Dream Diary #83: To Russia, With Love

I was travelling with a group of friends. We were at the airport but at first, didn't know where we were going.

Then, the newest addition in the group revealed we were travelling to Russia because she had a long distance boyfriend there, and she wanted us to be there when she met him in person for the first time. 

This reveal was tinged with sadness on my part because not too long ago I was the one with the long distance love and was overcome with happiness at being able to see and spend time with him and now that was no longer the case.

Because we were so underprepared for going to Russia we left the airport to pack properly. I couldn't find my winter coat or my scarf (they are still with my long distance love in real life) but I managed to borrow appropriate clothing that was a little big on me, but would do, and headed straight back to the airport. 

We remarked how warm the airport was right up until we were waiting to board the plane where the temperature dropped significantly (which made no sense as we hadn't arrived in Russia yet).

They had us waiting in a tall, glass tower with an elevator at the end of it. The winds were so powerful that it made the tower sway and because we were so high it made me nauseous and I ended up either fainting or having to lie down to steady myself (I don't remember which.)

Dream Diary #82: The Shadow

There was a late summer party taking place down the street but I wasn't feeling very social and was a bit anxious so I decided to stay home instead. Because of this, some people decided to take advantage of my being at home and left their kids with me to babysit. I wasn't interested in being there but I could see people outside, dressed up and walking across the street in the direction of the party.

Part of the way through the evening, I remarked on how calm and peaceful my evening was going and how I'd made the right decision, not going to a messy, troublesome party where I'd have to be social and make an effort to talk to people. 

Then for some reason, the movie Halloween was on (an inappropriate movie to watch with very small children around) and suddenly I heard sounds coming from upstairs. I had a vision that the events of the movie were taking place upstairs.

Sure enough, before I could get upstairs to investigate, a tall, black shadowy figure came floating eerily down the stairs.

I somehow managed to get the majority of the kids out of the house and told them to run down the street to the party, until there was me and just one other child in the house.

The shadow cornered me and the child in the living room and all I could do was stand and watch hopelessly as it got closer and closer. I looked down at the child and realised I hadn't been looking after him all evening; it's like he appeared out of nowhere.

The child was glowing like a ghost and I realised that it was the child version of the shadowy figure and that's what it was after.

It sounds callous to write now, but I knew I had to sacrifice the child-ghost to the shadowy figure in order to save myself, so that's what I did.

I ended up at the party down the street anyway and the parents of the children I was babysitting praised me for my bravery, though I felt a fraud because of the child-ghost I left behind.

My relief was short lived when I realised the shadow was following me, though no-one else could sense it or see besides me.  

I ended up fleeing to work in desperation. 

In the dream, my workplace was a room full of dishwashers and cleaning equipment; I think it must have been the kitchen for a large hotel or other establishment.

My colleagues were surprised to see me there but I joined in with whatever activities were taking place and for a while I felt calm and relaxed.

Once again, this was short lived when a colleague burst in and said that an intruder had been spotted on the security camera and that it was heading straight for me.

Now, not only feeling afraid, but also tremendously guilty for bringing this onto my colleagues, we frantically went around the room turning off all the equipment and dimming all the lights in order to make the room look empty.

I went to the back of the room where there was a bathtub with an attached shower and shower curtain, where I ducked down and closed my eyes and prayed that the shadow didn't find me.

An Open Letter

Flashback to a dark, unremarkable October evening in 2005. I am minding my own business on the web forum we both used to frequent. 

I notice that I have received a private message. It is from you.

You explain that you have noticed me on many of the same boards as you and I seemed interesting so you decided to contact me. I recognise your name from the boards in question and feel flattered that you want to talk to me.

We message each other back and forth over the next few nights before rounding off our conversation. I didn't think anything of it until a few nights later when you messaged me again; you had copied and pasted the Q+A from my profile and sent it me with your own answers where mine had been.

There was no real need to do this; our original conversation had been wrapped up, you just wanted an excuse to keep talking.

It was here I discover that you are quite a bit older than me and that makes your interest in what I think and have to say even more flattering, though I feel self-conscious and frustrated when I don't have an intellectual or insightful answer to your questions.

We continue to message each other most days for several months - you even send me a postcard when you travel to Antarctica, which I prop up behind my mirror as my most treasured possession. 

When I travel to Corfu in October 2006, I don't remember if I send you a postcard, but I know that I sent you pictures of myself. So when you vanish shortly afterwards, I am left confused and upset.

Days and then weeks pass since our last correspondence and I miss you. I actually miss you. We'd never met and you don't owe me an explanation for living your life, but I couldn't shake the feeling that a vital part of my life was missing - even in those early days.

So when I log in to our web forum seven months (yes, I remember how many months) after we last communicated and see that you've been active, my heart leaps into my throat.

I forget who contacts whom first, but when we re-connect it's like no time whatsoever has passed. In fact, our time apart seems to bring us closer together and I notice that your attitude towards me is more flirtatious and suggestive and I can't shake the feeling that you seeing my photograph had something to do with that...

Shortly after this, in November 2007, my niece is born and shortly after that we exchange phone numbers and we speak on the phone for the first time.

As I dial the number my hands are shaking but as soon as I hear your voice I feel as though I've known you my whole life. Neither of us enjoy talking on the phone, but conversations could easily last two, three sometimes four hours or more! 

My parents scold me for racking up the phone bill for calls to the USA but I don't care.

It's around this time I know that have I have developed feelings for you, but I am utterly petrified of revealing this to you. You constantly mention other women that are interested in you, or women that you are going on a date with - whether you are doing this to be honest, or to gauge my reaction, I don't know, but I err on the side of caution and don't fully reveal the full extent of my feelings to you. 

During our lengthy correspondence, we talk of meeting up numerous times, but circumstances are just never favourable.

So, when you mention that you have the opportunity to work in Singapore, I don't get what your full intentions are. You say that when you mentioned that taking this job might lead to work in the UK and I didn't give you the 'right' reaction... from my side it just seemed to like you really wanted the job and was using the chance for working in the UK as an excuse to get me to give you my approval.

In truth, I really didn't want you to take the job; you'd be farther away and in a completely opposite time-zone that would make communication extremely hard, if not downright impossible. 

And in a way, I was proved right when once again, you vanished. You say later that you didn't really vanish, but to me you were completely out of reach; therefore there's no two ways about it- you vanished!

During this time I had the most vivid, detailed dream (which anyone reading my blog will know I have) where I had been missing you deeply for several months and then I receive a phone call from you where mid-conversation I hear a child in the background; you are then forced to reveal that you have a wife/girlfriend and child and you were only calling me to let me know and relieve your conscience.

I am so traumatised by this dream that when I wake up, I delete any and all evidence of your existence or that I had ever had feelings for you. I had made my peace with never seeing or speaking to you again- just as long as you didn't call me to relieve your conscience. Anything but that.

I forget how many months you were absent this time and whether it was longer than the original seven months absence, I only know that when I woke up from a nap that unremarkable afternoon and I saw that you were following me on Twitter, any fearful feelings I felt melted away and I just couldn't wait to speak to you again.

Not long after this, we start to discuss meeting up in person for real, and you reveal to me that me being and living with you is something that you've thought a lot about and wanted for quite some time.

It sounds so stupid to say so now because looking back it seems so obvious, but the revelation comes as such a shock to me and when you say it, it makes so much sense; this is where I am supposed to be and who I am supposed to be with. This is exactly what I want too, it just took you coming out and saying it for me to realise it.

Unfortunately circumstance doesn't rule in our favour and it takes over a year before we meet in person in July 2013; and even then, I don't tell a single soul where I'm going- I barely even give you any warning and even though you have next to nothing, no money, no proper place to live I still think the world of you and want to be with you more than anything. 

Stepping out of that cab and meeting you for the first time is such a high, such a rush I can't even put into words...

I don't even remember our first kiss, I just remember how I felt.

I want more than anything for you to ask me to stay, but I know that it isn't realistic so I return to the UK more depressed than ever.

If I thought that us meeting was the biggest hurdle we had to face I was wrong; it seemed that everything after that just seemed to go even further downhill, not just for you but for me too.

You think that I didn't care that you had difficulties, but I actually used to spend night after night unable to sleep, racking my brain as to how I could help you and crying myself to sleep when I couldn't do anything.

I guess that's why it's so hard for me to process why, after everything we've been through, you can't forgive me for being at my lowest point when I loved you and thought the world of you when you were at yours.

When I get back to the UK after my anxiety attack in June 2015, for some reason I get the bright idea to only contact you when I am returning; I want to surprise you.

I am haunted everyday by my decision to do this. I just keep thinking, if I had only contacted you one week earlier, five days earlier, one day earlier... would I have gotten to you before you vanish into thin air and we wouldn't be in this mess we're in?

Dream Diary #81: A Youtube Affair

I was wandering in a strange, deserted town by myself when I met with a youtube entertainer (who exists in real-life and no, I'm not going to name him!) and we rode across a field on a horse. 

We didn't see any other people but we saw various different animals wandering about the town.

As the sun went down, we ended up kissing and making out on the field. Floating outside of myself I noticed he didn't look very happy so I stopped and chided him, saying "I know you're married but could you at least pretend to be enjoying it!"

He responded by saying his wife knows he often cheats and turns a blind eye. 

The dream ended with me wandering the halls of a brightly lit hotel, where I presume we were going to take our affair to the next level. 

Dream Diary #80: The Littlest Project

I had started a new job at a supermarket. 

I have worked in supermarkets in real-life before so the feeling was bittersweet especially when the supervisor came along and announced that the regional managers were visiting so the place had to look spotless (something I hated about supermarket work!)

I guess my job was supposed to be stacking the shelves or something, but I spent a great deal of time picking the rubbish off the floor and disposing of it.

So when I was given the task of rearranging a small vase of flowers I relished the opportunity. However, the flowers were mostly dead and it was hard to make them look nice, but as a naturally creative person I was determined to make them look as good as possible.

There seemed to be a lot of staff and not many jobs to do and pretty soon everyone was wading in on my little project, trying to undo and undermine the work I'd done, leaving me feeling dejected, sad and frustrated.

Trying to leave the supermarket for my lunch break, I was surprised to see that the entrance/exit resembled an airport. You had to go through a metal detector just to leave and enter the store!

Later, the supervisor kept trying to take me aside several times as she sensed that I was sad but due to the chaotic airport-like surroundings, we kept getting interrupted.

Dream Diary #79: Piece of Cake

I was attending a wedding and it was time to cut the cake but there didn't seem to be an appropriate knife or slicing tool available. In the end, I had to resort to using a meat cleaver to cut through the thick, pink icing.

I am the first to cut a piece from the cake, but when others see what I am eating, they follow suit and get a piece too. 

In real-life, I don't eat a lot of cake as it gives me stomach ache, but in the dream it tasted so good that I had several slices. 

The following morning, when it was time to return home I saw that we were flying on a private passenger plane!

As we were preparing to board, I realised that in addition to all the regular seating inside the plane, there were special re-inforced seats that extended out onto the wing. 

My mum begged me to sit near her so she wouldn't have to speak with the rest of the family all the way home. I agreed though it meant I would be in a wing seat.

The plane was situated on a grassy airfield, preparing to take off. I sat in my seat, watching my niece play on the field with a stewardess. 

Without warning, the plane began moving and a cardigan I had not yet put away flew off and onto the ground. 

I yelled down at my niece to grab it and pass it up to me, though the stewardess reassured me that I had plenty of time before the plane took off so if I wanted to quickly jump down and get it myself, then I could. 

As my niece had already picked up my fallen cardigan and was running towards the plane to give it to me, I stayed where I was.

Then suddenly, the plane lifted off the ground. Even the stewardess, who was supposed to be on the plane with us, looked shocked and confused, as if this wasn't supposed to happen.

I tried knocking on the side of the plane and yelling to get the pilot's attention, but to no avail. I could only watch as we flew higher and higher, the stewardess led my niece off the airfield and in the direction of the airport. I presume, to radio the plane and let the pilot know they had been left behind. 

Even throughout the panic of this, the feeling of flying out on the wing like that, felt amazing!

Inside the plane, I asked the pilot of he had heard anything yet, and he said yes and had already been back and picked them up (I don't recall this happening) and suddenly my niece bounded up the plane, wanting to sit next to me.

Dream Diary #78: Asking for Directions

I was moving house with my small child in tow but wasn't sure if my boyfriend was coming with me or not.

Thankfully the kindly previous tennant, who was in the process of moving out, reassured me that everything would work out and as my boyfriends belongings were already in the property that must mean he would be there.

The house was very run down and dingy but there was a lot cool and interesting furniture, books and artifacts lying around. In the room that I had chosen as a bedroom there was an enormous writing desk and shelves stacked with hundreds of books above it. 

In addition to being run down and dingy the house was enormous; there was seemingly no end to the rooms and little nooks and crannies in every corner.

My family were in the kitchen, scrubbing it clean. 

I soon had to leave for a job interview so I was spending some time with my baby before I left. I reflected on the fact that everybody said how lucky I was that my boyfriend "agreed to have a baby so early in the relationship" - which made me feel warm and fuzzy within the context of the dream, but made me scratch my head when I woke up. 

There was also a narrative that involved me watching and observing an outdoor display of some kind; the details are very muddled but I remember that I found it hard to keep a straight face and was often told off or told to be quiet.

On my way to the interview, I got lost and went inside another building to ask for directions. As it turned out, the building was host to an interview for another job I'd applied for and I was asked to take part. 

The interview was done as a group, and became progressively like an audition, as we were asked to perform and do presentations. The louder and more colourful you were, the better. The final part of the interview/audition was performing a dance routine, which I thought was ludicrous as the job wasn't for a dancer or entertainer, but I kept my mouth shut and hung back.

The group was sectioned off into smaller groups and taken into a separate room to perform their routine. I was in the last group.

I don't remember much about the dance routine, but I know that I walked away feeling dejected and a failure.