dreaming of zombies (and U2)

I often dream of zombies, though these dreams rarely are what I'd call nightmares, as the zombies always turn out to be not much of a problem.

For example, once I dreamed that I turned on the television and found that zombies were on the loose, but I suddenly remembered that ordinary household salt would instantly dissolve them, and it turned out that our entire pantry was full of salt. I made a circle of salt around the house and filled some squirt guns with salt water, and then I sat down to watch some Law & Order (funny how detailed these dreams sometimes are), knowing that I was perfectly safe inside, and that I could always take a squirt gun out if I needed to buy a few ingredients for dinner.

This time, I dreamed that the world was pretty much taken over by zombies, except that Karen and I had taken up residence in a huge house on a massive estate, and all of our friends and lots of other interesting people were there. We had a garden and some cows for milk, solar-powered generators that could supply electricity indefinitely, and generally were having a good time of it, as the very extensive grounds (there were woods and fields and lakes) of the estate were surrounded by a simple chain-link fence, which was more than enough to deter the zombies. Occasionally, we'd picnic on a hill from which we could see the zombies congregating beyond the fence, and then something else would catch their interest and they'd move on. I remember thinking how peaceful and pastoral even congregating zombies could look from a distance as I poured myself another glass of Chardonnay (which I don't drink very often -- was that supposed to be the nightmare part?).

The other dream from last night that I remember was that U2 were playing on the grounds of a university. I didn't have tickets, but I wandered up to the arena just to see if I could get in, and they just let me in, so I wandered up to the best seats to see if I could get there, and nobody objected, so it looked like I'd be able to stand right next to the stage in any spot I chose. I remembered that I was carrying my guitar, and that I probably wouldn't be allowed to have it with me during the concert, so I was trying to decide whether I should go back to my car to put it in the trunk, taking the risk that I wouldn't be able to get back in. I had just about decided to stay where I was and risk that I'd be told I had to go back to put away my guitar, but I didn't feel all that concerned about it, since: a) I was going to see U2 twice on this tour already, and while this extra time was a nice surprise, I couldn't really complain if it didn't work out; and b) I was quite confident that nobody was going to be upset about the guitar, though it was going to be a bit of a pain having to carry it around the whole night.

But then the alarm went off. Karen said that she knew how the dream ended, and it was with Bono walking past and seeing me, and inviting me to stow the guitar backstage in a safe place. Works for me, though my fantasy ending would probably involve being asked to jam with the band as well (ah, those Joshua Tree tour days, when an audience member would be pulled up on stage to play guitar on "Knockin' on Heaven's Door" ...).

U2 have been showing up a lot in my dreams of late as well. I wonder whether one of these days there will be a crossover dream, in which I'm trying to get floor seats for a Madison Square Garden U2 show, but I'm not at all worried about it because my competition consists entirely of zombies who aren't so good with clicking their way through Ticketmaster sites, and because they dissolve when rock music plays.