It's been a few days since I've had a chance to write out my dreams. I have had some, though they haven't been the most interesting. Just strange.
Last night's dream is still with me, so I'll try to get it down before it wisps away.
I grew up in Minnesota, the land of snow, and large indoor malls. Besides the infamous Mall of America, there was six or so smaller malls. This dream primarily takes place at one called Rosedale, and the surrounding area. It's a big mall with a dark stone exterior. In my dream, the inside was all done in fake white marble floors and walls, with giant escalators between floors and huge department stores.
I was at the mall picking out a dress for my sister's wedding. This was very important to me, I wanted to get the right dress. At the beginning of the dream, I didn't know how I got there, I just knew I went to Rosedale right after work. I was also terribly sick.
I went into one of the large women's clothing stores based off Lane Bryant and asked to see the formal wear. I was brought to the back where huge prom dresses were on tall racks, all in a long row, like at a dry cleaner's. I was very sick. I kept having to blow my nose and sit down because I was shaking so bad. My arms were heavy (probably because in real life my shoulders are really sore) I kept having to ask the store attendants to lift the heavy dresses down for me.
I found a dress I liked, something simple compared to the sequined and multi-layered skirt monstrosities I kept seeing.
There was this one I remember looking at, it was a giant bell skirt, so tall that the person wearing it had to stand on huge foot tall shoes. The purple skirt billowed out, then right at floor level, came back in, so it make a purple globe around the wearer's legs and enormous shoes. The purple was that obnoxious purple found in so many prom dresses, the not quite vibrant purple, not quite pastel purple color. The dress was held out in it's ball form by these long wires under it, creating a diamond pattern. I think I've dreamed of this dress before. It felt familiar in it's general ugliness.
By the time I checked out, I was so sick I couldn't stand. I knew I had to get myself home.
I went outside. (Mysteriously the dress I bought vanished. I thought about it later in the dream and reminded myself I'd had it delivered to the church in the morning. Totally rationalized it, heh.) It was snowing. It was that late night snow we got in Minnesota so often. The sky was a muted orange red color from the street lights reflecting around a million bits of snow, and sounds were muffled. The ground had a very light dusting, but it was far enough into winter that slushy brown/black snow was piled up in the corners of the parking lot and I had to watch where I stepped or I would land in a big mess of it. The new snow looked pretty on top of the old dirt covered piles.
The snow was so familiar to me, I can picture it exactly in my head, down to the way the cars in the parking lot would have those first few layers of snow turn into water because the cars had been warmed by the drive to the mall. I could tell which cars were from employees because theirs were the most dusted with actual snow.
I was desperate to find my car, I wanted to be gone before the mall closed and before the snow got worse. I kept walking through parking lots filled with red cars. At first, I was looking for my old Ford Contour car, which was the color of dirt and old snow. I thought maybe I couldn't see it because of the color. I remembered, then, that in my dream I had just gotten the new Chevy Malibu we have now. The car is red, with some chrome trim. I started to look for the Malibu, but every car was red with chrome trim. I was shaking and near tears. Every car looked almost exactly like my new car, but it wasn't. I found a car almost exactly like mine, but the keys didn't work. I had to look at the licence plates to realize it wasn't mine. These plates started with X89, I remember that. I don't know why.
It was late, my sister's wedding was in the morning. I had to call someone to pick me up. I didn't want to call anyone because I was so far away from home. Rosedale was on the other side of the Twin Cities from my home.
I was about to call someone when I remembered. I couldn't find the car because the day before we had been at Rosedale, switching over cars. I'd parked the Contour in the parking lot, then went out and bought the Malibu. Then, I'd gotten dropped off at the mall to pick up the Contour and drive it back to the car dealership to trade it in. So neither the Contour or Malibu would be in the parking lot.
I was stranded.
I cried a little at this point in my dream. I was so tired, so sick, and I had to get home so I could go to my sister's wedding the next day. I considered asking one of the police to drive me home, but they were busy. There were no taxi's this late.
Shaking and alone, I called my dad. I hadn't wanted to call him, he had to get up really early to get the church ready. I told him that. He told me, in his usual calm manner, that it was fine. I told him how mad and upset I was that once again I was going to lay something like picking me up from a mall on his shoulders, and he reminded me that I was his daughter, and fathers pick up their lost kids. He was so calm about it. He was always calm about things like this when I was a kid. It immediately calmed me down. He told me he was on his way, and told me I would be safe. I walked around the mall and he talked to me the whole time, keeping me talking and alert so I didn't fall asleep from my sickness.
I remember waking up feeling a bit of a lump in my throat because I was so happy my dad was going to pick me up. My dad was going to lose sleep and probably spend yet another day half awake and for his eldest daughter's wedding none the less, just so he could make sure I got home safe. I remember that darned ugly purple dress. As I'd called dad, I saw some lady walking out into the near-blizzard with the dress on. The lady had to have security guards keep her upright or that stupid dress would make her fall. Heh.
I woke up when I saw dad's car pulling into the mall's parking lot. Relief filled me and I didn't care how sick I was, I knew I was going to be safe.
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