Bad dream

[fbhjr]

Last night I dreamed we were going to a Phoenix Sword performance. It was
somewhere in Connecticut at a school. We had done their show the year
before and they had asked us back.

The emails I had from the organizer of the event had been very enthusiastic
and they had gone on at length about how much they had liked us the year
before and how excited they were we were coming back.

Because of this we had planned on putting on a bigger show and had three
cars worth of people going. I had the tent and all of our equipment in my
car. It was the red Saturn wagon I had 14 years ago when we started the
troupe.
My wife was following in her car that was full of people and another car of
people was going to meet us there.

I drove up to the school, which was a large red brick building. In a small
fenced in yard to the side was the event. This year it was in an even
smaller yard that wasn’t big at all.
As I pulled up there were two small tents set up in the yard and the event
was clearly already in progress.

I got out of my car and left the engine running as I walked over to the
organizer standing in one of the tents. (A white pop up tent in the corner
of the yard. The organizer was the woman who plays Flo in the Progressive
Insurance commercials on TV.)

“Why are you here?” she asked me.
“We’re performing at your show today,” I replied. “But, it looks like I
had the start time wrong.”
“Scott!” she shouted. Her son, who I remembered from the year before came
running up. (In the dream he was the young man from the Galaxy Quest movie
who helped the crew get home.)
She and her son had a short talk.

“Come with me,” she said.
She led me over to her car and we both got in. She started it up and began
to drive away. She kept making turns so we would drive around the block
where the school was.
“We didn’t hire you to come back this year,” she said.
“But, I’ve got the emails from you right here,” I said, pulling out my
phone.
“I didn’t send those emails,” she said. “My son hacked into my computer
and sent them in my name.”
“But, I’m here and we have two other cars of people on their way. They
might be pulling in right now.”
“I’ll be plain. We don’t want you here. I didn’t ask for you, we didn’t
plan on you and don’t want you.”
“I see,” I said. “Stop the car.”
She stopped the car and I got out.

I began to run down the side street back towards the school and called my
wife as I did.

“We’re almost there,” my wife said as she answered the phone.
“Turn around and go home,” I said. “It turns out they don’t want us at
this show.”
“What? But, they were so excited!”
“Turns out that was a lie,” I said. “The organizer’s son hacked her
computer and falsely sent the emails.”
“OK, I’ll call the other car and tell them.”

As my wife hung up I realized the organizer had driven me much farther than
I realized and I had a long way to go to get back to my car, which was
still running.
Dream ends

When writing up this dream I looked up the woman who plays Flo on those
commercials. Her name is Stephanie Courtney and it turns out today is her
birthday. As I didn’t even know her name and had to look her up, I doubt I
somehow knew her birthday.
I don’t recall her showing up in my dreams before. Strange it should
happen on her birthday.
Justin Long, who played her kid in the dream was born in June, so it isn’t
that guest stars show up in my dreams on their birthdays.

I found this dream very depressing.
We’ve never had this happen to us in real life. There have been shows
where we have not been asked back. That is sad when it happens. But,
never one where we got there and were told we weren’t wanted. (Where we
were told we weren’t going to be paid, yeah, that’s happened a couple of
times in 14 years… But, that’s different.)

As I’ve gone on about several times, we’re having trouble keeping Phoenix
Swords going these days. Not due to customers not wanting us as in the
dream, but because we’re running out of performers.
Many of the folks who have done it with us since 2002 when we started have
had other things come up in their lives and moved on.
There is nothing at all wrong with that. And, it has been a continual
thing for the whole time we’ve run the group.
But, every year there are a few less that join than leave. And, now we’re
down to less than we really want to do the shows we’re asked to do.

I’ve been thinking about that a lot lately as we get ready for this big
show in Pensacola next month.
This dream is about the opposite happening. We had people, but the job
didn’t want us.
But, the feeling when I woke up was very similar.

When I woke up, my wife also woke up from a different bad dream.
So, maybe it is just the day for bad dreams…

Comments

[one-raido.livejournal.com]

It sounds like you put a lot of meaning into your dreams, so I don't want to be contrary to that, but I see dreams as a way for our brain to put the day back into place. Kind of like the way a computer defrags.

[fbhjr.livejournal.com]

I don't feel the dream itself has all that much meaning.

But, where my brain pulls things from does give me some insight into what might have been floating around in my brain lately, but maybe not in direct view.

To use the computer analogy, I look at my dreams as more emptying the cache of my brain and me saying "why was that file being accessed?"

[ravena-kade.livejournal.com]

Maybe it was the winds giving you guys ad dreams. I find high winds mess with my sleep

[pallid-regina.livejournal.com]

That's intense. And I'd be depressed by that dream, too. *hug*

[hindustar.livejournal.com]

*hugs*

[yesididit2.livejournal.com]

ick, what a crummy dream, being told you're not wanted!

[palusbuteo.livejournal.com]

Ugh.