I dreamt that I was taking a night course in literature, and the course was being taught in my old 7th grade classroom, by my 7th grade homeroom teacher. We were taking a test, and the lighting was so horrible I was having difficulty reading the questions. Imagine shining a spotlight at a mobile of mirrors in an otherwise dark room--the light is strongest in a direct path from the spotlight, with patches of bright light from the reflection off the mirrors, and everywhere else is dim or dark. That was the quality of the light in the room. I struggled to read the first question, and caught the words "In which Covenant book.... ....Rainbow.... ...resolution...". I thought to myself
A test about the Chronicles of Thomas Covenant? With all the time I've spent on Kevin's Watch in the past few years, I should ace this thing. If only I could read the darn questions! I looked at a few more questions, and couldn't really read them, but I caught enough words from enough questions to confirm that it was, indeed, a test about TCoTC. I tried moving my paper around to get enough of it in the sliver of light that was available to me, but it was still quite impossible to read the entirety of any one question. I was rather frustrated, especially because I
wanted to take the test and do well on it.
Now, I know I've complained (rather a lot, probably) here on Kevin's Watch, but in RL I really try to avoid confrontations with authority figures, unless I already have developed a comfortable relationship with that person and know how they will react to such things as complaints and disagreements. I tend to be rather passive unless there is some sort of emergency. Also, my 7th grade homeroom teacher (the person administering the test) had a tendency to be rather unreasonable and cross. I got along well with her, mainly because I always did what I was supposed to be doing and kept out of the way, but I know of several instances in which she has punished people for insignificant things, or things they had little control over.
So I did not relish talking to her about my inability to read the test. I finally worked up enough courage to go up to her and ask if I could sit in a different seat (apparently there were assigned seats in this class), and she said no (well, she said a great deal more than that, but I don't remember what it was--I believe it was mostly condescending in nature). I started explaining why I desired a different seat, and indicating a few recently vacated seats with better lighting (those lucky students were where the light was brightest and had already finished their tests), and she interrupted me with another no, and basically told me to sit down and shut up and take the test. I got really angry, and snapped on her, and went into a tirade about the lighting and her policies and my frustration with her, and I essentially told her to f*** off (except I didn't use those exact words--f*** is not in my working vocabulary). She told me to leave, and I wanted to take the test with me, because I was interested in the test and wanted to know what the darn questions were! Of course, she wouldn't let me take the test out of the room, so I crumpled it up into a tiny ball and PUT IT IN MY MOUTH! I don't know why I did this, but in my mind, that's about as disrespectful a thing as I could have done in that situation (I won't mention the much more disrespectful things that
other people could have done--I couldn't do such things, I wouldn't even know how). I then stalked out of the room, spat out the test, and put it in my pocket. I left the school building and was standing in the parking lot (which, for a dream, looked remarkably like the real thing).
Now, all of what happened in the previous paragraph is rather contrary to my usual character and behavior, so I naturally was rather in shock at what had occurred and at what I had said and done. I was hot, and sweating, and weak in the knees (I could barely walk), and I'm sure my face was as red as a tomato. I then ran into my high school crush (who I never told about the crush, because he was going to be a priest, and is actually currently in seminary--and because about 50 other girls also had crushes on him, and we were a rather small class in high school--less than 100 people total in my graduating class). I'm pretty sure he thought I was drunk. I certainly might as well have been. I tried to explain what happened, but I could barely string three words together. I was also hyperventilating a bit. He was very patient with me and he gave me some advice (I forget what it was, but in the dream I thought it was rather good) and told me to breathe. He then either offered me a ride home or to let me sleep in his car (I don't really know which--I never hear things clearly in dreams--my brain just tells me what people said, I don't "hear" them--in any case he said something about the car). He still thought I was drunk.
I didn't mind, I kind of wanted to "sleep it off" anyway.
I then had a few other crazy dreams. In one of them, I was imprisoned in a tower with Rapunzel (recent Disney version, post-haircut) and a rather small giant. We had offended the king or some such nonsense, and we wanted to escape, because I guess the king wasn't very nice to prisoners or something like that. We were trying to use the curtains and bedsheets tied together as a rope to escape with, but they wouldn't stay tied on to anything in the room--they were too smooth to stay knotted onto the roof beams or the furniture (although they somehow stayed knotted to each other--go figure). Now, I think Rapunzel was imprisoned because her parents were the ones who insulted the king, and she happened to be visiting at the time. I don't know why the giant was imprisoned, but I get the impression that it was because the king simply didn't like giants, not because of anything in particular that the giant did. I was convinced that I had done whatever insulting thing the king said I had done, although I have no idea what it was, and I didn't agree with his method of dealing with the insult. By that logic, I decided that the best thing to be done was to hold on to the rope while Rapunzel and the giant climbed out, and stay in the tower until I discovered some other opportunity of escape or appeal. I basically told them, "You can't help being born, and you can't help your parents. I'm the only one who actually did anything, silly as it was." After they left, the furniture started talking to me. I remember the telephone (disconnected of course) was named Larry, and the end-table said something but I don't remember what it was.
Needless to say, I woke up very tired. I need to stop having my adventures in the middle of the night so I can have some real ones during the day instead...
I totally get this ...very subversive, Auleliel! (I, at least, like being called subversive in contexts like this....)
