Exploring My Mind

Didn't sleep too well last night. As it would turn out, I had a pretty good 2 hour nap late into the evening, so come bed time later that night, I really wasn't all that tired. Therefore, the night was spent sort of sleeping but frequently waking up, much to my dismay. Luckily enough, I was able to recall multiple dreams, but on the downside, they're all basically fragments. Here they are anyways:
I was eating at Olive Garden, when all around me the customers and waiters and waitresses all started going crazy, dancing around like lunatics, throwing things at each other. I huddled up further into my booth and continued to enjoy my breadsticks. Clearly my dream self has important priorities!
I was in this huge house with a lot of my family as well as complete and total strangers. The front side of the house was open to the outside street, where multiple houses alongside it were selling goods. Not much of note here.
I was in a small room that looked like something out of Homestuck, and on the wall, projected, was a cool looking animation of David Strider and Jade Harley. This fragment may have been a part of the same house dream just before it. Funny I had Homestuck appear here, as I've not been into it in a couple of years now.
I was on an alien world, and everything was blowing up. ......
My ex and I entered into a contract of sorts, and we were living together and going about our day-to-day pretty happily. Still learning to get into the habit of reality checking when she's involved, as she's basically the biggest dream sign I have.

SO. Let's sum up my past five days. I've remembered at least one dream everyday for the past five days, so I have quite a bit of journaling to do on here! I'll make a separate DJ entry post for each dream, starting with Sunday's, June 28th.
I was at a house that looked like the island house I stayed at on vacation this past month. My girlfriend and her mom were both there, and they requested I go pick them up some stuff from the shopping area across the highway. I headed out, and the drive (I was on a motorcycle for some reason) was only five minutes.
Strangely, the shopping area I arrived at looked pretty similar to the island house as well. I saw a changing stand behind a stage where a play was going on, and randomly decided I needed to change my clothes. Once that was done, I went to the shopping area, which had black and white tiled marble flooring, and some mini-restaurants. I got the goods for my girlfriend and her mom, and also indulged by buying myself some soft jolly ranchers.
Headed back home, I checked FB on my phone and saw that my entire family liked my status that I posted IRL the previous day. This lifted my spirits, and when I got back to the house, I gave the stuff to my girlfriend and her mom.
A pretty standard dream, not a bunch happened. But trust me, they start getting weirder as the days go by.

Remembered snippets from a longer, more vivid dream this morning. This was the part that stood out the most.
I was on vacation with my girlfriend and my family. The area I was at was similar to the place I went just a couple of weeks ago IRL with my girlfriend and my family, so this was those memories coming back up.
Only this time, we stopped by a really large pizza place on the way there, as we all had the munchies. We ordered our pizza, and I grabbed mine (a large pepperoni), but as I went to go bring it to my table with my girlfriend, a really bratty little kid walked up to me. I could tell by the look on his face he didn't have good intentions.
"Want some pizza, huh?" He sneered. He grabbed about three slices off of the plate I was carrying and 'accidentally' dropped them onto the floor. Everybody in the restaurant gawked at the sight. I glared at the kid, and just said "Thanks for that," and walked over to where my girlfriend and my family were sitting.
I explained the situation to them, and naturally they got very angry. I blew it off and just ordered another pizza, explaining the situation to the cashier and getting it for free. In the end, the kid got kicked out of the restaurant.

The dream I remembered this past morning was awfully strange! It was a literal dream within a dream situation. Basically, I had a dream, then woke up from the dream into another non-lucid dream, and then finally waking up in reality. Here's how it went.
I was in the Bates Motel house with my girlfriend and we were witnessing the final events of one of the latest episodes play out in front of us. We watched it all non-phased, as if we had seen it before, but we were enjoying it nonetheless. (I won't go into the details of what happened just in case some of you watch that show and don't want to be spoiled).
Suddenly, I woke up from that situation. It seems it was a dream! I was in the parking lot of my girlfriend's workplace, having just dropped her off, but instead of heading to MY workplace, I had parked my car in the parking lot and fallen asleep. I checked my phone's clock...I WAS AN HOUR LATE!! Panic filled me as I quickly started my car and drove off towards my workplace.
And then, I woke up from THAT, only this time I was in my bed and in real life. I should've done a reality check in case of a false awakening, but I was too groggy and weirded out by the double dream to even remember to. Not a whole bunch recalled in either dream, but the situation of waking from one dream to another was interesting.

Thankfully, I recalled a pretty good amount of a dream this morning! A very weird, kind of sensual dream at that. And it's a weekend, no less, which my recall has tended to be crappy on lately. But first, a very small fragment from when I woke up in the middle of the night:
My dog, Jesse, was tackling me and licking my face (as he does constantly IRL). However, it soon got to the point where I could no longer breathe, and I was gasping for air as Jesse continued to try to love on me. Running (or nearly running) out of breath caused me to wake up with a start, but I quickly fell back asleep to have the former, more vivid dream I mentioned.
I was at a large mansion on a school trip with a lot of classmates whom I don't actually know. There were about...40 or so of us altogether, including myself. The trip involved us going on a guided tour of the mansion. All of the students were about the same age as me.
In any case, soon after the tour started, one of the girl classmates came up to me and started whispering flirty comments into my ear. Shocked, and a little embarrassed, I turned to face her. Strangely, she did have a familiar quality about her, like I should know her from some where but in reality I don't actually know who she is. Her hair was short, messy, and light brown, and she had very fierce eyes.
I asked her why she was doing that, but I don't quite remember her response. The rest of the tour went on like this, with me trying to pay attention to the tour guide while she continually tried to seduce me, whispering comments and hugging me without anyone around us even noticing (somehow).
Eventually when the tour ended, we decided to hang out and discuss a whole number of things. As we were wrapping up this discussion, she decided to take more physical action, and pulled closer to me. I tried to pull away, and that was when my parents walked in on us and scolded me, with me being like and telling them it's not what it looks like.
After all of this happened, my girlfriend joined me on a wild ride in a futuristic car in an even more futuristic looking city. Weirdly enough, this was in the same dream, and followed immediately after the prior events, with the mysterious girl just vanishing without a trace. The city glowed neon, and I was awed by the sights.
Annnnd that's everything. Very odd dream, but nice and vivid.

Remembered this dream this past Friday morning. My recall sure has been wonky lately.
I lost my house due to not paying the bills, along with the fact that some greedy people wanted it for themselves. Basically, I was kicked out, and my girlfriend was with me (naturally).
We seemingly had no where to go, but luckily enough, her Canadian friend (a guy I know IRL) owned a ranch and allowed us to stay there with him.
Now, this was all well and good. Soft beds and beautiful outdoors weren't things to complain about. But this guy, whom I'll call E (her friend and the owner of the ranch), he started trying to get her attention away from me on him. It started to become a dastardly competition between the two of us, to see who could win my girlfriend's affections. This was basically us:
Eventually it got to the point where we started arguing over who was the best. My girlfriend didn't intervene on the whole thing, but instead chose the more amusing option and sat on the sidelines enjoying every bit of it.

I know there was a little more before the dream ended, but it's too hazy. So, here we are.

This dream, which I meant to write down yesterday, is a fragment. I recalled some of it yesterday (Thursday) morning. I recalled a more vivid dream this morning which I'll post later in a separate entry.
I was at a factory, where loads of people were shopping at various booths, almost like a convention. At this place were the four Best Friends Zaibatsu, whom my girlfriend and I hung out with, watching video games and anime.
Not the most exciting dream, but I jotted it down nonetheless.

Haven't remembered anything since Monday, in which I had a lucid. It seems like my recall tends to take a nosedive the days following my lucid dreams. In any case, I finally remembered a dream this morning after having an absolutely terrible day on Thursday. Nothing was going right, and I was in a terrible mood for the entire day up till I went to bed. Seems to have given me a sad dream.

I was at my house, except it was very warped and different from my normal house. Part of it was modified so that an entire wall looked like it was the night sky, and it opened outward into an expanse of sea, where many people (whom my dreamself considered friends) were swimming and having a good time.
I decided to join in, and went for a relaxing swim for a while. The water was nice and warm.
After finishing up my swim, it was time for me to go to work (in the dream). I headed to work with my girlfriend, with me behind the wheel and her sticking her head out the passenger side window enjoying the breeze. Things took a sudden turn for the worse when, out of no where, a huge chunk of metal came flying off of a nearby vehicle, slamming into my girlfriend and knocking her out of the car. She was killed.
Afterwards, a medical team recovered her body, and I made funeral arrangements with one of my coworkers, who just so happened to be nearby. Once things were squared off, I headed back home, uncertain of my future now that my girlfriend was gone.

-takes a deep breath- A not so great day and a not so great dream (aside from the swimming part). I am glad I remembered one though, so

Great start to the morning. It's been a while, but I finally had...another lucid!
After going the weekend with no recall whatsoever, having a lucid this morning was a nice surprise. While the dream was short, and I couldn't recall much from before I went lucid, it's a success nonetheless.
Somebody (don't remember who) gave me enough money to take my girlfriend out on a date to go eat somewhere. Love was in the air, surely it'll be a wonderful date...wait. Ah, there's my girlfriend's mom (are you noticing the recurrences here?). Turns out, she needs me to investigate a case before I can take my girlfriend out on a date. This case involves a serial killer who has been active around the area recently. (colored serial killer a light purple, as killers seem to be a frequent occurrence in my dreams lately.
I partnered up with a man whom I've never met before, and just as we started planning what to do about the case... I woke up. My alarm went off at 4:30, and I had to go to work in about an hour and a half. Luckily, I knew I had set an alarm for 5:00, so I decided to drift back to sleep. And wouldn't you know it, I returned to the exact same dream, right where I left off.
Only this time, something was amiss. None of this seemed real. Something (I'm not sure what) gave me the feeling that I should do a reality check. I pinched my nose and tried to breathe, and I was able to. "I'm dreaming!!" I shouted. My partner looked at me with an odd expression, but just dismissed my apparent insanity with a "Yeah, whatever..."
He immediately wanted to get back to looking into this serial killer. "Won't be a problem. Let's use this," I said matter-of-factly. It was here that I imagined a filing cabinet full of info about the killer to appear in front of us. I expected it to be there, and POOF, there it was, as if it had been there all along. I pulled the drawer open, satisfied with my successful attempt at dream control. And then...
I woke up for the last time, my alarm for 5:00 blaring in my ears. So, needless to say, that left me feeling pretty good! I've never created something with dream control before. Before this, I've flown, did acrobatics, and threw a fridge across a room, but creating something is a new one for me. It was effortless too, no problem making it appear whatsoever. A good milestone, I think.

Lots of recall from this morning (or rather, last night)! Remembered two separate dreams. The first one was one I recalled upon waking up in the middle of the night, so the details didn't come back to me as clearly as they did the second one.

I went about my daily business at a new company for work. Only, this wasn't just your average job. The workplace was also a school. I frequently went with my coworker from real life, and we went about our daily grind. At some point this part is just a fragment for me I ended up playing a hyper-advanced version of a PS2. After doing some more work, it then occurred to me that somebody was behind me. Somebody with sinister intentions. They ended up holding a cloth to my mouth and wrapping their arms around me so that I couldn't escape. I had been drugged.
And with THAT really unnerving ending, that's all I can remember from the first dream. Not a whole lot, but something nonetheless.
Now for the SECOND dream, which I remembered upon waking up for good. This one was quite longer, and more vivid.
I had bought a fancy new apartment for myself, and was looking after my dog Jesse one bright morning. Jesse ended up peeing all over the place (which is what he does in real life). :canislucidus:
I tried bringing him downstairs to a safer area to pee, but my girlfriend and her mom disapproved of it, and scolded me extremely badly, almost to the point of insulting. I felt extremely bad, and for some silly reason that I assume only goes by dream logic, Stephen Hawking was nearby while they scolded me, and he was smiling a big smile and ramming into me with his wheelchair. ...make of that what you guys will.
But I digress, after they scolded me, I screamed really loudly out of frustration.
Soon after, all of us went to a concert hall, where the DJ and producer was none other than my Japanese teacher! This brought up my mood quite a bit, and we caught up for a while. He then let me take control of the stage, as a play was going on (though I don't remember what it was). I messed around with the lights, and background music, amusing myself for a while.
And finally, after THAT was done, my teacher, girlfriend, and her mom all went with me to this little girl's house for her birthday party. Oddly, I didn't recognize this girl from anybody I know IRL, yet I treated her like a little sister.
My girlfriend's uncle was at the party too, scoffing at people getting references wrong. Scarily enough, just like the ending of the last dream, this one ended with a bit of an unsettling note, as news got around about a killer on the loose while we were singing happy birthday, of all things.

It's been a little while since I last recorded a dream (almost a month in fact). Luckily, I had a big burst of recall this morning, remembering one specific dream in vivid detail. Don't know what caused it to spike back up, but I was on a trip, so I did sleep somewhere other than home.

I went to school with my girlfriend (yeah, throwing in the big dream signs already). This school was a mish-mash of various real life and fictional places, though mostly real life. When my girlfriend and I arrived at the school, we both went to our separate classes. It was shaping up to be a very good day, because both John and Hank Green (of Vlogbrothers fame) came to our class and chose me to interview them in front of the students. I had to prepare my questions, while they went off to a separate room to wait. As I was preparing, a couple of students started messing with me and really began to piss me off. Eventually it got to the point where I shoved one of them out of my personal space and began yelling at the entire class, telling them they're all a bunch of jerks and they have no respect.
At this point, obviously, I was quite embarrassed! So I ran out of the classroom, not knowing where to go. I decided to try to find my girlfriend to tell her what all happened, but when I found her, I got even more upset since she was giving most of her attention to some guy named Cody. This just wasn't my day! I ran away from that too and started hiding in various parts of the school, occasionally running away if the principal was near. This is where it started to get even more odd. As I was wandering through the school, I stumbled into none other than Auron from Final Fantasy X (and wouldn't you know it, I bought the HD remaster a few days ago). Auron ended up giving me good advice and told me not to feel bad about it all.
"Just apologize. Go back in there and be cool about it."
I gave him my thanks, feeling a lot better. So, of course, I took his advice to the letter and ran back to the class, apologizing in front of everyone and going back to my seat to prepare for my interview with John and Hank Green.

What a graceful dream THAT was. Lots and lots of running and hiding. Moral of the story: Final Fantasy X cheers me up.

All the big dream signs were present in this one: girlfriend, girlfriend's mom, and conventions.
The three of us were headed to a big con, and for some reason we were riding on a large platform that grinded over a sort of railway system. It was a very intense experience, but it felt good, sort of like riding a roller coaster. The platform eventually stopped, and we left it, entering a small jungle-like area. This was apparently the entrance to the con. I noticed a kangaroo nearby and walked up to it. Probably the dumbest decision ever, since it ended up kicking me in the nads.
A snake fell from a tree to the ground nearby me, and a grizzly bear also sauntered over from nearby. It was clear that this was no ordinary convention, but my non lucid self was like 'Not again!'
We ran away from the animals and made it to the con. Most of what transpired during it is blurry to me, but I do recall walking by myself towards the end of it when the convention center was empty. I ended up getting a text from my girlfriend saying we had to leave.
I ended up at my house, resting after a tiring con, and heard my grandma outside. I walked out there, and for some reason there were red colored fireworks shooting up all around us. It was almost nighttime, but not quite yet; that time of day where everything is a dark blue.
My family and I gathered around a bonfire in our yard and discussed multiple things, and I intently drew a picture of Rust Cohle from True Detective.
And that's all I remember. The day prior to this dream was pretty worry filled, due to work and me messing up. However, for the past two days, I've been waking myself up at 6:00, or around that, after going to bed at about 11:40 or so. This seems to be a period of time where my recall is high, because for the past two days, both times I ended up recalling a dream in vivid detail. I think I'm gonna try waking up at 6, jotting down a dream, then sleeping for another hour and waking up at 7, which will hopefully result in more dreams recalled. Wish me luck!

I've had work for the past two days at my new job, which required me getting up super early. That threw off my recall a bit, but it's back now, with a vengeance!

So apparently I was in Australia (I don't find this out till later in the dream). Of course, I've never been there, so the environment I was seeing wasn't based off of it or anything. Me and my ever-present girlfriend were hanging out like we usually do in my dreams, except we were in a house I didn't really recognize. It looked large and well decorated, almost as if the owner had a lot of money.
There's a gap in my memory to what happened here, but I eventually found myself exploring a weird house that was different from the one I was in before. For some reason, the house reminded me of the house from Gone Home, except stranger. I kept looking through it, bumping into two drunk old men on my way through, and eventually found my way down into a large chasm where a flowing river was going. The chasm opened out to an ocean, and it was night time. I wanted to get on the other side, but going in the water made me wary. I didn't know what might be in there.
So! Somehow, my dream self thought I could get across by using a super power: sending jets from my feet to collide myself off the surface of the water so I could bounce across. "Genius..." I thought to myself.
I jumped towards the water and tried using the power, but it failed miserably and I started sinking. It quickly activated as I was sinking, and I could feel SOMETHING slither by my legs. I quickly jetted out of the water and back to the beginning of the chasm.
As I made my way back upstairs, I was confronted by my girlfriend's grandma, who started scolding me about a lot of things.
At first I thought this next dream was a separate one, but my dream self literally referenced the previous dream to a friend, so it seems they were connected.
Suddenly I was in school. My Japanese classroom. However, all the students around me seemed unfamiliar, yet I accepted the fact that I knew them. I talked to one of them about my encounter with my girlfriend's grandma previously. We then were tasked with playing some kind of word game, but sadly I don't remember how that went.

This dream was pretty close to real life, aside from some minor discrepancies. Not much out of the ordinary here.
I went to a new house to babysit my little cousin for the day. My grandpa gave me the tour of the house, which was still being worked on. This relates to my aunt's new house in real life, but the house in the dream did not look the same (one of the discrepancies I mentioned). Throughout the day, it was mainly just me following and playing with my cousin, or watching those educational cartoons with her. At one point, I ended up spending the night there, though my memory as to why is pretty hazy. I also walked in on my girlfriend watching a strange TV program based on Bioshock Infinite??!
There WAS a moment where I thought 'am I dreaming?' and performed a reality check, BUT...I'm pretty sure I was too close to being awake for this to work, so it didn't count. Still, that's progress if it was my dream self thinking that and not my waking self.

Two dreams recalled, and going by the latest trend, first was hazy, second was clearer. I'm really hacked off about these though, because my top dream signs were EVERYWHERE.
Went to some place with my girlfriend and her mom. Sadly I don't know where it was. This one was pretty hard to recall.
Second Dream: My friend Aaron and I ended up going to an anime convention. For some reason, the convention was themed around Madoka Magica, even though I'm not a fan of the show in real life. We stayed at a foreign-looking hotel, and kept messing around with a weird alarm clock that looked like a bird.

All in all, not too much recalled. Daylight savings wasn't helping much either. Still though! Look at all these dream signs! Last night, I had that dream about the girl trying to go lucid, as if my brain were trying to tell me something. Now, I have two dreams containing my top dream signs. If I can work on increasing my awareness more, I might have better luck noticing all these signs. It would be ripe for going lucid.