A to Z: "D" as in Dream. Pronunciation: driːm

Again according to the Oxford Dictionaries Online, a dream (the noun) is:

1.a series of thoughts, images, and sensations occurring in a person’s mind during sleep
2. a state of mind in which someone is or seems to be unaware of their immediate surroundings
3. a cherished aspiration, ambition, or ideal
4. an unrealistic or self-deluding fantasy
5. a person or thing perceived as wonderful or perfect

In keeping with English teachers' longheld desire to uphold parallel structures, first things first: the dreams when we have when we are sleeping.

"--You can take away our cars and you can take away our phones but you cannot take away our dreams!
--Yeah, 'cause we're like, sleeping, when we have them!" 

What movie, what movie!?!

Anyway. Do any of you keep a dream journal? I did when I was...hmmm...teenager-ish, but haven't really since. Of course I write down the really wacky ones, because, well, how could I not? To continue. The main thing I'm interested in with regards to dream-dreams are lucid dreams. I used to have a recurring one at my middle school featuring Captain Picard.

Oh yes.

He landed the..ermm.. hang on... the Starship Enterprise (hooray, I remembered it!) right there at the southwest corner of the building, hopped out (no, no teleporter), and usually proceeded to have some vague kind of conversation with me. I don't know how many times I had this dream before I actually figured out mid-dream that I was, in fact, dreaming. But oh, how awesome was that?! I looked at him and informed him that I had to be dreaming, because I didn't even like Star Trek, and thought it was stupid,  and was ready for the dream to change. I remember that clear as day. Don't remember the dream that followed though, damnit. Maybe I should look for that old dream journal. Or maybe I should start up a new one. Or both. What about y'all? Any of you lucid dream on a regular basis? Keep dream journals? I find them helpful for writing prompts, that's for sure. (I mean, Captain Picard? For years? What is that about?!)

In other news, I can sleep with my eyes open. Sleep, dream; you name it.  Discovered this back in Ms. ____'s biology class. Not that she was boring; awesome teacher. Hard-nosed, driving, interesting. But not enough to keep up with the after-lunch sleepies. LOL. Anyway, there I'd be, I guess looking to all the world like I was watching the board, taking notes (yes, I can keep my hand moving...not in the form of actual letters...That's how I'd realize I'd been asleep, because my notes would trail off into vague wavy lines for a half a page or so...), and then she'd ask me something in that way teachers have. You know. With that tone. That tone that says,  I know you're sleeping; I know I can't prove it; WAKE UP!

And I would. I also had a habit of doing this when I worked as a temp one Christmas break at a plastics factory. Dreamed one of the bits I was shoving through a machine was an Oreo and tried to eat it. Well, I got it to my lips, at least, and then came-to. Hey, it was hot plastic! Of course I woke; I burned my friggin' lip! Yes, this actually happened.

My dad does this whole sleeping-with-both-eyes-open thing too, but he has sleep apneia. Do any of you do this? Is it genetic weirdo-ness, perhaps? Talk about being unaware of immediate surroundings...

As for dreams in the la-dee-da sense, what do you think mine are? Oh yes, to be a well-read and well-published and oh-so-fabulous writer extrordinaire is of course the central theme to my dreams (hey look, a near rhyme), but there are numerous offshoots...Such as having a mountain all of my own, with a no-fly zone, a big pretty mansion for people to stay commune-style, a greenhouse, a lake with a very sneakily-hidden canoe, a tiny Unabomber shack for writing, and one of those giant bungee things where you jump up and down on a bigass trampoline. And caribou. Mustn't forget the caribou. What about you folks? I suppose all that would tie more rather into #4 than the others, but oh well.

 What are your cherished dreams?

Mostly, though, my real-world dreams revolve around living life well, with ease and grace and joy. I'm blessed to know exactly what I want and ought to do with myself, and so I do, and there you go! Doesn't always come out right of course, but I'm still lucky enough to be one of those whose dream is also reality.  Not everyone can say that, or live that.

As for #5, I leave that to you. For there are a number of people in the world whom I find just utterly fascinating and wonderful...but my instincts tell that this doesn't necessarily make them, errrm, dreamy. It makes them creatures of potential who are just closer to realizing that potential than I might be perhaps at that given time. Maybe it's that jaded side of me, but I refuse to see anyone as dreamy...because we're all creatures of potential. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I know. Enough of the sap for now.