One Must Imagine Sisyphus Happy

I'm not sure if this was one dream or two. I recalled them together and they had a connected plot. I was really mad at the end. Like really, really mad! The emotion lingered for a while after waking up. I rarely feel anger, so on the occasion that I do, it's almost a welcome experience.

Mall Shops, Cheats
I'm in a competition with Lance. We are owners of small shops in a shopping mall. The competition is to own more shops than the other. Apparently, it's just a computer program because I easily find how to cheat by editing my character data. I give myself all the max stats and money. Lance and I both use this cheat. We quickly realize that this ruins the fun of it. So agree to not cheat. Lance buys a bar that sits in the middle of the mall and gets a lot of foot traffic.

I write a program to make money off the bar for Lance. I am reluctant because I know the game is so easy to cheat that someone will use my program to steal money. But I do it anyway. I finish and decide to have a few drinks.

Work From Home, Fire
I have a false awakening. I still feel tipsy from the drinks of the previous dream. I must not have slept very long. I am in an apartment but it's nothing like my waking life. I look at a clock: 12:56 in the afternoon. I check my laptop. There's an urgent IM from work from just a few minutes ago. The producer wants me to shut down the bar program that I wrote in the previous dream. As I expected, someone is exploiting it to steal money.

I'm glad I woke up just in time. I know what to do, I just need to change a few lines of code and upload it to the server. But now I become aware of two other people in my apartment. One is Garrett (an ex-coworker that I didn't like). The other is a young woman who I don't recognize but seems familiar. I intuit that she is my roommate so she has a right to be here and Garrett is her guest. It occurred to me that maybe it was my sister, but the girl was definitely blonde. Anyway, they are chit chatting about nothing in particular in the kitchen. I need to work so I'm annoyed that they are disturbing me.

I carry my laptop to the kitchen and place it on the stove top. I forgot the power cable. I fetch the power cable from and plug the laptop into a power socket that is oddly on the edge of the counter near the stove. I forgot the network cable. I search the apartment for it. As I search, Garrett and the girl and collecting their coats to leave. I am silently relieved that I will have some peace to work.

Still searching in another room, I overhear them conversing. It turns out they decided not to leave. Instead they have the sudden urge to have sex. My reaction is "ugh, great...." It is a surprise because I intuited that the girl wasn't attracted to Garrett. Still, my reaction is mostly one of indifference and mild annoyance.

They are having sex on the floor next to a closet with sliding doors. I see the network cable on the floor in the closet. I careful step around them, trying not to touch them. I say something sarcastic like "don't mind me and don't let me interrupt your garden-variety sex while I get this wire." Garrett becomes enraged by what I said, especially the words "garden-variety." He gives the girl a few final thrusts and finishes. Then he stands up and confronts me. I ignore him and take the cable to the kitchen.

Garrett follows me and continues to yell and spew. I plug the cable into the laptop on one end and into the freezer on the other. I realize in the moment that this is strange but not enough to become lucid. Garrett throws something heavy at me. I dodge the projectile and it hits the stove top. Garrett storms off and out the door. Good riddance.

I turn to look at the stove and see that the gas knobs are damaged. A small flame is lit from each of them. I think if I can just turn them off then I can safely shut of the gas and get it repaired. I reach with my hand but quickly pull it back; too hot. I find a broom handle and reach with it to tap the knobs. The flame only grows. It's clear to me that the damage is increasing and will soon become disaster. I see on the wall above the stove the two master gas line valves. They aren't on fire yet. I try to reach them with the broom stick but I can get the leverage to rotate the valve with just a stick.

I start to panic. I can't stop this. The whole apartment is going to catch fire. I think of my roommate and worry for her safety. I intuit that her name is Laura or Lauren. I call for her to see if she is still in the apartment. I need to get everyone out before the fire gets worse. The glow from the gas flames gets brighter and brighter. I need to call the fire department. Wait, I think, I might have a fire extinguisher. Let me try that as one last chance to avert disaster. I scramble around the kitchen, searching the cabinets for the fire extinguisher. The metal of the stove now is glowing red hot. It looks ready to explode. By now, I feel more anger than panic. This is all Garrett's fault! I decide I should just run to get the heck out of there. Wake

WILD Bar
Method WILD
Lucidity C
Vividness C
Control C
I start by falling through the bed. Ahhh, falling backward in darkness feels so pleasant. I let myself fall for a while because I know, if I force myself into a scene too early, it's too unstable. So I'm falling and looking at my hands. After about 20 seconds, I feel pretty stable and visualize my destination: the bar I was at yesterday. The scene appears, just as I imagined. And... I fall through it. Must remember to stop falling. I try again, this time I imagine myself landing in the bar stool. And voila, I'm there. That's probably my most successful scene summoning to date.

So, my plan was to re-enter this scene from real life from that same day and see what happens. I'm at the bar and the bartender is in front of me. She asks me if I want a drink. I order a Bloody Mary and she hands it to me instantly. I look down at the drink and it's bright red. Lovely. But then something weird happens with my vision. It's like I can only see things below me. Everything at eye-level and above is just black. At this point I'm a bit annoyed at that and I've lost track of my original plan.

Things get hazy and I don't recall the rest in as much detail. I turn to my left and see a woman sitting in the stool next to me. Well, just the bottom half of a woman (but that's the only half that matters, amirite? no jk jk). I think I tried to talk to her. Then I stand up and walk to my left, toward the dining room of the restaurant. It's crowded with people. Along the right wall, I see an overweight woman. I walk up to her and try to ask her something. Dream ends.

Beer Is Dangerous
I'm in a classroom of my college campus. In the middle of the room, there is a stage made of blue beer cases (Bud Light I think). And some guy is standing on it, making a speech. Behind the stage is a wall of beer cases. There are some guys behind the wall, pushing it until it tips over and heavy beer cases fall on the guy making the speech.

This makes me really upset more than concerned. I shout with disgust, "Ugh, call 911!". Then I mock the guys who caused the accident: "Uh hi, 911? Yeah, we have an emergency. A tower of heavy beer cans fell on a guy. Yeah. How did it happen? Oh, we pushed the cans. Yeah. On purpose."

The guy is unconscious but he has a pulse and he is breathing. The police and paramedics show up. I am still really angry. The paramedics load the guy into an ambulance. I am talking to the police, trying to get the other guys arrested. "It's assault, right? The wall of beer was a deadly weapon." The guys are all quiet and worried that they are going to jail for such a stupid prank.

There were more dreams but didn't write them down and can't recall them now.

Caribbean
I am on a Caribbean island. I'm in a quaint little tourist town. I am at a train station which also has some tourist shops and a club. It's evening. I wander around the train tracks as a woman's voice makes an announcement over a loudspeaker. I seem to be circling the same area and walking past the same groups of people over and over. I'm wearing a blue baseball cap which is uncomfortable so I keep trying to adjust it.

Eventually I walk into the building and look for the club. There's no bar at the club. Instead, a few doors down is a convenience store that sell beer by the bottle, so people buy the drink there and then walk to the club. The store floors, walls, and counters are all wood, rough and unpainted like driftwood. There are two women behind the counter. I order a Bud Light from one. She asks me to wait. Next to me is an awkward teenage boy who orders a "Delight" which I intuitively know is a non-alcoholic beer.

The two store clerks are busy helping another customer, a woman. She is Asian and very pregnant. She is in some kind of discomfort and is looking for a specific ointment to rub on her chest. They finally find it and give it to the customer, with the warning to "go easy with it."

Now finally one of the women turns to me and serve me my drink in a bottle and the kid's drink in a glass. The kid walks away. I am distracted, watching the pregnant woman open the bottle of ointment and take a whiff of it. Then she pours some on to her chest on top of her clothing. The store clerk warns her again: "please, go easy with it."

Then the clerk turns back to me and starts a conversation. "So what's your plan with that beer?" (not a bad opener). She is thin with long wavy blonde hair. I'd guess she is a bit older than me. She reminds me of the blonde character from Lost, whose name I don't recall. I say, "I was going to take it over to the club, see how it is." Her: "Nah, that club is no fun." Me: "Well then maybe I'll just chug the beer and go back to my hotel." Her: "But then you won't have seen any of the Caribbean." At this point I realize how poorly I have read the conversation. I try to think of something flirtatious to say, but the mental strain makes the dream end.

Catching up from a few days away without Internet.

"F*** you, but nice sweater!"
0855: Hugh takes a job at my company. He has something to do with the reactor. There is a meeting in the office and the CEO is talking to Hugh. Then my desk is moved to the left turn lane of a street intersection. Now I walk to the reactor. Something about Iranians and a school. Now the buildings seems like a college campus with an impressive library overlooking a grassy area with trees. Group of people waiting for a large gathering. They are practice their speeches that they will give before the crowd. They are all young adults, like college students. I sit down ... map. ... I say "fuck you, but nice sweater!" He falls on is chair. I find a colleague I know and we laugh.

Ugly Glasses, Soccer
1014: Playing soccer with a mix of coworkers and high school classmates. One guy shows off his new glasses. I see they are way too thick and unattractive. I think at first to be polite, but I realize it's better that I tell him the truth that his glasses look ridiculous. The soccer game is on a grassy area in front of a building that looks like a old church or library. There are trees and water fountains in the middle of the play area so people have to run around. They are tripping on the roots of the trees. Our team scores. Then I get the ball alone with a long way to dribble toward the goal.

short WBTB+MILD

Tequila and Stuff
Method DILD
Lucidity D
Vividness C
Control D
1103: I don't recall how I became lucid. Nor did I stop to think of my plan. I mostly just observed this lucid dream. I'm outdoors at night. I am in a grassy area near a building. There's also sidewalk around the building. Reminds me of a spot on my old college campus. The area is lit by street lamps and lights around the building. There are a few people around and I am chasing them, like we are playing tag. I intuitively think that two of them are twin girls and they are both my wives. I grow tired of running and spot chasing them.

Now, the buildings near me seem to be restaurants and bars. There are impressive full length windows and outdoor patios. I walk up to the entrance of one building and it's a bar. There is a line of people waiting to get in. I pull a bill out of my pocket and smoothly hand it to the bouncer as I walk past the line and straight in. It's crowded with people inside with low lighting. I walk around the bar hurriedly, looking for anyone I recognize, but I don't find anyone. I come around to the bar and squeeze in to get the attention of the bartender. The bar is really high but with a glass case. It reminds me of the case in a Starbucks or a donut shop. Anyway, I order two shots of tequila (strange, I'd never order that IWL). I shoot one immediately. I take the other glass and walk away from the bar. I walk toward the front door. I shoot the second glass and toss it away. I step outside, back on to the sidewalk and start looking at the people around. I see people coming out of the restaurant next door. I hear music play as I start to approach a girl. She is wearing pink knee-high socks that catch my attention. Dream fades.

Cats
Method DILD (absurdity)
I'm indoors, in a room, talking to someone. Maybe my sister? Oreo, my old cat from years ago is here. She bites me arm and stretches my skin with her grip. My skin stretches unrealistically. This is weird. I must be dreaming. I RC to confirm. Ok, I'm lucid. Remember plan: Summon B. I walk out of the room to a hallways. From the hallway, I see windows to other rooms. I try to imagine B in one of those rooms. But I fail to summon her. I wake up.

Weird Weapon
1228: I think I am with H's younger brothers. They show me an interesting weapon. It's a gun. You load it with a coin, such as a dime. It fires the dime and the bullet bounces against a soda machine. It bounces back and melts. It comes back to the barrel of the gun and turns into a bullet. You turn a crank to fire the gun. Larger coins, like a quarter, make larger bullets. I show this to Justin, who is a bit of a gun nut. He turns the crank really hard and the gun fires so hard that it breaks the soda machine and breaks the cycle.

Then there is some religious ceremony that is disturbed now that the gun is temporarily broken. People are upset because they has expectations for the religious ceremony.

Then I am with friends at a football stadium. The game just ended and we are leaving. They want to stop at the arcade to play a fighting game. I would only want to play Hearts, but they don't want too.

fragment
Roommate's mail has a case of beer. It's in his school locker. I move it to the mail slot. Then at a gas station. To activate the pump, you have gesture with a smile and thumbs up.

So I'm trying to get back focused on my tasks. My lucid rate has been ok lately but they have all been kinda aimless and accidental. I want to get into my fun and rewarding tasks. Didn't actually succeed in any this night, but it was a good effort so I feel good about it.

First Cycle Randomness
0755: B. First cycle. Bunch of randomness here. Not sure of the order. I'm in an airport, picking up lots of loose change. I think there was just a party of something and there's a bunch of change left. There are also pushpins with people's names written on them. I think the one I read said Bill. I am careful to keep the coins and pins separate. Then my father is here and he's haggling with a man to buy a coin sorting machine. I really want him to buy it to make my job easier. The fact that he's haggling over the price makes me think he is cheap. Then I'm talking to my father about the pushpins and the names on them. They were part of some party event where each person is given a pin and you're suppose to find the person whose name is on it. Or something like that. My father and I are talking about the psychology of it. Something about how people's anticipation always leads to disappointment and therefore people's happiness is always going down. Weird. Then I'm at another party or maybe back to the party that started it all. A group of people are sitting on couches around one guy. He looks like a frat boy with a backwards hat and t-shirt. They are talking about the pushpin game. He's bragging about how good he is at these party games. Last time, the game was to annoy people and he won four times in a row. He also has his own internet video feed on him all the time called "HD Hale." Then I'm watching a TV commercial for MetLife with a statue at the top of a building. The voice-over is talking about how they have solid investments on Mars. The statue is of Abraham, Jesus, and 4 other monks holding torches. But then the commercial turns into a comedy skit. Jesus is now Robert Downey Jr. and he's talking to the Abraham statue, who is played by someone named Carmack. He's saying, "Hey Carmack, why do you always get to be the father of God?"

Street Fighter Documentary
0927: C. Hugh is watching a documentary about Street Fighter. The original stages were in an underground hideout of a gang called the Panthers. But they abandoned it because it was radioactive. Then it talks about the possibility of a sequel and what will happen to the characters after many years. I see an older Ryu with his face starting to wrinkle and his hair starting to go gray. It says Blanka won't be around because he can't have children.

Counter-Strike, Lucid
Method DILD (spontaneous)
Lucidity B
Vividness B
Control C
0949: Very quick time from the previous dream. I'm in a game of Counter-Strike. I must be T because all my enemies look like CTs. A guy is camping upstairs in a building with the Para machine gun. I sneak in through a window and kill him. I take his machine gun and start camping the same building. I'm at the top of a stairway, overlooking the front room of the building which has a front door and several broken windows. Many CTs try to attack me from this front door and windows. One has a shield. But I mow them all down with my machine gun.

As I'm doing this, I sense that I'm narrating the action in my head. It's as if I'm trying to help myself recall this later for my dream journal. Now one more enemy comes to the front door with a flashbang in his hand. He throw it up the stairway and it goes off near me. This sudden flash combined with the self-narration makes me lucid. I stop fighting. I walk down the stairs and outside. I still see the CT enemies around but they are just standing still doing nothing.

I look at the scenery. Vividness is pretty good. It's bright day. It seems like a small town in France or Italy with cobblestone streets and stone buildings. I'm in a large city square or courtyard, with impressive buildings on three sides and a street lead up a hill to the north. I've been walking up the street on the slight incline of the hill. I start to remember my plan. I rub my hands and look at them to stabilize. Feels pretty good. Next task: summon music. For some reason, I think I should be indoors for this. I turn around and see one of the buildings. It's an old stone church with stained glass windows. Think Notre Dame. It's beautiful and vivid. I start walking toward it, but the dream fades.

More Gunfighting
1108: B. It starts a bit like the end of the last dream. I'm in a quaint European town, but now it's near the ocean. I'm in a large courtyard again. In one direction there looks to be a shipyard. In the middle of the shipyard is a futuristic airplane that looks like a giant green and purple hornet. Hugh is here and I guess it's his plane. He's sort of like Batman and the hornet plane is like the Bat-Mobile. Hugh says he just got all the armor upgrades for it. He gets in and it flies way.

Skip. The scene is now similar to the beginning of the previous dream. I'm in an old building that feels like a church. I'm on the second floor balcony that overlooks the large room below. I'm alone with a machine gun and I'm fighting off enemies below. This time, I think they look like marines from Starcraft. After a wave, I am reinforced by my friend H who leads a small group of his own marines. He says we need to move out. Before leaving, I pull out my dream journal, lay on the ground (still in the dream), and start writing in it about this dream.

Bus Station, Failed Task, The Moon and Mars
Method DILD (false awakening)
Lucidity C
Vividness C
Control C
1201: I think I am in a suburb of New York City. I am near the river at a bus station. It's early morning and it's mostly light but the sun isn't fully up yet. I'm looking around for someone or something, not sure what. There are a few DCs around and in the booth selling tickets. I walk all the way around the building and give up on what I was looking for. I am wearing a black sweatshirt and sweatpants but white shoes. I exit the bus station through a chain link fence. I get on a skateboard and start skating away toward a residential neighborhood.

False awakening. I'm in an unfamilar bedroom with very little furniture. I'm sleeping on a cheap cot. There's just a bit of morning sunlight coming through a window to my right. This is all wrong so I become lucid and back it up with a nose-plug RC. But for some reason I question whether I am really dreaming. I nose-plug several times, each time confirming that I am indeed dreaming.

So I finally accept that I'm dreaming and try to remember my plan. Rub my hands. Ok, I do that but I bit rushed. Summon music. The song I have in mind is "Free Bird" by Lynyrd Skynyrd. I imagine it in my head for a moment and expect it to keep playing on it's own. No. I try to will the universe to play it for me. No. I gesture with my hand, as if pressing a button on a remote control toward a stereo. No. Hmm. Not working. Discouraged, I abandon the rest of the plan.

Instead, I hop out the window and hover and land on the street. It's a quiet residential neighborhood, like in the scene before the FA. The street is framed with big trees whose leaves have turned orange and brown for the fall. The sun is just rising in the distance and the sky is still a bluish-black with stars visible. I can also see the moon and Mars, which is right next to the moon and almost as big. The colors are so rich and it's a beautiful scene. I think to fly to the moon or maybe fly to Mars instead. I run and jump and get some height but then halt. It's like my rockets ran out and I slowly drift back down to the ground. Now I'm stuck and I start the feel my physical body. I can feel the sleep paralysis and so now my dream body can't move. Even my neck is stiff but I'm still looking up toward the moon and Mars. I know I'm waking up soon and I can't move, so I start bring the moon down to me! I pull the moon closer with my mind and it's getting bigger and bigger. It's about to fill my view and crash into the Earth when I wake up.

Zerg, Driving, Bar
1247: C. Was patrolling for Zerg (Starcraft again). I found some but forget to write down where on the map. (I think that was a false memory in the dream and I didn't actually experience it.) Anyway, I'm beating myself up for that mistake. Now I'm driving home in my car. The street looks like the area around my real office. I want to stop at a bar. I have to make a left turn into the parking lot and I have to wait a while as other cars are pulling out of the lot. I think I cut someone off. I walk into the bar and it's very small. Everything is wood paneled. I accidently bump into a guy near the door. He's with a group of rowdy people. They must be college students and I want to avoid them. I walk to the bar area. The stools are all out of place. I pick up one and place it at the bar and sit down. I'm sitting next to a middle-aged guy to my right. I think he says hello to me. There are two bartenders which I think is weird for such a small bar and only a few people inside. They are both young guys with short black hair. One says hello to me and asks what I want. I think for a moment and order a Corona Light (which I though was weird because I'd probably never order that in a real bar). Dream fades.

fragment
I buy a building and fill it with arcade games and stuff to make it a rec room for me and friends. Friends are playing video games on a big screen TV. There's a fridge full of beer and I install a mounted bottle opener in the fridge. Then I buy a different building? Then Ben is showing me this long document he made. He's arranging a deal with his former high school.

Poor recall.

fragment
Playing MWII, shooting people in the throat and letting them choke on their own blood.

Enjoyed a lot of alcohol the evening before, so no recall for the first several hours. Then I had some REM rebound and recalled these short dreams. In bed for a total of 12 hours.

Chelsea Clinton Playing Lacrosse
0527: C. I have to write a report on Chelsea Clinton. I am looking at the wikipedia page, but I am upset because someone deliberately removed all the images. Later I realize that it's just a written essay and I don't need images. Then I'm watching a women's lacrosse game on TV and Chelsea is the star of one of the teams. Her team is up 7-2 and she gets taken out to rest. The other team scores two quick goals to make in 7-4. I think I'm watching with my father.

GTA in SAV, Hangover
0630: D. I'm stealing cars and escaping cops in SAV, like Grand Theft Auto. Not much recall.

False awakening that I totally missed. I'm in my own bedroom and I'm still drunk (day residue). Everything is really weird, but I account for it as drunk stuff I did last night. I'm under the bed comforter but not under the sheets. I get up. I'm wearing a heavy jacket and a pair of swim trunks. My bedroom door is wide open. The water in the bathtub is running. I walk into my closet to change. I see something in the corner of my eye to my right. I think maybe it's my own reflection in a mirror. I move, but it doesn't which freaks me out. Turns out to be Dave who was hiding in my closet.

Comedy Show, Wrong Page
0808: D. I'm at a Dane Cook show in New York. In the first part, he's in front of a small crowd. Then as part of the big opening, this small section of seats separates and moves down into a large theater. Dane Cook continues with his act but it's like a classroom and everyone is following along with books and notes. I don't know what page we're supposed to be on and I panic. There's a girl sitting to my left and one in front of me. I guess we are in a group. They are upset with me and trying to get me to the right page. As I flip through the book, it becomes my dream journal. This happens a few times. Now Dane wants someone to read aloud from the book. We are at the far right of the theater and there is a microphone nearby. The girl to my left is supposed to read but she has lost the page too. I am embarrassed.

Touch Football, Libido
0921 D. I'm with a group of people. I sense they are friends but I don't recognize anyone in particular. We are in a convenience store, goofing off. Running through the aisles and knocking things off the shelves. The employees are upset. Then we divide into two teams to play football (day residue) in the middle of the store. I'm on a team of another guy and a girl. The other team is 4 guys. I don't think that's fair.

We have the ball first. Me and the other guy on my team alternate as quarterback. We basically ignore the girl and just pass to each other. The first time I catch the ball, I turn and see the other team running toward me. I think, wait, we said touch football, right? Not tackle, I hope? It's touch football and no one gets hurt. My team is successfully driving down the "field". The endzone is the freezers at the end of the store. I get the ball, run to the freezers, open the door, and place the ball inside among the frozen pizzas and ice cream. We win!

At some point I become lucid. I'm still in the convenience store but no longer in the group of friends. I have no control and the dream is not very vivid. I just know that I'm dreaming and there's no consequences for whatever I do. So my libido takes the lead. Naturally, I look around for the nearest woman and tear her clothes off. She looks to be in her thirties but I'm not bothered. Her underwear turns out to be some rather scandalous light purple lingerie. I move in and kiss her but this narrows my field of vision. I close my eyes and the dream fades away.

Lucid Supermarket, Libido
1021: C. I'm in my car, driving at night. I'm hungry and stop at a supermarket to get something to eat. The supermarket claims to specialize in lucid dreaming. I think at one point the store is called Lucida Monica Market. Then later it is La Lucida Market. But it's in Culver City (day residue), not Santa Monica. Inside it looks like a typical supermarket. I search up and down the aisles for something to eat but nothing seems appetizing. There are quite a few DCs browsing the aisles and also way too many DCs behind the counters working. It seems like they are all staring at me, waiting for me to ask for help. I feel a bit paranoid and shy.

Then I come to the aisle that is supposedly for lucid dreaming. The signs above mark the sections with various lucid dreaming topics. The one I remember is "Expectations". But the items in this section are just a bunch of mirrors, knick-knacks, and craft supplies. I struggle to see exactly how this is relevant to lucid dreaming.

Once again, I'm bored and my mind turns to sex but I'm not lucid as in the previous dream. I scan around me for the nearest woman. Like the food, nothing seems particular appetizing, so I continue to wander for a woman. Before long, the dream fades.

Poor sleep this night. Woke up with that temporary amnesia. I struggled for several moments to remember who I was, where I was, and how old I was. It kinda feel like my whole life was a dream and I need a few moments to start recalling it.

I want to say this non-lucid dream was an hour long. It just kept going and going. And in cycle 2? Vividness was only average or below. It was memorable, but kinda boring at the same time. I'm just going to skim over it here yet it's still a wall of text.

B-Complex vitamin one hour before bed, drank natural apple juice

Longest Dream Ever
0637: B.
Paradoxical Architecture and Drug Party
I'm in a strange building with several floors and many staircases. It's hard to get to the room you want because each staircase takes you to a different place than you expect. I'm living here while going to college but I'm moving out soon, I'm trying to find someone to take my apartment. Then there's a family that moves in and I befriend their young 10-year-old son. Lots of deja vu feeling here.

Then I'm hosting a few friends in this strange apartment and we are doing drugs. Then it turns into a formal party for a community of strictly kosher Jews. Everyone is doing drugs and talking about being kosher. Then the landlord shows up and I'm supposed to give him the keys. But I remember the drugs in the bedroom so I sneak back in and put them in a briefcase. I run away from the building with my friends.

Mugged and Suspected
Now I'm alone, walking on the main street of a small town. Reminds me of Monterrey. Instead of a briefcase of drugs, I'm now holding a bottle of whiskey, open and half empty. I sense there are cops around and also a criminal. I let the criminal steal the bottle out of my hand as he runs by. The cops stop me. They think that I gave the criminal the bottle, like a planned exchange. They think it's hard drugs dissolved in water. But I'm so scared and clueless that they realize I'm no criminal and they let me go.

Bear-Lion Mating Season
Now I'm walking with the friends again and we still have the drugs. We're in the middle of nowhere on a dirt path through some grassy hills. We stop and one girl snorts it all. She turns into a bear-lion kind of thing. Looks like the head of those big Chinese lion parade costumes with the big floppy mouth. She has thick black fur like a bear. The rest of us stand back, not sure what to do. A male bear-lion appears nearby and stares at the female, as if to mate. I try to make eye contact with my friend to see what she's thinking. She can't speak. I think perhaps she is afraid of the male and wants my help. She gestures with her eyes, which I interpret to mean "you guys leave, I'll stay". So I leave and the male pounces on her.

Now I'm walking alone toward the nearest town. I see my bear-lion friend running down a hill toward the same town. I chase after her. She seems upset and I figure out that she didn't want me to leave. She wanted my help. Her eye gesture actually meant "let's all run that way." Now she won't forgive me. As we arrive in the town, she turns back into a woman. I plead with her but she'll never forgive me.

Dalai Lama in a Diner
Then, I'm sitting in a diner with Lance. He is reciting a quote from the Dalai Lama with a perfect voice impression. The quote (which seemed real, but I looked it up and couldn't find it IWL) is about idea of spiritual salvation contrasted with the distractions of modern culture. At the very end, Lance is just staring at me intently and I let the quote and the whole dream just sink in for a moment.

I slept GREAT last night. Zeo game me a score of 94, compare to my average of 68. I slept 9 hours total with 3h 48m in REM sleep in 6 cycles. That's a lot of dreaming!

I took the B-Complex vitamin one hour before bed and took a relaxing hot bath to meditate and adjust my body temperature for sleep. Tonight's dreams weren't as vivid as yesterday. Maybe the apple juice was the difference? But they were really really long. The three that I recalled seemed at least 30 minutes long each. I wrote a while page of notes for each and could still recall more detail that I didn't bother to write down. In fact, they were so long and not very interesting that I'm going to cut them short here.

Gordon Ramsey's Love Troubles
0503: B. Gordon Ramsey guest stars on a TV sitcom, maybe The Big Bang Theory. Gordon is a roommate with the dorky guys and there another group in the next door apartment as well. It's too crowded and someone says "Someone has to go back to Poland!"

Then scene changes to outside a nightclub with Gordon and the roommates. His part is to approach a shy girl and ask her for a date as a prank. She is supposed to be charmed because he's so famous. But she isn't interested and the prank backfires. Gordon is surprised and humbled. There's a taxicab in the scene.

Then the scene starts over but now it's "real" life and not the TV show. Gordon does the same thing of approaching a shy girl and gets rejected. He's humbled and goes into the club. A really hot redheaded woman meets him and comforts him. But then she finds out it was a prank and she's really really upset and leaves. Gordon is now completely devastated.

Then the dream really jumps around. There's a parking lot and a staircase. It leads to a college dormitory with a rec room. Gordon is in the rec room with a TV, arcade games, and a giant touch-screen computer thing. Some college students are in there watching TV. Now I am the main character in first-person instead of Gordon in third-person. Lance is looking for me but I am avoiding him. The students in the rec room cover for me.

Exchange Student
0651: B. I'm an exchange student living with a foster family. It seems like I'm still in the US though. The first part of the dream jumped around a lot. I'm supposed to film a TV commercial with this family. Then I'm making some kind of cake and pudding desert. But when I try to flip the pudding out on top of the cake, it spills on the floor and I feel bad because it's someone else's kitchen. Then the foster family has a bunch of kids and they are leaving for school but I stay at home. One kid, a girl of about 7, turns around and comes back into the house, refusing to go to school. There are a bunch of mothers from the neighborhood standing in the kitchen. Meanwhile, I am eating something in the living room and spill some red sauce on the couch. I feel bad again and clean it up with a giant beach towel.

Scene changes and now I'm in Japan with a different family. It's the first day of school and the student body is in the gym. We receive our grades from the previous year. I am afraid I failed but I get a B. Then I'm walking with the foster family toward a restaurant to celebrate.

Scene changes and I'm in a restaurant but now I seem to be in Mexico with yet another foster family. I sit alone in a booth away from the family. I order a hamburger and whiskey. I finish them and order another. A few teenage girls sit at my booth but ignore me while I eat. Then I ask who they are and what is going on. One has her face painted white like a geisha. She says it's a holiday and tells me the name in Spanish. I ask what it means and she says in English "Ten Years and Two Days."

False awakening. I roll over to write in my dream journal. I note the time is 1137 and my previous entry was at 10 something. But the light coming through the window is too dim for that time. I think, wait, is it really that late? Then I wake up for real.

short WBTB

Work Retreat
0825: B. I'm at work and a few people just got laid off. One was the other Michael, so I'm the only Michael left. I joke about this with coworkers that there won't be any more confusion.

Then everyone at work goes to a small restaurant out in the middle of a nowhere on a small rural road. It looks like a lodge. I ride along with Lance and we park across the street. Everyone is given sweatshirt and pants randomly in blue, gray, or black. We watch a movie about color and light and supposedly we have to study for a test on it next week. Then we watch some other movies made by people at work. Ex-employee Garrett is there and I avoid him. He made a film where he's looping a belt through the skin around his waist. It reminds me of a surrealist film.

Then it's time to go so I try to find my sweatshirt in the big pile of identical ones that people have left. Other people are also searching through the pile. There are other people in the restaurant. They seem like a biker gang and I feel nervous. I just grab a matching pair of small blue sweater and pants and leave. I'm going to ride again with Lance but I fall behind as we're running outside. He crosses the road before me. It's dusk and the highway has many cars going very fast with their headlights on. I try to cross a few times but turn back because I almost get run over. Then I walk to a narrower part of the road where there is just 2 lanes and cross.

I meet with Lance and there is also the other Michael who is going to ride with us. People from work have divided into their cliques in the parking lot and are talking and gossiping.

Drank some beer last evening so no recall until the second half of the night, but wow what a night.

Freaky Room
0652: C. I'm laying in a bed at one end of a long room. It's almost pitch dark. I can just make out the silhouette of some bedroom furniture and I sense there is a doorway at the far end of the room. A creepy little girl is running around the room. Her face glows like a dim candle. As she gets near me I'm a little frightened. Maybe I'm a little lucid because I tell myself this is just a dream and I should just stay calm and watch. The girl giggles and says "Come, you should see!" And then she exits the room through the door. I still haven't moved. Then I see a large man sitting at the far end of the room. His face is also glowing dimly. He stands up and slowly walks toward me at a zombie's pace. As he gets close, he stretches one arm out toward me as if he intends to grab me. I'm afraid and turn away, still laying in the bed. Dream fades.

Bridgette?
0733: C. I'm in a dark room. Seems like a bedroom. There's some light coming through a door near me that leads to a hallway. I think I'm looking for something in a dresser. A girl walks in and asks for my help. At first, she seems to be Bridgette, a very attractive coworker IWL. She's talking about a forum post about collecting all the images from the game loading screens. She's holding a piece of paper and she wants me to burn it for her. I tell her this is a dream. Again, maybe I'm a little lucid but the vividness and control are low. She says, "Oh, I'm dreaming with you?" I get a closer look and she looks Asian, which Bridgette is not. I say, "Yeah, help me take of my shirt." She does but as the shirt lifts over my head it blocks out my vision and the dream ends abruptly.

Kiting Sleep
0830: D. For about 30 minutes, I'm drifting in and out of sleep, false awakenings, wake, and hallucinations. Here's a bunch of fragments, I'm not sure which was which. I'm calling this "kiting" for lack of a known term. Some fragments were lucid, so I'm counting this as one lucid dream.

Watching two people play chess. The person playing white is making illegal moves but no one else notices and I don't say anything.

FA in my own bedroom. I hear music coming from my computer. It's not supposed to be on. I recognize the artist is Jimmy Eat World.

Riding in a car with my father driving. It's his old pickup truck. We are exiting a covered parking lot. Maybe a sports stadium. He's arguing something. I say this is a dream and I'm just going to fly away to avoid him. I try to jump through the roof of the car but fail.

I'm at a store paying for something. I pull out a black Visa card. Supposedly it's a "Visa HILL" card and it's very hard to get so I must be a VIP customer. The cashier is impressed.

My underwear is on backwards.

Sisyphus in Wonderland, Dream Guide?!
0930 A! This was an incredibly weird and memorable lucid dream. It's much more fantasy and strangeness then my average dreams.

FA. I'm in a bedroom. It's mostly dark. The room is arranged a bit like my real room. But there is a TV mounted on the far wall where there shouldn't be. I become lucid early on but my control is poor at the beginning. My father is in the room and we're arguing again. I'm so sick of this recurring theme with my father. I'm aware in the dream that I've already been through this on same night. I tune him out and think what I want to do now that I'm lucid and have some control.

I get outside somehow. It's night outside in a residential neighborhood. But the houses and trees are all cartoonish colors. The trees are purple and blue. The houses are crazy colors like yellow and red. It looks like something out of Dr. Seuss or Alice in Wonderland. But since it's dark, the bright colors aren't as noticeable and it seems somewhat realistic. The street is dimly lit with street lamps and moonlight. I walk in the middle of the street to the corner of the block, still upset and without a plan. At the corner, there is a building that looks like a drive-thru fast-food restaurant. On top of the building is a big neon sign styled in black and white with a font like Corner Bakery. The sign reads "difficulty, inc." which I think is kinda funny.

My father is following me and we start fighting with our bare hands. I try to fly away but he can fly too. My flying sucks today. I can hover fine but I can only thrust by pushing off things for short distances. We're still wrestling in the air and through the neighborhood. After a minute or two I am fed up and just try to fly away. The dream starts to feel unstable. I land next to a brick building with vines growing on the walls. I feel the vines and brick to get some sensory stability. But I still wake up.

I try to DEILD. I'm imagining the same scene, trying to re-enter. I'm about to give up, but I hear my father's voice describing the scene. He says things like "brick wall, restaurant down the street, grassy lawn" and this helps me get back into the scene. As soon as I'm back, I'm fighting with him again. But now I'm just walking away, trying to ignore him. When he gets close, I push him a way and continue walking. I don't want to waste any more of my lucid dream on him so I start spinning to teleport away. I try so hard that I wake up and turn my physical neck. At least I think I was awake. I'm in my bed and stop moving my head.

I try to DEILD again. Again, about 20 seconds pass and I'm about to give up. I'm about to switch to recalling earlier parts of the dream for my journal. But I suddenly feel like I'm going through a tunnel. I'm back in the dream. The edges of the tunnel turn into leaves and I find myself hiding in a bush peeking out through a hole in the leaves. It seems like time is going really fast around me for a few seconds. The tree leaves are rustling and street lamps are twinkling really fast like time-lapse photography. Things slow down to normal. I'm in the same dark cartoonish neighborhood but a different area. I'm in the middle of the quiet street. My father is gone and I'm in the deep in middle of the block where there are just houses, no restaurants or retail buildings.

Phew. Ok. Now, what to do? I start walking down the middle of the street, looking at the crazy colored trees and gingerbread houses. I see an old lady outside. I walk toward her but she enters her front door. I think of Mother Goose. I keep walking and start to see the end of the block in the distance. I see a paint store far off across the intersection that advertises two kinds of paint: "DRIED" and "WET". I think that's pretty funny and congratulate my subconscious for the joke.

Then a short goat-man jumps out at me from the shadow of the trees to my right. I'm startled but he quickly seems friendly. He's about 4 feet tall with goat legs and yellowish-brown fur. I guess he must be Pan from Greek mythology. He asks me what I'm doing. I remember my plan, I'm going to practice teleporting by spinning or opening doors. He says, "Cool! I'll try too!" And he starts spinning like a playful child. I start spinning as fast as I can. The world becomes a blur and unrecognizable. I slow down my I'm still in the same place in the same scene. Hmm, didn't work.

Another character approaches Pan and me. I don't get a good look at him, but I sense he is friendly and familiar. He says, "There's a portal in the boat" and points toward the nearest house. Later, recalling the dream, I think that maybe this character might have been my Dream Guide! I still don't recall what he looked like. Somehow though, I was left with three separate vague impressions: A man-size yellow dinosaur (think Barney), Homestar Runner, and Ronald McDonald. I lead the way as the three of us walk up to the house he pointed out. It's yellow with red trim. It looks like a life-size gingerbread house or a cartoonish McDonald's. The front door is only about 3 feet high and I get a strong Alice in Wonderland feeling.

I'm puzzled. This is a house, not a boat. There's a lunchbox next to the front door. I bend over to look at it. "Is this what I'm looking for?" No, I sense my DG gesturing into the house. I look in a window where I can see through to the backyard. I stoop down and we all walk through the small house to the backyard. In the middle of a small patch of grass, there's an inflatable kiddie pool with a plastic toy boat floating. Okay, this must be the boat but where's the portal and how I am supposed to get in such a small boat? DG says exactly what I'm thinking: "Shrink down to size." Okay, never done that before. I bend over to get a closer look at the boat and see a USB port on it with some text printed under it. I squint to read the words. My alarm goes off and wakes me up.

12-case of Stella Artois was on sale. How can one resist? Anyway, that's why recall was poor this night.

0237: D. I'm in a PE class. Reminds me of my elementary school but I'm an adult. I'm vacuuming leaves off the grassy field. The vacuum is strapped to my back like a leaf blower. The class can't leave until I've vacuumed all the leaves. (Am I crafting cheesy puns in my dreams?) The teacher and students are getting impatient with me.

0603: D. I'm in a movie-like scene. I'm with Robert De Niro and Joe Pesci. But their character names are Richard and something that starts with O. The scene is a like a cluttered warehouse or junk yard. It's a shootout. Our side is split into three groups taking cover behind barrels and junk. My view jumps between the three groups like a movie. We coordinate our attack with walkie talkies. We spring up and surprise the bad guys. They surrender.