England

This was a very long and involved dream. I know that dreams are supposedly momentaneous (is that a word?), but this one seemed to consume the entire night. I will try to recall as many details as possible.

I flew to England with my parents and my sister (I think it was supposed to be Jackie, but it didn't really look like her and she seemed younger than me, but not). Anyway, we got to this very English looking hotel and were talking to the gal at the counter. She was saying that they didn't have our reservation and my dad was starting to get frustrated, but she was super friendly and said that she would take care of everything. So she checked us into a room. We were supposed to have 3 separate rooms for some reason, but they didn't have 3. Knowing, what I know about the tiny OLD hotels in England, I was worried that I would have to sleep on the dirty floor, so I asked her how the room was set up, like was there 2 beds and what size. She said, oh, no need to worry! This room is a 3 bedroom suite!

As we were making our way to the room, we went into this kind of dark stairwell that had very few windows. And the windows were up near the ceiling, so you couldn't really see outside. I kept asking my dad what time is it? I forgot to reset my watch on the airplane (which is something my dad is very adamant about when we travel. ALWAYS set your watch to local time while still on the plane ). They kept saying they didn't know, but that it was probably about 8 o'clock in the morning. Just then, I caught a glimpse of outside and it was dark. I said, you must have set your watch wrong, it must be 8 at night.

Then we got into the rental car (without going to the room) and drove through the English countryside for a long time. I was soaking it all in and didn't want to miss anything. It wasn't dark anymore and it was a beautiful day.

We arrived at this huge sprawling farm house. The property was very uneven and partially un-developed. The house seemed really old and piece-mealed (sp) together. My dad dropped me and my 4 kids off there (ya, they showed up somehow), and we were walking around the property trying to figure out if anyone was home. I knocked on the front door and there was no answer, but I could hear people moving around in the house. So went around to the back door and it was open, so we went in. The house was huge and not a traditional layout. There were long and short staircases everywhere that lead to different levels and rooms. Each bedroom had one or two of their kids in it. (Our friends in England have 10 children).

When Jean, the mom, came into the kitchen, she was so happy to see us! I felt disappointed, in the dream, because it didn't really feel like the welcome that I'd expected. I wanted to know where April (who is actually my cousin from Utah, but she was their daughter in this dream. Their daughter, Amy, is my age and who I am really close to) was. They said they weren't sure, but that Shannon (who?!) was in the bedroom. Shannon kind of resembled my friend Amy and all throughout the dream I kept forgetting her name. I chatted with Shannon for a few minutes, but then her punk looking boyfriend showed up and they went to her room and closed the door . So I went to some of the other rooms to chat with some of the other siblings. Brooke (Aprils sister, my other cousin from UT) was in one of the rooms and she was SO excited to see me. We talked for a long time and I told her that I was really excited to see April and that I was hoping she would've been there when I arrived. She said that April had been away a lot and that she hadn't been spending a lot of time with the family.

When April finally arrived, she was with her boyfriend. He was this blonde kid, with long-ish, kinda shaggy hair and was supposedly in a rock band. April was super stand-offish and was reluctant to talk to me (which we used to be really close and talk all the time). She told me that she had been gone for about 842 (LOL) days and only been home for a couple days here and there. She said that she had been touring with her bf's band. She looked super unhappy. I wanted her to talk to me, but her bf was hanging on her like a leach and I knew she wouldn't talk to me with him there. They left for a while and I was really upset. I went to talk to Shannon, but when I got to her room, I pulled back this curtain that was hung around her bed and she and her punk bf were half naked making out on the bed . So I left and went to find Brooke, but she wasn't there. I went outside by myself and was walking around on this kinda of terraced part of the yard. I could see a road and some huge trees and I was just wandering around thinking about everything that happened. I saw my kids playing in the yard and they kept saying HI MOM! HI MOMMY! But I wasn't really listening. I think I waved at them, but just kept walking.

My parents showed up and then we were all chatting with Jean. Then we were in the kitchen and the back door busts open and 4 of my siblings show up. Jackie and Jay came in first, then Megan and then Paula. I was so surprised. They were all laughing because they thought they were so funny trying to surprise me. I kept trying to go up to each one of them individually to whisper in their ear that Shannon was sleeping with her bf (???), but no one would listen, except for her older brother. When I told him, he flew into her room and started trying to fight with Shannon's bf tellling him not to disrespect his sister like that. (END)