I will try not to post too often as I dream every night and usually can figure out what is going on.  This dream though has got me baffled.  It was very vivid and I had real gut feelings during the dream.

I was in an abandoned school- a really big one, with my husband and some people that were strange to me.  Someone my husband and I knew showed us a way to get to an area that had been closed off years ago by cutting through some thick drywall with a saw.  There were really long white halls with very sunny classrooms even though the windows were closed off with duct tape.  We started looting what was left in the classrooms since it was abandoned and had been for a very long time.  As we were going through, I found all sorts of things I thought I needed for the boys.  I could not carry it all, and I had a nagging sense that taking it was wrong.  I kept a hiking pack, a tricycle, and a collection of Easton Press leather bound books.

Outside the classroom was a ladies book club group meeting in another room.  We were surprised to see them as it was supposed to be abandoned.  They were old women and we wondered if they had been locked in and just decided not to leave.  Just then the fire alarm went off and we all had to leave- forgoing all but what fit into our backpack.  I know it was the fire alarm and not a security bell because the fire bell was dinging.

I was suddenly in the fire department I used to work at and I couldn’t find my bunker gear.  The building felt much larger than it actually was in my dream.  It was a cold, icy, sunny day and it may have snowed a few days prior.  I finally found my bunker gear outside slightly buried in the snow, and went over to get it.  I was embarrassed because I had left my gear outside and everyone knew I was the one who had forgotten it.  As I walked that way, my ex boyfriend Chris (who I have never been able to fall out of love with for oh-7 years)  pulled up with his mom and dad in the car.  The parents looked at me funny, but Chris smiled at me and handed me a bright red shirt that used to be mine.  I asked him if I would see him soon and he said yes.  His car had no doors and was rusty.  His father looked old and frail and his mom looked pretty, though older.  He drove off.  The firefighters asked who he was.
I woke up feeling confused

I appreciate any insight you can give me!  The dream had a lot of parts and I'm not sure which was the most important.
Thanks!

Although the dream is very busy and detailed about the abandoned school, scavenging things left behind and what you can carry, but weren't important when the fire alarms went off, the elderly women who didn't belong that you felt were possibly locked in and your sense of duty as a fire officer to take care of the building, yet your gear was out in the cold, buried in the snow and you ran into your ex, his parents disapproval and he returned a red shirt to you.

It's pretty cut and dry as convoluted as it may appear. Chris meant something to you, he was a special part of your life that you left behind (his smile and the red shirt, red can resemble, love, passion, anger but the way you speak it was love and/or passion). Your sense of duty (an officer) is to your family, scavenging for your children. The people who your husband knew that you trusted and you know in your heart to trust your husband - to trust what you have now. The hallways represent the past, the doors that lead into the rooms facets of your life long gone and current. The embarrassment of leaving your gear outside in the snow could possibly represent some form of shame you feel for possibly looking back on occasion; the old women you felt were possibly left behind and locked in represent a part of your life you have left behind you but the memories are safely locked in your mind.

I think what this dream is telling you is that there is a special place for Chris in your heart, but you know that things are just the way they are supposed to be with your husband, and your children and you feel safe and fine with everything just as it is. It's possible this dream represents some form of guilt for looking back into the past and thinking of Chris on occasion, or it's very possible there is no guilt at all, you just like to go back and regale of the good ole days you had with Chris... and there is nothing wrong with that.  It's nice to have memories of people, events, or things that make you smile..

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