Dreams and nightmares

I know I always dream, but I don't always remember what I was dreaming about when I wake up. This morning was one of those that I did.

MONDAY, JUNE 15TH, 5 OR 6 AM OR SO
It was a summer day on the waterfront, and we were getting Pioneer ready for a day's sails. However, there was snow on the gangway and the float. One of those rare summer snowstorms, I reckon. So the first order of business was to clear the snow. Of course. The volunteers got out of their snow wear and stripped down to shorts and t-shirts since it was summer, and got down to work.

The boat was twice as big in my dream, and one could stand down below. For some reason, the bowsprit was accessed from there, and I had to chase a bunch of volunteers that were dressed as pirates and were just lazing about, as pirates are bound to do.

Since I was so busy corralling some volunteers to clean snow and others to just do something to prepare for the day's voyages, I had no time to do what I would normally be doing before we leave the float, like assign docklines. The captain starts calling for lines to be removed, and I end up doing all four. I then realize that the captain is Aaron - those of you who know the boat know that that just wouldn't happen these days.

We get off the dock, and I start to relax, and then Frank - who was mate - tells me that I better go get a handle on what's going on up on the bow. I look up, and there's about 15 volunteers up at the bow, all but two I don't recognize. I go forward to assess the situation. As I start assigning watches, telling most of them that they're off watch for now, the realization slowly creeps in that none of these people (other than Primoch and Crystal, the only two I knew) had never been on a boat before. No training sails, no drug test, and of course about half of them were crowded forward of the traveler bar, a place where non-trained, non-drug tested volunteers are not to go.

I start to get frustrated with them, telling them that they are basically of no use to me without having been on a training sail. One woman whips out the sail training manual, shaking it at me, and asking me to tell her where that is stated in the manual that two training sails and a drug test are required to work public sails. No telling where she got it since she hadn't been on one, and had not talked to the coordinator.

Then I woke up. It didn't take long to start wondering what in the hell was going on with that dream. Although the indignant volunteers who knew nothing may have been inspired by some of the people that were sitting in front of me during my flight back from California last night.

I rarely have illogical dreams like this, although they are the most fun to think about. When I was younger, probably around 6 or 7 years old, I used to have a reoccuring dream, where Abbot and Costello had taken on the form of Humpty Dumpty, and would just chase me endlessly. Try to explain that one. Although it could have been prompted by this:

Yeah, my sister's and I were big fans of Scooby-Doo.

Typically my bad dreams are more of the garden variety work/family/friend anxiety dreams that have no bearing in real life. Occasionally, these dreams can seem so real. There are also the dreams, usually not bad or good, about people that are no longer in my life. The dream will be more like a film clip of something that happened, sometimes the facts have changed, or things happen in a different order, or sometimes its something i wish had happened or had been said. The worst of these result in waking with a hollow feeling of really missing the guest star.