I Lost the Car...AND THE KIDS!

1970 Chevelle (not THE car but just like it).

I snuck out my dad's 1970 Chevelle and drove it a couple hours north to Prescott.  I parked it in a parking lot and stayed the night somewhere.  The next morning when I got up, the car was gone.  It had been towed to a local mechanic shop for some reason. 

When I found it and demanded it back, the employees started shooting at me.  I ran into some thick brush to escape.  I made my way to a hotel and asked to use the phone at the front desk.  I decided it was time to call my wife and tell her what I had done.  I would have to ask her to drive our Suburban two hours north to come pick me up because now I had no car and no money.

Just then, my mother-in-law walked down the stairs.  Hadn't seen her in years.  She said her and my dad found my daughters in the hotel lobby last night!  Had I taken them with me and forgot?  Did I actually lose my children for a whole night and not even realize it?

My three oldest girls came down the stairs but they were little girls again.  Must have been 3, 5 and 6 years old or so (in real life they are now 10, 12, and 14.)  But there they were as cute as could be with their hair in pig tails just like Wifey used to do for them.  My three littlest girls were not there.  Last down the stairs was my dad.

There wasn't much conversation about how or why, the girls simply ran over to me while dad and MIL left.  I think I told him about the Chevelle but I'm not sure now.

I couldn't get the old phone on the counter to work properly to call my wife for help.  I didn't have a cell phone.  We were stuck and I was worried.  We found some lasagna in an aluminum tray left in a banquet room at the hotel.  We snacked a little and I grabbed the tray and carried it as we left the building.

We began to wander the streets, kids and lasagna in tow, as I tried to figure out what to do next.  Stuck in a town two hours away from home with no money, transportation or cell phone.

Then I woke up. Thank goodness! I was stressing out in this stupid dream.

Would Freud say I'm a little stressed?

I'll take a stab at a post dream analysis and say I must be worried about providing for my family.  I'm not sure why I took the car.  My dad doesn't even own a Chevelle.  The one in my dream looked just like my roommate's car back in college, circa 1993. 

I don't know why my dad and mother-in-law were at the hotel in Prescott, they live in Oklahoma.  But I'm guessing my subconscious brought them in my thought to remind me of how much of a failure I'd feel to be to my dad if I couldn't take care of my own family and family responsibilities such as watching my own kids (how the heck could I not even know I took them with me?)

It was odd that I had no cell phone since I carry it everywhere I go.  And where was my money?  In this dream, I had been reduced to the clothing on my back.  It was NOT a good feeling.

The lasagna probably represented my concern for keeping my kids fed and the act of carrying it around town signified that I was worried about where the next meal would come from.  Wifey never made it into the dream and neither did my three littlest daughters.  There's probably more of the dream that I don't remember as is often the case.  But it's apparent to me that something is seeping into my subconscious (or maybe even conscious thought) warning me that I need to pay attention to my obligations.  The feelings of fear and inadequacy in the pit of my stomach for having failed my family, although just a dream, felt real enough that I can not allow it to come true...ever.

Man, I hate these dreams sometimes.

Do you remember YOUR dreams? Are they unsettling to you sometimes?

~OJD