I do dream but seldom remember them. Sometimes I can tie a dream to something that has been on my mind, but mostly they are just mishmash. Once in a while I dream of being at work--and I happily retired on August 1, 2001!

I do not remember my dreams as a rule, but the dreams I do recall are usually thematic, and are a help in the process of making a decision - typically a decision that I am trying to put off.

I thought the 'dream' that Kristin Lavransdatter had after she finally made her pilgrimage to the church where she prayed for her first born son was lovely. To set the stage a little bit, as a child, Kristin had grown to love an itinerant monk named Brother Edvin. A Kristin grew up, she fell in love with an older man, who she began meeting on the sly. Brother Edvin had advised her to change her ways, but she continued meeting Erlend, and conceived a child by him before she and he were married. During her pregnancy she promised St Olav she would make a pilgrimage to Christ Church in Nidaros, Norway, and give a gift if her child was born healthy. Her son was indeed born healthy, and this is the 'dream' she has in the women's hostel after she has finished her pilgrimage:

"In the middle of the night she woke up. The moon, a pale summery honey-gold, was shining down on her and the child and illuminating the opposite wall. At that moment Kristin became aware of a person standing in the midst of the stream of moonlight, hovering between the gable and the floor.
He was wearing an ash-gray monk's cowl; he was tall and stooped. Then he turned his ancient, furrowed face toward her. It was Brother Edvin. His smile was so inexpressibly tender, and a little sly and merry, just as it was when he lived on this earth.
Kristin was not the least bit surprised. Humbly, joyfully and filled with anticipation, she looked at him and waited for what he would say or do.
The monk laughed and held up a heavy old leather glove toward her; then he hung it on a moonbeam. He smiled even more, nodded to her, and then vanished."

Funny, someone is actually asking about my dreams! A few years I tried therapy - when I brought up my dreams to the therapist, he actually yawned and said, "All nonsense." I didn't go to him for very long.

I have several recurring dreams. In one, I find a part of my childhood home that I never knew existed - rooms and rooms, all furnished but unoccupied. I think this represents parts of my personality that I have never allowed to develop. I have variations of this dream all of the time.

Another one is rather creepy. I seem to actually enter another world, a world very like this one, but with different people. It is as though I had another life in another city, and I have entered it through a dream. The people I see there have been going on with their lives without me, and someone usually asks me where I have been. It is so real that I wake with a very uncomfortable feeling, although the dream itself is very benign. I have no idea what this is about.

I always read before I fall asleep - always, no matter how tired I am. Maybe this has something to do with it.

I have dreams every night -some are very emotional.

siobhan 1-I also have recurring dreams about discovering new rooms in my house that I did not know existed. I always wondered why I kept dreaming this? Your idea that it represents part of personality that have not been allowed to develop is interesting.

Like Siobhan and many of you I too always read before going to sleep, although I find a dull, informative book is better than a gripping tale of daring-do so my dreams are not tangled up in the plot.
Unlike many I always seem to dream in black and white and the 'pictures' are often blurry; probably because I'm short-sighted and take my contact lenses out at bedtime.:-)
My not-very-often recurring dream is of having to take an A Level (final school exam) in geography . . . and I have done no work/revision handed in no essays. Strange as this is a subject I never studied at school at that age. It's probably guilt for the lack of work I did on the other subjects.
Sheri, like you I often dream of people I was at school with, even members of staff who I haven't seen since the '60's!
Mary, how do you tell if your dreams are full of 'heavy symbolism'? What I mean is are some dreams more 'symbolic' than others? For eg I often dream about buildings/places (not known to me in real life) and have wondered if this has any significance. On second thoughts perhaps I would be better not knowing.

I never read Passage and was wondering if there are many books in which dreams play a part.
Alice in Wonderland maybe.

"Last night, I dreamt I went to Manderley again . . ."

Any more ideas?

For a lot of ideas about dream interpretation, try Jung's classic work, Memories, Dreams, Reflections. I have read it two or three times, although not recently. It sits on my bookshelf, a dog-eared, faded paperback. Here is the first paragraph:

"My life is a story of the self-realization of the unconscious. Everything in the unconscious seeks outward manifestion, and the personality too desires to evolve out of its unconscious conditions and to experience itself as a whole. I cannot employ the language of science to trace this process of growth in myself, for I cannot experience myself as a scientific problem."

All my life I've dreamed of rooms in my Grandmother's house (where we lived until I was 6) that didn't really exist, but I always recognize. I suspect that is why I love big old houses with odd rooms tacked on without rhyme or reason. I also dream of special areas of the Tennessee River that do not exist, but which make me very happy.

I read a lot in my dreams, but it is all nonsense after the first couple of sentences.

As a kid I would worry about dreams where something happened to a loved one because my other Granny had the second sight that came to her in dreams. I was always vaguely disappointed that none of my dreams came true.

I remember very few of my dreams on the whole.

Jung

Chris- if you like "old houses with rooms tacked on...." you'd LOVE my house. It started out as a rest stop in 1925 and has been so many different things over the years bar, pool hall, thrift store, ceramics shop and has tripled in size until now and it is our home and an unusual one it is but we love it.

Anyway, I took a nap this afternoon and boy, did I have a weird dream. I'm still trying to sort it out. I dreamed that the world was being taken over by monster robots and the world of art saved us. I mean like statues of David and sculptures came alive and fought off the robots. Maybe I'm hoping that the beauty of art will save us from our technological worries?

Sometimes my unconscious plays jokes on me. I once dreamed that the Eiffel Tower toppled over sideways, which is impossible, of course...... in another one, I was carrying an extremely small nuclear bomb tucked into a corner of my viola case..... And once, when I had spent days pondering the nature of Objective Reality - the fact that everything we perceive is coloured by so many aspects of ourselves - mood, health, chemistry etc - that I dreamed it in the end. The nature of true Reality, then, is a small, perfect cube of silvery-white metal. It's very beautiful.

Dido

My dreams almost never follow the rules of nature, even though they may seem very real to me. However, I often feel like I'm aware I'm dreaming, even in deep dream sleep.

One recurring theme in my dreams is an odyssey of sorts. I frequently dream about being charged with a task or finding someone or something and then having one obstacle after another put in my path (or getting lost). My dreams often shift scenes, too. I had one of these last night where I went to a mall with some friends, and we got separated somehow. I spent the rest of my dream trying to find them. These dreams are almost never resolved. I usually wake up mid-dream, or it just goes on and on with shifts in scene and purpose until I do wake up.

I had a good dream last night but can't remember the details. I do remember that my DH had to wake me up because he thought I was screaming when I was actually laughing at something in the dream. Funny how these things work out.

Does anyone else twitch in their sleep? Not restless leg syndrome but big muscle twitches that disturb their spouse until you have to get a Tempur Pedic bed so that you won't disturb each other any more?

Dido, Freud and your trick cyclist would have had a field-day with your Eiffel Tower dream and as for the small bomb in your viola case . . . all my friends and family would have paid ready money to have a scud missile hidden in my violin case.
The last time I pondered Objective Reality I realised the windows needed cleaning, but wonder at your experience and the nature of your small silvery-white cube and would be interested to know its Atomic number. Descartes might have said that, as it only appeared in a dream, it hinders your belief in a Supreme Being.
Are you familiar with the conceptual art of Cerith Wyn Evans? He often exhibits at the appropriately named White Cube in London's Hoxton. Many of his pieces are to do with the 'far side' of dreams.

Here is a link that might be useful: Cerith Wyn Evans

Vee, good explanation to Dido, but I think she just has a secret desire to be James Bond. Ms. Practical, here.

Veer, you are right about having some OT threads for interest other than books.
I do have 'future' dreams, I put it down to a Celtic ancestry but cannot understand how it is possible to 'see' a future when it hasn't happened. This ability is not really a blessing as the future cannot be interfered with anyway so I could really do without a sixth sense. It is hard to describe too. I always say it is like explaining sight to a blind person and let it go at that.

I want to address a comment that veer made up thread

>Please all try and join in here as I know many of us feel that RP is becoming little more than a list of books with almost no discussion, opinions, ideas, points of view . . . so different from a few years ago when this was such an interesting site.

Are you saying that those of us who were not among the former elite are not interesting enough for you? The fact is that most of the book forums I've been on have lost steam, or have changed. That is a factor of many things such as RL and the members. As for "discussion, opinions, ideas, points of view", I wouldn't be on this board if these were absent. And IIRC I have been blasted a few timse for expressing a point of view that did not mesh with others. But we do have discussions here, and we do share opinions and ideas, and I value my time here with others.

I am rather insulted that we just aren't good enough any more. Could you explain yourself (perhaps on a different thread)?

Some of my dreams are so weird, or gross, that I would not share them even in this relative anonymity.

Has anyone else found a dream can affect your mood? I've heard my husband wake himself from laughing and he said it puts him in the best mood. I never believed him until I (once) woke myself laughing and felt almost giddy the entire morning.

When in college, I woke up behind schedule one morning and rushed through the shower and hair routine (when I actually did my hair) and proceeded to wait in my dorm room for my then boyfriend to call me as planned so we could go register for classes together. He never showed... and when he did call, I was furious. I finally realized I had dreamt our making those plans--which was why my alarm was not set. Not long after that, he broke off our budding relationship. No wonder.

As far as theme dreams, consistently I have what I term "frustration" dreams. For example, there is some sort of emergency yet I cannot properly use the telephone. I need to be someplace, yet none of the roads are familiar. I'm trying to finish a job at work but the computer won't cooperate.

As a psych major, what I most recall about Freudian symbolism is probably what most of you, too, recall. Gee, Dido, just what do you think your fallen-over tower represents?

I am definitely affected by dreams sometimes I carry them with me like the flying dream I described above. When I was in college I frequently had dreams in which I needed to run but my legs just would not move. After I graduated I never had those dreams again. While I enjoyed college I really wanted to be finished and "on with my life" so the dreams were definitely relevant.

Veer and Cindy,

Awhile back a similar comment was made about the discussions not being that good anymore on this site. Like Cindy, I do feel a little wounded when comments like this are made. Well, I happen to enjoy this site and how sometimes we veer off course a bit here and there. To me reading is about life so therefore it is natural that discussions would lead to life experiences. I am a member of another site and by its nature sometimes it can be sad. I know that I can always come to this site and be cheered up. For me I like it the way it is and if it changes or progresses, well, that's what life is about.

I think it would be great to wake up laughing from a dream! Better that experience than this:
A friend told me she once had a dream in which her husband told her he was "man enough for two women." His statement made her so angry she woke up and slugged her soundly sleeping husband in the shoulder.

I was laughing in a dream just the other day, and having a good time, when my DH woke me up thinking I was screaming and having a bad dream. Although I know he did it with the best of intentions, I was pretty annoyed at being woken up in the middle of a good laugh.

Dreams are funny things. I didn't get many dreams last night as it thundered all night long and my old Aussie is scared so was huffing and puffing all night long until we gave him some benedryl to put him to sleep and relax. It was a long night.

So Liz, who is this old Aussie who huffs and puffs next to you at night? I thought your husband was American.

Cindy, now just take a couple of steps back . . . now another two. Can you still hear me?
Why do you feel that my request for participation on this thread is in some way aimed at you?
There is no getting away from the fact that when I first arrived here there were lively, intelligent and thought-provoking debates going on.
In the last couple of years several of the regular contributors have left, or almost tailed off. I 'know' a number of these people and they are finding this site boring.
I am merely looking for contributions from any RP'ers, old and new; elite doesn't come into it.
You appear to read a wide and varied selection of books, probably many more than most of us, so maybe after you read this you could come up with a couple of titles of fact or fiction about the subject of dreams/dreaming.

Deborah, I wonder why the other site you belong to is sad?
RP can often be thoughtful or inquiring but seldom sad; life is too short and much of the world too full of sorrow for extra computer generated misery.

The other site I belong to isn't ALWAYS sad, just sometimes. It is a site for the wives of permanently disabled veterans. It has actually been a life saver for me in many ways but once in awhile there are sad topics that come up. I have learned many insights in dealing with disability and my attitude since joining it has changed dramatically for the positive. The sadness comes when new wives join and we read the stories of their struggles and are reminded that we were once there. The happiness comes when we realize we are not alone and that these struggles can be overcome.

Ok, enough about that.

Vee-are you missing the book-specific, directed discussions? I do miss them-but still enjoy checking into the site and discussing what's up for discussion.

veer, I didn't think your comments were aimed at me. I think they were aimed at anyone who was not in your group in the good old days, and I know I am not the only one who is a little taken aback that gee the discussions we have now are boring, and just not the same. Im sorry they aren't; believe me I've seen changes in some of favorite sites that have made me sad. But they happen. Life is filled with change and people come and go. I'm sure the discussions were great. But there are new people now, with new ideas for discussions. Allow that to happen please.

As for the discussions - again, I've seen this flounder on other sites I'm on. Not sure why. But it doesn't always happen; look at the discussion of Time Travelers Wife or Cloud Atlas for heaven's sakes. If someone has a book that they are passionate about, chances are they can find others to read it, and be able to guide the discussion. What I think would really help is if we could have a section of book discussions that people could go to, without having to search for the past however many years. That way people can add on to the discussion continually, keeping them open and alive.

Oh, and this topic, while its interesting, is one that I prefer to keep personal. The only reason I posted was because of your comment above. Like I said, we can move this to another thread, or just drop it. But I felt strongly enough that I had to bring it up, esp because you have posted similar comments. So no, I don't have any suggestions for books about dreams. But if you'd like to make a thread about how we can get book discussions going, I'm all for it, and would gladly participate.

Now returning you to your dream thread, already in progress (it just occured to me how many people will no longer get that reference!)

I think that, what happens in a site like this is there are only so many general things one can post - I mean, general, postings on themes, as opposed to threads for discussion on specifice books.

When we first find this site and 'join', it's all so new and exciting; I felt it especially so to be suddenly connected with people from all over the world and to talk to them and eventually call them 'friends'. I still feel like that. But then, the same sort of general discussions etc. occur - eg. favourite books; most unfavourite books; heroes; top 100 books for RP; bottom 100 books for RP; Let's Introduce Ourselves; What's your favourite poem; do you get my drift - of course you do. And as new people post, they don't know that alll these subjects have come up before, so they bring them up anew, and again and again, and eventually the oldest (they who have been here longest, I mean, not age-wise) posters kind of drop off the bottom..... much as the oldest threads themselves do..... and like life itself. There are a lot of people who used to post regularly and at length who now post very rarely or not at all. And I know that I myself post only irregularly now, compared with what I used to do, though I still watch and listen a lot.

Dido

I've noticed that Frieda and Martin are not posting recently, and I miss them. I thought they added a great deal of insight to our discussions.

It's interesting to see the common theme in dreams. Isn't that part of what Jung called the "collective unconcious"? I've also had dreams about flying. It can feel either exhilirating or terrifying. I've also discovered rooms; for me in the apartment of the grandmother that died when I was ten. In the dream, I am amazed they are there, and wonder why she never shared them before she died. I also have dreams that I'm still in high school or college, and I don't understand why it's taking me so long! These are not good as I didn't enjoy college as an education major 20+ years ago!

Vee - You are naughty! The Aussie I refer to is an old Australian Shepherd DOG who is afraid of thunder storms, both before they come, when they're here and when they're retreating. It's a long night when there's a thunder storm in our house. No dreaming for us!

Regarding RP: there are 2 events we used to have here and no longer do: 1. periodic book reviews, done by volunteers, and 2. periodic book discussions about a specific novel. I think the latter were often led by Martin, but I can recall others suggesting a particular work for discussion and the group would agree or disagree. Various ones would volunteer to lead these discussions.

Re dogs and dreams. We used to have a Jack Russell that appeared to be dreaming, he twitched, whimpered and his paws 'ran' in the air while he was sleeping. Probably chasing imaginary cats or biting old ladies and babies.

Deborah, it must be difficult when having to deal with such problems when you are at home and receive little support from the 'powers that be' and this must be when a computer site can prove a lifeline.. I don't have any first-hand experience of your situation but knew a young man who's brother had been badly injured in the Falkland's War. Their Mother was understandably very bitter about what had happened, but the now ex-soldier has managed to make some sort of life for himself and helps with raising awareness for similar Vets with money-raising schemes. It is only now being understood how our Govt is letting many ex service men down . . . even closing the Military hospitals.

cece, sorry not to get back to you sooner, I was busy chewing the carpet. I think the more interesting posts seem to develop naturally and often we have found the non-book ones are just as interesting eg the 'Training Bras' one, which ran for a thread and a half and the poor blokes where too shy to join in! I think Dido makes an interesting point that the longer someone is around here the more repetitive the discussions appear to become . . . not helped by the almost useless 'Search' thing.
The more fresh blood the better, except when someone turns up, as happened not long ago, added about 13 Posts (I counted) on this page and disappeared back into the ether.
Also the 'Book of the Month' seems to be difficult to keep running. Either lots of people say "Yes, me me. I'll read it, even lead it" and through circumstances either forget, family events take over or "Sorry, the dog ate the book"
On the other hand I wouldn't like to see RP turned into something run by a committee.

I dream often, but I never seem to be able to make much sense of it. I do know that I sometimes dream about having arguments with my mother and sister, which never happens in real life, as we all get on very well together.

With regard to books about dreaming, the last one I can remember made me want to throw it away - it was P D James' The Lighthouse (I think) where the solution to the murder came to Dalgleish in a feverish dream. What a copout!!

come on kath-it could happen-all the clues there stewing away in his subconscious, bubbling together, cooking on the fever...and voila! soup!
Our cats dream. Of what I don't know-they are inside cats, so no soaring leaps at big birds or giant mouse pies or anything like that..perhaps they dream of being able to open the fridge and get their tuna out whenever they want, not just when I ration it into their bowls!

When I first joined, (good lord, three computers ago) we had several books each month and we took turns leading-it was a bit overwhelming.

cece, I grant you that could happen. In this book, however, we hadn't been given any clues! It was the worst mystery I have ever read, I think.

I know-I read it. It was a little trendy and derivative, but I liked it, I think, because I knew it was the last, and because I liked Adam, Emma and Kate. It wasn't her best, by a stretch-3 out of 5 stars-but I liked it more than Murder Room.

Usually I am a PD James fan but I can see how that was a bit of a cop out. I do think dreams can give us insight into our life though, sometimes if I am struggling with a decision I will practice relaxation as I am falling asleep and tell myself, "Ok, the answer to this will come to me tonight as I sleep and as I dream." This has worked for me many times.

There is a tribe in South America and they consider dreams to be integral to their lives. They are taught to solve problems with dreams and if they wake up in the middle of a dream they are taught to go back to finish it

I can never do that! Good for nightmares, but disappointing when Colin Firth was visiting.

A few years ago, I learned about a technique whereby you could interrupt yourself in a dream (say, if it was a bad one) and re-direct yourself in to a positive situation. I found it worked a few times (I was going through a phase of horrible dreams) but haven't tried it lately. I had forgotten about it, but may have to try it soon.

When my son was an infant he was a "high need" baby and I was nursing him every 2 hours for 12 months. I trained myself to wake up from my dreams and after nursing go back right to where I left off, it probably saved my sanity during that year.

Lemonhead, that tribe I described did that also, if there was conflict in their dream they were supposed to go back and resolve it. Were you reading horror stories? My girlfriend used to love, love, love horror stories and then started noticing that she was having nightmares all the time. She stopped reading horror stories and the nightmares stopped too.

While I don't notice my cats dreaming, sometimes my husband or I have to wake up our dog because he sounds so pitiful, whimpering in his sleep. What could bother him so?

Rarely can I go back to a dream after it is interrupted though I did at least once. Quite vividly, I was Demelza Poldark and was so sad as I started to wake up that I managed to go back asleep and continue the dream, involving Ross. This was after reading the all books and watching the entire series which a friend had taped.

Has anyone else heard or read that our dreams, even the interminable saga-types, supposedly take place in a flash of a few seconds or less?

The first Connie Willis book that came to my mind was Lincoln's Dreams . Willis seems to deal quite a bit with dreams, death, the mind, etc., in her work. Ironically, right after I read this thread yesterday (I had missed it earlier and just discovered it as I've been catching up while on vacation) I read a Connie Willis short story in an anthology dealing with the very same themes. You are never sure until the end if the main character is dreaming or has died.

To answer vee's question, I guess I am neither a Freudian nor a Jungian (although I lean a little toward Jung if I had to choose). I like the theory that sleep and dreams allow our mind to file and classify knowledge and skills picked up during the day. I find it fascinating that what used to be thought of as sleep-dreprivation psychosis is now thought to be dream-deprivation psychosis instead. You can get 10 hours of sleep but if you are not allowed to enter REM sleep where dreaming occurs, then you experience the disorientation, mood changes, etc., of sleep deprivation.

And, a little off topic, is anyone else fascinated with the phenomenon of deja vu ? Experts used to think it was perhaps caused by a fragment of an unremembered dream similiar in circumstance to the event triggering the deja vu . Now they think it is caused by a processing glitch in your brain, when one half of your brain processes the info a fraction of a second faster than the other half, so that once you "fully" process the event it feels as if it has occurred before.

Found this great link - the FAQs page is particularly interesting I think. There are also pages on Dreams in Literature (a little sparse, tho, vee -sorry) and a Famous Quotes page. Bren

Here is a link that might be useful: The Dream Tree

Bren, thank you; what an informative site.

Deja vu is a fascinating phenomena. I first experienced it when I was only about 7/8 years old and was visiting the city of Oxford (an annual 'treat'). We were walking through the gardens of one of the colleges and in the distance could see a group of undergraduates rehearsing a play on the lawn. I remember being convinced that I had witnessed this scene before . . . probably why it has stuck in my memory for so many years.
The older I get the less I have experienced this, quite probably because the crumbling grey cells are closing down and have enough trouble remembering everyday events. :-)

I have tried to figure out for years why I have these dreams where I'm going from room to room in a very large house with many, many rooms. Sometimes parts of the house are familiar to me but more often I'm in a house I've never seen before. I read somewhere this indicates you are searching for something. I don't recall these dreams primarily having anything to do with looking for anything, but I sure do move from room to room.

I thought it was interesting that a couple of you who had the rooms dream also had the flying dream. When I was a young girl, I used to have frequent flying dreams. They were usually very positive, and I would wake up with a feeling of being free. Only now and then would I end up running into a telephone wire or something like that. Could flying also represent someone searching for something?

Interesting thread.

Just read in the 'Observer' Sunday paper that researchers in the US say the optimum number of hours needed for good quality sleep for adults is seven a night. Too few (as mentioned above) can leave you cranky and equally too many has no benefit.
A short nap during the day is considered useful . . . and I find if I do 'nod-off' in some quiet corner I still manage to fit in a quick dream.
iamkathy I often have 'falling' dreams, where I know I am about to drop from a great height and have no control over the horrible sensation.

I think the flying dream would represent searching depending on the dream situation. For me flying definitely means freedom, when I have flying dreams it has been at a time in my life when I am making a big change and I want to make the change for example I changed careers and was excited about leaving the old career and starting a new one.

Every now and then I have a wonderful flying dream, when I can fly between telephone poles, dipping between each pole and swooping over the top. It brings with it a great feeling of freedom and happiness and I am always so disappointed when I wake up (or get woken up). Haven't had one of these dreams in a long time, but I wonder if that is because there haven't been any big changes in my life lately.

That flying dream is definitely my happiest dream. The scariest dream I have ever had was when I was about 12 and I woke up screaming because I was being chased onto the garage roof by a man with feathers growing on his face. Woke up everyone in the house as well and we were staying with friends at the time, so it was a trifle embarassing at breakfast the next morning.... "Sorry about the screaming..."

flying, ...if you feel as if you are flying away from something, can also be an expression of a sense of relief or release-escaping from a bad situation, making a difficult decision and having it DONE, completing a task or assignment, a lifting of responsibility-or pleasant anticipation of an upcoming event in your life, if you are flying toward something nice-bright light, music, etc. My sister dreamt she was flying before her wedding-of course she did-she was out of town, and my mother and I did all the work! I dreamt I was flying AFTER the wedding!

I used to have romantic (not sexual) dreams about people I felt absolutely no attraction to in my waking life. These dreams always confused me and made me wonder if I was harboring some secret attraction. I kept having these dreams even after I married.

Most recently, I had an odd dream. My niece had sent pictures of her new baby, but they all came through as postage stamp size and when I tried to enlarge them they were blurry. That night, I dreamed that I got to see the baby and she was just like a little white slug that they carried around on their hands. And they were all laughing about it. I asked my sister how they got her pictures to look like she was a normal size baby, and my sister responded that it was "easy." Hmm

I've never had flying dreams, but I have had those dreams where I keep trying to accomplish something and can't seem to get it done. Too real to be enjoyable. :)

Perhaps because I'm an engineer, my flying dreams have never been about flying to or fro. I'm more occupied by the methods of flying. How I can get elevation by holding my arms and legs just so, or by holding a certain thought in my head (shades of Peter Pan!)

OK. Had a weird dream a couple of days ago and was wondering if any of you had any ideas about its meaning --

I dreamt I was hit in the face by a cold dead fish. I woke up and felt my cheek (real life) and felt it was wet and it really freaked me out a bit unti l realized it was probably drool. :)

Any ideas?

re the dead fish dream.
Don't many dreams take place in a flash of time? It could be that you subconsciously felt your cheek to be wet and the fishy dream followed as you awoke.

A good eg of US v English English.
Over here 'drool' means to 'gloat' or 'show excessive enthusiasm for'.
What lemonhead was doing is know as 'dribbling' ie, 'allowing saliva to trickle from the mouth'
A similar word is 'drivel' mainly used now to describe 'foolish/senseless talk'
I understood the drool word because it is one of Homer Simpson's many unpleasant habits. A useful TV programme from which to learn everyday American idioms (and very funny/clever) ;-)

Thanks Vee. I can always count on you for a good idea to add to the conversation. And you're right -- "Dribble" would be a better word if I was being English-English.

:-)