One Must Imagine Sisyphus Happy

I Thought I put in a good effort this night, but no lucids.

Spooky
0328: C. Typically weird first cycle dream. Trying to become an actor? Playing DDR-like game with the arrow keys of a keyboard with my left hand. Images of playing cards. The game is hard and I can't keep up. As I miss the notes, the screen gets distorted and starts playing really spooky wailing noises. I feel frightened, like I've offended some evil spirits. Just a dream... Just a dream...

Fighting the Soviets
0652: C. Small troop in the army. It's me, childhood friend Ashwin, a random third guy, and our commander is my apartment building manager. There's a military stand-off with the Soviet Union. Something about railroads. We sneak into Russia on mini-trains. We are wearing USC hats instead of helmets and that seems to fool the Soviet army guards. We fight and win two small skirmishes. A woman thief has been stalking us. She can turn invisible. She steals all the coins out of Ashwin's pocket. I see her and ask to stay and help us. She is familiar but I can't place her. Long black hair and tan. We settle down in an abandoned train station to sleep.

WBTB+MILD 10 minutes

Random School Scenes
0800: C. Not sure of the order of events here. It was probably the reverse of my notes. Going to junior high during the summer. My PE coach is Gordon Ramsey. I'm in third person. Looking at myself I'm wearing blue jeans and a white polo shirt, the same as Gordon. I look really buff. Then in math class. A friend, Chris, is sitting behind me and gets called out of class to the office. He asks me to watch his backpack. When class ends, I leave the backpack with the teacher. But I forget the teacher's name and am embarrassed. Then in a giant bathroom with many trough urinals like a sports stadium. Most of the boys in the bathroom are much younger than me.

WBTB+MILD 60 minutes, read DV, B-Complex vitamin, water and piece of bread

Ice Cream and Being Locked Out
1000: C. This might have been two or three dreams connected with hallucinations or short waking day dreams. At a strip mall looking for something to eat. Pass through a Weinersnitzel. Find an ice cream stand. Get a medium cup of strawberry (residue from a few days ago).

Now at home. I live with Lance? I'm in my room and hungry again. I leave to get some ice cream across the street. Forgot my keys and locked out. Find an open gate in the parking lot which leads to a bunch of maintenance access tunnels and ladders. I follow these and they lead to a trap door in the floor of Lance's room. He is watching TV. I apologize for intruding and explain what happened.

Now I am back outside, maybe the next morning. I sense I am well dressed. I lay down on a mattress that is lying at the curb of the street. The street is dirty and the area is a bit sketchy. I am near an intersection. A man walks out into the intersection to block traffic and starts taunting a guy in a van. Another man in a pizza delivery car gets out of his car and yells at the guy in the street to move out of the way. The guy apologizes and says the man in the van he is taunting is his friend. The pizza man returns to his car but he has locked himself out. He pushes his car out of the way.

Still laying in the street on a mattress, I notice the building next to me is one of those payday loans places. A few really hot women step out of it and walk near me. One steps over me in a skirt. It seems like they are trying to get my attention.

Thief with Powers
1127: C. I'm in a sketchy part of a city. I climb along rooftops and I can slip through water drains and air vents. I use these powers to sneak into a donut shop and steal all the money from the cash register. For a while, I continue to stake out this shop. I am watching for the reaction of the people and waiting for another opportunity to steal more.

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.

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.

Good sleep habits lead to good recall. Zeo shows just three really long sleep cycles and I recalled a dream from all three. This is the first time I've recalled a dream from the first cycle. My pen is running out of ink.

I was really confident I'd have a lucid and I had a few tasks lined up to do. Oh well. Tomorrow will be even better.

0445: Sleep

0635: C. I sense that I'm at work but the building is more like an apartment. It's dark outside, maybe raining. I am sorting laundry in a bedroom. I came to the office to work on the weekend? I was hoping to be alone. I have a bottle of Jack Daniels. Hugh is there. Lucas also works at this place. I am actually an undercover cop and Lucas is a criminal. We are both using aliases. I tell this to Hugh. He's getting ready to leave to drive home. I ask to wait so we can leave together but he leaves without me. Then Dave pops in (with Laura maybe?) He is going to a dinner party or something. I also tell him about being an undercover cop. I show him two photos are me and two of Lucas and tell him the real names. Lucas looks like Wolverine in his photos. Another couple enters the office. I vaguely recognize them but don't remember their names. Dave blurts out "Hey, Michael is really Lieutenant...!" but I forget the name I used. The couple doesn't really hear this from across the office. I shush Dave and he stays quite.

0655: Back to sleep after WBTB

0916: A. This dream was quite vivid and I felt I had an above-average degree of reasoning capability (although what I do in the dream is pretty stupid). Zeo reports that this dream happened during a epic 75 minute long REM cycle. But what I recall seemed about 15-20 minutes. I'm in a house in a nice suburban neighbor, but it's unfamiliar. I'm in a bedroom on the second floor. It's night outside. I'm talking to a girl who is leaving for a house party in the neighborhood. She suggests it's going to be really wild. She leaves. I look out the window and see two plastic baggies on the sidewalk near the lawn. I go outside and pick one up. Inside there is pot wrapped and labeled in plastic wrap and in vials. There's also rolling paper and a condom. I sense that these are for the party. Someone is spreading them around the neighborhood for people to bring to the party. I take them back up to my room and look at the them, reading the labels of the strange ingredients. I hide them under my bed, go outside to get the other bag, and bring that one up too.

I open a laptop and find a live streaming video of the party. I join a live lecture. A guy is going to explain how to use the things in the bag. I feel nervous so I take the stuff down to my car which is parked at the curb across the street. I hide the bags under the passenger seat and lay down in the back seat. I see police cars rolling through the neighborhood. I pretend to be asleep but I know I'm going to get busted. A cop opens the front passenger door and takes the stuff from under the seat. Then they open the back door and I fall out. They charge me with... burglary? It seems the pot was bought with stolen money so having the pot makes me an accomplice to the burglary. I ask, "Isn't that 'accessory to buglary'?" The cops laugh and say they've never heard of that. I argue, "What if you're the guy driving the car from a bank robbery?" Then they say, oh, that's a good point. (IWL, I don't think any of that law or logic makes sense). I am walking with the cops down the street and they are friendly. It's starting to get light as morning comes. They are talking about gambling.

1135: D. I think my recall was good but I was disturbed by my alarm and the dream faded very fast. I tried for several minutes to remember because it felt so close on the tip of my memory. All that was left was a fragment. Something about cooking food and wrapping it in bags.