Dreams and Difficulties

Difficulties first--I've had a terrible time logging in. Somehow blogger.com didn't recognize my username, even though it pulled up the name, and it didn't recognize the computer I'm using because I'm in Austin on my daughter's computer. Iit looks like I may be in Austin half the tomorrow. I love being here and playing with my grandsons and cooking for the big people, but I feel the pressure of things to do at home. Meantime half my mind is in Fort Worth, worrying about my house and dog. Now the storm has passed there but is getting worse here--what a weekend to pick to travel. We have a cozy fire, and I'm reading a good mystery, keeping up with various TCU projects via email.
This fall I had a chance to meet briefly, over a glass of iced tea, with one of my heroes, a top-selling mystery author whose work I particularly enjoy. I really looked forward to it and, I guess naively, thought we'd have lots in common and chatter away like magpies. Instead it was an awkward meeting, and I was sorry I'd gone. Onstage that night, she was brilliant, funny, witty, all that I'd hoped she'd be in person. (To be fair I later learned she had just found out about a family tragedy.) The other night though I dreamt I met another author--not the same one--and we became instant friends, part mentor/protege. I don't now remember it all, but I think she decided to come teach at TCU. I woke with a glowing feeling--at 3 a.m. When I went back to sleep, I met someone who liked to cook, as I do, and we were in a huge, very modern kitchen in a strange city--Seattle?--cooking with a group of people. Some of them were related to me, but I surely didn't recognize them. I can still see one man's face. So what do these dreams mean? I'm not one who goes in much for dream analysis, like the theory that the dream we all have of failing school relates to childhood feelings of inferiority. I used to dream all the time that it was time for finals and I'd never been to class, couldn't even find the classroom. More recently, I dreamt that it was a class I was teaching but I kept forgetting to go to it. Sure, I had childhood insecurities, but I tend more to think dreams reflect what's on our minds at the time. I distinctly remember going to sleep that night thinking about the next development in my mystery, and cooking was on my mind because I had been talking to Megan about what she'd like me to cook for them. Then, too, the fact that I'm sleeping on an inflatable air mattress may have something to do with strong dreams! It's pretty comfortable, but I make quite a sight trying to get up from it. At any rate, I hope no dream analyst comments on this post!