All DJ Entries

August 29, 2010

I was having an AMC dream. JR discovered Annie was sleeping with some politician dude. They were getting it on in a car. JR discovered them and had got upset, but this part of the dream faded.

False awakening. I "woke up" in bed. I spent a moment lying there and recalling the dream. I was also quite surprised I had fallen asleep again. I didn't even feel it coming.

Edited for TMI content...

I wondered about the possibility of this being a false awakening. I then noticed that, consciously, I did feel different. Fairly positive now that I'm dreaming, I thought to myself, "Only one way to check, and that's to get out of bed!"

As I slowly rolled over and got out of bed, I marveled about the fact that this really did feel like I was moving my real body. I began to question whether I was truly dreaming or not. I rather felt that getting out of bed would feel floaty, especially since in lucids, I don't normally feel gravity and weighty. This felt exactly like real life. Future note, WILDs may feel exactly like this. Especially when I think I'm awake...

Anyways, I was thinking a lot about this whole "Am I moving a dream body or my real body?" thing, and I heard a voice in the back of my mind, "Don't over think it, or you WILL wake up too much and move your real body." This voice sounded female, to my surprise (I usually expect Danny to tell me these things). It was probably myself; but in the past, Janine (my first DG, before Danny) often sounded like me... I wonder if this was her, again?

I didn't spend too much time looking around the room. But I did notice that the bedroom door, positioning of the bed and my endtable were all as they should be. This made me question, again, whether I was lucid or awake. I looked at the clock on my endtable. The numbers should have been a dead give-away. I could barely read the clock... it looked tired-eye bleary and I couldn't really make out any numbers. I concentrated harder. Does that say 4:41 or 4:48? I rubbed my eyes and looked again. It says 4:48. "I don't have to get up until 5:30," I reminded myself. "This is perfect, I can sleep longer!"

Completely forgetting about the false awakening, I crawl back in bed beside Jack. I noticed he was awake and reading something on his phone. We had a short discussion about him not staying up this late and my alarm rang.

Alright, so even if I hadn't gotten distracted, it's not like I could've done much with the lucidity, anyways. My guess is, this all happened just before 5:30, waking time. Maybe about 5:25, but this whole scene felt a bit shorter than 5 minutes. Still, this is a great note for future WILDs... I guess this is considered an INRALD (I'm Not Really Awake Lucid Dream)... I thought I was pretty good at determining lucidity by how it feels alone... and normal DILDs, I think that still holds true. But this whole new foray into INRALDing and WILDing... when I honestly think I'm awake, it really, really does feel like I'm awake! Further proof that I REALLY need to RC upon waking up...

Had another lucid-for-a-few-moments-but-lost-it episode.

It started with a longer sequence for which I only remember some. I was with a few people whom I suspect were my parents (at least one of them was my dad) and we were in a car going to what was some kind of mall/fast food restaurant combination--it had a drive through window. We ordered and picked up...something, but we forgot to order something we needed so I got out to go into the store and get it while they circled back around to pick me up. When I came out, as I got into the car my dad asked, "Do you know what 'los loco lobos' means?" to which I replied, "The crazy dog."

Cut to me sitting in a theater watching some romance movie. It featured an Asian couple from New York City. The only part of the movie I can remember was a segment where the girl went into this long-winded monologue about how her boyfriend was so awesome because he had all these manly, rugged qualities because he was such a "Minnesota man", which I recall thinking was outrageously stupid because they were both from New York City.

Cut once more to me in bed; I would wake up, my wife would tell me something, and then I'd go back to sleep. This would happen over and over. At some point she woke me up and started reciting sappy lines from the romantic movie from before, and when she did so I thought, "Oh god, I'm in a nightmare now!" semi-jokingly, then did a nose pinch reality check which failed. Had a quick "Yeah!" moment, then got up quickly (thus far I'd been thinking my last lucid slipped away because I stayed laying down) to get to work. My wife was now babbling incoherently, trying to get my attention so I waved her away since I was planning to clear out my apartment as a start to environmental control practice. I started to head to the front door of my apartment to turn on the light (since it was still dark in the room), but the dream dissolved to awakening. Reality check passed; lost it again quickly unfortunately.

It's nice that I'm still getting lucids and that they seem to be occurring with a little more frequency, but I need to find some way to stabilize them.

I am in my old bedreeom at my parents house sometime in the early 90s. I appear as I did when I was about 14 or 15 or so. It is nighttime and the sun has not quite yet begun to rise. I can hear my mom and dad stirring in thier bedroom down the hall. Because I like to sleep in and afraid that my dad will try to get me at the same time he does (which is something he did throughout my whole teenage life) I get up and quietly close the door to my room.

Even though I have the intention of going back to sleep I turn the light on for some reason and see that my bed is now covered in many books. Many are on Medieval folklore or literature but there is one book about how to write stories. I sit down on my bed and open it up to a section that is like a 'choose your own adventure' and also has many ideas for names. On the wall running parallel to my bed a vision or hallucination is projected of how my thoughts and imagination are processing the information of the book.

The dimensions of my room suddenly change and it is much larger than before with a much higher ceiling. An orca whale appears and starts swimming around the air of my room like it was in water. Somehow I know that this orca is magic and also my animal companion.



Reading more of the book I learn in the dream how to write fantastic stories and when I am done and put the book down I don't even need to use paper or writing implements because I can just project the images from my imagination onto the walls or floor of my bedroom and the images become real. Somehow I know that my magic orca is helping me do this but I don't know how to explain exactly in what ways.

Because I have so many ideas in my head the scenes change quickly until one catches my eye. At first I cannot tell what it is. Projected on the floor of my bedroom something appears to be moving quickly under the water of a seagrass enclosed, shallow river channel along a Medieval looking countryside. It takes a few moments for me to recognize the creature but I finally realize that it is a beluga whale. My orca companion becomes excited and begins swimming around the room rather exuberantly.

I take a picture of the beluga scene for my orca companion with my imagination powers and my friend seens happy to float over my shoulder and look at the postcard sized image for a while, though for some reason he seems rather sad all of a sudden. The beluga in the projected scene seems to realize this somehow and starts blowing bubbles.

One bubble is very big and the orca swims towards it, shrinking insize as he goes, until he is small enough to fit inside of it. As soon as he goes inside of the bubble both the orca and the bubble disappear along with the scene that had been projected on my floor.

At first I am confused and unable to make the scene reappear. Then I notice that the postcard sized image has changed and now shows both the beluga and the orca swimming happily in the shallow river channel rather than the beluga alone. I somehow know that my orca is now with a friend and this makes me happy.

The dream ends there.

Hmm...a few FA's recently and now this. Momentum?

The Alcohol Lucid (dild)

Broz and I are in the kitchen and we have a drink. I begin feeling a little woozy and go up to my room. I fall asleep with the intention of having a lucid dream. I wake up in the middle of the night feeling even more woozy. I have a really difficult time walking, I feel real heavy. I look at the 20 or so fingers on my hand and begin to suspect I am dreaming. My vision is a little blurry.

World of Warcraft is on my computer. The buildings build themselves and dissemble themselves repeatedly. Fred Flintstone is also on the monitor. Yup, I am definitely dreaming. My hands again have too many fingers.

I drag my feet through the darkness and to the window. The screen is torn open and a great storm is brewing. I think about climbing onto the roof. The shred of lucidity I have waivers as I decide I better not climb onto the roof in case I am not dreaming. They'd call the police if a drunk guy is on the roof.

I still have a hard time walking, thinking, and seeing because my vision is lost multiple times. I am not lucid enough to use my normal techniques for re-entering the dreams. I try to pry my hands open to regain vision but it doesn't work. Lucidity is still weak because I think I might be blind. When I do get my eyes open, I wake up. I blame the poor quality on the strong effects of dream alcohol. And I am a little rusty.

I got some news that my parents were seriously ill and were going to die very soon. In a way it was nice that they were both going to die together as a couple, but was so horrible i couldn't do anything about it. I live far away so i had to some how get to them to see them. I got on a bus and started to travel to where they were, but i missed my stop and got off at a really rough area. I wanted to find the bus stop that went in the opposite direction to go back but in order to do this i had to make my way through this rough area.

I was getting chased around these really horrible buildings, they were old, grafitied and run down. The group hasing me caught up with me and started beating me up, the beating wasn't so bad that i was getting badly hurt, but there was just so many of them, doing different things to me to hurt me. Plus i was getting held back from getting to my parents. My phone then rang and there was no one there, but i pretended to start crying like something terrible had happened, some of the gang then felt sorry for me and told me to run.

I then managed to catch the right bus i was going for, a number 18 bus, but then the driver who was on it was wearing a mask, i then realised he had stole that bus and was now kidnapping me. I paid 50p for this journey like i was paying a real bus driver. I then managed to push the emergency stop button and ground the bus to a halt. I held my back against the bus driver cabin so he couldnt get out and i reached over and grabbed all the money from the drawer. I broke open the door and ran off.

I ended up back at the place i was in the beginning, where the gang were. But somehow i was drunk and i started to beat them up. I then met some other people that were trying to get to where i was, and instead of fnding this bus stop we got a taxi to where my parents were.

I got to the hospital and i was a cleaner there, i was going through the wards emptying bins until i got to the ward with my parents in it. The nurse then told me i was too unclean to be able to go near them, i was heart broken. but then there was an option to wear a wrist band that killed germs on me. At this point my parents seemed happy and were sittng up in a day room.

Throughout the whole dream, i kept going back to the room where my dying parents were. Its like i was having two dreams at once.

I was also making sure that my mothers mother could visit her as they never see each other often.

I woke up at 3.30am or so. I think waking up an hour before my wednesday alarm is becoming a bit of a habit with my body clock. I should try and make the most of it and achieve some sort of lucid next time.. I remember the dream previous to waking up but made no note of it, so I can only recall the dream that occured between 3.30 and 4.40.

My sister had been upset cause her dogs had died, but she never had dogs in real life, but in this dream she did. Then later on she got 4 new dogs. I remember looking at them thinking they were a recognisable breed and that I should try and remember them so I can look them up later. Thinkin back on this, it seems like I was sort of lucid because, I was thinking I should google the dogs so I can show my sister. Maybe I wasn't.. I don't know. She was sitting on a kitchen floor, patting one of the dogs bellies and the dog had a big wide smile. Its head was abnormal and smile so wide..
Later on towards the end of the dream the house seemed bigger, and I recognised now it was a mansion. I was feeling happy cause it was an exciting feeling to own and be in such a big house.

Going to give mugwort a try soon hopefully and see if this improves any recall (I think my recall is rather bad lately) and also give me some strange dreams or even lucid..

notes - non-lucid - lucid

01-09-10 I am making pancakes, I forget to add flour and the result is obviously not great. I tell my mum that I forgot flour, she still thinks it will fail (thanks mum >.<). I didn't care I knew I could do it.
…
This might be a continuation or a separate dream
…
I have spent the night at my parents. The key to my flat is being taken to the owner of the building, which means I have to stay in Hornslet, this annoys me so I decide to eat some cereal on my parents expense. I tell my mum that I am disappointed, not in exact words but by repeating what she said in a depressed tone of voice. She says all I have to do is go to the shop and meet Lars who will have the key, I repeat this mentally to myself and then Lars appears, no one is saying anything to him and he is wearing a stupid hat plus not all of his hair is grey, I find this odd, but not enough to induce. He drops the keys on the table and write something on a piece of paper, I check out the piece and it is a “to/from” card normally associated with Christmas. This is weird, I grab the note and start writing my own stuff. The funny thing is that Lars and his wife have just repeatedly written “to” and “from” throughout the months (note: it was written in Danish, one of the rare times I dream in my native language). I realise it is a weird game he is playing with his wife, I don't want to interfere, so I erase what I have written on it and put the paper back on the wall. Mental note I had written Caroline in one of the boxes.
…

(WILD) I wake up, I am lying on my back, I am positively sure I just fell asleep on my stomach. Damn what if I am waking myself up here. I quickly open my eyes, I am lying on my sofa. Come again!? The sensation of SP is gone, I know I am lying on my stomach in my bed, sod it I'll risk it I open my eyes and check my fingers, Ooooohh seven fingers on one hand, surely that is a record. Hang on the scenery is amazingly vivid, this actually looks like my flat as it does in real life. Telekinesis is off, are you sure that you are dreaming? Check the hand again you fool! Ah, two of my fingers are merging, good still dreaming. Vester you are an idiot, would you just accept the god damn fact that you are dreaming, trust your powers and fly out the window already!?

I fly out the window, the buildings in the streets have changed instead of being constructed of red bricks they now have grey grained surfaces. Interesting I think, they look amazingly real. I decide to fly right this time, then up I look at a parking lot with a lot of cars making sure I really use my senses in order to stabilise the dream as much as possible. I turn around and start flying left, I need to find something I can do, how about finding a small hotel, surely that has a lift in it. I take a left and see a small bar, it looks like it could have been a hotel at some point so I decided that it will be my target. I land in front of it and as I see a man sitting outside drinking a beer I decided to take a quick detour and ask him my dream name. I ask, after a bit of a break he replies “I really don't know”. Gah never mind I have other things to play around with, I walk through the bar expecting to find a lift. I get a bit of a brain freeze from thinking about if the dream will recognise if I use the word lift or elevator and what meaning it will have on the task, but decided that it is irrelevant. I walk through the corridors and in the end come to an old looking metal door, here we go! I walk in in a strange shaped room, the floor is covered in a carpet typical of lifts/elevators. There is no controls, but a manage to summon 1 button on the wall. “One is good enough I only have one destination anyways, atomic world it is!” I press the button.

The lift start moving, really slowly, come on Vester can't you make this thing move quicker!? nope, no go, damn I really need to practice dream control, especially the whole manipulation of my surroundings part. As I think about how I want to spot the holes in atoms so I can surf the particles in wave form I notice that the walls of the lift are starting to close in on me. I think to myself “great you moron so, the way you decide to go to the atomic world is by having a freaking lift squeeze you to the size of one!?” I stand there for some time, but I then see that the patterns of the walls become blurry, the dream is destabilising, I touch them, make sure I really focus on them, rub my hands, however nothing works and I wake up.

31.08.2010

A few fragments (Non-lucid)

NON-DREAM DREAM LUCID

I went to bed pretty late and slept through almost the entire night. Odd for me, I know. I am sure what belongs to each dream, as they are fragments, I post them all mixed up.

- Outdoors.
- Day.
- Music.
- Enjoying with some friends.
- I felt good.
- Going home from wife's work.
- All downhill.
- I saw a white mountain and told my wife it was very cool. She told me it was due all the lakes around. The mountain was beautiful.

Missed dream sings:
- The white mountain.
- The lakes in San Diego (do not exist)

What I would have done if lucid:
- Head for a ToTY.

Last night I had no true recall. I attribute this to the fact that I must have slept deeper then I normally do because of a certain partnered action. I also decided not to perform WBTB so as not to bother my wife while she sleeps. I think I'm going to go back to attempting Stephen LaBerges MILD technique while utilizing a day journal to help me incubate dream topics. I've decided I am going to focus on doors, primarily. Anytime I walk through a door I will stop and comb it over while performing a reality check. It'll be tough to integrate into my daily routine but if effort is my only barrier than effort I shall put forth.

As always: wish me luck.

★★★★

Notes- i am surrounded by cops. They shoot me in a parking lot. My head rests in Asuka's lap, another blond woman comes to comfort me in the dream, maybe Shawna.

- I am with Nomad in the middle of a battle. He is swirling around as various rainbow colors and turns into a dog.

Don Juan Describes Initiating an apprenticeship

I am with don juan. I can't really recall where we had this discussion:
DJ: Tell me about the man you met.
Me: Weeks ago I had seen a psychic, Someone who can see spirits. She told me I would go to a place called Pine lake, and that there, I would meet a mentor. I wasn't sure what she meant by mentor, that could be anything, money managing, music or anything else... My last guess was that he would have been that he would be a sorcerer. I had no idea what pine lake was at the time she had told me,but nonetheless my brother invited me there a few days later, That was something which was impossible for me to ignore.
Dj: You followed that action without question then?
Me: Yes, That is until I saw him. When I saw him I KNEW he was the man I was supposed to meet, But I wasn't sure. I Hesitated before even talking to him.
Don juan then hit me on the back. We were now floating over a familiar scene, which looked like a dream representation of the campground, many details and places were out of place, but nonetheless it was the same. I saw myself sitting on a bench at an outside cafeteria, close by were some doors leading into a music hall, on the other side was a short hill leading down towards two baseball diamonds where a couple baseball games were going on. I was seated on the lower seat, and sitting up higher on the bench and resting his feet on the lower seat was a man with long black hair, tied in a ponytail. He was dark skinned, He could have been any number of races. Don juan said that he looked almost like and ancient meso american indian. I corrected Don Juan as to the man's supposed true race. Don Juan said that I myself have read some of that races mythological beliefs and that some of it lined up uncannily with his lineages knowledge. He said either Casteneda had read those beliefs and put forgeries into his books, or that the two races weren't two races, they had an ancestral heritage. He then mentioned that the people of old, before the age of reason, Traveled to every continent on earth and settled in many places, Including entire lineages of sorcerers. We watched the scene some more, Eventually I got up and walked away.
DJ: Why did you leave him sitting there, when you knew he was the man you were supposed to meet?
Me: I wasn't sure. It was a flight response, I didn't realize it at the time, but in the back of my mind was "Is this REALLY REAL?"
Dj: You should not have hesitated to approach him. Such hesitation could mean life or death in an act of sorcery.
We coninuted watching the scene as it shifted. I was back at the bench by myself watching the man who was inside the entertainment hall. He was walking and and a dog brushed up to him.
Me: I remember that! Before the dog came I was just thinking he was the one whom I was supposed to meet.
Dj: That was your omen, and yet, you just sat there. It was an omen for him as well in his own way.
Then scene shifted again, This time I was walking out of the music hall and the man sat on a farther bench, He was calling to a small black dog that looked like a cross between a black lab and a weiner dog, But the dog ran to me instead and I bent down and petted it.
DJ: That was his second omen.
Me: I knew it was for him as well.
DJ: Then it was an omen for you as well, and yet you still didn't approach him.
The scene shifted, to me standing close to the stage in the hall watching a band, and the man behind me roughyl 10 feet away. He kept looking at me. My energy body reacted and sprouted wings... but they weren't wings, more like tentacles that came from my back where wings would be.
DJ: He was seeing you then, You put on a display for him and he caught it, you had him more than intrigued at that point.
The Scene shifted to a merely empty hall in between bands. I finally approached the man and sat down beside him. As if on cue a black dog approached me, I petted it and said to myself "well, aren't you the messenger?" The man then laughed. and we began a dull conversation. I then meekly told him the story of why I was there. The man looked shocked, and then changed the subject. I excused myself saying I was going to my campsite. He walked with me until we came to the point where the main camping area was, which was downhill. My camp was on the other end behind the baseball diamond. When i continued walking the man looked confused as to my leaving
DJ: You are much like Carlos used to be when I first began to teach him. All this time the man thought you were a Sorcerer like him, because he thought you could see. He saw all the omens of you being a Nagual, the dogs and your display of control over your own energy body, He even heard you mention why you were there and who you were supposed to meet, and then he knew he was going to be an integral part of that. Much of what was said in your conversation was meaningless, by then the Nagual had taken control of the situation. He thought you could see, he was going to give you a demonstration of what he knew... and then you left. And that baffled him, Much like I was baffled when mescalito took a liking to Carlos... Here was an idiot insisting on an overindulgence in talking to himself, and constantly anylising everything to the point of nausea, and yet mescalito played with carlos like they were childhood friends. That's how baffled that man was, at an idiot over indulging in hesitation, even inspite of the fact that the spirit is screaming Omens and trying to get him to act.
Again The scene shifted. In the scene i had mustered up the courage to confront the man, I was standing at the other doors to the hall mingling with people, and then looking over at the man a few times, letting him know that I was ready. The man left the building, while I was still talking to him. He then turned around and looked at me for a second until I noticed him. He began walking further as I followed behind him.
DJ: He was trying to grab your attention with his eyes, he wanted you to follow him for sure this time.
The man walked down a small hill into a valley where most of the camping took place. He quickened his pace to his campground, sat down by the fire and kept to himself, he seemed to be focusing on something. I followed down the hill a mere seconds after looking for him, I wandered close to his campground only separated by.... nothing. In my memory there was a trailer, but in the scene were was none there. A sleeping dog got up and walked in my direction. It stopped and faced me. It's actions were very deliberate. It gazed at me, I stopped in my tracks, backed up a step or too and looked again. The dodg shiften out of sight and came back again, Then I leaned forward slightly, eyes wide and said a low "WOOOOW!" I then turned and walked away.
DJ: That's what what he came to do. He knew the spirit had pointed you out to him, but that you needed to be pushed. He sensed that you were unsure of the encounter, so he had to act fast before he left. He had to hook you, and that's what he did. He Used his intent to shift your assemblage point, and then he used his double to inhabit the dog. You've heard of Lonewolf speak of similar things when he talks about using the assemblage point of a coyote, and how a coyote will lend it's body to someone willing to shape shift into it's form. Although, there is no real shape shifting involved, The dog lent itself to that man, just like your dream body lends itself to your awareness, or can lend itself to any other dreamer. You know all this of course, but haven't articulated it yet, but you will.
Me: Did he hook me like you hooked carlos?
DJ: ina sense yes he did, But, he wasn't as aware of exactly what he was doing as when I was when I had to hook Carlos. The Nagual has a funny way of making sorcerers dance with one another, All participants are sure they know what they are doing while they are doing it, and yet the nagual guides their every move. In order for that to happen, they have to make themselves available to it. One way is following omens or signs of the spirit, which is what you both did. From that point on, the Nagual was running the show and palying you two baffoons like puppets to do it's will.
Me: He seemed pretty controlled of his actions to me, and he acted witha precision I have never seen anyone else on earth do.
DJ: yes, It may appear so, but that only means he has a cleaner connection to the spirit than you. He calls the Nagual or sppirit with different words. He will teach you them someday.
Me: If he does, we barely have any way to contact one another again.
DJ: Power Provides. Both of you are hooked into something now which is hard to escape from. Both of you have the intent to meet again. He may deny it to himself right now, in the same way in which you hesitated, but eventually you two will have to meet again, it's inescapable right now.
Me: Why did you call him a baffoon.
DJ: He was only a lot better than you at covering up his hesitations and doubts, He's been trained to do this in his spirtual practice, He's a baffoon because he's not 100% sure of himself, just like you are not 100% sure of yourself. I suppose that's why you two are well matched. But still He made himself available to the sppirit and he served as a catalyst for it to descend on you, That's his advantage over you. That is what you may have learn from him someday. If he ever teaches it. The only thing you can do for now is set your intent to meet him again, but Ultimately he decides whether or not you will meet again, He still has the power of choice whether to ignore the spirit or act with it. In a way he is hooked too.
Me: I am definitely hooked. I can't get my encounter with him out of my mind. and Now I see signs of the Nagual wherever I turn.
DJ: That's good then, You are oing your part. You should that hope he does as well.

I hate being in school dreams which is why I will not write about today's dream rather just write this down instead.

First intentional LD since i started practicing. Yay!

I cant remember where i was but i start dreaming about dreaming and gradually became lucid... it wasn't instantaneous which was weird. I am now on a dirt path in the middle of a green field. i somehow know the area and start walking down the path, but i was VERY heavy and could barely even lift my head. i turn and walk down to an open field of grass. A truck of people i dont know pulls up to my right and they all get out and start making noise. a few of my friends from grade school come up on my other side. Since im lucid (which makes me very happy) i decide to make the noisy people disappear. i turn away from all of them and try to believe there not there, and it takes two tries, but when i turn around they and the truck are gone. my friends look at me in amazement and i laugh. i look at the sky and try to will myself to fly but it takes much to even think about it (my body is still very heavy) and i look back at my friends. One of them said something that annoys me, and i jokingly say "dont make me create fireballs!". but it sounds like fun so i start trying. I didn't try to believe they were on fire like i should have, but consentraited very hard on them. my hands turn yellow but then i lose the dream (i think because i was focusing too hard) and wake up. I woke up in a single train of thought from my dream to being awake, and thought, 'darn, i woke up'. It was fun.

My college friends and I have gone to the apartment of the children's musical group, the Wiggles. Part of my dream-self expects their place to be brightly colored and the Wiggles themselves to be dressed in gaudy clothing. When I see them, however, they are dressed in solid black robes and topped with Spanish priest hats (birettas). They look serious and even epic, although they maintain a sense of good humor as we visit. Eventually we start to play improv theater games, and they guide us through some tips. My friend Q is advised to be "more like Morgan Freeman" for his dramatic entrance.

Type: regular dream.
Lucidity: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Vividness: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

My family and I were going on some sort of road trip, and it was in the afternoon. The first thing I recall about this dream is that we were pulled over to the side of a long highway with no other cars in sight. There was, however, a farm-like setting along the side of the road. There was a tall white wooden fence surrounding the massive property our van was parked in front of, as well as a couple different barns inside the property. They had the average wooden walls with red and white colors, but flat roofs instead of the rounded ones, which were also made of wood. I could infer this without actually seeing the roofs.

I didn't look back at the van, but my mother, sister, and I simply walked a few feet and got to the farm property. The stakes in the white fence were extremely far apart, so it was easy to enter. There was an upside down L-shaped post with a hanging wooden sign, painted yellow. It read "welcome" in white letters. When we passed the sign, there was a sharp turn to the left, and a narrow path leading directly into a very large barn. On either side of us was the same type of fence, wide stakes, except it was the height of my waist now.

We passed a few people on the other side of the fence; one was a girl wearing a cowboy hat, and she was probably around twelve years old. She was also holding a small horse under her arm, as if carrying a pillow. The horse's legs were pretty short, and it probably weighed only seven or eight pounds.

We arrived at the large barn. The tall rectangular-shaped door was open, so we walked inside. It was big inside; I'd estimate it was at least one hundred feet long and at least fifty feet wide. At the entrance that we came in, along both sides of the barn were stalls; inside them stood horses. I saw hay piled in a few of them as we walked down the barn, and once we got around halfway there were no more stalls against the walls. At the end of the barn, there were three square-shaped holes in the top of the wall, around four by four feet. There were long rectangular planks of wood, placed parallel to each other, going upwards to make stairs.

That was where we'd be sleeping tonight, and I knew it was getting dark. I was the last person to crawl up the stairs and into the small attic-like room. It was tiny, probably half the size of a kid's bedroom. There was one king-sized mattress on the floor in there, and there was only a bit of actual floorspace left to put our belongings. "I'm not sleeping in here if this is how small a room it is," I whined.