Dishonesty in a dream

First, though, was the dream of the live-in cooking class. I was preparing dinner for the instructor, something with some simply seasoned pork chops, which were ready and looking succulent when the instructor came in, but I couldn't figure out what else was going to be on the menu. There was some sort of bread that was going to serve as an emergency side. Finally I grabbed what I thought was a can of corn, but it turned out to be a can of baked beans instead. The instructor grabbed a can of some sort of bacon product that he said would make this into the best bean side dish ever, and for some reason wasn't going to dock my grade for my lack of planning or execution.

The next dream had enough reality in it to really disturb me. I way overslept, as I hadn't been able to get to sleep because my legs were way tired from a bike ride (which was actually the case again last night). It was a Thursday, and because I'd already spoken to my boss (m.n.) about a similar problem the previous week, I felt like I couldn't just tell him the truth about why I was so terribly late as it would show that I don't learn from my mistakes. So, being the terrible liar that I am (in real life), when I called him I muttered something about Chicago rather than tell the truth. Then I felt awful about having lied to him, especially as he is a friend, too. When I got to work on what seemed in my dream to be the next day, my manager was in town, too, and it was clear that he knew I had lied and was going to give me enough rope to hang myself when he asked me what I'd had to go to Chicago for. In the absence of a real reason, I basically hemmed and hawed something about a family issue. A short while later my boss approached me to follow up, explaining that my manager wanted more information. I knew my job was on the line, and fabricated that my former son-in-law had applied for custody of my grandson and that we'd suddenly had to go up for a hearing. I tried to head off any further inquiries by explaining that we were still waiting to hear the results. My boss was skeptical, and insisted that he thought he'd heard the sound of golf balls being struck in the background of my phone call. Still, he let it go. Next we had a work dinner, and I was sitting next to my manager, who asked me again how Chicago had been. We were eating the food from my earlier dream, and in a completely irrelevant detail, the table for twelve had one empty seat from a missing coworker. We finished the meal and returned to work, but soon my friend Herb came and took me to an unoccupied room in the house in which we were working to confront me about my dishonesty. His grandson Jesse worked at the golf course, and had told him how much fun he'd had hitting golf balls with me. I was sure I hadn't been golfing when I'd lied about my absence, so now I was extremely confused. I was guilty, but not of what I was being accused of being guilty of, but now I couldn't remember why I'd really been absent and began to think that maybe I had been golfing. Herb was very upset about my lack of integrity, but didn't insist on an honest answer from me. When I got back to my work/dorm room that I was sharing with my manager, I reclaimed my bunk which I hadn't been sleeping in. I looked at a clock and was surprised to see that it was 2:30 pm on Thursday; no wonder no one believed I'd been to Chicago and back! A short time later he came in and asked me if I'd at least made any progress on the hats I was supposed to have been ordering. I had completely forgotten about this task, but I re-briefed him on my previous progress rather than admit that I'd dropped the ball, and picked up where I'd left off on that project.

I can't explain what a disorienting wake up I had this morning after this dream. I felt really disturbed and upset, as if my dream had been real. My body still hasn't returned back to normal, though I'm not sure how much of that is because I am so tired from my poor night's sleep.