dream last night that I was part of a reality show similar to ‘the apprentice.’ except instead of a business it was like a battle of the bands. It was also located in an industrial area next to a marsh.

I wasn’t me though, I was a 40 year old large heavy man who was balding and had a speech impediment. I was also married to the girl who was in the movie Donnie Darko.

Anyway, we were getting ready to go into the board room to find out who was fired. But first, we had to pass a test. The test was that they would rig us all up with body armor, put us in a room, and shoot us until we asked them to stop.

The first guy to get up there was a guy all dressed up in a 30’s flying outfit. He had the goggles and the scarf and everything. He was all ready to go and they started shooting him. And he was being pushed across the room by the bullets and explosions. Then he went through the wall and was pushed across the street. Then he stood up and threw he goggles which was the ’stop’ signal. so they stopped, he stood up, and smiled at his ability to withstand that level of pain.

A team of cheerleaders were next, but they chickened out.

So now it was me and the Donnie Darko chick’s turn. So we decided to go for it and see how long we could withstand the bullets. Then I woke up.

weird huh?

sam had a dream last night where he met Natalie Portman.

Sam’s first words?
“Natalie, I have this friend mike d that’s a huge fan of yours. can I get a picture with you so I can send it to him?”

Thattaboy Sammy G !