Waking with a start, I immediately stare at my right hand. The spot just above the thumb joint at the curve to the fingers is BURNING. Burning all the way to my wrist. Burning with the venom of a rattle snake that just nipped me six or seven times in that spot.

OMG!

A rattlesnake that nips. Venom that burns. This should clue you in to the weirdness of the dream, played out in living color detail, both equal parts horrifying, and bizarre.

The star player of this nightmare – a rattlesnake.

Truthfully, he didn’t start out as the bad guy. In the beginning of the dream, he is sleeping peacefully coiled in a basket on the bar. Someone with me (not sure who) decides to pick it up. So, he grabs at it (yes HE) and was immediately struck down. I, in my dream, as some kind of fearless snake whisperer, went for the snake in order to protect my nameless, faceless idiot-who-pisses-off-sleeping-rattlesnakes friend from death.

We danced.

I swerved.

He dodged.

The snake and I faced off in the arena like The Hunger Games.

I had moves like Jagger, but in the end?

He is a rattlesnake.

And this rattlesnake wraps itself around my arm sinking its fangs, ever so gently, into the soft skin of my hand over and over.

Like a vampire’s love bite.

And it BURNED.

I’m not sure what happened to the snake after that, maybe I blacked out, and it slithered away. Regardless, it was no where in sight, and I staggered around the bar stools holding my injured arm in need of immediate medical attention. It just so happens a doctor/nurse is on standby (at the bar?) with a handy antidote for deadly venom.

Yay!

I waited while they prepped and opened all the medical stuff like they do. The waiting was a killer (heh)…. my fear began quickly rising, almost as fast as my hand grew terribly numb. Then the doc/nurse started to cut, with tiny little scissors, all the places between the fang marks (WTH?!). I am assuming to get more access to the venom? To keep it from spreading?

I don’t know.

All I know is the evil nurse/doctor turns to me with big smile plastered on her face as she laughingly tells me. They had NO idea the snake bit me SO MANY times, because, really? There just isn’t enough venom antidote to fix it.

THAT is when my eyes open to the hand that burns. Which is totally fine, and completely unmarked, but still very numb.

Rattlesnake – ONE
My hero dream self – ZERO

WEIRDEST. DREAM. EVER.

Apparently if you dream of rattlesnakes, and specifically getting bitten by rattlesnakes, you are awakening to something inside yourself that needs attention. I don’t know how true all the stuff about dream interpretation is, but I found it very interesting. Then, I found some incredible photos my husband took of one at the San Diego Zoo last summer (awesome job honey!).

Do you have dreams like this? What is the weirdest thing you have ever dreamed about?