Nightmares in Schaumburg

I had a dream last night that I was in this really big room, with lots of people, just hanging out, when all of a sudden, someone started shooting. Someone yelled for everyone to get down, and when I did, for some reason I grabbed a metal folding chair and pulled it over my head to kind of shield me. I heard a loud “ping” and when the shooting stopped, I moved the chair and noticed that one of the bullets had lodged into the metal of the chair, and would’ve gone right through my head. Kind of unnerving. While I was freaking out about the whole thing, I woke up.

It took me a few seconds to realize that it was just a dream, and for my heart to slow down, and finally I fell back asleep. Only, this time I had another violent dream. In this dream, I was driving a car full of teenagers in this pretty shabby neighborhood. I didn’t recognize any of them, they were just faceless people. But they all had weapons, and apparently I was driving them to some kind of gang fight. We stopped at this warehouse, and as they were about to get out, one of the kids said, “No, this is the wrong place. OUR fight is across the street.” Apparently the fight I had erroneously stopped at was a gun fight, and these kids only had switchblades. (Like the saying, “never bring a knife to a gunfight.”) So I pulled out of the lot, and made a u-turn to drop them off across the street. All the while feeling a little nervous about being in the middle of a gang war, but anxious to get these kids out of my car. Again, I woke up. (At least this time I didn’t get shot at.)

But when I woke up the second time, it was almost time for me to get up anyway. So I shut off the alarm and watched my two cats jockeying for position on my bedroom windowsill (since the window was open), all the while wondering what the hell those two dreams meant. If anything. Because who knows, maybe the sandman just decided to mess with my head. Hopefully it’s not a premonition, because I’m not real good at getting shot at OR being involved in gang fights. I guess it could be symbolic, but symbolic of WHAT is beyond me. If anyone has any thoughts let me know.

In the meantime, I’ll get back to work and try to organize my thoughts on a new chapter for “The Beginning of the End.”