Things you learned in your dreams last night

[Blatherskite]

Laundry is an Olympic sport.

The competitors all dress in elaborate balls gowns, even the men, and once the timer starts they must strip down to their underwear and put the garment in identical washing machines. Then they stand, poised and waiting until the time comes to load the garment in a dryer. Once the clothes are dried, they must retrieve them, steam them and put them back on. They're judged on swiftness and lack of creases.

A Chinese girl won.

[Cervus]

The song "Trouble" by Pink was originally written and recorded by Bob Dylan for his 1965 album Bringing It All Back Home.

I only have the vaguest recollection of what his version sounded like in my dream.

[Chloe]

Originally Posted by Blatherskite

Laundry is an Olympic sport.

A Chinese girl won.

Not a very PC dream!

[Blatherskite]

Originally Posted by Chloe

Not a very PC dream!

To be fair to my subconscious mind, I had to look up just now why that might be un-PC. I'm guessing you're referring to Chinese laundries? As far as I'm aware they're mostly a US thing (presumably a Chinese thing, too, unless in a strange twist China has few Chinese laundry workers).

That doesn't excuse my mind from just being incredible boring. I mean, I watched the whole event in my dream. It took place in an indoor shopping centre for some reason.

[Chloe]

Originally Posted by Blatherskite

To be fair to my subconscious mind, I had to look up just now why that might be un-PC. I'm guessing you're referring to Chinese laundries? As far as I'm aware they're mostly a US thing (presumably a Chinese thing, too, unless in a strange twist China has few Chinese laundry workers.

I don't think it's particularly US; that whole "Wishy-Washy Chinese laundry" thing is a staple of panto, and that's very British. Dated, though. When I was a kid, one of the jokey things to say when you picked up the phone was "Chinese laundry." I don't know why it was supposed to be funny, though.

[lavender blue]

Apparently my students are incapable of packing less than 5 trailer loads of stuff for a one-day field experiment, and no amount of convincing can make them pare things down. They had it all worked out--the trailers were to be hooked in series and towed behind a regular pick-up truck.

I woke up because I was just so frustrated and then couldn't go back to sleep because I was so annoyed by these imaginary students' lack of packing skills.

[Chloe]

I'm laughing because that sounds like me. In an improv workshop a couple of weeks ago there was a scene in which my teenage kids had applied for a credit card in my name, and they refused to stop horsing around when I confronted them. I was so cross with them it took me about 15 minutes after the scene to calm down.

[Lainie]

I don't recall all the details of the plot, but apparently the co-worker for whom I have taken an unreasoning dislike -- which I have struggled against -- is in fact a calculating, cold-blooded murderer.

So maybe I should just go ahead and dislike her.

[queen of the caramels]

Mammoths make the best car mechanics for a Canadian winter. Elephnts on the other hand cannot change a tyre to save their lives.

[Pinecone]

Originally Posted by Lainie

I don't recall all the details of the plot, but apparently the co-worker for whom I have taken an unreasoning dislike -- which I have struggled against -- is in fact a calculating, cold-blooded murderer.

So maybe I should just go ahead and dislike her.

This makes far more sense in this thread.

[Lainie]

Yes, I'm sure it does.

[lavender blue]

Originally Posted by Chloe

I'm laughing because that sounds like me.

Well, as long as you're laughing with me as opposed to at me...

It was Sat. too! If there's any day where one should be able to avoid being frustrated by students, it's Sat.

Can you tell school is starting soon?

[Richard W]

I learned loads - I learned that the game Skyrim is actually a spin-off of a chunky 19th-Century German novel in which aliens visit the earth and people have to work out how to talk to them. As well as reading this novel, I was also somehow taking part in it as the person who could best communicate with the aliens, using the advanced hand-gesture skills I've learned while travelling. When I worked out what they were saying, it turned out they were describing their home world, which was basically Skyrim.

I had the vague idea that it was by Hermann Hesse, but he wrote all his major novels in the 20th Century.

[Lainie]

I should be more diligent about checking my voicemail, or I might miss a message that my middle brother and his family -- including some relatives I didn't know existed -- are coming to visit, and the house will be a terrible mess when they show up unexpectedly. They'll bring a box full of food, including some very unusual and tasty-looking homemade cookies. And they'll be helpful in getting out the seagull that has somehow gotten into the house, but I should watch them carefully, because in doing so they may unwittingly let out our cats.

[Lachrymose]

My ex-wife, a couple guys, and I were apparently doing a Lord of the Rings LARP thing (I have never LARP'd in my life).

We were walking through a house that had scenes set up, like Mirkwood. Spiders had been made out of plastic forks and placed in the Mirkwood room.

We were supposed to stay in a certain order while walking single file. We didn't and got yelled at by the lead person.

I then went on a tiny rant about things that appeared in the Hobbit that never appeared in LotR (real question: was it ever explained why there were no dragons after Smaug? Was he supposed to be the last dragon?).

Then I started talking about how SNL would now suck since Andy Samberg left (I have never really watched it in many years, but I did like the Digital Shorts and thing they were the best thing that happened to SNL in a long time. )

[TallGeekyGirl]

Apparently, I still work at the grocery store where I was employed in my late teens and early twenties. Not only that, but I've forgotten how to use the register, the scanner barely works, and the register buttons keep changing. Worse yet, every customer in my line has a grocery cart piled high with stuff. And the DM is visiting. It's like the perfect storm of everything that could go wrong for a checker at a grocery store.

Perhaps this should go in the "Stupid Questions" thread, but...

Why, oh why, do our subconscious minds torture us with dreams like this so often, where the anxiety and frustration just amp up and leave you feeling terrible even after you wake up? What's the point of it?

[llewtrah]

Originally Posted by Chloe

I don't think it's particularly US; that whole "Wishy-Washy Chinese laundry" thing is a staple of panto, and that's very British. Dated, though.

In the pantos I saw as a kid it was "Widow Twanky's Laundry" and she wasn't necessarily Chinese, just a harridan.

[Tabbyclaw]

One of my friends has developed a friendship with a celebrity and is deliberately trying to shut me out of it, despite both the celebrity and her agent attempting to reach out to me.

-Tabby
the princess with claws

[Lainie]

How rude.

[Lachrymose]

Originally Posted by TallGeekyGirl

Why, oh why, do our subconscious minds torture us with dreams like this so often, where the anxiety and frustration just amp up and leave you feeling terrible even after you wake up? What's the point of it?

This is a very interesting episode of Nova (found streaming on Netflix) which touches on this a bit. A theory is that in some dreams prepare us for waking life by forcing us to make decisions, etc.