Dreaming about an Ex, but it's the Animals the Break My Heart

Much more vivid dreams recently.  Last night's were sad and/or depressing.  First one was between 11 pm and 4 am.  Second one was between 5 am and 10 am.

12-5-15
#1 - Strange Ex Encounter
I was shopping at clothing store where everything was my style.  The store itself wasn't very fancy, with industrially short blue carpet and off-white walls.  One of those gateways that beeps when you steal something was placed at the entrance.  I had made a purchase and was giving one last look at some black leather bags near the front of the store when I notice a guy walk in.  He presses a button right near the door.  Initially, I'm alarmed.  He's facing away from the store, standing in the doorway, and has pressed a round red button.  What???  A moment later, I realize he has pressed the delivery pick-up button.  It is still strange because this is a clothing store... what would he have ordered for take-out??

I continue to watch as he is given a parcel in a plastic bag, and realize that I know him - it is Stely.  I stay among the bags until he is out the door, and then follow him.  By the time I reach the sidewalk outside, he is crossing the street, weaving through traffic.  He stops on the opposite sidewalk, and I holler his name.  He looks for the source of the holler, but the wrong way.  He is looking down the street.  I call out again.  He looks the other way, up the street.  I keep calling his name, waving my arms now, until he sees me.  He turns and spots me, his face remaining bleak, and I'm not sure if he'll ignore me or cross back.

The next thing I know, we're walking side by side on the sidewalk.  It's a downtown area that has seen some wear-and-tear.  I'm asking him what happened.  "Did you assume I'd Break up with you after not hearing from you for two weeks?" I ask indignantly.  He tells me about how his life has taken a turn for the worse.  He had to take a job at $16 an hour, and that only adds up to $7000 a year.  He explains that money is extremely tight - he doesn't always have enough to buy food.

As we continue to walk and talk in this melancholy way, I feel frustration but it has become diluted with pity.  I let him drive my car to take me home, since I don't drive anymore.  In the car, I extend an invitation to come up when we get there, telling him that I can offer him some good homestyle eats.  He somberly declines.

Somehow, We end up at a movie, but it is being shown in some sort of clinic.  We're in metal folding chairs with floor-to-ceiling windows behind the movie screen.  The floor is linoleum and there is a reception desk of sorts off to the right.  I remember a few scenes, all of them very weird.  In one, a man is quite gassy, and his friends keep lighting his burps and flatulence until the flames travel up to his face, inevitably killing him.  In another, a thief is about to steal a seemingly empty red car.  The owner is actually in the back seat, boiking his mistress.  The thief plops something heavy on the hood of the car, and the owner, thinking he's been caught, sneaks his mistress out of the passenger door of his 2-door coupe.  He sits in the passenger seat, feigning nonchalance. The thief slides into the driver's seat, and the owner turns to look.  As he does, the thief deftly turns the man's head forward with two hands, snapping his neck.

He did that way too easily, we agree as we critique the movie.I've been eating a McDonald's cheeseburger during the film, and I look at the last few bites in the wrapper.  I consider offering it to Stely, but decide that it might offend him. A conversations starts up about what town we are in.  I ask if that city is in Utah, but my audience is a group of geographically-challenged stoners.  I decide that we are actually in Colorado, and show the stoners a digital map of the western states.

I get dropped off at my college townhouse, but inside it is my current home.  I've left a saucepan on the stove - cornflakes in milk are simmering, but they've been doing so all day long.  Oops!  I try to switch the burner off, and the flame fluctuates, but won't extinguish.  I try to blow out the flame; it flickers and then grows larger.  A low flame starts to spread across the stove top.  Easing an oncoming panic, I realize I have a fire extinguisher, and spray the stove top with the foamy substance.  This seems to do the trick, but the burner still won't lose it's flame, and the fire continues to relight and spread.

I try the fire extinguisher again, and realize that one of the spots isn't a flame at all, but a red dot of light.  It's a laser pointer light!  That must be what's causing all the issues... It must be relighting the flame... Right?  Fearful of who might be shining a laser pointer into my house, I duck down behind the kitchen island with my fire extinguisher.

What is peculiar about this dream (besides the obvious) is Stely (name replaced).  He is an ex-boyfriend, as the dream suggests, but we didn't break up in this manner.  Also, he passed away in the mid-2000's.

12-5-15 #2 - Pet Store Heartbreak

I was at a large chain pet supply store, like PetCo or PetsMart.  Many such places have an area of adoptable pets, and the shelter I work with was partnering with this store.  I'm out in the aisles, and there are puppies out and running around.  They aren't escapees.  They're not out on accident.  Regardless, I'm chasing after them and trying to corral them.  They are knocking things over and weaselling their way to the back of display racks, and I'm fishing them out and righting things.  It's all in good humor, and the puppies are super cute.

I walk down the strip mall from the store previously mentioned.  There is a second chain pet supply store, but it isn't associate with the shelter I work with.  Rather, it is associated with the local humane society.  I'm with my parents, and my mother really wants to take an innocent look at the puppies in this second location.

Not long after we walk in, my mom reports that there is a 250 lb dog in the humane society's care that they plan to put down if he is not adopted. She says she may call someone (I forget the name) to see if they can take the dog.  Already, I'm disappointed and distraught.

There's a separate room where they have the pets.  The walls are dark, the cages are too small, and all of the animals seem listless.  It seems as though every cage has too many animals for the space.  I see a litter of kittens crammed into a tiny glass cage.  None of them are playing or wrestling, and instead the litter is sitting upright, staring out without a sound.  A mixed-up litter of puppies is in one cage that is lined with hamster bedding.  One of the puppies is all scratched up and wobbly on his legs.  He can barely stand, and I think to myself that I'm not sure if he's going to make it.  My devastation plunges further.

We open a door on the opposite side of the room to steps going down to an area of similar aesthetic with more animals.  The steps are wide glass fish tanks full of fish.  I descend the stairs and look back to encourage Murphy (my last dog, now in doggy heaven) to follow.  He is apprehensive and anxious in that he is not sure how to get to me.  He doesn't realize that the fish tanks are solid stairs.  Seeing this, I attempt to reassure him, telling him that it's okay, but after a bit of anxious hesitation, he turns tail and bolts.


In the downstairs room, immediately to the right, there sits a round metal cage with glass walls.  It is the size of the ferret/chinchilla habitat you'd see at a PetCo.  Inside, there are two penguins, barely fitting in the enclosure with the tops of their heads poking out of the water and their faces obscured by the rim of the cage.  My world is rocked as I hit rock bottom.  What in the world...?!  The penguins move nothing but their beaks as they listlessly chew on shredded fish meal.  This was the last depressing straw.  My heart couldn't take it - so I woke up.


I consider both of these as A-ok weirdo dreams that end up terribly, in the form of a nightmare.  No good.