Bad Dreams of Badminton

The other night had this amazingly strange dream. In it, I was playing 3-on-3 badminton with Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal. Nadal was on my team and Federer was on the other team. The rest of the players were female players but I can't remember who they were. We were playing on nets that were set up in an elementary school classroom.

So Federer hits the birdie to me, and as it sails over the net it goes wide, bounces off the wall and lands out of bounds. As it falls to the ground I consider hitting it, since it's within reach, but I opt to let it go out. The ref calls the point for our team, and Federer flips the eff out. "No way! That's completely unfair!" he shouts. "He could've hit it, but he chose not to! HE CHOSE NOT TO!" I told him it was out and he screamed "BUT YOU STILL COULD'VE HIT IT! YOU JUST LET IT FALL!!" Federer was livid. He just kept screaming and shaking his fists and pointing at me. This was a very shocking display from Federer who is usually so calm and collected. I looked to Rafa but he shrugged his shoulders as if to say "i don't know - this is crazy!"



The ref insists that we earned the point fairly, but Federer won't be calmed. Seething with hatred, Fed keeps yelling "Just because it's LEGAL, doesn't make it the sportsman's thing to do! You should've hit it!" I show him the birdie and point out the the rubber tip broke off when it bounced off the wall so I wouldn't have played it anyway. "LIAR! LIAR!" Federer screams, turning red in the face. "This is unbelievable! This is unbelievable!" Finally the ref insists that we resume play and that the point was scored legally, but Fed has lost it. He continues to play but starts hitting wild shots and insulting the other players. In between points he continues to mutter to himself, "Unbelievable!!"



Eventually, we take a break and the ref says they are going to substitute another player in for me because everyone's become concerned that my continued presence in the game will make Federer turn violent. We are all afraid that he could snap at any moment. I sit and watch on the sidelines, but the damage is done. Federer's team has turned on each other. They are screaming and hitting each other. They even resort to blow-darting each other. Then I woke up.



This dream is funny to me on several levels. I think it's awesome that I'd have a dream involving Federer and Nadal, but we wouldn't be playing tennis, we'd play badminton. That it's 3-on-3 badminton seems even more random. I think it's also interesting that while my conscious mind is fixated on Nadal, my subconscious was more than happy to have Federer take focus. Also, the last thing you'd ever see happen in real life is Federer having a hissy fit, so it's awesome that I got my own private show of it.

This dream also made me very happy that the US Open starts next week. Perhaps it was a dream of prophecy? Will Federer suffer a complete meltdown over a questionable Hawkeye call? We will have to wait and see...