the Blah Blah Blahger

We ENFPs are a fun lot.

We are vivacious and outgoing, we’re idea people, we’re often the life of the party…and we’re highly susceptible to distraction. 

As many of my ENFP sisters and I have learned over time and through maturation, there are a number of ways we harness our inherent characteristics for good and minimize the ones that can get us into trouble.

As a successful professional, I am pretty confident with my work persona that I’ve cultivated over the last 15 years. However, there are areas of my personal life that don’t get the same disciplined treatment. (Please don’t ever look in my closets, cupboards, or under my bed.) 

About once every six months, I get on a healthy living kick. I learn about something new and I am SO PUMPED.

I buy new sports bras and leggings.

I download home workout planners from Pinterest.

I briefly consider buying something stupid like this:

I talk to my trainer about new things to focus on.

I set crazy goals.

I throw out all the crap in my fridge and then hit the Whole Foods.

I pin things like this assuming I’ll eat more veggies if they’re cute:

I’ll wear an exercise monitor under my clothes each day.

I’ll get on a roll until one day, I’m at a golf tournament and just five minutes after I’ve finished bragging to my foursome about my new fabulous ultra-healthy lifestyle, the stupid beverage cart girl comes around with world famous DoubleTree Hotel warm chocolate chip and walnut cookies.

And I’m all diet, what diet?!

Do you dream at night?

I do and have for as long as I can remember.

Now, I should tell you that my dreams are not prophetic or remarkable, so please don’t be misled.

No, my dreams are silly and weird and usually only funny to me.

Quite often, I awake with a jump to the reenk reenk reenk of my alarm clock and try to remember where I am. As soon as I wipe the sleep from my eyes and head towards the shower, I will stop and remember what nonsense was swimming around in my head just moments earlier.

• I am constantly falling off of a curb or slipping and falling in public. These are the nights when I am twitchy and awake feeling less than rested.
• Sometimes I fight with friends or coworkers about things that would NEVER happen. Many years ago, while working in Congress, I dreamed that we had a kitchen in our legislative office and my director was yelling at me for making macaroni and cheese the wrong way.
• I never see the future in my dreams, unless they involve me marrying a handsome movie star who was in a film I’d just seen the night before. I’m sure Jeremy Renner and I will live happily ever after.
• Sometimes I dream in cartoon. My sister recently reminded me that I once dreamed of cartoon penises. I’m sure this has something to do with the herbal scents all around me at the Dave Matthews concert that night.

Friends of mine have prophetic dreams that are SO CLEAR no interpretation is required. Others have dreams about fights with their husbands that are so real, it takes hours before letting their grudges go! Some tell me they’ve NEVER recalled a single dream. How our minds work during our sleeping hours is boggling.

On Friday, knowing I’d be seeing a certain someone over the weekend who I often feel tension with, I had a pretty big dream. I was getting ready to lay down the law and tell her exactly how I felt. In my dream, I was furthering my angst by telling everyone else what I was planning to do. But then, when the moment of confrontation came, my mouth was FULL of toothpaste and I couldn’t speak. I took that as a sign to keep my trap shut. 

So, how about you? Do you dream? If so, do you ever consult dream dictionaries? One of my favorites is www.dreammoods.com – I’m sure it’s absolute bunk, but it sure is fun to figure out what all the goofiness could mean!