Batch

09-11-2012 -- I'm at Newberry's in the Buena Park Mall, where I run into Joel K., who in telling me about this neat daily freebie in Runescape that I wasn't aware of. There is something about a weird sleep issue that might have told me I was dreaming if I was paying enough attention, and something about some kind of farming connection.

I am just finishing up an herb run, and have my pack full of herbs. Joel has warned me there is some kind of sacrifice involved, and I might lose any food I have in my backpack. I don't know if herbs might count as food or not, but I'm thinking it might be wise to stop at a bank and drop off my herbs, first. Joel suggests if I am stopping by the bank, to get some robes to use as the sacrifice instead. I don't get what he means immediately, but eventually I think the idea is cheap, disposable robes, so I don't lose anything of real value.

I think we're walking through Al Kharid, which seems to look just like Fiesta Village at Knott's. We're approaching the garage that the small Model T ride runs out of, which seems to be right behind the palace. There, Joel has a short fight (perhaps 20 seconds) with a small, chipped blade which is floating in the air. Beating it should be easy, even for me. He is gathering up some kind of small grubs or something, and storing them.

He explains this is only the first part of things, and leads me past some buildings and things until we come to a small cabin down a long road on the side of a cliff, where there is a witchdoctor waiting. He tells me this is where the second part takes place, and gives me a small carafe filled with powdered Tang. When I do this myself, I will mix the Tang with water to make a drink for the ceremony. But he tells me any kind of drink should work.

He briefly turns into Greg Jones, then disappears. I am now wandering around Disneyland/Runescape in an area that reminds me of the Big Thunder Trail between Frontierland and Fantasyland, and I spot Dale in line for a ride. I head further down the road, passing first a large wood chipper, then two or three inflatables that look like carnival rides. There is a ride that seems to be kind of a cross between a mine train and a Norwegian Viking ride, and Dale comments it is one of his favorites.

I make my way back to the hut, and now there is a guy there who seems to be dressed like one of the rangers at the Karambe Wildlife reserve in the Animal Kingdom. I think he is there collecting real blood samples or something, but it turns out he is part of the freebie. I admit this is my first time of doing the freebie, and I don't really know what I am doing yet. He doesn't get my Tang powder, and to my horror he throws it out, but just replaces it with powdered lemonade and adds water, so it's still ok.

While he is standing there, an evil witch appears behind him and beheads him with a huge lumberjack saw. I grab my weapon, and strike the saw, and manage to break it. The witch is about to attack me, but there are animals here that are defending me. I think there is a large tiger, and something huge (elephant, rhino?) is actually tearing it's way through the roof and pulling itself inside to help protect me. Unfortunately since we're in this tiny, frail cabin on a cliff, I'm afraid the beast is going to cause the whole thing to fall off the cliff.

09-14-2012 -- I'm in my room setting up some sort of computer link that will allow me to broadcast some sort of video from my computer to others in the same room. People or making fun of me and insulting me, but I carry on. Soon I find I am not doing this is my room somewhere, but in the street right by Peter Marshall Elementary. In my dream I think I am on La Reina, but actually I am at the corner where Glencrest turns into Nancita.

It is dark, late in the evening, and I am just about to start the 'broadcast' when a young teen comes out of the house next to the school. He is very slim, but athletic, and seems to look like a cross between Kevin B. and Steve K. He has a bit of an attitude, but I ignore it, and peacefully invite him to join us. He is unsure, but does so.

Turns out what I am about to show is a documentary I made about a mean old guy (who turns out to have been the teen's grandpa) who lived in the house until he died. Though everybody in the neighborhood hated him (and he seemed to hate everybody) I tried to get to know him and understand him, and then documented the odd things that happened when he died.

Problem is, Hollywood came in at the same time and made a horror film 'based on a true story' that was truly horrifying. My documentary was very, very different. Because of all the attention Hollywood directed their way, the family just wants to be left alone to forget, but the neighbors remain up in arms. Which is why I am going to broadcast the thing here in the neighborhood on this night, to hopefully help everybody understand and quit freaking out.

As the documentary plays, you see little kids from the neighborhood talking about how mean and crazy and scary the old guy is. I try to approach the teen when he is several years younger, as he is walking from the house to the gate of the school. I am being very gentle as I ask if he will talk to me for a few minutes and answer some questions.

Where Hollywood produced a dark horror film, I recorded a tale of redemption and understand. I got to know the old guy, learned his history and why he got to be so mean, and slowly helped to reason him back to where he was willing to start being a nice guy again. As he was just starting to turn around, though, he died. And either God or an angel came for him, though Hollywood portrayed it as the Devil.

We're about halfway through the film when there is a brilliant flash of light, and a somewhat younger looking version of the old guy appears in the yard and walks into the house. The teen tells me he's got to go, and starts walking toward the house. I tell him we'll pause the film for a minute, and he glares at me. I wasn't trying to rush him, it was just an expression. I tell him we'll pause the film for as long as we need to.

As I stand there, a voice in my head suddenly tells me I need to enter the house, too. I'm kind of nervous, but I fold up my laptop and carry it to the house. I enter the house (where the family is having a family reunion) and kind of shrug my shoulders at the mother, who shrugs back.

There is a brilliant white figure standing there who is God. He looks like a cross between George Burns (hence the title of this dream) and Henry Fonda in Gideon's Trumpet. Most of the family doesn't want me around getting into their business, but they do appreciate that I took the trouble to learn the truth, and then tried to tell others that truth. God makes it clear that he called me in to witness his visit, so they pretty much have to accept me.

He is here to help them heal, and put the whole situation behind them. While he is too mild and 'understanding' to be the real God (who is an awesome and scary presence), he is very impressive. This is his second visit to this house. The first was right after the guy died, when he brought his spirit back to say goodbye. Tonight he is going to bring another spirit back for a few minutes, this time Tom D., who died a week or two ago. [To the best of my knowledge Tom is still alive and well.]

Tom appears before us, and seems to know the people and situations (how that is when he has spent most his life in Florida and this is in California I don't know) but he's calming people and soothing nerves and helping everyone to relax. I am very embarrassed and shy when he reminds me that I can't shut myself away, and I need friends and family, too. Wish they'd leave me out of it, but I am not going to argue with Tom or God, so I just kind of nod.

09-04-12 -- I noted there was something about Railroad Tycoon bits in the dream, but I don't see anything in my notes to say what. I am on Hickory Drive, and am doing weird bird calls down near the end of the block. No idea why, but I am. The ground is shifting under my feet, and for some reason a couple of times birds have flown up my pants, which are very loose. Strange. Very strange.

I end up on the phone talking to Pat Q., and as we talk I find she is there with me and we are grabbing a bite of lunch. We're at some sort of snack stand and Pat has turned into Carolyn S. I'm trying to tell her about the weird bird calling bits, but she doesn't want to listen. I am given a bird whistle, but I can't seem to make it work, because it is slightly torn. I try even harder, starts to work very poorly.

The guy working at the snack stand in kind of insulted, though I try to compliment him on his stand. Carolyn has turned into an unidentified brunette movie star, and we're swimming in a swimming pool. They are trying to close the pool, but she refuses to get out of it. She is starting to come on to me, and wants us both to play with the shark cage that is in the water. As long as she wants me to, I'll swim with her.

The people trying to clear the pool remind me of my cancer [I have never had cancer], tell me she has had it too, and blame me for putting her in danger. They start to drain the pool while we are under the shark cage (which is also partly a giant mat), tipping it this way and that over our heads. They are trying to throw buckets of mud on us or worse, but we mostly manage to avoid them. I am near one guy and gal who are making comments, and I try to be nice to them, but I am still not getting out.

Another one starts to tell me that she hears the movie star left 15 minutes ago, and was being very smarmy about it. I start checking around the pool and find I am now alone, the sole one in trouble, and am starting to get quite ticked at the star. I get out and apologize to the staff for making it take longer than it had to, and leave.

09-15-2012 -- I'm at the Hickory house, where mom has me preparing some weird thing to help save a dying magic tree in the forest in the back yard. Seems to involve taking a furnace filter, placing a leaf from the tree when it was healthy on it, then pouring some kind of magical liquid over it. I wait for the liquid to soak in, then head into the backyard.

Making my way through the narrow forest paths, trying to find this dying magical tree, but at one point I bump into something, and drop the filter. The leaf falls off and into the bits of leaves, branches and so on, and I can't find it again. I just have to hope that it was absorbed enough into the filter to work. Eventually I manage to find the dying tree, and I use the filter on it. It comes back to life, and begins to produce a brilliant red fruit that actually gives off light, it is so bright.

Just wandering around, I walk around a bend in the trail, and find another dying magical tree, this one with a white fruit that is very, very dim. I grab a healthy leaf just under the tree and start running back to mom, hoping she has another filter and some more of the magic liquid. Mom does have the stuff needed, and doesn't mind me saving other trees, but she has some other errands she needs me to do first, so it takes some time to get back out to the tree.

The forest paths are beginning to look more and more video gamish, and I'm starting to have the knowledge in my head that there are either five or seven of these magical trees, each with a different color of fruit, and that I need to find as many as I can, but unfortunately by the time I get back to the white fruit tree, somebody has already claimed it. I start wandering down different forest paths trying to find some of the other ones.

As I continue along, things are shifting. Instead of a forest I seem to be wandering through some sort of industrial complex, and instead of trees I seem to be looking for some sort of weird mechanical eye-like light generator. Still have been the first to find one or two of them, and still looking for a couple that haven't been found yet. And when found and activated, each spills out a very bright, very colorful beam of light into the sky. The things are big, and not easily moved around, but every week they are in a different location, so sometimes there are traces of where they have been in past weeks, but they aren't there now.

I start out in a large warehouse-like building, but soon am checking in smaller and smaller buildings, large tool sheds, service bays, just smaller buildings, still looking for these things. I soon find myself in a large building that seems to be a cross between a flea market building and a large garage with multiple service bays. But I can't find any in here.

I move into another building, and think I finally find another one. There is a guy that is supposed to pay me a small amount, but he doesn't want to pay cash, and wants an easy way to get it taken care off. He wants an account number, but instead I pull out my payment card from Courier Express since I am no longer working for them, and tell him to use it, instead. He takes the card and agrees, asks me to give the information to a lady over there on the computer.

She has a laptop on a small table, and I sit down next to her. She is short, slim, has short brown hair, probably a small chest, but she is quite cute, kind of pixie-ish, and wearing a short mini skirt. As I am sitting next to her I am admiring her legs, and suddenly she is nude. I start with a little caressing, pull her on top of me, and move on to more fun. Soon we're both exhausted and laying on a sofa. I am considering resting a couple of minutes and doing everything again, when I wake up.

09-12-2012 -- [Not much going on in the dream world for the most part, for the last week or so, but couldn't sleep well last night, woke a lot, and tons of dream bits. Most didn't come out long enough or detailed enough to post as full dreams, or at least I can't remember enough.]

Trying to use the toilet at the Hickory house (or perhaps in the back yard) but something is wrong. A part in the tank that controls refilling and flushing, but resembles a plunger, has stretched and broke, so the toilet is no longer working right. I pull out the broken part, that fits on the rest largely like a sleeve, and it comes off easy, and ought to be easy to replace. About that time, mom comes on the scene, says I have done it wrong, the entire thing needs to come out and be replaced, and I've damaged everything horribly.

I try to explain that the part that was broken and which I removed was very easy to take out, and should be easy to replace, but even if the entire thing has to be replaced, The broken part I took out couldn't cause any other damage, and it is no big deal. She won't listen, yells and screams, tells me to never try and fix anything in the house again, or even touch anything in the house again, and then in practically the next breath, orders me to fix other stuff in the bathroom.

I have had enough, and tell her no. I am leaving. She screams I am not, and tries to lock me in the house. I force my way out the door, and jog away from her. Oddly enough, though she is very heavy, she manages to keep up with me, and I just barely stay out of her grasp. Neither of us seems to know how she keeps up with me, except anger, and so I am running across streets, and turning around and dodging. I try to catch a bus, but mom is too lose, so I start running down Crescent, instead, heading down toward Marshall. Somehow she got trapped in crowds around the Braille Institute, and I manage to get some distance between us.

As I reach about the nursery, there is a mother, daughter and baby in carriage that spot me, spot mom chasing after me, and decide to interfere. They start chasing after me as well, Though I have been running toward Marshall, I end up in Smith's Food King, the mother still chasing after me, trying to maintain sight so she can lead my mother to me. I finally have enough, call for the manager of the store, and explain I don't know this lady, but she is stalking me. He takes me in the back, away from her, and is talking about keeping us separated, but I just rush out the loading docks at the back of the store, and figure I'll escape that way. I circle behind the store to a chain link fence that I can climb and escape the area, just to find the mother is now there with her husband and an entire second family, and they are all trying to catch me. They refuse to understand my mom was the one who was wrong in this situation, and are determined to catch me and help punish me, regardless. I can't even get far enough away to call Bonnie C for a ride to try and get out of the area. Lousy dream!

---

Most of this is missing, but a couple of the cooler bits were here, so ... I am in a sort of stadium, watching some sort of sport, perhaps water polo or something unusual like that. Along with the scoreboard showing the score, there is another one showing the purchase of food, drinks and souvenirs. And as the bars on these fill up, and then reset, I can claim a portion of the funds brought in. But they are moving very slowly, and I can see a huge amount of stuff being bought or sold.

I wander around to try and figure out what is going on. At first I think scans as things are thrown away aren't reading properly, but eventually I realize I only get the partial credit for the stuff sold from one food stand, one drink stand, and two souvenir stands, so what I have to do is attract more attention to my stands, to get more sales there, and earn more money. Soon I find myself back at the table I had been watching things from. But now there is a hint of wrestling, a hint of a balloon convention, and slowly more than a hint of a comic book convention. The person sitting across the table from me is Peter David, and though I have no idea what we have been talking about, he is passing me an autographed dragon shirt that he is giving to me because he has enjoyed our conversation. He says it is only a 2X, which wouldn't normally fit me, but he also says it is a very large 2X, and since we're both large guys and it fits him ... it fits, and I thank him for the great souvenir.

---

I am at the Adventurers Club on a very slow night, very early in the evening, standing in the main salon. The doors to the library are open for seating for the first show, but there is nobody here but me and maybe one or two others. I keep catching sight of actors heading backstage to animate wall characters to announce shows and such, but they keep noticing there is nobody to announce to, and stop themselves after they've barely begun, so I'm missing all the great shows. Pretty sure I spotted Graham as Hathaway for a moment.

---

Somehow in a shopping mall, being chased by aliens and taken prisoner of a sort. Am being handcuffed or led around, and am just trying to figure out what is going on. Was rather cool and interesting, except none of it stays in memory, so this fragment is mostly worthless to express it.

---

Am on a bus riding along, listening to people talking behind me. One of them seems somehow familiar, and I think I know him from somewhere, so am mentioning stuff connected to Disney or something. He just thinks I am nuts. Then he says something about Mammoth Cave, and I finally place him. His name is Jim something, and he wrote a small book I read about the cave (not Jim Borden, and not one of Roger Brucker's books, but a book that only exists in this dream). I tell him I recognize him now, loved his book, and wrote him a letter about it a few weeks before. He remembers my letter, and now we're kind of friends.

This brings into my mind the outline of a dream I can remember having recently, about a combination of the regular dreams I used to have that were a cross between Brookhurst moon park and Tom Sawyer's Island, and Mammoth Cave, with exploring small, local passageways, and trying to find lost connections that lead into much larger sections of the cave. [In the dream it was a dream I was remembering. In real life, I don't know if it was a real dream I had sometime recently, or was created from whole cloth within this dream.]

Soon most of the passengers have gotten off the bus, and we're at another stop where Graham Murphy is getting off the bus. As soon as he steps out in front of his house, he is surrounded by people (including a quartet dressed up as Disney Carolers) and starts leading them in Christmas carols. He seems to sing that style of song quite well. It is very nice.

---

Seems like there should be one more fragment here, but can't remember it now. If it comes back, I may edit this to add it.

09-02-2012 -- Again, more bits that serious full dreams, but some interesting parts making it worth noting stuff down. Had trouble sleeping for no known reason, so lots of time spent half-dreaming dull, repetitive stuff involving picking up passengers in Railroad Tycoon without ever building stations. Strange stuff.

---

Some kind of Alvin Maker dream, back in the 1800s. Can't remember much, except I am crossing mountains by climbing a much longer, taller than usual overpass. I get to the top of this thing, and half roll, half jump off a semi-cliff to reach the Indian lands to the west. I visit for a little while, and make plans to return the following year, but only after the spring thaws. The Prophet is laughing. He thinks things are going to happen in such a way that my time estimates will be off, and I'll actually be leading everybody else back just before the major snows of winter hit. Neat stuff, but can't remember most of it.

---

Somehow branching off from the last bit, but in current time. I am driving across the country with two others, Dale, and another person, who is our navigator. Have no idea who he is, though. We're going all the way from Florida to California, and though I try not to ask too often, eventually I have to ask how we're doing, and have far we've gotten, though I promise I won't ask every few minutes, and it won't turn into "Are we there yet? Are we there yet? ..." Suddenly I don't have to ask, because I recognize the small town we've just entered. [Its not a real town, but one I have dreamed of before.] I can't put an exact name to it with any confidence, but I think it is about halfway across on our trip. [The last dream was a trip between California and Nebraska, so I think we're actually more than halfway through, since we're covering the whole country, and not just half.]

Anyway, we've arrived at this town, and it is late in the evening, and we're going to get a room for the night, and a meal. There is a pizza parlor here, and to motel also offers pizza. (Think it is an Econolodge.) I am explaining to Dale that the hotel's pizza is thinner, less toppings, and less tasty, but cheaper. The pizza parlor's pizza is much better tasting, and more filling, but it is also much more expensive, and he is having to decide which one we're going to eat for dinner. The same lady is working the front desk who was working it the ten years ago or so that I was here, and she almost seems to recognize me. Dale is asking about sodas, and she explains they have powdered milk or warm juice available to drink. There just aren't a lot of drink options at the motel, itself.

I refuse to worry about that, though, as I have just remembered that on the last trip through this town, they had Hostess Os donuts, and I'm about to run off and go looking for some. I start to walk out the back door to go get the car when I find somebody in a gorilla mask, carrying a gun. I am afraid I am going to be mugged, but it turns out to be the front desk clerk. She wears the mask and carries the gun when she goes outside to scare off anybody who might try to mug her. So I continue on my way to the car in search of donuts.

---

Am at some odd sort of combination of a hospital or doctor's office and Fullerton College. I'm walking around, trying to find a way to talk to a nurse friend of mine, and just listening to what is going on. I overhear some conversation about how Peter Pyle took advantage of some sort of government program to form his own college -within- Fullerton College. [This is kind of like the way there are a bunch of colleges that make up Cambridge University, which makes sense, since I got to know Peter during the exchange program to Cambridge.] Gives him more control over what he wants to study, and I am thinking it sounds like a good idea.

Somehow I am putting on an old blue blazer from Pedus (first security company I ever worked for) in the hopes that nobody will notice me, and I can go looking for my nurse friend. It turns into a long white smock, which ought to blend in even better. I get distracted, though, by a friend who is looking at a large man-eating plant. [Think of Audrey II from Little Shop of Horrors.] This thing is young, and it can't talk yet. It actually seems slightly friendly, or least not evil. There are two pods (faces, thinking parts) and some of their vines have grown together, so they can't get too far apart. One of my friends is trying to untangle them, but with no real success.

I'm trying to take some pictures at them, and I discover they react at least somewhat well if you sort of cluck at them to draw their attention. Not cluck like a chicken, but like you might make slight sounds to get the attention of a cat or dog, without actually saying anything. One of the pods swings to look at me, and I try to take a picture, but I find my camera is a gun. Well, I find my camera is in the shape of a gun. I stare down the sight, pull the trigger, and it snaps a picture. Problem is, I'm not hearing the click I'm supposed to, so I don't know if it is really taking pictures or not. Anyway, I keep trying to get some good shots. It must be near Christmas time, because I see a marmalade cat shift out of the way as the Grinch peeks out of a hole in the wall above the plant, then pops back in. I call out to try and get it to reappear so I can take a picture of it. I think then gun scares it, though, because suddenly its the Doctor (not sure which one) revealing he was only dressing up as the Grinch.

---

I find myself in the living room of the Hickory house with a couple of friends from high school. For some reason Amy F is asking if we can all remember an old TV show, and making comments about what station showed it. I'm not sure what the show was, might have been Bonanza or Big Valley, but whatever it was, I doubt she could remember the exact station it was shown on, anyway, so I'm kind of considering challenging her to prove what she says she can remember. But since she is sitting on the couch in a short, loose skirt, and crossing and uncrossing her legs a lot, and I am sitting on the floor with a nice view of it, I'm a little distracted. I don't see anything except a nice expanse of leg, but it's still a nice sight. The other friend is a blond that I can't identify, but she suddenly stands up and starts to strip off her shorts. I'm thinking things are starting to get interesting, but she's just running to the restroom with a lightning case of diarrhea. Yuck!

09-01-2012 -- I decide to have dinner at the Melting Pot (fondue restaurant). I don't have a mystery shop scheduled, but I hope I can find a way to turn it in to one, as I would be able to get my money back after the fact. I'm sat at a table and start looking through the menu and figuring which courses I may want. But I eventually realize I may be hampering myself as to mystery shopping by not waiting to let the server suggest something.

Anyway, she comes up and asks what I would like, and I indicate I want the four course meal (supposed to be cheese fondue, salad, surf and turf, and then a chocolate fondue for dessert) and she agrees, and asks if I want deviled eggs or fried zucchini. What? There aren't supposed to be either of these on what I ordered. But I figure maybe they're being offered as an appetizer. So I ask for the deviled eggs.

There's a manager sitting at a table perhaps 10 feet away, and he seems to be keeping an eye on me, so I think he may suspect I am a mystery shopper. I still continue to occasionally take brief notes on timing. It takes forever, but they finally bring me a big platter of deviled eggs. Then the owner (female) comes up to me and asks how long I waited. I say about a half hour, and she seems satisfied. When I actually calculate it out, it is about 32 minutes, which I think is too long.

The eggs are tasty, but I don't eat too much of them because I am leaving room for everything else. I set most of them aside, planning to take them home. The wait for the next course is incredibly slow, and I find myself getting more and more sleepy. I almost trip on a small table next to mine, and end up pulling it under my table and pushing it to the back so it is out of the way. I'm getting more and more annoyed, and more and more tired. It's been more than an hour, and they still haven't brought the second course.

Eventually I fall asleep, and I guess they just leave me there, because I wake up in the restaurant, nobody is there, and it is something like 8 in the morning. I look around, and not only did they never bring any more courses, but they came and took away the rest of my deviled eggs, and I'm really rather annoyed. I stumble out of the restaurant and climb into the Jimmy (my new car, only had it a couple of weeks) and start to drive toward the parking lot exit.

But I realize I never paid the bill in any way, so I decide to go back inside and see if I can find anybody. Unfortunately, some idiot has a truck with which he is pulling two trailers, and he has parked so that he not only takes up two parking spaces, but the driving spot in between them, so I have to turn around and go another way. Idiot.

CAR | CAR CAR | CAR
CAR | CAR CAR | CAR
CAR | CAR CAR | CAR
VERY STINKING SILLY LONG TRUCK
CAR | CAR CAR | CAR
CAR | CAR CAR | CAR
CAR | CAR CAR | CAR

I go back in the restaurant, and though they aren't open yet, I can get in, and I approach my table, where I manage to hunt down the bill. They are charging me $31.66 for a drink and an appetizer, when they never brought me the rest of my food. I call a manager over to try and complain about things, but he never slows down and shuts up enough for me to tell him most of what went wrong. He just makes change for me, and gives me a side order of fried zucchini, which I have no interest in at all.

08-31-2012 -- [Last dream of the month. And it's been a busy one for dreams. Not much going on the rest of the night, just dull fragments that aren't worth noting, but the last couple of hours of sleep, something longer, more detailed, and lucid.]

One little bit that may not have even been part of this dream, but a fragment from another ... I was driving down an on-ramp, just about to get on a freeway, when I hear a gun fire. I seem to be on a motorcycle, and there are a couple of motorcycle cops here, as well. We all stop, crouch down on the ground, and start looking around for who might be firing. We here no more shots, but more and more shell casings keep appearing. Finally I glance up in the tree we're standing under, and the guy with the gun is up the tree. He isn't firing at us, but is dropping casings on us.

There's almost a sort of secret agent vibe to the first part of this. I am in a house (or maybe it is a pub) somewhere, just kind of doing my own thing, when somebody has given me a package of papers. They say something that kind of indicates the model in the photos will do whatever she is told, and I find I'm kind of worried for the young lady.

The various papers are mostly advertisements, though what they are advertising, I'm just not clear on. They all feature an attractive early 20s blond model, and there is nothing obviously wrong, but more and more I find myself worried about the woman, and I slowly start talking to people about how she might need some help of some kind. The response I mostly seem to be hearing is that I'd better watch it, or my girl-friend will get jealous.

So I talk to her. She is also attractive, blond, and probably early to mid-twenties. I explain I feel the young lady needs help of some kind, and make it very plain it's nothing more than that. My gf seems very supportive of this, and even points out hints that all the photos in the ads show signs of being doctored, which seems to indicate that the girl may not even be as attractive as she looks in the ads. The one straight photo (as opposed to ad) seems even less real.

My gf has put down the packet of information on the hood of my car while we talk, and somebody else has come by and picked it up and started to walk off with it. I chase him down the maybe 20 yards he's gotten, and take the packet back. I put it back on the car hood, and sit a pizza box on top of it. But when I walk back into the bar, my girlfriend has run off, and there are now hints that she got very jealous, though there was no reason for her to be.

By this time, though I have no idea why, either my girlfriend, the girl in the ad, or perhaps the bar, is French. There is an extremely tall woman across the bar, probably at least 8 feet tall, and mostly legs. She is wearing a yellow mini skirt, and somehow seems to like walking around and even standing in a wide stance, and I can't help noticing it would make it very easy to look up her skirt, since it ends above head height for anybody sitting down.

I walk back outside to get the packet off my car, just to find packet, pizza box and car are all now missing. I'm depressed and annoyed here at first, because this seems all too common. I come across a woman talking to a man, and both are dressed up like Disney custodian crews. I ask them if they know what happened to the car, packet, and pizza. They indicate they have no idea on the car and the packet, but a guy had just given her this half-empty pizza box. I look inside, and it does indeed look like my pizza. I give it back to them, and invite them to enjoy it. After all, I've already eaten half of it, and am not really hungry at the moment.

I start walking west, getting mellower by the moment. I don't know why, but I just start to think I am dreaming. I decide to use a test directly from some of the dream techniques I have been learning about, rather than my own usual dream tests, and I take several fingers of my left hand and start pressing them against the palm of my right hand. Nothing happens at first, but I just press a little harder, and slowly the fingers pass through the palm until they are sticking through the back of my right hand. Yup, I'm dreaming.

I see a hotel further down the road, and figure I'll head there, start going through some rooms, and find some fun. It is something I have done frequently in my dreams. As I am walking over a bridge toward the hotel, I notice something very strange off to the side, a combination decorative stream and miniature golf course. Some guy or gal (probably guy) is playing a hole, but the bridge beams block sight of most of the person.

I walk on to the hotel, and pick up a couple of sets of keys, figuring with my dream powers they'll work for every lock, much like the keys at that hostel we once stayed in, in London. I don't know why, I never use keys in these dreams, anyway. This is a rather large, multi-floor hotel, and very fancy. I wander around until I find the elevators, and they are so fancy you can't tell what are the elevator doors, and what are the wall decorations. So I end up standing at the wrong place and miss the first elevator. I have to push a button and wait for a second.

I get on the elevator and push the button for the third floor, figuring that ought to get me up high enough to start finding rooms, but the elevator doors open onto a small flight of around six stairs. This seems odd. I climb up the six stairs to find myself in the middle of a really fancy restaurant, which I have found on the third floor of many hotels in the past ... in my dreams, at least.

I pass through the restaurant and up some ramps and things until I find myself in a hallway on the fourth floor, looking at actual hotel rooms. There is an attractive brunette, probably about 35 or so, walking into her hotel room, and I decide to start by following her. She has shut the door, but I walk right through it. Her husband is there, though, and I don't want any trouble, so I just walk through the wall into the next room.

I walk further and further 'down' the hall, but not in it, just walking through the walls between the rooms. Unfortunately, it is about three in the afternoon, and almost nobody is in the rooms, and the few rooms anyone is there are filled with couples, so I don't get to have any fun.

I've gone through maybe eight or ten rooms this way, but the next wall I walk through doesn't put me in a hotel room, but some kind of operations center, keeping everything running smoothly at the hotel. They don't see me walk through the wall, but as I pass through the room, they do realize they don't know me, and one guy starts hassling me for my red security badge that gave me entrance, when I don't seem to have one, he is all over me.

I start to run, and he gives chase, but he's slightly faster than me. I give up on making a quiet departure, and just go running toward a wall, but right as I reach it, he grabs on to me, so I pull him through the wall with me. He's shocked, but still isn't letting go. So I grab him, push him back against the wall, and shove. He phases through it, and loses his grip on me, so he's stuck on the other side.

Unfortunately, he has a radio, and he wastes no time in letting the entire hotel know where I am, what I look like, and what I can do, so every employee in the place is now chasing me, trying to grab me, and making it impossible for me to get anywhere quietly. I try to drop through the floor, but floors and ceilings seem to be much harder to go through than walls. I try to fly, but the ceiling is too low, and I am still easily reachable by people stuck on the ground. I just can't get away. Then I wake up.

[You'd think this would be amazingly frustrating, but it was just slightly annoying, and mostly challenging and fun. I am also convinced I need to somehow develop a dream power of Jedi mind control in my dreams, so I can just walk up to guys like this and tell them "You don't even notice me. I am not worth bothering with. These are not the droids you're looking for." and just go on my way.]

08-16-2012 -- Am traveling with a mentor along paths in a medieval time-period, except it takes place in Buena Park. I am half Harry Potter traveling with Dumbledore, and half Garion traveling with Old Wolf. We're hiking down a wooden path where two trails merge, except it is where Manchester Blvd merges with Orangethorpe. One of our horses wanders off to return to where it came from, and I am kind of mad because "I could have ridden that." Except I am already riding a horse, and my mentor doesn't actually need one.

Suddenly we're walking down Crescent Avenue, except it still has that medieval feel to it. I'm heading toward Marshall, but walking on the other side of the street than usual, and I keep running into people who want to befriend me or offer me help. I have no idea why, but it seems like I have a talent for recognizing those who can help me.

Around the area of the nursery, I run into a Robin Hood type who I wrote down becomes important later on. Since I never mention him again, I don't see how that can be. I soon reach the apartments across the street from the school, and cross over to Marshall.

I have somehow been turned into a woman, and am wearing a dress with a ridiculously high slit in the front of it, with three sets of holes, and only one combination lock to fasten one of the sets of holes together. I try to use the lock on the middle hole, but the dress then gapes open above the lock, and shows off everything that I've got. So I have to use it on the top-most set of holes, and that still leaves the slit way too high and revealing. The teachers are not going to like this.

08-16-2012 -- [Three dreams from this night, since I have entered one, I am going to enter all three. Though this one I may not have woken well enough to fully write down, because I can't make the greatest of sense out of it.]

There are hints of the Doctor and Amy Pond, though I can't remember any actual details with them (guess what I watched 6 episodes of, right before going to sleep?) I seem to be doing some kind of mystery shopping rounds that involve aliens that are swelling up like some odd sort of balloons. I have to take them to two specific places, and then they start to deflate and become safe.

These two places, one is a fair distance to the north, the second is a fair bit to the south, and it overall feels like some of the BankAtlantic bank routes that I still dream of mystery shopping. Soon I choose a new second stop, one that is to the south, but much closer. Because I had been going much further south, after I make my second stop I head further south, rather than north, like I should have, and I soon find myself looking for a place to turn around.

I try to turn around at a toll road on-ramp, and though I have not passed through the toll booth or gotten on the toll road, they charge me a $3 toll anyway. I am upset about this. The toll collector looks like the head vampire from the Doctor Who episode the Vampires of Venice, and she is listening to the radio which seems to be playing Randy Stonehill's "Who Will Save the Children" which she doesn't like because she doesn't like any music from the 70s.

I go back to my car and try to turn around, and unfortunately I hit the curb. This really badly mangles both of my back tires, but they are holding together and still somehow retaining their air, so I drive off. It is Sunday, and a holiday, and I am really hoping they continue to hold together, because there is no way I can get them replaced today. I think this while driving through a closed automotive garage.

08-16-2012 -- [This was a lucid dream where even knowing I was dreaming and had strange dream powers, I couldn't seem to do anything to make it a good dream. Very depressing, and was asking to die in the dream by the end of it. Miserable.]

In an elevator, going somewhere, but no idea where. I am 3/4 asleep, and can barely open my eyes. Some black lady asks me if I am at my floor, or if I am going back down as she exits the elevator. There are a couple more floors, but back down I go, no clue as to what is going on.

I think I am in a movie theater for a few seconds, then I find myself in a 7-Eleven, thinking about the mystery shop I just did. I took four or five pictures of either the ads or the trailers in the theater, then left. In the very low lighting inside the 7-Eleven (its the middle of the night, and while they are open, they don't want the lighting to disturb people) I am trying to read a newspaper and take a good picture of my ticket stub as a receipt. Problem is, the lighting is just too bad.

I move to some brighter light just by the door, and set my stuff up. I am just about to take the picture, when a bunch of obnoxious kids come in and start jostling the table. One of them sits down on my stuff, and they all wonder why I seem to be mad at them.

Suddenly we're outside, standing by a ditch and I am trying to explain everything to them, how they messed up my picture and sat on my stuff, and they just don't care, so I give up. I find some of my stuff is scattered and laying in the dirt and mud in and around the drainage ditch, and looking at a broken pair of glasses, trying to remember if they are mine. I don't think so, they don't look right.

Suddenly I find myself in a bedroom, no idea where. It is weird, and dimensions are stretched and warped. It is huge, and empty, no furniture. Well, nothing except a mirror. The odd thing is, I glance in the mirror and I see a reflection of the room, but with all kinds of furniture, and looking cheery and pleasant, rather than dark and miserable. I see a huge clown coming, and she tells me to be patient, things get better.

Suddenly I find myself being 'attacked' by a circus tiger, except it just wants to cuddle a little bit. There are elephants, giraffes, and other animals just wandering around in this huge, empty room of mine. Bonnie C is here, but she is just sitting there, muttering to herself.

The clown walks past, but she is now dressed as a naughty nurse, all in white, really short skirt, and very attractive. Now this is more like it! I follow her as she walks into a doctor's office, and she is speeding up, almost like she is trying to escape. By this point I know I am dreaming, so when she goes through a door and locks it, I run right through it at full speed, and pass through as if it weren't there.

I catch up to her among some office cubicles and am trying to kiss her and start having some fun. A doctor walks into the room, and because I don't want him to see me, he can't, but since I'm all over the nurse, who he can see, and she is struggling, he knows something is up. "He's here, isn't he?" he asks. Then comes over and starts to wrestle with me, even though he can't see me.

I try to explain. I'm dreaming, I know I'm dreaming, and shouldn't I be able to have some fun? I point to the nurse's gorgeous bare ass, her fanny right in front of my face, and say "Answer honestly, if you're in a dream, face to face with this, would you not take advantage of the situation?" He is honest, and admits he probably would, but tells me she is not for me. I get nothing except the very minor feel I have already copped.

She leads me back to the floor of the dark, empty, huge bedroom, and stays right there, taunting me with her presence. Obnoxious. To hell with this, I start to feel her up again, and she is not happy. Just before I can get anywhere, I get distracted by a caterpillar dressed up as a clown, climbing on me. A green dog comes bouncing up, then disappears, and the doctor is here, still protecting the nurse. He looks slightly different, and I realize he is also the dog.

I start to whine about how I don't get to have anything, even in my dreams, and start to beg to die. They have nothing helpful to say to me. They tell me to get something to eat, and now there is a plain table with a picnic basket on it. I walk up to it and there is some weird guy standing there singing a song about hiding bad food in with the good, and burying chewed clean chicken wing bones under a couple of loaves of stale bread.

This dream sucks!

08-20-2012 -- As always, much more to the beginning than I can remember. First bit I can really remember, I am wandering streets in either England, or perhaps Rancho Palos Verdes, areas that I have dreamed of before. Slowly it is changing to the streets around the Pageant house, instead. I stop to talk to a little old lady, but can't remember what we talked about. I am starting to look for the exit to the housing tract.

As I am exiting, there are hints of La Palma and Magnolia, but much more of Sand Lake in the Doctor Phillips area. Approaching Turkey Lake Road and heading east, I find myself passing a combination gas station, Wendy's and Chick-Fil-A, and the place has been closed down. I assume that is because there is another one right across the street where the 7-Eleven used to be.

I think I am on a bike at this point, and am waiting for the light to cross from the NW corner to the SW corner. Right when the light changes, there is a fire truck coming through, so I have to wait a few more moments. My bike and a bunch of cars end up in the middle of the intersection when the light changes, and everybody heading the other way just goes anyway, swerving around us. What a circus.

The light changes again, and we complete our turn and pull under the freeway overpass before we are stuck in traffic again. Somehow I am helping somebody deliver packages (they seem to be from Damark) to cars while they wait in the traffic. One of the other people delivering stuff seems to be very rude and unfriendly, and some of the people who were originally willing to accept the deliveries are now refusing because he ticks them off.

One of the items being delivered is a strange, rolled out Santa head decoration that comes unrolled, and I have to try and get it rolled up properly again. A few minutes later I am meeting somebody outside a sandwich shop that is part of a hotel (on International Drive?) I had agreed to send out some notices about package deliveries, but I forgot, and it is now too late to deliver some of them. But for the rest, the owner and I take to the streets to try and convince more of the people to accept their deliveries once again.

08-19-2012 -- [You know those nights when you are sick, and the dreams are really weird, long, and never-ending? Where they make no sense and you seem to be half-awake, and when you really do wake up, you are still exhausted? This is one of those, and I figured I ought to have at least one posted here.]

I'm running up and down Orange Avenue between Sand Lake and Holden, and trying to figure out which several out of the dozen gas stations in the small stretch of road I am supposed to be mystery shopping. The addresses are all very similar, and some are marked with the wrong addresses, and it is all just a terrible mess!

Almost every time I stop, bits of Anagogic Ort are appearing at my feet, and I have to take the time to pick the dang stuff up. Since it interferes with my concentration on details of the mystery shops, it really annoys me.

I keep waking up and falling back to sleep, just to continue the same stuff, wandering around these gas stations and picking up orts, and feeling more and more tired all the time. Absolutely miserable. Also bits of me lying in bed, bored and miserable, until finally I find myself dreaming that it is the next night, I am feeling a little better, and there is a person in a bed next to me, and people are coming in to talk to him, and we're all making friends, and I'm moving on from the miserable sleep.

Very unpleasant.

08-22-2012 -- At school? Convention? Work? I'm just not sure. It's kind of a muddle. I stop by the office to check on something, and they're giving me paperwork for all the students who are somehow different in some way that is related to me. Have no idea how, that part doesn't stick.

Anyway, Tammy from Courier Express is working in the office, and she is the one who has been setting this stuff aside for me, but somebody new has just taken over, and I fear they may object. They don't seem to, though. Meanwhile, more records are being printed out for me, but they are out of paper, and I am trying to find some more to keep things going smoothly. Isn't working very well.

I am heading into a hall where we are going to watch some sort of movie, and as I am entering, I run into Carolyn wearing Petey's costume, but not the make-up. I'm hoping I haven't offended her by coming to this movie without here. There are a bunch of other clowns here, too (also in costume, but not make-up) which is why I wonder if it is a convention. The movie turns into some sort of show, and for just a minute or two it turns very political. I think Rush Limbaugh is there, and perhaps Mitt Romney. But the politics vanish very quickly, thankfully.

Soon I exit that building, and soon find myself entering a stadium-like seating area that I've visited in a bunch of dreams. There are people trying to get us seated and organized before whatever we are here for is ready to begin. One of these is an attractive brunette who I am thinking of getting together with, but Steve Koffroth gets there first. Darn!

[Overall, this was a huge, involved dream, but I just couldn't manage to remember much in the way of details, so it makes a pretty small dream post.]

08-29-2012 -- Fragments, nothing but fragments. I don't know what is going on with my dreams. A bunch of nights of incredible dreams of length and clarity and great storylines, and then nothing but fragments. And I can't see anything different about what I have been doing to prepare for sleep on the different nights. Oh well. I don't usually bother noting fragments, but a few of these struck me as interesting, so ...

Something in a hotel, may or may not have been working security. Big, fancy hotel. Lots of time between floors in elevator or on escalators. Stop by fancy restaurant inside. All I can remember.

---

In my 2nd bedroom in the Hickory house, staring at a phone wire running about five feet between two spots on the wall. Somehow that phone wire is a train route in Railroad Tycoon (guess what I've been playing a lot over the last few days) and since the phone wire is a double line wrapped together, but only a single wire of it is being used, I am pulling the ends of the second wire free, and then attaching them to the same screws as the first wire. This gives me two train lines between the same cities, doubling the load capability, and therefore increasing the inheritance somebody is going to get from this train route. (Am also afraid I am going to electrocute myself.)

---

I'm in a classroom somewhere, sitting at desks and somehow working on some sort of science project. One of the people here is Buffy the Vampire Slayer. And there are a couple of nerds presenting ideas they've come up with. Their ideas do some great theorizing about a wide range of scientific theories, but get nowhere and accomplish nothing in the real world.

Somehow I am a super genius, and take each of these ideas, and string them all together to make things that will change the world. Amazing stuff. We're building working models of things, and one of them somehow ejects something at high speed and force, and suddenly one of the nerds has a hole in his chest. I manage to convince him it is not important, and that his body will heal it without any trouble, and to just keep working.

By this time it is a big, fancy business, and not a school room, and we are just getting ready to leave for the day when we're attacked by crooks who want to steal our ideas. We're fighting for our lives, and me, Buffy, and another tough guy (probably a vampire) are easily fighting them off, but they decide to pick on one of the nerds. They shoot at him, and I try to throw myself in front of the bullet, since it won't do me much harm, but I'm too late. He's dying. I think we have to turn him to save him.

---

Somehow I am at the beach, out swimming in the ocean (Atlantic, not Pacific) and I've been swimming for some time. I'm coming up on a lifeguard tower about a half a mile out, where there are some buoys stretched out to mark the limits of how far people are allowed to go, and a life guard stationed there to enforce, and rescue those who need it.

I'm not quite there, and I am getting tired, so I swim over to one of the ropes stretching out from the shore to the buoy, and just start pulling myself along it. About this time, I notice my feet touching the ground, and I'm thinking to myself, I'm a half mile out, here. No way I should be able to touch the ground. And I start thinking about the hurricanes, and suddenly realize there must be a tidal wave coming. I start hurrying for shore as quickly as I can.

---

I'm in a bedroom, no idea where this one is. I am naked, and crouched by an unblocked window that is very low in the wall, so I am barely covered. The window opens out onto the street, and it is broad daylight, so this is probably not a good thing. Doesn't bother me too much, though. There's an attractive girl here who is also wearing nothing, and I am enjoying the view. A guy walks in, and he is wearing only a shirt, and an I glance down, he seems to have the lower body of a woman. That isn't right! So I take a firm look, and good, the dangly bits that should be there, are there. He takes this to mean I am coming on to him, and he seems to like it and is approaching me, so I have to quickly explain.

Somehow I seem to be watching a cartoon, except it is happening here in the room, instead of on a screen. There is a green and yellow polka-dotted blob-like creature that is trying to rob a filing cabinet in the middle of a building late at night. To see where he is going, he opens his mouth and a beam of light comes out of it. On the wall, you can see shadow outlines of a creature in his stomach (squirrel, weasel, maybe ferret) holding the flashlight. He opens one of the filing cabinets and a mermaid pops out and lands on the ground. She can't speak, and she is using her hands to cover her breasts, so she can't really do anything except glare at the strange creature. For some reason, I think it is J.K. Rowling.

Meanwhile the guy in only a shirt is trying to read my dream journal, and I am trying to stop him. I suddenly realize this is very odd, since I am usually annoyed because there aren't enough people reading my dreams on the computer, yet I don't want him reading them here in real life. He is commenting on how he doesn't want to read the dreams about the Vatican (don't think I have ever dreamed about the Vatican, not being Catholic), and is trying to find a piece of blank paper. I don't have any in my dream journal, so I think I may have to grab some from the printer.