The Labrynth of the Mind

After having been waking up at 3:45am for about a week, I am back on the afternoon shift at work and am sleeping in. As a consequence, I am having a lot of dreams. Now I have to try and recall them, but they are kind of weird.

Mirror (Lucid)

I am in a restroom. Finally, my habit of doing a RC every time I enter a restroom in waking life carries over to my dreams, and I do a nose pinch. I can still breathe. I double check by looking at my reflection in the mirror, which looks odd (a bit like a charachter I created for myself on Wii). I'm dreaming.

I climb onto the sink, repeating to myself "am I dreaming?" or "is this a dream?" to keep the question in my mind. The dream doesn't seem as unstable as others in the past, but it isn't very vivid. I think about flying, but a strange thing happens. I have been reading advice to lucid dreamers about how to fly in lucid dreams. It seems that others have a problem with this. Until now, I never thought about it but just did it when I wanted to. But now a doubt was created in my mind about whether or not it was easy to fly. Overanalysis seemed to interfere with me, and I had difficulty in flying.

Part of the problem was likely due to the ceiling though, because I had a hard time getting through. Anyway, I wake up somewhere along the way.

Caves, chasing, anxiety stuff

I am driving somewhere down a dark winding road. At one point, someone jumped out in front of me and I killed him. But I kept on going because since I wasn't responsible never having seen him coming. Later I go back to the area for some reason. It may have been to buy a Christmas tree, but I am kind of fuzzy on what was going on here. There was a whole part of this dream that had significance that I can't remember.

Anyway, we end up going into a huge building/cave thing. In this building there is a killer or monster or something, and much shooting and running. My brother (?) and I are trying to escape. I wish I could remember more, because this journal is not doing the dream justice. These things are just vague impressions that might not be the actual dream plot.

Superman (fragment)

I am in front of a mirror again. I put on some glasses that I find, and I like how I look with them on. I look again and I seem to look a lot like Christopher Reeves as Superman (or rather as Clark Kent). My face is stretched though, and I find that I can distort it with my fingers.

Training Camp

I have started my new job. In my dream, it is either a new job or school. Perhaps it is training for a job. Whatever it is, it involves combat and war. We learn about tanks, and military operations. We are also camped out somewhere, I think.

My grandfather is telling someone about my new job, and how I have made a friend that "I like more than family". I can't think of who that is. The closest person I have to a friend is some guy that I don't even like too much, but is always hanging around me.

The next day (in my dream) I go to training again. I realize that this isn't at all what I thought my job would be, and I don't particularly want to join the military right now. Apparently this has become training for the military, and I may have to sign up for 4 years if I don't leave soon. I think about how much like a dream this is, and what I would do if I were lucid. I think to myself that I'm probably not dreaming, but wonder if perhaps I should just act like I am since it's all so weird anyway.

All this time I am munching on a stick of salami. My "friend" comes over and joins me. I think to myself that he isn't such a bad guy, although I still don't like him more than family.

I realize I have to go to the bathroom. I am now with some girl, and we are talking together. I think for some reason that it will make me look bad if I let her know I have to use the bathroom, so I walk right past one and pretend I don't need to go. We walk to a place where there are some shelves, and things being sold on the shelves. There are a lot of clocks, and one or two little wind up toys. Kind of neat things, really. There are also chocolate covered coffee beans, which show up in the dream and we start munching on.

The girl goes somewhere, and I take the opportunity to stop in the nearest bathroom. The bathroom, like all dream bathrooms, is stupidly designed. It has a screen door, for one thing. There is a bunch of clutter laying around inside, so I find some to prop against the door in an attempt to get some privacy. Then I realize that most of the walls are screen, and I look around at the woods behind me thinking I should have just taken a walk out there where there was more privacy.

When I get out of the bathroom/outhouse thing, the girl comes back with some more candy. I am looking for a place to wash my hands, but for some reason I reach into a bag of candy first. I then think that was probably an unhygenic thing to do, but I figure if I was my hands now it will be OK.

Up a little late last night, and the night before. My sleep patterns are out of whack again, so my dream recall is suffering. Here are some bits and pieces that I can remember.

Various fragments

I am outside with a group of people. We seem to be explorers or adventurers. Our quest involves crossing mountains and/or big buildings in a city. It takes forever to get to the other side, and I am exhausted by the end. We go into a hospital, and I decide I want to take the elevator to the top floor and look back at the distance we just covered. I get into the elevator (hospitals and elevators are both dreamsigns, but I don't remember to do a RC). As I am riding up, I seem to lose my clothes. By the time I reach the top I am completely naked, but I don't seem to think much about it. I crawl out of the elevator, which has shrunk to the size of a small box. I end up in the sink of another hospital room. Or the elevator may have turned into the sink...

... I am at a wedding. There is some tension here that I can't quite remember. I do remember that I had to use the bathroom, and there are two bathroom doors side by side. They both say "men", but I know that one of them is actually the women's restroom that has lost the "w" and "o". Someone comes out of the door on my right, but he/she is so ugly I can't tell if it is a man or a woman. Somehow I decide that this is the men's restroom, and I go in. Immediately inside the door I see that the two restrooms are connected and I peek around the corner of the division between the two sections to make sure I am in the right place. I assume that I am, because there is only a stall in the other half, and there are urinals in the half I am in. I set about finding a more private section of the restroom with a toilet that can't be seen by passers by (I am always having to do this in my dreams. Another obvious and yet failed dreamsign.) I find a nice one that not only is in a stall (more rare than one would think in my dreams), but is also blocked from view by an even larger toilet. There are several toilets to each stall here.

Michelle Bachman

I am visiting my grandparents. I have been spending a few nights at their place, and it is time for me to head home. My brother is going to do something first, and my grandfather (who is a retired pastor) is going to visit someone in the hospital. Apparently, Michelle Bachman has been visiting friends at my Uncle's church, and has had an accident. My grandfather explains that he is going to visit her.

I debate whether I should go with my brother or my grandfather, and decide that it would be neat to meet Michelle Bachman on such informal terms. I decide that since the hospital is not far out of the way for me, I should follow my grandfather there and then go home from the hospital.

There is a whole scene involving me and the GPS, looking for the power cord etc., which is too boring to try and recall right now. Cut to the hospital.

As we are driving I wonder if they will let us in to visit. After all, she is a presidential candidate, and it seems unlikely that people can just wander in when they want to. I worry about secret service people. But it seems that clergy has a special priveledge, and my grandfather says nobody will mind if my grandmother and I come along.

We arrive at the hospital. My grandparents and I sit in the waiting room. Ms. Bachman apparently has a few visitors already. I run over in my mind how to address her, realizing that I can't remember if she is a senator or a congresswoman. I decide to just say "hey".

Eventually, the nurse calls us back. Someone opens the hospital room door, and my grandfather ushers my grandmother and I in. I walk in behind my grandmother, and find that there is nobody in the room. There is some nice furniture, and it is set up almost like a living room. There are some chairs and a couch in front of a fireplace, and a sort of hospital bed in one corner. But apparently this is not the hospital room. It is kind of a waiting room that is part of a hospital room suite. Michelle is in another section, and once again we have to wait our turn.

I notice that there are some other people in the room waiting to see her as well. There are some kids in their late teens or early twenties with a trifold poster board, pracitcing a presentation on injuries. They figure that they can get Michelle Bachman to work on something to protect kids from sports injuries, counting on her recent experience in the hospital to give them traction.

My mother calls me back to the original waiting room for a second. I forget why. I tell her we are about to go back to see Ms. Bachman, and I try to show her the way back. But as we walk, the hospital seems to become confusing. It used to just be a short hallway and a door, but now there is a huge area set up like the inside of an airport. The more I walk, the more confusing it gets. I try to jog, but it is that frustrating kind of movement I always get when I try to move quickly in a dream. I retrace my steps, thinking I have overshot the original hallway that leads to the hospital room.

"Argh!" I think. "Of all times for Mom to show up and pull me away." Somehow I know that my grandfather is now visiting with Michelle, and I am missing the chance to visit. "This kind of thing is always happening to me. Why is it always like this? As soon as I get the chance of a lifetime, something happens to take me away, and then I can't find my way back. It's like one of those frustrating dreams I am always having!"

More out of frustration than anything, I decide to do a reality check. "Maybe this is a dream," I think. But I only think it in a frustrated way. I don't really think it is a dream, I'm just annoyed. I quickly count my fingers, and there are 5 of them. Nothing unusual there. I don't do any other reality check, because I "know" this is reality and I only did the RC to make a statement anyway. "I guess I'm awake," I say.

Then I wake up.

Sweet Shop

I get a job working in a candy store. This dream goes on for a while, but much of it seems to center around all the tasty things that I keep wanting to eat. There are sick kids too, who keep coughing near me. There is a dish of some kind of candy that I sneak bites of every once in a while. I think I am working with my brother.

Pathetically missed dreamsign

I go to use a public restroom. I am trying to find one with decent privacy. I wander into a men's room, and find a stall. The lights don't seem to work well in there, and part of the restroom is dark. Even where I am it is dimly lit. I have some uneasy thoughts about "things" lurking in the darkness. I comfort myself by thinking that I am in a light place, but I know that "the things can look at me out of the darkness"

I have a vague memory of doing a reality check during a dream, and counting only 9 fingers. I can't remember anything else about that one.

The Fashion Show

I am at my old high school. This building is a lot bigger though. There is a fashion show going on, in which there are a lot of nice looking girls. I spend some time hanging out with them, and it becomes some kind of computer program where I complete certain tasks to get points. For example, I talk to a girl and get an amount of points, then I take her out and get some more points. Eventually I have enough points to "buy" a girlfriend. Oh yeah, the "points" are also pickled jalapeno peppers, if that makes any sense at all.

After the flirting/dating/computer game/ jalapenos/ experience, I go to find a bathroom. There is one down the hall on my left. I look at the sign to see if it is the men's or women's, but it is difficult to read. I can see the word "men's" I think. I walk in, and enter the area with stalls. An older woman comes walking out, and looks at me funny. Realizing my mistake, I quickly leave. Examining the sign on my way out, I see that it actually says "women's" but the "wo" part is wearing off.

Smoking Grandfather

We go to visit my grandfather. He has a lung ailment, but has taken up smoking. He seems to think that chain smoking will help him feel better. We try to convince him that it is suicidal for him to do this, but he claims the cigarettes are harmless. He offers my brother and myself a smoke.

Walking around the top of some mall, my mother and I discuss why my grandfather thinks smoking would make him feel better. I say it is becuase nicotine numbs the nerve endings in his lungs, making them feel better.

I try to convince my grandfather to stop, but instead he just stops taking his pills.