Sweet Lady Don't Lose that Number

Songs about the Phone & Dialing

"867-5309 (Jenny)" - Tommy Tutone
"Hanging on the Telephone" - Blondie
"Call Me" - Blondie (they were into phones, apparently)
"Baby, Don't Forget My Number" - Milli Vanilli
"Rikki Don't Lose That Number" - Steely Dan
"Love on the Telephone" - Foreigner
"Why Didn't You Call Me" - Macy Gray
"Call Tyrone" - Erykah Badu (one of my favorites)
"How Come You Don't Call Me"- Alicia Keys

I have a recurring dream that has plagued me since I was very young. I can tell it has accompanied me through many years because I'm old enough to have seen telephone technology change quite a bit. I dream that I need desperately to call someone, or I just really want to call someone (it's not always an emergency), and I can't.

I either can't remember the number once it's given to me and I keep needing to ask, or I know the number and am struggling to remember. I know I've had one that includes a rotary phone way back when. Often, I misdial. I can't get through the number all the way without messing up. Last night, I had another one.

This is the first iPhone one I've had. In it, I am looking for a name, not a number, since you search via name in your contacts list. I can't find the name and I get really frustrated because I know it should be in there.It's a strange name that isn't easy to remember (I can't remember what the name is now, but in the dream I knew what I was looking for). This particular dream was of me in an alternate universe of some kind where I have a house all to myself because my parents are moving to another, better, bigger house. I want to call someone to come hang out, but I can't.

I've thought about this dream a lot, since I have it a lot. There are a few variations on it that are pretty popular. Not remembering your locker combination, not remembering your own phone number. But a lot of people have my dream. Yes, even my dreams are unoriginal...

A cursory internet search yields a few answers:

Random people on Yahoo! Answers claim it happens when you are low in confidence and having feelings of helplessness. That dialing a number is a goal, that you are goal-seeking and yet unsuccessful.

The Universal Dream Key: The Twelve Most Common Dream Themes Around the World by Patricia Garfield Says "Telephone malfunction in your dream = miscommunication in waking life." She claims it happens when you are having trouble communicating with someone in your waking life, given that telephones are symbols of communication.

The Curious Dreamer, an online dream analysis site, says that misdialing dreams can be about a number of things:

• You're feeling frustrated in communicating something (a message, a need, etc.)
• You're isolated or cut off from others
• You feel the need to reach out or ask for help
• Your subconscious mind is imagining a worst-case scenario based on a fear of needing help and not being able to get it

I think dream interpretation is interesting. Symbols are often shared in a culture, so it makes sense that there is something generic about dreams, but sometimes individuals have specific associations with things. It can make analysis tricky. This dream has been with me longer than my understanding of semiotics or even the most basic literary symbolism.

Also, I am feeling sick and so last night's dream coincided with a nice pair of Nyquil gel caps.

Since I've had it so long, I wonder what it's about. I don't feel isolated or in need of help, particularly. I'm not shy about communicating my needs. Maybe it's got something to do with the dissertation or the big move coming up? Whatever it is, you don't exactly wake up refreshed.

Dreams should be about places I can't afford to visit, like Tahiti. Or about reliving my 7 year-old experience with a slip and slide on a hot summer day. About a never ending snowball fight where I never get cold. Instead, I have crap dreams about dialing a number and never making the call. WTF? Once I had a dream about doing my laundry. And then I woke up and I still had a big pile to do! I count that last one as some sort of hex or voodoo curse, because there was really no need for that.

Do you have recurring dreams? What are they?