Strange Dreams

It seems my nights have been beset by strange dreams of late. One could argue that my nights have been inhabited by strange dreams my entire life, but these dreams have been strange in that they are a different kind of strange than my normal strange.

Last night I dreamed I was away at a karate camp of some sort. Several of us were staying in a fairly new cabin. The wood was still bright and new, and did not yet have that weathered look. The bunks were made of the same type of wood, and everything smelled fresh and clean. It was the end of the day, and the light from the setting sun streaming in through the windows gave everything in the cabin a glow of warmth and beauty. It was in the midst of this warm glow that I decided I needed to take a shower. I gathered my toiletries and off I went to find the shower.

The shower was no more than a curtained off corner of a storage shed. Just as I arrived, I saw another lady entering the shower. "This is just temporary," a camp employee explained as I am waiting, "until we can get the regular shower built." He means well, so I refrain from pointing out that this information isn't really helpful to me at that point in time.

My turn for the shower finally arrives and I get in only to discover that no water will come out of the shower head. "You have to use that hand sprayer," says the lady who'd just gotten out.

"Give me that shower head, and I'll take it home and get Bob to fix it," says my pastor's wife who is suddenly, inexplicably there--and in full Sunday morning garb no less. I disconnect the offending piece of equipment, give it to her, and she leaves through the shed/shower's back wall, which is suddenly, inexplicably not there. I take the hand sprayer, wet myself down, and then begin shampooing my hair, all the while gazing out across green hills, blue skies, and the preacher's wife who'd stopped to speak to someone as if it were the most normal thing in the world.

A man enters the shed through the space where the back wall wasn't, and moves off to my left, where a wall never was. Just some crates, boxes and other stuff one would find in a shed. The whole time, he has his head down and his eyes turned away from me. At the time, I think he is just trying to keep from embarrassing me.

Another man enters the shed through the space where the back wall wasn't, only this one is on my right. The whole time he is coming down the hill, until he gets behind the wall, which is still there because it is now supporting the mysteriously reinstalled and suddenly working shower head, he has his eyes scrunched tightly shut. Something begins nagging at my sensibilities, but I don't quite know what it is.

Then a third man enters the shed to my left, and this one is walking backwards! He keeps his back turned to me the entire time. "All right!" I exclaim. "This is just not normal for a man to be in the presence of a naked woman and not look!" I mean, I rationalize to myself in my dream, I know I don't have the body I had when I was 17, but here I'm thinking I look pretty good for my age--despite having given birth to a baby nearly as big as me--and these men don't even want to look at me. Am I that repulsive?

It was at this point I woke up, and the blow to my self esteem was so great that I ripped off all my clothes and ran out into the street stark naked and stayed there until somebody ogled me.

OK, I didn't really do that.

More strange dreams to come...