One Good Purple Polka Dot Dress

I rarely remember my dreams. Seriously. Maybe once or twice a year, if that. I suspect it's because I'm such a deep sleeper, but who knows. With the exception of a couple of "mice nightmares" (thousands of mice running toward me and crawling all over my body and being shoved down my throat) I've had in my lifetime, most of my dreams are extremely boring and realistic. No flying. Nothing that couldn't happen in real life. Usually just conversations with people. Once, at the end of my dream, credits rolled by as if I were watching a movie, so I guess that's kinda funny. Mostly my dreams are pretty boring, though, and I feel kinda ripped off that my subconscious has nothing to teach me. Maybe my subconscious is trying to teach me that we can still learn from the mundane.

This morning I woke up and remembered a dream I had last night. Will and I and some of our family were staying at a mom and pop type motel in some Podunk town. When we got to our room, I put my luggage (I don't own luggage in real life: I usually carry around my things in Whole Foods paper sacks) on top of the bed and laid down to take a nap. (I guess that's funny to dream you're taking a nap.) When I awoke, all of my luggage was gone.

I left the room and walked down the hallway to find Will to see if he knew where my luggage was. He was sitting at a table in a dining room with our family (parents-in-law and some other fuzzy family members: I can't say who was who, but in the dream I knew they were family). I asked if anyone knew where my luggage was. No one did.

"I think someone broke into our room and stole my luggage while I was taking a nap," I said. "That totally sucks because all of my clothes were in there," I complained.

"All of you clothes? You didn't leave any of your clothes at home?" Will asked.

"Yes. I brought everything, just in case." (I know this is a dream because I'm never this prepared in real life.)

"So all you have left now is the clothes on your back?" Will asked.

"Yes!" I exclaimed. "I don't know why anyone would want my clothes. They're a bunch of rags I got at the thrift shop." Even in my dreams I lean toward self-deprecating humor.

Just then, I saw the pop of the mom and pop motel coming out of his office. I walked up to him and said, "Do you know what happened to my luggage? I had all of my clothes in there so I have nothing left to wear  but this." I looked down at what I was wearing: my favorite purple polka dot dress I actually bought new on clearance from Lands' End.

The pop of the mom and pop motel shrugged his shoulders and said nothing. I said, "Oh well, at least I'm wearing my favorite dress."

As I turned to walk away, I could see through the office door crack my luggage, sitting there with a bunch of other sacks of clothes under a sign that said, "Donations."

I looked at the pop of the mom and pop motel who I swear looked exactly like the guy in the movie "It's a Wonderful Life" who looks at Clarence the Angel like he's crazy and leaves the boat house without saying a word. I could tell that he saw that I saw my luggage in the office. He looked a little worried that I might yell at him. I thought to myself, "How weird that someone would steal my stuff, only to give it to charity." Evidently in my dream I had never heard of the story of Robin Hood.

I smiled and said, "Oh well, I guess one good purple polka dot dress is all I need," turning to walk away.

Then it was as if I were watching the dream through a camera as it panned out so I could see the whole scene. I could see me walking away from my thief. We were both smiling and looked satisfied with the way things turned out.