Don't pinch me - I must be sleeping

My dreams are sometimes short, because I have a terrible time sleeping many nights, but often my dreams are vivid, and some are reccurring.

Last night, I had a most unusual -- and quite humorous -- dream. I had been invited to have dinner by an active member of our local community. Upon arriving at the lovely home, I immediately felt comfortable with the warm family, while the wonderful smell of homemade country food lingered in the background.

All was well as we nibbled on appetizers while waiting for the special Easter dinner comprised of ham, asparagus and potatoes to be served.

And then, it happened. The family's pet chimpanzee made his grand entrance into the kitchen. He was large -- very large, standing at about six feet tall. He wore clothes, spoke English, and seemed as if he was just another one of this woman's sons.

Although Charlie the chimp was friendly in every way, I was terrified that things would turn ugly at any given moment. I am a huge animal lover, and I remember feeling frustrated with myself because I could not overcome my nervousness.

In light of a national story in recent months about a friendly chimp gone bad, I could easily interpret this dream, but still find it funny and absurd as to why this chimp showed up at this particular family's house.

The only reasoning I can find for that is, as part of our new food section in lifestyles, we are thinking about doing a monthly piece called, "Dinner with Sadie," where I go to an ordinary person's home, eat dinner with them, and find "their" story -- because everybody has one!

Most of my dreams, or at least the ones I remember, I can link to some form of fear, regret or timely event in my life.

One dream I have at least a few times a year is about horses as they relate to my childhood. When I was a teenager, I showed Morgan horses in the Northeast. One year, in the mid-1990s, paired with a seasoned horse of my dreams, I was having the season of my life. I had won at regional shows all summer long. In October, we showed at the national championships in Oklahoma City, Okla.

When our championship class was over, I felt confident that we had won or gotten second in the class. But when the announcer called out another rider's number, twice, I was devastated.

Of course, I got over this, and as an adult looking back on the experience, I am proud to have gotten third place. The experience also taught me that, sometimes no matter how hard you try and how good you are, there's always going to be someone that's better than you. If you can do your personal best and try not to compare yourself too much to others, you'll be a much happier, healthier person.

Anyway, I still dream about that riding class. Every time, I'm trying harder and harder to ride better, harder, and win that class. Did I say I was over that experience?

Another dream that I can easily justify is my frequent dreams about flying on airplanes. Because this is more of a general dream that many people experience, I can research the potential meaning of this dream, to find answers (although my serious fear of flying pretty much gave it all away before I even clicked Google).

I went to Google anyway, and learned that a flying dream is "supposedly" a good dream, and a lucid dream, a dream state in which we are aware we are dreaming and can manipulate the outcome of the dream.

My flying dreams are scary and stressful, but, coinciding with the above analysis, we always manage to survive and, oftentimes, even land the plane.

According to one web site, "Once in a while, a flying dream will not go so well, such as when you can't take off or you lose altitude or something is in your path and you can't fly past or through it. These dreams tell us that we are frustrated or feel burdened, or that we are not confident in our abilities. In these cases, re-evaluate your goals and find ways around anything that may be hampering your progress.

"Having said that, interpretation of flying dreams is fairly simple. Something is generally going RIGHT in our lives! Occasionally, we may be flying to avoid something, but the flying in and of itself is still an enjoyable dream activity, and the WAY we do it may tell us more about ourselves than the actual flying."

Enjoyable? Not unless enjoyable means waking up with a racing heart and sweaty body!

But, even scary or sad dreams have some good to go along with them for me, an insomniac most of the time. If I'm dreaming, I'm sleeping. And that, my friends, is a very good thing!

Sweet dreams!

-- Sadie Fowler is lifestyles editor at the Times-Gazette. Her column, Sadie Says, runs every Sunday. She may be reached at sfowler@t-g.com or 684-1200 ext. 214.