searching.

I'm at a restaurant/food place of some sort, similar to McDonalds inside (people sitting at tables with trays of food, etc.). My Portland friends are at a table but I'm sitting at my own table across the restaurant, waiting on my food. My BFF comes in the restaurant and is here from California to visit me. However, he is with a loud and rowdy bunch of skateboarders, and all of them sit down at my table. I'm super excited to see BFF but also saddened that he is distracted by so many other people. I take BFF over to my Portland friends' table and introduce them, acutely aware that BFF is very tall and wearing glasses and I'm wondering how my PDX friends will interpret this, if they will be threatened by his tallness. After the introductions, BFF and I leave and go over to another table by ourselves, at which point I don't think we're in the restaurant anymore but somewhere else. We start looking through a shoebox filled with small circular things: quarters, buttons, magnets, other coins. We're looking for two small mirrors and won't be satisfied til we find them, although I don't remember why we need them for whatever we're doing, we just know we do. We're excited to find them because we're in the midst of some sort of project. I wake up while still searching.

So I thought this dream was interesting partially because its so weird and succinct but also because I looked up various meanings and most of them struck a chord with me. First of all, in real life my BFF is really coming to visit in about a month so I think this is about the anticipation of that and the apprehension that my friends will all get along and like each other. Dreamhawk.com said that searching for something "usually indicates an attempt to find: a past way of life - like wanting to have childhood lack of responsibilities; a lover from the past; trying to find an answer to a pressing problem; searching for ones identity or sense of value in a particular setting. Also it may indicate a feeling of having lost something - youth; sexual appeal; creativity; motivation." I think almost all of these apply to me right now, being on the brink of college graduation and longing for less responsibility, wondering where to go and what to do next; and because I'm most likely moving home I think this dream speaks to my wanting to find a past way of life but also my fear of falling back into old patterns and regressing. The mirror part supposedly symbolizes social restrictions that create distance, but that doesn't really mean anything to me. Also, I was trying to find something about circles but didn't really come up with much, so if anyone has ideas about that, please let me know!