Analyze This

So the elevator dreams...
Some things are almost always the same: I'm with someone I know. The building is always dorm-like. I'm not necessarily in college, but we're in a dorm. We get separated, and I always end up riding the elevator (up, always ride the elevator up) to our destination by myself. There may be other people in the elevator, but not the person I'm supposed to be with.

In this latest dream, I am with a friend and we are heading to the 4th floor of a dorm (room 415 to be exact) to move our stuff in. We're not college students, but we are going to live in this room with some people I work with. My friend is carrying a, uh, well, a swimming pool. One of those great big above ground jobbies - 4 feet deep and maybe 24 feet across when assembled. The pool now, though, is all folded up and in a big box about the size of a stove. The box is old and worn and bulging - the pool wasn't boxed up very neatly. My friend is struggling with the box, and I'm not carrying anything. I ask several times if I can help her, but she always says no.

"But what you CAN do," she says, "is run upstairs and make sure we have the right room. I don't want to have to carry this box back down."

So I go check room 415. I don't ride the elevator yet. In the dream, I'm just suddenly there, and yes, it's the right room. Back to my friend on the first floor, tell her that yes, the room is ours, and yes, it's ready to go. We head to the elevator.

When the doors open, we aren't able to manuever the big box into the elevator quick enough. The doors closed before we get on.

I suggest we walk up the steps to the next floor and catch the elevator there.

Same thing happens on the second floor - still can't get it together enough to get in the elevator.

I suggest we try it again on the third floor. "No" she says, "I'm tired of wasting time trying to get on the elevator, I'm going to just walk up to the fourth floor."

So I go to the third floor elevator alone. When the doors open, I step right on with no problems. Just as the doors are closing I think, "Well this is stupid. I've already walked up three flights of stairs, I might as well have just walked the final flight. How silly to ride the elevator for just one floor."

But I did.

Then I headed to room 415 and waited for my friend and the pool.

Strange. Very strange.