People always ask me about the process of compiling them. Well, first I go to sleep. Then, if I remember a dream when I wake up, I dictate it into a tape recorder. When I have a few dreams on tape I transcribe them. I edit, but I'm very serious about never embellishing or inventing. Here are some recent favorites:
July 5, 2010
I dream I am working at a paramilitary version of a university at which there are many regulations. I have used the mustard wrong, so I am pulled from duty and forced to take a shower. I am given 36 seconds, but I’m told that the time started before I had my clothes off. I am then placed on “line duty.” My job is to herd people through the line of the local dinner theater. I have subordinates who are required to keep people moving through three sets of turnstiles in an orderly manner.
Lots of universities in my dreams, since I've spent much of my life in them. Also, showers.
June 29, 2010
I dream I am in a swinger's hostel and on a bed are two women who look like rotund versions of girls I knew in high school. I wish to take off my clothes and cuddle with them, but I get the feeling that they do not want me around. I then look for other companions. Others are willing, but we have to get past the woman who runs the hostel who is very picky about what kinds of people could swing in her facilities. I wind up with Gail waiting to take our seats at a performance of HELLO, DOLLY! Jerry Herman is there and is anxious to get us seated.
Nudity is a repeated theme. Also, Broadway musicals. I love them, and a younger version of me performed in several at community and dinner theaters. In fact, here's another Hello, Dolly! dream:
January 5, 2010
I dream I am playing Barnaby in a miserable production of Hello, Dolly! No one knows his lines, nothing works correctly, and I cannot locate my pants. The problem with the production is attributed to a demonic presence that messes things up and leaves pieces of shit sprinkled around the set. We call in some rabbis to exorcise the production. Eventually I find seven pairs of my pants frozen beneath the surface of the reflecting pool.
There you have some of my repeated themes: musicals, lack of pants, demons, rabbis, body functions, pools.
Want to read more? For the last two years, I have been posting three thematic dreams each week in a blog called When Falls The Coliseum. So, if you would like to play the party game of reading, interpreting, and acting out "Fred's Dreams"--and in my imagination many do--here is the link:
http://whenfallsthecoliseum.com/author/fsiegel/
*Mitch is a buddy of mine since I first met him on the bus stop on the way to seventh grade. Here is a dream about Mitch:
July 13, 1998
I dream I am part of a magic competition that takes place in the New York subway system. I am led to understand that one of my competitors is the Evil One himself. I'm not sure I'll recognize him, but I suspect my friend, Mitch. When it comes time to perform, I assume that Mitch is the Evil One, and when he comes near I perform my secret devil music. As it turns out, Mitch is not the only demonic force--the other is a robot creature from The Jetsons.
