A dream, from Wikipedia |
LUCY BURDETTE: The night following our last REDS AND READERS happy hour in which we discussed our early reading influences, including Nancy Drew, I had such a vivid dream in which I had written an updated Nancy Drew. I was at the book launch event, but I hadn’t prepared a thing and couldn’t remember much about the book. Reds, do you have dreams like this? What are they like?
HALLIE EPHRON: It’s an updated I-have-to-take-an-exam-but-I-haven’t-studied OR I-can’t-find-the-classroom OR… dream 😫
DEBORAH CROMBIE: Mine is turning up for a college or high school class and realizing I haven't written the paper/studied for the test. Go figure…
HANK: AND that I cannot find the room where the test is behind held, and WHY didn’t I study?
RHYS BOWEN: the dream I have is being in a play, waiting backstage and not remembering my lines ! I hunt frantically for the script but can’t find it. Sometimes I step out and deliver lines perfectly, other times I stumble through the scene not knowing what to say next.
JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: That's my anxiety dream as well, Rhys. My youngest, Ginger, sent me a text yesterday complaining she had had an anxiety dream about Christmas: it was the night before, and no presents were wrapped, no stockings were hung, and no one had gotten anything for her new boyfriend.
She plaintively concluded, I thought only parents had dreams about messing up Christmas!
JENN MCKINLAY: Ha! My anxiety dream is that I’m ironing a white blouse when I realize I’m two hours late for my first day as a librarian. I’m then torn between finishing the ironing (the shirt is very wrinkled) or running out the door as is!
JULIA: I'm laughing at Jenn's - when was the last time any of us ironed a shirt?
JENN: Right? It's ridiculous!!!
RHYS: I also have the college class or exam dream and the Christmas one. I dream it’s Christmas Day, stores are closed and we have people coming for whom I don’t have a present Luckily I took dream psychology in college and these are all too many things on my plate dreams. We all need to slow down.
And I have never, ever dreamed about ironing. My subconscious knows it wouldn’t happen!
HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: Ironing, no. But for years, I did have dreams about when the show is about to start and I don't know the lines or the steps or the words to the songs. But recently, I was in the midst of that very stressful dream, and I stopped mid-dream and said to myself, this is a dream, and of course you know the songs and the steps, and even if you don’t, you can manage just fine. And I’ve never had it again.
I am also always dreaming that I find new and gorgeous rooms in my house, filled with beautiful voluptuous things, and I wonder—oh how did I forget about these? I love these rooms.
JULIA: Hank, I have that same dream and I also love it. How exciting to find new rooms you didn’t know you had! What I wonder is: do people who haven't done theater have those “I’m going on and I don’t know my lines” dreams? And why, when I spent 21 years in formal education, have I never had a dream where I’m unprepared for class or know nothing about a test?
Another one you hear of constantly in TV and movies is the alleged “appearing nude in public” dream, and not only have I never had one of these, I’ve asked friends and family, and no one I know has every had that dream. Is it just made up?
Reds, tell us about your dreams and nightmares!