Tuesday, June 15, 2010

More strange pregnancy dreams

So a few days ago I had one of those weird symbolic pregnancy dreams everyone talks about.
It was after a particularly hard night where I didn't get any sleep but then slept like the dead for several hours the following day.
It was also right around the time I took possession of my certified used car, which is brand new to me and loaded with more features than I have ever seen in one vehicle.

The dream goes like this:
Italicized text: dream world
Standard text: real world
I have 6-8 kids loaded into my old CR-V [The new car has room for 8 passengers]
They are mostly my son's best friends and their siblings: Elie, Eyal, Leeor, Ido, Yoni, Yael and maybe even a few more...
All the kids are doubled up on booster seats - 2 per seat, one in front of the other, attached to the back seat of the car by one seat belt.

Meanwhile, in the real world it has been a struggle for me to help make sure my kids are secure cause I can't lean over them to help buckle and tighten the seat belt properly. Good thing for the most part they can do it themselves.

The next thing I know, I am riding a 10-speed bicycle [lately my friend has been on a health kick and turning up periodically at my house for a schmooze on her bicycle - It's only 2 neighborhoods over, likely a 15 minute cycle ride] and all the kids are behind me on those booster chairs, strapped in 2 deep.

Then the next thing I know, I am riding past one Elie's mother [who is the Rabbi's wife] who is wearing a purple scarf head covering. And as I speed past her she is jogging in a long denim skirt and 3/4 length T-shirt, but she doesn't see me and that is good because Elie is no longer with me. I know that she knows I have him, and normally I am a responsible person and would not abandon anyone's kids, but I have most definitely lost this kid and all the others. The only ones I have with me are Eyal and Leeor [who are brothers] and they are now both strapped in the old-school style baby seat that is mounted on the back of the bicycle.

As I quickly cycle past the Rabbi's wife [Gabi] whose back is always to me, I find myself in a limestone, ivy-lined courtyard with a beautiful fountain [a very calming location and out of place in the suburban Houston we inhabit, much more reminiscent of some tranquil garden in England or a ritzy neighborhood in Israel] and I get the feeling that I have just passed Gabi's house at one end of the neighborhood on the way to Dana's apartment at the other end. The proximity of their houses in my dream may represent the fact that in my mind they are more involved in the day to day lives of the kids at school because they are in closer proximity to what is happening [Dana is PTO co-president and Gabi's husband is the Rabbi of the shul where the pre-school is housed] [Dana is also Eyal/Leeor's mother, who lives in a 2-story house that they recently refurbished in an older neighborhood near the school the older boys will be going to next year. She had a baby girl in March and planned the kids' graduation bowling party recently. After she gave birth, I offered to take her boys for a sleep over so she could get some time with the baby. That never actually materialized, but it still might.] So I am returning her boys after the playdate on the back of the bicycle, which in and of itself is rather strange, but my children are not with me nor are the other kids who were on the playdate.

Normally, Israelis are very hospitable and almost insist you stay for coffee and a cookie or something, but she is sitting at a computer desk in a small outer-office-like room off the courtyard [I don't know what her occupation is] but for whatever reason, whether she is just busy or she can tell I am stressed about something, or maybe she had to feed the baby, she just pretty much lets me drop off the boys and leave in a hurry.

At some point before I drop off Eyal and Leeor I realize I have lost my car with no idea of where it could even be and that seems to register almost more than the fact that the kids were still in it. But somehow I also know that the kids are ok and not inside the lost car. I kinda get the feeling that they are on a grassy patch somewhere, either a park or a back yard, kicking around a ball. Elie and Yoni are the best of friends and generally good boys and I know that between the two of them, they won't be getting in any real trouble or hurting themselves. I also know that they are "kinda" watching over their younger siblings [Yael and Ami] without letting them bother them too much.
Guess I expect and attribute lots of real responsibility to and from my kids.

It may or may not be of interest that most of the friends in the dream are Yoni's [and the ones that I know and like the most] and that he claimed loudly and on several occasions to not like our old car. Now, he and his little sister LOVE the new car because it has a TV and sliding electric doors and a sunroof like grandpa's, etc, etc, etc...
So what if it is not brand new, it is new to us and we are loving it...all 3 times that I've driven it so far.

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