Lots of dream awareness ... but not quite there yet

[higgins]

For 2 months now I have kept a journal almost every night. My dreams and recall are getting much more detailed and are even bleeding into my waking consciousness. This has been an amazing experience. I have a few questions: 1) Might I be correct in assuming that waking and dreaming consciousness are the same process? Meaning that they are both "dreaming" so to speak? Only waking consciousness has physical laws and continuity whereas "dreaming" has different laws? 2) I have been having some strange experiences with attaining lucidity. For instance, I will recognize the dreamsigns, then do a reality check. I usually look for print, but oftentimes it is consistent and doesn't change on a second glance. So the reality check passes. But sometimes it doesn't pass but then nothing else really happens. I am in the dream and I say to myself "I think I'm dreaming" - but I feel like I'm missing a step here. Things just continue as they are and I'm not completely feeling lucid. This is happening now a few times per week. It's almost like I'm only dreaming that I'm lucid. For instance, this morning I had a FA. I awoke and I looked at the time and it was 11am. But it was almost dark out. I went out into the street in my pajamas and lots of people were out. The darkness made me think "OK, I haven't really woken up.. this must be a dream". I looked at a sign with print on it and it stayed the same after glancing back at it. Still thinking "this must be a dream". But the lucidity doesn't ever really hit me. It's like I accept that it's a dream and then it's over. The other day I also had a double FA. During the second FA, I was explaining to someone that I already had an FA and this was just another one! I looked at my hands but they seemed OK - not blurry as they have in other reality checks. Even though I was explaining to someone that I was in the middle of an FA, I still didn't attain lucidity. It's strange, I can't explain it... Am I only dreaming that I am lucid dreaming? Is this fairly common? I feel that with the amount of opportunities I have been given over the past 30 days or so, I'm screwing them all up and missing an important step