Toothmares

I had a nightmare the other night, which I rarely have. My company is in the midst of consolidating its office space, and in my dream, all the cubicles were the size of milk crates, in neat, perfect, white rows. These clean rows, in the name of progress and efficiency and all that is streamlined, were too small and compressed. Somehow I realized the office was in my mouth, and all these rows of offices were really my teeth, and they were all too close and constricted even though they were perfectly aligned. I woke up, with my teeth hurting. (I must have been clenching them in my sleep.)

I looked up symbolism of teeth in dreams, and this is what I found online:

"Teeth" in the dream world are most often an archetypal image of the dreamer's sense of confidence and competence in the waking world. Dreaming that there is something amiss with my teeth usually points to insecurities about my ability to "get my teeth into it," or maybe I've "bitten off more than I can chew." Ironically, the very fact that you remember such a dream is a reliable indicator that the you, the dreamer, can deal creatively and transformatively with the problems that life presents. If this were not the case, you would not even have remembered the dream. All dreams (even nightmares!) come in the service of health and wholeness, and no dream ever came to anyone to say, "Nyah, nyah--you've got these problems and you can't do anything about them!" The more emotionally charged, or urgent the dream, the more likely that it points to a creative possibility previously hidden from the conscious mind, in response to a pressing waking life problem.

I feel that with these braces I experience on a daily basis the feelings of not being able to sink my teeth into the things I would like, as well as feeling like the whole process with these damn braces was biting off more than I can chew. (Ah, chewing! I can't wait until that no longer feels like a triumph.) I'm getting nervous, as I usually do, in the days before my next tightening (which will be Tuesday), and I want to be comforted and petted. I want salvation and deliverance. I want corned beef on rye.

Depending on where you get it, corned beef qualifies as a transformative way to deal with braces. Who's down with trying Mile End with me?