non-lucid

I've been super stressed over school work and such that I haven't been able to get lucid or even have great dream recall. The following are some dream fragments of which I can recall over the past few nights.

- My brother kept insulting me and making me upset, to the point that I was in tears and I wanted to make him stop. I was so frustrated and angry with him.

- Having a concerto competition but remembering that I had not memorized all of my music yet, and having a panic attack about performing

- I was a gun slinger, and I had acquired a one-handed, sawed off shot gun, and my friend said to try it out on her (as in actually shoot her) I did, and when she got upset that she was hurt she started spreading lies about how I did it intentionally to kill her, nevermind the fact that she had asked me to do it.

-There was one moment I had actually mentioned that I was in a dream, yet my mind didn't let me trigger myself into lucidity.

*Hopefully I can get over my stress to have some lucid dreams again, and get to lucid city.

Notes:
- Is it normal to feel skeptical of a lucid dream after you’ve had it? The past couple of times I’ve wondered.
- Is it normal to feel less “awake” once you’ve stabilized a dream? I certainly felt that way this time.

[Fragments, fragnments]

[Change setting; plot 1 begins]:
I’m in this rather huge house (40+ rooms I’d say) and there’s this gala/party going on in the main living space. I’m just wandering around as the dreaming mind does, lookin through all the foodstuffs. I find myself in a supply closet nearby, with microwaves and stuff. Then, I remember that I wanted to try and have a lucid dream.

At this moment, I became aware. I was thinking “OH CRAP HOLY CRAP I’M LUCID IM LUCID YAYYYY” but then I realized that I needed to stabilize, so I just tried focusing on the microwave in front of me, taking in every detail. That really helped a lot.

It came to my mind to use dream control, and I tried spawning someone but I couldn’t do it without starting to wake up. Instead, I decided I’d try to explore the dream world a bit, focusing on everything on the way, since I’m still a newb.

And so I walked into the living/kitchen area. I looked at everything closely: the countertop, the donuts, the snack stand, everything. The donut was especially vivid; I could see all the little bubbles in it and everything. For some reason, there was a bite out of it, and someone had put it back… eww… it was still on the stand (a metal, rotating stand) for anyone to take. I noticed after I woke up that there weren’t any visible DC’s in the dream.

I wander over to this hallway and realize I’m losing lucidity, and immediately start focusing on things to retain it. There’s an elevator, and I decide to take it (I didn't actually touch it or physically go in it though).

[Change setting]:
I’m in my high school chemistry teacher’s room (or at least a permutation of it). I’m in there at my own lab bench, and behind me are two other kids, one of whom I know. Obviously, they’re in detention or something and aren’t taking it seriously. I, on the other hand, was trying to figure a way out of there to continue my lucid adventure, but here I would be trapped for the rest of the dream.
So these kids are just kinda messing around with some water in a dish, and I’m getting impatient. From here on, i think I lost lucidity. My teacher was talking about his lifetime goals, one of which was to get $9000 in a day. <- (I think he mentioned it as his “task of the month” )
The kids were messing around, and I wanted them to pay attention, so I figured I’d shut them up by knocking over their stupid dish into the sink. I do so, then my teacher yells at me, saying "What? You think that's ok? Really? In front of me? What do you think you're doing?" and it was rather laughable really.

[The dream fragments... ]

NA

Non-dream
Non-lucid
Lucid

Dream fragment
I remember some dream about being in my bed, I had woken up and was just pretty pent up from not 'doing the deed' because of the Brainbuddy app. Some stuff happened and I was annoyed because I convinced myself to do it despite knowing I didn't want to. I had watched Rick and Morty season 2 about a week ago which I think had some influence. When Little Rick is around and is like "a teenagers worst enemy is his own mind" or something along those lines - felt like I was under a similar influence.

Yesterday was my first day doing ADA (and some more meditation), I felt like at the end of the day I had some intense mental fatigue. My head ached slightly whenever I brought my attention to focus on the things I was doing instead of slipping into autopilot. I slept pretty well, it didn't take too long to fall asleep (an hour I think, which is really good for me ). I think it was a combined effect of the mental fatigue from ADA and physical fatigue from running... But during the night I just had absolutely horrendous dream recall. My mind was just too exhausted to have the mental capacity needed to recalling a dream.

I decided I'd like to write up a dream from my book when I first started, before I transitioned to posting online.
Dream Journal Book
#1 - Rugby
Throwing around a rugby ball, I think with someone else? - the first dream I ever recorded I've come a long way lol

#2 - First death in a dream / Shapeshifting weretigers

Dream 1 - First death in a dream
I was some kind of official who had acquired some information, and I had some friends who decide to protect me by confessing to my crime for me and taking the blame. They then weren't in the room (I had left before) that I returned to because I had a bucket that had my shoes in it or something... O_O? I left again and went up a flight of metal spiralling stairs. I waited there thinking for a bit and then a high ranking official in a military uniform (kind of reminds me of a Gestapo) walks in and shoots me right in the heart. I can feel the blood warming my chest.. I'm lying on the ground still. The man walks away. I reach around and touch the wound and I'm overwhelmed with disbelief. Some part of me seems to think that everything will be okay though.

Dream 2 - Shapeshifting were-tigers
Shapeshifting were-tigers take over the town in part of a conspiracy. It's a place to use these funny flying things to take over the world (I drew a picture here, it looks like a cross between a manatee and a puffer-fish that is 15 inches long with brown skin and spots on it. It looks really weird). Third-person style dream, it follows a kid who is a were-tiger that is shocked to see so many were-tigers killing the human townsfolk mercilessly. Then the view shifts to a bunch of campers in these large double-decker bus-sized vans, some of which have colour patched up blankets all over them. The main camper-van leader sees what's happening and tells his friends to run and his wife to start the van so she can take the kids and escape.. He plans to be a voluntary scapegoat. Were-tigers approach in a gang-like style, and by this point it has become first person with me as the camper dude standing his ground. I punch the biggest were-tiger straight in the nose and start brawling to divert attention so my family can escape. The boss were-tiger makes a comment to his friend like "Haha you got socked in the face!", to which I add "Yeah he's the biggest so I figured I'd start with him". I seem to realise that I won't live if I continue fighting (since I'm outnumbered and well.. They're were-tigers O_O). I decide to cool it down and hang with them, biding my time. They're apparently cool with this and maybe I earned their respect?

I'm in a movie theater with a friend and her family, the place is very baroque with red velvet drapes; it looks like it was used as a traditional theater before. We find a booth large enough for all of us, in front of the candy shop. I sit first, and by the time everyone is seated the place has completly changed; it's now some kind of fair, and we're sitting in a marquee sourronding a sandy area where the show is suppose to be. The sun is high in the sky and very harsh, we can see the dust moving in the hot breeze and every shadow is razor sharp. I realize that my frieand and her family are gone; I'm with a man. He got a mop of dark, curly, greased hair that enphasizes his tan, rugged face and light eyes. He's dressed like a ranch hand, in solid clothes and cowboy boots, but with silver and leather necklaces and a lot of rings. The actors of the show are finally here, but they start arguing immediatly and the show is cancelled.
I'm in a dusty building that looks like a cement square, worn by wind and dust. It's big but lousy, with run down furnitures and dirty corner. I remember that's it's our QG, and we're a buch of bandits and desesperados. There is a very winded argument about some musicians coming in, I'm not sure if they want to come to play or just to repeat. Anyway our boss, the man that was with me at the fair is saying no, but the three girls (me, a sleek hispanic lady in a long leather coat and a big, burly and fat older lady) are pressing for the musicians to come. As I'm the boss' "pretty doll", I figure that nothing will get under his skin more that grabbing the front of another man shirt and kiss him. Say man is tall and broad shouldered, with tan skin and cropped short hair. He doesn't mind the kiss at all, and my boss do little more than grumbling. I push it by snuggling against my new friend large torso with a cheeking smile. I grab his neck to pull him down to my level and whisper in his ear, asking him if the guitars' room is open. I get a eager yes and grab his wrist to go there. I giggle while running through the old facility, made of interconnected buildings like the one we just left. My new beau start to get impatient and push me against a wall, pulling me up, the coarse cement scratching my back where my shirt is lifted. I scramble to catch his shoulders... And wake up.

Well, damn.

Hi
My gosh this dream i had was really deep,crazy,nice,interesting,thrilling,exciting,wei rd etc.

I first started with 4-5 people going to some place...
was a river if i remember right, and something happened and they got splitted and went along alone, and i had to go from another way to catch them.. i couldnt... i think the country was Israel lol, i really remember this dream somewhere i had it before, so it was like replay of the dream... then i went to some building like a church or whatever it was where i had to enter some doors and go down down to get inside the place where we normally had to be, untill a israel squad caught me and be like what u doin here etc etc i didnt know what to say so i pretend to be just there as a visitor etc and they told me not to go in the doors etc, they started taking showers and what so ever.. after they send me somewhere, they thought i am lost, which i did lol, to some guy in some other place i dont really remember what we did but he helped me u know live for that day, and slowly the dream started changing... started getting crazy lol, it was like i was viewing other's ppl dreams, where some people got stuck into some punishment stuff like they had to participate through some crazy things.... torturements or whatever u call it, then i had to ride a car and win someone lol, then there was this crazy room water room on the bottom
where all people dead and someone was with me i forgot who who went through it and i was following...
so wha happened we went up slowly (the room was really cubic with fancy green/blue color only) energetic room or something and we went to the top which was the end of the building, sounds weird i dont even understand what this was ...
then i dont really remember, i keept waking up and gettin back to sleep to continue the dream, so yeah at the end i remember even being wit hmy mom on some building, and we were talking and on the edge of the building it had that feature (same from that water room) where the gravity holds you up (on the air lol) and we jumped from one building to another and could get to any window we like or at the top of it.... i dont know what happened to those 4-5 people i was with, if i was Lucid i could get there, but i wasnt.. so yeah end of dream was a kind of REPLY of the dream again, just from different perspect of view....

dats it!

Non-dream
Non-lucid
Lucid

Dream 1: Lecture
I'm sitting in a lecture hall. It's one of those classrooms where the rows to the back are way higher than the rows in the front. I think the lecture was already over. There are just a few people left. I myself am somewhere halfway to the back, perhaps a little bit further. I remember a girl sitting a bit further to the back. Also a classmate whom I rarely talk to because I don't care for her too much is there. She asks me how I'm doing with the final assignment. Ow man.. I'm too busy with the exams right now to do the assignment. I walk with her a bit, down the steps. She mentions that the assignment is already due this week Thursday. Wait what?! Isn't it the week after? I'm fucked. I realise that I need to go back to my seat instead of walk out with her, cause I'm barefooted and my shoes are still at my seat. I end up having the attention of the girl in the back for just a split second, while I'm standing in a row that's further to the back than hers. I do a diveroll [parkour move] over a row of seats.

Dream 2: Car
It's daytime and I'm sitting in the car, back row to the right. On the left is my girlfriend. The driver's seat is on the left side of the car. Cas, someone who I haven't talked to in years, is driving. In the passenger seat is at one point his ex-girlfriend and at one point a different girl. We are driving to the airport of Jakarta. I've got a sort of comfortable foetal position going on. At one point it feels like I kinda pretend to be asleep, but eventually I actually do fade in and out of sleep [in the dream only, I didn't really wake up]. I think about having to spend 14 hours on the airplane back to Amsterdam. So long... I don't really remember the conversation, if any. At one point we were just there. I do remember being able to look at the girl in front of me as if there was no chair between us. I also remember an oddly shaped part of the car, underneath the dashboard.

Indonesian cars have a steering wheel on the right. Also, this car [kinda beat up] is definitely not Cas' real life car.

Dream 3: Languages
I'm chilling with my housemate and Indonesian classmate, both girls. We're at one point at 'home' [it doesn't resemble our home] and at one point standing in front of it. My housemate has a lot of thick fantasy books, which were left behind by the last person who occupied the room. Nice for her. She has some stuff to use to her liking, or just sell or whatever. We're outside, but it feels like we're just sitting.. on the ground perhaps. My housemate spends about 90% of the time talking in Dutch to me, which I think is mean to my classmate who barely understands Dutch. I try to talk mostly in English. I don't remember my classmate talking at all. My housemate justifies talking in Dutch by saying that there's no need to talk in English if my classmate doesn't participate in the conversation. I explain that it's a vicious cycle that I've experienced myself in Indonesia: because people speak a language you don't understand, you don't participate. Because you don't participate, they continue using a language you don't understand.

Dream 4: Boring sunset
I'm in what's supposed to be one of the rooms I lived in during my time in Indonesia, except it's much more luxurious, with a balcony and such. There is ok-ish scenery with a sunset that is supposed to be beautiful, but right now [while writing] I don't think of it as such. I remember I promised to give my friend pictures that I made from my window. There's another guy in the room with me.. and a baby, a boy. I film the baby, who does some funny stuff.

I remember talking to my mother and having a overwhelming desire to take care of her.

Non-dream
Non-lucid
Lucid

Dream 1 - Dino dog
I really wish I tried harder to recall this, I feel like I forgot the best part of the dream . The only part I remember is the end where the adventure seemed to have finished. I'm in my parents house in the main lounge, it looks nearly identical except that the draws are on the wrong part of the room. There's a creature walking around casually being interested in stuff. It looks like a dog, but it's red and has more scaly skin and no fur. It has these long spikes arching back (about the length of a hand) that protrude from all around the circumference of its neck. Its snout is slightly longer and more point than you would expect, but only slightly. I remember opening up the draws and pulling out an African drum. It looks really primitive/incomplete, the hide stretched over the top is loose and only slightly held in place by some strings. I wonder how it makes a sound if the hide isn't stretched properly. I hold it and tap the top, discovering there's a slight wooden panel that covers 1/3 of the opening. It seems like you're meant to tap that and it makes a sound. Such a weird design. I strut around tapping it to some random beat and waltz in the study room where someone (likely my dad) is sitting doing work in front of the computer. The dinosaur looking dog is next to him just standing, it looks at me as I enter.

I think there was some kind of tension between me and the other strange creatures that were in this dream (though unmentioned because I only remember the end of the dream) which made me feel like the dog was supposed to be dangerous, but it was strangely docile.

Dream 2 -Library girls are the best
I can't remember how I came to be in the library or what we were doing there. I was with 2 (cute) girls that I think I may have been studying with. I remember there being a table but now we were obviously on the ground. I had my black bag in front of me spoon-feeding the front pouch all the pencils, pens etc that I seem to have in abundance (this is pretty true in RL ). The girls seem to have finished and are waiting on me, they're lying down next to each other about a hands width away on my left.
"Maybe we should kiss and touch" one mentions to the other. Instantly the attention of about 4 nearby girls is garnered, this makes me chuckle a bit as I seem to know that the 2 girls are just playing a prank.
"If you put your head here and do this, it'll help too" they say to me, indicating me to rest my head on the lower part of their stomach. I ignore her as I know she's just teasing me ^_^
"I heard that if you rub your breast while doing this with your mouth (tongue swirling motion) it will ????" one of the girl says playfully to the other (the last part was some generic benefit like good skin or something O_O). I'm still stowing pencils away, so many pencils... I start fiddling around in my bag looking for my hearing aids container, I get them and put them on. As I do this I glance to my right and wow, the four girls that were paying attention to my friends were leaning against a white-metallic book shelf and were each rubbing one breast while swirling their tongue around. Haha! I'm surprised they fell for it . After seeing them succeed I kind of just bow my head and rest it on the lower part of one of the girls' stomachs. It was like a sign of respect for them manipulating the other girls which I found impressive. The 2 girls were still lying flat on their back next to each other and now I had my head lying on them ^_^. The whole scene feels comedic and quite light. They tell me that if I rub my head a certain way and nuzzle their pants down a bit then it'll also have a good effect (it wasn't sexual though). I comply in a 'what hell am I doing' kind of way, just going with the flow. The girl closest to me I manage to get her pants down about 2 inches and expose her panties, they're blue.
"Geeze I only have one colour" she says kind of playfully (she probably meant to say she only had those panties and nothing else)
"Damn!" I respond, jokingly insinuating that she should get more colour variety. She cracks up laughing (in the dream with the slight-comedic atmosphere and non-sexual nature (yet growing sexual undertone) of everything it was just somehow really hilarious). This dream felt so weird to recap O_O

Dream 3 - Evil Monsters
Everything is grey: the atmosphere, the weather, the road I was walking on, the monsters. Everything was just somehow tinged in evil grey murkiness. This was some kind of adventure world. There were green trees off the road but even they seemed to be swallowed by the evil atmosphere. I think I was fighting some monsters earlier on, but now I was strolling down the road in the rain. I was with another person whom I didn't really want to be stuck with. He had forced a grey monster that somewhat resembled a zebra (though more hunched and slightly shorter) to lead us somewhere. The road we were walking was gravelly and had been worn down by cars, although it felt like cars weren't a part of this world. There's a bridge up ahead that goes over the road (about 10 metres high). I'm a bit ahead of the others, the zebra creature is behind me. I pass under the bridge, next is the zebra but as it's about to go under it perks up as blood splashes onto its back. It dashes beneath the bridge and cowers in fear, hoping that whatever it was will leave it alone. A huge creature suddenly drops from the bridge, "RUN!".
Sprinting away we manage to escape somehow (we honestly ran for like 20 metres so it doesn't make sense). I also remember the zebra thing getting squished and its body was split in half but that seems to have not happened when I next look at it. We're at a bend in the road and continue walking now. To the right of the road there's more trees, but to the left there's a sudden drop into a valley with a river passing through it. There's a sudden scream and it's ear-piercingly loud. Whatever it is must be REALLY powerful, we absolutely do not want to cross paths with it. I goof up somehow, slipping down the cliff face leading into the valley, I manage to stop the fall about 20 metres down by grabbing branches and clawing at the dirt. Uh oh, I hope that monster thing doesn't get us. My partner said "was that a doll?" which made no sense since it was a monster.

Dream 4 - Robo heroes
Me and some other people, not really sure how many but I think it's mostly girls, enter a classroom. There are 2 other girls already in here who we don't know. We introduce ourselves and conversation happens while I decide to go off and do my own thing. I walk into the neighbouring room through a side door and there's a bunch of people doing horticulture-related stuff. They must be in a club, they manage the schools gardens. I strike up conversation with a girl who seems to be the club leader, she's just shoveling compost into a bucket. It's pretty weird that she's doing this in the classroom. I mention how impressive their garden is which you can see through the windows, it's HUGE. There are heaps of potted plants and the whole thing is beautiful and green with lots of various plant species.
I haven't got a clue what or how I get into this next situation but I seem to be on the run. I don't have a drivers license like other robo heroes (which is what I am now apparently, as part of some hero academy) because I skipped classes and couldn't be bothered. There is another hero who I think must be my rival, he's got a license though. I run into a basement and hide. It's blue and has a little room to the side which is small but I manage to hide my frame enough to buy some time. The people looking for me come in slowly, I know that it's only a matter of time, they're programmed like a game to explore the route to a certain extent so that you can't hide in here forever. Surely enough, they spot me and the chase begins again. I think I'm some kind of blue robot hero with quite thick blocky robot parts. I can't seem to remember how to equip my weapons either. This is starting to feel a little like a video game. I run around a bit more before ending up in the same situation in another basement, this time with my rival present. He's captured me I think, he has weapons and I can't equip mine so I can't do anything. He's standing in the side room, the search party will be here soon though the rival hasn't alerted them to my presence. There's some sort of camaraderie between us. I realize I don't even know how to pick up a weapon either. It also feels like at some point I'm playing with a toy figurine (like a transformer) and I put a weapon into its hand, some kind of robot arm with a stick on it. My rival lets me go, I push him out of the side room so I can hide there, telling him to go outside hoping he'll send the search party in a different direction. They come down to the basement anyways and eventually I have to make a break and run for it again. I push past them up the stairs and out into the open. This time they REALLY don't want to lose me. They've called in back up, I think I can hear the sound of a helicopter in the distance. A flash car pulls up and 2 heroes (not overly robotic, more like a power-ranger suit tbh) jump out and run after me. I run really fast and then decide to double back, heading towards the car. I punch in the drivers seat window and open the door. Grabbing the hero driver I throw him onto the ground. I think someone says some like "Luke Skywalker can't driver either because he missed the driving lessons". I'm about to jump into the car and hopefully wing it with my non-existent driving skills but the dream ends.

Bahaha hope you enjoyed reading this 1'847 word long dream recap

I've had a bunch of dreams every night for the past week, although I haven't written them down because either there's been too many to keep track of, or they're not detailed enough to get their own entry.

But in each of them, I've been on the verge of lucidity. I think I was 50% lucid for a recent one, and I actually had a surprising amount of indirect control over everything.

I am making progress, just not writing down anything unless it's worthwhile.

10.22.15

yesterday sleeping 1pm-10pm

Bad dreams. Demons. Not ghosts, but demons. I remember faces. One scene - I'm standing with another person and when a demon walks between us, we can detect it. There is a strange "pull" or electricity. Losts of abstract stuff.

I'm on a long, deserted beach; the sky is overcast and the waves are slowly crashing on the sand. The colors are muted, but intense: slab grey with white seafoam water, camel brown and coarse sand. The sky is grey and white like the belly of a beast. My oncle is here, his dog is playing in the waves, bright orange fur glistering. My oncle is talking, but I can"r hear him over the sound of the sea.

20-10-2015: A false awakening

I woke up in a bed in my living room. I quickly went out of it, and headed towards the kitchen. Suddenly I felt slight pain in the back of my right shoulder. My t-shirt was wet in that area. I took it down, and saw that I have a huge cut on my shoulder. The t-shirt was wet mainly due to a strange, colourless liquid that poured out of the wound. I looked at the cut for a while, and then woke up.

21-10-2015: Dungeon crawling fragment

I've been playing Dungeon Crawl. I had a high-level formicid fighter deep in the dungeon, but something kiled it.

22-10-2015

First dream

It was in a hotel placed in old fortifications. I was lying in a bed, thinking that the next day I'm finally coming back home. I wanted to pee, so I went out of bed and entered the toilet. The room had gray tiles. There were carpets and hangings with strange patterns. There was only sink in there, so I had to pee into the sink. After a while, doors to secret passeges opened, and someone walked through the toilet. I looked around again, and saw that the urinal appeared, so I uesed it instead of the sink.

False awakening

I woke up in my bed. It was 2.50, and it was dark all around. I thought to myself what a weird dream I just had, and then decided to go to the toilet. The lights werent working, so I had to do my thing in the darkness. I could barely see the toilet seat and a mirror to the right. I thought about ghosts for a while. I finished, and when I was just about to close the doors behind me, my grandma went out of the toilet, calling me to herself. Then I decided that I should just go to bed and sleep some more.

Third dream

I woke up near a small building in the middle of a desert. There was a motorcycle standing on my right. I sat on it, and drove away. After a while of driving on a small road, I entered a highway. It was warm early morning. I just reached a roundabout on a highway, watching various plants growing on it. They looked beautifull with beams of sunlight spreading between them.

Then I drove off to another part of the highway. Despite everyone turning there, the vechicles always moved in the opposite direction there. I had to drive between two trucks to see it myself. Then I decided to stop, and reach an airport.

I woke up in some kind of metropoly. I was lying on a road, close to a taxi cab. I looked to the cars mirror, and saw that I looked like a terminator. I entered the airport, and took someones wallet, then went to a street and asked who was its owner. A youg, tall and slim lady replied, so I gave it to her and moved on. It was a rainy early morning. There was a kiosk nearby, with a bald man working there. I asked him if they had a telephone cards, but he said that he never heard about something like that. There were two teenagers sitting nearby, conversating about how the word telephone card sounded.

I moved on. For every meter one could meet a telephone booth. All of them rusty and badly damaged. Then I saw a group of people inside a falling building. I ran towards them quickly and saved them.

Photos of Dad
I'm standing with my mom and my wife in a grassy area near a street corner. A small tree is nearby, and a park is across the street. It's a beautiful day: it's bright but not too bright, there's not a cloud in the sky, and there's no traffic. Mom is showing us photos, all 8x10s, of my father taken when he was a child. In one, he's sitting on a bench, next to an adult male with really poofy blond hair, practicing his violin. At first glance, I think he looks just like my older son; I look more closely and realize he's actually pretty chubby. That's never run in our family, so I can't understand why he's so chubby in this picture. Mom shows us other pictures, but none is as clear as the first. One of them even gets destroyed (my wife folded and ate it??), but it didn't actually have my father in it, so it's OK.


Destroyed washing machine
I'm sitting upstairs in my office when I happen to look out the window to see a truck with a trailer pulling into our driveway. On the trailer is an old washing machine, looking really beat up. Now I'm in my family room with the washing machine. I've never seen something in such bad shape. It looks like it's been shot at a couple dozen times, ripped open, then left out to rust. I note that there's still some water in the bottom of the washing tub, and that'll make it even harder to sell.

Now I'm in another room near some tables covered in tablecloths. More tablecloths are piled on the floor - they've been used like towels to dry out the washing machine. I've got a ballpoint pen and am trying to write on a dry corner of one of the tablecloths, but it's not working too well. I test the pen by writing on my hand, and it works fine. My wife walks up and asks what I'm doing, and I explain that these tablecloths are now so dirty that they'll either be bleached or just thrown away, and that either way it doesn't matter if I write on them; and it's so rare to have an opportunity to write on a tablecloth that I can't just ignore it.

Now we're pulling the tablecloths off of the tables in preparation to wash all of them. With the tablecloths off, it's easier to see the tables: it's a pair of folding 6 foot tables arranged in a T shape.


Graduate project
I'm in a fairly small room sitting at a conference table with a man, who's slightly older than myself, and a female grad student. She's got long blond hair and is wearing a blue jumper. Along with the other man, I've been tasked to help the woman with the project she's working on. She starts describing it to us, and despite not knowing any details about her work I'm able to make some good educated guesses and point out some things she missed. She's really impressed and says so; I don't do well taking compliments, but I remember how important it is to accept compliments well and try to say something accepting, yet humble.

Now it's another day, and I'm once again sitting around a conference table with them - though this time we're in a different room. I'm distracted by something and having difficulty following the conversation, but I start to tune back in when we get off topic and start to talk about hobbies. It turns out she enjoys cycling, and she's got a race at 8AM tomorrow that she invites us both to. It sounds interesting, but I decline since it's early in the day and some way from where I live.

Now we're talking about why we're working on this project. It seems that a company approached the woman and asked her to work on it, and the man and I were assigned to help her because the project will help our respective companies as well. The woman is being paid well for her work; he and I are just receiving our normal salaries, and our companies are the ones receiving the extra pay.

Now we're talking about the nuclear power plant in her hometown. She describes how the plant made all its own frosted class and built a main building with a very unusual low sweeping design. It's really attractive, and it actually has one wing that's a very nice art museum, one of the nicest in the area.


Secret stuffed animal
I'm doing some kind of secret agent stuff. Someone shows me a fairly large stuffed animal, a shiny white bear in a sitting position, and asks me if I notice anything special about it. I don't, so he shows me the tag, showing me that it was manufactured in <country with a name starting with G>, and that it was smuggled out at great risk. An agent couldn't do it - they'd be recognized - so it had to be done by the friend of a friend of an agent so it couldn't be traced back to us. I don't recognize the country, so I ask for more details. Smugly, he tells me that it's right next to Malta. I'm still confused - isn't Malta an island? Is this country nearby? He replies that it *touches* Malta. I think about it for a minute, then ask him if the two countries share the same island, and he says they do. I'm stunned - how could there be this little country that no one knows about?

Now I'm with a couple of other people, including Mom, in the baggage processing center in an airport. It's a huge space, poorly lit, with counters and conveyor belts running everywhere, both at waist height and overhead. Now we're pushing some tiny (maybe 2sqft) rolling platforms with stuff on them down an aisle between two counters. They're just on casters, so we're bent over pushing them - it's really awkward. Mom is in front of me, and she comes to an abrupt stop when her little cart hits a coil of orange extension cord that got knocked onto the floor. As we're trying to get her past it, a security guard wanders past. I'm a bit worried that he'll question us, but we all do a good job of looking like we belong and he walks past us without question.


Fragments:
I'm in a classroom helping people try to make a video for a celebration. There's something about blackboards vs whiteboards, and something else about an inflatable Big Bird.

I'm having lunch with a black guy I don't know. Later, I'm talking with a friend who's gushing that a really really famous lawyer is in town. As I talk more with her, I realize he's the guy I had lunch with, and she can't believe it and is terribly jealous.

Something about trying to set up resource access with two other guys who have signed up.

Something about loading kids in a minivan.

Dream 1:
Riding a motorbike fast down a motorway. I felt very unstable on the bike and couldn't move my foot off the peddle even though it felt unstable. There was a lot more going on in this dream but I can't recall all the details. I thought I was cold then realised I was just wearing jeans rather than full motorcycling gear.

Dream 2:
There were 2 massive piles of soil held up with some sort of plastic fencing. I was sitting in the middle of one pile, then I sank into it was wasn't unpleasant, and I crawled out. There were a few coconuts sitting in the soil with small shoots coming from them which I looked at closely and they would grow into palm trees. I looked up at the sky and wndered if it would be hot enough for holiday weather. The piles of soil were going to be turned into private islands that people would take holidays on. It was my job to get the islands ready, there was someone else to help me.
By the side was a further pile of fencing, plastic bags and some manure to add to the islands. I was shown how to wind the plastic bags around fence poles.
Somehow at this point this dream became muddled with the previous dream and I was trying to shove my motorcycling gear into a pocket on my jacket.
The person I was working with shouted to me that a cat had got a bird or something at the back door. I looked and it was actually a small kitten hanging on the door. I picked up the kitten and moved it into a backroom. The kitten had magots crawling on it, and frogspawn hanging off it. It's paws were really sore and red. I decided to look after it.

Dream 3:
I was going to give a talk to a hall full of people. I spent ages fiddling with a projector and climbed up to it 3 times to adjust it. I saw film of myself treating patients being projected at the back of the hall. I moved the projector screens around, there were 3.