Thanksgiving Dinner

I was baking a special fruit-like cake at my aunt's house in Salt Lake City. I was having trouble locating all of the ingredients, and people just started putting in random things like onions and shredded zucchini and dumb things like that. The onions were not even cut... just sliced. I was trying to find all the correct spices, and someone put in a huge amount of water that made the whole mixture just a bowl-ful of water. So, I had to start over. I don't even know who all the people were who were "helping me" with the recipe, but it happened AGAIN- the whole water bit- to an even greater extent. What made it worse was the jumble of social noises (laughing, talking, etc.) from the next room over- my whole extended family was just having a grand time without me. Every once in awhile my mom would come in and check on my progress, and was shocked by how long it was taking me to make a relatively simple recipe. We were out of some of the ingredients, so my aunt agreed to take me back to my house, or my family's house, which was in South Salt Lake County. When we came back, Kendall and Carly Smith (friends from swimming) were there, and had made the cakes already. What did they use instead of flour for the cake? Crisco vegetable shortening. It didn't make sense to me in the dream, and it doesn't make sense now. The grossest part was that Kendall was licking the spoon that had spooned in all that shortening. Ick. I was so disappointed that I didn't get to make my cake, and spent all of Thanksgiving (which I would have liked to spend with my family) in the kitchen making a gross fruit cake. ugh.

*Disclaimers* I don't make fruit cake. My aunt does not live in Salt Lake. My family does not live in South Salt Lake. I am a good cook and a terrific speed baker. It just does not work so well when I try to bake with my eyes half closed (like they are in most of my dreams).

Droid armies and fried shrimp...

So this is another series of dreams I had last night, and I can't remember all of them, but I remember that they were not really related, so here it goes. First off, the was a war... in my hometown of Atascadero. The good guys (the side I was on, of course) had these really cool robot soldiers, and all the humans gathered at Atascadero High School for protection. For some reason, I was sent on a mission to go find something in the ground near the LDS church in Atascadero. As I started digging (hiding behind bushes, of course, to save myself from the bad guys) I saw a whole HUGE truck full of enemy droids. They had cooler technology than the good guys, and were starting to deploy their troops. They gave evil laughs and taunts, saying that they had better technology now. It was very frightening, and I actually do not know how that dream ended...

Next, I was at Chili's (or another restaurant like it). My boyfriend Austin Brown was there, and we were having dinner with my swimming friends. We had not seen each other for a long time. The waitresses were not wearing very much clothing (which was weird in a family restaurant) and made me slightly uncomfortable. We were having a grand time, and everyone received their food but me. Oh wait, I had my food too, but the waitress had dumped it all over my chair and onto the floor. So, I was waiting for an intact plate of food to come. Everyone else enjoyed their meal, and the waiter that was working surprised us by bringing us each a huge pie to eat for dessert... EACH person got a pie. He handed me one, and I thought it was mincemeat pie (I'm not a fan). So, I gave mine away to someone else, who was devouring it and leaving the crumbs and bit of filling all over me. I tasted some of the filling, and it wasn't mincemeat, it was berry- my favorite type of pie! Then I was really mad I passed up this opportunity to eat amazing pie for free. By this time, I'm so fed up with everything that I just eat the portion of my meal the waitress spilled (fried shrimp and french fries) that was not on the ground, and by this time they were cold. I'm not even sure why I was eating those things, because I don't particularly like fried food at all... but anyway, I ate this disgusting meal and was not feeling very good when Austin told me that I needed to take him home because we needed to give a ride to his roommates. So, we leave the restaurant.

In my dream, the restaurant was in Paso Robles, which is about 15 minutes away from my hometown, Atascadero. About half way to Austin's house (which was also in Atascadero), I looked over and asked him if he had paid for the meal we had just ate. He said that he had forgotten his wallet at home, and that's one reason why we had to go home... along with giving a ride to his roommates. So, we get to his house, and random people start getting into the car... A LOT of them. I got out of the car to go inside with Austin, still kind of angry that he left the restaurant without paying, and didn't even tell me. I would have gladly paid... but he never communicated that to me. Anyway, as we come back out, I see someone in the driver's seat... in MY car. There is also someone in the passenger seat... and 5 people in the back. The idiot in the driver's seat takes the emergency brake off, and the car starts rolling backwards rather quickly (because of all the weight in the back). I manage to pull the brake, kick the "driver" out of my seat, and kick the person in the passenger seat out to make room for Austin. These two unfortunate souls were trying to squeeze into the back of my car with the 5 people that were already there. *NOTE* my car is a VW Jetta, so it does not have the most spacious back seat. So, as I am turning around, I am furious that all these people are in my car without my permission. I was ok with driving 3 people somewhere, but this was way too many, and the fines for not having seatbelts in California are fairly steep. Then, the people in the back start taunting me and talking back to me. I'm not sure exactly what they said... but it was something about a sheep. I think it was either, "A sheep could drive better than you" or "You're going to run over a sheep". Either way, does not make much sense. One thing that I do remember is we were taking Austin's roommates to a family history center, so it was definitely something that I should have been happy about. This was on the way back to the restaurant, so we were going to drop them off and then go pay the bill that we had not paid yet.... and that was the end.

I don't even know what to call this one...

Alright, this is a collection of little dreams that I had last night. I can only remember snippets, but hopefully it will all make some kind of sense. First off, I was leading a expedition, driving in the mountains. I'm not sure where we were, because I think the final destination was my new apartment, but we were definitely way up above any known civilization. Some older person (my parent's age at least) had gotten out of the car to take pictures of the beautiful view. Just then, a mountain lion came wandering up along the road. I tried to signal to the lady that she needed to get in the car NOW, but it took a little while for her to realize something was wrong. Then she screamed, which alerted the mountain lion even more to our presence, and ran into my car. The mountain lion bounded over to my car, and reached it right before I could shut the door. I still managed to shut it and we continued on...

Next little part was in a new apartment... but with all the items in my old refrigerator. So, I was going to be making some cookies. This is usually not a difficult task for me-I can make several different kinds with no problems. At this time, however, I was showing a new roommate the apartment and telling her the way we shared food (just staples such as flour, sugar, eggs, etc). I am getting ready to make the cookies. We have 3 egg cartons in our fridge. The first one is completely empty except for 1 egg shell. The second carton has 1 egg left. And the third is an 18-pack completely full of eggs. So... I am a little miffed that there was a whole empty carton of eggs in the fridge, but nothing too horrible. Then, I am getting really confused about making the cookies. I can't seem to find the ingredients I need, and I start putting things in the mixer in random order. I turn around to put the eggs into the weird mixture, and my new roommate has used 8-10 (about half my carton) to make something. I don't know what takes 8-10 eggs, but she used it. I was appalled that half my eggs could be gone in few minutes.

I was in a school class, in one of the back rooms of David Petersen's house, but it was on 1st east instead of 2nd east. It was taught by my marriage prep teacher, but it was economics or something like econ. We were supposed to be basically teaching ourselves the material. Mostly we were just goofing off. My group consisted of... Robin, Shawnee Slade from the BYU women's basketball team, and Nate Maughan, #6 on the national championship rugby team (Robin, I found him on facebook last night...I'm not a stalker). Needless to say, this particular rugby player is one of Robin and I's favorites. Anyway, we were supposed to be reading this article online, but along with it was a video. In the middle of not really working on anything, I realized who the guy was, and was trying to tell Robin quietly and off to the side, which didn't really work. It was kind of nice being in that class, because it was a boardroom style setting with nice comfy chairs. Anyway, Robin and I were trying to read, Shawnee and Nate were fooling around, and all Nate wanted to do was watch this little movie clip that was included in the lesson. Finally, I played the clip to stop him bugging me... and the teacher got mad because for some reason, my laptop was hooked up to the big projector and it distracted everyone else. Just then, saved by my parents, they came to pick me up and take me to my apartment? I don't know where they came from, or why they were in Provo, but they came and we walked back to my current apartment. When I got to the top of the stairs, there were some guys from the elder's quorum standing there. When I asked why they were there, they said they were just checking out the apartment, because a killer had been seen in the parking lot looking into my apartment, sitting on/in a Hoover. (That's what my mom said, and I don't think it makes any sense). Just then, I remembered that I have had other dreams recently where my house is being checked out by the Elder's Quorum because a killer was in the area. (For some reason, this makes me kind of scared to live alone at home for the next month). Fortunately, the killer was not in my apartment, but all of my siblings, my grandma, and my aunt were. And surprise! my mother had had two more babies after my youngest sister. They were infants. It freaked me out, because my next youngest sister was 7, and she was an oops. The worst part... I was taking care of them and not my mother. I'm not sure if they were mine or my mom's. My grandma said some slightly inappropriate remark, and then my next thought was, "That would be so fun for my mom and I to be pregnant together." Yeah... no.









* These are some of the images that came up when I did a google search for "Hoover". Fortunately, a vehicle was not one of the photo options, so I think I'm safe from killers for now.

Anyway, I know those dreams don't have anything to do with each other, but it was a nice little run of them, I thought, and too good not to share.

HOT LAVA

This is the first dream I remember ever having that scared me to the point that I didn't want to go to school or sleep again. I was 6 when I had this dream and I still remember it vividly. At my school, the kindergarten was a separate small building apart from the other groups of classrooms- California outdoor schools! hooray! Our playground is also fenced in and separate from the other classrooms, and includes 2 sandboxes with play structures, swings, and blacktop for jumprope and other games. In the middle of the blacktop is a cement drainage dip- a very small half-cylindrical dip that one hardly notices as a kindergarten student who is just excited to be outside playing with friends. UNTIL NOW... I had a dream that my best friend Anna and I were playing running and jumping from one side of the drainage dip to the other. All of the sudden, the drainage dip grows much wider and fills with lava. Fire and lava spitting dragons pop up on either end of the dip and we still have to jump from one side to another to remain safe. I was so concerned for my friend. She was getting very near to the edge of the drainage ditch and we were both screaming and very upset. The dragons seemed to be targeting us on the blacktop, and we had to back further away from the ditch now because the lava was spilling over onto the blacktop more and more. I don't really know how this dream ended, but I remember the feeling of sheer terror when I woke up. The end.

The Bus to Zion

So, my mother tends to have crazy dreams just like I do. I guess it's genetics, then, that she had this dream a few nights ago. The world was ending. Cars were abandoned in the middle of roadways because there was no access to gasoline. Trucks had stopped delivering food weeks before. People in my hometown (Atascadero) were getting hungry, and going around to houses where they thought they would find food. This would, of course, consist mainly of LDS families with a year's supply of food. To get out of this situation, the church had a bus that all the families were boarding. It was the bus to a Zion-like place, a place to take refuge from the looters and the bad people that were running rampant in our town. When fleeing their homes, the only possessions allowed on board the bus were the 72-hour kits (with food, water and clothing) members had prepared. It was dangerous business boarding the bus. Other people (not members of the church) would attack the bus and try to get on every time it stopped to pick up someone. In traveling to the place of refuge, the bus drove mostly along dirt roads to avoid looters and armed men. When the passengers ran out of food, they would find a deserted gas station and raid it for food. My mom was taking care of an older couple in our ward who were too sick to forage for themselves. (Really... the Brunners are in their late 80's, and my mom and dad are their home/visiting teachers because we live not far from their house). My mother never really said whether they made it to Zion, but I was scared out of my wits just hearing her relate it. Her dreams have a habit of coming true sometimes... the only thing that made me feel better is that in D&C 45, it says that the members will come to Zion singing praises... and I don't think there was any singing on the bus.

Fishy

Last night, I had a dream that I was at some sort of EFY-type event. We were sitting in an amphitheater, but the cement structure was in the middle of the JFSB quad. Instead of the "holes" or walkways to get into the quad being on the east side of the building, they were on the west side, and the hose was coming through a huge walkway in the middle of the building. The leaders sprayed our whole group with a fireman hose. It was a really strong flow of water and we were trying to push against it, but eventually were blown back by the water. I vaguely remember that we were supposed to be filling our water bottles with this water. People had been complaining earlier in the day that the honors students, athletes, and younger students who were attending BYU (like the 10-year-olds) got to use these special spigots hidden into the sides of the JFSB, and that everyone else had to go without water. I guess this was their way of showing that they would give everyone water, and that the students/EFY participants should probably stop complaining. I don't know what the point was exactly. The best part about this dream was that I have never attended an EFY-type event ever. Anyway, that was only half the dream...

When I got home from this week at BYU, my fish tank was missing! I don't have a fishtank of this variety in real life, but it was a standard, rectangular glass tank. In my dream, I wondered where it was, but I was too tired to actually go find it, so I went to sleep (IN MY DREAM). When I awoke, (still dreaming), I went looking for my fish tank and found it in the kitchen next to a clean fish tank identical to the first one. My fish tank was very dirty, and had algae and other things growing on the inside of the glass. I looked for my fish in my fishtank, but it wasn't there. It was in another tank that was shaped disturbingly like a blender. My mother came in, and poured some packets of colored stuff into the blender fishtank and turned it on! The fish that was inside the blender was no ordinary fish. It almost looked like a jellyfish, but it had eyes, and fins as well as tentacles. I thought it was going to get blended, but it just hung out in the water above the blades, and turned from a deep purple color to a very bright orange. My mom explained that it was a treatment that had to be done to the fish because it was so special. I guess I was the only one who could transport the fish from one tank to the next, so my mom gave me the fish catcher (a net on a stick) and told me to put it back in the dirty tank. (At this point, the clean tank had disappeared... what?) I caught the fish and was about to plunge it into the dirty waters of the tank when it launched itself out of the net and onto the counter. It fell off the counter onto the floor. The uncanny thing is that it could breathe and function outside of the water. It was dragging itself along the floor when I caught it in my hands to put it back in the tank. It slipped out again as I was lowering it into the water, and started slithering (flopping, pulling itself along) across the family room floor. At this moment, my dog (in real life too!) Lynx, came in the back door, and the fish jumped into my hands while giving a little shriek. Its eyes looked at me in fear and I could tell it had given up the chase. I lowered it into the fish tank and transported the tank back into my room. Then I woke up. I expected this amazing fish thing in a dirty rectangular glass fishtank to be in my room. And it wasn't. There was just my sister's fish, Jaws, in a smaller plastic fishtank, swimming around frantically opening and closing his mouth. I don't know if he does this all the time (thus the name... Jaws) but I felt bad for him and gave him some food. Maybe, just maybe, the fish influenced my dreams so that I would feed him... he looked really hungry.

The beginning

Today, my dad asked me to show him how to set up a blog. He is REALLY into politics and wants a online forum for his political rants (since the local paper stopped printing his letters to the editor). I tried to set one up for him, but he does not have a gmail account (he thought he did). My dad is a software engineer. He sits at a computer ALL day long, and he asks me to show him how to set up a blog? This is my first attempt at blogging... ever. It's ok, he also is not the best at looking up things on the internet yet... it will take time. *Funny side note- I actually set up this blog under his email account first, then had to delete it, then set it up using my email account- I guess both my dad and I can work on being computer savvy*

Anyway, that was a long-winded way of saying that to show him how to make one, I had to make one, and thus, my blog was born. The title "Elise's Dreams" has nothing to do with my future goals and dreams, and EVERYTHING to do with the weird dreams I seem to have almost every single night. Most nights I only remember snippets, but every once and a while, a dream comes along that stays with me forever. I guess I will start with last night's dream, and maybe later, add a few of my dreams that will forever remain in my memory.