Thursday, March 03, 2011

Last Night I Had The Strangest Dream


Last night I had the strangest dream...

I dreamed I was at some huge sailing club and there were crowds of men and women and we were all registering for a major Sunfish regatta, probably a Worlds or North Americans. This is strange to start with because I sold my Sunfish in 2006 and I haven't sailed a major Sunfish event since the Worlds in 2000.

For some reason the registration process involved going backwards and forwards between two places that were hundreds of yards apart. At one of these desks I couldn't make any progress because the bench I wanted to sit on was full of people and nobody would move to let me sit down. At the other place I put my registration form down on the desk and it fell in a puddle and it got wet so I couldn't write on it.

It was taking hours to register as I went back and forwards with my wet form. I was anxious because I hadn't checked out my boat yet and I was almost certain there was something on it that needed repairing but I didn't know what and it seemed I wouldn't have a chance to repair it before racing started.

At one of the registration tables I found a collage of photos of all the competitors but I hadn't brought a photo and I wasn't in the collage. The only person I recognized in the collage was a woman whom I have never met. Her sail number was LIU which makes no sense because it should have been numeric.

There was some mysterious grey-haired distinguished-looking man hovering in the background who seemed to be in charge but I never spoke to him or asked anyone for any help in speeding up the interminable registration process.

What does it all mean? Why am I dreaming about Sunfish? Who is the mysterious man? Why is that woman in my dream? What does LIU mean? What is that collage all about? Why wouldn't those people let me sit down? What is broken on my boat? What is the significance of the wet registration form?

18 comments:

Baydog said...

Did you also want to run but the force against you was too great?
Or try to scream but nothing came out? Or show up for a final and realize that you never once attended that class?

Tillerman said...

I certainly had a recurring dream for many years that I was sitting an exam for which I hadn't studied and wouldn't be able to answer any of the questions. I kept having this for many years after leaving university.

The anxiety in this dream was a little similar. Couldn't complete the form. Couldn't repair the boat. But perhaps it was jut surfacing in a "test" format (sailing a major regatta) that's more familiar to me these days than taking an exam.

O Docker said...

LIU is in Brooklyn, so the woman whom you recognize but have never met must be Brooklynite Frogma, and you're torn between staying in the serenity of Narragansett Bay and driving to the urban snarl of Brooklyn to sail in the Sebago Spring Laser Regatta, coming up on May 7th.

Your anxiety about not finding anywhere to sit is caused by fear of not finding a parking place in Brooklyn, and the old man hovering in the background is the well-known Laser sailor who won the regatta last year, whom you're worried will beat you this time.

The anxiety about the missing photo of you is caused by the realization that, if you capsize, Frogma will have pictures and they'll be all over her blog.

Geesh, do I have to explain everything?

Tillerman said...

Hmmm. Great theory O Docker.

The woman I recognized in the collage is someone like Bonnie, in that she is a real person with whom I have interacted electronically while never yet meeting her in person, but it was not Bonnie.

But then sometimes people in dreams are not who they appear to be.

Pandabonium said...

For you it's the "strangest dream". To me it sounds like just another day.

Dr. Freud said...

I'm curious Tillerman, is this your way of avoiding the task at hand?

The "registration process" in your dream may represent your struggle to resolve Febuary's deadly serious and competitive fight to the death among the contestants in the group writing project about navigation.

Professional help is available.

Baydog said...

Febuary? Really? Sigmund, are you bustin my balls? I thought I was in the clear at this point.

Dr. Freud said...

Yes, Baydog, I was hoping to incite you... for clinical purposes, of course.

WV: sadsk... is that a "ball buster"?

bonnie said...

sounds more like the bust-ee than the bust-er...

Tillerman said...

Baydog, I notice you changed your profile picture. Speaking purely personally, I'd rather be a hammer than a nail, yes I would, if I only could, I surely would.

Dominatrix said...

The bust-ee would be the mast-i-kissed.

... wait a minute folks, isn't this a sailing blog?

... and smack in the middle of a deadly serious and competitive group writing project on navigation that has yet to be resolved inside of Tillerman's dream last night?

Did you guys see Inception?

Tillerman said...

Wait, Ms Dominatrix, are you saying that in my dream someone was trying to plant an idea in my head? Have the Sunfish Class hired a dream-stealer to plant the idea that I should abandon the Laser empire and return to my former existence on the Sunfish scene? And how do I know whether they succeeded or not? Was the dream stealer the mysterious grey-haired man? Or was the dream in my post a dream within a dream? Perhaps I only dreamt I had this dream? How do I know I'm still not dreaming?

Dr. Freud said...

Now we are getting somewhere...

... but I'm afraid our time for this session is almost up.

Is the top still spinning?

Tillerman said...

The top just wobbled a bit. But maybe I only dreamed that. Or perhaps someone planted the idea in my mind that it wobbled? How would I know?

Cobb said...

Do I look more like Leonardo or Baydog to you?

If the latter, you are still dreaming...

Noodle said...

Too many mushrooms? This is spooky. We can have sailing numbers like LIU; We always have that distinguished grey-hair hovering somewhere pretending to be in charge; Yes, we can hover. His name is MarkTwain White; And we are actually in a cup where the RC is using processes designed by Kafkas nephew. It is the One World Cup; Thirty teams, more than a hundred sailors. Back to reality?? You need to quit those mushrooms ;-)

Mojo said...

If Noodle thinks it's out there, you know it's been a special trip.

Tillerman said...

Dom? Brodie?

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