mindful indulgence

I had a dream last nap.

It started at my girlfriend's apartment, where her bedroom was replaced by a lounge with sofas. We were hanging out, surfing our computers when her "cousin" walked in, and my girlfriend introduced us. I tried to engage her but she never really spoke with me, which was weird, so I left the room and saw her puppies - only they weren't actually her puppies. They were two dogs owned by another friend of mine, and a random cat, in this dream they were hers. One of the dogs, Byron, was whining and when I went to pet him, he jumped in the air and snapped his little paw like he was trying to punch me. He continued to whine like he was in pain, it almost sounded like words, so I went back to the lounge in my girlfriend's place and told her that she should take Byron to the vet, because it really sounds like he's in pain. While telling her, I tried to convey the gravity of the situation and it seemed like she got the point. Sitting back down next to her "cousin," I noticed my girlfriend was folding my laundry and her cousin was wearing my sweatpants. As I pointed that out, more people appeared in the room which in my dream, were her "cousin"'s brothers and sisters - which I intrinsically knew somehow. Something just didn't add up, I kept wondering how random people were appearing in her room without anyone else noticing. This is when the dream switched.

I was driving in my car at night, and it seemed like I was lost. To get where I had to be, I had to pass these houses that had tolls in front of them - only the tolls were closed, and odd music was coming from them. Getting kind of freaked out, I backed up and drove to the right where there was an open gate and beyond the gate, a long stretch of dark road with a parking lot on the left and a few cars in it. For some reason, I pulled into one of the parking spaces to gain my bearings. Backing up, I noticed that I was really close to another car - a green car with a young woman driving it. They passed me, and I started driving away. Feeling guilty for almost hitting their car, I backed up and opened my window and yelled out, "Hey! I'm sorry for almost hitting your car…" which then, the people in the car (a woman and two men, one with a mexican accent) addressed me - the man with a mexican accent yelled back to me, "Yeah and you kept blocking us!" getting angry at his seeming lack of consideration for my apology, I yelled out, "What the F***? F*** you!" and sped off. My car was driving slower than usual for some reason, and as I started speeding away I felt guilty again for responding in such a rude manner, until I saw in the distance headlights that could only be them, chasing me.

I lost the dream, and woke up in my bed. The door to my bedroom was open and had a TV pointing straight at my bed. I walked out into the basement of my room and noticed that in the area I usually play video games, there were two tables and four TV's hooked up all playing my favorite video game. I thought this was awesome, someone must have surprised me with three new TV's, only they left the place a mess and I had to clean it all up. Starting behind the couches, I noticed there were a lot of empty potato chip and dorito's bags. Behind them was a "chili set," that is, a box filled with all the things you'd need to make chili, and I thought that was so cool, I'd be glad to make some good chili. So I grabbed it, and walked back through the room…where for some reason, the floor was wet. I opened the door to my bathroom and set the chili box down on the floor to move a TV that had gotten there, and when I picked the box back up, the floor was wet and all the chili ingredients had fallen in the puddle.

Confused, I walked back into my lounge area with the four TV's and considered the possibility of this not being reality, actually being me stuck in a dream, but if I was in a dream and realized it then why hadn't I woken up yet? So I mentally prepared myself to be stuck in a dream for the next few hours, plugged my nose and breathed.

The reality check failed. I was dreaming, and now I knew it for sure. I had woken up inside a dream! I looked around, and all the extra TV's were gone - now there was just only one. I didn't know how much time I had left before I woke up, so I started running and did the first thing I could think of: try to fly. I jumped in the air and flapped my arms like wings. Literally floating in the air, I couldn't break past the ceiling of my house, so I closed my eyes and imagined the cloudy, blue sky. I opened my eyes for a few seconds, still seeing the white ceiling and trying to break through it, so I closed my eyes again and imagined the sky…the sky behind my eyes started turning dark, so I cracked my eyes open to a white ceiling, then closed them again to darkness.

And the next time I opened my eyes, I found myself staring at the white ceiling in my bedroom.