Bubble

I had a LOT of trouble falling asleep, possibly due to weaning myself off of decaf (which still has a very small amount of caffeine in it).

I dreamed I was roaming around Seattle, only Seattle had grown to the size of New York and a lot of the buildings were in ruins. I was on my way somewhere with my brother and mother and traffic was so heavy that we couldn't get onto the main road at all... it just didn't let up. We were in a parking lot and mom announced we were leaving, but she and my brother left without me.

I had a black pickup truck, though, and I tried to drive that out of the parking lot. I ended up driving into an area that was nothing but steep inclines and loose gravel, and I couldn't keep my truck from sliding all over the place, so I got out of it and slung it over my shoulder so I could try to climb up the hill.

The whole place (which was inside of an alleyway) was full of archaeological digs, but they were all digging up stuff like old dog tags and license plates. I accidentally blundered through one of the digs and then found my way in through some tunnels to a hidden homeless shelter. I asked a woman there how to find my way back onto the street and she told me I had to navigate back through the dig site, or through the building we were in, which was full of labyrinthine hallways.

I decided this sucked and did a non-lucid rewind back to the parking lot. This time, I got into the truck with mom and my brother BEFORE mom pulled out of the parking lot.

Things got blurry. I was no longer in a truck, I was in a white car with a broken window. My friend A__ was driving. It was difficult for him to drive and steer because one of the wheels was missing a tire. I had a large kitchen knife with me, and I had it in my hand and was dangling it out the window. Part of the road was made of paper, so I was running the edge of it along the road.

I thought maybe that wasn't a good idea, though, so I hid it under the car seat as we passed a group of squad cars. Suddenly, everything was dark, like it was nighttime, and we were explaining to the cops what we were doing in the parking lot.

I was no longer with A__. I was with the Doctor from Dr. Who and we were running through the city on some sort of mission... I don't remember. I woke up.

I had some difficulty initially falling asleep which disrupted attempts to use a mantra. Attempted DEILD last night. Wasn't successful at entering a lucid dream, but it did result in a very long non-lucid that resumed every time I went back to sleep.

These dreams are non-lucid but there is a very, very low level of semi-lucidity running through them, especially the later ones. I was not lucid but had some idea on a very basic level that it was not real, although I didn't realize it was a dream or even unconsciously influence the dreams. The fact that Bun popped up in the first dream was a clue that my dreaming mind was aware on at least a basic level, as summoning and petting Bun was one of my lucid goals. It's especially telling that in the dream, I was aware that this Bun was not the "real" Bun but she was still a perfect replica.

#1 - I have a pet rabbit again. I have named her Bun, after my last pet rabbit, and she looks exactly the same as my "old" Bun. I understand that this new rabbit is not my old rabbit (who died of old age) but she looks and behaves a lot like her. I don't feel sad in this dream. I feel happy that I have my rabbit back, in some form, again.

This is interesting to have popped up in a non-lucid dream, since one of my lucid goals is to summon Bun, pet her, and keep her in my base so I can play with her whenever I want to see her again. This was one of the goals I meditated on as I fell asleep. Alright, I know that's sad, but I miss her a lot.

On a side note: domesticated house-rabbits can be trained with very simple commands. They're devious, though, and not nearly as obedient as a dog.

I am building a cage for her. The cage came in a box, in several pieces, and is about 6' long. I've built a rabbit cage before, but this one is put together very oddly, so I'm having some difficulty.

In addition, New Bun is not trained like Old Bun is, so instead of obediently waiting in the same room as me while I prepare her cage, she keeps running off into areas of the apartment she shouldn't be in. I'm in an old bedroom of mine with light brown carpet. New Bun keeps chewing on the carpet and furniture, even when I tell her "No". I'm not angry, but I am a bit exasperated, because I spent so much time training the last rabbit not to do that and I don't want to have to do it all over again. I keep chasing after New Bun and carrying her back to my room, which is difficult because holding onto a squirming rabbit who doesn't want to be carried AND doesn't want to go where you're taking her is like trying to hold onto an angry water balloon.

She runs off AGAIN and this time I find her wriggling behind a server case, where there are a ton of wires. She's nibbling on the wires and doesn't pay attention to me scolding her. I pull the wires aside and try to grab her, but she wriggles in further. I disconnect the power so she doesn't electrocute herself. I have to move the entire case and disconnect all of the wires in order to get to her, and by now I'm pretty irritated.

I carry her (still as squirmy as before) back to the room and set her down. "Stay!" I command. She doesn't listen perfectly, but doesn't try to charge out the door again. I finally finish putting the cage together, and she bounds into her cage and settles down for a nap.

I wake up. I meditate on the dream and attempt to re-enter.

I fail at a DEILD and when the dream picks up again, I am non-lucid. My "mother", a woman with short blonde hair whom I have never met, comes into the room where I am petting Bun. She tells me that I need to get ready for my graduation ceremony. I close the door to Bun's cage and tell her goodbye.

The dream jumps locations and I am in a graduation ceremony that is being held at a place that is somehow simultaneously a yacht club and a water park. There is dance music playing and there is some sort of after-party. DJs have divided into Red and Blue teams, and over the course of the party, people are supposed to vote on which team's mix they like the most. Blue Team wins, although I don't particularly care. They put their mix CDs up for sale, but I'm not really interested; it's all super clubby "bro" techno. The party ends and it's time for me to pack my stuff up and move.

I wake up and use the bathroom. I meditate on the dream as I do so. When I lie back down the dream resumes. Throughout this section of the dream, I am almost nearly awake; I'm more aware that this is dreamlike but still not aware that I am dreaming, and do not affect the dream even subconsciously.

A friend of the family is helping me move to college. He looks like Dwight Shrute, for some reason, but he's not nearly as much of a jerk or nearly that creepy. The blonde haired woman - who was my mom before, but is now just a friend - rented a U-haul so she and her family could move their stuff, and is allowing me to pack some of my stuff in it since I'm moving somewhere that's sort of on the route to their new home. It's a long trip, and I ride in the back of the cab. "Dwight" chats with me the whole time. I want to chat with him about a movie about a group of people who make video games, but I can't remember the name of the movie and it's frustrating me.

Toward the end of the trip, the blonde woman reappears in the passenger seat - I hadn't known she was there, I think to myself, and think that it's so odd that she suddenly appeared there, but don't gain lucidity. I begin to look through my wallet; I only have a $20 and a $5. "Dwight" had paid for the gas and the blonde woman had paid for the U-haul, so I feel like I owe them something. I am debating the tackiness of handing them $25 total and telling them to split the money amongst themselves when I wake up.

As I fall asleep, I meditate on my mantra and what awareness means.

#1 - Many dream fragments and incomplete dreams. I hover on the edge of lucidity during many of them, but they aren't cohesive enough and I never attain lucidity.

I wake up, and I'm very hot. I still have a fever. I peel off my socks and turn my thermostat down.
I attempt WILD. As REM atonia sets in - much more swiftly than I was expecting - I hear a great deal of loud static and what sounds like a modem dialing. I come very close to entering a dream several times but fail - for whatever reason - and lapse into regular sleep.


#2 - I have a dream about a castle that floats up in the sky. In my dream, I see a far-off view of the underside in a sunny sky full of puffy clouds. There is vegetation hanging from it. In the center of it there is something like a spire but instead of being like a castle it's like a skyscraper. I realize that this island is dominated by a small but elite group of people and everybody else on there toils for their benefit.

Then, I'm on the castle. I'm running around trying to get to the central courtyard or something, I'm not sure. But the whole thing is ledges with no railing and bridges that don't go anywhere. In the back of my mind, I think, "I wonder if I jumped over the edge, if I would fly or if this dream would end?" I realize that - of course - I'm dreaming. I immediately lift off and fly past all of the ridiculous fake bridges.

I land in an archway that leads to a hallway and begin to walk down it. I realize I'd like to visit the "home base", a location I've been trying to create. I see an archway that has heavy double wooden doors set into it with ornate handles, and I decide that I will use it as a doorway to get where I would like to go.

I pull on the heavy handles, and the doors swing open. Inside is my base - or, at least, a room that has many of its key features. They have been heavily altered, however, or some things are just missing. Part of it, I think, was to fit the castle theme - rather than my comfortable lounge, it looks more like a castle kitchen. I also notice that the fire in my fireplace is out. I try to light it by snapping my fingers, but it doesn't work. Not a big deal, I decide - I can breathe fire (obviously). I'll just start the fire that way.

I crouch down on the hearth (whose bricks are "wrong" but I decide it's nothing I can't fix with a little effort) and begin to breathe on the fire. There's nothing but air coming out of my mouth, at first. I focus on the sensation of the air passing through my lips and imagine that the blowing noise is getting louder. The air now has a yellow tinge, and the ash in the fireplace begins to stir. I focus on the yellow tinge in the air and it becomes brighter and glows more. Embers begin glowing in the fireplace. I blow on them harder, and they spread and bloom. The fire doesn't roar to life - it begins to slowly spread and grow like a real fire would.

I decide I would like something to eat. I'm not able to summon anything directly, so instead I call to a servant (they are there but I don't turn to look at them) and telepathically tell them that I would like some food. I consciously opted for telepathy because I was getting the sensation that the lucid dream was getting "thin" and if I attempted to speak to them out loud I would do so in real life and wake myself up. It didn't matter either way, since once they walked away, the dream began to fade. I wake up.

#3 - I dream about a group of high-schoolers, sort of Breakfast Bunchy, except they also have a little girl (a toddler) with them. Sometimes I'm one of them, and sometimes I'm just watching. They live in an apartment complex or condos or something and are wandering around outside in a storm. It's storming heavily but they don't seem to mind the rain, although they periodically lose the toddler and have to keep looking for her. They decide that they would like to go to the beach during this storm.

One of them, a guy with blond hair, says he needs to take care of some business first. The others don't know it but he's actually an assassin and has been working as one since he was 16, and he needs to check his secret base for something. While they're waiting, he gets completely sidetracked. His love-interest goes looking for him and stumbles across his base. Inside is a TV screen with another guy on it (he is hideously ugly) who is a rival assassin who wants to kill the guy... he manages to press through the TV screen and emerge from it physically. The woman starts throwing pottery at him, but stops short at a set of antique vases because she doesn't want to bust them.

The other high schoolers finally find the hideout. One of them is irritated because the storm is now nearly over. Blond assassin guy also finally shows up again. The whole scene ends up with all of the high schoolers in there, throwing pottery at the bad guy. Even the toddler.

After he's defeated, the whole place is full of clothing racks and everybody begins trying on clothing. I'm watching but I'm also the love-interest girl and I am trying to fit into a sweater but the sleeves are too small to fit my hands through (I highly suspect I was trying to punch through my blanket at this point). He helps by unbuttoning the sleeves and helping me work my hands through them.

I wake up. I'm still hot. I turn the thermostat down more.

Continuation of the previous dream - I'm with blond assassin guy and we're driving a very long distance to his family's home in the countryside. I'm talking about getting a Master's degree and a school I would like to attend in France, but I'm worried about the cost of tuition. We arrive at the house and see that it is perched on the edge of a canyon. I run down the steep incline to see what's at the bottom. When I look up, the guy is gone.

I don't know where he's went, but 2 people (hunters) are approaching me, and one of them has a ridiculous "hillbilly" accent. The girl (I've gone to 3rd person again) seems worried that they will try to ask her out and tells them that she can only interact with other people if she has won some clothing. They agree to help her win something.

Clearly, the way to win a prize is to hunt a bear, and the way to hunt a bear is to bounce up and down in a giant net. The 2 hunters tie the net to some trees and use it to propel the girl up into the air, where she waves at and taunts the bear. This pisses the bear off to no end, so it charges at the net. The bear gets tangled up in the net and they vanquish it. Once defeated, the bear transforms into a small pile of First Aid kits. They rifle through the kits looking for clothing, but only find an inflatable bed and a bunch of nonsensical instruction booklets.

#4 - I dream I live in an apartment complex but also a hospital. I live on the 6th or 7th floor, and all of floor 4 is designated for heart attack victims and full of nurses. The maintenance staff has deposited a bunch of bizarre looking furniture outside all of the apartment doors except mine. I'm irritated that I didn't receive any furniture so I run around stealing everybody else's.

Goals:
- Continue ADA and mindfulness on daily basis, as energy levels and attention span allow
- Daily journal updates, in particular, also seem to help
- I need to engage with my environment more

Last night's dreams were mostly fragmentary.

#1 - I dreamed I was playing a survival/horror game in the vein of Resident Evil (old RE) but with a combat system that was closer to Fallout/Fallout 2. At one point, I had to control a character who was an Airdale Terrier who was trying to accomplish some in-game goals and escape. I had to gather some other dogs using the character and then follow an escape route. Although the subject matter was "scary", the dream was not a nightmare and I wasn't afraid of anything.

#2 - Then I dreamed I was traveling to some sort of monastery set into a scenic cliff side, and the inside of the cliff actually held an entire tiny village and economy - but when I got inside it turned out that the whole place was being run by Lady Gaga and instead of chapels there was a huge room full of lasers and balloons.

#3 - Gross dream. Dreamed I was using a tiny vacuum to vacuum zits. Except, at one point, it looked like my face had been full of brown paste or mud... anyway, it was gross.

#4 - Back to the RE setting. I am human now and stuck in some sort of solitary confinement. I miss my dog.

Practices: ADA, Mindfulness, WBTB, DEILD
While falling asleep, mantra: "I am aware"

Dream #1 - I am with my friend, R__. She's driving a car - one belonging to one of my relatives, according to my dream-memory, but in real life none of them own a gray minivan. We're driving around a mall parking lot. We can't seem to find a parking space. She accidentally hits another car while pulling into a parking space, and I cringe at the sound, but she's more angry about it than worried. She decides to try to use a note left on her windshield to explain why she parked in one of the restricted parking spots, by claiming she can't walk that far, but I don't think that will hold up under scrutiny. She finally gives up and parks pretty far away from the mall entrance. We can see it from where we are, but it's quite a walk.

I briefly wake up from the dream and try to carry my awareness with me into my next dream, using my mantra.

As soon as the dream reforms, I am instantly lucid. I'm inside of the mall from the previous dream, but R__ is gone now. The lucid dream has the crystal clarity characteristic of my lucid. Since I'm not outdoors (unusual), rather than the usual sweeping landscapes and storm-swept skies, instead the architecture inside of the mall is extremely grand. Super high vaulted ceilings, probably 80-100 feet high, with graceful arches carved out of solid pale pink marble and golden inlays. Intricate carvings and sculptures. White marble floors. The whole thing looks more like the inside of a cathedral than a mall.

I look around and think, "This is definitely a dream". I inspect my hand - it's perfectly formed. I do a reality check by trying to push one hand through the other, but I can't. I shrug it off - I know I'm dreaming. I try to fly, and hover in the air above the crowds milling around the mall. My lucidity tends to fade very quickly while I'm flying, though - there's something about not having my feet on the ground that does that. So I land, and then crawl on the floor and inspect the marble tiles. There's grime between them and they feel a little gritty - this place needs to be swept and mopped.

I decide to go treasure hunting. I reach into my back pocket - for some reason, I'm wearing a skirt with pockets - and feel around for a map. I feel crumpled paper and tug. I pull out a sheet of notebook paper, folded in half several times, and unfold it. There is a map on it, scribbled in blue pen, but I can't read what it says. It also has little pictures. I decide that I need to go find a dream character who CAN read it, and if I'm going to treasure hunt, I'm going to do it in style - which means having a whole group of treasure hunters with me. I run my hand along the wall as I walk.

I walk toward the food court - well, an archway I have decided is the food court. The floor slopes downward between it in a ramp, heading underground. I can see tables in the distance. I decide that's kind of boring and want it to be something more exciting. As I approach, it morphs into a Viking style beer hall. I'm pretty satisfied - this is definitely more fun.

I enter the beer hall, which is smokey and full of warriors eating and drinking. There is an empty space in the middle with a fire-pit that looks like it's used by entertainers - wrestlers, musicians, etc. The benches on either side are elevated on steps, sort of like bleachers, so everybody can see. Nobody is performing right now, though.

I see a group of 5 or 6 Tolkein-style Dwarves over to one side. They look like they're having a pretty good time. I approach them and introduce myself. Their leader is a pretty buff looking Dwarf. He has long, thick braided brown hair and is wearing a sort of heavy brown leather harness that has what looks like a lion's mane stitched around the neck and shoulders. He greets me respectfully:
"I am Lokmin, son of (I can't remember his dad's name)." He thumps his chest (which is more Roman, I guess, but whatever).
I hold out my treasure map. "I've found a map to potential treasure, but it might be dangerous."
The Dwarves deliberate over my wrinkled sheet of notebook paper, making sounds of interest and approval. Lokmin looks like he's about to make the decision to follow me...

But unfortunately, we never got to find the treasure. I live near an airport - one of the EXTREMELY LOUD jets that I LOATHE flies overhead, waking me up and ending my lucid dream. I was pretty upset. Even now there's another really loud jet flying overhead. I hate those things, and the airport by extension (it wasn't always noisy here - they moved the flight paths).

I go back to sleep, trying to re-enter the dream, but I'm too irritated to focus.


Dream #3 - I dream that I am taking naked photographs of myself using my laptop camera and didn't realize the curtain across the sliding glass door in the living room was sheer. I figure either nobody saw me, or they didn't care.

Last night's dreams weren't very remarkable. I have a cold or some sort of sinus infection, and kept waking up with a fever.

I dreamed that my back molar was completely rotten, and every time I closed my mouth, it shoved the tooth out of place. The tooth was extremely loose - I was able to pull it up and see a pool of brown gunk beneath it. It didn't hurt, but it felt extremely uncomfortable and weird.

I really don't remember much else, beyond a vague dream involving the characters of Avatar: The Last Airbender - a show I haven't watched in year. My brother and a friend were discussing it earlier in the evening, though, and I think that may have influenced my dream.

I dreamed I was wandering through Seattle, trying to show my mother around. I was also shopping - I don't clearly recall what for, but I believe it was clothing.

The dream shifted, and I was playing a farming/crafting game called Salem with some friends (I believe it's a real game) but in my dream it was more like a V.R. simulation. The idea behind it is building, cooking and eating stuff, and crafting... without getting murdered by other players. One of my in-game friends told me that there was a gentleman here to visit me. I looked out of the second floor window of my house/shack, which was an old dilapidated white farmhouse, and there was the ghost of a man inside of a giant blue ball that had thick plastic netting like a laundry hamper. It looked somewhat like a hamster ball. My friend explained that the ghost had visited because he loved and missed me, but I had to explain to the ghost that he couldn't stay.

Again, another night where I didn't remember much. Frustrating. My sleep schedule has been irregular, which doesn't help.

In the last dream of the night, I walked a few miles down the road from my aunt's house to a convenience store that doesn't actually exist. I wanted to buy 2 gallons of milk, some food, and some candy bars. I didn't have enough money for the entire purchase on one card, so I had to do 3 separate transactions for less than $4 each. The clerk put each transaction in its own plastic bag.

I began to walk home. The milk was heavy and somehow both my hands and arms were full, and the bags were unwieldy. I stopped at another store to meet up with my mother. For some reason I set the bags down momentarily and went into the store. When I returned, my bags were gone. I didn't have any more money left to buy any more milk or food, so I curled up in a ball on the ground and began to sob.

I don't remember much of last night. Again, I was distracted and not focused on dreaming lucidly, although I did ponder it as I fell asleep.

I had one of my out of body experience type things. Sometimes, while asleep, even though I am not dreaming I will instinctively "sit up" out of my body and begin an OBE.

I was not able to easily fully free myself from my body, this time - for whatever reason. But I WAS able to see - in the past, I've always been blind - although I wasn't able to fully open my eyes. I was quite aware that this was a form of dream, although I was unable to control its course. I stumbled around my dream-room, half-blind and unable to control my limbs very well at all or free myself from my blanket, which I felt like I was entangled in.

I realized that this wasn't working well and lay back down, attempting to visualize and possibly break out of the OBE into a regular lucid dream. I also attempted to do a scene change to sky, which didn't work. Unfortunately, I lost lucidity.

I know that this wasn't a misadventure with sleep paralysis because I've gotten very good at differentiating. When I woke up, my bed and bedroom were unmussed despite the fact that in my OBE/dream, I had completely wrecked my bedroom and knocked/thrown stuff everywhere. Unless I then cleaned them up in my sleep... lol.

I was woken up by my smoke alarm chirping. I had to get up and change the battery. While I did so, I tried to ponder the dreams I had, but I couldn't recall any of them. It was frustrating. My dream recall seriously hinges on how stressed and distracted I am.

I haven't actively been trying to induce lucid dreams, and I've been too distracted to really focus on my lucid activities, so my recall this week is pretty terrible. It'll improve once I'm less tired and distracted.

I recall one dream from last night.

I was with my mom, aunt, and brother. We were looking for a restaurant to eat at. We found one past a mall (in real life, the mall was long ago turned into a mega-church), and it was a donut shop. It was always late night in this dream.

The donuts were the best donuts. The. Best. Donuts. I have ever had, either asleep or awake. They were Krispy Kreme style donuts and they were so super amazing that my aunt, mother, and I kept going back to the little donut shop. Their special was something called a "Southern Treat" which is a thing that exists in real life. It's a hamburger put between two donuts and fried. In real life, I think that's disgusting. In the dream, it was the most appetizing looking thing in the world, but I kept forgetting to buy one every time we went to the shop.

It wasn't a lucid dream, but I never eat in my dreams - ever - and one of my goals has been to eat something in a dream. I guess it doesn't 100% count since I wasn't lucid but at least my brain's on-task even when I'm not.

I don't remember much about last night's dreams, beyond being back in college and in a class. My computer screen was a hologram suspended above the desks. I was openly browsing a porn website, but nobody really seemed to care. There was a girl who was taking a class on playing the fiddle, and I was jealous because I wanted to learn to play. I began telling my classmates about a woman who played the harp with a bow.

Then I was going to a job, which was inside of a hotel. I was carrying a handful of fake, dried rose petals. I was very protective of my fake rose petals, if other people tried to look at them or take them from me. There was a man inside, wearing sort of a hotel-concierge-uniform, working on an arrangement of cut roses. I wanted to set my petals down but was worried someone would mistake them for real ones and clean them up and throw them away. I showed them to the man and woman, and they seemed fascinated by them.

Then I was in an elevator going up to a room. In the other room, there was an obese woman conjuring illusions in a large, cylindrical fish tank.

#1 - Don't recall the dream much, but recall thinking, "If I were lucid, this would be more vivid." d'oh! That's close, though... my near-lucids usually indicate I'll have a dream-induced lucid dream within the next night.

#2 - I dream I work in a store. We are selling $20,000.00 coffee cups, and a whole row of them got broken (not my fault). I get into an argument with my boss, who treats all people with disabilities as if they are stupid, which infuriates me. I call my friend M__ and complain about it because I know she'll understand.

#3 - I am going up a river bank with a bunch of other people. I don't recall why, I think it was a picnic or social gathering or something. It's getting close to dusk.

I suddenly hear gunfire and see the muzzle flash of automatic weapons. Naturally, everybody panics. We weren't doing anything violent and obviously didn't expect to be shot at. There's nowhere to run - we can go backwards, away from the river, for some reason (I don't remember why).

Now we are being shelled as we scramble along the river bank. There's smoke everywhere and everybody is panicking. Up ahead, through the smoke, I see a bunch of soldiers. From their uniforms, they're friendly toward us. They're returning fire across the river and indicating for us to move toward them so they can get between us and our attackers, but there's a whole stretch of bank to cross and it's under fire. In addition, the bank is very crowded and it's difficult to get everybody to move in a specific direction instead of running in random directions and flipping out.

#4 - I am renting a room in an apartment. The room is very small and I'm putting my furniture together and thinking about how to arrange it. My friend Z__ wants to meet up since he heard I moved back to town. I am thinking about how much money I need to make before I can rent my own apartment. I'm putting trash in a trash basket, but it's made of plastic mesh and all of the trash keeps falling through the spaces in it.

I was overtired when I went to bed last night. As a result, my dream recall is garbage. I'll edit this post and add to it as I recall more throughout the day.

I dreamed that my friend K__ was teaching me and M___ to ride motorcycles and explaining how the throttle worked so we could ride up and down hills.

I dreamed that I set the stove on fire (I was in an apartment I don't recognize, but it was "mine") and threw buckets of water on it to put it out.

Woke up and attempted a half-assed wild but my heart wasn't in it. Saw dreamlets of a fireplace (in my "base") and a flash of the reflections of palm trees and a beautiful sunset in the plate glass window of a house on the beach somewhere in California. My sinuses hurt badly again. I am learning to ignore the heater - it helps that the weather's getting warmer - but I need to take a sinus pill before I go to bed at night.

Last night, when I lay down to sleep, I resolved not to attempt to induce a WILD. The reason is that I have been tired the past 2 days, possibly due to waking up between REM cycles for my attempts.


#1 - I dreamed, but don't remember it. I woke up, because I was hot, but immediately went back to sleep.

#2 - I was in class, in a first grade class, but I was my real age (nearly 30). I don't recall the reason for being in the class, there was some reason that I understood in the dream but that was never made entirely clear. I was not an intern or TA, I was definitely a student, and all the other students seemed aware that I didn't "belong". My teacher was a big woman. At one point, she was asking me questions in class out of a work book. I was answering correctly, but she was behaving as if I was not and "Correcting" me. Finally, it got to be too much and I stood up and yelled at her. She started to cry. Later, I told another student, "You know I'm actually 23 years old, right?" (note: I'm not 23). The student acted shocked.

#3 - This dream phased into another one where I was in a romantic relationship with a guy. I was staying with his family. He was kind of a blond "jock" type... not really my type. We had sex in the shower...his family knew we were very good friends, but I don't think that they thought we were involved in that way.

Then, the family attempted to buy a nicer house, but it turned out that there was a bankruptcy that the wife had forgotten to mention on the paperwork. Her husband began to yell at her, and she began crying. The real estate agent told them that they wouldn't be able to get another loan for something like 1500 years.

#4 - My aunt has agreed to give a family friend's friend a ride in their old red Dodge Caravan. We have to make special accommodations for her in the van because she's disabled. For some reason, this involves my uncle trying to fit a shopping cart into the van (he claimed it was her wheelchair). We finally manage to fit it in the back and go to pick her up. She's inside of my aunt's house. Their driveway is very steep in real life. My aunt pulls most of the way up the driveway, but not all the way up, and the poor woman has to walk the rest of the way to the van. She is very overweight, but it's not due to her overeating, she has some kind of hormonal disorder that causes this and makes her bones very soft. She has many small braids in her hair and is wearing a purple dress. Walking the 10 feet to the van is painful for her, but my aunt doesn't seem to care and won't pull up farther. I get out of the van and help the woman walk the rest of the way to the van, and help her climb inside. She thanks me, then sits down on the seat looking very relieved.

I wake up. In real life, I have gathered my sheet up somehow and am clutching it like it's a teddy bear.

Notes
Semi-lucid/gaining lucidity
Lucid

I recall several dreams from last night.

#1 - I had a dream, but don't remember what it was. I wake up.

I attempt WILD but cannot tolerate lying on my back; roll over on my side, and fall asleep. While I fall asleep, I still focus on my intent to go lucid: "The next thing I experience is a dream; I am aware; I am in complete control."

#2 - I am in a small taco restaurant. It's a hole-in-the-wall restaurant; the walls are avocado green, and the paint is chipping. There is some sort of unnamed danger or dangerous situation. I am looking for M__ , but I can't find him, and I'm getting nervous and anxious. I am calling out, "M__? M__? Where are you?"

I have been dreaming for roughly 30 in-dream seconds when something filters into my brain. "I need to be aware. I need to be aware. I need to be lucid," I think. As this happens, my awareness increases. I begin to realize on a basic, non-lucid level that I am dreaming. That awareness increases and leads to a further desire to become lucid, until the dream scene loses its fogginess and I am fully lucid.

I know that I am dreaming. The anxiety of the dream that led to my lucidity has not faded, however - I'm still anxious and scared, even though I know that this is a dream and I am theoretically fully in control of the environment. I don't like the taco place at all and, although I know that I should explore my current environment to reinforce my lucidity, I am anxious to get out of there.

I remember Advanced Lucid Task I, which is "Find a treasure map and follow it to treasure". I decide that it is far better to pursue that than hang out in the creepy taco place. I attempt to do a scene change by closing and covering my eyes and focusing on an outdoor scene, but fail. When I open my dream eyes, I also open my real eyes.


I wake up. I immediately do a reality check; nope, I'm actually awake. I attempt to WILD but I feel overheated and I can't get comfortable, I'm way too hot. I get up and turn down the thermostat. I lie back down.

#3 - I am riding a bus alongside a canal. The road is actually level with the water, and the concrete sides of the canal rise above us. I'm riding it with a friend but I don't remember who. It's a coach bus, rather than a city bus. It connects with a ferry and a cruise line called "Olympia". I can only get to where I want to go to on the cruise line, but I'm worried that I don't have enough money. Right now, the emotional tone of the dream is fairly neutral.

The bus reaches its destination, and we get off the bus. I read a sign that indicates where the ship we're looking for docks. It docks in a ruined old building; upon inspecting a city map (note: appearance of a map possibly has something to do with my earlier focus on a treasure map) and based on my knowledge of the area, I realize that it is an old orphanage that was destroyed by a fire.

I take several photos of the orphanage with my camera. When I look at them again while I am showing them to my companion, there are ghosts in them; I am immediately extremely afraid, and the tone of the dream changes to one of great anxiety and fear.

I wake up. I'm not as hot any more, and much more comfortable.

#4 - I have a small blond boy with me. He needs to go to the bathroom. There is a van that is supposed to be a bathroom. The child climbs inside and begins to enthusiastically pee everywhere, like a fire hose. The whole thing is presented with the buzz and excitement of a 90s television commercial that is aimed at kids. The kid finishes peeing and climbs out of the van... he is soaked in urine. The woman who is in charge of him (I have switched to 3rd person) complains that he smells awfully ripe, and doesn't want to put him in their car; the man he was with doesn't seem to think it's a big deal.

#5 - I am running a chatroom. An idiot comes into my room and is being very annoying. I ban him from the room, but am unable to block his messages. He is spamming me with messages, and it's becoming increasingly irritating. I look for a support button for the website I'm running the room for, so I can ask how to ban him from sending me messages.

The dream shifts. I am now recording clips of myself pushing and riding a medical cart up and down a beach, so that I can edit it into one video and put it up on the website.

#6 - I am an old man. I am dressed in a rough gray scarf, a worn gray suit, and a brown jacket. My skin is old and dry and wrinkled by age. I am now not the old man, I am watching the old man. He is walking down a city street. It is more like an urban slum, like the areas of large cities that are forgotten and neglected.

He -- I mean, I, now -- watches a train go by. He/I meets up with a companion, a bigger guy with a shaved head. We want to go into a building, which is an orphanage, but the building is right along the train tracks and you have to walk across the tracks to reach the door. We have to time things carefully; the woman in the building opens the door, we wait for the first train to pass, and then leap before the next comes. The woman is wearing a plum-colored, old-fashioned traditional British maid's outfit, with frills along the apron. She has brown hair and looks like she is in her late teens or early 20s.

We go through the door. The orphanage is now a restaurant. There are corrugated metal stairs leading upstairs, where the food is served. We are on kind of a foyer. The restaurant has 3 floors, we are on the middle. The door behind us has turned into one of those metal gates that shopkeepers raise and lower to open or close their stores at night. We are level with the street; the street is now paved with bricks, and the train track is gone. Each of the levels of the restaurant is level with the street. I feel the floor moving beneath me; the restaurant is actually a truck.

I wake up. Attempt WILD, fail. My heater is distracting me. I think I will have to turn it off at night.

#7 - I fall asleep. I am in a small town in an area with a temperate climate, although I can't say specifically where. It is summer. There are several wooden buildings, many of them shops. I am now playing a video game. I go into a shop and meet a character and befriend him. He is a large bald man who looks like a biker. I go into another shop, a leather-working shop, and there is a cutscene. A man comes in with a gun and threatens to shoot the shopkeeper. The biker I befriended shows up with perfect timing, and disarms him. I understand that if I had not befriended the first character, the cutscene would have ended more tragically. I exit the shop.

Ninjas bound through the trees on the outskirts of town. I realize that I am in no shape to combat ninjas without armor. I re-enter the leatherworker's shop and ask about armor. He tells me to give him a pattern for what I want, within an inch of my measurements, and he will produce it for me. I have an idea of what I want, but I need to find a photo and draw a pattern. I go back outside.

The ninjas are dancing around in the trees. There is a female ninja with long hair and a long, pale blue scarf. She is wearing some kind of dark purple 70s pantsuit/leotard. She slices off the ear of another female ninja with short, blonde hair. She springs off of tree branches, and it looks like ballet. I think to myself (semi-lucidly) that that is ridiculous and could never happen in real life because those branches would not support her weight and nobody can jump like that.


I wake up.