non-lucid

Date: 02/20/2013
Total sleep: 7 hours
Daytime Techniques: DDA
Lucid Techniques: MILD
Recall Techniques: Waking up a lot

Fell Asleep: 10:30
Dream Title: Castle City
Dream: I am in a huge cite that is basically a Castle with many mini castles throughout. I had a goal, but I forgot it. The scenery was amazing though, and when I would get high on the castles It looked like it was in the sky, but more like Skyward Sword floating islands than anything else. The castles were reddish/brown and had moss all over them. In order to get from one place to another it was pretty much like Zelda games. Flip switch, climb vines. Very fun
Awake: 2:00 (later than usual. :/)
Seed: Zelda
Vividness: 9
Awareness: 6
Length: 30-45 minutes
Emotions: Fun!
Dream Signs: Castles, Zelda, Clouds

Lucid Techniques: MILD again. Forgot to SSILD at all last night.
Fell Asleep: 2:10
Dream Title: Outhouse Living
Dream:
I was going out of my castle (yes... castles are in all my dreams from last night) and I ran into a friend of mine. Well, he is more of a facebook friend, I have never hung out with the guy, just talked to him in groups. He was showing me around his house, that was literally an outhouse. There was a toilet and a sink and a pink dildo in it. I saw that and tried to leave, but he wouldn't let me. He kept wanting to talk to me and hang out with me. I was just trying to get the picture of where that dildo had been out of my mind . I finally got away and to my castle. I sent my servants away and started meditating. Then he came back and started talking to me. I was quite annoyed.
Awake: 3:00
Seed: His Facebook post
Vividness: 10
Awareness: 8
Length: 20 minutes
Emotions: Annoyed
Dream Signs: Castle, random sexual things

Lucid Techniques: MILD, visualization
Fell Asleep: 3:10
Dream Title: Again
Dream:
I was in my parents castle. Me, my brother in laws, and my dad were hanging out and the guy that was in the previous dream showed up. I don't have a problem with him IRL, but he brought his pink dildo and was being really creepy/clingy towards me. We all played video games for a while (time seemed to skip for this part) and then everyone but me and him left. They were trying to pass me the message that we would meet up later after he was gone, so I decided to go home. He asked if I could walk him home. I took him to his outhouse and went back to my castle. I started meditating and I noticed something fall out of my pocket. The pink dildo! I was grossed out and walked out of my house. It was getting dark out.
Awake: 4:15
Seed: Same as previous
Vividness: 8
Awareness: 8
Length: 20 minutes
Emotions: annoyed (again)
Dream Signs: castles, random sexual things, video games, my parents house

Lucid Techniques: MILD
Fell Asleep: 4:30
Dream Title: Outside Dining
Dream:
I was walking around outside (see previous dream) and was eating from the trees that grow in the garden in the middle of the city. I made conversation with a few people, but not too much. I was beautiful outside and I think I was still on the floating castle because the stars and moon looked bigger and closer. The place was surrounded by yellow light that seemed to illuminate everything, making the ground seem like day, and the sky seem like night.
Awake: 5:00
Seed: dunno
Vividness: 11
Awareness: 7
Length: 10 minutes
Emotions: awe
Dream Signs: night sky, garden

Lucid Techniques: MILD
Fell Asleep: 5:05
Dream Title: Casino Castle
Dream:
I was riding in a van to a basketball game with my team (yes, four years past and I still dream of basketball tournaments). We stopped in the middle of a castle courtyard (this had the court in the middle) and everyone was supposed to be back soon. I left with my sister to go get some food from the establishment. It was like Las Vegas inside, people gambling, acting like idiots, etc. I was walking past the slot machines (Because every slot machine is a one armed amputee waving hello). and I saw RDC I asked my sister if that was RDC and she said yes it was, amazing how that person can be here since we are so far from home. I asked her the time and she said 6:45. I told her we needed to get back to the game and she said "No it doesn't start till 7:00 and it is 6:15 now" I was convinced.
Awake: 6:00
Seed: Basketball
Vividness: 11 (RDC was at about 13 though)
Awareness: 9 almost 10 (almost lucid)
Length: 10 minutes
Emotions: shock
Dream Signs: RDC, basketball, castle, age mess up

This is a flying dream which happened when I had a fever, it was actually the night my fever finally broke. I was very tired and it felt better than usual when I put my head down in bed.

The dream:
I was going home after a bike ride on a street parallel to a park downhill on my left. There was a yellow school bus passing me and then I took off with my bike. Since it felt real and it was like the first time I flew "for real" I was kinda in shock when I landed in my driveway and didn't remember the flying in between taking off and landing. The next day, I don't know exactly where I went in the morning, maybe work, I only have a sense that it was in a big building with some blue on it, in an industrial sector not far from a shopping mall... (might be because of seeing new areas in my city from taking the bus from a new metro station...) Anyway, when I left the place, I remembered flying before and tried it again, but for some reason I had 2 pillows with me in a back pack and just held them under my bent elbows, my elbows were pointing outwards and my fists on my chest, and I took off! At first I was flying like 60-90 feet off the ground, then up to about 180 feet. It felt like a few days passed, like a fast forward, and I had left work again (whatever work was), and took off again... with the pillows. I decided to see how high I can get and man, I got as high as about 900 feet or more, the ground and all the streets looked like a neighborhood map!

The wind was pretty strong and the left pillow slid to the edge of my elbow, but somehow stayed there... I got a bit scared of falling so I came down gradually and was ok.

It was the weekend now and I decided to go for another flight, and I thought to try it without any pillows and it worked, it just took some more effort to stabilize. I got really high at night, it was beautiful, I even saw a plane about a mile away from me on my left. In flight I remembered a show I used to watch as a kid called The Little Vampire (The Little Vampire (TV series) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia ) as the city looked similar to how they showed it. Now it got weird... I landed next to a bus stop and pay phone near an apartment building as I didn't have my cell with me, I was gonna call a friend. Who do I see walking down the path from the building? MY MOM, yet she's different, she looks more content. I wanted to tell her that I can fly and have been for about a week, she tells me to wait until we're inside to tell her. We get back to what looks like home, but it's in the apartment building, I think it's her place but it has the same furniture as in the house, no sign of my dad. She tells me she didn't know I could fly but that it was actually a hereditary trait for some on her side of the family... and then she pulls out a knitted suit for flying passed down from previous generations... I'm weirded out at first but then I start having ideas about improving it, like adding compartments to the sleeves to insert molded plastic to improve stability... My mom tells me not to go too high due to planes... I think that's around where I woke up... it was 1pm and I was sweaty but no more fever.

Man, this is definitely one of the most detailed dreams I've ever had. In fact it's the one that made me do some research and led me to this site. I've had flying dreams before, but never where I controlled the flying so much, I really flew a lot, it was amazing. I wouldn't say it was a lucid dream though, just a vivid one. I've had 3 lucid dreams in my lifetime and I'm really excited about learning more. Those LDs will be in future posts.

I am wondering around a subterranean cavern full of dwarfish folk. I have some sort of ring on my left hand. I looks like a glowing amber stone with silver twig designs woven over it. I am looking for something and the ring glows bright when I get close. I examine the ring closely and it seems that the more I look at it the more the amber cracks and falls away. I take the ring to Elrond who is nearby and he refashions it into a mounted stone on a silver band. I question him and comment how ugly it now looks. He tells me that this is the more modern fashion. I accept that as satisfactory though I really liked the look of the other one. (I'll have to draw it up soon)

Before too long I notice I have wondered outside and it had grown dark. Wargs come out of the darkness and attack me. I switch to a third person view like I am playing a video game. I am pushing the green A button on the XBOX controller but I also feel as is I am the character in the game. I see a hobbit version of myself jumping and scrabbling and running to avoid the wargs. It is no use I become over ran and everything goes black.

I wake near a camp fire with a minor injury to my chest and shoulder. Apparently Legolas and Gimli rescued me after I passed out. Legolas tells me there is food. I see a string of several large trout like fish on some rocks. I begin to prepare the fish near the camp fire but the fire keeps going out and relighting itself. Every time it goes large evil looking hairless bears come out of the darkness to eat me. But just as I am about to get it the fire relights and the bears vanish. Unfortunately I end up knocking over a pot of water on the fire and it goes out for good.

Just when I think I am done. I see a bright flash of light. It is Gandolf and his staff. He came just at the right time. I try to make my way too him but all I see is a bright light like a huge spot light pointed straight at me. It is blinding. Then, I see a second. I pause at the strangeness of this. It looks like twin suns and I am reminded of something. I think it's dream sign but it doesn't register what that means. I am too frightened to care and only want to get to safety. This time the light engulfs me.

I look away from the light and find myself at work. My boss has been kidnapped. I and several co-workers go look around for clues. I see a strange metal hand print device on her desk. I push on it and the wall spins around to reveal a hidden room. All we can find is booze and food and candy. I say, "Considering what has happened; I think we can over look this." I wanted to keep it quiet but I excitedly tell E all about it.

Then I hear a loud computer voice say my real life email address and "recover fail". I think someone is hacking into my computer so I rush over to an area with desks and computers.

I see JG and DL playing a prank on someone's computer. I think it is mine but I just watch and see what they are doing. They have a bag of commonly used keyboard keys that they popped off the keyboard. They tape the bag to the back of the monitor. They look at each other and laugh. I think they are idiots. Then the take fists full of hair and tape it the desk. I try to think of a way to get into their office and get them back. I know it will be tough and I feel clueless.

But no. I realize it is "Fat Amy's" (From Pitch Perfect) desk. She is sitting right there letting them do it. Then, for some reason, I tell her, "I think JG wants to give you a blow job." She tells me, "He can't. I'm too tough."

I wake up.

I recalled 2 other dreams and 2 fragment as well but this was be best one. I freaking love LOTR!

Some day residue from ordering a package during the day and also the ever-present media barrage about terrorism.

I'm walking through a dry, hilly region that makes me think of Afghanistan. But apparently I am in Kentucky. I am being led by a Persian-looking man with a thick accent. We are walking along a trail, dressed as guerrilla fighters with assault rifles and well-supplied backpacks. It's daytime and it's mostly clear with a few patches of clouds. My guide points up at the sky. There's a plane in the distance. He's speaking some kind of rhetoric that glorifies his cause. Something like:

"While the rich and wealthy look down on us from their planes, we, the night warriors, fight on the ground. They use their planes to transport goods and they think they are secure. They think they have sophisticated logistics. But we know all about their systems. We infiltrate their corporations and subvert their delivery systems. They think all the worldly goods belong to them, but really they belong to us."

Somehow I know that the plane is a UPS freight plane and we are near their main processing hub in Kentucky. We watch as the plane flies low over a clearing and starts dropping crates to the ground without landing, cargo-cult-style. As each crate lands, workers scramble to it and begin to break it down and process the packages. I think this system must be very well coordinated so that no one gets crushed from a falling crate. I also wonder if they can do this for fragile packages. Maybe they have a separate system for that.

We double back on the trail and move away from the UPS facility. My guide continues on with his rhetoric:

"They think that we will wither and starve out here in the badlands. But we have enough food for many days..."

False awakening. I'm still in the same dream. Apparently we made camp for the night and I'm just now waking up. My guide nudges me with his boot to wake me up. I am reluctant. He says:

"We call ourselves the night warriors but we never sleep. We fight day and night."

I joke: "If I'm going to be a night warrior, I'm going to need the mornings off."

Technique: SSILD.

Lucid?: Nope.

I was sitting near a pool, at a hotel on a tropical island. Sitting next to me was someone who I can only describe as an old man that looked very much like Lord Commander Mormont from Game of Thrones. (http://www.rpforum.de/wordpress/wp-c...rmont-1024.jpg)

Then we were hit by a sandstorm. Everyone began to panic. A man who I can only describe as looking very much like Goldmember from Austin Powers , tried to help us to safety. (http://timeswampland.files.wordpress...photos_232.jpg)

He told us to follow him. He started jumping across rooftops, and I followed. He led us into a bar. It had several pool tables. There was a girl standing next to one, looking very scared.

Then out of nowhere, the old man slammed her head down onto the table. The other guy picked up a pool cue, ready to fight me.

That's all I remember. Pretty wierd stuff

Was pretty close to DILD.

Dream 1:

I was watching something on YouTube and it suddenly stopped working. I refreshed the page and there was an update notice, looking through the only change was the removal of mechanism that saves position in video on closing the tab, and the change was made for some really stupid reason(but i can't recall what exactly). Also for some reason it mentions that YouTube account with the name of one of my alternative internet nicknames is getting pretty popular.
Suddenly i wake up in the bed, my body seems to be rather screwed up in weird way for some reason, so i start thinking that something's not right, but as soon as i try to do an RC, dream ends and i wake up.

Looking that it's a bit too early i memorize recall and go back to sleep.

Dream 2:

This dream was pretty long, consisting of playing some adventuring video game with top-down view and searching for some 'mysterious information' as i called it in dream, i don't recall much else about first half of it. I recall wandering player character around some forest area, it was more of a forest maze than normal forest, also it looked more autumn-like. I found some of 'mysterious information' and it was saying something about Game Maker files and something else i don't remember.
After that there was another area full of giant mantises and i had to move player character to avoid them. I was having hard time mostly because area had really bizarre collision detection problems up to possibility of moving character to the outside of area without actually leaving the area. Mantises were randomly spawning everywhere though, but after a few restarts i eventually found the right way.
Suddenly i was in the game by myself and the game itself is now 3D as well. I was in some canyon with some military bunkers. Seems like i am being instead of player character and an actual player is giving me hints through some radio device. He says to look for a cave. I go around the canyon and notice that bunkers have stationary rocket launchers in them. I decide to play around a bit and use rocket launcher to blow up another bunker. The explosion sound reminds me of half-life. Shortly i get annoying by 'player' on why i am not searching for cave, so i say 'fine' and i shortly find the cave.
It is very dark in there, but i have no problem navigating through. It gets very mazey from this point and there seems to be alot of 'walk through' walls, also it starts somewhat resembling a tomb of sorts. Soon i end up in an area where the only path through is to jump between masses of sand that float over the void. As i jump onto one of those masses, it starts slowly falling. I had no problems with jumping for a while, gone halfway through area, but there seems to be pretty long distance for the next jump. I almost fail it, but i notice another mass of sand that is a bit lower and i manage to change direction mid-jump right enough to grab onto that mass. I get onto it, and some jumps later i am on the other side of the area, dream ends shortly.

Either way, my recall seems to be back once again!

Monday, 2/18/13 Bed 11:50pm - 6:25am Water before bed and each time I woke up

DR1 - 2:30am - Modding, participating in some online competition involving clicking on radio buttons. I know I'll lose, because my connection is not good at the moment and my clicks don't register, or register with delay. (My PC was slow today IWL, because I was running a virus check)

DR2 - 4:14am - This was a long dream, but I probably didn't wake up from it on time and all I can remember is me being with some kid in some room higher in a building.

DR3 - 6:25am - I'm looking out kitchen balcony. It's sunny, seems like noontime, but I know it's midnigt. A guy just pulled up with some kind of a small trailer and he is unloading his power tools. He is about to build a fence for a neighbour.

I yell at him, if he lost his mind to make such a noise at midnight, and to knock it off immediatelly. He just brushes me off. My dad wakes up all angry and he is going outside to yell at the guy. But instead, he is telling him that he can't just put pilons into the ground, he need some concrete. I'm just so upset that I can't sleep because of the noise.

02-19-2013 -- Find myself on the road, driving to some sort of job interview, I think. The area is one I've driven through in a dream halfway recently, though I can't specifically place it. Anyway, some black lady is trying to direct me into the parking lot of a strip mall, and for some reason I don't want to go where she points me, so I make a left turn into a different strip mall, then turn around and try to exit ... only to find myself facing the same black lady trying to direct me. I think it is President Palmer's ex-wife from 24 (which I watched 8 hours of last night.)

So I find myself facing this woman, and there is somebody else in the car as well, who is now driving, and he ignores her and drives right over to somebody else, who he knows. We're not supposed to do this, but he knows her well enough to get away with it, and it seems we are somehow here for interviews for some sort of salesman position, and I know it wouldn't be a good fit for me, so I just decide to leave.

I cross the street to the strip mall I was trying to get to in the first place, and find myself near an older couple (they kind of remind me of Bob and Virginia, friends from the Adventurers Club) who are arguing about something. Then I find myself getting some kind of injection of some sort of prescription drug or something, except things shift almost immediately to getting some sort of additive for my oil.

They are telling us we add this additive, then immediately change the oil, which seems to defeat the point of putting in an additive. Then they clarifying that it is very important that we change the oil very quickly afterward ... within no more than 300,000 miles, maximum. This seems really odd. Meanwhile, one of the other people looking for work here looks like Kensei from Heroes, and is trying to empty out some junk from his wallet into a trash can, but he also loses a few credit cards and things.

He is reaching into the trashcan to retrieve them, but he can't actually see them. But I can, so I am directing him, and I eventually let him know he got all of them, and then notice that he also threw away a bunch of my full-color business cards, which is kind of depressing.

I walk out of there to find myself out in a sort of field or plain, where people are just walking around, and some people are selling balloon figures. But they aren't twisting them to order for people, but have them already twisted, and lined up in long rows of maybe 30 or 40 figures. Caught from the right angle, where you just see the edge of one balloon after another, yet can't see the whole figure, they look very colorful, yet abstract, and I decide I have to take some pictures of them, so I pull out a camera and start snapping.

But even though I am taking wide-angle photos of the long rows of balloons, some people think I am taking pictures of them, and are objecting and making a fuss, and really kind of annoying me! Somebody gets a little more annoyed, and I find myself being shoved through a large wooden door by somebody who seems to be Nina from 24.

Everything switches completely, and the wooden door is the door leading to a train platform that I've dreamed about many times before, and after Nina has shoved against it so hard, I manage to grab it and stop it right before it slams into some sort of railroad bigwig. So we're talking to the bigwigs, while Nina is chained up, and there is some little black kid there. We're talking about how I am taking Nina in, and the train bigwigs are not very bright, so the discussion is kind of comical.

At least it is until Nina manages to somehow break her chains, and starts to flail around. I still have her wrapped in my arms, and manage to hold her for several seconds, then she manages to break free my grip, as well. She grabs the little black kid as a hostage, and dives out of the front of the train, where she falls under it, and everybody assumes she is killed.

I'm worried about the kid, but the bigwigs are asking "What kid?" They didn't see any kid. It turns out the kid was a ghost that only Nina and I could see, and her trying to take him as a hostage obviously did her no good. But unlike everybody else, I somehow know she isn't dead, but that she just grabbed on to the under-carriage of the train, and is still with us. I'll have to face her again at the end of the line ... a place where three train crossing meet, that I've dreamed of many times before, that seems to be where the train tracks crossed Beach Blvd in Buena Park.

Sleep – 10:30pm
Wake ups – 3:35am, 7:10am
Finial wake up – 9:40am
WBTB – 3:35am-3:55am

Non-Lucid
Lucid
Not-Dream

- My brother and his girlfriend had just broken up. I can’t remember why but I had to go to where my brother’s ex-girlfriend worked. She worked at a pharmacy.
When I entered the shop I knew that this was going to be awkward. She was sitting at the front desk that was right in front of the door. As soon as she saw me she stood up and started crying. I went over to her to try and calm her down. The doors opened behind me and a few of my brothers friends walked in. They started calling her names and then left after a few minutes.
She started crying more so I spent the next few minutes trying to make her feel better. When she stopped crying she gave me two USBs from her pocket. She said that one was for my brother and the other was for me. I got confused by this but accepted them.
I then left the shop and got in a car. It had been snowing a lot recently and the roads were really icy. Someone else was driving the car instead of me. They started driving towards school which took us up a massive hill. It took us ages to get up the hill because of the ice. When we arrived at school I got out of the car and looked down. In the snow nearby I saw a blue USB that belonged to my brother. I walked over and picked it up. I then headed straight inside and went to an office. When I got there I saw that it belonged to my brother.
I opened the door and went inside. I was expecting my brother to be in there but he wasn’t. I placed the USB that his ex-girlfriend gave me for him and the blue one on his desk and then left. I went to the room next door which as the resource centre and sat at a table with a couple other people.
Sat at the table were Jake, Tom, Preston and Joe. We were all talking about how the ID we had to wear around our necks weren’t printed properly. I looked down at mine and saw that the printing on it was wonky and that most of the writing was missing. Some of the picture of me was also cut off. Everyone else’s ID were equally bad quality.
I saw my brother walk past the door and into his office. I stood up and walked to the door. On my way out I heard Joe say “Wow, John is really trying to push the whole Mayan thing.” I walked through the door and into my brother’s office. I found him sitting at his desk looking at the two USBs on his desk. I told him that I found the blue USB outside on the floor and the other one was from his ex-girlfriend. He got annoyed at that.

- Me and another guy were walking through a forest along a dirt path. We see a guy sitting on a tree stump nearby but chose to ignore him. He was wearing a blue hood with strange symbols on it over his head. He also had a mask that covered his whole face except his right eye. I noticed that as we walked by him, he stood up and started walking the same way as us. After a couple of minutes we concluded that he was following us so we decided to confront him. We stop, turn around and walk up to him. We ask him why he is following us. He doesn’t say a thing. Instead he pulls out a gun. He shoots the guy next to me a couple of times and he falls to the ground. He then turns the gun on me and shoots me 3 times in the stomach. I somehow still have the strength to turn around and run away. I get about 3 meters away from him until he shoots me a couple more times and I fall to the ground.

I live in an unfamiliar apartment building. The hallways and elevators are very complicated. It's easy to get lost and disoriented. I'm riding the elevator, which is a huge freight elevator. Everything seems to be made of industrial cast iron, painted a gaudy pale blue. On the elevator are two young women, Asian, about my age. They are chatting with each other about nothing in particular. When we reach the bottom, there's an Asian man who is delivering furniture. One of the girls asks the delivery man when her oven will arrive. She seems upset because it's late. The man says today is Monday and it won't arrive until Wednesday. The problem is that the building is complicated and it slows down deliveries. I don't interact. I'm just observing.

I leave this scene and walk to a different part of the building, getting lost. I walk up a staircase. I pass by a guy. Blond hair and athletic with a backpack. He says hello and says we should get a beer another time. Okay, nice guy. I wonder through the hallways, trying to find my apartment.

I finally find my apartment. Anne is my roommate. She is very pregnant. She is wearing a black dress. Very sharp yet still appropriate for a pregnant woman. Just outside our apartment, there is a hipster-looking guy with a beard. He gets the attention of several tenants around him. He announces that he posted a bunch of photos on facebook of our building so that people will become more familiar with it and not be confused. This seems to please the crowd, which has somehow filled the hallways to standing-room-only.

The hallway is open to the outside and we can see across the street, there is a sports field. A small one, like a high school football field with a few grandstands. The mob in the apartment hallway becomes rowdy and we start doing things people do in the stands of a stadium. We do the wave, stomp the ground, chant, sing songs, and use noisemakers. It's fun for a while but I'm tiring of it. I just want to get to my apartment and find some quiet. I'm also concerned about Anne. I hope she's okay in this mob of people.

I'm walking up the stairs of a tall building. It's a shaky metal staircase, like a fire escape. When I reach the top, the character Frank Costanza (from Seinfeld) is running around the room collecting flares. And then he's fighting with another guy. I help him. Then he and I start walking back down the stairs.

Then suddenly it's my mother instead (groan). She asks me if I am divorced. I say I was never married. She warns me not to join a gang. I say I'm too old to even consider that. I'm annoyed that she would even think to ask these things. Then she says she's pregnant. I'm initially shocked but try not to reveal it. Horrified, really. I do my best to act congratulatory without judging.

I'm with Jason, a childhood friend, but we are adults. We start at the SAV house. My recall is poor. I recall going shopping and changing clothes many times. Then I am driving Jason home. As we arrive, we says he wants to got to K-mart first. I say I know where one is but it's far out of the way. And why would we go there anyway? I'm annoyed. He really wants to go so I take him. I change clothes again but I have nothing clean to wear so I reuse a shirt I wore earlier. It is a button-up shirt, blue with black and dark blue vertical stripes. Jason snarkily points out that I'm wearing a dirty shirt. I'm annoyed.

I'm in a room full of my coworkers. Everyone is in formal business dress. It seems we are on retreat. I wander in and around this building. There are tourists. This part of the dream is hazy. I think I walked back and forth through a hallways looking for a particular room.

I walk up a staircase and rejoin my coworkers. Everyone sits. The boss stands at front and begins to give us an inspirational talk. But it quickly turns to frustration and desperation. He says he's tired of hearing criticism from the board about all of us. He distributes a handout of several pages stapled. The top page is a deep red. The rest are white. The pages have emails from the board about us. The very first one is about me. It says I'm unproductive and waste time and cost too much to pay.

I am annoyed but I realize that the emails are just personal attacks and not really constructive. I think this is the point the boss was trying to make. That the board don't know what they are talking about, just trying to cover their own by attacking us personally. He says we're going to have a fresh start tomorrow. He dismisses everyone. Everyone else heads to the door, making conversation. Instead, I reach for my laptop out of my bag. I find a quiet room and plug it in. I want to start working right away.

I have some trouble as I'm moving into my new apartment. It seems the previous tenant left some of her items and she has some of mine. My landlord tracks down where she moved to and arranges for me to go there and exchange the items.

Flash forward a few days. I arrive at the other building at night. It is an imposing building of solid concrete, no windows, and few lights around the exterior. I find a security guard. I tell him I am a guest and have arranged to meet one of the tenants. He gives me a brown blanket and says "It's a belt." I drape the blanket around me. Apparently, I need to wear this to get through the security sensors. The guard leads me inside the building. Inside it's very nice like a luxurious modern hotel. Everything is marble and glass and steel. A cool ocean blue is the dominant color, like I'm in an aquarium. The guard leads me to the landlord of the building.

The landlord is an older women who is impeccably dressing and sophisticated. She greets me warming and leads me to the elevator. We ride to the top floor. There's a formal party going on in the penthouse. The landlord explains she has to make a speech and I can wait at the party. I feel a bit awkward at the party where I don't know anyone. The landlord begins her speech and the crowd gathers around her. I move to the edge of the room where a few shy people are sitting away from the crowd. I sit down a take out my phone. It is the new Blackberry. This intrigues the man sitting a bit to my right. I explain that I have two phones and the store gave me the new Blackberry because of some problem with the warranty of my other phone. A few other curious people gather around me as I talk about my new phone.

I recall that I'm here to met the apartment tenant and shouldn't be distracted. I find the landlord after her speech. She is about to give a tour of the building to some of the party guests. She tells me to follow along and she will help me after. I follow the tour group by fall behind. I find myself in line to what appears to be a museum. I circle through this line two or three times. When I get to the front, I have my credit card ready to pay. But the attendant tells me it's free and always will be free. He seems offended that I would think to pay. The next time through the line, I enter a room and sneak through a vent into an "employee's only" room. A man frowns at me and tells me this the dining room and bathroom for the workers and not for guests.

Once again I realize I'm distracted and find the landlord. She leads me to what I suppose is the mail room. There are a few people here. The landlord introduces me to the tenant I was looking for. She is a young woman, taller than me, and strikingly beautiful. She has light brown hair and a bright friendly face. I suppose she looks like that new British princess whats-her-name. She's friendly and opens with some playful banter like, "I'm the one with your book and you're the one with my mirror!" She leads me to a security checkpoint and asks the security guard to issue a passcard to get through "for the next cycle." She then starts back, leaving me to go alone to her apartment to exchange the items. I ask her to wait, I should give her my phone number in case anything's wrong. She gives me a scrap of paper and a pen. I start to write my phone number but get it wrong. I scratch that out and start again. This time it's correct but so sloppy that it's illegible. Why is my handwriting so sloppy? Dream fades.

I'm getting a little annoyed with my mother and sister appearing in my dreams lately. They are boring and annoying.

I'm in an unfamiliar bedroom. I see a strange machine in the room. I intuit that it was installed over night as I slept. The machine is mounted on the wall at eye level. It looks like an X-ray machine in a doctor's office. It has an arm that extends out in any direction. At the end of the arm is something that looks like a camera, but it blows out air. I examine the controls and figure out that it's a heater/air conditioner. I turn it on and learn that it has a motion sensor. It detects me and the arm extends and follows me around the room, blowing cold air on me to cool me down. I think this is quite ingenious except that the air follows too close for comfort. Like a person staring too close.

Then I notice that the machine is mounted on a chest of drawers. The chests seems damaged under the weight of the machine and the mounting is blocking the drawers from opening. The furniture is painted white with bright red drawers and round metal handles. I remark that the workmen must have been sloppy to install the machine where it is blocking the drawers. I move the machine off so that I can open the drawers.

Inside the drawers I find a bunch of old stuff; bools, journals, and trinkets. I suppose it belongs to the family but I don't recognized any of it. I sift through it, reading some of the journals. Then my mother and sister enter (groan). They start going through the stuff as well. The sunlight is brighter now. I see a hot dog covered with mayonaise. I think to take it to the kitchen to add ketchup and mustard, but I'm hungry so I just chow down on it right there. My sister and I exchange some passive-aggressive banter per usual. She calls herself a "life-ist." I call her judgemental.

Now it seems it's getting dark. My mother and sister leave. I find on the other side of this bedroom a door to the front porch. It looks like the door of a convenience store. All glass and a wide bar handle that you push to open. Since it's getting dark, I look for the lock to secure the house for the night. There's a odd metal basket near the door lock. I intuit that it is to hold keys and change. Then a see a man just outside the door. He runs to the door and starts banging and screaming. I'm startled and wake up.