Walking on Sunshine

Ha...bet you never thought you'd see that title on my blog! Truth is, I'm feeling pretty good today and I'm enjoying the feeling. It's weird. It's raining and grey and icky. But I'm in a good mood. Here's why:

1) I had an awesome dream last night. This dream not only counteracted one of my most common anxiety dreams but it was just nice to be cared for, if only in my dreams.
The anxiety dream I have on a regular basis is one where I'm trying desperately to unlock the combination lock on my locker. And I can't. And I'm late for school. Or maybe have totally blown off taking classes and earned an F. Repeatedly. You get the picture. It's not like a monster is necessarily chasing me and I'm terrified, it's just constant irritation and worry about forgetting things that I shouldn't forget.
This week, I've told at least two different people about that dream (more on that later) so it didn't surprise me one bit that it came back to me. The surprise was what happened when I was inside the dream. Somehow, within the dream, something different happened. Someone actually cared enough to help.
The dream always takes place within a high school-type of place, although sometimes it morphs to a college scene. That's where I'm forgetting to go to class and failing repeatedly. So I'm there, in my high school place, not able to open my locker and I go to class, where the teacher asks me where my book is. I told her that LAST YEAR (how this makes sense, I do not know), I put it in my backpack, my backpack into my locker (in a lonely, deserted part of the school), and now I can't open the lock. The teacher sent me to the office where I explained my plight to a couple of sympathetic secretaries. One of them had me pinpoint where my locker was (couldn't remember the number), and sent someone down to open it. Simple, right? It was! They brought back my blue Jansport backpack full of books and they'd even cleaned out the nasty remains of whatever lunch I'd had in there for 6 months as well. In the dream, I felt gratitude and thanked the people who helped, then went off to class. But when I woke up, shazam!
Probably I shouldn't be so excited about this, but I am. It is rare that I have a dream that does not hurt a lot in some way. Last week I was dreaming a lot about my friend Cherylyn. I'd wake up, realize she was gone, then be sunk in a funk again. So, not only did I have a good dream but I had one that, in a sense, counteracted one of my common anxiety dreams. I was more than grateful when I was awake. I was excited, happy, and grateful. Yay!

2) What I forgot to mention last week was that I joined a gym. I haven't been to a gym in I don't know how long. Twenty years, maybe? But hey, I'm old and obese and the gym was relatively cheap. Friend Husband was all excited. I got the membership where I can bring random people with me so Friend Husband has been with me once. I'm hoping that others in the fam will go too.
So I went to the gym 3 times this week, just to walk on the treadmills. I got up early this morning and went before I came to the library. And I sweated and got my pulse rate up and enjoyed it no end. No kidding! Me, the Anti-Exercise Poster Girl. I didn't enjoy it the whole time, but by the time I'd left, I was loving it. And I noticed that, when I was shelving books this morning, I was almost euphoric AND more energetic. So. Weird.

Oh, about the locks. (I mentioned earlier that I'd explain about the locks.) I had to buy locks for the lockers at the gym. I purposely bought key locks because of those dreams about being locked out by a combination lock. And I mentioned that dream to a few people last week as well as the fact that I bought keyed locks instead of combination. Aren't you glad I remembered that bit of info?

So, not only did I have a great dream, got up and exercised, and finished my stint at the library, I EVEN REMEMBERED WHAT I WANTED TO BLOG ABOUT! It's definitely a red-letter day here, in Lori-land. Hope it is for you too.