When Harry met Harry...and Herry

I work in a small offiice with two guys who are named, "Harry." What are the chances of that? Neither of them actually go by the name, "Harry," as they have adopted nicknames or using their initials as their first name. That probably makes sense. I only bring this up because of yet another bizarre dream I had the other night. Only recently have I begun to actually remember my dreams which gives me something to blog about. Anyway, in the dream I was looking at my birth certificate only to discover that my real first name was...you guessed it..."Harry."

Too bad Herry Monster from the Sesame Street of old was not in the dream.

Back Again

My company just finished a major trade show and I'm still trying to dig out of everything while life moves on at full speed. It's also the beginning of baseball/softball season for my kids and it looks like two if not all three of my kids will be on teams this year. That always makes life even more interesting. Regardless, I've neglected this blog for too long and it's time to get back at it. However, I'm not really sure what to contribute at the moment.

All I can think of is the stupid dream I had last night (actually it was around 6:00 am this morning). I was playing some strange pool game with a bunch of kids (none that I recognize in real life). It was like tag except that you could be safe or immune from getting tagged by having some sort of combination of items with you in the pool. Of course, I was "it" and it didn't matter who I tried to tag. They would always have a combination of things that kept them from getting tagged. It was pretty frustrating as I'd finally catch up with a kid and he'd say, "You can't tag me. I've got the green floaty and the yellow ball." Well, of course I can't tag that kid. Everyone knows the green floaty and the yellow ball makes you safe from the 4o-year-old man who's trying to tag you. In my frustration I remember trying to smack the kid in the head with the floaty...which turned out to be the REAL pillow under my head as I was sleeping. I managed to jerk it out from under my head and woke up--as did my wife as I think I may have struck her.

So, now she's "it"...unless her combination of the green pillow and pink pajamas makes her immune.

Dreams

Dreams are fascinating. If you have any familiarity with the Bible (especially the Old Testament) you'll read about some very interesting dreams that were often rich in significance and sometimes prophetic. In Genesis 28 Jacob has a very important dream:

(12) He had a dream in which he saw a stairway resting on the earth, with its top reaching to heaven, and the angels of God were ascending and descending on it. (13) There above it stood the LORD, and he said: "I am the LORD, the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac. I will give you and your descendants the land on which you are lying. (14) Your descendants will be like the dust of the earth, and you will spread out to the west and to the east, to the north and to the south. All peoples on earth will be blessed through you and your offspring. (15) I am with you and will watch over you wherever you go, and I will bring you back to this land. I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you."

That's pretty powerful stuff since this all became true. Jacob's name was later changed to "Israel" and he was the Father of the Israelites.

I, on the other hand, rarely remember my dreams and when I do, they seem quite bizarre. I thought I was alone on this front until Rose Starr submitted this as a comment on my blog recently:

"I had a dream about you and your wife! My family came to your house (probably to see that lamp) and my 3 year old spilled laundry soap (the wet kind) all over your carpeted stairs (don't even know if you have carpeted stairs) and your wife was super kind and understanding while I was super embaressed. Then we were out front and you went to get your camper which had your balloon animal supplies (a side job) and you made a huge balloon sculpture for us. Then your wife drove her camper up to show us her side job of making cinnamon rolls."

I woke up this morning and actually remembered the dream that I was having. This is a rare treat for me. And since I now know that I'm not the only one on this planet who has odd dreams, I'm going to share it with you all.

For some reason, I had to drive to New York City in the morning before I went to the office (and my office is in Indianapolis). I knew I was going to be pressed for time so I really had to move quickly and stay focused. I'm not sure what it is that I had to do or get in New York, but I managed to do it in record time and was on schedule to make it to work in about a half hour (it's a dream, folks--suspend reality)!!! As I was almost there I was tailgating some guy in an old car right in front of a Burger King. This is funny since I NEVER tailgate people and hate it when people do so to me. But I was doing it and I was impatient. Suddenly, he stopped and I plowed right into him at about 5 mph. Thus, it did no damage to either of our cars. However, the driver got out. He was really big and really mad. He yelled at me for being so stupid and I simply agreed with him and apologized profusely. Somehow, I convinced him to walk over to the Burger King with me and we had breakfast together sitting outside. At some point, I needed to go back in and promised the man that I'd only be a minute. But when I got into the store an old friend of mine happened to be the manager and we struck up a conversation. This was someone (but I cannot remember specifically who it is) that I used to work with in real life but had been let go. I asked for his business card so we could stay in touch. However, when he gave me the card, it was not a Burger King card but one from the company where we used to work together. Anyway, when I finally made it back outside, the big dude was no longer sitting at a table. He was playing putt-putt golf with my wife (for some reason, this Burger King had a putt-putt golf course) and they were having a blast.

That's all I can remember. I know it's strange, but I'm always glad for the occasional dream that I remember. Now it's your turn to tell me what this means.