Friday, June 13, 2008

Packing Dreams

I have a kind of recurring dream that always involves packing—or, more specifically, the panic of last-minute packing and the dawning consequences of what I have forgotten. In them, I go from breathless, panicky anxiety that makes my mind go blank to calmer, resigned anxiety as I go forward in no way equipped for my travels. In last night’s dream, as usual, I couldn’t decide which clothes to take. Then I agonized over which cloth bag to take in case I needed extra space coming home. Leaving for the airport, I grabbed coat—a grubby camel coat that didn’t fit quite right, and was pitched immediately into a state of regret. My black coat was so much nicer, but it was too late to go back and get it.

There was a wild ride to the airport and questions about what the best strategy would be once we got there. I knew—weirdly, from another packing dream I had long ago—that there was a secret place in the international terminal where you could go and they’d take you right to the plane. You just had to find it.

When I got to the airport, I couldn’t figure out how to get to the gate. I went up and down a few sets of escalators, looking for the place that led to the international terminal, but nothing was familiar. When I did figure out which way to go, I had to go to the bathroom. After which, I realized I’d forgotten to bring something to eat on the plane and found myself in the staff room at Broad Ripple High School, searching for peanut butter crackers I might have left when I taught there years ago. No luck. I headed for the gate. I was wearing idiotic shoes, high-heeled clogs, which I could barely walk in. I took the cotton bag from my suitcase and put the shoes in it so I could run—and took off after a woman who seemed to know what she was doing.

When she reached a huge brick building, someone opened the door and let her in. She disappeared. I went to the door, knocked, and a woman attendant opened it. I could see that the building was a hangar full of airplanes, all lined up, exiting at a regular pace. She asked where I was going. “Paris,” I said. But I couldn’t remember the airline, flight number, or exact time of departure. Just that it was leaving…soon. She scanned a list, but couldn’t find it. She didn’t seem at all perturbed. “We’ll just go look for it,” she said.

Walking through the hangar, dwarfed by the gargantuan jets, I remembered that it was an Alitalia flight. And I wasn’t going to Paris, I was going to Rome. “Oh!” she said, as if it were perfectly normal not to remember where you were going. She headed directly for an Alitalia plane at the far end of a long row of planes, knocked on the side of it, and a stewardess opened a small door on the side. When the woman explained that I needed to get on the plane, the stewardess lifted a screen over the opening so I could climb in, dragging my suitcase behind me—realizing, as I burst into the aircraft that I’d forgotten my sandals and running shoes and, worse, I’d forgotten to bring a book.

I stowed my suitcase on a shelf, the plane began to move, and there was a moment of panic when one of the passengers realized that the stewardess had forgotten to close the opening. Meanwhile, I walked through the plane looking for a seat. I found my friend, Pat, who was deep in conversation with some women around her. “Look,” she said—and pushed a button on her seat. There was a whooshing sound and then I saw what looked like a long tube with a row of windows, a person framed in each one—some looking rather bewildered at finding themselves there, being viewed by other passengers. Pat explained that this was special seating where people could get whatever they wanted. There was no seat for me anywhere near where she was sitting, so I wandered some more. I was still wandering as the plane taxied down the runway, and then I woke up.

Of course, dream was about being overwhelmed with things to do. The packing dreams are always about that. But, while these dreams send me, already anxious, into the day, I still love discovering the little kernels of reality in them, pondering their connections, and marveling at how they glued themselves into a kind of story. Some of them from this dream were:

* My every-summer dilemma about comfortable shoes
* A news photo I saw of passengers looking out of the windows of an airplane, watching soldiers unload a flag-draped coffin from the hold.
* Seeing my friend, Pat, the night before in the parking lot at the Writers’ Center with the members of her poetry group.
* The fact that I’d eaten peanut butter crackers for dinner that same night.
* The fact that, recently, I’d been talking to someone about teaching at Broad Ripple.
* Reading a David Sedaris piece about Paris, and the fact that I’m booked on an Alitalia flight to Rome in August.

Thinking of how dreams work is the best metaphor for the way stories gather that I know. All that stuff in your head—memories, details, bits of dialogue, sounds, ideas, photographs, anything, everything— bouncing around like the ping-pong balls in one of those lottery “barrels,” and—who knows why?—a certain set of set of them presents itself, and you work to connect them until solve the puzzle of the story you’ve been given.

11 comments:

Sarah Stevenson said...

Hi Barbara! (Fellow Flux-ite!) I'm embarrassed to admit I found this post while googling for dreams about packing, because I've been bugged by recurring packing dreams for the past couple of months and sort of wondered whether this happened to other people. :) It makes perfect sense that this would correlate with having way too much to do and feeling overwhelmed, since that's been the running theme in my life for a while.

Anyway, glad I'm not the only one! Hope all is well.

Unknown said...

http://www.prokr.net/2016/09/furniture-store-companies-12.html
http://www.prokr.net/2016/09/furniture-store-companies-8.html
http://www.prokr.net/2016/09/furniture-store-companies-5.html
http://www.prokr.net/2016/09/furniture-store-companies-6.html
http://www.prokr.net/2016/09/furniture-store-companies-7.html
http://www.prokr.net/2016/09/furniture-store-companies-9.html
http://www.prokr.net/2016/09/furniture-store-companies-10.html
http://www.prokr.net/2016/09/furniture-store-companies-11.html

خدمات منزليه said...

Al Horus Home Services Company is the best company in the fields of cleaning and pest control and the transfer of furniture and cleaning of reservoirs and services necessary for the whole house, Al-Horus has the best workers in the world and the best materials and equipment in the world, so this is what distinguishes us from others
شركه نقل اثاث وعفش بالطائف
افضل شركه تنظيف بالطائف
شركه مكافحة حشرات بالطائف
شركه كشف تسربات المياه بالطائف
شركه رش مبيدات بالطائف
شركه تنظيف خزانات بالطائف

Unknown said...

شركة الصفرات لكشف تسربات المياه بالرياض

Ahmed Shaban said...


تعتبر شركة العربي هي الاختيار الصحيح في مساعدتك علي القضاء على جميع الحشرات بدون عودتها نهائيا وبطريقه مضمونة وفعاله وآمنة تماما


شركة رش مبيدات بحائل
شركة شفط بيارات بحائل
شركة عزل خزانات بحائل
شركة كشف تسربات بحائل
شركة نقل عفش بحائل
شركة مكافحة نمل ابيض بحائل
شركة مكافحة حشرات بحائل
شركة نقل اثاث بحائل

انجين محمد said...

شركة الأوائل توب لتنظيف بالرياض 0506003079
تقدم شركة تنظيف بالرياض كافة أنواع المنظفات التي تتماشي مع كافة الأغراض التي يتم العمل علي نظافتها وتتميز منظفات الشركة جميعها بعنصر الأمان فهي مصرح بها من قبل وزارة الصحة السعودية لضمان سلامتها والتأكد من عدم وجود أي تأثير سلبي علي الأفراد أو علي الغرض المراد تنظيفة كما تهتم الشركة بتوفير كافة المستلزمات التي يحتاجها فريق العمل لضمان مستوي خدمة راقي

شركة تنظيف موكيت بالرياض
شركة تنظيف منازل بالرياض
شركة تلميع سيراميك بالرياض
شركة تنظيف مدارس بالرياض
تنظيف بالرياض

انجين محمد said...

ارخص شركات تسليك مجاري بالرياض 0506003079 افضل شركات العزل
إذا كنت تبحث عن ألجوده أو حسن التعامل والكفاءة في الأداء فلن تختار سوي شركه الأوائل فالشركة لا تهتم سوي بإرضاء العميل حيث أنها تستخدم أحدث الاجهزه والتقنيات ألحديثه كما أن شركه الأوائل معروفه بفريق عملها المدرب والخبير في مجال العمل فالشركة تقدم دورات تدريبيه بصوره مستمرة لتواكب التطور التكنولوجي ولتجعل من فريقها الرائد في مجاله دون منافس

شركة تسليك مجاري بالرياض
شركة كشف تسربات المياه بالرياض
شركة تنظيف بيارات بالرياض
شركة جلي بلاط بالرياض
شركة تنظيف خزانات بالرياض
شركة عزل فوم بالرياض
شركة عزل اسطح بالرياض
شركة عزل خزانات بالرياض

انجين محمد said...

شركة نقل عفش بالرياض 0506003079عدد كبير جدا من الأجهزة الحديثة التي تستخدم في عملية نقل الأثاث المنزلي وكذلك توفر عدد من العمال المتمرسين في عملية تفكيك الأثاث وتنظيفة تماما قبل عملية التغليف ليتم نقلة كما توفر الشركة عدد كبير من الأوناش والرافعات المختلفة التي تستخدم في عملية نقل الأثاث المنزلي من الأدوار العليا بكل سهولة ويسر حرصا على سلامة القطع المنقولة لتصل سليمة دون أي خدوش وذلك حرصا من الشركة علي مستوي الخدمة المقدمة للعملاء وحرصا علي راحتهم

شركة شراء اثاث مستعمل بالرياض
شركة نقل اثاث بالرياض
شركة تخزين عفش بالرياض
شركة نقل عفش بالرياض
شركة صيانة مكيفات بالرياض
شركة مقاولات عامة بالرياض

انجين محمد said...

ارخص شركة مكافحة حشرات بالرياض 0506003079 لمكافحة البق والنمل الابيض
تفتخر شركتنا دائما بكونها واحدة من أقدم الشركات الرائدة في مجال تقديم الخدمات المختلفة لعملائها على قدر عالي من الجودة والإتقان من خلال توفير أسعار متميزة وعمالة مدربة لسنوات طويلة تجعلها قادرة على تنفيذ الخدمات المطلوبة منها في الوقت المحدد تماما بدون أي تأخير أو اختلاف في المواعيد المتفق عليها مع عملائنا
مكافحة حشرات بالرياض
شركة رش مبيدات بالرياض
شركة مكافحة فئران بالرياض
شركة مكافحة صراصير بالرياض
شركة مكافحة النمل الابيض بالرياض
شركة مكافحة حشرات بالرياض
شركة مكافحة البق بالرياض

rakesh said...

Trucking Cube provides cheap moving truck on rent. If you need their Trucks then contact them directly with call and click on the link below for more information.

Storage Companies
Moving Trailer Rental

hanan said...

اهم الخدمات التى تقدمها شركة انوار الحرمين فى مجالات نقل العفش والشحن الدولى بجدة مكة الطائف الرياض

نقل عفش مكة

نقل عفش الرياض

شركات نقل العفش من جدة للامارات

شركة نقل عفش من الرياض الى الاردن

شركات نقل العفش من الرياض للامارات

شركة شحن من السعودية الى الامارات

شركة نقل عفش من جدة الى الاردن

نقل عفش جدة

شركه نقل عفش بجده