Anxiety About Water Parks

I know, completely random, right? I think I had a dream last night (featuring middle school peer Jose Gonzalez) about doing something that strangely resembled the "Der Stuka" ride at Wet and Wild Water Park in Orlando. This is a ride in which one stands at the top of a nearly vertical slide and waits for the bottom to drop out so he/she can go plummeting down the high, thin water-covered slide. In the random wanderings of my mind that happen at night when I'm half-awake, I thought about whether that ride was really safe or not, and how our parents would let us go to Wet and Wild all the time when we were pre-teens and not only go on rides like that, but wander around by ourselves with our friends. I couldn't imagine myself being comfortable letting Evie go to crowded places like that without my supervision. But I also look back on those times with great fondness as a happy, free time. I think we benefited in many ways from the independence we were allowed - whether it was walking to school, staying home after school and over summers as "latchkey" kids, hanging out at friends' houses after school with little or no parental supervision, or being let to roam free at theme parks or malls. I'm not sure if the times have really changed that much, or if my parents felt more at ease with these things then than I do now. I think it's a normal and healthy part of adolescent development to be allowed increasing freedoms during the pre-teen and teenage years, but is there too much risk now?

I know I have a while before Evie (et al?) gets to that age, but it's fun to think of how we'll be as parents and what she'll be like as a little girl, teenager, and young woman.

Wait, back to my dream...does this mean that I feel like I'm plummeting in some area of my life? If it's of any consequence, I was set up to slide down the Der Stuka-like object as part of some competition that I didn't really choose to be in, and my partner (Jose) and I had to figure out the right way to do it. There was something involving holding a burning object in my hand as I went down (it hurt, but I did it!). Some figure like Michael Scott from The Office (but much more stern and threatening) was the judge of this competition. After a couple tries, we succeeded figuring out the right method to our task (whatever that really meant), and I could live. I'm not sure how to interpret this. Does this refer to the horrible job I feel like I'm doing at work now, but knowing that it's for a better purpose and that I'll have succeeded in the more important part of my life? Or the sometimes horrible job I feel like I'm doing with parenting, with the overall knowledge that I'm at least doing a decent job? Or is it purely a result of random, meaningless thoughts before I really dozed off? Do you analyze your dreams this much?

Signing off for now...more random thoughts later.