My ass is dragging today. I went to bed early last night, because I was tired, so I was actually asleep by 10:45. But I had weird and vivid dreams all night, so this morning it feels like I didn't actually get any sleep.

I need to do some dream research, though. I don't really believe in prophecy through dreams, but I have vivid experience with my subconscious using them to communicate with me about the present.

I mean, I know what it means when I dream about spiders. It means that I'm spending too much effort worrying about something. Usually, something that I don't have any control over. Usually, when I locate the source of unnecessary worry and acknowledge it, the dreams go away.

And I know what it means when I dream about having sex with someone (which is not what you might think). It usually means that I need to incorporate or emulate some aspect of that person's personality. (Except for the one time that I dreamed I was having sex with my boyfriend's father. I think that was a warning about what I was getting myself into with the boyfriend. Also? Yuck.)

These dreams tend to recur until I remember them, and until I identify their meaning. Once I've dragged the meaning into my conscious mind, out into the light where I can look at it -- even if I don't actually do anything about the situation causing the dreams, the dreams themselves usually stop.

But lately I've been dreaming about tornados, and I have no idea whatsoever as to what that might represent. The dream dictionaries say an emotional storm or a violent temperament or relationship problems, but none of those feel like the answer. I mean, I've been more emotionally stable since Penny was born than I've ever been in my life (excepting the whole baby blues period, which only lasted a couple of weeks). I mean, I still have ups and downs, but they're hills, now, not mountains. And Matt has a sort of explosive temper on a hair trigger, but that's not something my subconscious needs to tell me about.

I've dreamed about tornados before -- they tend to be very vivid dreams, because while I'm not pathalogically afraid of them the way I'm afraid of spiders, tornados frighten me more than any other natural phenomenon. Yes, even more than hurricanes. Yes, even after Katrina.

I'm sure that's a key, but I can't quite get to the meaning. I hope I stumble on it soon, or I'm going to be getting a lot tireder.

--Liz