National Park

It's early, so forgive me if my grammar goes astray.

I've had women tell me (and I've read it, too) that when they were pregnant, their dreams became more intense. I've always been a dreamer (long, epic dreams or short, action-packed sequences), so most of the time I haven't noticed much of a difference. Two or three times I have had dreams that were more extreme than usual, so I have no doubt some women have dreams like those throughout their pregnancies.

I do have one, um, unexplainable, reoccurring dream that I've had for months now, which is why I'm awake now. The dream only comes once every month or two, and if this is any testament to the oddness of it (or my own blandness?), it's about a ... national park. OK, no sniggers!

Really, though. The first two times I dreamt of this park (I've dreamt of it about eight times now), I was already inside of the park. Something sinister went down (apparently a group of us were being forced to look for something), and the following dream was more of the same. After the first three or four dreams, the setup was different: I was no longer inside the park, but trying to get in. Here's where things get irritating. The first time I tried to get into the park, I took a route through a small, beat-up town. Halfway down the main road leading to the park, I woke up. The next time I dreamt of the park, the same thing happened except I noticed the town had grown, as if years had passed. When I explained my dream to a friend later I said, "Yeah, the town seems to be moving on up. They've got more restaurants, a movie theater, a Day's Inn ..." Then I realized I was talking about a piece of mental real estate.

The last two dreams were a tease. I had a map, finally, and was able to read one street name: Polo. So, of course, in my dream I headed straight to the main entrance, and again, I woke up before getting there (the town is continuing to bustle, by the way--there's even a posh new hotel). Last night, I dreamt that I had a more detailed map. I saw another street name (Ulta?), and I visited the town square where a bunch of school kids were putting on a performance about the town's history. When I woke up, I drew the town square. I can't remember most of the map, though, so that's a loss.

The only way I can comfort myself that I'm not nuts is this: clearly, this is Nature's doing. This is Nature's way of letting me know that someday my child will have a successful career of the agricultural or forestry sort, like a park ranger. Yes, park ranger. This makes sense, and I should've seen it before. Thankfully, I've already purchased several boxes of Girl Scout cookies this month, so I'm already supporting the industry.