The Kestrel's Dreams

July 29, 2014

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Little Dragon

I was helping very small children do an obstacle-course of some sort. For the part I was helping with, they were supposed to jump onto the back of a small concrete dragon, which would start flying. they were supposed to stay on the dragon for three minutes, with their little feet standing in two little divots on the dragon's neck.

I was helping one little girl in particular, and she was terrified of the obstacle. She had been crying almost the whole time until the dragon, but now she was so terrified that she couldn't even move, let alone cry. I felt like my hand was going to fall off, she was gripping it so tight.





I woke up to my alarm, and knew that I had remembered a dream in the middle of the night but not written it down, so I stayed still and closed my eyes to try to remember it. Instead, I fell into a new dream (possibly a continuation of the one I was trying to remember):

Held Up at Oma's

I had just gotten back from a trip with Zukin and my brothers. We had driven down the busier road near my Oma's house, until we reached a neighborhood I didn't know much about. We got out of the car and started exploring on foot, until we came to a woods on a hill. We wandered around a bit, and there was a slight buzzing sound, and then a holographic screen appeared in front of us. On it were details about a mission we had to complete; Zukin and I had to infiltrate a house at the bottom of the wooded hill through its back porch. We set off down the hill. I think there may have been an encounter with a warewolf or some other kind of fantastical forest beast, but I don't remember much about it. When we came around the back of the house we were targeting, we noticed a little girl playing in the back yard. Oh shit, that might make this more difficult.

But, it actually made it easier. The little girl turned out to be one of the third graders I've been working with over the past month. She saw me, waved me over, and showed me something she was playing with in the back yard. So Zukin and I befriend her enough for her to let us onto the back porch, and there I find a huge tampon, which I then have to put in (it was weird). There was a dinging sound and a green check-mark appeared in front of me: Mission complete.

Then, when we had gotten back to Oma's house, I had to get something from inside: in the back room, where the toys and books and games are. I can't remember what it was that I had to get, though. As I'm leaving the house, I notice that there are a bunch of new cars in the driveway, and we're blocked in. My whole extended family was there, for a celebration of my aunt M's birthday; but I had to get out of there. Zukin and my brothers were waiting for me in the car...! I said hi to Aunt M. and wished her a happy birthday, but told her I had to go because I had important business to take care of.

I felt an itch on my arm, and looked down. I had a huge ringworm all over both my arms. I remember it so distinctly that I could trace it out on my arms right now.

I moved to scratch the itch, and opened my eyes in my bed. I was so disoriented because I thought I still had a ringworm. And then I realized I'd fallen into a dream and found I only have 20 minutes to be ready for school. YAY. I loved that I got an extra dream out of it, but I don't like having to rush to get ready in the morning.





This one is from the nap I took today:

Mountains

I was in the mountains. They reminded me of the Guadalupe Mountains in Texas. I was in a small hut at the edge of a valley, and across the valley slightly to my right, one of my cohort-mates was in a tent on the mountain. To my left, a road wound along the mountain, with a few houses lining it. I don't remember exactly why we were there (Zukin was there and also more of my cohort-mates), but we were yelling across the valley to communicate. It wasn't working so well, since I couldn't hear very well, and so we all slowly meandered to the center of the valley, which ended up turning into the Media Center (fancy words for Library) at the elementary school. We gathered and talked about the plans for the next few weeks, though I can't remember what those plans were.

July 28, 2014

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Backpacking vs. Outdoor Adventures

I was at the fall club recruiting day on campus. I was there for the backpacking club, with Zukin, Ivan and Stussy. We were working on the poster-board we would display, before people got there, and we were competing with the outdoor adventures club to see who would get more new members. I remember that our board was a three-fold board like you see at science fairs (most of the clubs do have these kinds of displays) and the adventure club had a single large board leaning up against something on their table.

I was laughing at them because we were almost done with our board while they were still putting on the first few pieces.

Then there was a sort of competition; we were all playing a game with a Frisbee; backpacking club vs. adventure club. We were on teams and there was a hill to the right of the field we played in; someone threw the Frisbee wrong and it went over the hill. The adventure club sent a child to go get it, because the child had way more energy than all of us and wasn't playing the game anyways.

I think I might have been the one to throw it over the hill, because the next thing I remembered was one of my teammates coming up to me and shaking me by the shoulders, yelling "GET IN THE GAME."





Wheely-Chairs

I was roaming a huge, old mansion on rolling-chairs with Zukin. We were sitting in them backward (with the back to our chests) and using our feet to propel us around the place. There was a lot more to the dream that I remembered when I woke up, but I forgot to write it down and a lot of it has faded. I remember a part where we had to get down some stairs, but the entrance had a really low ceiling. So we had to get off the chairs, tilt them sideways, and shove them down the stairs, then retrieve them at the bottom to continue our adventure. We broke some expensive shit.





Bike Ride

Again with Zukin, this time we were riding our bikes back from some event. We had decided to go two different paths so we wouldn't collide (given us two, it's a valid concern). We accidentally almost went the same way though, and almost ran into each other. But she swerved in time to dodge me and I apologized many times because I think it was my fault.





Scary Not-Scary Sounds

I was walking around a neighborhood I don't know, looking for a place to sit down and do my math homework. I had my notebook, a pen, and the textbook with me, but I needed to find a place to sit in the grass. It was starting to get dark, though...

I crossed a street, and then heard someone say, "hey!" I turned around to see a college-age man walking toward me. My first instinct is to run, but he just asks for a cigarette, which I don't have because I don't smoke, and he leaves after that.

I sit in the grass at that corner, after the guy has left. But only a few minutes into my homework, I hear a sound to my left. I look up but don't see anything, and really the sound was so mundane and shouldn't have scared me. But it did, and I was irrationally afraid of it, and so I stood up quickly and headed toward my house, because I realized I was now in the field behind it. But I thought I was forgetting something, and had to go back to where I'd been sitting. The road was nowhere to be seen now, it was just that field behind my house. I used to my phone's flashlight to see what I'd forgotten, and realize I did in fact have everything; I had thought I was missing my phone, because it wasn't in my pocket, but it was in my hand the whole time. I noticed that the phone's light wasn't shining as brightly or a broadly as it usually does, and stood there swinging it around, trying to get it to work better, but then I heard the sound again, and turned to leave. I never did find out what was making the sound, and still don't even know why I was so spooked by it.

July 25, 2014

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Train Delays

I was on a train in Germany with Zukin; we were going back and forth between two stations, though I can't remember why we were doing so. Between these two stations, there was a city where trains weren't allowed, so the line had to go around it, adding a half hour to the trip, because they also had to go slower while going around this city. Zukin was complaining about how long it was taking. There might have also been a delay of some sort...

We decided to go to the car that had a little cafe in it, and we ordered some Maultaschen and Potato Salad.





Hospital School

I was with my family just before I got my fall placement in a school... I was with them in a huge building with stone walls and stairs, except for the stairs to the basement, which were made of some high-end wood. We were wandering this building and I was actually supposed to be volunteering with one of my cohort-mates, K.O. She had found out about it and wanted a challenge. I can't remember exactly what we were ding, but it was a hospital's school. Now that I think about it, the stairs remind me a bit of the stairs at my old high school, but these were much fancier.

I was looking for my family, and when I found them, we all went to the very basement, which was this huuuuuuuge room. I could barely see to the other end of it. We were waiting for some sort of event for families to start; there were a bunch of other families waiting with us.





Beautiful Birds

I was at a bird sanctuary, learning about different kinds of birds. One of them was a sandy-yellow colored bird with green wings and a red chest. There were two; a male and female pair. The female really seemed to like me. She was flying around me and would come to land on my finger when I held it out. They had such beautiful, melodic calls.

The ranger there was telling us about how their camouflage was very selective. In a normal tree, the red showed. The ranger even said "And they couldn't camouflage on me, either, because I'm wearing khaki!" he mentioned something about how you wouldn't be able to hide them by throwing them at him? I dunno. He was a bit bonkers I think. But then the birds flew into this meadow-thing, and completely disappeared. I couldn't see where the heck they were, until they flew back out and the female landed on my finger again.

I was sad to hear that this pair was one of the last of its species; they were also very old and were almost at the end of their reproductive ages. The ranger had earlier showed me that every time the female came to land on my finger, I was supposed to put a stamp on a page, and now he told me the meanings of the stamps. They automatically changed to the "settings" of the bird every time she landed, and so the different stamps meant different things about her health. He showed me that the stamps I had made on the paper showed that she was getting old, and only had a few more years of reproductive abilities. I was supposed to look for signs of near-death :(

July 23, 2014

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Math Prof

I was at my house, but my house was rather strange; I remember the family room being very exaggeratedly large. I was with the whole family; extended as well as immediate. From both sides. It was crazy.

Then Tim, my "Math Teacher Teacher" (he's the one who teaches us Mathematical pedagogy so he's a teacher of math teachers: math teacher teacher) knocked on our door; we let him in, and then there was this huge huzzah over who he would nominate for a chance to ask him any question. He would chose one male and one female, and there would be a game-show. We could ask any question we wanted him to answer, but only one question. The winners were me (he chose me, but my cousin thought she was chosen; I was too embarrassed to say anything, but her mom did, so I got to go up) and my big brother. I got to go first, so when the microphone was passed to me, and there drumroll played, I asked the first question that came to mind: "Are you a member of the Squirrel Club?!"

He was not.





Splishy Splashy

(okay so I don't remember much of this and my handwriting is horrid, so I'll do the best I can...)

I was at home again, and there was a letter/package for me. It was basically a letter so large it was shipped as a package... It was a card about the length of my arm. My mom gave it to me, and I set it down somewhere to open it later, and went to watch TV.

There was some special program on TV, where we could register for some class, but I didn't register. IT didn't apply to me. So I started splashing water from one bowl into another bowl. I wasn't allowed to use a ladle or just pour the water; I had to splash as much of it as I could into the other bowl.

(in hind sight, it kinda reminds me of some kind of silly task they would have on Double Dare or one of those other silly Nickelodeon game shows (can I get a whut whut from all the 90s kids out there?))





Marriage

All I remember from this one is that Zukin texted me, telling me she was getting married because she was in love.

July 21, 2014

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Nature Park

I was checking out at a convenience store or something, and the cashier was super friendly. She suggested a nature park for me to visit; it was about half an hour down the road from the store. I had nothing much to do, so I decided to visit. It was all on a mountain, and there were various themed paths up to the top. I passed a path that looked like it had been carved out of a rock-face. But it was closed for some reason; I assumed there was construction or something going on. I think it could have also been an avalanche. I went up the other way, and at the top was a courtyard and amphitheater-type-thing. There was also a beautiful view of the Big City.





Nature Park Again

(I woke up right after that dream, and checked the time; I still had a couple hours before my alarm would go off, so I smiled and fell back asleep while thinking about the dream I'd just had; When I fell asleep, I was abck in the nature park, but not lucid)

I was in front of the blocked off portion of the nature park again. But now it was opened again, and I took that way. I climbed up the switchbacks carved into the rock, admiring intricate patterns carved into the walls. At the top of the cliff, I could see the amphitheater not far away, and headed for it, but there was an animal in the way. I forgot what it was, because the dream didn't last much longer. Now that I think about it, I may have been half-lucid. But I'm not really sure.





Spirit of the Forest

I was with Zukin again, and we were walking around a national park. We found a path into a forest, which led to a scenic lookout of a famous tree. It was apparently the oldest free in the state (or country? I don't know. Maybe it was the last surviving tree of its species? Either way, it was a special tree), and as we walked, the path forked in four different directions. We looked for signs, and only found one that said "to Lookout" pointing all the way to the right. But we wanted to know where these other paths went, so we searched a little more for other signs. Eventually, we found a sign hidden underneath a bush and vines that said "to Caves."

That sounded fun. We took that path (it was the one furthest to the left) and after five minutes of walking, the path forked again, this time in five directions. There were no signs here, at least not at first. We figured there had to be a sign somewhere, so we looked hard again, and sure enough, there was another sign hidden under overgrown bushes and whatnot. We wondered how long it had been since anyone was on this path. Whereas the first main path to the lookout was well defined, this one was hard to see for the most part. We followed the path leading to "caves" and again came to a fork, this time with three choices. This time the sign was nowhere to be found, even after searching. We had to guess.

We took the path in the middle of the three, and after about half an hour, we came out of the forest and into an open area with scattered small trees in a field to our left, and a cliff to our right. There was a wall (about hip-high) with vines overgrown all over it. Across a canyon we could see the people at the lookout. We ducked behind the wall, just in case we weren't really supposed to be here. The path continued along the wall, and at the end, we could see the famous tree. We crawled behind the wall until we reached the tree; but before we got there, the path sloped down steeply while the wall continued at the same height. We were able to stand again as we descended, and then the path wrapped around the trunk of the tree and went underground, into the root system and winding around them. It was all rather magical.

But then we heard a rumbling, and I looked up. Dirt was falling from the ground above our heads, and we made our way out of the cave system below the tree. We hadn't gotten very far, so it was easy to get out. Once we were out, the rumbling stopped for a moment, but when I took another step away from the tree, it started again, and Zukin and I started running back up the path, away from the tree. It kept rumbling, louder and louder, and when we got around the winding path to the hill along the wall, we found that it was now almost perfectly vertical. There was no way to climb it...! But there was a vine.

"Climb up the vine!" Zukin called to me. She was already grabbing it and making her way up. I was a little scared, but I climbed nonetheless. We inched our way up the vine as the rumbling grew louder. We were behind the wall, so I wasn't worried about people seeing us now that they could probably hear the rumbling. When we reached the top, we sat against the wall along the cliff, looking to our right at the tree as it tipped away from us, and then the ground shook a little as the roots came out of the ground, destroying that series of tunnels we'd been in moments before.

"Oh SHIT..." I said. Now everyone would be looking over here, and we needed to get the fuck out of this place. We made our way along the wall, and about half-way to the forest, we met Harry Potter. He ran up to us and told us to run, because people were coming. He'd seen it all and wanted to help us escape. We ran behind him for a while, but then, around the corner where the wall turned, there was a Demonic Druid-type thing. It lunged after us, spitting toxic goo from it's eyes and mouth. Some of it hit Harry Potter, and he stumbled. Vines came out of the ground and wrapped around his legs and arms, pulling him all the way down to the ground.

"Harry!" I called, starting to run after him.

"Wait!" He yelled, and I stopped. Zukin ran up to me. "I can see it all now..." Harry continued. "They need a new guardian... that tree... it was the Forest's guardian, but now it's dead. It wasn't you, don't worry. It was just its time to go, and you happened to be there. They need a new guardian... I'll do it. I love this forest, so I'll be the new guardian. Soon a new tree will grow where I lay right now... It was be beautiful..." He had a warm smile on his face and his eyes were glossing over. We knew he was seeing something we never could. We nodded and bowed our heads, and the Demonic Druid thing stepped aside to let us pass.

We ran to the main trail and joined the crowd leaving.

Two years later, I was with Zukin in a bookstore, and we saw a new book about the "Tree Death and Harry Potter Disappearance" mystery. I chuckled a little and bought the book, and one for Zukin. We would have fun later reading all the conspiracy theories about the events of that day. I didn't know it then, but one of my classmates, T, was sitting in a corner of the bookstore, watching us. She was suspicious.

The next day, I was listening to Zukin playing the piano when T came up to me and started asking questions. I evaded them, and left to go on a walk. T and her partner (I think they were private investigators or something, hired to find Harry Potter) followed me, and when I went down the path to the lookout, they confronted me again.

"So you were there that day?" She said to me.

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"You know what happened to Harry, don't you?"

I shrugged. She came over to me and got all close and in my space. I used my forearm to shove her gently away. "If you really want to know what happened that day, why not just try exploring a bit? That's what I did that day."

I left, and they stood there. Now I was viewing the dream third person. I watched as T and her partner went down the same paths Zukin and I had gone down two years before. They came out of the forest and into the field with the wall and cliff to the right, and saw Harry Potter. His eyes were still in the same glossed-over position as they had been when Zukin and I left, but now they followed T and her partner as they approached. The vines which had pulled him down that day had grown thicker and woodier than they had been. They had fused together for the most part. All that was visible of Harry was his face and some of his left shoulder. He was pale blue.

T started to run toward Harry, but vines came up and grabbed her foot. She looked to her partner for help, but he also had vines crawling up his leg. Suddenly, he started to move forward, speaking in a strange language. When T didn't respond, he spoke again, in English. "Leave now. Do not ever come back."

T struggled to get free, but she couldn't. The Demonic Druid from before materialized from the ground, and spat goo at both T and her partner. Her partner was unaffected because he was under control, but T's skin started to burn, and she screamed.

The Druid looked at her partner, tilted its head, and raised its hand. The man was released from the control, and he looked around. "Hey, it's Harry!" He called, smiling bright. "T, look, it's Harry!" He looked around, saw T, but didn't see anything else, because he was shot in the face with toxic goo. He screamed and slowly fell to the ground as well, and then all was silent. The Druid sank back into the ground.





Sex On The Beach

(I woke up to my alarm at 6:30, but had a migraine :( After emailing my professors and the people I usually drive to school, I got back in bed and tried to fall back asleep before the pain got too bad)

I had a false awakening on a beach. I was on a beach towel, in my swimsuit. I sat up, looked around. The sky was blue, and the sand was warm underneath my towel. Behind me, grass-covered dunes rose along the shore. There wasn't a single person in sight, and I smiled, laying back down.

Spoiler for NSFW:

Then I heard the sound of footsteps, and looked up. A man was walking along the beach toward me. I don't really remember everything that led up to what happened next, but suddenly he was leaning over me and kissing my neck. He kissed all the way down my stomach, taking off my bikini top as he passed it. Then he was kissing my lips and his trunks were coming off. I slid out of my bikini bottom, too. He was strong; he lifted me up off the towel and sat up so he was kneeling, and he guided me down on top of his throbbing manhood. (like this, just he was on his knees instead of sitting on his butt)

It was... intense. Neither of us said a single thing through it all. He kissed (more like licked) like all over my body. He bit me playfully a few times, too. When we were done, he laid me back down on the beach towel and stood up, walking to the water and standing with his feet in the water for a while.

He looked back at me and grinned, said something in a singsong voice (I can't remember what it was; I was still a little dazed from the experience), and I realized: He was the Face, and that meant I must be dreaming. I looked down at my hands; two thumbs on my right hand. I was dreaming. I stared at the Face for a while, wondering what to ask him. I was oddly unshy about what had just happened, and neither was he. But I didn't expect he would be shy about something like that, considering he'd pretended to be about to rape me in another dream.

(I drew the Face, btw... this is about what he looks like, anime-fied: The Face ... Ignore my wonky hand-drawing skillz)

"You going to tell me your name yet?" I asked.

"Not this time, either~" He said, and looked back out over the water.

"So why are you here?" I stood up and walked to the water.

"Just came to see you." He said, smirking over at me.

"So sex but no answers for me?" I was a little annoyed. Not that I was complaining...

"I never said I wouldn't answer any of your questions. Ask away."

"Who are you?"

He grinned as if he had known I would ask that first. "I am what you make of me."

I rolled my eyes. "Why are you so unlike any of the other characters in my dreams?"

He looked me right in the eyes this time. "Why do you think?" Was all he would say, and then I felt the dream destabilizing. I reaching out to touch his arm to stabilize myself, but he backed away, grinning as he vanished with the rest of the dream, and I woke up.

July 20, 2014

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On a random note, you know how sometimes you drift off to sleep and see random images... Zukin and I had spent the weekend camping, and just before falling asleep Saturday night, I had a vision of an ostrich doing a backflip. Except it was like a piece of paper with an ostrich drawn on it pinned to a board and spun around.




I Lost Them

Zukin was in my cohort, and in my teaching group. I was in the class with the students and teaching partners, and I had to go to the bathroom. When I got back to the classroom, everyone was gone, and I spent the rest of the dream searching the school, trying to find them.




They Took the FOOD

I got back to my apartment, and noticed that my sliding door was open. I went inside, and searched around, paranoid that something had been stolen. It seemed that everything was in order, and then I got hungry and went to the fridge to find something to eat. I opened the door.... It was completely empty. They stole all the food. And cleaned the fridge; it was all wiped down and spotless. But empty. I was so mad. I waited for M.M, a classmate of mine, to get home. She was apparently my roommate. So was a random Asian guy from Zukin's coop. I showed M.M. the fridge and we were all //jaw-drop THE FOOOODDDDD.

We checked the cabinet as well, and most of it was there, but all of the "ready-made" meals were gone. M.M. turns to me and says, "They took all the easy things to make." With a deductive nod of her head. We shook our heads in disgust.




Boardwalk

I was with Zukin on a boardwalk of some sort. I had to go find my cohort-mates and ask about something, since we were on an assignment. When I got back to Zukin and the boardwalk, I walked under it, and Zukin said that my head was supporting it really well, and made the boardwalk stiff (she said it in an if you know what I mean sort of way, of course) Then we started lifting up all the boards and found three layers of graded papers underneath the wood. We collected the papers and walked to the car, which was parked a few meters away from the entrance of the boardwalk. We left the parking lot and then, as I was stopped at a light, Zukin got out of the car and started frolicking through the traffic.

July 16, 2014

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Night Gas Run

I was in my van, at a fairly sprawling gas station. The kind you'd find right off the highway, with at least 20 pumps and plenty of space between them. My car was parked in a large lot right next to the pumps, alongside the small store. I was with the people from my cohort again, and we were all driving out to some school. It was dark out; I think very early morning. My cousin was also there, as well as my brothers. I was sitting in the car with them, talking about something or other, and I had to move spots for some reason. As soon as I moved, things went all chaotic and it was difficult to find a new spot because people suddenly decided to all try moving at once.



Pizza

I was in a class, and the teacher had gotten us all pizza. There was tons of it, and lots of bottles of pop. I know for sure that Zukin and Stussy were there, and a few people from my cohort. When class was over, I was helping people collect the bottles from the pop, because I wanted to return them for the deposit. Stussy was helping me and talking about how much pizza he'd eaten, and I vaguely wondered why he was there, since I have never had a class with him before. But I didn't think it was odd enough to realize I was dreaming : /



Fragment: Phone Thief

I only know that just before waking up at 4 AM with a jolt, I had my phone in my left hand, and someone bumped into me, jolting my phone out of my hand. I think the person was trying to take my phone. I don't remember hat I was doing just before that.



Fragment: Elementary

I was at the school I intern at, helping the kids get off the buses in the morning and talking to them, though I don't remember what I talked to them about.

July 13, 2014

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Bikeride

I was with my family, and we were coming back home from yet another vacation (my subconscious seems pretty fixated right now). Mom and dad drove in the car, but my brothers and I all took bikes. So we left a lot earlier than mom and dad. We rode through a park, but that's all I remember.




Some Famous Pool

I was with my bothers again, plus a few of my friends (Zukin was there). We were all visiting this famous pool. There were all sorts of protocols we had to go through before we were allowed to enter the pool; we had to shower like three times, get tests done, and I think there was some anti-radiation chamber we had to go in, too. When we got out to the pool, it was crowded, but we found a spot in a corner of it, near a section that had been roped off for a reserved party of people.




Military Training

I was with Zukin, taking a tour of some military training camp for teens. We entered a huge gym from a courtyard... In the center of the huge gym was a climbing tower that looked like a crane or something, at a slight angle. Teens were climbing up it on all four sides. They didn't have harnesses or anything.




Shit that's a BEAR!

I was with my family, somewhere in the mountains. We had been visiting with my grandpa, who happened to have a cottage in some small mountain town (I think my dream grandpa has houses all over the place lol)

My dad and brothers and I go on a hike through the mountains, and we take along a special phone that will track our progress and time how long it took us to get to certain parts of the trail and back home. The plan was for mom and her group to do the same thing, but they forgot to turn it on when they went.

On the last day of our stay there, we all went for one last hike. We took the car to the starting point of the hike, and on the way, I saw a male and female wild boar, rummaging in the grass for bugs or whatever it is they eat. Then, we passed a vegetable field, and I noticed a male wild boar. Then I saw a man in the field, and I was thinking, Oh, shit, that guy must be terrified... run, guy, run!

And then the boar saw the man, and started charging him. I was scared for the man, but instead of running, he just stands there. Or so it seems. I soon see him lifting up in the air, and I 'realize he's using his feet against two sturdy poles to climb upwards, to a height where the boar can't reach him. Then, it got amazing: He got higher, and I noticed a trolly-type handle, which he grabbed, and zoomed across the field, toward the road where we were driving. He jumped from the first trolly to another one that ran along the road, and zoomed right beside our car. He looked in and winked at us, and I noticed he was wearing patchy clothing, but didn't realize it was The Face until I woke up later (I really should know I'm dreaming whenever I see him, by now. Goodness).

I was amazed by all this, and turned to my brothers, asking if they had gotten it on video so we could put it on yuotube, because I knew no one would believe me if I just told them what happened. But nobody had caught it on tape, and I was sad.

When we parked by the trailhead, we got out of the car and wandered up the trail a bit to a spot overlooking the road, near a stream. The trail continued into a heavily forested area, Lots of pine trees and some birch and maple and ash trees, too. It was an odd mixture of all sorts of trees. We all stopped here to gather our supplies and set a schedule and get ready, but dad forgot something in the car, and left, saying he'd be right back. I wandered a bit, looking at the small things like plants and bugs and tree bark. I stood for a while on a large, flat, rocky area at the bank of the stream (which may have been more like a small river, actually). There were some boulders and one tree to my right as I faced the water, and the forest and the mountain to my left. I heard mom and my little brother talking, and went to see what they were looking at:

"Look, it's a rabbit!" said my mom. I looked and saw what she must have been talking about: There was a rustling in some bushes below us, and It did look like it could be a rabbit, but something was off. I saw spiny things, and thought maybe it was a porcupine, but when I looked closer, I realized it was a baby bear.

"Oh shit, that's a BEAR!" I whispered as frantically as I could. I looked around, and saw the mother nearby, closer to us than the baby bear was. I pulled them back slowly. My big brother was saying, "To the river, to the river...!" But I was thinking that if bears fished in rivers like these, would we really be any safer there? We looked around for dad, but we couldn't see him, and I hoped he was still at the car. Then there was a strange, repeated noise that I can't even describe. It continued until I woke up a few seconds later, and I could still hear it when I opened my eyes.

July 08, 2014

---

Can't Find It

I was driving my cousin to an auto-repair shop, where his car was being worked on. We were lost though, and couldn't find it at all D:



Wrong Zip Code

I was with my friend Moon, and she had picked me up from the airport, and was taking me to her house. We drove through some arid desert hills, and then through a part of the city. We were in the wrong zip-code though, and had to take a ferry across a river to get to the right place.

The whole city was really open; not many trees, lots of dirty and sand and clay.



LARP Couch

I was sitting on a couch with my older brother; the couch was in the middle of this vast, mostly flat field, and there was a rocking chair across a firepit from us, and a bench and some log stumps-for-chairs to our left. There was one tree about 50-yards in front of us and a tad to the left. I was holding my Real-Life LARP staff, but in the dream it was a little more intricately designed, and it was actually Zukin's; I was just holding onto it for her, until she could come to pick it up.

My brother and I were talking to a few of the characters (there was a mixture of people I know from LARP and people who live at Zukin's co-op), but one of them was the Face. His LARP character's name was Timothy (at least, that's what I assume. Everyone was calling him Timothy, but they were all in character, so I don't think that was his actual name)

July 07, 2014

---

I was with some of my cohort-mates and Zukin, and we were all going to a scholastic-or-PBS-or-something sale in a building that reminded me greatly of a train station (specifically Shining Time Station). There was a sale for teachers, but when we got there, we found out you only got that sale if you had a PBS account, which you could only have if you were also a parent of a child under the age of three. We were pissed and raised a fuss, but didn't end up getting the discount anyways D:

On the way out of the market, there was a display with a whole bunch of Halloween masks and hats and accessories and shtuff. There were green and purple witch's fingers, and someone in the group said, "They look like a finger on top of another finger" because the nails were so long.

On the way back, we talked about random things that I don't remember, but I do remember the walk itself and the landscape. We were walking along a path/road (it was at once narrow like a walk-way but wide like a road. Very surreal and variable) through slight hills. It was night time, but there were hardly any street-lights. I could see the lights of the city ahead of us, and mountains to our left. We walked down the valley path, and I noticed it split multiple times, and was very bridge-y. As in there were lots of random ups to make bridges that weren't needed.

July 04, 2014

---

Animal Crossing

I was playing my Animal Crossing: New Leaf game, except I was in the game. I kept changing my clothes because I couldn't figure out what to wear that day.




Penises and FUCK THIS SHIT

I was at a fancy party with Zukin. It was on the roof of a really tall building, and we were all dressed up super sexy and elegant and whatnot. We were walking around, and I looked around, watching the faces... I had a target at this party.

I was secretly an agent. I was an assassin, to be precise. My target was a man at this party, and Zukin didn't know I was a spy... I saw the man I was to kill, and mentioned to Zukin that I wanted to go eat some pineapples. She looked at me, followed my eyes, and nodded eagerly. We went to the buffet and grabbed a plate of pineapples, and then walked over to my target.

"Care for some pineapples?" I asked him.

He nodded, and took a piece from the plate. We all walked around for about half an hour, chatting. We all became such good pals that he invited us to go someplace with him after the party. We agreed. I was thinking how easy this would be.

We walked past a giant fountain, and I slipped a bit, falling into his arms. He made sure I was alright and stood me back up, pulling some hair from in front of my face, tucking it back behind my ear. I smiled up at him, and we all kept walking.

We decided to pause for a bit, and I sat with Zukin in a little window-seat type thing. Even though we were on the roof, there was a wall on one edge, along which we sat. Then all hell broke loose; There was a siren of sorts, and an announcement that we all had to leave, because the party was over. Zukin and I stood up and got swept away by the crowd; I could see my target behind us, keeping his eyes on us so as not to loose us.

We filed down the stairs and into a wide, tall hallway. We ducked into a little cut-out where the girl's bathroom door was. Zukin said she had to pee, and so I waited outside while she was inside the one-person restroom. I also kept my eyes open for my target, hoping to catch him as he left and remind him of his offer to us.

Then, I got a call: it was my boss. They told me my target had changed. The man we'd been schmoozing all night was no longer a threat... the new target: Zukin. On the inside, I was screaming "FUCK YOU BASTARDS." But I said, "understood."

I knocked on the door. "Is it safe to come in, Zukin?"
"Yeah, just washing my hands now."
I opened the door and slid in without making much sound.
"Zukin."
"Yeah?" She was drying her hands.

I told her I was a spy, and that my new target was her. She stared at me.
"So this is what we're gonna do," I said.
After I explained the plan to her, she was so psyched.

We got in some kind of badass flying machine, headed for the Headquarters of my spy organization. I pulled a pistol out of a strap at my thigh, and handed it to Zukin. We busted through the doors of HQ, holding out the guns and shouting.

Then my watch beeped. In the middle of busting up HQ, I did a reality check, realized I was dreaming, and also how absurd it all was.

I decided that, since I was dreaming, and I already had this big-ass gun, I would continue to wreck shit up with Zukin. I let off a few rounds into the air, shouting and running around. Zukin was bashing someone's head into a table.

I wondered if this counted toward the bonus task for the month, but didn't dwell on it for very long, since I was busy spray-painting the walls with penises and things like "FUCK THIS SHIT" and your mother jokes.

June 29, 2014

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Amusement Parking Troubles

I was at the amusement park with Kristin, her boyfriend, Zukin, and my family. I was either high or slightly drunk, and we got in line to go on the Top Thrill Dragster. I remember being in the line and a bit wobbly, and then we were in the seats, and I was getting nervous because the harnesses were a lot more sparse than I remembered them being the last time I was on the ride... But I was trying to look unphased because Zukin, sitting next to me, was freaking out, so I was like putting my arms up in the air, then remembered that you're not really allowed to do that on this ride, because of how fast it accelerates. I was trying to explain the ride to her, but the red light turned green really quickly and we were off. I had been leaning forward when we started moving, and I was having trouble looking up again. I felt the ride go up, and the weightless feeling as it summited the peak and started going down, and I actually almost lifted right out of the seat, so I was grabbing onto whatever I could to keep from flying away.

After that, we were all walking toward Millennium Force, but we got separated, and decided to meet up at a restaurant-type place. We walked around to the back, and waited there. It was empty; there were barely any people there. It was all brown and not well lit, it actually reminded me a bit of one of the parties Zukin and I had tried to get into in Berlin, but one of the guys in our group hadn't been let in because he wasn't 21 yet; so we'd all left.

As we lounged around, waiting for the rest of the group to get there, two cars came driving through the outside portion of the cafe/restaurant. I asked the driver on one of the cars what they were doing, since this wasn't a road or parking lot. The driver had thought this was a parking lot, but I told them it wasn't again, and then left, trying to find a place to park. It was strange.



Research Award

I was in school, and had had to write and present a science research paper. I had done my research on Burgerfi frozen custard and what made it different from other frozen custards (haha!). I ended up getting an award for it! I was out of the classroom when they announced the award winners, so I didn't know I'd won anything until one of my classmates came and found me near the bathroom, where I'd been. He told me I'd won, and I was super surprised, because I had completely BS'd the ENTIRE thing. My classmate handed me the award certificate, and told me the actual award was in the fridge in the classroom (dunno why there was a fridge in the classroom)

We went back to the classroom (which was like a small movie theater) and I opened the fridge at the front left corner of the room to get my award, but I couldn't find it in there. I saw the other three awards, but not mine. I told my friend this, and he was all embarrassed. He'd forgotten that he'd put it somewhere else for safe keeping, and went to go get it. The awards were these delicate and intricately folded pure-white papers. They were folded into little pouches, with red ribbon curling delicately around it, and inside the pouch was a white orchid of some sort. My classmate came back with my award and the feedback sheet. Pros: The work I'd done with a component of the frozen custard (I can't remember what it was called, but it started with Ly---) was excellent. Cons: I shouldn't name chemical formulas that are not used anywhere in the research (evidence of my BSing the whole thing, but I guess the rest of it was great). The other thing we all got with the award was a whole pineapple, haha!




Adult Children's Museum

I was at some sort of conference for women. I was with 9 other random women, and we were choosing the location for the conference; we picked a sort of hands-on museum for adults. If you've ever been to the children's museum on Navy Pier in Chicago, it was a lot like that, but designed for adults. We got into the building, which was all colorful and fun looking (I saw it first from a top corner, so I got a bird's eye view of the whole place), and I was so excited because I'm such a kid at heart. I found out they had a man for each of us. I think the deal was that we would each get to pick one of the men to go around the place with, and they had to basically do anything we wanted for the whole day (and night ;D).

I picked a 24-ish-year-old guy with dark hair and blue eyes. I swear whoever organized the event had made sure that all of us would find our ideal guy in that group of men. The oldest woman in my group, who was maybe 40, picked the youngest guy, who was 19 and looked like Rocky (skin-tight gold underwear and all).

June 28, 2014

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Walk-Through-Walls Drug?

I was with Zukin, either at the Doctor's office or at a friend's house... I can't clearly remember which it was. It was probably both at the same time, which is why I am so unsure about it. The friend was holding a party, but it wasn't going well; people were getting bored, and two girls started talking smack about Zukin, so we decided to leave the party. We'd heard during the party (I think the person who told us was the Doctor who was there. The doctor was actually one of my classmates in my master's program) that there was a place to get a new drug, which would allow us to walk through walls. Apparently, you had to eat/drink the drug (I forget which it was), and then lay down for five minutes before it would work.

So Zukin and I get to the place where the drugs are, and there is a random guy with us. We'd met him on the way and found out he was also going to get the drug, so we all went together. We took it, laid down. After five minutes, I got up and ran at a wall, but hit it and don't go through. I start punching the wall, but nothing happens. I turned to Zukin, who also couldn't walk through the walls, and we realized that the guy we'd met wasn't there anymore; it had all been a scam.

So Zukin and I were left to wander the city, drugged up on who knew what. It was very hazy from there on out. I remember being on a very tall and fairly wide bridge with low railings on the sides. Zukin had stumbled, but she was near the center of the bridge, so she didn't fall over the edge.



Terrified Asian Kid

I was in some sort of club or group, as was my brother, Bob. The group had created a TShirt, but I hadn't gotten one because I wasn't sure they would turn out very well. But when we got them, they were way cool, and I was upset that I hadn't ordered one. So I went to the club president and asked if there was any way I could get one. I get the feeling that I had previously told the president I liked him, but he'd rejected me. Anyways, he told me "I'll do everything in my power to make sure you get a shirt, don't worry!" And kept coming over to me to suggest solutions. He came over so many times I got annoyed with him and ended up going to sit on the doorstep of the club building.

Outside was a large field. It looked like the field in front of the chapel at the private boarding school my cousin goes to. There was some sort of graduation going on. It looked like a 6th grade graduation, or something. Younger kids. I think it was a rehearsal, since none of the kids were dressed nicely; they were all wearing normal school clothes.

Then a younger child comes out of nowhere. She's wearing red, and she looks Asian. She is supposed to sing a song during the ceremony... They have her go into the building I'm in, with the party, and so I have to move for her... It was a bit eerie, actually. She just starts walking toward me, singing in a low voice, especially for a young girl, with her hands held together. She reminded me of a little monk or something. She didn't even slow down as she moved toward the door in which I sat, so I had to scramble out of the way at the last minute.

She was in there for less than a minute, and when she came back out, her face was cherry-red and she looked like she was going to burst into explosive sobs any second now. She looked terrified, but kept on walking, back to the group of graduating students. The Teacher/Principal (whoever was organizing the event) suddenly said, "Maybe I'll reconsider..."

I assume she meant that she'd not have the little girl go through that building for the real ceremony.

After a dry spell this whole week, I finally dreamt again! I've been adjusting to a new sleep schedule since I just started graduate school...
Anyways:

June 27,2014

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Mr. Face

I was with Zukin in a classroom. The tables were arranged in a square with one edge missing; the missing edge faced the whiteboard. I sat on the left edge, toward the back, and Zukin sat next to me. The Face was our teacher (But I'm not sure if it was actually the Face. It didn't feel like him. But I specifically remember that he looked and sounded like The Face, with his patchy, colorful clothes and his singsong voice)

So, we were in this class, and the Face was our teacher. He was getting all enthusiastic about the World. He started to draw on the board, and I realized he was drawing a world map. It was incredibly accurate. I looked down at my notebook for a few seconds; it was blank. When I looked back up, the world map was finished and the oceans were half-filled-in with this super intricate pattern made with three different colors.

Then, we were in a different classroom. It was my 7th grade science classroom. I was sitting on the right side this time, in the back (this room was arranged in three rows). The whole right wall in that classroom was windows into a little courtyard that no one was ever allowed into. I cant remember what the Face was "teaching" us here, but I do remember that we had snack time, and Zukin had brought some pineapples and was sharing them with me.



Schizzo Parking Garage

I was in some sort of Men In Black- or Jacky Chan-type movie. I don't know what makes me say that, I just woke up with the feeling that that's what it felt like. I was with some people, but I don't remember who, and we were driving in this packed, crowded, narrow city. It reminded me of Hanoi. Whoever I was with was going with me to our friend's apartment there.

We drove around, looking for a place to park, and eventually went with a parking garage (that, now that I am fully awake and thinking about it, has been in at least one dream before!). This garage is very big... Like, everything seems like it's 1.5x scale. We found a spot, and walked from there to my friend's house. When we got there, my friend was half-naked with two women in his bed. He didn't want to open the door because the women were there, but I blackmailed him, telling him that if he didn't open the door, he'd go to jail. He finally opened the door...

As I stepped through the door, it was like going back in time. I was suddenly back in the car, looking for a place to park. I pulled into the parking garage, parked the car, and we left the building, but I realized I needed to go back for some reason. I remember something about a large locker that I needed to make sure would be safe. I don't know why I didn't just leave it in the car... It may have been strapped to the top of the car, and I was worried someone would take it. So I took it down from the top of the car, and set it upright next to the car, looking around. I go up to the second floor (the car was parked on the first floor) and it has become this sort of posh-looking waiting room. It seemed very 90's to me, if that makes sense. I asked someone if there were lockers to keep belongings in (why put a locker inside another locker: I don't know), but she said there weren't any, and I went back down to the level my car was on.

But the first level had become this weird basement storage area. Lots of old doors and windows were all over the place, leaning up on walls. The space was narrow and a bit claustrophobic, and I left without looking for the car and locker.

I found my friends waiting for me outside the structure, and we went to our friend's house again. I noticed that his apartment building looked like my IRL apartments on the outside, but on the inside it was arranged differently; each floor was basically a stretched octagonal room with doors on each of the corners (so, think of a rectangle with the corners chopped off and doors put there). We waited at his door for about ten minutes and he wasn't opening it at all, and we couldn't hear anything from inside. I started to wonder if he was dead or asleep or something, and we left.

On the way back to the garage, I had picked up an alcoholic beverage, and accidentally opened it before I remembered I was going to be driving really soon. I couldn't reseal it, so I tried to hide it. When we got back to the garage, it was still a bit off; it was about half-way between the way it originally was and how it had been the second time, if that makes sense. So it still had aspects of both versions. I found my car and the locker, put the locker back on top of the car, and just as I was about to get into the car, a police officer came up and started talking to me. I had the drink in my hand, and the cop noticed, but didn't seem at all worried about it.

I said, "You're not going to give me a ticket or a warning or anything? This is alcoholic, you know..."
"Nah, it's not a big deal."
"Really...."
"Yup. Just, you know, drive extra carefully," and he nudged me conspiratorially with a grin and wink.
It was super weird and creepy so I got in the car and left, then woke up.



Playground of HORROR

I was with an old friend; we were children. We were on a playground that was deserted except for us. Everything was gray...

We climbed through one of those tunnels on the jungle-gym, and then she suggested we climb up onto something that I can't remember the name of. She called it something specific... It was this big contraption... It's hard to describe, but I'll try. I was basically four polls sticking high into the air, and at the top was a sort of upside-down bowl with handles along the rim. There were ladders along the four polls.

We climbed up and were crawling on top of the bowl, and then my friend told me to grab on tight to one of the handles along the rim, and I did... then she did the same on the exact opposite side, and it started to spin. It wasn't so bad at first, since it was just spinning on a horizontal axis, but then it started spinning vertically too, so I was upside down ad left and right and all over the place, and even when I knew I was oriented normally, it felt like I was hanging up, as if gravity was all messed up. It was terrifying and I was screaming for it to stop. It didn't stop, and my hands were getting tired, and I was terrified that if I let go, I would be thrown into space and die, but when my hands gave up and let go, I was gently set back on the ground by some unseen and unknown dream force.
Then I woke up.

June 24, 2014

---

I didn't remember ANY dreams from the night. That made me sad. It's understandable though, since I'm adjusting to a new sleep schedule (thank you Graduate School!)

But, I did take a nap, and remember snippets of a dream:


I was with at least Zukin and one other, though I don't remember who it was. The other person was driving us around in a car or an ATV of some sort. We drove through a really winding, up-and-down path through various landscapes. Part of it was through thick woods with very little light getting through the canopy, part was through an open savannah-type field, part was on a rocky ocean coast...

Zukin was getting MAJORLY car-sick, so we stopped for a bit and talked to some random people that happened to be there, but I don't remember anything about what we discussed or even what kind of people or how many of them there were.

Then we had to get going, because we had to drive back in time for something-or-other. We got back in the vehicle and started on the drive back: It was now dark, and the road seemed MUCH narrower than it had been before, and I began to wonder if we had accidentally taken the wrong road... But all the same landmarks were there.

At some point toward the end of the dream, there was a large vehicle coming toward us. The headlights were super bright, and it was going pretty fast, but whoever was driving our vehicle didn't seem worried... Then I woke up.