I’m the kind of person who, for the most part, can’t remember her dreams at night. Or if I do, it’s immediately after I wake up, and then an hour later I can’t remember them.

I’ve never really had a recurring dream; the only thing I guess that came sort of close was that anytime I was running in a dream, it felt like I was running on all fours, like a dog. I know that sounds weird—most dreams are anyway—but the running would feel super slow and like I was running on four “legs” instead of two.

But for the past 6 to 8 months, I’ve been having a recurring dream about once a month.

It always takes place at and involves the ice cream shop where I worked for 11 years—before I retired in June 2021. It was my first job in high school and I continued working there until I bought my condo, so it’s safe to say it’s been a big part of my life. I’ve gone back a handful of times to get ice cream since retirement, and it’s located across the street from where I grocery shop now, so I still see the building and keep in touch with some of the girls I worked with. So it’s not like I completely cut ties with the place.

But I haven’t actually worked there in a year and a half, and it keeps invading my dreams. I’ve noticed the dreams happen about once a month, and I’m writing this post now because I had a dream happen the other night again. There are always a few things that happen in the dreams:

1. It’s usually not the physical place it is now but in the dream, I know it’s the shop. Meaning it physically looks different but when I go, I know that’s where I am.

2. Sometimes I go there to work a shift and sometimes I go there to visit. Both of these would happen when I worked there: obviously, I’d go there to work a 5 hour shift, but other times, if I was out running errands, I would sometimes stop by to see the girls who were working there at the time. So neither is strange in the dream, but it’s always one of those two options.

Nothing bad ever happens in the dreams, not like something traumatic or some natural disaster hits. It’s usually just that I’m there in whatever space my brain deems is the shop, sometimes I work, and sometimes I just visit. I do remember in one dream that I went there to work but no one was giving me shifts, like I showed up ready to work and everyone was ignoring me. As for the physical space, nothing really looks like the shop does now; sometimes it’s a lot bigger or sometimes it’s just in a weird shaped building. But my brain just knows it’s the shop. And none of the other employees in the dreams look like the girls I worked with, they’re just random people who are there working.

I don’t know much about dreams in general, and I don’t know what this recurring dream means. My best guess is that it was such a big part of my life and my brain just likes to revisit it at night while I’m sleeping.

A super weird fun fact about my very last shift there is that was the same night Josh first messaged me on Hinge a few days after I had originally liked a picture on his profile. So he never got to visit me while I was working there. We’ve gone together to get ice cream now, but I never got to serve him, which I think he wishes happened. Maybe I’ll sign a one-day contract like athletes do with their old teams, I’ll go work a fake shift, and make Josh a sundae.

I’m sure there are much worse recurring dreams I could have, so I’m glad my brain has picked this. Let’s see what next month’s dream is like.

Do you have any recurring dreams? Are they weird, scary, or just don’t make sense?