memorable

Went to bed around 11:15PM.

Reunion of The Twist
I'm in my middle school's gym during an assembly.
I'm in the audience wearing a college t-shirt.
I think to myself that I wish I would have dressed with something better (like my trusty red flannel) and showered.
We're watching a ceremony on-stage, where my brother and sister are being honored as part of a larger group.
Moments later, my brother is down by me in the audience wearing a similar college t-shirt as me, but I don't notice the discrepancy.
I wonder why he isn't wearing his college's version of the t-shirt.
The event reminds me of a band concert, they had instruments.
DTP.
Later we have rotated and are watching a different group of people. We are seated now.
EC from highschool is seated in front of me.
Awkwardly, my legs are spread apart, and he is sitting between them.
I can feel my balls touching his back. Lovely. He doesn't seem to care or notice.
The performers are now making an arc, again, like in band.
I can recall that GW from band stretches forward to us, like a cartoon character (similar to how Monkey D. Luffy does from One Piece, especially in Gear 5 form).
RW, her older brother and friend of mine, is by me now. He's excited to see her being honored.
GW regards me, saying hello, but I get the distinct impression she was only saying so out of obligation.
Then she stretches back to the arc, with a reverberating snap noise.
I noticed that the bari sax players were playing without their mouthpieces on. But I don't pickup on that being especially strange.
EC points out that they are doing a special trick with the brass, as if to explain what I noticed as normal and avoid suspicion on my part.
Sure enough, the are moving in rhythm, doing a choreographed twist move, with the trombone players.
They pick up their mouthpieces from somewhere out of view.
They play a short melody with their mouthpieces only (which is high-pitched and funny to listen to) and then put them onto their instruments.
The formal event ends and turns into more of a social.
My brother meets up with BY and they talk about dad stuff. BY gives my brother this tablet made out of rose flower vines.
It's not like an iPad, more of a clipboard or ornament.
It's a strange item, but it seems to have a sort of value to it.
The plot of the dream has changed at this point, where my girlfriend and I are now at the event together.
AG, from my more recent friend group, is now there with us too.
My girlfriend senses that I am exhausted from being social for this long, so she is looking for an excuse for me to leave.
AG suggests that we check out a local escape-room called The Twist, where there is an obstacle course that looks fun.
I tell him that my knee is still recovering, so it would probably be a bad idea.
Within the plot of the dream, I then recall that last-year (or a previous reunion-type event like this one), there was an emergency lockdown.
During that lockdown, I was with AG, and we left the emergency lock-down room to go to the bathroom.
DTP.
Now, in the present, we are in that bathroom, talking at the urinals about going to The Twist soon.
I look in the mirror, and I am wearing a hat. I lift that hat and see that my hair is thin. Starting to recede. Great. I put the hat back on.
There is a rotating cylinder on the floor near a sectioned off area, presumably an obstacle similar to one from The Twist.
I test it out and my knee does OK, which I tell AG means that I can go to The Twist with him so long as the other obstacles aren't worse.
He tells me that I should still go, but just skip the bad ones, and we can go get the girls to come along as a group.
We left the bathroom and head back to the main assembly room where we were earlier.
Now there is a large lit-up horizontal limbo pole crossing the entire room that we have to pass. We do so easy enough.
AG jokes that if we can't find the girls we should just get GP (the other guy in our group of couples) and leave without them.
DTP.
We make our way to the exit, and outside the gym door is my Grandma M's condo outdoor area.
I see a trash can that isn't normally there. It is overflowing with McDonald's bags and transparent extra-large iced coffee cups.
I sarcastically give a salute and say "GOD BLESS AMERICA!!!"
"How much money must McDonalds make, if it is like this every day?!" I say to myself.
AG gets into his car, and drives to The Twist. For some reason, I decide to take a nap by a "For Sale" sign next to the condo and the trash can.
...
When I wake up, AG is gone and inexplicably, there is gravel in my shoes. I don't care about this or consider it odd in any way.
Because dream-logic do be like that sometimes.
I think that I should find my girlfriend and tell her about the plan to meet at The Twist.
I go back to the event, and enter through my Great-Grandma's condo (Grandma M and Great Grandma's condos were actually in the same neighborhood in waking life, just a few condos apart).
This time, it is actually her home inside the door.
There is a young boy there playing a rhythm video game that involves a cat.
He seems embarrassed to be seen playing the game.
I went toward the back of the condo where the bedrooms are. The layout is reversed, such that the kitchen has swapped sides with the bedroom.
I don't notice the discrepancy, and correctly move to the bedroom area.
There's a new door (doesn't exist in waking life) that connects the condo to the neighboring one.
I can hear there is another family in that condo playing a Legend of Zelda game.
I wake up with the impression that my girlfriend might have been in the guest room with another man, potentially against her will. Anxiety ensues.
Either way, no bueno.
Recorded at 3:30AM. Late sleep cycle 3.

Fragment
Walking down a shore looking for something. Sky is gray. Ambience is somber, muggy weather.
It reminds me of Darkshore from World of Warcraft.

Redridge Hotel
I'm playing World of Warcraft with the boys on Discord.
It's getting to be about time to log-off.
I recall that ahead of time I had changed the music that will play in the Redridge zone. It now plays a song about change.
It was supposed to be funny, but outside the context of the dream, I have no clue why.
Maybe it was that the 10 minute plus track was replaced with a short 30 second one.
I was waiting for the group to notice that the music had been replaced.
The joke doesn't land. Oh well. What's new, eh?
We reach the main bridge, and it is broken.
I try to justify within the plot of the dream that, the bridge breaking was part of the Cataclysm expansion.
I don't notice the discrepancy that we are playing Classic World of Warcraft, so the bridge should be in tact. Since it doesn't break anyway in waking life.
I jump off the side of the bridge and get the group to watch.
Weeeeeeeeeeeeee!
My gnome avatar safely lands in the water.
Then I head to the inn to logout and get that sweet sweet rest xp.
DTP.
As I walk in, I'm holding a gnome toy, and the inn is a real hotel room.
I put the toy down and "tuck him in" as a joke over some chairs.
I went around the room and locked the doors.
I see some messages on BattleNet from my brother, where he had gotten notifications from when I played with my display resolution settings.
This was an accident, not sure why he was getting notifications for that. I try to explain to him that it has to do with having two monitors.
My brother is now in the room next door, and they are connected through a door as well as an open section near the far-end of the room.
My brother tells me there is an inspector that is coming and I should clean up.
I shrug him off and say that "Whatever. If he finds something, he finds something."
Recorded at 7:30AM. Mid sleep cycle 6.

Pre-WBTB

Fragment
Frieza from Dragonball Z is at a Home Depot store.
Recorded at 5AM, at the beginning of sleep cycle 5.

WBTB

During my 10 minutes of wake-time, I planned what I would do if I had a false awakening at my home. After taking the 8mg Galantamine and using the bathroom, I walked down the hall doing my series of reality checks. Then I rubbed my hands together. I also decided I should interact with the environment in some way, so I licked the wall. Yep. Gotta commit man. I wander around the house a bit, and decided I should find ways to teleport to the forest (step one of "The Plan"). I decide that I will summon an image of a forest on the living room TV and then step through it. Path forward established and my 10 minutes spent, I was content to lay down in bed. I tossed around for awhile and thought about just about every current life problem I have. Maybe I was too awake. After what felt like forever, I finally drifted off. No WILD though unfortunately.

Post-WBTB

Seeking The Elusive Fantasy Forest™
I'm waking up in my bed, and I immediately think to check for a false awakening.
I can breathe through my plugged nose.
I'm dreaming!
I decided to cycle through some more RCs just in case.
I look at my hands, and I have far more than five fingers on each hand. Yep. Dream.
I tried to see my nose on the left and right sides and I can. So according to that check I am awake.
To be fair I've never done that RC before so I didn't really know what to expect.
I default back to another nose-plug RC and I can still breathe. Definitely dreaming.
I recalled my plan from the WBTB prep, so I rubbed my hands and licked the wall. Yep.
It tasted like the real wall. Like paint.
I then find myself back in bed. Another false awakening.
I repeat the RCs, but this time my vision isn't quite coming to me.
I try to will my eyes to work. Nope.
I say "Heal my eyes!" It works a little bit. I say "HEAL MY EYES TIMES 1000!" It works a bit more.
This goes on for some time, and I'm getting annoyed.
I recall another technique where I "take off glasses I didn't know I was wearing".
I do this and clarity improves a lot.
Eventually my vision stabilizes to the point where I can focus on other things. Like my goals.
I can recall "The Plan" in it's entirety. Step one is to teleport to the fantasy forest.
I wander over to my living room, which now resembles a mixture of my actual living room and my friend M's.
My girlfriend S is there on the couch. I decide to play it cool and not tell her this is a dream.
Instead I say "Oh hello! How are you? I'm going into the TV now!"
I don't recall actually going through the TV, so I may have wandered away.
...
I find myself lucid in the garage later. I'm looking around for the Elusive Fantasy Forest™.
I look down, and hope that when I look up, the forest will be on the other side of the open garage door.
Nope.
Vivid green grass and neighborhood. At least that is consistent. It looks similar to how it did in my previous lucids.
I checked around the garage some more, looking for a door or something else I can use to teleport.
I find a storage cabinet and try to teleport Narnia-style, but no luck.
I lose my focus for a bit, and I end up walking out of the garage door and preparing to fly.
I kick off the ground hard and take flight. I specifically notice that my right leg doesn't hurt as I jump (In waking life I am recovering from surgery so jumping is normally out of the question).
I zoom around and enjoy the view. The grass looks even more vivid from up here. It takes on a pastel-like painting aesthetic.
As I take in the view I come to a realization.
There is nothing other than vivid green grass and dots of homes that look like legos from this high up, for as far as my eyes can see.
Maybe the reason I can't find my forest is because this entire goddamn dream-plane is a neighborhood.
I zoom around some more, and find myself using air-swimming to control finer turns. Haven't tried that before.
Also unusual, I land without losing lucidity. I remember that I still need to try this stupid teleporting thing.
I'm back at my garage now and I remember reading a tutorial somewhere on DV about "scrolling the world".
So I raised my hand as if I was about to swipe the world like an image in my phone pictures gallery, not really expecting this to work.
Except, against dream-rules, it does work despite my negative expectation. The entire world, my current view of it anyway, swipes to the left, and a new image slides in from the right, teleporting me somewhere new.
But of course, not the elusive Fantasy Forest™.
I see a big, vivid, blue ocean in front of me. The waves are almost caramel-like. They move too slowly. In other words, their viscosity is higher than it should be. They crash down lazily.
My family may have been there too, I can recall my Dad being present for sure.
I briefly consider exploring the bottom of the ocean because who knows what my brain would put there!
But I ignore the ocean and my family: I am on a mission dammit!
I turn to walk away from the ocean and I notice it is raining behind me, and there is a forest in the distance.
But then a car drives by in front of it. IT ISN'T A FANTASY FOREST! IT'S A REGULAR PRESENT DAY FOREST!
I start to think about other ways to reach the forest. In particular, I imagined it might be easier to seek out a campfire and go from there.
But despite my best efforts, before I reach the Elusive Fantasy Forest™ I find myself waking up, thinking I should try to record before I lose memory of this dream.
I wake.
Recorded at 7:45AM.

Riding the Mountains
I'm in a parking lot, leaving a grocery store. It's day.
There is a man in his car parked nearby talking on the phone. He's arguing with someone about the price of apples.
I remember working hard to get the math right in my head, but it comes slowly.
He says that there are six apples with six servings at six dollars each divided by twelve, or something similar.
...
It's night now and I'm approaching my car.
The building has changed from a grocery store to something that reminds me of my Dad's friend's home remodeling business.
I enter my car and start it up.
I see my Dad outside the car he says "The weather here could be storming or worse, and it doesn't even phase you! You've got your windows down all the time!"
I remember thinking something along the lines of "It's really hot where I live, storms aren't exactly an issue" but I don't think I replied.
I start to drive away, but I have problems actually leaving the parking lot.
I can't seem to orient the car to face the proper direction.
I drive down a path leading behind the building to try and find a place to turn around.
I do find one and finally re-orient the car. I have to nick the side of my car on a nearby electrical box to achieve this.
Now I'm progressing along the path I came, but it is different.
It goes up where it didn't before into a mountainous region.
There is rocky tan-colored mud that is causing the car to slip and slide.
It starts to cake onto my car.
My perspective zooms out, and I'm watching my car go through crazy jumps and maneuvers through the mountains.
The car eventually crashes and flips, so I am sent back to the beginning.
It repeats the course but lands on its wheels this time.
My perspective shifts again. Now's I'm standing, and the car is a toy that I can pick up.
I do so and walk the rest of the way up the red rocks on the mountain.
My Dad is at the top laying in a bed. He is surprised that I made it up here.
The room we are in reminds me of the sky room from the bottom of the narrow concrete hole from the Game Grumps dream on 9/2/23.
Recorded at 4:55AM, just after sleep cycle 4.

Dancing in the Store
It's my birthday, and we are in my childhood bedroom. I'm on the far end of the room (If you turn right as you enter and go all the way).
There is an electrical outlet and it has a bunch of game system minis daisy-chained together with USB wires and ports.
I can recall at least a PlayStation 2, but there were more of them.
My brother and my friend D are on the other side of the room.
A third person at the party is setting up some game for us to watch him play.
He has two tablets, the second one folds and is acting as a keyboard for a laptop, while the top tablet is the screen.
There are some pillows and armchair-pillows on the floor and we are all settling in to watch him play whatever this game is.
...
The room now resembles my Grandma P's sitting den. I'm laying on the floor and I'm the last one up.
We are driving to the store to get a cake.
I get up to join the rest of the group in the car.
...
I'm in a big white van, the one we just road-tripped on to go to Denver a few weeks ago in waking life.
I'm opening the side door, and asking the driver to slow down so I can close it easily.
The driver ignores that request, so I jump out and try to slam it shut as best I can as I jump.
I land in the grass in a neighborhood. It's a sunny day.
I walk past a man having a yard-sale. He has a bunch of tables he is trying to sell.
As I walk by he says "Hey there! Whaddya think?!"
I tell him "They look great! But I'm not in the market."
He accepts this answer but seems a little disappointed.
I keep walking and enter another open garage.
I feel a bit guilty at first for invading, but then I realize that the building is kitted-out to be a store anyway.
There are shoes covering the walls with tiny labels with prices on them.
I'm not lucid, but I decide that I want to find a cute girl and dance with her.
I start to clear out an area at the back of the store, moving TVs, chairs, and other furniture.
As I do this, a mousey-looking girl with glasses shows up and starts to watch me.
I realize she is watching, so I make a show about lifting the heavy things easily, and throwing them such that they flip and land right-side up.
When I'm done, I tell here "We're going to dance!" and she agrees.
While I don't know anything about dancing in waking life, apparently dream-me knows at least the basics.
We dance for a while, and then the girl decides to reward me by getting on her knees.
Nice.
...
The store has changed into a work area. There are some tables with PC setups on them, similar to a computer lab.
There's not enough room to comfortably place my legs.
I'm working at my designated spot, but I sneak to a nearby one that I like better.
...
Later on the tables are gone but there is a long-table in the center of the room.
It now resembles more of a conference room than a computer lab.
There is a TV on the wall everyone is watching.
Some major news is happening. Feels like a 9/11 scale event.
Former President George W. Bush is at the table among the group.
A little girl at the table says "Why can't we just call all the Presidents dumb?"
George W. Bush replies "Well, there used to be less of them, and now there are more and they are all stupid!"
Which doesn't make sense, but the spirit of what he's saying is that things were better under him, of course.
Recorded at 6:39AM, just after sleep cycle 5.

The world was in the hands of an insane dictator, and it was near impossible to travel because his military was trying to kill me while driving. He went to me and said that he'd make it up if we negotiated in person. Then sent out a bunch of these "morphed" things which were really bloated strong aggressive people to kill us. Me and a couple friends were fighting against them. One of my friends slashed it's neck with some pliers and it "fell apart" along with all the other ones. We just ended up leaving before waking up.

I'm back in MeiSEKAI for the first time in a while, with an LD to show off for comp! Unfortunately I don't have time to add much detail to non-lucids >_<

NIGHT 1

Dream #1 (Fragments, Non-Lucid):
Frag1: S was still in Morocco, and J and I seriously shipped Ms. T with a new (false) assistant English teacher. I put their (illegible) together.

Frag2: Checking out colleges but not really? Kind of a blur. Later saw S and mom, she snapped at S to not "act different." Then I (illegible).

Woke at 2:50 and WBTB.


Dream #2 (Fragments, Non-Lucid):
Frag1: Ms. T and another teacher kept writing on a board that English and Art were not useless.

Frag2: Dude had a lot of money but was saving it to go on a trip to/with/for the person he likes. He thought it was funny and didn't seem to know why he liked her, but said that she was "relaxing." 5:30 WBTB.


Dream #3 (Fragment, Non-Lucid):
Featured an expert on "letter analysis." 6:50 WBTB.


Dream #4 (Non-Lucid):
Plot1: MC ran away from home... actually, he flew away from home, which set off alarm bells in the back of my NEO mind. He stole J & L's dad's car and drove off with their (false) dogs. Ended up in a hotel and kept getting notifications from his 3DS, but didn't wanna respond in case it could be tracked. So he searched it up on his phone, not knowing that phones are trackable.

At some point he looked out the window of his hotel room and saw his classmates(?) on a field trip. One kid spotted him and, for some reason, MC didn't break eye contact. The kid told the group and ran into the hotel, bursting into MC's room, but by that point he'd already flown out the window. He was pursued, and they had a conversation I can't remember.

Plot2: An assassin on the job decided to kill another guy on the side. But when said guy turned the corner, he made eye contact and flashed the revolver at his hip. MC was a bit startled. He pressed himself against the wall so he couldn't be seen from a ledge above, a good thing because moments later revolver guy was standing on it, mimicking a seductive woman's voice to try and lure MC into the open.

Ironically MC's interest was piqued not because he was fooled, but because that was also his method of killing. If the dream had continued, it would've turned into a gay assassin x assassin romance.

Plot3: An evil man was on trial, and a woman stood up to testify. In an NEO-moderated speech she said that even worse than the things he was on trial for, was the fact that he had groomed her teenage son. Everyone clapped and when she went into the back room, she received a bunch of Project Sekai rewards. One of them was a song so obscure it surprised me to the point of being impressed. Woke at 8:29 and had to get up.


NIGHT 2

Dream #1 (Fragment, Non-Lucid):
I was "getting a story" from out of a trash can, both manipulating each other. [I have no idea what I meant.] The videos were mostly ads and extremely generic. I was thinking about cognitive abilities and lucid dreams, hoping they would mention them. 4:00 WBTB.


Dream #2 (Non-Lucid)
Plot1: A journalist was jumping around trying to capture interesting moments between [stopped writing for some reason].

Plot2: I told my mom I didn't know how to do something, and she started screaming, calling me a pathetic waste of space and an effing idiot and et cetera. I just stood there waiting for her to stop.

Plot3: This was the largest part of the dream but I couldn't quite remember it. A bunch of people were fighting about something on a reality TV show… at some point I told my mom I was recording them to placate her. 5:30 WBTB.


Dream #3 (Non-Lucid):
Very brief yuri plot, teacher x teacher. One of them had the asexual flag tattooed on her palm and was upset about something. Her partner suggested they move out because Japan was too (illegible, but something similar to conservative?). 7:00 WBTB.


Dream #4 (Fragment, Non-Lucid):
(Illegible, something about people not taking my advice.) S had to give advice instead, which is ironic. 7:30 WBTB.


Dream #5 (Fragment, Non-Lucid):
Someone was trying to understand someone else's culture. 8:00 WBTB.


Dream #6 (Lucid):
Plot1: There was a lesbian TV show being played somewhere, and I found one of the actresses in my basement. I told her that I thought the show had been made in the 60s or 70s, but actually it was released in 2022. She told me that the other main lead found a husband and they were no longer in contact, but it was clear she missed her and implied that she wanted us to go find her.

Plot2: I was in the basement talking to my dad, when I saw my dog Nile sitting outside the sliding glass doors. I told Z and he went out to get him, but walked right past, even as he went from puppy- to normal-size. To prank him I brought Nile inside and shut the doors, but he came back with a nearly identical dog in his arms!

"Um, Z, that's not Nile," I said, but they looked so similar I doubted myself. Then another dog appeared and suddenly we were outside in our neighborhood. A glass dome surrounded it, and the grassy part in the middle had become a jungle. We were searching for the dogs that weren't Nile, to return them to their owners. I think I examined floating screenshots to find out that one's name was Riddick.

Other animals were in the jungle as well, and they all had "file names" you could view by focusing in on them. Some were just the name of the animal ("parakeet") but others were more personal ("the weird one"). There was also a gigantic moose walking around.

"I didn't know moose were that big," my dad said.

"I know right? It's scary." I pulled out my phone to take a picture, but paused when it turned in my direction. "Uh, is it…?"

I slowly started drifting away (we'd been flying the whole time), but when it stepped closer, I turned tail and accelerated so quickly it worried me. I could hear its footsteps thundering behind me, so I flew higher and higher, trying to reach a tall tree for cover. But then I saw the glass dome and decided to phase through it like I do in my dreams, which got me lucid!

I kept going, flying as fast as a jet (now that I think about it, this is Advanced Flying, isn't it?), and there were clouds and green fields below me as far as the eye could see, zipping past in a blur. My fear of heights seemed to have disappeared, and I was enjoying it so much that I pushed myself to go faster and faster. At some point I tried to shoot fireballs out of my hands, but it didn't work.

Okay, okay, I gotta think, what should I do for comp? The first thing that popped into my head was three-step tasks, and with some difficulty I remembered "Fly" as my first. Check!

I incorrectly remembered DC Manipulation/Mind Control as my second, so I flew down to the first DC I spotted. She was a young woman in a crop jacket and loose jeans, nose buried in her phone.

I whispered under my breath for her to get on her stomach and crawl, not loud enough to hear. But it was only when I made her want to do it, when I imagined her doing it, that she flopped onto her stomach. Still, she didn't crawl, and I started to worry that it wouldn't count for the competition if she didn't fully follow through. I had the sense that I was short on time.

"Crawl!" I yelled, but she just lay there with an expression of lazy smugness. Again I made her want to do it, imagined her doing it, and she did! She crawled forward! I was ecstatic, but before I could even think about my third task, I woke at 8:30 and had to get up. Pretty successful dream, though, even if it was short and I messed up the task order!

I actually have two or three more LDs to add from my period of inactivity, but I'll deal with them later. Oh yeah, and I filled up another DJ, though my handwriting has gotten much worse since then

Points:
Night 1:
WBTB - 2 points
Remember a Non-Lucid Fragment - ½ point
Remember a Full Non-Lucid Dream (x3) - 3 points
Sum: 5.5 points

Night 2:
WBTB - 2 points
Remember a Non-Lucid Fragment (x3) - 1.5 points
Remember a Full Non-Lucid Dream (x2) - 2 points
DILD - 10 points
Fly + First Chosen Task - 10 5 points
Advanced Flying - 10 points
Interact with a Dream Character - 2 points
DC Manipulation / Mind Control - 5 points
Sum: 42.5 37.5
Previous sum: 5.5 points
Comp total: 48 points 43 points

Lil sketch:

The REM rebound is real

The Stylin' Spider Boss
I'm in a Zelda boss arena that reminds me of the Wizzrobe battle in Stone Tower Temple from Majora's Mask.
The boss is a large spider-like creature, and the solution is to shoot it in the eye.
It drops arrows periodically, in case the player runs out.
Later I'm in another Zelda boss arena. This time it is like Stallord's from Twilight Princess, but with a forest theme.
The boss is a spider-like creature, with long spindly legs. It might be the same one from before.
My girlfriend S has painted the legs purple and put converse shoes on the legs.
Zoro from One Piece is resting against the locked boss door, watching the battle.
He's saying something to Usopp, also from One Piece.

Fragment
It's night-time on a modern-military boat.
Jiraiya from Naruto is leaning over the railing on the front of the deck.
Some conversation has just happened, had to do with passing responsibility on to the next generation.

Basement Fort
I'm in a large basement, fully completed. A young boy is using it as his room.
It reminds me of Grandma P's current basement.
The boy has built a fort out of blankets, sheets, and chairs. He reminds me of S's cousin J.
There is a set of locks in the sheets, where the keys would open the door. There are 5 or 6 of them.
My sister's boyfriend N and my Dad are there.
They are hanging out on a large sitting area, with half-circles of leather couches facing a TV.
This section of the basement looks like the one from the home I grew up in.
My brother A has just returned from travel. He is carrying a lot of luggage and seems overbeared.
But he is handling it.
Fun commentary here...my brother has a young boy due any day now. I don't really believe in premonition, but maybe this dream is saying that he will be OK?

Fragment
I'm at a wedding ceremony. Anju and Kafe from Majora's Mask are getting married.
They are thanking me for helping them with jobs around town that got them to this point.
There is another person at the wedding who is trying to have me arrested for meddling.

The Arcade on Top of the Hill
I'm in a big hilly place. There is an arcade-hotel at the top of a large hill.
I'm now at the arcade. Lots of lights and sounds.
I run into Arin Hanson from Game Grumps.
I tell him I'm a big fan and he decides to hang out with me.
We walk around the arcade a bit and then leave through a back-door.
We're outside, back in the hilly area. There is a concrete floor, with a hole and a ladder leading down.
He says we have to go down there.
I tell him I can't because of my knee.
The hole shrinks, such that a person could just barely fit.
I try to squeeze through, but I can't.
I think that maybe using some oil would work.
I remember there is a train I need to catch.
I really am recovering from knee surgery, so I was aware enough to reflect that here.

Fragment
I can recall a fleeting image of a sky palace area, where paradoxically, the hole from the previous dream would lead.

delete

I was dating a bimbo character from a tween sitcom I used to watch when I was in middle school, we pull this prank where we start making out as I finger her in the car during a traffic jam in the highway. We then end up at a reunion of my middle school and we find this hidden room behind the bleachers in the auditorium, but the entire time we're distracted by classmates and such, all whom now grown up and have full-time jobs or do sick stuff like volunteering in Africa or something. Finally, there's a moment where the television sitcom girl and I have a moment to be together during which we have this really mature conversation realising that we're not compatible.
I'm not 100% what the rest of my dream was about anymore but I think something with a DJ gig I had even though I don't know how to DJ.

Dream was in English with the sitcom girl and Dutch with the classmates.

I am in a hotel or store and I put a photo of myself into a machine. It was a large machine looked almost like on of those old ATM machines in the bank built into the wall. It printed out a portrait of myself but it was blurred and not completely printed on the one side of my face. Then it printed out a few more photos of myself. It was only when I saw the photos I noticed I had two small braids in my hair one on either side of my temples. I wanted to redo the photo not only because I didn’t like my hair but because it did’nt print out correctly. There were two nice women working in there and I told them the machine wasn’t working properly. They were closing the hotel/shop I was in. I sat on a lobby couch and we started chatting and talking about life a bit. I then look on my iPad and the machine had sent a video. I clicked play and it was a video of my 20/30 something self talking. I looked very put together and I liked it. It continued playing memories. I thought “Wow, how nice this is!” Then it was a memory of me on a talk show and a women came out on stage that I had not seen in many years an old friend. I gave her a big hug. Someone handed us these aprons they were super cute and we put them on. I started thinking " wait… I remember those aprons my friend Laraina made them for me and two small matching ones for my daughters when they were little about 10 years ago, I didn’t get them on a talk show"! Then I started realizing that the memories I was watching were all pieces of my life reorganizing into a different context and not how it truly happened. I suddenly remembered AI and reading something about allowing AI into my computer to help with daily tasks such as typing, responding to emails, and organizing photos. As the movie continued there was a chase scene that appeared to be from some action scene. I didn’t recognize the actors
but the what they were saying were phrases I had used and maybe posted online at some point. The audio was decently from my real life interactions but the two men and the scene I did not recognize.
It was at this point I realized I was lucid. I was suddenly in the building I was watching the chase scene happening in. I started looking around the building it was very barren. There were white doors I opened one and there was a strange looking toilet. Only the toilet in a very small rectangular white room. I opened the lid and it was clean and empty. Then I was going to the next door when I woke up.
In WL I went down stairs to make coffee and I turned on Youtube and the first thing that popped up was Sky New Australia Interviews “free-thinking” AI.

deleted

Graphic warning

I was at the grass field of my old primary school with my friends, hanging around and observing the sky. We all appeared to be students again, either at our own age or as teenagers, but we we having a break outside.There were more people outside as well as teachers supervising. My friends and I observe the planes in the sky when I notice one plane in particular moving around oddly in the sky as if it was a stunt plane of some sort, except it was a legitimate airplane of which the captain seemed have to lost control over the yoke. The plane then seems to curve to the right and fly closely over the grass field before flipping forwards into the forest into the distance, crashing and leaving an enormous explosion coming out of the trees in the distance! This causes everyone, including my friends and I, to run away as far as possible while screaming, seeking shelter in the building as we fear getting hit by debris and airplane parts.
This all went by so fast that I didn't even have a moment to grasp what was going on. Things finally cool down and we are going outside. A teacher is speaking to the students to calm them down. For some reason my journals, stored in a fancy looking folder, were lying on the table as if I foreshadowed something scary in my notes. However, the teacher does not address this, or me. While this was taking place, I wonder where my phone is. I walk into the classroom and notice my phone in the closet, charging. I check my phone and discover that, to my surprise, I had filmed the entire plane crash and accidentally posted it to Snapchat. I check the story and it has over 400 views, my first thought was if some news reporter has come across my footage and used it for the news.
I try checking my WhatsApp or anything for messages, but there's no signal. The interface of my WhatsApp is the 2000s / early 2010s Mac OS X Aqua style and there's even an option to change how much "water" the scrollbars can contain. A middle-aged grumpy looking Dutch woman messes around with these settings in the metro asking "Well, who wants some more water?" to which a dog jumps up and excitedly walks up to her.
I then get home, my mom and a friend of her who owns a big dog looking like Scooby Doo for some reason are watching the news about the the crash featuring a clip of the crash in slow motion as seen from the city. The shockwave causes a climbing frame from the McDonald's to fall over with people still hanging on it to lie underneath it. To my relief the people survived that fall as they're showing crawling out of the climbing frame. We then go to a spa where the big dog from my mom's friend gets a comically cartoonesque massage. At this point it finally hit me that I was dreaming and woke up automatically.

Dream was in Dutch.

Sleep: I had a crazy weekend, it started with me waking up around 7:30 am on Friday, going to work, then have a dope project I can't disclose yet afterwards until midnight, then with an hour and a half worth of sleep I go to the airport and travel to Manchester, didn't sleep in the plane even though I tried. I stay awake in Manchester for the full 24 hours as I go drinking with my intrrnet friends, and go to an ambient festival from 7 pm until 4 am. I have a few moments where I put on sunglasses and sit down, closing my eyes for a bit. After the festival, without any accomodation, I just stay awake, getting to that hypnagogic hallucination stage, getting to the airport, having some brief 5-10 minute naps followed by some sleep in the plane, to arriving home and sleeping for 13 hours

My friends from high school are sitting outside ln a bench in the snow, arguing about a New Year's themed film featuring Timmy Turner's parents where the dad has an argument with the mom and he replaces the mom with a robot clone and it starts a discussion between my friends about what would be a great ending until one of the friends tells that the discussion is pointless saying it's not possible to have an ending that would please everyone for a story like that.

I ask my friends about their new year's plans, and they told me Tinder date now became Tinder dates because Tinder added a group chat function.

Dream was in Dutch.

I'm in a house full of strangers staying over even though I'm the one actually living there with my family. I go to my room and there's a bunch of blonde Dutch boys I don't know, I angrily scream from the bottom of my lungs that they need to get out of my room. I then feel guilty. Meanwhile I'm preparing to get ready to work from home when two guys get back in the room and have the nerve to start a discussion with me about getting to stay in my room to which I angrily tell them to get out.

I then stare at my room questioning my life as I just got raging mad at two strangers over a job I don't really enjoy doing but have to because I need to pay my bills.

Guess what I had to do when I woke up
Dream was in Dutch

Legend

Colors: Lucid, Semi-lucid, Non-lucid
[comment from waking] in angle brackets
(comment / clarification from dreaming) in parentheses
Abbreviations: DS = dream sign, CH = childhood home, S1/S2 = sons, S/O = someone, S/A = something about, [f] = fragment, b/r = bathroom trip, Wn = waking #n, BT = bedtime, OOB = final out of bed time in morning, DO = Disembodied Observer

Summary of the Night

• BT: ~23:35, OOB: ~07:39, fitbit score: 86 (7:05 asleep, 0:47 awake, 1:14 deep, 1:15 REM), med right before bed
• Wakings:
  
  1. 01:59 b/r, no recall
  2. 05:05, b/r, recall, Super long BTS. Probably 1-1.5 hours. Possible light sleep, but felt awake. Took off blanket, cooled off, put it back on later. Physical relaxation pretty simple, but mental relaxation harder. SSILD cycles to direct the relaxation help somewhat. Need to find a way to release the mind faster.
  3. 07:27 final waking, excellent recall

---

W2: Camouflage Cars
Outdoors, I see what I think are army cars driving by me. I notice that they have white and black spotted camouflage. I think they blend in well to winter. I watch them drive by me. Then I see a large field of people walking towards me, hundreds of people. Many are carrying a Ukrainian flag. They walk towards me and past me as I stand in their midst.

W2: Political rally
Observing a political rally. They're talking about their plans? They're rallying against a new law? [Vague/forgotten]

W3: Boat cruise [vivid, fun, interesting, decent presence]
Inspecting the naval vessels

I'm outside on the water (on some ship?) observing a large vessel sailing from my right to my left, I'm quite close by. It is colored naval green/gray, and I think this is a naval / military ship. There are others. Then I see that they are moored all together, I'm looking at them all from the stern, they are sort of knocking up against each other. Then I have a close up view of the stern of one of the vessels. It is covered in military equipment. I'm looking for gun emplacements but don't see any, what I do see are very intricate guidance systems (that are used for aiming missiles/guns?). There are a lot of wires leading all over the place. The guidance system looks sort of like a gun emplacement but there is no barrel, but what seems to be two long telescopes or microphones set in parallel about 2 feet apart upon a swiveling stand. I imagine (see/hear?) that there is a female black navy guard who's job is to say "don't touch things" or "get off the boat", and that she is located in a high place so she can see everything going on at ship level.

Cruise Begins

I'm standing on the back of a medium sized boat. It is a boat taking people on a cruise to nearby sights on the bay/ocean. I am a sort of stowaway, I don't have a ticket. I'm standing on the rear left corner of the ship on the "bumper" that is right at water level. There are other people (official passengers) standing to my right on the bumper. I look down as the ship is moving, and I see the churning water from the propellers right there next to me. I think it's quite dangerous, and that anything that falls into that water would be sucked in to the propellers from the (Bernoulli) forces and chopped up. A girl wants to go by me around the perimeter of this bumper so I step aside, and she goes around and there is a bar there and she makes a drink (?), then comes back?

White Sand Lagoon

Then I'm observing the water: we're now motoring through a narrow channel, just a few yards wider on each side of the ship, and it's very choppy, like a rushing river, I have some thoughts about this scene. Then we're located in a large, calm lagoon, the water is still and clear. The bottom of the lagoon, about 20-30 feet deep, is shining bright white sand. I didn't know that there was any white sand like this in this part of the world. A girl (same one from earlier?) says: "Let's jump in" ("Let's do a cannon ball?"). I'm a bit hesitant, but I decide what the heck, and I jump in. I think, this is ocean water, so it will be salty. I open my eyes to look around, I see a small sea creature (like a jellyfish) and I again admire the bright white sand on the bottom of the lagoon. I surface and spend about half a minute trying to brush my bangs out of my eyes. No matter what I do they keep falling back immediately, obscuring my sight. After this goes on for a while I sort of laugh, I think the situation is amusing. The girl is still there.

Buffet Party

Inside the ship in a large party room, there is a party going on. A lot of people. There is a buffet of various food dishes there. I go to one with the girl and look at it, it is something like chunks of turkey meat with a lot of toothpicks on top. I'm studying this for a while, I'm trying to decide which toothpicks are new and which ones have been used and placed back. I say it's always hard to figure out which ones are new. The girl says it's easy: the ones lying horizontally are used, the ones standing vertically are new. I pick up a vertical one and take up a piece of meat and eat it. A (small boy?) criticizes the dish as being non-vegan (?), and I answer by saying "it is excellent protein!"

W3: Taxi ride [fairly vivid, present]
Start the ride

I've just gotten in to the taxi (at the airport?). I'm sitting in the back seat. I see a small (like 2-seat) propeller airplane taking off on the runway, heading right for us. At the last moment it pulls up and takes off flying over us. I expect the driver will eventually ask me where we're going, but he doesn't. I have a lot of trouble speaking, I feel like I can't communicate my thoughts. I say "Can you go to Pe...ky?" He says "sure!". I know that that is not my final destination, that I have to go further. I'm wondering why I need to take two different taxis/modes of transportation, can't this guy just take me to my final destination? I ask and he says yes, of course. I was wondering if it would be too far out of his way. Might as well go with just one trip. Then we're driving through the intersection next to my CH, I recognize it, but don't say anything. I feel like I should get off here but I don't want the driver to know where I live.

Lovely trees/flowers

We're driving on a street, up ahead in the distance I see a huge rhododendron plant/tree. On either side of us are flowering trees/vines, there are many colorful flowers. I comment on how lovely they are. I think they grow so well because of the warm weather here.

End of trip

The taxi is now a mini-bus and we're pulling in to a courtyard that is the front yard (vastly expanded) of my CH. (Roundabout?) Some people get off, and I'm a bit slow in getting off and the driver closes the door and is about to drive away, I call out "Wait! I'm getting off here." My taxi driver is a middle-aged white man seated behind me and to my left. I ask him "Do you have a <business card, in foreign language>?" I also think, hey I have to pay this guy, and ask "how much do I owe you?" He says "no, don't pay me, you'll pay next time". Instead of a business card he hands be a small piece of paper with some scribbles on it. His name is "Mihu."

DJ Critics

I'm seated at a table outside (indescript location), and I'm shuffling through papers looking for a fresh sheet with room on it for me to dream journal. I can't find any places on any of the sheets. The pieces of paper are all separate. Then I find a place and write a few words (?). There are two guys there, they are critiquing the phrases I've written in the DJ. One guy says the words have "No grammar." I am a bit offended but I know that I'm writing just key words/phrases and that they are not grammatical, but I do not want them to know it's a DJ so I keep quiet.

LUCIDD LD#292 False Awakening

I find myself lying on my side in (a) bed. I do a nose pinch and I can breathe!, I'm lucid. I feel myself lying there. Then in a second I feel a "wake up buzz" (REM Atonia ending) and I'm in the same position awake in my waking bed. [very short, but it's lucid! I'm counting it. Lucid is lucid!]

Legend

Colors: Lucid, Semi-lucid, Non-lucid
[comment from waking] in angle brackets
(comment / clarification from dreaming) in parentheses
Abbreviations: DS = dream sign, CH = childhood home, S1/S2 = sons, S/O = someone, S/A = something about, [f] = fragment, b/r = bathroom trip, Wn = waking #n, BT = bedtime, OOB = final out of bed time in morning, DO = Disembodied Observer

Summary of the Night

• BT: ~23:19, OOB: ~09:41, fitbit score: 81 (8:41 asleep, 1:41 awake, 1:45 deep, 1:23 REM), med right before bed
• Wakings:
  
  1. 00:58 b/r, no recall
  2. 03:25, b/r, no recall, basically awake until about 06:00?
  3. 06:30(?) woke from LD #191! brief but fairly clear and a bit amusing
  4. 09:41 final waking
• Drank a glass of wine in the evening with dinner. Definitely impacted sleep negatively. Long waking period, several hours, maybe dozed a bit here and there.
• all content from memory, no notes taken during the night or morning, written 20:00 the evening. Some of the details of the long near-epic have faded.

---

W3: LUCIDD LD #191 Chinese Restaurant
I'm outside on a city sidewalk with a small group of colleagues, we're going to lunch, and several of them enter in to a restaurant. I follow them. Inside is a medium/large room filled with tables and people sitting at the tables eating. It is a Chinese restaurant. I'm looking for evidence that they have my favorite dishes. I'm looking at the plates on the tables, I see my colleagues sitting and eating. The food is all chopped sauteed meat with various sauces, notably red sauces. I'm walking among the tables, and I decide that the cuisine is not to my taste and I want to leave back to outside. I turn around, but there are people sitting at tables all around me, and there is no path back through the room. I'm blocked [DS!]. I try several times to squeeze past in between the chairs but there's just not room. I try several different paths and I can't find a way out. I move to the side of the room (left side with back to street entrance) along the wall where there's a couch. (I ask the staff to help me clear a path?). I half climb on the couch and I see on the ground where have to step next, two bathroom scales on top of each other. I think then that people will be able to see how much I weight and I'm a bit hesitant. I step on them and look down, one of them shows nothing notable, but the other one displays my correct waking name (slightly misspelled with graphics and rectangles in place of some letters), and I'm really surprised by this, how could this scale know my name? I get the idea it may be a dream, I do a nose pinch, and get lucid.
I'm very amused that the scale knew my name! and then I fade to awake in the same pose I fell asleep, with my arms around my wife. [Short lucid period, but I'm very strict about counting my lucids, there must be an explicit affirmation or firm knowledge of recognizing the dream state, so, "lucid is lucid!", and I'm counting it]

W4: Long near epic
Escape from shooter

Outdoors, it's some sort of adventure/thriller plot, there are (3?) of us rushing through a city park-like walkway with some trees on it, we're in a rush, I feel semi-lucid, but I decide to go along with the plot. Half-realizing it's a dream, and hearing the sound of a helicopter flying nearby, I tell one of my cohorts to "call <some guy> in the helicopter to meet us and pick us up!". Then I'm alone and trying to dodge/avoid providing a free shot from a shooter who's stationed on about the 6th floor of a large/long ~10 story building. I move quickly to the base of a large building opposite his position, all the while hoping he won't shoot me. I make my way around the back of the building on the site away from the shooter, and am on a higher level now, on sort of a platform. I do the Clark Kent action "pull open your shirt with two hands to show the Superman Logo" and decide to take off flying and attack the shooter (?).

Ordering Food in the Stadium

[these mini-scenes may be out of dream order]. I'm in a steep stadium seating area, open rows are all around with people sitting down, with a central stairway leading down. At some point I place an order for food: tacos, pad thai, and something else [This is from an incubated plan to eat these things when lucid!]. Then later, I'm walking down the stairway, and I have the order in hand in a brown paper bag. I open the bag and look down into it: I see what looks like an order of nachos (tortilla chips with melted cheese), and some blob of food that I think is the pad thai. (I'm surprised they were able to fulfill the order?). Back down at our seating area, I think something may be missing from the order that I've already paid for. I ask a waiter to explain the bill to me. He mumbles something incoherently and walks away from me. I'm still confused about the order and follow him, calling out "Hey! Answer my question. HEY, WAITER!!!" he is not responding to me and I'm getting very upset. He doesn't want to deal with me, being a "problem customer." Then, I'm wanting to walk back up the stairway, but I have to first enter through a kind of turnstyle and take a different path.

Lose the dogs, memory wipe

I'm meeting my wife L, (she asks?) where are the dogs? I was walking them, and they're not here! I have absolutely no memory whatsoever of having walked them, and I'm very upset that I've both lost the dogs and have a totally blank memory about the situation. This goes on for a while with me being totally astounded and concerned at the blank period of memory. Then somebody holds up a mobile phone for me to see, it's playing a video that shows a man bouncing crazily out of control off of walls on buildings, and I can see that this is me! I have no memory of doing this. I'm very concerned. In another scene (?), I'm indoors and there's something about a game console (?). I think perhaps that there were people who used a device against me to wipe a portion of my memory? And got me to do something?

Pulling up to CD on the street

I'm driving in a car with a guy in the front passenger seat, and I see that ChrDw (company 3) is standing on the side of the road, at a point where parking is allowed again, but his car is in the way, and so I'm waiting for him to move his car so I can park there. But my passenger then gets out of the car and moves to CD and starts talking with him. I think that CD doesn't want to talk to me [hasn't for many years in waking], so I'm hesitant about this course of action. (I think CD may be involved in the plot that wiped a portion of my memory?