Worries, and Volunteering.

Last night I was up and down with the dogs all night. (Once again, I gave them some people food that didn't agree with their stomaches.) But the good part of that is that I was able to catch multiple dreams. The first I caught was at around 12:00.
I was with my friend Mitzie in a back yard (mine supposedly)of a New York town house. Bible study had just ended and we were talking about the painting I just finished for her. (A painting I really did just finish yesterday.) As we talked we got fruit off of a tree. The discussion was about things she wanted to add to the painting. She wanted to add some poppies on a hill in the background. I was a little flustered that I was no longer "done" with the painting. When we finally looked at the clock it said 3:00AM. We mentioned that she had stayed for four hours since study time. Then, as we were walking to the front door we noticed it was open. "That's not good." I was shocked and had a fleeting thought that a burglar had gotten in my house, but when I looked out the door I noticed my dad sitting on the brick stair railing that butted up against the porch. I could see people and ambulances and other 3:00AM type sights on the streets of New York around my house. My dad was looking forlorn watching and waiting. I asked what he was doing. He said, "Savannah's not home yet." (That's my 18 year old daughter.) I knew what that meant. When she did get home she would be in DEEP trouble, and her car would be taken away. The rest of the dream was just standing there looking, waiting, and thinking about where she could be. Was she in danger? Was she out with her boyfriend? hmmm.

There were two other dreams between then and morning, but all I remember from them are scattered images and a song, so I'll skip ahead to the one I had just before waking up at 6:00.

I was volunteering at a woman's shelter (probably thinking of a book I'm reading called House of Hope). I had walked through the building and then around the block. When I came around to the back door I noticed a large pile of feminine products. Someone had dropped off a donation of pads, razors, tampons, aspirin, q-tips, etc. I started gathering them into my arms, and taking them inside. A woman told me where there was a bathroom that I could stash them in. It took me a few trips but the moment I was done I was ushered into a multipurpose room with cork boards along the wall covered in construction paper with rick-rack edges ala-elementary school style. Some had things pinned to them, others were empty. There were plastic and metal chairs around the room and people started to filter inside. The pastor from my church told me to grab some things off the wall and put them away. I went to the wall and found injection viles and other types of medical looking paraphernalia. I was taking them down while Pastor Scott was having the women sit in chairs. I took the stuff outside where I assumed there would be someone to pick them up, or perhaps I was waiting for another donation. I'm not sure, but there was a litter of puppies outside that needed my care. So I started loving on them. Then I woke up.

The first dream is pretty obviously about two things I'm worried about. I want to be done with Mitzie's painting, as it has been on my to-do list for a year now. And I'm worried about my daughter getting into any furthur trouble because my husband has said the next thing to be taken away will be her car.
The second dream no doubt centers around my book. I've mentioned before that puppies in my dreams usually refer to youth. I tend to work with youth more so than with women my own age or older.

Stick Bugs and Falling off Golf Carts

I had three dreams last night.

I woke up at 1:10 with the first one in my head... something about three choices. (Can't remember anything else).

#2 I was at my niece Tabitha's house playing with her kids and puppies. (Really they don't have puppies anymore, just a dog, but you know in my dreams puppies represent youth.) One of the puppies went outside the back door and I followed it. When I got outside there were tons of bugs right at face level in front of a big leafless tree. (At the park the other day in one patch there was a bunch of mosquitoes right at face level.) I started to swat the bugs with my hand but they started to stick to me and to themselves and in my hair. I took hold of one and examined it. It was a stick bug. The kind that look just like a twig, only it had the face of a demon. They were all around. After the close look into their faces I started taking hand fulls of them and throwing them away from myself. They would only go about two feet and then float in mid air right where I had thrown them.  My mom came out to help me.  By this time I had one boring it's way into my face on my left cheek. I told myself I would pull it out by it's butt as soon as I swatted the rest away.  But of course, when I was done swatting the rest away the bug had gone completely into my face and I had a huge swelling on my left cheek.  I walked over weeping to show my mom. We walked inside crying and wondering what to do.  (It was quite upsetting... and woke me up.)

#3 I was on a tour in a bus. (The tour just won't leave me alone.) We were on a road out in the desert. The landscape to the right was a bit like the wasteland I had in a dream a few days ago behind the wall.  It wasn't charred though, just jagged, like red rock canyon in So Cal. As we were going down the road, the driver looked back and lost control of the steering wheel. We went off to the right into the rocky terrain. When she grabbed the wheel again she was enjoying the new excitement and kept driving in the rough terrain. We were all enjoying it, and the vehicle had changed into a monster truck type golf cart. I was in the far back with another lady and two other women were standing right behind the rail of the bed of the truck/cart. One of the ladies standing was older. (I think she may have been one of the ladies on the real tour I took that walked with a cane.)  At a sharp turn the older lady was flung out of the cart and landed on her back in terrible pain. We all got out to save her, and put her back on the cart. I offered her my seat and told her I would stand.

...and that was the end of that one.