Bubble

The first dream of the night that I recall involves a very, very tall skyscraper. It's so incredibly tall that planes fly around it rather than over it.

I am on my way to the skyscraper. Instead of flying in a plane, I am in something like a swing-set seat, suspended from some sort of flying device. It's just a plastic seat with cables on either side, no sort of safety restraints or anything. The sky is clear, but it's a sort of washed-out blue with no clouds. I'm terrified of heights, so I have my eyes closed and a death grip on the cables. I'm trying to explain to my mother (who is neither next to me, nor on the phone, but she can hear me anyway) that I'm incredibly afraid of heights, and this is terrifying. She doesn't understand why it's so scary. "But you're not afraid of being in a plane," she says. "Planes are solid metal," I explain. "There's something surrounding me. Right now, I'm just sitting on a seat, without anything around me."

As I approach the incredibly thin, super tall building, I recall a dim memory in being in one before and how unsafe it felt. I tell my mother, "Last time I was in one of these buildings, I was terrified and clung to the walls. They're too high. I don't feel safe in them."

As I make my final approach to the building, everything goes black. It's sort of like a scene change would be in a non-lucid dream, if I was paying attention. And when it happens, I do notice this time, and realize that I was dreaming.

The world suddenly pops back into existence around me. I am in what looks like a hotel room. I understand that this is sort of like my brain trying to create my bedroom, but I've been focusing hard on being somewhere different, so it pulls up something that is supposed to be my bedroom, without it being my actual bedroom.

The whole thing is very... "four stars"? Not quite a five star hotel room, but not cheap. But a little tacky, like it's trying too hard. This environment is much clearer than the past few I have found myself in.

Side note: I still don't spend enough time really examining and exploring my surroundings, but I did pay a little more attention this time. I really need to pay more attention to what is around me at first, rather than doing some half-assed stabilization and immediately diving into whatever I am doing. I feel like the more attention I pay to where I am at first, the more successful my attempts to manipulate the dream are.

There is a gilded oval mirror on the wall. I decide to jump into it to see if I can do a scene change. I dive into the mirror, and I am standing in front of it again. I dive into it again, and I am standing in front of it again. I dive into it again, and I am standing in front of it again. I stop and inspect my reflection for a moment to stabilize the dream again. For some reason, my hair is very short.

I try not to let it bother or frustrate me too much, and it really doesn't. I decide that if I can't do a full scene change, I'll start manipulating my environment into what I want.

The hotel bed is very cushy, with nice accent pillows and bedding. The bedding is off-white with very thin red pin-stripes. I don't want red. I want purple. Without even closing my eyes, the pinstripes are suddenly purple, and the colors of the furniture and wallpaper and other decorations have shifted to match the new color scheme.

There is an end table with a small piece of carved driftwood on it. The wood is old-looking and grayish. It has been carved a little bit, but I still can't tell what it was meant to be. I inspect and feel the wood, to solidify things a bit.

I look around. The room has a very nice door, but it's not what I want. I decide that I want something more rustic, and more rounded. I cover my eyes and uncover them. The door has morphed a little bit, but it's halfway between the original (red, then purple) door and what I want. I cover my eyes and uncover them, and it is the shape that I want, but not wooden. I do it again, and I am satisfied with my nice, wooden door.

I look around the room. The furniture has changed a little bit. It's not the frilly, floofy stuff that I didn't like. The chair is more worn, softer, and comfortable-looking. The end table is now made of what looks like old, "reclaimed" wood that was rescued from an old barn or something and crafted into a table.

I turn my attention to the windows, and do the same thing I did with the door. After a few tries, they are close to the windows I want.

Unfortunately, on my last try, I open my eyes and wake up. I do a quick reality check (try to put one hand through another hand) and I can't pass my hands through each other. I'm still not sure if I was really awake, but I roll over and fall back asleep.

I have a vague dream of two women in the hotel room, arguing about something. Then, I dream that I have bought a bouquet of fresh cut flowers, but when I bring them home and try to arrange them, I realize that I have no vase.

Then I am playing a video game with extremely simple Atari-style graphics. There are several characters that you can unlock, and they all have their own individual stats.