Nice music and nightmares

We're currently downloading the music written by Carlos Ruiz Zafon for his latest book, The Angel's Game, and it's not really a fitting background for my topic, but it'll be interesting to see if it has an influence.

Carlos' music is beautiful, haunting, almost magical.  It's instrumental work we can listen to over and over again, soothing and engaging without putting us to sleep.

And I want to talk about nightmares.  So it's a bit odd, but kinda fun. 

Okay, here goes.  This is what I was going to talk about yesterday, but then other events came up.  Well, you know.

But night before last. . .well, yesterday morning, truth to tell. . .I woke up with a start, panting in fear.

I was in some sort of general store, not an old-fashioned general store with wooden floors and pickle barrels, but a store like the big box everything stores, Target or Wally World or something like that.  It wasn't overly crowded, which was nice, and I was wandering around looking at things, when something hit me.

All the celebrity endorsements were the same person, the same image in one pose or another was on each and every item.  From swimsuits to toothbrushes to lunch boxes to juice containers, from underwear to jewelry to greeting cards to furniture, everything had the same celebrity.

Perez Hilton.

See what I mean?  Nightmare. 

Do you have nightmares?  I haven't had them recently, but somehow Perez sneaked in under my defenses.

My most recurring one has me lying in my bed, paralyzed, watching a spider descend from the ceiling, swirling slowly toward my face.  I discovered early on that I can levitate.  I don't ever remember jumping out of bed and running to the light switch, I simply wake up at the light switch in a panic, staring at the bed in terror.

I've changed more sheets that way.  Because, you know, what if it wasn't a nightmare, but real?  And could I take a chance?

Hell no.  Change the sheets.

I've had the falling one, but not in a long time.  In that one, I tend to be driving and can't make a really high overpass turn and go off the side.  The one time I actually hit the ground, though, I just fell off a sandstone cliff. 

Hmmm, you know, thinking about it, ever since I hit the ground, I haven't had any falling ones.  Maybe that's the solution.  Go ahead and hit, and then the fear's laid to rest. 

I am NOT trying that with the spider one, though.  They do not get to land on my face.  Nope.

Hell, folks, I had that nightmare after seeing the movie version of Charlotte's Web.  If Charlotte can give me nightmares, I'm pretty much a die-hard anrachnophobe.

Although, strangely enough, the movie Arachnophobia didn't scare me.  I think it was Harley Jane Kozak's calm that got me through.  But then I like Harley.  She's cool.

Okay, I can't concentrate on nightmares any more.  Carlos has calmed me down and they all seem fairly removed and kind of silly. 

If you're interested in the website where you can also download his music for free -- he told me about it so I know it's cool, it's not stealing it -- just let me know. 

But do you guys suffer from nightmares? 

Comments

[Dina]

When I was a kid, I had a recurring nightmare that ants were in my room, covering the walls, covering the bed, covering me. Then, they would start to sting. That would be when I started yelling. I don't know how many times my folks tore apart my bed to look for ants. As I got a little older, I talked about that dream with my mom, and we decided that it was probably that an arm or a leg had fallen asleep while I was sleeping, and then when it started to tingle as it woke up, that would be the ants. All that is well and good until as an adult, when I was getting my Master's Degree, and once again living at my parent's house, there was an ant swarm in the bedroom I was in. They swarmed into my laundry (and ate holes in my clothes). They swarmed into the bed. I wasn't even sleeping in it at the time - thank goodness - but, talk about your nightmare come to life!!! Yikes!

[Fran]

Oh man, Dina, that's just nasty! I mean, I thing you and your mom were right about the tingle, but to have it actually happen? Yuck!

[jennifer]

this maybe wasn't the best post to read whilst stressed and trying to talk myself into attempting to sleep. hmm. but fran, i wonder, how did you do with our man harry potter (and no, i don't mean kenny, no matter what nik tried to pull), film # 2? aragog?

[Fran]

Ah well, since I don't sleep well anyway, I don't remember it coming after me. Still, that was in a time-space continuum that is long passed, and I just don't remember. But I'm willing to bet I didn't sleep well for days after!

Ah, I'd forgotten Nik's nickname for our Kenny!

[Maimuna]

Mine is that I'm at a beach and the tide keeps coming in and I can't get away from it... I try to scramble up the dune, but I end up being swept off to sea...