memorable

08-24-2012 -- [So I've been noticing something odd. I have some dreams that I think are huge, and some dreams that seem quite short in comparison. But when I write out the basics so I don't forget, almost all of them take up the same amount of space. And when I type them in, almost half the time, the short, sweet ones are longer than the long ones. This stuff is just weird. That said, this feels like one of the longest dreams I have ever had, and it covers something like a couple of decades of time. We'll see how long it is after I type it in, though....]

This is a Harry Potter dream. Throughout the dream, I am Harry Potter, though the entire dream also takes place in less than a block of space where I grew up in Buena Park. In this dream I have been 'orphaned' as usual, same with Neville Longbottom. But Neville is five or six years older than me, and mostly raises me as a sort of big brother.

Though the whole dream was very intricate, detailed, and vivid, my mind can't manage to remember the earliest bits as anything but a haze of chases, kidnappings, running and hiding, and powerful magics. There are lots of hints of subtle warnings just before a kidnapping, so it turns into a chase, instead, and powerful accidental magics that end up injuring or killing the Death Eaters that are trying to harm us.

Much of the hiding and chasing seems to be happening around the Heinz house, and it is becoming obvious that Neville and I are very powerful. Almost an entire different level than the average witch or wizard, the difference is that obvious. Neville and I defend each other as well as ourselves, and we do a very good job of it.

A few years pass, and sometime around the age of eleven or twelve, we find and rescue my parents, James and Lily, who didn't die, as everybody thought, but were somehow captives for the last decade or so. I spend the next few years being raised by them, and my powers continue to grow. We live in the Potter Ancestral home, which is the Goodwins' place, but magically larger.

I'm standing in the living room / dining room combo, staring a long distance down the two small steps into the den (as I say, expansion charms) where a hot (in more ways than one), sweaty Lily Potter is dressed in a tight, form fitting spandex body suit, collapsed on the couch, recovering from some heavy exercise that has left her exhausted, and somehow sexually spent. I am entranced.

I use my powers to heal, refresh, and sexually recharge her, so she suddenly finds herself incredibly horny, and I back away quietly, unseen. She didn't see me, she can't know I had anything to do with it, but somehow she does, and is embarrassed and absolutely furious with me.

She's gotten a hold of my remote control (why not a wand? I don't know) and is trying to check for my finger prints to prove it was me. I don't understand the logic, but somehow I have to fake playing When the Saints Go Marching In on the piano badly (Rod Miller-style Entertainer wrong notes) when I know I could play it perfectly, to prove my innocence. She still suspects me, though.

It is a couple of months later that Neville calls an extended family meeting over at the Heinz house. As we all get together and I wonder what is going on, I suddenly realize right before they tell me. Neville is going to take over raising me again. He explains that they just aren't comfortable around me. My power levels scare them, I just don't fit in, and they want to concentrate on their new family.

In one way, in the back of my mind, I can understand. But mostly I am just hurt. Hurt, and angry. I am just about to stalk off when we are attacked by a Death Eater, and I lose it. I just wave my hand at him, and his head explodes like it was hit with a Sledge-O-Matic. Same happens to all the other Death Eaters who are attacking. For the first time ever, I let out my full power, and I am as far above Neville's level as he is above everybody else. I stalk back across the street to the Hickory house (my house) which I guess I've decided is my new home, just leaving everybody else standing there, horrified.

A few years pass, and Neville comes over to confront me. He fears I am becoming complacent, and unsafe. We're talking on the balcony of the Hickory house, perhaps three or four floors up (it's only a single story home, but as I said, expansion charms.) As we're talking, another powerful warlock attacks us. This guy would be a challenge for Neville, but I gesture, penetrate his shields, and disintegrate him. Neville tells me this is just what he is talking about. He shows me a small blue sphere, just about the size of a superball, and explains they are powerful explosives, and the guy probably planted a bunch of them around before he attacked.

I do a summoning, and sure enough, I pull together a number of the things. I banish them about a hundred feet into the air, and Neville is amazed and horrified. Horrified because at a mere hundred feet, they would still do tremendous damage. Amazed, because other than a sonic boom-like bang and a few broken windows, there is no damage. Though I never tell Neville, I contained and shielded the explosion, easily within my powers. Neville stalks off, more convinced than ever that I am over-confident and dangerous, and I am completely on my own.

A couple more years have passed, and I am now 19 or 20. The age difference between Neville and I has grown, because he now has an entire family of his own, including almost grown children. They pull me in for another family meeting, but this time we have it at my house. The Potters have a couple more kids, as does Neville, and they all arrive in a big horse-drawn wagon. [Whether this is in reference to the backward wizarding world, or a throwback to the Tales of Alvin Miller series I have been listening to for the last few weeks, I don't know.]

The Potter women start to explore the house, and as they approach the hallway leading back to the bedrooms, I sense an evil wizard or monster there. I don't even wave my hand anymore. I just think, and silently destroy the being, leaving nothing but a pattern of blood on the wall, which the ladies just assume is a part of the wallpaper.

As the Longbottoms try to situate the wagon in my living room, Neville's oldest daughter, who is just at the edge of adulthood, is bent over in a pair of loose jogging shorts, revealing a rather nice backside. I'm beginning to get ideas, and I'm hoping Neville doesn't notice me noticing.

He does. He is very forceful in pushing on me an odd binding contract written on our tongues, ordering me to stay away from his daughter. I am not very happy with him, and neither is she. But in an odd twist, much like the deal with the Devil in the Piers Anthony Incarnation books, this includes an unwritten agreement that there are no restrictions on anybody else. By the end of the dream I have a very passionate Lily Potter in my arms, no longer able to resist me, as we're just about to move on to more than kissing.

[Hey ... don't blame me. I am not into incest. Throughout this entire dream I was Harry Potter, and it was Harry's mother, not mine. If anybody is into incest, it is Harry Potter!]

02-26-2011 -- That was kind of grim. Started out kind of light, turned into one of my darkest, grimmest dreams ever. This one may not be pleasant. Almost all sweetness and light, but the last few parts are ultra-violent.

I'm driving down the road, trying to go to Disneyland, and it is late a night. I'm pretty much driving all right until I make a wrong turn and almost get my car trapped, so I get out of the car and start walking. I am near Harbor, and I should only have to walk a block or two to reach Harbor Blvd and be able to turn toward Disney.

I find myself visiting with a marmalade cat that is mine, and talking with it and visiting with it. I pass a young woman who is moaning about how she has no money and and no food, and will probably die in the cold of the night, and I walk past her, but then start to feel bad for her and come back and give her a little money to help her out. Then I hug her close to show her people still care, and move on.

I'm walking through a sort of crowd, and there are also dozens of cats around, and all are walking the opposite direction I am, except my cat, which is walking along side of me, not going with the crowd.

Soon I somehow find myself working a late night shift at a gas station / convenience store. [A type of work I have never done.] A couple of customers come in and make cash purchases, and I handle their transactions easily. Then one guy comes in with his rich family, and he wants gas on two pumps. He asks for $90 on one pump, and $100 on the other. He hands me a credit card, and it is the first credit card I have been given for payment.

I run it through the machine, and it is very hard to slide, and very tight. A counter next to the machine lights up and shows a map of the internet signal as it is routed to the credit card approval place. A couple of times it goes down a bad path where the signal is lost, and I can see it start a new route from where things went bad, until it manages to connect. Very interesting to watch.

The card comes back declined, and as I look at it, I spot that it is actually broken, and has a corner of the card taped in place. It was the tape that caused the thing to stick, and I know it isn't going to work. I explain to the customer that his card is broken, but notice that in the stuff he gave me, there is another card, so ask him if he wants me to use that one. He says he does.

I don't know what is with this card, but it has no number, no bar code, no magnetic stripe, and I can find no way to run it through the machine. I tell the guy I can't use this card, either, and he becomes very insulting. I try to explain that one of the cards he handed me is physically broken, and the other has no data allowing it to be processed, but he starts telling me that I am an idiot and a jerk, and he is going to get me fired over this.

While his family started out as a small family of four, it has now grown to be something like 20 people, including a bunch of kids. The kids are starting to steal candy and things, and as I confront them and try to make them stop, one of the adults attacks me with a large knife. I take the knife away from him, and go back to speaking with the kids, but an adult near the register opens it, steals the money from inside, and starts to hand it out to all the kids.

I run back toward the register, and they all begin to run out into the parking lot, which is now packed with tons of people. I follow them to a large bus, and the driver shuts the door in my face, and starts to pull out. I have had it, and I snap. I leap five or six feet into the air and grab the door handle and open the door back up, then let myself into the bus. I pull out the large knife I took from the guy who tried to use it on me, and it slowly stretches into a sword as I walk through the bus and kill every man, woman and child with a few strokes, usually putting one or two deep slices in each one, though one guy I aim just right, and take his entire head off.

I'm thinking about going through their pockets and getting my money back, but I don't see myself actually doing it in the dream. I get off the bus and head back to the gas station, while the guy who started the whole mess climbs on the bus and starts screaming as he finds what I have done. I approach the gas station, where I find the next shift has come in. I ask him how the balance was, and he tells me I was about $50 off, which is a lot less than expected, so I guess I did take the money back, and somehow put it back, even though I only just walked back in.

I decide it is time for me to go, and I can see the trouble-maker and a few of his friends in front of the building, so I choose to exit through a window leading onto the hill behind the station. The trouble-makers come running around screaming for my blood, but I fly into the air to avoid them. They are trying to fly as well, and are soon getting it. They are getting closer and closer, and the dream in quickly changing into one of those nightmare chase dreams where you have powers, but so do the enemies.

I can see this going on and on, and don't want to deal with such a long, miserable process, and decide I have to end things decisively. I think up a nuclear bomb and cause it to appear in my hands, then throw it on the ground. For about two seconds, nothing happens, then there is a flash of light, the hint of a sound, and a wave of heat, and then everything goes gray. I can feel it as just this odd, painless feeling as my body is dissolved into its component atoms, and they go drifting apart. Then I wake up.

[I'm sorry, I have no idea where this came from. All I can say is I am reasonably certain I am not anywhere near being ready to hack up a bus full of people in real life, or blow up myself and others with a nuke. But it was a pretty grizzly dream.]

07-28-2012 -- I am driving down a road, in Omaha, I think. It is late at night and I am hungry. I am hoping to find something to eat, and as I drive along, I find a New York-style pizza parlor. The name is something like Giovanni's or the like. I stop and enter, and find the place does seem to be open, but shelves and cupboards and displays are almost empty. I realize the place has either just opened, or is in the middle of selling everything and shutting down. They only have something like three choices of topping, cheese, pepperoni, or sausage. I really push it and ask for all three on my pizza. The guy is making me a very large pizza (at least 18", maybe even larger) but doesn't seem to know what to charge me. I offer him $15, but keep wondering to myself if I might have offered too much or too little.

As I am waiting outside the apartment-like parlor, there seems to be somebody hunting me. I spot a figure in a nice suit who seems to be following me, but is trying to stay out of sight. He keeps dashing around corners or hiding behind walls. He is trying to shoot me with bullets or poison darts, and soon seems to be trying to build some sort of explosive mine or something, but it falls apart. I gather up as many pieces as I can to try and keep them away from him, then run off.

A couple of miles away I come to a warehouse on the NE corner of an intersection. I glance inside and find it is my warehouse, and there are three small box trucks that I know are filled with explosives or something. There are some incompetent thugs that have been sent to hunt me down that are driving down the street in two larger trucks filled with some kind of ordinance to use against me, but they are stupid, and they really aren't at all sure what they are supposed to be doing.

I convince them that I am not me, but am actually one of their bosses, and I order them to start moving all the stuff in their trucks into my trucks of explosives. Since they are carrying things like detonators, I know this can be a dangerous combination. I wait until they are both out of site in a couple of the trucks, and then go running to the south while they cannot see me. As long as they don't actually see me running off, they won't be worried, and will keep doing as I told them.

I know that when the explosion happens, it is going to be very powerful, and most likely nuclear, so I really want to get at least a mile away, so I can be safe. I keep running south in Omaha, and get a couple miles down to a major street. I knew what the street was in the dream, but cannot remember it now. Dale is now with me, and we are both running. We get to this major street, and find a bus just pulling up. We both board it, and I have .75 for the bus fare, but when I try and put it in a slot, the driver starts screaming at me that it is the wrong place, and he orders me to put the money in a different slot.

He is very rude and obnoxious, and I really find I don't like him. He keeps screaming abuse at me, and I am considering really telling him off, but instead decide to take a seat. As I get a little further back in the bus, he orders me to choose a locker and take the key. Amazingly there is a row of lockers. I tell the driver I don't need a locker, and he just gets more abusive. Rather than fight about it, I pull out a key that turns into a lock in my hands.

Dale and I sit down, nervous, and quietly discuss the upcoming explosion. We keep our voices down because we don't want the other passengers to hear us and report us. Soon the bus has turned into some sort of stadium, and we are in the stands, surrounded by ladders made up of a kind of horizontal window blinds. To get higher up and move to the next level, we have to climb these rickety blinds, but as we get a little way up, they all fall apart and collapse, leaving us to fall on our backsides.

I get to an area with some nice sofa-like benches that seem to be a little higher up, so I hope to have a shorter way to climb, as the blinds-ladders start to reappear. By this time it is feeling very much like some sort of video game, though we're in it, instead of just playing it. I look around and find Dale is gone, so I realize he must have solved the puzzle, and moved on to the next level. I still don't know how to do it, so I pull out my cell phone and call him. There is a lot of interference, and I can barely hear him, but he says something about the lock before the call drops. I start to realize the bus driver may have been an idiot, but there was a reason he ordered us to take the locks.

I wait a few seconds for the blinds to reset again, then start to climb. I go up about twenty rungs, and can just feel the tension as the thing is about to fall apart and drop me. At that point the dream kind of turns into a good news/bad news story. It's good that the driver insisted I take the lock. It's bad that right as I need it, I drop it. It's good that I happen to have a combo lock of my own in my backpack. It's bad that I can't remember the combination. It's good that the combination is printed on the back of the lock. It's bad that the combination is wrong. It's good that the thing opens up, anyway. It's bad that as it opens up, it starts to fall apart. It's good that as it starts to fall apart, it has turned into a lock mechanism like "The Club", the thing they used to sell to kind of lock steering wheels.

The bar that I end up holding is exactly what I need, and I slip it over some sort of stud on both ends of the blinds, right before they start to fall apart. Everything beneath me collapses, but I am able to continue climbing up to the next level. By this point, the dream is feeling like some sort of a competition, as well as a sort of video game. I find myself in a strange, colorful landscape that very much reminds me of the new Runespan in Runescape, but the place is very weird.

People are running around, throwing bowling balls, base balls, basket balls and other objects around, but the rules of physics don't seem to fully apply. Balls swirl down odd gravity wells, or break holes in the walls, and people follow them to try and find paths to the next level. I throw a couple of bowling balls, and they work all right, but when I try and throw the smaller balls, I can't throw worth beans, and always let go of the ball way too late, so it slams into the ground a foot or two in front of me, rather than flying through the air and triggering anything. Somehow I manage to make it at least a half a level further, however.

Now I am grabbing guns and things, and shooting at weird aliens and targets that seem more like a Buzz Lightyear-type of shooting gallery ride at a theme park. I'm doing a lot better with this than with the throwing balls thing. I shoot my way through several targets and barriers, and kind of fly into the next area.

I suddenly find myself in a swim suit in what seems to be a very colorful water park. I am on a large field with circles of colors with numbers in them, looks like some sort of giant Twister game. I see some odd footwear that is kind of a cross between flippers, snow shoes and skis. I try and get one on one of my feet, but don't have a chance to get one on the other. I have to start trying to run through the fields as different numbers are being called.

If I land on one of the circles before another number is called, jets of water help propel me in the right direction. If I hit the wrong circles, the water is pushing me in the wrong directions, and is liable to knock me over. Soon I have shot into the wrong direction one time too many, and find myself in a red sort of structure seconds before water is going to come at me from every direction and fully soak me. I'm horrible at this part of the competition, but I am also really having fun, and I am just starting to laugh about the soaking as I wake up.