non-lucid

Not a lot of interesting stuff happened this night, some small fragments of me smoking a cuban cigar and getting in elevators.

non-lucid, lucid, false awakening

.../I see a group of drunk people gathering in a park, one of them is going to help a porcupine to get rid off some spines it has nailed in its body. I go to my house which now it's a cabin and it's a mess inside. It's night and I walk to the kitchen. The whole house is lit by the street lighting that gets through the windows. I find a door in a strange position on the upper corner of its doorframe. I think it has happened again. I use telekinesis to rotate it in the right position. I go to do something in the living room, when I come back to the kitchen, I find the door is back in its strange position. Once again I'm going to use telekinesis when I realize it must be a dream. I'm exited to do it again. I rise my hand and command the door to move back to it's normal position. I got to do it with some difficulty. Now I turn and go to the living room, feeling exited. I want to do something else. The first thing that pop in my mind, flying! I'm not outside the cabin, but I think I can do something here inside, thinking it's all about confidence. I see the shadows of the room, and I jump face down on them to start the flight. I think I may fly inside the house. But in stead, I don't even crash to the floor, on the contrary it's like diving into the void. I'm fascinated with the experience, I turn surrounded by darkness to slightly fall on my bed. It's on the room of the cabin, I open my eyes completely amazed by the previous flight into darkness, and realize I haven't change my outerwear for something more comfortable, I have even my shoes on! I feel to tired to stand up, so I try to take my clothes out on the bed. It's getting complicated to do so. I give up, and start thinking in my previous experience. I have to take note of this before I forget about it while slowly I start to feel the transition.

* And I wake up for real in the same position on my bed noticing it was the end of my first sleep cycle of the night

Morning of August 17, 2014. Sunday.



I am in a seemingly unknown in-dream city that does not look like any region I have ever actually been in in my life, though it may have subtle aspects of Brisbane (Australia) and La Crosse (America). The mood is rather clear and the dream is quite long and seemingly purposeful in that tasks must be accomplished over time under my guidance and participation in a larger group. I am actually partly responsible for the survival of many people in the area. This is apparently because of the supposed apocalyptic events, including no more electricity and the infrastructure somehow vanishing or rendered no longer feasible (this being rather illogical from my perspective, as my family lived without electricity for some time when I was a young child, in the middle of a dense swamp).

There does not seem to be any evidence of natural disaster - or disease or even conflict; just some sort of total lack of business activity and government presence, including police, and all known personages of any level of any previous authority - though their absence is not addressed or questioned. I and about five or six others are the ones to seek and bring back supplies to where the people that are still around have gathered. Curiously, Josh Holloway (the actor from “Lost” and “Intelligence”) is one of the in-dream team. (This is probably because “Intelligence” is one of the only newer television shows I have watched in recent years.) We are getting together food supplies (from various abandoned grocery stores and such) to bring back in a large semitrailer, even though there is not much fuel left (probably just enough for one longer trip back to where we had journeyed from).

There is a longer period of time spent talking with Josh, who works under my command. He has an extraordinarily pessimistic attitude towards life in general and cannot seem to understand my positive focus on my survival skills and general ways of thinking. He does not even understand my happy outlook or the joy I have often experienced in life. Oddly, he even questions me on ideas about how to talk to people as if he had never communicated with anyone in his life before. This attitude may be partly based on our present and ongoing situation, but it seems as if that has always been his nature. We are packing cardboard boxes with mostly canned goods and boxed food items.

For some reason, at one point, we are moving a refrigerator full of food down from what seems like an upper walkway from a dam control room (again, unsure of the region or location). There does not seem to be much logic to this act, as the pulley gets jammed for a short time and I think it would make more sense to put the food in different containers than to move the entire clumsy heavy refrigerator, but it is one of our last tasks before we return to feed the people and sustain them for a time.

We are then ready to return to the group of people to have the food stored in their chosen locations. I am driving the semi for a time, but things start to change before I begin. I notice loud music being played from a house (in the direction behind us) that was presumed to be empty, just as we are leaving. This seems unusual in that there is not supposed to be any electricity (though it does not come to mind that it could be a battery-operated portable stereo - though it does seem a bit too loud for that possibility anyway). Mostly, other members of the team look back only briefly and we just ignore it and focus on the job of getting back to the others. We do not actually see anyone else around at first.

Eventually though, and surprisingly, there are suddenly police all around (even though police supposedly no longer existed), and a lot of other people just appearing in the streets “out of nowhere”, some of them politicians. It turns out that this was some kind of “experiment” or government project (similar to fake prostitute setups and other fake setups created by the authorities as if there was not enough real crime to act against) to see what people would do in a survival situation (or after the disappearance of government) - and apparently it was “wrong” for us to get food and other supplies from abandoned stores to help other people survive - a few people are being marched to a prison, apparently, just for taking discarded food items from the back of a store, from a dumpster. Instead of driving a semi at this point, I then seem to be on a large adult tricycle made of cheap plastic, but still determined to get the trailer of supplies back to the people, as many of them have not eaten for a time. A siren is going the whole time from here (this was actually caused by my youngest son playing a computer game in the kitchen - though the siren sound is somewhat different in-dream).

A police officer in some sort of odd-looking helmet and pastel fake-looking “riot gear” keeps telling me to pull over but I ignore him and much of what he is saying sounds like gibberish, so I very loudly keep saying that I do not understand him and just keep driving, or rather peddling. The other people are still with me (in the semitrailer) and it is my intent to get back to my group - because really, it still seems like a survival situation - in some ways, even more now. Even though he stands in front of the vehicle a few times, I just keep going and he eventually moves to safety each time, but continuing to shout gibberish, some of the phrases fairly long.

There is a very clear and focused awareness that this is really the end of society (or at least the present system of authority) because of what the government has done, so thus the public will eventually act upon this fiasco. I inform a few people during our trip back that, because of this trick that the government has played, there really will be an apocalypse now within a few days, where it will be much the same as when they were pretending with their “experiment”. Realistically though, I doubt this would ever happen no matter what is done to the public by any source.

---

Dream - Lucid

There was a girl with glasses that a very deformed neck. It looked like a huge mass of melted skin was on the back of it. She had to have it on this thing with wheels, kind of like a walker, to get around it was so big. She had a tattoo on it. She was showing it to us.

I was in high school marching band again. I remember saying something to someone about it, telling them I couldn't wait until I didn't have to be in it anymore. We were on the asphalt practicing. The sun was setting.

~

I was living in a neighborhood instead of an apartment complex. Two people I know IWL, Meg and Alicia, were moving into these tiny, studio apartment-type houses. Alicia's husband was also moving in with her. The houses were right next door to one another. I saw them moving in, and the apartment was so small, when you opened the front door, you could see the bed right there. Alicia's sister and her husband, Andrew, were somehow involved in this as well.

I knew they both smoked weed, and I knew that now that they lived there, the second we hung out again, I'd be smoking again too. I wasn't worried about it though. I thought that I could control my habits now. In the back of my head, I knew that I wouldn't be able to in reality, but I didn't care. I just didn't want Dallas to find out. I was really excited about smoking and having such easy access to it.

I was then hanging about with Alicia. Her husband wasn't there. I don't remember where we were, but we were just chatting, when she asked if I wanted to smoke. Hell yeah! I really wanted to. She went and grabbed a bong from somewhere inside I think. She then was asking me about having sex while high. High sex is good, but I'd never done it with a girl. I thought about doing it with Dallas, but didn't know if I would be able to get away with it without him knowing I was high.

I think we smoked, but the only thing I remember about that is thinking that my eyes were red. I was hoping we wouldn't get caught smoking since the house was so small. I didn't want to get arrested or in trouble in any way.

Then, I was talking to someone else about weed. She pulled some weed out that was a light green with white on it. She said it was hydroponic. I smelled it. It smelled good, but not like super good weed. She then was talking about putting it on chapstick and rubbing it in your eye to get high. I then thought that if I did that, my eyes would be really red.

~

I was outside of some store at nighttime. I was writing to my first crush/first kiss, Nick. It was nighttime outside. I typed him a letter, and put three fingerprints on it. It told him to email me at a new email address, and also told him to listen to a particular song. I think my mom helped me type it. I read it over to make sure there were no mistakes. Instead of "Dear Nick," it said "Dear D____", with the spaces being something I can't remember, but it looked like the new email address that I gave to him. The fingerprints were below that, shaped like a pyramid, with two on the bottom and one on top.

After it was sent, I wondered whether or not he would even acknowledge my new email, or if he would just write back saying he had already heard the song. The point wasn't whether or not he'd heard the song, it was the lyrics that I wanted him to listen to.

I was then sitting outside of a public bathroom. It felt like I was at Disney. It was still nighttime. There was a little blonde girl of about 5 and her mom also sitting outside the bathroom on a bench attached to the wall. The blonde girl then started to talk to me. She said
"In my country (she said the name of the country but I can't remember), we can play in the bathroom."
She then was asking me if there were things in the bathroom she could play with while she went. At her feet, there were many children's books. I told her she could take a book in the bathroom to read, and she got excited. She went in and forgot the book. I went over to the stall, which was unusually short, and handed it to her over top of the door.

tired all day, 100mg b6, 2mg melatonin, 1 scoop UYM muscle-builder, noticed no effects
B6 for better memory/recall, didn't notice any difference. Muscle-builder addiitonally for night-time energy since was quite hungry at bed-time. Woke up with a bit of a sort of stuffy head feeling.

00:00 Sunday 2014-08-17

(early morning recall, frustrating, almost nothing but fragments and I *know* there was a lot more there, nothing other than first impressions would come in at all despite diligent effort)

06:30

+(f) I've come up with a guaranteed way to make money, it's so simple I can't believe everybody doesn't do it, based on real estate

+(f) I'm at a table tasting two different Chardonnays, I can't tell the difference, I hear a wine-snob type says one of the wines isn't ready, the other one has "hints of Acacia."

+(f) I'm surfing on water apologizing for the complexity of something I've prepared

+(f) gathering the opinion of colleagues on some work I've done, I'm describing it a bit

+ in a garage full of toys I inspect a bicycle that's just come out of the washing machine and is dripping wet, I look at its small transparent seat, I'm sitting on a child's bike the handle bars are loose and not aligned with the front wheel, an Indian father is looking at a 1-foot tall robot toy and talking on a cell phone talking to his kid(s) saying "they're willing to trade, but there's no guarantees"

(late morning, got back to sleep, yay)

09:15

+ (near lucid) flying through a series of glass-windowed walls, a new wall appears before me every time I fly through the next one, I can't break the cycle with expectation, I think this is ridiculous I've never had this issue before when flying, I see a city scape in the distance with night-time city lights, the tinted walls of windows has controllable-polarizing where the level of darkness is controllable. I fly out the first time through the glass expecting to pass through easily but get a bit stuck. Second wall I encounter I choose a section that is open with a screen that is not connected on the right side, expecting to pass through easily but I hit the screen and need to push it aside slightly. Looking ahead I see each glass wall fading in to appear farther in front of me just before I fly through one more.

(This was noteworthy in that my dreams usually do not troll me so obviously, putting me into an unescapable loop like that, that may be the first time I recall it happening.)

+ In my home living room, I'm looking in to the top freezer section of our fridge, I see some ice cream bars there I try to pick one up but it's quite soft, I see several more and realize they're all soft, I look at the freezer box and notice it can't close properly there is a lot of ice/debris in the way so I try to clear out the door area and around the side so that it will close. I step back and look at it and realize part of the front door and side wall are entirely missing, that's why the ice cream is soft, I tell my wife the freezer is broken, (I think someone in particular [a woman] has done this).

I then see my son S2 at a cute young age and lie with my back on the floor and put him on top of my bent knees (on his stomach) and play motorcycle with him several times, raising my legs and flipping him head over heels onto my chest. I realize I didn't do the whole game properly and so repeat it. I want to experience this time with him at this age for a long time, I think it's really important to value this time with young children. When finished, I reach over to S1 lying near me on the floor (present age) and pull him to me by his hand but nothing then happens. I'm still lying on my back and an older unrelated girl (JG I think) wearing PJs lies on my legs which are still in motorcycle-game-position and wants to play too, I feel her heavier weight, feel her body a bit through the PJs on my leg, and think we should stop before someone sees.

I'm walking through some outdoor small area around tables looking for my young-age S2 again, I think about summoning him, it doesn't work, there are other small kids running around and a parent watching over them.

+ abstract/weird "dream-like" huge amusement area/slide, riding balloon falling on cartoon spikes. This slide/area is in the distance, then it's in front of me, I look down the white slide to see various rides/attractions on it including a water-spraying game in the distance.

+ I receive a memo / email at work, I read it but am a bit confused about its meaning. At first I think an "MP" (VP probably) wants to meet with me to commend me on my excellent work and offer me a continuation of my contract or maybe a permanent position. Then reading it again I think it says he's meeting with underperforming empoyees to diagnose the problem. I'm in a meeting room but it's filled with empty-headed marketing types, it's not my meeting. I'm walking around and am carrying two bottles filled with lucid dreaming supplement capsules, I take some capsules and a bunch of them spill on the carpet, I'm trying to pick them up but they keep spilling (DREAM SIGN!), I want to put them into a drawer so they're not seen, I don't want them to think I'm a drug addict, they won't understand about LD supplements. One of the bottles has written around the rim next to the cap "National Steroids", so I know they'll think I'm a druggie. (Something about coins?) I'm looking for the meeting I enter a room and see people in elegant black evening wear it's a celebration of the company's success, there's a beautiful marketing woman in black sleeveless evening dress, she lifts her arm and I see a glistening spot on her armipt and think this is a patch of deodorant.

I walk to the end of this narrow room turn the corner and head right back the same way I just came in the new room which is also narrow it has hair-dressers cooing over an infant, I think the meeting room is off to the left at the end of this room.

+(f) leaving a diner I get a splinter in my bare foot, I try scaping it off on something, I must have left my sandals in the diner.

Journal Entry Lucid #71 Dream,Lucid, thoughts in dream,(Comments)
Background:Since this is me looking back at my old DJ, I didn't write what I did I was too lazy, so I can't write anything here.

Lucid Dream # 71, day: 08/14/14, time: 3:50-4:03 Am " It's just a Weird plot":
I am looking at an ant hill. I am trying to find the biggest hill to do some sort of math problem. As I was putting stickers on them a female, EN, showed up and she tried to seduce me. She put her butt out, bending over to touch me. She started to grind her butt in front of me. I yelled, "What are you doing?". She turned around and smiled back at me. She stood upright and I put my hand on her shoulder to tell her that it is wrong. Instead she grabs my hand and puts them on her boobs. I freaked out and moved my hands right away. I looked around and saw that I am in my backyard. She is still next to me. I put my and on her boobs I am turned on. She turned over and replied, "yeah, grab my ass", so I did. I thought about this weird plot and realized it was a dream.I got up and shredder from TMNT showed up and beat me up. He knocked me out. I thought I woke up and it was over with .

I got up and he told me to leave. I did, and I still had a katana, a type of sword on my back. I was angry that I couldn't defend myself from the shredder. I could feel the heaviness of the katana in my hand. I tried to slice objects with the katana. I see a group of martial arts students followed by a female sensai. I see them fight each other. I told them to be careful with the katana. They instructor informed me that they are fake. I looked closer at them and realized that they are indeed plastic. I realized that it is a dream. I told the DC to ask herself "what is real?", "is this real", "am I real?", "Am I you imagination?". She replied, "it feels weird". I said, "yeah it's ok to feel weirded out by it". As I was walking trying to make dream stable, I see ES. I am rubbing my hand I could feel the dream fade. As I am waking, ES says to me, "I need to suffocate". I looked at him weird and he said, "breath! breath!". I said, "Ok...ok" kinda annoyed. We found our way to the small room in church. I smell cow or horse manure and it reminded me of my childhood home. ES is talking, "They are no supposed to be here, only we know this place." I opened a door to my backyard. She, EN, wasn't there. I was relived. My dream kept its intensity. I didn't want to think about task or anything. I flew around and before I woke up I saw a Ninja turtle and a roller coaster. . It wasn't false memory, but it was exaggerated I may have walked by a farm or horse dump but at the moment I thought I was once living at a farm.

Dream - 8:00AM

I'm walking around a place with escalators. I see a guard in my way, I keep hitting him until he moves. He eventually gives in and offers to pull down a leaver which was on the wall, and does it. Im standing near a wall and it opens a special storage box inside the wall. There's brick like things in the way. The scene has changed to my rumpus room sf my house but still see bricks etc. Ben and I begin to take bricks off and as we almost reach last brick Ben gets cautious. He puts a cloth over the area, as If he was expecting some sort of creature to come out. A snake comes out. Ben tries to pick it up and it hisses at him. It's now on the floor. it's small medium size black snake. Ben is dad now. Dad puts a shoe over it and tries to cover hole where it may escape. I try to fix it so the hole is completely sealed but i make it worse. Snake escapes again and it can shrink itself into small blob and still move. It makes it's way under the couch. It comes out again and dad throws something over it again. I put a jacket over it but the snake pushes it's body and head up and it looks as if it's standing with a sheet on its head. I see Rex underneath the snake and snake bites Rex's ear, I freak out and stop it by pulling it away. Rex doesn't seem bothered and is still laying there.

Dream Fragment:

I'm outside and I see people. At a petrol station?

Side Notes:

Neck felt much better tonight but recall was shit once again. I've been putting effort into my affirmations and not getting rewarded. Not sure what's up but will just keep on keeping on.

I wasn't trying to remember my dreams so I forgot the first one.

Second Dream

Something I don't remember happened than I appeared in SP. Someone I couldn't see covered my mouth and tried to rape me. After that I appeared on the bed again and called out to my dream mom. I wanted to wake up because I was afraid and my mom grabbed both my hands and told me not to worry. I bit my rubbery hand and after a few seconds woke up.

Third Dream

I have no clue what happened in the beggining but I became lucid after I noticed the elevator wasn't working in the dream. I left the Asian guys I was with and saw a lady cutting open something on a counter. I asked where the stairs were and she kept showing me secret stairways to go through. I chose one and told the lady who was mad at me to forgive me for leaving her.(I was joking) After I left I noticed I was in a secret facililty in a city where dream things were being kept from the public. I took out two blades and cut the teddy bear that flew in my way. I was kind of slow but managed to find my away around it. I ran out the building and a FBI agent started chasing me. I hid behind a pole than ran after that.I noticed the world looked like a anime and I was a blonde anime boy as I was running and thought it was pretty cool. I woke up after running for a bit though.

*As I was writing I recalled at the beggening I was at a school running from a guy and outsmarting someone and something about getting a new game?...Oh! I became lucid after my cousin tried fighting me. But I used my dream skills to block her attacks. She started crying after that too. I didn't feel bad cause I knew it was just a dream though. The thing I don't recall is how I ended up in the elevator but it doesn't matter so....

recall and awareness a step higher again:

early morning:

+(f) I'm in a dark indoor space confronting some rodent, his huge relative shows up behind him

+ walking up stairs in an apartment building looking for a guy's apartment, ask my dad about if Zbigniew Brzezinski was indicted by watergate (and why was he then put in charge of national security?), see a static image of some guy with a huge nose poking through a bloody hole into another guy's head

+ my wife is driving the car, I'm giving directions, we're approaching a busy cross street with visible traffic, she's not slowing down, "Careful!" I say, she brakes at the last moment, it turns out we're driving on ice, we slide out of control across the street spinning and slam into a parked car (that was stopped because it also had been in an accident?)

late morning:

+ chatting with a young cute short (receptionist?) friend during a break at work, she hates her job, I give her a pep talk to quit and become a freelancer, I tell her I live on this street (we're standing outside it's dark), we mistakenly switch cups and I take a drink of her tea

+ going on a ride on my old red Honda CB250 motorcycle, adjust the choke setting for more performance, turn to the right to enter traffic (thumbing the turn signal), accelerate, shift into 2nd gear and the bike immediately does a full stoppie and I nearly fly over the handlebars, I realize later (in a dream?) I must have been dreaming because I wasn't wearing a helmet

+ I'm leading a group of teammates from a courtyard through a building out to the sidewalk, rapidly finger-shooting all the opponents in our path, "keep an eye on that guy" who's slumped down in a corner, huge crowd of cops shows up and I think I can finger-shoot them all but they arrest us, the chief of police is a teammate and he yells to a big black cop that he's fired, the cop says he can't do that, so the chief tells him he's on leave.

+ funny conversation with woman and wife at a pool party, I see a dead/dying goldfish and miniature mermaid. A bunch of us are lying in the sun in our swimsuits. I'm putting on woman's makeup (as a joke?), it's like thick white clay, I'm pasting it onto my face under my eyes with a flat wooden stick like a popsicle stick, I see my face in a mirror briefly I see I've put so much on that it's in big blobs on my face.

A woman lying with her face to me says "I hate sleep, it's the closest thing in life to death."

Me: "I love sleep!"
DC: "And oh, I hate dreams..."
Me: "I *love* my dreams!" (I know I'm a lucid dreamer)
Wife: "Oh, really!? What do you dream about?!"
Me: "Uh..." (uh oh the cat's out of the bag) "...skiing?"

I then notice that lying in a 1-inch deep water area in between me and my wife are located a 2-3 inch long goldfish and and a 3-4 inch miniature mermaid. They're not moving. I poke the goldfish and turn it over, it barely respond. I say to my wife "do you think they're sick?" (don't remember her reply). I look at the mermaid, it has a freaky expressionless doll-face with widely open eyes. The head is about the size of a Pez dispenser's head. I look at that face/eyes a few more times.

I get up to go into the house to go to the bathroom, and notice a group of 3 girls in bikinis in the distance, briefly admire them, then continue on.

I wonder (still in the dream) if I have some subconscious urge to tell my wife about my dreaming hobby.

Dream - Lucid

I was going into Dallas and I's bathroom. It was very dark. I had to get up out of bed to poop. I started to sit on the toilet, when Dallas came into the doorway and started coming towards the toilet.
"What are you doing? I have to poop!" I said. He kept coming. I got up. I assumed he had to poop too.
"Are you really gonna make me use the other bathroom?" I said. He didn't say anything. I took that as a yes. I started to head towards the doorway to our bedroom to go to the guest bathroom. Dallas started to shut the door to our bathroom. I then started to hear noises coming from the living room area, and started to panic a little. Someone was in our apartment. Before Dallas could shut the door all the way, I caught it with my hand. I said something like
"Dallas, someone's in our apartment!"
I started to panic, and all my vision went black. I tried to scream for Dallas, but nothing came out. I then realized that I had been dreaming, and decided to calmly wait for myself to awaken instead of panicking.

I then woke up on Dallas's chest. Phew, just a dream. I was so glad. I then started to hear noises again. I was really confused. Was I not awake? I started trying to wake Dallas up, but he was dead asleep. I pinched him, I tried to yell his name but again, it wouldn't come out. Really? Is this really a dream again?I thought to myself. Vision went black again, and then I woke up for real.

Another 10 minute nightmare. I wasn't asleep long at all.

~

I was at a bowling alley bowling with Dallas, but it was more like ski-ball; we were throwing smaller balls at the pins down the lane instead of an actual bowling ball. There was almost no one there; we were the only ones playing. Dallas then said something about how the bowling alley was closing for good soon; it was going out of business. I looked around and I could see why. It was so dead in there. I then went to throw my ski ball, but it slipped out of my hand and I accidentally threw it behind me.

I then saw a very small child, a male toddler, carrying what looked like a six pack of beer up to the lanes, but it was actually a six pack of ski balls.

~

I had these two cakes made for me. I was at work I believe. Both were big and delicious looking with cream cheese icing on them (freakin yum). One had off-white cream cheese icing with red decorations. I had to do something with them to keep them safe or something, I can't quite recall.

Then, I saw the outside of my apartment. Someone was coming up the stairs. It was daytime outside. Then, something happened; a roll in a bag of rolls died? And it seemed so inconsequential, but I couldn't proceed with anything at all now. It was like playing a Sierra adventure game, where you don't do something in the beginning of the game and you get to the end and you have to start all over. I had to "start over" from a point before that to see if there was anything I missed, anything I could do to prevent the death of the roll.

~

Yay insomnia! Again! Woohoo. Also these 10-minute nightmares are very puzzling to me. It has happened to me quite often in the past few months. I guess what I don't get it how am I dreaming without being in REM? I thought REM sleep came later in the sleep cycle? Like, I will literally be asleep for 10-15 minutes for these nightmares. There was one that I was asleep for about an hour. Anyone have any thoughts?

Either I had a lucid dream in my first night trying, or I just dreamed that I have a lucid dream. I did a RC and I had 6 fingers. At first I didn't even see the difference, then I paid more attention to my fingers and I suddenly saw it.

So what did I do in my dream? I've been in a small town that I've never seen before. I had walked a little bit and then I took a guy's bike and drove away. After it the dream was over, a pity. In addition, my dream was in a raster. I felt like I'm the main character of a video game.

My husband and I were visiting a city that felt familiar and somewhat reminiscent of an East Coast city like Boston, though it had no correspondence to any RL place I've ever been. We had just finished a nice meal, and were walking along the street. We leave the commercial avenue and start walking into a nice residential area. After about two blocks I realize that I need to pee, and the best bet is to turn around and go back to the street we just left, so we walk the two blocks back.

At the intersection with the commercial avenue is a group of people standing on the street. They are foreigners with black skin, and both the men and women are wearing long flowing light blue robes, very elegant. Despite the darkness of their skin, something about the shape of their faces and the sound of their language looks more South Asian than African, and I am trying to remember where they are from. Isn't it some small country or island between India and Africa? What was it called, Malvania? That's right, I remember, they are Malvanians, and they are here as refugees from their home country. (Obviously there is no such country as Malvania in waking life, so this was a clear case of false memory.)

I cross the street find the public restroom just where I thought it would be. To reach it we had to walk into a little courtyard and then go downstairs from ground level. One stairway leads to the women's room, the other to the men's. However, when we arrive we find that the line is incredibly long, with about three dozen Malvanians, women and men respectively, waiting on each stairway. Some of them are holding things like toothbrushes and soap, and I realize that since they are refugees who are living on the street, this is probably the only facilities that they have access to. I am sympathetic, but unfortunately I really need to pee now, and I'm not sure what to do.

"Come with me," I say to my husband, who is in the same predicament. I have just remembered that less than a block from here is a theatre I've been to before, and I'm pretty sure that there is a restroom in the lobby. We exit and walk further down the street. I'm trying to remember what time it is. Will the theatre be open? I think it must be at least 11am or perhaps just after noon, so they might have started the early matinees. Luckily we do find the door open and go inside. (More false memories, as none of the locations I was "remembering" bore any resemblance to RL places, much like the city at large.)

The route to the restroom is more complicated than I recall, leading back through several turns and passages, but I follow the signs and we eventually we find our way there. I'm grateful to discover that there are no lines! So I go inside... or try to. The door to the women's room pulls outward, but it is stuck. It is getting caught against a wire rack that is jutting from the side of a cabinet that has been installed too close to the door, so the door is only opening a few inches. Even though I'm of average size, I can't seem to squeeze through. I try to force the door open wider, tugging on it until the metal rack that is blocking it actually begins to distort and bend, letting the door open a few inches wider, just enough for me to slide in sideways. I think how distressing it would be if I were just a few pounds heavier—I wouldn't be able to get in! But I have passed this obstacle.

Inside the restroom at last, it looks very familiar and I remember that I have been here before. (Again, no correspondence to anything in waking life: if this was not pure false memory, then it must have been a setting from some prior dream.) The room is tiled in light green, but everything about it is old and broken down, an absolute ruin. Only about half the tiles are intact, the rest are broken or completely missing. There are not even stalls for privacy; the toilets are just arranged openly around the walls of the room. Many of them look in a state of poor repair as well. However, one detail is very different this time. Last time I found myself in this room, it was disgustingly filthy, but today, unexpectedly, it appears to have just been cleaned. It is as pristine as a room this run-down can be made: I can even smell the odor of cleaning chemicals in the air. Nevertheless, the memory of how dirty it was last time makes me remember that this is a dreamsign—and also, ever since the last failed RC in similar circumstances earlier this month, I've been diligently RCing every time I've found myself in a public restroom lately. Since I've been traveling for the last few days (in RL), I've had the chance to practice this a lot.

Fortunately there is no one else present, so I can RC very blatantly without being afraid of looking foolish. I lift my fingers to my nose and very forcefully try to breathe both in and out. Nope. The breath is fully stopped in both directions. This RC has worked really well for me since I started using it recently, so now when it suggests I am awake, I let myself be convinced. To some extent I realize that I'm actually relieved about this, because I've been having a nice interesting day so far, and it would be annoying to realize that it was all just a dream. On the other hand, I reflect, I'll be even more annoyed if I wake up later and it turns out that I was dreaming and failed to recognize it. But I feel confident in how attentively I performed the RC, so I figure I probably don't have to worry about that.

The dream went on for a while longer; the last thing I remember is being in a cab en route to some further destination. When I finally did wake up, all I could think was, "You've got to be kidding me!"

Note: My suspicion is that it is actually the very diligence with which I've been practicing this RC for the past few days that made it fail this time: every time I pinch my nose in waking life and can't breathe through it, I reinforce the sense-impression of what that feels like, which is perhaps what allowed the dream to duplicate the sensation.

Note: In reflecting on dreams in which I perform an RC but fail to recognize that I am dreaming, I have noticed something odd. The moment during which it occurs to me to think, "Hey, I wonder if I'm dreaming. I'd better check," actually feels like lucid-type awareness, even if the failed RC quickly leads to a passive resorption in the narrative.

.../I get in an empty yard which connects many houses, it's dawning. I have a piece of folded paper that I want to put inside a strange box. I'm trying to figure out how this sort of mailbox opens. It seems to have a lot of compartments, but I don't get it. After a couple of attempts, I see two thrash cans on the opposite side, then a couple of guys who look like they have some oriental origins, come into the yard. One of them has long hair, in a Columbus hairstyle. I realize what I have in my hand is actually a crumpled piece of paper, and I better put it in the thrash can. While I'm doing this, a lot of girls get into the scene, apparently some of them are laughing about my clumsiness. I see there's one of the teachers from the kindergarten mocking with a loud "Aw!" in a particular manner that makes me feel ashamed. Now the yard is getting more and more filled with people. I don't like to be here, I leave the place carrying a weird cart which is not correctly assembled. I see it in detail, and I find there's a bolt and a nut with a couple of washers maladjusted, that must join both pieces in the middle. While trying to put them right, I see a car coming in what now is a bridge/garden and that I'm next to the gate. I let the pieces I'm holding with my fingers fall, when I'm moving aside to let the entrance free. The driver looks like an angry old man, he doesn't answer my greetings, I don't care, I want to find the pieces on the floor before he closes the gate. I find first the bold, I think the other pieces fell into a empty space at a side of a bridge. The janitor, who looks like another angry old man, is about to close the gates. I ask him to wait a minute until I find the other pieces. He says something I don't understand. Finally I got to find the nut and a washer. I barely remember there was another one. I decide that it was just one but I didn't pay enough attention. I see the car turning to the left where apparently leads to the house. But this whole place seems to me more a port than a house/...

* It was yesterday after a nap but didn't have the time to translate it form the rough sketches I made of it

Fragment: I am in a hardware store. It feels like the hardware store in my town. I am shopping for some kind of screws or bolts to fasten something down.

I am watching a science show. Something about the planet Jupiter and the surface. As soon as I hear that, I get confused because Jupiter is a gas giant and it has no surface.
They show a picture of it anyway. Jupiter has a surface made of orange rocks with a river of this sea-green liquid running across it. I can also recall this computer graphic of a space probe falling through the atmosphere and presumably being crushed by the pressure.
False awakening. I am in my old Taekwondo studio, and it looks like we are playing dodgeball. The studio feels a little bit off. It's dark inside, most of the lights are turned off, and out the windows a strange dark grey haze has set in.
I recall seeing my belt on the table and putting it on. Not exactly a formality for when we used to do something fun like play dodgeball but whatever.
I make my way over to the other side of the gym. There are five people on our team and three people on the enemy team. The only person on our team that I recognize is K's brother. The rest of the people on our team feel familiar.
The opposing team is only three boys. Two of them have blurred faces and are simply wearing uniforms. The third has a green T-shirt and looks sort of like that evil dream character. Though he's smiling with playful aggression and certainly doesn't look evil.
I turn to K's brother.
"This is a dream, isn't it?"
He doesn't respond.
"This is a dream, I'll just play along. This should be fun, though I might be much more skillful now..."
The match begins. The enemy team has all four balls. They surrender one to us out of honor and each of the three enemy players has a ball. One guy on our team runs for the ball and gets taken out. Both balls roll back to the enemy team.
One of the guys throws at me. For some reason, the ball morphs into a banana mid-flight. As it approaches me, I hold out my hand and it slows down. Everything in the room comes to a complete stop. I step out of the way. The banana flies past me.
I look back to see that one of the faceless guys on the enemy team has been taken out. The remaining two guys target me. I levitate into the air and sort of wave my body to avoid the shot from the green shirt guy. I catch the one from blurry face #2. He is out. I stare down at the green shirt guy and everyone backs off. It's me and him. 1v1.
He picks up two balls, and takes on a wide stance, ready to jump to the side.
I hover over to the line. I preform a fake out throw. It barely phases the guy. I throw for real. The ball hits his hand and gets him out. It's over. Our team wins. The green shirt guy says he wants a rematch. I wake up.

4:35 AM: I am on a vacation with my wife at Google. We are on the highway driving, and being passed by little Google pod cars--sort of like roundish hover craft-like vehicles. My wife says they are probably just "spy cars." I think they look cool though. We are then standing in a train station, watching the Google monorail pull up. When the monorail arrives, I see that it is a U-Haul monorail (US moving company) and people can put all of their luggage in the nose of the train.

Then we are on the train, looking for a seat. We pass some odd-looking kids while moving through the carriages, and I decide to nose pinch. Either stuffy nose, or just not aware, because I fail the RC, but something still seems off to me. I inspect my hands, but they look fine. My wife begins to tease me.

"Are you dreaming?" she asks, laughing.

"Sweetheart, please stop that," I say, "Something is really not right here!"

I finally decide I must be awake and proceed non-lucidly (!)

We are now in Google village, shopping (sort of a Disney-like atmosphere, for those who have been). I am shoplifting small items, and slipping them into my pockets. In one of the shops, I hear my wife talking to a woman. She is discussing selling or trading something. I realize she is talking about selling her wedding band, and that some agreement has been made. The woman leaves to get her items, and I approach my wife.

I ask her what she is trading her wedding ring for, and she shows me some glass beads. This frustrates me, as the beads are worthless. I try to reason with my wife, and explain how expensive and important her wedding band is, and add that the beads are worth nothing at all. She seems to be considering.

Meanwhile, the woman comes back with her stuff. I explain to her that we may not honor the bargain. She replies that the agreement has already been made. I reiterate not to get her hopes up, as my wife will probably rescind the offer. I ask her what the beads are made of. She shrugs, feigning unimportance, and says, "I think glass." I appeal to my wife wordlessly, giving her a "see there?" gesture. My wife then reaffirms her decision to trade the ring!

I suddenly have a false memory of my wife selling her engagement ring as well, some time in the past. I tell her--almost crying, almost screaming--how money doesn't matter, and that I can't bear to see her do this. I ask why she is giving away the rings that symbolize our marriage in exchange for trash? I am conscious now of making a scene. She begins crying silently and motionlessly, and tells me if giving the rings away will "benefit other beings," then she will do it. Her tears are like diluted red water. I think this is odd but am too distraught to really think about it.

I now turn to speak to the couple--the woman and her husband--but they have gone. They have used the opportunity to abscond with my wife's rings. I run out of the store after them, and scan the village. There are people about, but the couple is gone.

"You pieces of SHIT!" I scream, but then duck back into the store as I don't want to be kicked out of the park.

Dream ends a little bit after, bits of images coming out of hypnopompic.

If you made it this far, let me know what you think