If you don’t want to hear about the overnight adventures of my other life, read no further. No, I don’t mean those kinds of adventures. Geez, people, do you really think I’d write about that in my blog? Just kidding!! I’m talking about my dreaming life that makes many mornings just a little bit confusing and yet also rather entertaining.

Scientific studies show the connection between REM sleep and dreaming, and someone must have studied why certain people remember dreams more vividly than others. I have my own theory for why I have bizarre dreams and remember them so frequently: my identity came from a dream! My mom happens to be a frequent dreamer, and she dreamed up my name when my parents were discussing potential names for me. Somewhat unfortunately I don’t think she remembered anything else about the dream, so I’ll never know if I was a grand explorer or a politician. (shudder on that 2nd one)

Somehow I became one of those people who dreams regularly. A lot of the time I even remember a good chunk of the dream, meaning I can attempt to trace pieces of the dream to origins in reality. As you might imagine, sometimes making any sense of the dream is just a ridiculous idea. Regardless of a dream’s hypothesized meaning or link to daytime life, I rather enjoy sharing the tales of my subconscious frolics.

For both of my summers out at Tutakoke I took to sharing my dreams with crew first thing in the morning. This summer my practice was made even more memorable by the design of our outhouse. Since we had up to 17 people in camp at 1 point, we decided our outhouse should have a 2 man capacity with back-to-back seating.

With its location perfectly between our 2 camps (University of Nevada Reno: 3.5 months of my summer employment; Utah State University/University of Alaska Anchorage: 1 month of my summer), my UNR camp decided it would be funny to try having each of the 4 of us “use the loo” at the same time as someone from the USU camp. Ultimately the only member of the USU/UAA crew who was fortunate enough to share moments with 3/4 of our UNR crew was Martin.

Apparently Martin and I were on the same schedule some mornings, making Martin my audience for hearing a couple of my dreams. Obviously we couldn’t just sit in awkward silence when sharing moments at the outhouse, so why not? I came to call these times “Mornings with Martin,” and I’m sure Martin treasures those memories. 😉

Since I’m in Fairbanks and have no outhouse to visit, I need to share last night’s dream with someone! Consider yourselves fortunate.

It all started with a view of the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, but the bridge had these mesh panels hanging along its length on either side. Then I heard the voice of Marshall Eriksen – a character in How I Met Your Mother – accusing his fiancee Lily of cheating on him while out on her painting lesson on the bridge. She was telling Marshall that if she could show him the mesh on the bridge, it would prove she really had just been painting. (How? No clue, so welcome to my dream logic.)

The next thing I know I’m swimming in the waters of the San Francisco Bay side of the bridge with Lily, who suddenly has turned into Marshall, as he reaches the mesh and realizes Lily has been telling the truth. As we swim to shore, a shark grabs hold of Marshall’s leg, eliciting a worried outburst from the waiting Lily. Not wanting to be grabbed by a shark, I pick up my pace and make it to shore, followed shortly thereafter by a completely unharmed Marshall.

On shore we find hundreds and hundreds of black brant broods mixed in with family groups of seabirds. (Here’s how I know I’m not a birder: I have no clue what species were there because at the time it just slipped my mind to notice. Also, I don’t know why the brant goslings were so small during migration.) Lily and Marshall became just ordinary people helping drive birds away from the water. The goslings and small seabirds had been startled by something and were racing toward the water, but they somehow weren’t old enough to be capable of swimming in the bay. (Huh?) I helped Lily, Marshall, and other people whose faces looked familiar but remained unidentifiable, pick up birds and just herd them away from the water.

However, as we were doing this, I was climbing down the stairs of a multi-level combination ‘Riverboat Discovery – schooner oceangoing vessel.’ (If I could draw a picture of it, I would. I’m curious if this is an actual type of boat.) I had just finished up a day cruise from one Hawaiian island to another, and I’d been surprised at how few people were on the beaches. The principal from my elementary-middle school was descending in front of me, but as we were going down, it seems like birds (from the Golden Gate Bridge area) were being passed up.

There you have it; that’s what I dreamed about last night. While I doubt there was any real point to that dream, I can tell you my subconscious was reflecting on consciousness.

1. I watched an episode of How I Met Your Mother shortly before going to bed, so the characters were fresh in my mind.
2. I worked with brant all summer, and I think about good memories from fieldwork frequently.
3. In addition, a 2nd short-tailed albatross was recently taken by a fishing vessel in the Bering Sea. I’m hoping to work as an observer who reports such findings this winter. Perhaps birds, fish, and the Bering Sea have been on my mind more than they once were.
4. Lately I’ve noticed boats are pretty fun, and I wouldn’t mind spending more time on various kinds.
5. *Spoiler on travel plans* I’m going to Hawaii in 2 weeks, so I’ve done a fair bit of attempted planning. I’m still trying to decide where to go, so if you have input, please share!
6. I’ll probably be back home this December, so maybe that’s why my principal Mrs. Palka was in my dream… maybe? That one’s a wild card.

With all the business I take care of while I’m sleeping, it’s no wonder I really am in no hurry to get up in the mornings.