The Anatomy of Dreaming

22nd January, 2019 

M and I were at the park next to my childhood house. Behind a gated section, there was a small climbing frame. An ice cream truck pulled up, but M already had one. He reached the top of the frame without climbing, and I didn’t understand how, but I climbed up too. 

I noticed a product in a purple bottle that my mother had bought to thicken her hair. On the back, there was a quote from Orlando by Virginia Woolf, which I found strange. 

I was transported into a separate room where a woman was speaking in a monologue. I can’t recall what she said, but the speech became repetitive and frantic. I believe it was about another woman, but I cannot be sure. I had just read Medea so perhaps her jealousy bled through the page. 

As the image drew out, it was revealed that she was not talking to people but to an assortment of small ships. She walked over to them and started grabbing and shaking them as if trying to convince them of her plight. She spoke to them as though they were people, overwhelmed with anger, deep sadness, and insanity.

27th January, 2019 

I was in my old bedroom, and there was a drug dealer in there trying to convince me to do heroin on my 21st birthday.

12th February, 2019 

A girl my age and I were sitting on tables next to each other. I was knitting a mint-coloured scarf, but very slowly, as my skill was very poor. The girl was sewing a detailed and intricate face on a white or cream piece of material—it looked like a Renaissance woman. When I looked up, her work was beautiful and breathtaking, while mine was awful and incomplete. I was struggling with every stitch. 

19th February, 2019 

I was in the center of some kind of war, surrounded by a large barbed wire fence. There were many people around and each person had a small pig that they had to catch. I was unable to catch mine, and a larger man caught it instead. This demoted me in the army.

Then, I found myself at a large circular table where a lavish dinner was taking place. The large man had been involved in an affair. I became the women (these things happen in dreams) and she did not look unlike Betty Davis. She wore a bronze necklace with a star and was both me and someone else simultaneously.

At one point, I turned to the people sitting at the dinner and said, ‘You seem  to think you invented having a bottle of wine and talking with friends.’ 

The next part of the dream shifted to a sitcom-style setting. A renowned and beautiful French chef worked in a restaurant, where a conversation unfolded between a man and his ex-wife. The ex-wife was clearly attracted to the chef and moved to go and speak to her. Rather than acknowledging her, the chef turned to the man and said, ‘You are beautiful,’ and they spent the rest of the evening together. He draped his jacket over a three-step stool for her to sit on, while he sat on the floor. 

At the end of the evening, the bill came to £500.99 pounds and they both laughed and screamed. I didn’t understand and my mother told me it meant they would receive benefits from the restaurant and the government in the future. 

1st April, 2019 

I made a hat out of cardboard, and it was very heavy. People were laughing at me about the hat, saying it was weird, but I thought it was funny. When they walked away, they said I was crazy and needed a therapist, which upset me. 

Later, I was in a plane We flew over South America at a very low height but very quickly passing over Botswana, even though we were supposed to be in South America. 

A young boy was telling another boy he was in love with him. He replied, ‘The cats miss you and I draw a kitten on you.’ 

16th April, 2019 

I was on a bridge that was covered in brownish water, with a lake or river beneath. You had to cycle across the bridge navigating large waves. If you went too close to the edge, you’d fall down, though this was rare. 

C’s younger sister was with me when I fell into the water, sinking to the bottom which was all muddy and disgusting. I swam to a small wooden island, then made my way to the shore. There were rumors that a dead body was in the water.

Later, I was surrounded by many siblings, or perhaps they were my children—I couldn't quite tell. The father or husband was a strong man who had taught all of us various skills. The youngest son, for example, could roll up like a fruit loop.

All the children were boys. 

I saw my mother in the kitchen, where she had set up a large projector, casting vintage musicals onto the wall with a quiet urgency. 

The kitchen looked different.