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Original journal entry dated July 20, 2002:

I had a nightmare that I was in the hospital because I was going to have a baby, only it was actually twins. (this may be because back in reality, I had a stomach ache). Anyway it pretty much resulted in the doctors have to make a few strategic incisions, which I was not happy about. On the other hand one of the little boys was adorable. Or would have been, had he not born an incredible resemblance to a prune.
So I had to go to the bathroom really bad, but the bathrooms in this hospital were absolutely DISGUSTING. They were old and even sort of old-fashioned, and very rusty and cracked, and disgustingly unclean. Most of them didn't even work. And none of the working ones were free, either. And the place really stunk. So I had to wait for someone to get done so I could go, but even then I didn't want to touch the toilet seat because I was afraid I'd get an infection because those incisions were still healing. And there wasn't enough space in the bathroom stall, either.

Anyway, then my dream cut to an alternate reality where I was blessedly not having a kid and instead my dog had puppies. So everybody was eating in the hospital cafeteria even though I don't know why we took a dog to a human hospital and then I needed to find a way home. I knew I could take this one public transport, if I wanted to. But before I did that I had to do work, and for some reason we ("we" meaning my fellow patients and I) were treated like criminals and forced to do heavy cleaning duties and stuff. So then I found a combination grandfather's clock/guillotine, and it had a secret panel in it which led to a very old wrought-iron elevator, but the elevator didn't work so I couldn't escape. Then I had to go back to the person in charge and get on the transport. Then the woman driving the transport wouldn't let me on without payment, so I gave her some chicken soup.

And then there was this riverboat cruise thing, and alligators and stuff. And the guide kept yelling at me to get out of the water but I couldn't because there wasn't enough room in the boat, since he had taken too many people with him. And the water was very murky and dirty. For some reason we were in the Rock River, which runs through Rockford, IL, but it's only fitting that I'd have a nightmare about Rockford.

So then my dream changed and I was playing Virtual Reality duckhunt with some guy, only we had lifepoints too, and we wound up having a shootout because I was cheating.

Original entry on March 18, 2008:

So first I dreamed about this one river, and it was very very polluted, and these guys decided to go fishing. Only they found this one invisible island. At first it seemed like a really wonderful, idyllic place, and this nice old lady invited them inside.

Note: if a "nice old lady" invites you ANYWHERE, it's a good idea not to go. In fact, run really fast in the opposite direction.

Anyway, so of course they listened to her, and they went into this house and down these stairs into this, like, underground mansion thing. Which seemed really great and everything at first, but then they started to notice discrepencies in stuff that they didn't notice at first. The woman had a pet dog, like a big mastiff, only it seemed a little strange sometimes, like it couldn't quite fit entirely inside of its form. Like sometimes the walls would flicker, or there'd be stains where there shouldn't be, or the furniture or the stuff hanging in the closet would seem really weird for a second, that sort of thing. Then one of them made the mistake of looking behind the shower curtain and there were a bunch of skinned bodies hanging there. So all of the sudden the illusion fell away and they realized that they were in a structure made entirely of bones and decomposing bodies and other stuff like that, the remains of people and animals and stuff. She'd fed some of them to her "dog", which was actually this huge demonlike thing. So anyway, she turned out to be a pretty ooglay monster thing herself, and chased them. They jumped into the river and managed to get to their village. The mayor, who was a woman, and looked strangely... well, familiar... led an expedition to the island with a bunch of big tough guys, only when they got there the place was deserted and all of the bones and stuff were dried up.

Ok, dream number two, there's this really busy police office and they're trying to catch this one serial killer dude who's responsible for a bunch of really gruesome murders. But well the police office is really busy, and they're very overworked and everything. They get this call from this one woman who seems to sort of be freaking out, there's a bunch of growling and snarling in the background that sounds like really pissed off dogs, and she's asking them to send people over. The cops are like, "We're really busy and we'll send animal control, ok?" and then they hang up before she can say anything. So the woman's stranded on the bed with her two kids, and she DOES own a doberman, only it's sort of dead right now because she's being attacked by evil vicious snarling demon-babies. And one of them goes after her kid so she winds up wrestling with it and it sinks its teeth into her arm.
So the cops are looking at this newspaper clipping later on, and the headline is "Woman And Children Found Dead In Bedroom, Eaten". And they chalk it up to this serial-killer who's been going around. They just can't seem to catch the guy.

Last night's dreams were mostly fragmentary.

#1 - I dreamed I was playing a survival/horror game in the vein of Resident Evil (old RE) but with a combat system that was closer to Fallout/Fallout 2. At one point, I had to control a character who was an Airdale Terrier who was trying to accomplish some in-game goals and escape. I had to gather some other dogs using the character and then follow an escape route. Although the subject matter was "scary", the dream was not a nightmare and I wasn't afraid of anything.

#2 - Then I dreamed I was traveling to some sort of monastery set into a scenic cliff side, and the inside of the cliff actually held an entire tiny village and economy - but when I got inside it turned out that the whole place was being run by Lady Gaga and instead of chapels there was a huge room full of lasers and balloons.

#3 - Gross dream. Dreamed I was using a tiny vacuum to vacuum zits. Except, at one point, it looked like my face had been full of brown paste or mud... anyway, it was gross.

#4 - Back to the RE setting. I am human now and stuck in some sort of solitary confinement. I miss my dog.

I dreamed several dreams, and woke between each.

*side notes
*gaining lucidity
*lucid

#1 - I was having difficulty doing something. That's all I remember. Dream fragment.

Woke. Did Reality Check. Attempted WILD; failed, fell asleep.

#2 - I am in a house. I'm looking for a bathroom. There's no bathroom, because I didn't have enough in-game gold to buy an expansion. I discover that some of the red and white scented candles I've been buying were made by my cousin. He's been lying about having a regular desk job.

Woke, used bathroom. Reality Check. Attempted WILD; failed, fell asleep.

#3 - A wife and husband are fighting over their finances. The husband is unemployed or doesn't make much money, and the wife is burnt out and tired of working overtime to completely support them. The wife decides to make adult videos, and her best friend offers to help her. Her husband finds out and is extremely upset.

Woke. Rolled over and fell asleep.
#4:
I dream that I am riding a bus through a sweeping countryside. It appears that I am somewhere in New Zealand. The landscape is mountainous and verdant. It has just rained, the sky is full of gorgeous, radiant clouds, and it's is very beautiful (note: sweeping landscapes after a storm are actually one of my dreamsigns)

It begins to storm violently, and I'm up in the mountains. I am both riding and driving the bus. It's storming like crazy, and the mountain road is winding and dangerous. I'm high up in the mountains now, going over a narrow bridge. The choppy water has risen to the very bottom of the bridge, and it churns dangerously. The bus hydroplanes, loses control, veers off the bridge. The bus is now an old cadillac. The bus now disappears from around me as I enter the water. Frigid water envelopes me as I sink, and places immense pressure on my body; I debate fighting it, or merely letting myself sink. I allow myself to be pulled under and away with the current.

I wake up on a bus. I don't wake up on a bus; I am driving a car. I'm going to pick up a friend's dad. My friend is a chubby blond teenager wearing a Hulk Hogan shirt. We pick up his dad at a fast food restaurant that looks like McDonald's. He jokes about us being a software development team. He is actually a developer, himself. He looks really tired, and I ask him if he's been pulling long hours. He says, "Yes, and driving is a challenge. I'm practically cross-eyed." He decides to check his voicemail and starts swearing; apparently, his boss/team lead is asking for a whole bunch of ridiculous stuff that he can't possibly do on such a short deadline.

I wake up on a bus. I have stretched out across the seats, and a little girl is commenting to her mother that I'm taking up too much space. I try to pull myself up into a fetal position to free up more seats. My friend and his dad are also on the bus. The landscape is the one as described before; the sweeping New Zealand landscape.

I wake up and feel a bit irritated that my prior attempts at WILD have failed. I see light seeping in through my bedroom window and am a bit upset that it appears to be so close to morning. I'm also irritated that I didn't pick up on my most obvious dream sign.

I fail to do a Reality Check. In retrospect, my bedroom window was INCORRECT. The curtain wasn't there. I shrug it off, telling myself that it's just another chance to try to WILD again. I settle down in bed (note: I am fairly certain this was a FA and I am actually trying to WILD from my FA, which is kind of hilarious because it actually works)


#5 (?) -
I begin to see something forming in front of me, very blurry - it is a field of large, smooth pebbles. I decide that it looks somewhat like a beach, or is close enough to make into one. I try to make it solidify, but it fights me. I try to imagine it as part of a landscape, but it remains a flat plane - almost like a pattern. It is supposed to be the ground, I understand, but it takes up my entire field of vision.

I can feel it there - the dream is blurry, but it's forming. I don't want to lose it or lose consciousness, so I start actively trying to make it stabilize. I focus on the pebbles; they sharpen a bit, and then go all fuzzy again. I run my hands through the pebbles, then dive to the ground and shove my face into the pebbles. They're still fuzzy and immaterial, although I feel the ghosts of sensations from them. I enthusiastically rub my face back and forth in the pebbles. I feel like they're fading away and get upset, so in a moment of desperation, I lick the pebbles. They don't become any more material; they taste like grit and sawdust. I roll around on the ground like an idiot, grabbing handfuls of the ground and rubbing it into my face. I feel and smell dead leaves. Suddenly, there are dead leaves mixed into the pebbles.

I look up. There's more landscape forming! I see fuzzy green. I feel like this is like the edge of a lake or swimming hole. I stumble to my feet and pick leaves out of my hair.

The world suddenly solidifies, as my lucids often do - everything goes from a blurry mess to absolute perfect clarity. I am now on the edge of a small lake or swimming hole, on an artificial beach. I'm at a cook out!

There are tons of people milling around. The dad from my prior dream is grilling food, and there are a bunch of fat guys in tank tops drinking beer out of a cooler. There is a little girl in a purple swim suit playing with the sand. She has a toy shovel and those little plastic sand castle molds, and she's making a castle. She has white-blonde hair that curls in little ringlets around her ears, and blue eyes. She looks like she's maybe 3 or 4, and she's adorable. There is also a black and white Border Collie lying on a red and white checkered blanket next to a guy in a t-shirt and his kids. The dog is panting, because it's hot outside.

The swimming hole has a tall, metal slide where you can slide into the water. The sky above, unlike 99% of my lucids, is vivid blue and brilliantly clear - this is a hot summer day, probably July or even August.

I clap my hands together and yell out loud "YES! Finally!" I immediately run up to the dog and pet her. Her fur is thick and somewhat coarse. I scratch between her ears. She's very friendly, and enjoys the attention. As I scratch her behind the ears, I recall my lucid task.

"I need to destroy something right away!" I tell the dog. I had decided on Simple Task I, which was to destroy an object by any means.

I look around. One of the first things I see is the little girl's sand castle mold, but even thought she's a dream character I feel kind of bad about that. I see a plastic drinking cup with Vash the Stampede on the side of it (I haven't watched anime since the 90s, I don't know where that came from) but decide it's too solid/not interesting. There's an array of picnic stuff - plates, cookware, food, etc. I settle on the one thing that I feel is out of place: an empty carton of half & half.

I point at it and try to make it explode. Nothing happens. I get angry and pick it up and throw it, yelling, "This is MY dream!" It still does not explode. I chase after it, scoop it up, and tear it into several pieces. I begin to throw the pieces at the two fat guys who are sitting in plastic lawn chairs and drinking beer. They think this is hilarious.

I hear the little girl calling to me from behind me. She is running toward me, waving a huge syringe. One of those big, scary-looking ones they use to inject things into your rump. It's almost as big as she is (and for some reason, empty). I laugh and launch myself into the air, hovering above her. She runs around below me, waving the syringe. I rise higher into the air, using swimming motions, and taunt her. She begins to climb the ladder to the slide, which has now somehow gotten higher and scarier-looking and is turning into a bridge.

The dream fades, and I wake up. It is 3 a.m., which means that it couldn't have possibly been light outside last time I woke up.

This dream occurred in March, 2008:

I had a dream that my mother and I found an old, run-down liquor store that was two hundred years old (or something along those lines) and looked like it was going to collapse or something. It had a big Jack Daniels sign outside, and there were a bunch of busted barrels outside that were falling apart. It was a cool old store, so we debated buying it and renovating it. We went inside, and the inside was much nicer than the outside. It was being run by two guys, who owned an old black-and-white dog, which rolled over on its back and begged for me to rub its belly. I did, and managed to hit the spot that made its leg thump.

Then, I dreamed I was driving around with Eli and some other friends on a tour of other buildings. One old building in particular was historically significant, but it looked like a stark, lonely shack, and no plants grew around it. Then, we were boating down a wide, slow, blue river with lush vegetation on its banks. I was telling Eli about how I had a dream about a liquor store. I was watching large gears float down the river. They had blue glowing runes inscribed on them, and belonged to some other civilization. After this, I woke up.