Weird Dreams and Designated Hysterical People

In any crisis, there needs to be a hysterical person, right? Something I've discovered about myself is that, when there is a crisis and no one becomes hysterical, I take on that role, making me the designated hysterical person. However, if there is already someone who is hysterical in the situation, I can be calm. I tell you all this because it relates to the dream I had last night.

I dreamed that my entire family was on a private plane. My mother, sisters, nieces, nephew, dogs and either my father or my step-father - that part isn't clear to me, although my father was a licensed pilot at one time and it was the male figure in this dream who was flying the plane. The dogs were the dogs I had growing, two chihuahuas, Poco and Jose. My nieces and nephew were young and my mother was alive (I dream about her quite frequently and I kind of wonder if there is a significance to that, but I digress).

So, we're all on this plane with the male figure flying. My mother came out of the cockpit and headed back to the bedroom with my oldest sister (my other sister was in another room with all the kids) and I sitting in the front part of the plane that had seating just like your normal, everyday commercial plane - coach no less. (Keep in mind that as I describe it, it sounds like it would be a luxury plane but I didn't view that way in my dream - not that it makes that much of a difference, I don't think...maybe it does in the interpretation, who knows?)

Anyway, Poco hobbled back to the restroom and crawled in the tub (don't ask me why, I didn't understand the dog when I was growing up, much less in a dream some thirty years later). Shortly thereafter my father/step-father left the cockpit in a huff (did I mention he was flying the plane?) and headed towards the shower.

My thoughts briefly landed on the fact that Poco was in the tub/shower already but those thoughts were overridden by the fact that no one was flying the plane!

I ran back to the bedroom my mother and oldest sister were in and frantically tried to tell them my concerns over the situation. They seemed totally unconcerned.

I went back to my coach seat and started thinking of the possibilities. Maybe it was on auto-pilot and we were okay. But, how long could/should you leave the flight controls unattended, I mean, he was in the shower!

As I took deep non-relaxing breaths, the plane suddenly took a sharp right turn...right before it did a nose-dive. It was like one of those annoying scenes in movies where you can see out of the front of the airplane and the plane is almost about to "kiss" the ground but back in the plane you're a long way off, know what I mean? Anyway, this is what I was looking at.

Next thing I know, I'm in a hotel lobby...in Galveston! I'm alone and I'm asking if they can go ahead and check me in to the hotel. Now, it didn't occur to me in the dream but I live near Houston and it wouldn't make sense to fly from Houston to Galveston because you could drive there almost as fast - and you would have a car for getting around - but again, I digress.

I'm at the registration desk asking if I can check in early. The clerk tells me only if I have a signed authorization stating that I could check in early. I start yelling at the guy, telling him I've just been in a plane crash and why can't he just give me a friggin' room already. He says he can't without this authorization so I demand (in a high pitch hysterical kind of way) to see the manager immediately.

As I'm making this demand, my sister and oldest sister walk in to the hotel as if nothing has happened, still just chit-chatting. I run over to them and ask them where everyone else was. They said they didn't know - and they didn't seem concerned about it. So I start back in with my high pitch hysterical voice asking them how they can be so calm and start on a rant how the hotel won't let me check in and where is the bleeping manager anyway?

Next my other sister walks in, alone. I run over to her and ask her about the kids, the dogs and the male type person that had been flying the plane. She's a bit more upset but it's not about the kids, dogs or anyone else - she also seems unconcerned about anyone else - no, she's upset because we hadn't waited for her when we left the crash site.

I leave her and go back to the registration desk and again demand to see the hotel manager.

As I'm ranting at the registration clerk, my mother starts reading a statement she's been given (she wasn't making one, although at this point I notice that a lot of people are in the lobby - press included). She reads that it was known that there was a problem with the fuselage yet they let us take the plane anyway, knowing it would crash. She's reading this in a very calm, matter of fact type voice.

I, on the other hand, jump up and start yelling (high pitch hysterical voice again) "They knew it had a problem??? And they let us take it up anyway???" As I looked around the room, I realized that I was the only one who seemed to see the problem with that. "Does no one else think that was a problem?" I went on.

My mother went on to read the statement and from something she said, the plane was in one piece, despite the fact that it did a nose-dive (by the way, none of us looked disheveled in any way). I tried but couldn't picture the actual crash or the remains but I thought that was odd that it would have landed in one place (although, in the actual dream there was no impact - it's just odd that in the dream I couldn't picture it).

Anyway, I went back to try to get a room, telling anyone who would listen that I couldn't understand why they wouldn't check me in when they knew the horror I'd just been through and they wouldn't even let me talk to the manager. A friend showed up and was going to try to help me get a room from a back way and we were on our way to do that when I woke up.

I don't know, it could just be me but I thought that was a weird dream.