Friday, August 08, 2008

Dream Wedding

I've always been completely fascinated by dreams. The way the subconscious mind works with your waking thoughts to create often bizarre (at least in my case) stories and events is so amazing to me. I often struggle to figure out what my dreams mean, or even to remember them at all. Sometimes I can recall them perfectly and completely understand what they're about. Other times I remember only bits and pieces that are so freakishly bizarre that I wonder if I need to see a psychiatrist.

Thursday morning I woke up and could remember my dream pretty clearly. I dreamt that Chad and I were getting married again. It wasn't like we weren't married already or anything--it was more like we were going to renew our vows and have the same ceremony for all of our current friends who didn't know us back when we actually got married. The church was similar to where we got married in Salina, the pastor was the same, and I was wearing the same dress I wore in 1994. One significant difference was that my friend Amber was going to be one of my bridesmaids. I think I'd invited at least one of my original bridesmaids, but I wasn't sure if she was coming or not even though it was minutes before the wedding. I wasn't sure about much of anything, apparently, since at the last minute I realized I hadn't talked to anyone about coming to play the piano or organ.

It was one of those unsettling dreams in the sense that I was so unorganized for such a big event. I got to the church late--so late that I ran through the sanctuary in my dress towards the choir room where I was going to get ready, and there were already a few people sitting there who'd arrived for the ceremony. I remember seeing this woman from work that I wouldn't ever even think of inviting to my wedding, and I'm not entirely sure why she was there. I think maybe it was because I passed her in the hall earlier this week and remember thinking that she was a very nice and friendly person!

The funniest part about my dream is that even though the wedding was supposed to start about 10 minutes after I arrived, I decided that I should probably put on some makeup since it was, of course, my wedding day. Instead of pulling out the mascara, which in reality I do wear on special occasions, I for some reason decided to go with eye shadow and eyeliner. In my real life, I'm pretty sure I haven't worn either since my senior prom. Oh wait--I did actually wear them when I was in a friend's wedding in college, but in that case we had our makeup done for us by professionals. The point is, I have no idea how to apply eye shadow and eyeliner, and this was one thing that was VERY realistic in my dream. I started putting on liquid eyeliner and pretty soon I had it all over my eyelids. I was frantically trying to scrub it off and cover it up with eye shadow when I looked down at my watch and it was 1:30--thirty minutes after I was suppose to have walked down the aisle! I woke up in a complete panic before I realized how ridiculous the whole thing was!

As I was telling Chad about my dream the next morning it didn't seem that strange at all, since several of our friends are getting married in the next couple of months. Since I've been chatting about their weddings and we have weddings on the calendar (one this weekend even), it didn't seem odd that I would dream about a wedding. The dream struck me as fascinating, however, later that morning as I was walking down the hall (laughing about someone's underwear on the floor) right after arriving at work. I looked down and noticed that my wedding ring was gone! I panicked briefly before remembering that the night before I had put it on the nightstand while putting on body lotion before bed. In 14 years of marriage I've basically only taken my ring off to clean it, so I was totally not in the habit of putting it back on in the morning! I couldn't believe I didn't notice it was missing while I was getting ready for work. I must have been totally asleep!

I felt so naked once I realized my ring was gone that I pulled out a paper clip from my desk and bent it into a circle around my finger. That way I knew I wouldn't forget to grab my real ring as soon as I got home for lunch. Despite the fact that I'd completely forgotten taking it off the night before, I felt like subconsciously I must have known something related to my wedding was missing and was going to be late! My dream was just my mind's subtle way of telling me!

1 comment:

amber said...

And if you and Chad ever really do decide to renew your vows, I'm totally there! ;)