Cold Sweat

So, had an awful dream last night. Woke up very frightened. This is why....

{Following paragraphs is not part of the dream}
Let's go back to May of 2001. Kyle was graduating from USNA. I spent a week or so in Annapolis celebrating this time with him - there were lots of formal parties to attend, fun things to do, etc. It's a great week in Annapolis. Anyway, Kyle's whole family was there celebrating (total count of um...around 15 I guess), hosted by the Davises, the wonderful local Annapolis family who signed up to host a midshipman during his time at the academy - you know, a home-away-from-home situation. On graduation eve, several of us stayed at Kyle's sponsor family's daughter's house.

We had to get up early the morning of graduation. After getting ready, Kyle's oldest sister and I got in his mom's car  {FIRST BRAND NEW CAR} to head to the Davises house to meet up with everyone else. I was driving (for some reason...maybe I knew the way better?) and we aren't 10 feet out of the driveway when -WHACK! I backed into the neighbor's mailbox,  putting a nasty scratch in Kyle's mom's less-than-two-week-old-only-new-car-she-had-ever-gotten.  Uh-oh. Now, keep in mind that I'm 22 years old and had only ever hit one other thing before (a pole on the deck of mom and dad's house - I just turned too sharp trying to avoid hitting the plumber's car that was in the driveway) and was a pretty cautious driver. In my defense, I saw a mailbox out of the rear-view window as I was backing up and didn't hit that one. I hit the one that was about 3 feet from that one...got to love those dueling mailbox situations. Anyway, after hitting the box, I just started shaking - it felt awful. Kyle's sister was SO sweet about it, and in typical big sister fashion, offered to take the blame for it and tell everyone that she was driving. We decided against that...I mean, it's just a car, right? An insured one at that...Anyway, we got to the sponsor's house and Kyle's sister went and told his mom who then told his dad...all this on the morning of Kyle's graduation and commissioning into the Marine Corps...and meeting George W. Bush - who was shaking hands that day at the ceremony. AND, it's raining - so, should the outdoor festivities get cancelled due to weather, the rain plan would only allow each midshipman to have like 4 tickets to graduation. The next couple of hours were a blur. I didn't get screamed at or anything....but I knew Kyle's mom and dad were just so sad...not mad at me, but just sad about the dent/scratch in the only-brand-new-car-she'd-ever-had. Kyle and I weren't talking marriage at that point, but I still really wanted to make a good impression on his family.  Banging the new car with his sister in it was NOT the route to go.

 Once everyone was back in Alabama, they got the car fixed (I think the trunk lid had to be replaced) and I paid their insurance deductible. All was well. Anyway, even though his mom still has that car, I haven't been behind the driver's seat since.

So, several years later, Kyle's dad decided to buy himself a car. I think he test drove cars for about a year before deciding on one to buy. He bought a BMW 7 series....not sure of the exact specs, but a nice sleek car that he was very pleased with. This car is not allowed to go to Lowes, Home Depot, or Wal-Mart - too many careless people there. It has made the trip to Texas and North Carolina to visit us though. There is also no eating in the car, although I think my mom was allowed to put on lipstick in it once. :-)

Here comes the dream part. I dreamt last night that we were at Kyle's parent's house and for some reason, I had to move the BMW, or drive it somewhere. While cautiously moving it, my foot was pressing the brake, but it wasn't responding. I was trying to shift out of reverse, but the brake wasn't responding to the pressure, so I'm slowly rolling (with several people standing in the front yard yelling "STOP") towards Kyle's mom's car, parked in front of the house. And yes, I hit the car. That's about when I woke up...but thank goodness - what a scary dream! I banged up both cars in front of everyone!

Anyway, I also had another crazy dream last night about a zoo allowing people to play on the cougar's playground and Vivi and her friend Marlyse being out of site from the moms....which wasn't such a big deal, until one of the cougar's starting acting aggressively and one of the zoo employees saying that they didn't feed the cats that morning. Anyway, we found both the girls and ended up being safe. That dream wasn't as scary as the car one though....I think probably because as I was dreaming about the big cats and their people playground, I knew...KNEW...that there was no chance of that being reality, where as the car one was a lot closer to being real....

I was just glad I woke up and they were both dreams. Hopefully I'll have some sweeter ones tonight!

I wish you safe driving and safe playing...especially if you have cats!