spellbee2

I went to bed at 2ish, and then WBTB at like 7.

I am at some party with my friends. I'm really uncomfortable, since I'm kind of a wallflower. Someone brings out the beer and drugs. I really shouldn't be here. What if my parents find out? I leave with my friends M and B. We walk out, but M says that we should steal a car. I immediately protest, but somehow, we find a bus, we break into it, and with B in the driver's seat, we drive off. I'm kind of freaking out, but I go along with it anyway.

We pull up next to a party bus at a red light. We exchange glances, and somehow mutually decide to drag race. The light turns green, and B floors it. We're losing the race, but then a cop pulls out and pulls over the other bus. That was close. We speed off, but then another cop comes to pull us over. I try to play it cool, hoping they don't know the bus is stolen. B gets out of the car to talk to the cops. Without saying a word, M jumps into the driver's seat and floors it.

"M, what the heck are you doing? You're going to get us killed!"
"I don't know man."
"Dude, I can't go to jail, pull over!

The bus continues to gain speed. I better turn myself in, maybe they'll be merciful. I open the side door and look out. From the side, it doesn't look like we're going very fast. I look behind us to see a single red car with police lights on top. I motion for them to move out of the way, but they don't. I just decide to make a move. I kind of step down from the car onto the pavement. I stay on my feet, which is good, but then the red cop car is heading straight for me. In some kind of slow-motion sequence, I determine which way is the best to jump, and barely dive out of the way before the car hits me. I roll into the grass on the side of the road.

I stand up, take a minute to collect myself, and walk over to where the cops and B are. One cop that looks like Carl Winslow from Family Matters sees me.

"Did you just jump out of a bus going 35 mph?"
"No, I think it was more like 15."

I kind of rest with my hands on my knees for a while, trying to catch my breath and soak in what just happened. The scene kind of shifts, and I'm under this patio at some kind of park. I see a clock that says it's 2:09 am. I see the cops taking M away in handcuffs. A female cop walks over to me. She says she'll let me go if I can tell her what time it is and what all happened that night. I tell her it's about 2:15 in the morning, and then try to remember what happened. I try to think back, but I have two overlapping memories - one of the car chase, and one of me going to bed.Wait a minute, I went to bed a while ago. I must be dreaming. I turn back to the cop.

"Do you want me to tell you what actually happened, or what happened in this dream?"
"Excuse me?"
"That's right, this is a dream. None of this is real."
She shines a light in my face. "Sir, have you been drinking this evening?"
"No, really, I'll prove it to you!"

I try to float up above her, but I can't get off the ground."Wait, hold on, I got this." She begins to look a little perturbed, and I see her reach for her handcuffs. Maybe this isn't a dream after all. But I can't go to jail. I gotta come up with something fast. I plug my nose and breathe loudly through it. It really isn't all that impressive, but she seems to be amazed. "You think that's cool, check this out." I squat down, and jump with all my might. I leap above the buildings about 50 feet in the air. I then slowly float down in front of her. She has a puzzled look on her face, like she is questioning everything that's happening. I'll show her one more thing. I pick up this heavy table next to me and try to balance it on my finger. I hold it for a while, but then it falls. "Meh, that one's still a work in progress."

We walk around to the side of the building. "I can still answer your question if you want."
"No, I don't think that's necessary anymore. I think I just need some time to think stuff out."
I turn around to see a large group of my friends. I hear some rock song playing, kind of like a song at the end of a movie right before the credits. Well, let's put on a show. I take off with a running start and fly off. I fly over to a nearby billboard, do kind of a wall run on it, and keep flying. I get a ways off the ground, and I decide to just float off, like a balloon released in the wind. I rise up to the clouds. To make sure the dream doesn't destabilize, I rub my hands together. Unfortunately, doing that makes the dream instantly destabilize, and I wake up.

So I've decided to do a 30-day challenge of using the SSILD technique. I have experimented with the technique before with somewhat mixed success. So this time I'm going to use nothing but SSILD for the next 30 days and record how many LD's and FA's I get. So here we go:

Day 1

I went to bed a little bit after midnight, and woke up at 5:45 am. I went to the bathroom and then performed the SSILD cycles while focusing on my breath, WILD style. I distinctly remember 4 dreams, and one little scene from a 5th dream.

1. I was doing some kind of cross-country trip (except I was walking, but whatever). We were going across this long patch of ice that was pretty much a road. There were a lot of people on the ice, like it was a public pool or something. There was also a sign about how if you fall in the water, there are flying "superdogs" patrolling to lift you to safety. I went across the first time without much trouble, as it was mostly downhill and I was able to slide the whole way. The way back, however, was much harder. I got to a thin part of the ice and fell in. However, the water wasn't that cold, and I was able to pull myself back up onto the ice.

2. In this dream, I was sort of more of a passive observer. I was not part of the actual story, but I could see the whole thing and move about freely (kind of like the cutscenes in Half-Life). The story took place in some kind of hotel suite. This girl that looked like Selena Gomez was basically hiding from the police in the hotel room of this other guy. After a while, there was a knock at the door. The girl (I'll just call her Selena) ran to go hide, while the guy opened the door. It was my two RA's at college and two police officers coming to search his room. That dream soon ended, however.

3. I was working at my job as a cashier at a grocery store (don't mock, it's a summer job...). It was absolutely swamped, almost as bad as Christmas or Thanksgiving. The lines were backing up, and I was trying to work as quickly as possible. Unfortunately, nothing was going right. One lady walked out without paying after I told her her total, and on one order the printer completely shredded the receipt, and when I went back to reprint it, I couldn't find the button to do it. My supervisor came over and said something to me about showing up for work 3 hours late. I realized that I couldn't remember why I showed up so late or what I had been doing earlier that day. I thought, "Maybe this is a dream!" I wanted to take on the TOTM, but I wanted to make absolutely sure I was dreaming since actually getting naked at work IRL is kind of frowned upon. I looked for something out of the ordinary to prove that it was a dream, and sure enough, there was this big glass structure over my register, kind of like a big version of those glass shelters at bus stops. I was then confident that I was dreaming. I got out from behind my cash register and went to the front of the store. I shouted, "Excuse me, everyone, may I have your attention please?" I then proceeded to take off my clothes, which were a little tight, almost like they were made of spandex. I then shouted, "I'm naked!" No one seemed to pay attention though. I then went on to do other things, while naked, for a minute or two until I woke up.

I woke up at about 7:30 am. I wrote down these dreams in my journal, and did kind of a shortened version of the SSILD before I went back to sleep.

4. I was some kind of ghost zombie killer/treasure hunter. It was like some video game where I had to shoot these monsters while also going in the cave to collect treasure. The cave looked like it was at Disney World or some theme park or something. I had to go inside, grab this idol, and get out before the cave collapsed. I did this about two or three times. The last time, however, these three kids (about 10 or 11 in age) that I apparently knew followed me in. I grabbed the idol and turned around to find them behind me. I urged them to get out before the place collapsed. Two of them went ahead of me, but one decided to take up the rear and follow me. When I got to the exit, though, he was gone. I knew that I had to go back in and find him. I ran back through the collapsing cave and found a secret exit through this lake of some sort. It led me outside back to the entrance of the cave. I got out of the water and noticed this girl (pretty sure it was Selena again) acting suspicious. I decided to keep an eye on her. She went around this corner and had a confrontation with this lady, who I assumed was her mom. They fought, but then went around the corner out of sight. After a couple seconds, Selena came back around the corner. When she noticed me, she kind of panicked, screamed "I didn't mean to do it," and ran away. I could tell by her response and by the dramatic music starting that something bad had happened. I turned to the people behind me and told them to call 911. I ran around the corner to find Selena's mom and dad both stabbed in the heart, dead. I asked someone standing nearby what had happened, but they just told me basically gibberish. Soon after, I woke up.

5. (This fifth "dream" is technically just a dream scene. I don't remember when in the night it occurred, and I don't remember any other part of the dream other than this, but apparently I was lucid since I remembered my lucid intentions and fulfilled one of them.) I was in some kind of trench, sliding down into this abyss. I remembered that I wanted to meet my dream guide, and that he could help me. (I had already predetermined that I wanted my dream guide to be a large wolf-like creature named Bartholomew with fiery orange hair and the voice of Liam Neeson... yeah...) I tried to imagine him coming to my rescue, and he did, although he had just plain gray fur. He pulled me out of the trench to safety. After I was safe on solid ground, I asked him what his name was, and he replied with a low-pitched, "Bartholomew." I wanted to ask him some questions, but I soon either woke up or lost lucidity.

So, overall, I'd say a successful day 1 of SSILD. Technically 2 LD's in one night, which is a record for me, I believe. Can't wait to see what happens the next 29 days.

Day 1: LD - 2, FA - 0