Chased into a Parking Garage

Deniz, one of the members of my dissertation committee, chased me into a parking garage next to the airport.  If caught, I was done for – so I ran.  I found a set of elevators and hit the button to head to ground level.  I could hear her approaching; slow, purposeful steps were coming toward me.  The doors opened, and I slipped inside, pressing the button far more rapidly than would do any good.  The doors closed, and a few moments later, opened on the next level.  I hadn’t made it twenty feet toward grass and sunlight outside when I heard a noise and turned around to see her staring straight at me, ready to attack.  Coated in sweat, I opened my eyes.

Yes, that’s right – this is the tail end of a dream that I had last night.  That is certainly better than it reflecting a real situation, but it is still not a dream that I prefer to have.  I am guessing that it is the combination of 1) working on my dissertation 8-10 hours each day for the past week or so and 2) reading Jim Butcher’s The Dresden Files, which is light fantasy describing a wizard detective in modern Chicago.  Dresden gets chased a lot.  As apparently do I.

Some people try to interpret their dreams.  I suppose such people would say that this dream somehow reflects my beliefs about massive impending deadlines and nearing dissection of my dissertation by my committee followed by a two-hour cross-examination to see if I really know as much as I am supposed to know, and if I don’t, that there’s nothing I can do about it at this point, and my entire life and career would come crashing down, and I would likely have to work in a Wendy’s.  Good thing I don’t believe in interpreting dreams, eh?