The Dream Journal

I'm at my friends place, he's playing a board game. We're in a laundry room in the basement, there is a window at the edge of the far wall where grey daylight comes in. The board games has something to do with whales. After rolling some red dice a few times and getting predictable results my friend talks about getting new dice. I tell him of some new dice I've seen that look very futuristic and we go into an in-depth discussion on how they might be off-balanced. I suggest 3D printing a tester die just in case.

There is some confusion about how the game is supposed to progress, I forget what the situation is and what I should be doing. After my friend informs me, a bit annoyed, where I should be on the board (I have a whale piece by the shore that is attacking another piece) I roll and see if I am able to proceed. Another person I know is there as well.

I turn and see two old women sitting on a wooden bench through a large window on the wall behind me. They are just sitting there, being old women. I turn around and see the game has turned into a kind of Jenga-type thing, there is a cube of made of bricks. I try to pull one out and the whole thing collapses, I feel a rush of shame.

As we are packing I talk to my friend about playing Magic: the Gathering at some point, enthusiastically expressing how much I want to play it. I remember that I might have ruined the surprise of his surprise party.

I take my bike back, I'm walking through the place where my friend's sister lives, it is pretty foggy. I talk to my friend Micheal for a bit before going off on my bike. In the middle of the road I see two hedgehogs on tip of each other. I break quickly and look at them. Are they fighting or having sex? In any case, it's dangerous for them to do that in the middle of the road. I try to scare them back into the bushes but they seem pretty unafraid of me, still totally connected. I go to their other side and start to wave at them, they slowly head into the bushes, still together.

I walk down the path a bit and see two more hedgehogs sleeping by the side of the road. I look at them with great interest, I admire their quills, so long and sharp. I hear someone coming up behind me. Two people pass me and startle the animals, one of them is Ron Burgundy from the Anchorman movie.

I walk away between two concrete apartment buildings. It's night now and I drive through the unfamiliar streets. Am I deep in the east side of the city? I drive my bike down narrow pathways in an industrial area, not sure where to go. I enter a building, still on my bike, looking for a way out of this maze. It's even more cramped here, tables and chairs, stumbling in the dark.

I decide this was a bad idea and head outside again. Biking, I see another person walking toward me, I'm alarmed at first, what is he doing here? He passes me by with no incident. I continue to make my way.

I'm in an inky blackness, can't sense anything. There is only a realization. This is a dream, this is a dream.
A familiar excitement rises in me from my toes to my stomach. I know I can't get too excited. Suddenly in front of me a school appears. It's a red, brick school, a wing of it stretches to my left. It is a foggy day. I walk toward it, looking at everything, studying and examining, everything is hyper-real. Bricks, windows, the asphalt. I look into the window to my left and see my reflection, it is as I would expect, even my hair looks dopey as usual. Walking down I see a woman teaching a class of children, their faces as distinct as the "real" world. I enter the school, dazed, I don't know what to make of this, what should I do?

The hall is lit with a yellowish light familiar from childhood. I turn right and walk down the hall. Things get fuzzy, I feel things slipping away. I know I must take action and I begin spinning in a circle to stabilize the dream. I see the lockers on the sides of the walls. The dream begins to feel stable again. I turn to see a balding man with glasses, a teacher, walking out. I look into the room he left, it is a small room with a window at the top edge of the far wall. Something like a bathroom, but there is a bed there. It has a 70's style quilt on it.

I leave the room and go down the hall in the other direction. I meet two teenage girls sitting on a bench to the left. I hear them talking. The dream destabilizes......

I enter a large classroom in what seems like some kind of industrial hall. I enter from a small window to the right. The sun is bright and sunny, afternoon, perhaps morning? I look at the blackboard and the high ceiling, this is an impressive space, why has it been abandoned? I pull out my camera to take a picture, a great urban exploration pic. As I take the picture I hear someone coming, a janitor. I try to move fast to get out of there but I feel slow, like I'm moving through molasses. The janitor notices me and yells at me to get out. I shamefully comply.

I walk through a hall, it has many floors, there are lathes and milling machines about. I see students walk by, I try to make my way silently as to not disturb anyone.

Entering another hall I see a teacher of mine showing a machine to his class. It looks wooden and old. It is a ray gun for a space fighter. It runs on steam and evil energy from the pilot. When the pilot has evil thoughts it mixes with the steam to shoot of dark tentacles of bad energy. It's as if I see an 8-bit energy gauge with a pilot's picture to the right of it.

The teacher gets in an argument with a student and as he's distracted pressure from the steam gathers inside the machine, it's going critical. I want to alert the teacher to this but the argument is getting pretty intense. I can't get a word in. I try to slowly walk away and position myself in a way that would minimize my exposure to an explosion, trying to get behind a corner. My teacher sees a Facebook update where another teacher tells him to lower the pressure already before there is an accident. Despite this, he continues to ignore the problem.

I see my mom in the cafeteria, she is there for a union meeting. The room in a bit dark and shadowy. In a display case by the lunch line I see pieces of carrot cake, like ones I've seen in childhood. If only I had money to buy one.

It's night time, I'm in a suburban center. Inside the shopping mall there are Chinese vendors selling things in small charts. I look at their wares. I see a middle-aged woman ask what's inside one of the large bags in one of the stalls. It is a pink bag of pecan marshmallows. I tell her they are good and she decides to buy them.

Outside I somehow get onto a low-lying roof with my bike. I look at the walls and the poorly executed tags to my left, I look for a place to put mine. With no good place and too much exposure, I hop down with my bike.