Reality check... FAIL.

So about 20 minutes ago I was awoken from a dream and realized a reality check failed me. As I found myself in the dream imprisoned in a room awaiting my lawyer I began drinking a bottle of water. I clearly remember the bottle wouldn't empty, no matter how much I drank from it, and that I could continue drinking without breathing. I said to myself, well, clearly I'm dreaming. I got up and turned around and saw my cousin Peter who lives in Sydney, Australia (I'm in the USA). I walked over and said "hey man, how ya doing, what brings you here?" Looking at me as if I'm the idiot he says "I'm your lawyer, why do you think I'm here?" I reply with "Well, you live in another country, your not a lawyer, and I'm dreaming." Looking back at me with absolute disbelief, I lift my hands and proceed to push my right pointer finger through my left palm, a reality check I do often in RL and has worked for me before in my two previous lucid dreams, only this time... my finger uselessly pushes against my palm. My cousin stares at me as I wander back to my desk and sit down, staring at an empty water bottle. As shock from the fact I may be absolutely nuts settles in I begin to wake up hearing my alarm clock.

So... uh... wtf. Why would a reality check fail me after I've already gotten myself lucid, or semi lucid? Any suggestions welcome.

I've had reality checks fail before too. I think the reason may be because you're just going through the motions of the reality check, and not actually checking your reality. Seriously consider the fact that you may be dreaming, and expect your finger to go through your hand when you try it. I try to do multiple reality checks just to be sure I didn't mess one up.

Sometimes reality checks just fail. The reasons why aren't really that important. You should have an arsenal of reality checks at your disposal in case one doesn't work when you're sure that you're dreaming. Check out the reality check tutorial.

99 times out of 100, if you feel certain that you're dreaming then you probably are. In those cases I wouldn't pay much attention to what reality checks tell you. They're only a tool, after all.

as dub said, you should have a RC combo XD.
I use to do some different. All the times when my RCs failed (that happends to everyone once in a while) is when i just used one single RC.

That must felt very wierd if your RC fail there. Your cousin from Australia as your lawyer.