Schmaven's Dream Journal of Randomness

Driving down the highway with my mom in the driver's seat, we're talking about things. You know, the usual update stuff that doesn't change much from week to week. My girlfriend comes up in the conversation at some point and my mom get's really jealous. I can tell she's really upset over something. She stops talking and just steps on the gas. Okay, so she's upset, that's fine I think as I watch the scenery whip by faster and faster.

I look over at her and she's practically in tears now as we pass 100 mph. I start to feel uncomfortable as she drives faster and faster. She and I are pretty well connected, and without saying a word, I just know that she's thinking, "If I can't have him, no one will" and that she's going to crash the car and kill us both. At this point we're going over 120 mph and I don't know what to do about this situation. I consider taking the wheel and spinning the car out of control to a stop, but since we're going so fast, that could be just as deadly as whatever she has planned. That's actually the only thing I think to do other than ride it out.

Maybe if I just sit here peacefully she'll have a change of heart before it's too late... I quietly hope as the situation gets super tense for me. I see a turn in the road with no guard rail, and a huge cliff over the edge. This must be where she's headed. That's okay though, we still have a few seconds for her to change her mind. No sooner do I think that than the car careens off the road and over the cliff. My stomach sinks, my hair stands on end, and I look out the window. Several hundred feet below I can hardly see the ground it's so far away. This is it, this is how my end finally comes I think as it dawns on me that there's no way out of this one.

Despite the distance, in a matter of seconds the car smashes into rocks below. The dash smashes my head and everything goes black after a brief white flash.

Gradually, some color starts to fade into my awareness and I find myself standing amidst massive crystals of every color, all arranged immaculately and beautifully. The most amazing sight I've ever seen! It all feels so peaceful as well.

I walk through the crystals as I sense some purpose for me. I don't know precisely what I am supposed to do, but I do know that I can't just stay put and kick off my shoes just yet. So I walk through a breathtaking crystal maze with glowing lights coming from just about every crystal. I don't know what I'm looking for, but I'm looking for something.

I reach a huge palace and dozens of really nice people greet me. They're all strangely familiar, yet I can't quite place how I know them. Also, they all seem so peaceful and happy, like everything is perfect, and they have no worries. They call out to me and we exchange small talk for a bit. It comes up that I can really do anything I want now. I think about this for a second and decide that the best thing I can do is show the example of someone attaining enlightenment, and refocus my mind on the spiritual path.

Everything starts to blur for a bit, and I reappear clearly firing a rocket at someone who is trying to steal a huge diamond from a bank. As I fire the rocket, I realize it's my mom! Somehow I manage to stop it from killing her and run over. She looks at me hesitantly, as I do the same to her. I don't know if I can let my guard down around her anymore after she just killed me. She apologizes for killing me and we talk about what happened after I died. She tells me that she survived the crash, but I didn't. It was deemed an accident, but she was really distraught over it for a long time. I tell her that it's okay, I forgive her. But it still might take me some time before I get in the car with her again.

She's okay with that.

I got home early, before everyone else got up, and rather than go up to my room, I decide to nap downstairs on the couch. The stairs are loud, and I don't want to wake the dog and have the dog wake everyone. It's just an hour and a half before everyone normally gets up, so I'll just nap on the couch until I hear someone, then I'll go to my room and go back to bed. That's my plan.

I find myself walking down a hallway, and come to an opening where I stand with a big group of people around a fountain or some other centerpiece. It occurs to me that I was just asleep on my couch, so I am definitely dreaming right now. Everyone looks at me. I look at everyone. The DCs look oddly familiar, but all just wait for me to do something. Rather than do anything, I just generate a loving feeling toward all of them. Then I make it stronger. I look at each DC again and feel a blissful tingling all through my body. It's like the more I love them, the stronger it gets. I enjoy this feeling for a while, then wake up.

Well that was nice, but I'm still tired, and it's still early, I think I'll close my eyes and rest until I hear someone again.

Now I'm standing up in my living room, and my sister (who is out of state) comes in, but 10 years younger than she is now. She's really upset at me for some reason. I'm not sure why. But I am sure that I was just laying down, and that she's older now, so I am definitely dreaming. I let her yell at me as I enjoy the relaxing peace of being in a dream where there is no reason to be offended, upset, or defensive about anything. I generate some love in my mind for my sister, and make it stronger and stronger until everything feels just amazing. She calms down, stops yelling, and I wake up again.

I hear someone in waking life this time, and get up to move to my hammock in my room. I wonder if my plan to get up and move when I heard someone was the main reason I had these lucid dreams, or if it was just due to the easy circumstances within the dreams themselves such as remembering I was just laying on the couch and now I'm not, or that my sister is in fact older than a toddler now. Maybe the plan to wake up at the first sign of noise put me in a lighter state of sleep that is more conducive for lucid dreams. I don't know.

Sitting in the living room on the couch by the fire, my friend is busy doing something with headphones on. I take my headphones off and they want to eat. I have a few shopping bags with various kinds of chicken and cabbage, but think it'll be too hot to cook it inside, even though frying it is the best. Rather than decide what to do, I pick up my guitar and start learning how to play. I don't remember the chords after 7 years. I make up what I think is the A chord, barring my first finger across the 2nd and 3rd strings of the 4th fret, and playing the 3rd fret of the 5th and 6th strings. I strum with my thumb as a pick, and then see a pick stuck in between the strings near where I'm strumming. Perfect! I use it and play the chord and then the individual notes of the chord to a peaceful rhythm. It sounds awesome. I find a chord diagram and stand up to play so I can see it, but without a guitar strap, I don't yet have the strength to hold the guitar and play it. The B chord is wonky. The diagram indicates that B is just the 1st and 3rd fingers on the 12th fret of the 2nd and 5th strings with the rest open. Seems too far along the neck to be right. Before I can play it, another friend comes in and does a really fast yoga routine right on the wood floor. Looks like a pro. I take in the moves for later reference: Cobra, Downward Dog, and others. Then I go back to playing with the too open because I'm always worried that everything I do is displeasing to others.

Having snuck into a hostile military base, I hide in the men's restroom as some soldiers pass by. Grabbing a mob and bucket, I act like the janitor, and exit the room, walking casually toward the middle of the huge building I'm in. I am grabbed from behind by a soldier, but wrestle free from his grip and run. Tackled by two other soldiers, they bind my hands in thick metal bars, just about as thick as my wrist is.

Roaring defiantly, I summon super-human strength and rip free from the shackles. Some soldiers see this and shoot at me. Pulsing with strength, the bullets bounce off my chest as I walk toward them and throw them across the room. More to get them to stop shooting than to kill them, but it was a hard toss. With some brief freedom, I try to think of why I came in here in the first place. Nothing coming to mind, I walk out, and see all my friends just lounging around on top of and leaning against the high walls of this building. Just enjoying the sunny day, they wave at me as I look for a spot to sit as well.

One of them calls out to me from atop the wall, "Aren't you forgetting something inside there?" as he points back into the large structure.

I suppose he could be right, so I go back in. Now abandoned, I walk right up to the middle, and see a glowing red and orange hole in the floor. It looks like it goes all the way down to the magma. It sure is hot. More pieces of the floor fall into it as the hole expands with a terrible rumbling and shaking like a demonic earth quake. The building seems like it is beginning to collapse now. I run through falling debris to get outside just in time for most of the building inside the walls to cave into the fiery pit.

Erupting from this massive hole, already about 1 mile across, is Satan. None other than the devil himself. The ground buckles up forming a giant crater around him as he rises to spectacular heights in the sky. Like a giant mountain, his torso sits upon a swirling vortex of fiery magma, as wide as the hole. His body appears to be composed of the same, all encased in some thick black spiky armor. Thicker than I am tall, it covers his whole torso, most of his arms, and also forms a horned helmet with slits for eye holes. Inside of the helmet just glows the color of a hot fire.

I suppose I am the one tasked with defeating him. I still have the capability of increasing my strength, but looking up at him now, it looks like quite the challenge.

My thoughts are interrupted by Satan's attack. He swings a large spiked mass. A mixture of whatever his armor is and liquid magma, all connected to a large chain. The school bus sized spiked mass lands with a loud thump as I jump out of the way. Swinging it so fast, it takes all I've got just to get out of the way in time. He laughs and swings again. I have hardly enough time to regain my footing before I sprint and dive out of the way again. Small craters where he has struck make it harder to move around.

I don't have any weapons at all other than my fists. I look around for anything I can use, and there is nothing. The sky swirls with dark gray clouds above Satan's head. He opens his mouth to reveal yet more flames and molten metal as he stares at me. Letting out a ground trembling roar, he swings again.

Since it seems rather hopeless, I decide to at least have fun with the situation at hand. I jump onto his weapon just as he pulls it back. Hanging on tightly, I soar back up to his level, about 2 miles above the ground. Jumping off at just the right time, I plant my feet on his left shoulder and kick off with all my strength toward his face. Crossing just in front of his helmet, I poke him in the eye with my finger as I laugh a bit.

This seems to only further aggravate him as he clenches his jaw and growls at me.

Saved by the alarm clock!

Aboard a cruise ship with some friends, it starts to motor around in a large bay, doing a slow circle around it, gradually speeding up. It starts going faster and faster. Now on the second lap around the bay, it's going dangerously fast, and can't turn sharp enough to maintain the circular path. I hear the engines rev even higher as the ship scrapes on some rocks on the port side as we turn starboard to stay in the water, still circling clockwise.

Then, the captain takes us right off a 500 ft waterfall, and the entire massive cruise ship does a 360 degree spin mid-air before landing in the water below. Then a sharp right hand turn as it skirts along a narrow river just above another cliff. I turn to my friend and say, "We just did a 360 in a cruise ship!"
"So what..." he replies as he shrugs his shoulders unimpressed.

I hold onto the railings on the deck of the cruise liner, not sure if the captain will jump this cliff too. He gently floats us down the river and into the ocean from there. We cruise across a big body of water and get dropped off on land on the other side.

After spending some time amongst the thick green trees in some amazing warm weather, two friends and I decide it is time to go back. The two of them jump in and start swimming. I am a little hesitant because my new cell phone is in my pocket, but jump in anyway. It's water-resistant, so it might make it. We swim a ways out to a wooden raft anchored in the deep water. A small boat is parked right next to it as well. My friends climb aboard, and I begin to drive this boat. It is very small, just big enough to stand on, with a second story above where my friends hang on, legs dangling over the edge. It has a massive engine, and I take off with a spray of water behind us.

Driving wicked fast through the water, I give it full throttle as everything starts to blur. Our path home takes us from the ocean to a wide river. Still going super fast, everything is just streaks of blue and green along side of us. The river begins to narrow and turn a little in each direction. I have to really focus to stay in the water going this fast. The river narrows to not much wider than a two lane road, and the thought occurs to me that perhaps I should slow down. Instead, I increase my focus on driving, and manage to keep going super fast through this small river. Although it seems not to matter much because about half the time, we are in the air after hitting a small wave anyway. The back of the boat now has a giant propeller, like one of those swamp boats you might've seen, only about twice the size.

I sort of expect to start flying soon.

Walking down a massively wide stair case, filled with everyone I know, and have known, all together. We are all registering for a really amazing festival of guided meditation and instructions for how to apply meditation to our every day lives. Everyone is happy to be here as we file through the registration area. There are a lot of Buddhist monks and nuns with us, but mostly regular people. Maybe a 1:6 ratio.

After people check in, they go to where they are staying, because it is a multiple day long event. One of my friends is staying in the same building as the main event is held, another friend is right across the street. I see him walk to his room in a large hotel building, and tell others how close he is to everything! I have to specifically give detailed instructions for which building I am referring to, pointing doesn't do it for them. "Not the building on the corner, but the next one to the right. The tall yellowish one, directly across the street from us"

Then I realize I have no place to stay... I have not booked a room at all, and will soon need one. I'm okay with that, at least I made it here! Quite broke, I can't really afford a place to stay, so there's not much I can do about it.

Managing to find a relatively cheap room, about $50/night, I decide to hang out near registration and see if anyone else needs a place to sleep and will split the cost with me. I consider charging more than a fair split, but decide against doing so.

Hiking up a mountain with a friend, we take a short break at a cliff that overlooks the trail head below, trying to spot the others that were coming with us. I hear them below, just a few paces into the woods, but they seem to be taking a really long time to move anywhere.

A truck pulls up right next to the trail head, and two people get out of it. They seem to know that there is some sort of wisdom within this mountain, and they want to use it to win the lottery. From my position on the mountain, I know that I can give them the winning numbers, but I believe that giving them wisdom would be much better in the long run. I step out of view so they cannot see me to demand the numbers. I start to summon the wisdom of the mountain to give to them, and as I do so, my friend who is with me tells them the winning lottery numbers at the same time. Now they have both! I guess that's okay too.

Driving around town to post flyers at different shops, I realize that it is a lot easier with a car than on a bicycle. I notice the front windshield is cracked all the way down, and should be fixed, but I am prioritizing fixing the engine if anything on this old clunker car. I look at the different shops around, a liquor store, a liquor accessory store, and a sandwich shop that's not quite opened yet. I go in the sandwich shop and get the owner's attention. Asking about leaving some there, he says I can leave just 1. So I do just that, and walk out the door. All the other shops are closed because it's too early in the morning.

Driving down the road with my friend, it's very snowy now. I tell her I want to go somewhere, but don't tell her where. I get stuck at the bottom of a hill in front of the house I grew up in. In 3rd gear, the tires just spin. I downshift to 2nd, drop the RPMs a bit, and do better, but still not enough traction. A couple cars drive past us easily.

We get out of the car and climb up the side of the road, but it is also too slippery to walk. We just fall and slide back down. I try again, and am more gentle with my motions, and stick my fingers into the snow for more of a hold, and climb up successfully. I point out some bushes under the snow she can grab onto. We get to the top and sit down to rest.

Sitting right on the ground, I realize how cold my fingers and toes are. Having had frost bite a few years back, they get colder easier, and it wasn't a good idea to stick them right into the snow like that. I tell my friend "This is why I don't do stuff like this anymore" as I shake my hands to indicate they're really cold. She tells me I need a girlfriend to help me warm up. I think she's right. I remember my good friend from school lives right about here. I point off to the right where a house stands a few hundred feet down a long driveway and say, "That's her house"

We're now in a car, with another friend from school, and he asks me if she's my girlfriend. I tell him, "No, but I like her. I'm not sure what will happen between us though." He asks me, "How long have you known her?"
"Since going to school"
He pauses to think... "So ,bout 3 years then?"
I don't answer, but think there were 3 years of college, plus 4 of high school, and a few more after college, so more than 8.

We drive past a cool fun looking part of the forest next to the road, and suddenly I'm outside, walking in it. Admiring the cool trees, and space between the forest growth, I walk alongside the road. It looks even cooler above a ridge. I climb up a steep hill to go there, but once I see it, it is just a regular forest, and the part I'm already on is prettier. I hold onto a few branches as I make my way down the steep part. A couple of them break when I grab them, making it a risky descent. I reach a point where there are only a few trees to hold onto, then it is too steep to walk. The trees are good sized, but I test them before committing to their support. Each one of them breaks loose from its base and falls down the hill. Happy that I didn't go for it before testing them, I notice my room mate who I hadn't seen before behind me.
"I don't know about this man, I'm turning back" he tells me, and walks away. I follow him, it is an easy route. Once I am low enough near the road, I turn around, and take a safer path alongside the road this time.

I stumble into my dad's house, with a girl I really like accompanying me. We go upstairs toward my room. She goes into my room right as I notice my younger brothers and sisters are home. They run up to greet me. I give them all hugs and we talk a bit. The youngest tells me, "I didn't think you were coming home so soon!"
"I didn't know I was either - It's good to see you!" I see my dad and step mom, and greet them too, getting a sort of cold response from my step mom, but I forget about it.

Remembering the girl I was with, I want to spend more time with her, so I invite her outside to help me mow the lawn. It seems like a strange request, but I don't really intend to mow the lawn, I just want to get her outside.

Suddenly, I'm outside, but with my other room mate. He asks me about mowing the lawn. I tell him, "just a little path" and point to a path that is already mowed. I grab a hand powered mechanical mower and start pushing it. He grabs the electric mower and asks me if it would be better. I tell him, "It would be, but I'm just doing this little area here, so I'm just gonna use the old school push mower." I push it along the path, and it churns up dried cut grass, cutting a bit of the new growth as I go.

Now, the girl is with me, but it's winter. I feel like once we get away from the house things will be better somehow. I have her follow me, but it is a long journey. We are outside already, but under the porch. At the edge of the porch, we climb down a fence, then go under a stairway with a low overhead, and reach another climbing part. I try to make sure I'm not out-climbing her, unsure of her skill. She is keeping up just fine.

...woken up by my room mate, the power went out, he wanted to make sure I wasn't late for work. I have the night off.