Dream

I woke up about thirty minutes ago from an awful dream, and now I can't get back to sleep.

In retrospect, it wasn't really that terrible; not like a complete nightmare, or anything like that, but there are a few parts that stick out to me as particularly disturbing, and I just have to write them down; I've already started forgetting about the milder parts.

First off, let me start by saying that I don't dream often. However, this marks the third day in a row where I have been able to wake up and know that I had a dream, though I have difficulty recalling them.

I tried looking up the possible meanings of a few of the symbols in this latest one (aka, what I've been doing for the past 30 minutes), but it only came up with two--which works, because they were the most vivid: a car accident, and fire.

For the first symbol, it occurs twice. I don't remember the circumstances of the first time it pops up; I believe me and my family are in New York, and we are in our old minivan, one that we got rid of a few months back. My dad is driving; he hits something in the road, swerves, and loses control of the vehicle, sending us into the shoulder; none of us is hurt, and we technically don't hit anything, like another car, but we are rather shaken up. It gets fuzzy after this, but I believe we go our way after someone--I don't remember who, but I know them--pulls up and talks to us?

The second car accident is, again, not really an accident per se. My dad is driving again, but this time we are in his current car, a white Chevy Blazer. We are driving down my street, and it is nighttime. All of a sudden, in the middle of the street is a man decked out in full traditional Scottish dress, and playing the bagpipes; his back is to the hood of our car. I am really excited to see this guy, because I love kilts and all things Scottish, but apparently my dad doesn't see him and rams into the poor guy, sending him over the hood and on our windshield, and then he falls to the ground. I freak out and my dad pulls over, and we both get out to see the state of the man. This all happens very fast.

Once we get out of the car, the man sits up; and contrary to what I had been expecting--a young, to middle-aged man--the man is very old. He stands up, and he is fine; he then goes on to tell us the story of his life, apparently? I'm not sure, I just remember him talking for a long time, and there were parts where I would envision myself in the narrative, kind of like they do in movies or TV sitcoms, you know?

The next symbol, fire, I find the most troubling, since we in Southern California just had the huge firestorm back in October. Well, I was sitting at home during the day, and the news was on. I heard the newscaster say that San Diego was on fire; out of curiosity and general concern, I go outside to see the state of matters, when all of a sudden I notice that a patch of my lawn is on fire! Not only that, but the hills to the west of us are on fire, too; occasionally there will be a big explosion over there, which could only be a house igniting, but very, very quickly and violently. I panic, and yell inside to my sister that the front lawn is on fire, but I don't think she hears me. I run to get the garden hose, turn it on, and extinguish the little patch of fire on my front lawn; it takes several minutes, but it goes out nicely, much to my surprise. Then, just as I have successfully put out the fire on the lawn, I look up to the hills to the west only to see this huge explosion--possibly comprised of several explosions all happening at one time very close to each other and in a straight line across the hillside.

That's when I woke up, breathing hard and immediately awake.

It's just all very troubling, because this now tends to be a pattern; I had a dream last Saturday that focused on a huge tidal wave, and now this. Meanwhile, the dream I had Tuesday night/Wednesday morning was talking about Nick having moved away (I don't remember much else than that). There just seems to be a pattern of devastation and destruction, both in my personal sphere and elsewhere.

I just wish I can remember the dream I had while taking my nap yesterday, because that would confirm or deny the existence of my point about the patterns and themes of my dreams recently.

Anyway, I think I'm going to try and get back to sleep; I woke up at 4:30, and I went to bed around 1, so I've only had 3 hours of sleep...