I had the most coiled dream

I dreamed I was at a public pool with a bunch of other people. It was raining torrentially and the water level was getting so high that we were trying to figure out how to drain some of the water. Somebody else in the pool told me there was a plane crash engineered by the IRA but I said I had a half-day and wasn’t refreshing CNN.com every minute so I missed the news.

As I was getting out of the pool, I almost stepped on a blue snake that was coiled on the top rung of the ladder. It looked almost like a ball. I swam away. Some guy in the pool picked up the snake and went to throw it at me. I asked him not to and told him I’m deathly afraid of snakes. I swam farther away and he threw the snake at me.

I woke up in a panic and could hear myself sort of whimper. I accidentally kicked the cat off the bed (sorry, Ororo). I not infrequently have these nightmares about snakes, which I’ve been terrified of since I was a kid. I’ll wake up and sort of forget where I am for a moment and thrash around and then settle down and forget it.

Steve and I were talking and are hoping whatever child we adopt, that the child is not interested in snakes or spiders. He can have pictures or something and that won’t bother me because I can avoid them. If he wants to go to the reptile house, someone else can take him and I’ll wait outside because I would prefer not having an embarrassing panic attack in public. Under no circumstances will we have a pet snake or spider in the house.

So I have this phobia and it’s annoying but I’m content never to get over it. I’m not afraid to leave the house or anything and it’s uncommon to see a snake in this part of the country, so it’s never an issue beyond the nightmares (I also don’t like looking at photos of snakes). This isn’t something I’m going to confront so I can be healed or any of that nonsense.