Dreamweaver Part II: The Nightmare

Hey, that title kinda sounds like a cheesy horror movie that was so bad it doesn't deserve a sequel.

When da Boo was four weeks old, I had a nightmare that scared me so much, that I still cried about it over a year later.

In my dream, I was a Secret Agent (cue thematic music). I was so good, in fact, that I was given awards and accolades galore. People would clutch my hand and sob about how I had saved them.

I go on my next mission. All does not go well and I am captured. I am then imprisoned in a dark room. There is a window on the left and a door on my night. And the bad guys are standing in front of me. They tell me that because I've ruined their plans for world domination, my family will be taken and used for biological weapons testing. I can hear the Man, sounds like he is in another room. The more he talks, the more agitated he becomes.

What happens next sends me into hysterics. Through the door floats four orange balls, at about eye-level. The balls are attached to my infant daughter. The bad guys are laughing at me. My husband is getting upset and my baby is floating out the window.

When the Man was finally able to wake me up, I was clawing at the window, frantically trying to open it as I sobbed.

While the dream was never repeated, it still haunted me. Then, the following year, while driving to the other end of town to do some Christmas shopping, I heard a radio program for a guy called the Dream Doctor, Charles McPhee*. I have heard to his show many times before. He listens to your dreams and then explains what it means. But not in a Freudian ("You think your grandma might be a good kisser.") or an astrological ("Scorpio is invading you moon.") kinda way. Just straight up stuff. So I called. I had just gotten a cell phone so I called the show right there is the mall parking lot. I didn't expect the phone to ring because it's a national show but not only did the phone ring, but it was answered by a woman who asked about my dream. Then she told me to wait. Who came on the line next but the Dream Doctor himself! I re-told the dream (in my usual, overly-dramatic way).

Dream Doc: Have you changed your life in any big way?
Me: Well, yes. I became a mom for the first time.
Doc: What did you do before?
Me: I worked for a financial planner.
Doc: Were you good at it?
Me: Ummm...I thought so.
Doc: Because when you're a secret agent or a spy in your dreams, it usually means you've changed roles in your life, becoming something that you've never done before.
Me: Oh.
Doc: And since you went from being awesome to getting captured, it means you don't think you are succeeding in your new role.
Me: Whoa.

He totally hit the nail on the head. I went from earning a paycheck and having an active role in society to being a mom who thought everything she did was going to permanently damage her child in some way.

We talked a little bit more about the dream. I don't know if I made it "On the Air" because I went into the mall and spent a whole bunch of money. But I have to tell you, I slept so well that night.


*In trying to find his website, I learned that Charles McPhee has canceled his radio show due to his diagnosis with Lou Gehrig's Disease.