There's An Alligator Under My Parents' Coffee Table
This rain is freaking me out.
Normally I don't like to talk about dreams; I think that they are generally devoid of psychological or mystical meaning and are simply just a set of snapshots from things you saw on TV that night or just slightly-twisted verbatum of your day. My dreams generally fly on the mundane side of things-- I dream of waking up and going to work, or at worst there's my reccuring anxiety dream where I'm in college and I realize the day of graduation that there's this class I've been skipping the whole year that I completely forgot about. Also, let's face it, other peoples' dreams are boring (so you might want to skip this post if you agree). But this dream that I had a few nights ago has stuck with me, and is open to interpretation amongst those who know about such things.
I dreamed of being in my parents' living room, or at least I was lying to the left of the leatherwood coffee table that is normally in that room. Under the table was an alligator. I was compelled to grab the gator by the tip of its tail and squeeze it, and then, in a strange hand-over-hand motion like I was forcing cookie dough out of its wrap, I worked my clenched hands up its tail and (somehow) around its torso and then it's head, squeezing hard the whole time. Apparently I had a very specific goal in mind; as I was doing this, a boa constrictor was worming its way out of the gator's mouth, an inch at a time with each upward squeeze. When the snake was finally out of the alligator, it slithered over my body and rested at my right side. I felt pleased that this had happened, until suddenly I realized-- I was lying between an alligator and a boa constrictor. In that instant, the gator lept at me and took a big chomp of my flank.
I woke up as I was falling out of my bed and onto the floor. That must've been quite a sudden thump for the sleeping folks downstairs, because I really fell like a bag of bricks. I don't think that's ever happened before.
I'm tempted to write this off as meaningless, but Freud might have something to say about the hand movements and the Pope might have something to say about the snake. And, uh, my folks might have something to say about the alligator under their coffee table.
Any ideas?
PS-- It's my sister's birthday today, she's 33. I'm going to get her and her husband a joint gift certificate from some place this weekend, as his big day is also right around the corner. Ain't I sweet?