Restless Nights, Dreams, and Mondays...

"Rainy days and Mondays always get me down..."

Especially those that follow a sleepless night. Ugh! I am beyond exhausted today. Crawled into bed (nicely made up with fresh sheets) about 11pm, and half an hour later was pounding on the wall when the cow upstairs decided the witching hour was a good time to run laps and shift furniture. Seriously--whatever happened to common sense and courtesy? Finally fell asleep around midnight, only to wake up (or be awakened) at 2am. The next thing I knew it was 4 in the morning and couldn't tell you whether I slept at all during those two hours. Tried to go back to sleep, but the pre-dawn hours only brought fitful sleep, no real rest at all.

Naturally, I finally sank into a deep sleep sometime around 6:30 -- a half hour before the alarm was supposed to go off. Except I forgot I had set it for an hour later Saturday, which meant it did not go off at its usual time. Luckily, a sixth sense or something snapped me awake at 7:30. And, of course, the days when you actually want your ride to be late, they are either early or right on time. I basically had no time for the long, hot shower I desperately needed, and had to wolf down some breakfast while getting dressed. *sigh* Days that start out this bad rarely end well.

Just before I woke I was having a really weird, active dream -- like I have any other type. The first scene I remember was an office setting. I was doing some data entry or computer research type job -- except that, for whatever reason, the boss's daughter was not only continuously checking up on me, but kept trying to do my work, then criticizing me when I had nothing else to do, or was waiting for a new assignment. There was more to it than that...other people involved, etc. but it's all a hazy jumble.

Scene shift. I have my own apartment in some small town. There is a lower level private, keyed entrance. To the right of the door are wall pegs for hanging coats, and space for some storage between the wall and stairs leading to the apartment, where there is another keyed entrance (for safety, apparently). First there was a scene in which I invited some people over and told them I now I had a family room downstairs. The weird part is that there was no entrance to my "lower" level from the main entrance -- you had to go upstairs to the apartment, then take an interior stairwell down to the family room.

In the dream I had an disagreement with a male friend/boyfriend before a big HS football game (I think he was the coach). I was irritated with the way some incident had been handled and his seeming placating tone in discussing it with me. I was supposed to attend the game, but was in a foul mood, so stalked back to my apartment. The downstairs door was unlocked, though I was sure I had locked it before I left. There was also a pile of cast-off clothes and stuff my land lady had promised she would get rid of for me, the previous tenant having left them behind. But instead of being piled neatly in the small space between the stairs and wall, they lay in a jumbled heap. It did nothing to improve my mood.

As I turned to close the door, I saw a white mouse skitter under some of the debris. I grabbed a broom and tried to shoo it out the door, but just as I almost had it out, friends suddenly appeared in the doorway, and the creature scurried back into the corner across from the stairs. Not wanting it to get upstairs into my apartment, I kept an eye on it, trying to get people to move, finally telling them I was in no mood for company and needed to get the mouse out. They finally left, only to be replaced by a neighbor, a tall, lanky older (very strange) guy. As we were talking, a hedgehog darted into my entryway and latched on to the mouse, the tail hanging out of its mouth. I screamed at him to get those creatures out of there. He bent down, scooped up the hedgehog, with mouse tail still dangling from its maw, and was holding it, lifting it over his head -- playing with it instead of removing it and the mouse from my home.

He finally left and I started up the stairs to my apartment. As I neared the top, I saw a key sticking out of the lock, but my key was still in my hand. Confused, I removed the key and was just about to enter when the entrance door below was unlocked and my landlady entered, talking to a couple behind her. She stopped when she saw me, not expecting me to be there. She was planning to show my apartment to these people without my consent/notification, and not because I was moving out, but because it was identical to one that would be opening up. I was livid and refused to let them in.

The pissy way in which the dream ended may have contributed to my current mood, which is -- thanks to lack of sleep and a late start -- not so good. I'm tired. My eyes hurt. My knees ache. Like the hedgehog of my dream, I'm feeling a bit thorny today. Did I mention the bitter cold? At 8am it was only 32F, with a windchill of 23. It isn't much warmer now. In fact, the temperature isn't expected to crack 50 today. *whimper*

Of course, they say that feelings and emotions are as important in dreams as the symbolism. Overall there was a deep feeling of irritation, of wanting to be by myself and having to deal with people. Granted, this is no surprise since people in general tend to irritate me. *wink and grin* Out of curiosity, I checked an online dream site for feelings in dreams. Irritation wasn't listed -- about the closest I could get is frustrated:

"To dream that you feel frustrated, represents your difficulty in coping with a situation in your daily life. It may reflect your concerns that your life is not going in the direction you want."

And, after my experience with the hawks this year, you know that I also had to do some research on the symbolism of mice and hedgehogs. There seem to be many strong yet positive attributes associated with the hedgehog, for example: Energy, Vitality, Fertility (not necessarily a sexual connotation, as it could be one's imagination that is fertile), Intuition, Protection, Perception, Intelligence and Resourcefulness. Though normally gentle creatures, they can become quite defensive when threatened (and boy does that fit!).

"The Hedgehog teaches how to be on the defense and how to protect yourself. It shows how to protect the soft inside -- your inner self. Hedgehog shows how to be gentle, yet protective at the same time. How to build defenses and protective barriers that discourage negative people."

Mice (and I did not find anything differentiating between white mice from any other color) seem to connote Scrutiny and Detail. Mice people tend to over-analyze the little details without seeing the big picture, of neglecting major issues by focusing too intently on the little things. There is often a fear of life while everything must be in perfect order in their lives and homes. According to other sources, mice are indicative of small fears and irritations in life that drain you of energy, and mice scurrying freely about can wreak havoc in their surroundings and indicate family squabbles ahead (yeah, that never happens, either).

So, if you believe in dream symbolism, what one might take from this, from the hedgehog devouring the mouse and overall feeling of irritability, is that I need to fret less and rely more on my intuition, creativity and resourcefulness, and not be afraid to defend myself.



Sources:
http://www.sayahda.com/cyc.html
http://www.linsdomain.com/totems/pages/hedgehog.htm
http://www.whats-your-sign.com/animal-symbolism-hedgehog.html
http://www.linsdomain.com/totems/pages/mouse.htm
http://www.mythsdreamssymbols.com/