two nightmares, one theme

I had a nightmare last night--my second that involved my roomie moving out.

For background my roomie and I got our first apartment together in college. After she graduated, we both moved back to our parents' homes. A few months later I moved in with another high school friend, Scooter. Six months later Scooter moved across the hall with her boyfriend and my roomie returned to me. A few months after that, Scooter and her boyfriend to Minneapolis. And they're the ones getting married this weekend. OK, now that that's out of the way, here we go.

So in the first nightmare, my roomie had to move out because my Scooter showed up wanting to move back in. We let her because all of her stuff was there, packed away in boxes that made up side tables and hidden away under beds. So my roomie goes off and finds this cute single apartment (of which I'm jealous but worry about her being able to make the rent).

Scooter begins unpacking groceries in a bedroom and putting the stuff away in the drawers and closet. I start to explain that my roomie had reorganized everything while she was gone and that we now keep food items in the kitchen. But that thought seems to fall on deaf ears. (Side note: When Scooter and I lived together, She kept most of the food items in the "pantry," which was a closet in the living room.)

Now, I wasn't sad to be living with Scooter again. It wasn't bad living with her the first time around. But I was going to really miss my roomie. After living with someone as long as we have, things are just understood, easy, and right.

For some reason, in this part of my dream, I was transplanted to a hotel/resort/casino where my parents were with my aunt, uncle, and cousins. They were about to leave and go to a movie. It was about midnight. That's when it dawned on me that Scooter was getting married in a week. There was no need for my roomie to move out! But, oh no, she'd probably already signed the lease on the new place. What would I do? Not only would I be without my roomie, but in a week I'd be without a roommate period. I couldn't afford that apartment on my own. And who would I find to live with me?

The dream degrades at this point. I make mad attempts to call my roomie, but my speed dial doesn't work, all the phone numbers disappear from my phone, and, in horror, I realize I'm trying to make the call in my underwear on the front step.

In the second dream, my roomie and I are over at a friend's house with a bunch of people. While we're eating, my roomie casually mentions that she's thinking of where she'd like to live next. I'm all confused. She looks at me with fake pity and says something to the effect of, "You didn't think I'd be your roommate forever, did you?" I asked her when she was thinking of making this change. She told me that this wasn't the time or place to discuss it. But that she'd be staying until the lease was up.

"But it's up in November," I practically whined.

"So, that's more than enough time to make plans," she replied. "Look there's no need for you to get all teary and blubbery over this.

And I was devastated. Then the rainstorm out side woke me. And I felt a terrible need to clean. Maybe she won't leave me if I'm cleaner. She loves a clean apartment, and I'm so messy.

I know all this sounds a little bit pitiful. But lets think back to that Buffy episode we just watched. Aren’t we all a little bit pitiful in our nightmares?