Saturday, October 20, 2007

Analyze this

Since graduate school, I have periodically had stress-related dreams in which I'm racing to the airport to catch a plane and have invariably forgotten my suitcase, passport, etc.

Last night, I had a new type of stress-related dream. I was on my way to work, but it was like Disneyland and along a river walk. The bus let me out on this little finger of land (about 2-3 people wide) that extended over the middle of the river. There was a crush of people.

Just as I was turning around to walk away from the edge of the finger and to take the long way around to the edge of the river, a party boat for a loud morning radio show passed under the finger and exploded a bunch of silly string on all of us. The crowd on the finger tightened and surged.

I decided to just jump into the river and swim to the edge, since that would be the shortest route to work.

Once I was in the water, however, I realized that I had my laptop bag and another bag filled with research-related papers on my shoulders. I worried that my data would be lost. I decided to swim more quickly.

As I neared the edge, I noticed someone else swimming and having a time of it. Like Harry Potter in the Goblet of Fire, I had to decide whether to save my data or this person. I decided I was strong enough to save both and with one last burst of energy pushed myself and the other person to the surface.

Once on the sidewalk next to the river, I opened my laptop bag to discover that my laptop was only a little wet and booted up fine (though Windows in my dream was very Disney--imagine puffy fonts and bright colors) and my papers were half soaked, but salvageable and not disintegrated.

So everything was o.k. I gathered my things and continued my way through the crowds to work.

So what's that about?

posted by Michelle @ 10:14 AM,

2 Comments:

At 10/20/2007 12:41 PM,  Greg Weeks said...

That seems like a "stress overcome" dream as opposed to a plain old stress dream. Related to sending off a book ms., which is now out of your hair for a while?

 

At 10/21/2007 12:47 PM,  Michelle said...

Yes, you're probably right. But also about anxiety about several other projects that are in various stages of completion and the anxiety over which to start working on next.

 

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