Dream: Tigers in the Merry-Go-Round

Dream 20040728, 1:15 AM:

Joanna is making a wedding dress for Tamara. It’s dark emerald green, which seems funny but fitting. There is a long train on the dress, and Joanna uses green tulle to make a wedding veil; it reminds me of the stuff I made caterpillar sleeves from, which tickles me. Somehow in the process of making it, the dress ends up being multiple colors of red, gold, and brown – mostly red and gold pattern brocaded sleeves, with a bodice in shades of brown. I get an outfit that is sort of Renaissance-esque, with long tippet sleeves. I remember walking down a street with both of them, and I’m doing all kinds of funny jester-like gymnastics, tumbling and prancing. Joanna asks why I am getting the sleeve-tips muddy; I explain that with sleeves as long as this, I just have to not worry about it much.

Then, I’m at an amusement park; it reminds me more of a RenFaire in style, but has rides like a theme park. In one ride, there are tigers (or cheetas? We call them tigers, but they’re lanky and thin like cheetahs) in a merry-go-round like place. It’s set up so that you go around and the cats appear to be in the same space with the people, but they’re separated by a glass or a screen. Then, they shift something, and the cats run through a space in the merry-go-round. It seems dangerous, but they’re clearly on a special path.

There’s a guy here that I’m seeing in some capacity – not sure if he’s a boyfriend, or if we’re just playing around, or what. He works for the park, running this ride. I am playing with him, we are just kind of fondling one another, and I end up somehow on the wrong side of the ride. The cats run through, right next to where I am, and I stand very still so they won’t attack me. He takes me into an area inside the ride that is full of tall grass; there’s a fence that I get behind, so I’ll be out of the way of the cats. There are a couple of dogs here; one of them is a very sweet spaniel-like dog with one blind eye, and she sits, then jumps up when I ask her to. Another dog, huge like a St. Bernard, comes up to me, and I do a trick with it by touching spots on the fence gate which the dog then touches with his nose. It’s funny, and I laugh. A big man comes in, and says that I have to go see their insurance agent, because I shouldn’t have gotten inside the enclosure. The guy I’m seeing is standing next to me, and a little girl calls me over. I’m wearing my cowboy hat. She tells me that she’s heard that I’m the cowboy, but *he’s* the girl… she giggles. I go back to him, and tell him that the little girl has a crush on him.

Then, I’m sitting on a hillside, the man is with me. He is tall and dark-haired. A little boy, who is sitting a ways away on a differnt spot of the hills, writes a note on a piece of paper, wads it up, throws it to me – it’s in Hebrew, and I read it and laugh. I tell the man with me that the boy has said something about him being dark and tall; the boy is teasing me about it. I write something, throw the note back. Seems that the boy is doing something different now, like building a sandcastle. He writes again, throws it back – now, it says something about how the rippling of the sun on the water makes him smile. The note makes my heart catch in my throat a bit, like it pushes an emotional button. I tell the man that I keep in touch with the boy by the thrown papers, and see how he’s doing. I feel good, very happy.