I often hear people tell me stories about the dreams they had last night. Most of the time the stories are filled with vivid memories and details about specific parts of the dreams and even their thematic meanings.

I’m not one of those people. I’m lucky if I even dream in the first place, let alone remember any of it. I suppose it’s kind of a trade-off: I have a great memory when I’m awake, being able to recall song lyrics, random trivia and specific moments with great detail.

Shaun, on the other hand, can give you a play-by-play on what happened in his sleep last night (and even occasionally wakes up during a good dream to jot down ideas for his writing) — but his brain can’t tell him where he put his keys two seconds ago. Or what time he was supposed to be somewhere. Or what his name is.

Sometimes it feels like I’m missing out. I mean, sure, it’s nice to miss out on nightmares and night terrors and the like. Let me tell you about the few things I do recall.

The nighttime stories I do have seem to fall into three categories:

Random Nonsense

So here’s the scenario: I’m stuck in a post-apocalyptic world with a handful of other people. One of them is my second-favorite teacher from high school. One of them is a girl I sort of had a crush on in seventh grade. One of them is a talking dog. All of us end up at an abandoned Walmart. You might think that this is building toward something exciting, but it’s not. The rest of the dream is spent living a normal life inside of that Walmart, using the bevy of food, clothing and housing supplies to maintain a sense of regularity in a dreary world.

Scenario 2: I’m stuck inside on an overcast day as raindrops pitter patter against the windowsill. The difference is that instead of being at some place I’ve actually lived at some point in my life, I’m at a school I visited once to make a speech about something or other. Eventually everyone gets to go outside for recess, but the playground sand is buried in water, the swings have become rusted and fallen over, and all the lines on the blacktop for four square have been erased. Instead, the kids reenact some Lord of the Flies situation, and I’m forced to kill these nameless students when they try to eat my elbow. And the rain eventually changes from water to kittens.

I’m sure there’s some great meaning behind these, but I don’t care to figure it out.

Recurring Situations

I wouldn’t call these nightmares, necessarily. It’s more like…drudging up bad memories. You know, like the day you were told your parents were divorcing. The day you found out your sister didn’t make it home from the hospital. Nothing bizarre happens in these things like falling off a cliff endlessly or being chased by a giant monster, just regular old situations.

Another example is the not-so-bad stuff. For example, one dream I know I have over and over is of a trip my family took to Buffalo when I was like 15 or so. There was an NES with RC Pro-Am in one of the side rooms that I played with cousins I barely knew. There was a hockey goal in the driveway that I slipped on goalie pads and stopped shots in front of. There was a lot of Pokemon Gold on a brand new Game Boy Color, just to pass the time in awkward situations. There was a marathon Diamondbacks game against the Giants that we won in like 18 innings — and I stayed up the watch the updates.

I guess these could tie in to that great memory I talked about earlier — maybe it just pulls up things I wouldn’t (or try not to) think about otherwise.

Advance Deja Vu

I’m sure some of you have had these dreams too. Remember those times in your life when you’ve gotten to a particular situation and thought “man, I’ve seen this before somewhere”? Then you realize it feels like a dream you had once.

For me, this usually manifests itself in a certain snapshot of a place or thing that I’m doing. I think the first example I remember was in eighth grade. We had spare time to read an assigned book for a project, and as I turned my head to scan the room, suddenly a specific angle clicked. I knew I had seen it before, and some details popped out in a way that they otherwise would not have.

These are actually kinda cool, I have to admit. And yes, I know some folks say these situations are just tricks your mind plays on you, that you go back and insert that moment into some boring, milquetoast, vague dream from your past and that you aren’t actually seeing the future.

I say the hell with that. I’m psychic in a limited capacity and in a way that will never be useful to anyone. But…I’m psychic.

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I’ve never been too upset about missing out on the cool dreams folks seem to have. Part of me accepts that I’m different. Part of me is too grounded in reality to accept super crazy dreams anyway.

…Although it would be kinda neat to be an astronaut someday.