task of the month

Date: 20 June

Pre bed: 200 mg valerian, 100mg B6, podcast

Atmosphere: guest, heat, noises

Total sleep time: 6 hrs

DILD1: I am in our old neighborhood with my mom and a truck driver discussing something. I don't like him. The next moment the three of us are in a public restroom and it looks like he used it just before we did. I get obsessed about not wanting to touch the toiler paper after him, I notice there is something on the paper, plus it is all soaked. My mom comes up with some napkins from her bag that I also don't want to use.

The scene changes and we find ourselves in a movie theater. A fake memory forms that we just watched some movie, went to the restroom, and now mom is sneaking in to watch the next movie for free. One thing that looks unusual is that there is only one single long row of seats, but at the time, I conclude that this is normal. My mom sits while I try to leave the place. I spend some time waiting for her, and in the meantime she is looking for 3D glasses. I notice lots of sunglasses on the floor, that I identify as mine as start putting them in my bag. I head towards the exit, but the door is locked, there is no handle too. I get a fake memory that this is normal during movies. I think I use some form of dream control and the door opens, but behind it is another door which I open the normal way.

I find myself in a long somewhat creepy corridor with strangely colored walls, that reminds of dreams I had. And sure enough, I become lucid. I stare at the walls for a while, wondering if I should go ahead and plunge in them, but based on gut feeling decide against it. I move forward a bit but suddenly I get a sensation that my hair band is falling and my head feels kind of uncomfortable, up to the point where it is so distracting I cannot continue walking? I wonder if I should waste time to try and fix a ponytail but know this is a bad idea to do during an ld, so just remove the hair band and my hair feels fine. (talk about vanity )

I keep walking down the corridor that dynamically changes and become a bit like an inside balcony, and I can see part of the floor below. As I reach the end of the corridor/now balcony and look to my left the light downstairs goes off. Downstairs looks a bit creepy and I say something like "Oh, come on", but then hear some kind of a click sound and the light is on again. Then off again and finally on. What the hell is going on, I think. I turn around and something like a room is beginning to form. There are many DCs here, mostly children and a guy, they all look pretty much the same, very blond with red cheeks. I find this strange and the guy is not quite finished in the face, some of his features are not there so he is not very pleasant to look at. I decide I don't need to concentrate that much on him. I think about some of my goals. The first one that comes to mind is "assign a lucidity DC", so I start shouting at these strange blond DCs something about them and lucidity. Most of them don't pay me any attention, but my voice is so loud, I wonder if I am doing this irl too.

Then I look around, have a moment of aha realization as I remember the naked task. Of course, with so many DCs in the room, it is perfect for the task. So I first try to memorize the place and DCs a bit more (to be able to describe in detail, the way I do it, it is really bad for stability!) In front of me is a strange looking desk and three kids, one of them has silver sparkle decorations on his face. This time I am wearing only underwear with my casual type of bra. Just as I figure an easy way to take it off, the dream abruptly ends and I find myself back in bed.

I am very aware of body and need to go to the restroom. As I get back to bed I struggle with the heat, and am interrupted by the alarm of the guest, who always sets it hours earlier than he needs to wake up and leave. I really don't understand this. Insomnia...and then finally asleep for a bit.

DILD2: The dream begins as I am concentrating on my hands, trying to hold them still as possible, I get this floating feeling, expecting to transition. I then look around and understand that I am already in the dream. It is a small room, I start rubbing my hands vigorously, paying attention to the effect. The dream stabilizes for a while. I remember "the task" and search for DC audience. There are two male DCs on the bed, one on top of the other (doing nothing and with clothes on), and the other is asleep. They look very lifeless and I wonder if I should leave the room - door is just in front of me, but I get the feeling that might throw the dream out of balance and decide to wait. "Let me first get naked, then I'll see about the audience". I check my clothes - jeans (that later turn to shorts), socks, and a T-shirt. I start with the T-shirt but as it covers my eyes, it gets a bit entangled around my head, and I as get it off I lose my sight and end up in the void.

This annoys me but my anger turns into podcast inspired stubbornness and I keep trying to resume with the dream taking my shorts off and one sock while in the void. A moment later the dream picks up from exactly the same place. I expect at this point not to be wearing shorts anymore, but as I look down I have two pairs of shorts one on each leg. It's funny and reminds me of OB and her blankets. I go and sit on the bed which is now on the opposite side of the room, or is it another bed? I contemplate a bit of whether I really need to be sitting to more easily get rid of my shorts and remaining sock, but conclude it feels more comfortable that way. The dream fades and I wake.

The guest finally wakes up too, so that was it for today.

Looooooong dream, beware:

I hate that my LDs lately seem dependent on my days off since I work so much more now, but at least if the LD is really epic, then it's a pay off for me. The like one I just woke up from. It's also in part to the sweet podcast that CL and I recorded last night.

I didn't think I was going to have one at all, because I kept sleeping in and waking up, and nothing. I was hot, and uncomfortable. Finally Danny got up and I rolled over to sleep again. Then the bed suddenly felt cylindrical, and I began to feel like I was slowly rolling off, but never did. I get funny sensations like that sometimes when I'm about to have a WILD. So I just relaxed and remained still, and a wave of vibrations washed over me. I very patiently waited a few moments before slowly getting out of bed. Everything was realistic, but I noticed that the fan was missing from our ceiling fan, but then appeared suddenly (like as OOPS forgot). Also the pillows had fringes that don't exist irl, so I knew for sure I was dreaming.

I went to leave the room, but I had blankets attached to me. I left the room and there was still one wrapped around my legs. I cursed it in my mind, then continued to the livingroom. I remembered the naked task, and was happy to see the livingroom was full of people. Mostly kids, and a lady on the couch. I knew it would be ok since it's just a dream anyway. I said "Hey guys, I'm about to get nekkid!!" They totally ignored me, while watching TV. Then I remembered that piece of paper from an old TOTM still in the kitchen. I had a personal goal of wanting to check it out again. It was in the right place, but it was covered with nonsensical words that changed everytime I looked at it. At one point, I saw that it said "turn over" and when I did, it was blank. I turned it back over, and it had changed again. Anyway, I went back into the livingroom and started taking my clothes off. The blanket had vanished at some point during all this (the power of ignoring annoying crap in dreams). I said "HEY! I'm naked!" One kid looked at me and said, "Oh look, once Ophelia's done with this, I'm going to teach everyone how to smoke pot!" Then I lost it, I laughed so hard at that boy. I looked at the lady on the couch, who glanced at me for a moment, then looked away like she wished I hadn't done this. SO I said "Bye, I'm going outside to fly in the buff!"

I went outside and hit the air, but I either flew too low and bounced, or I went to high and would lose my vision. Oh yeah, I had my glasses on, and I remember seeing if I could still see without them, but I needed them, oh well. Keep them on for now. After the flying, things got really blurry, and sketchy, and I couldn't make anything out. So I relaxed, and said "Imagine a barn. A red and brown barn.." and one appeared in front of me. It was still all a little sketchy, but I decided to go to the barn and look for a mirror transport. I noticed a big black bear walk on its hind legs into the barn, just before I did. I walked down a hall toward what appeared to be a bathroom, when the bear came at me, mouth wide open and bared teeth. I rolled my eyes and stuck out my hand, and he bit it, and locked on. It hurt but it was bearable. I just kept walking toward the bathroom, then I went inside and shut to door, which made the bear let go. Ha! I looked in the mirror over the sink, still not great vision. I kinda absent-mindedly turned on the bathroom light, and then BOOM! It was like someone had turned on the sun! I was about to go in the mirror, when I noticed Kim and Nicole from work outside the window. I yelled their names and told them I was LDing. They ran over to the barn, but by the time they got there, they were 2 Kims instead. They looked kinda angsty and said something I forget. I just ignored them and went back to the mirror while I could feel them watching. I poked my head and torso through, but it was a really large room that was kinda dark. I didn't really want to go there, but I couldn't pop back out of the mirror for some reason. It felt like this new room was sucking me through, so I went with it.

I plopped out into this really large room, where all the walls were bookshelves, and there were kids toys here and there. Also alot of unfinished paintwork. A woman was putting books away on the shelves, when she suddenly was aware of my presence. She whipped around, then came at me with a small axe! I just stood there, and when the axe came down, I caught it by the handle and pulled it out of her hand. I said "Ma'am, I'm just traveling, you don't have to be scared of me." Then I heard it: an inhuman scream. It sounded like it was coming from a man, but it was so loud, and crazed. The woman looked even me scared at that then she was of me. I left the room to go toward the sound, when I ended up in a hallway where I noticed 3 men putting together an elaborate story book. They came up to me, pretending like they didn't hear this screaming. They walked me through the story, telling me all about it. I couldn't believe they were ignoring this sound. Finally I saw the source: A man walked toward us, carrying a small boy. I knew at that moment that he was the woman's wife, and this was their child. The dad was completely 100% INSANE. I knew he was rich though, because this was a really big house. I had assumed that he hired those men to make a really great book for the child. The dad was still screaming unintelligibly, at the wife I believe. Just pure anger and insanity. The child in his arms looked just, sad and yet resigned to it. I said to the guys writing the book, "He must pay you guys a lot of money to be able to ignore that shit!" One of them nodded at me. I thought, oh hell no. I still knew I was dreaming, and the axe was still in my hand. So I ran at him, ready to chop him to bits, while hopefully saving the child. The wife stopped me, crying something about not killing the father of their children. So I flew above the man, who finally shut his mouth and just stared at me in disbelief. And I said, "Mr. Dead Man? Yes, I call you DeadMan because this so called son of yours it not your son, because you don't deserve him. You are now dead to him." Then he just rolled over on the floor, and lay there in a vegetative state.

I ended up DEILDing 2 times after that, one where I was a man and hooked up with that woman to take care of the family, but when I stripped down I had boobs, whoops.

Then another where Danny came in wanting to have sex, and I accused him of being a DC and I'd rather have the real thing. And he said maybe we're both LDing right now, you can ask the real me in the morning. I said ok I'll tell you a code word now, that I'll ask the real you tomorrow. THen he gave up haha. Creepily, the real Danny came in after I woke up this morning, and he was dressed JUST like the DC one, the room was the same amount of light, and he sat on my bed and was talking a bunch of weird crazy shit to me. I had to RC, but nope that was the real Danny.

06/17/13
I laid awake attempting another [B]WILD[B], thinking of TOTM basic 2. Hopeing to find a
mirror to observe what I looked like. I blacked out and awoke to the sound of pitter pattering rain on the roof. I got out of bed and attempted to shove my finger through my hand, this failed so I ran to my bathroom and looked in my mirror and I looked like I always do , ginger, white, blue eyes, frekels and then attempted to plug my nose and breath none of which worked for me. Attempting it again tonight

This was the third of five lucid dreams from last night/this morning.

Color legend: Non-dream Dream Lucid

Lucid #108: The Torrent

I'm watching one of the Star Wars films with some friends. We're sitting on the floor of some strange classroom and even though I hate to miss any of the movie, I have to pee so badly that I can't wait. I get up and enter some public restroom, approach the urinal, and start going.

While I'm doing this, some guy comes in to use one of the stalls. The bathroom has this horrible design where there's a mirror on the wall which is angled so that I can see straight into the stall. The guy sits down on the toilet and commences his business without bothering to close the door. It's an awful sight. "Shut the door!" I wail. He obediently slams the door shut.

Meanwhile, I keep peeing and peeing. The guy in the stall finally finishes his business, washes his hands, and leaves... yet I'm still going. Something's not right about this, and I realize that this is a dream. I still need to pee just as badly as when I first arrived, and there seems to be no stopping things. I'm vaguely worried that I'm wetting the bed but I figure that whatever is happening to my waking body, the die has been cast. Time to get out and enjoy this LD.

I step away from the urinal, still peeing all over the place, and exit the restroom. I emerge in a huge store that looks like a Walmart. I survey my surroundings, and every time I look in a direction, I start peeing all over the floor that's in my field of view. Most of the DCs in the store ignore this, but a few run away. Fortunately, after a few seconds, the urine seems to just disappear.

There's a huge mirror covering one wall next to a crudely-constructed wooden stage. I check how I look -- exactly like myself, except I'm pissing all over the place. I find the actual sight of myself doing this totally revolting and devote some dream control effort to making it stop. Soon it does, and all is forgiven (or forgotten.)

I hit a quick double-biceps pose in the mirror, and it occurs to me that the Advanced Task of the Month is to get naked in front of a crowd. I leap onto the stage and all of the DCs in the store turn to look at what I'm up to. I grab my shirt by the back of the collar with both hands and rip the shirt off of my body. It looks like I'm just in jeans and socks now. (No idea where my shoes went -- did I go into the men's room in just socks? Gross!) With one quick downward move, I simultaneously pants myself and pull off the socks, now stark naked.

I feel strangely relaxed and confident about all of this and throw in a few little stripper-style dance moves. Scanning the crowd, I notice that every audience member is now female. I'm not sure whether that's strictly a trick of the menthol or just something that somehow makes me feel more comfortable but I take note of it. With the task satisfied, I jump off the stage, imagining myself clothed once again.

I can't remember what else I'd wanted to do so I have a bit of fun wrecking displays in the store -- I force-push some chairs into a shelf of goods, levitate a bunch of stuff in the air, and generally act like a bad kid. As I'm looking around for my next bit of mischief, an attractive, dark-haired woman in her late 20s approaches me. She's wearing a close-fitting, dark blue dress. Menthol? I think.

"Hi," she says. "What were you hoping I was going to say to you?"

The truth: "I was sort of hoping that you were looking for sex." In spite of myself, I feel pretty embarrassed when I say this.

"There's an honest answer! But don't you think that you ought to get to know me first? Here, sit down," she says, gesturing at a long row of wooden chairs. "I'm Gina."

I sit down with her and she pulls out a notebook that looks exactly like my written dream journal. "What's that notebook?" I ask.

"Dream journal!" she answers cheerfully. "You've got to write everything down if you want to remember it."

She looks like she's about to ask me something when a guy sits down in the chair next to her. He's a black guy, about 30, a touch pudgy. Gina leans back to let him speak, looking a little impatient. This new guy speaks to me in a lecturing tone, saying, "Do you think you can just close every door that you open?" I'm confused by what he's saying and as I'm preparing to ask him what he means, I wake up.

Advanced Task ii - Find an ocean and go parasailing.

I was attempting to V-WILD when everything started to spin. It felt like I was on a roller-coaster! It felt like my body floated up to my ceiling and then was crashing down into my bed. This went on for a few minutes when it finally stopped and I found myself climbing a tree. I didn't even realize I was climbing a tree until a branch cracked and I fell to the bottom. Ow..I definitely felt pain.

It took me a moment, but I realized I must be dreaming. I remembered trying to V-WILD, the spinning, and I somehow ended up here. I did a reality check and confirmed that I was dreaming. I looked around and saw an array of pine trees spreading in every direction I looked. My goal was to go parasailing and that's what I was going to do! I assumed I was on an island and expected if I kept walking I would run into the ocean.

Sure enough, a couple minutes later I saw a small, dirt beach with the waves crashing against it. The ocean was not a natural color. It was a BRIGHT, bright Turquoise/Cyan. I saw a couple boats floating about and teleported to one. The driver fell out of his chair and looked at me like: xD

"Let's go parasailing!" I said

The driver pulled out a parasail and hooked everything up. It could fit two people but none of the other two passengers wanted to come. I sat down and strapped myself in. Then the boat just went full speed and I shot into the air. You know that feeling when you're in an airplane with the engine running loudly and then it becomes a little quieter and you have a sudden feeling you are going to fall? That's exactly how I felt strapped into the parasail. It somehow managed to stay flying and the wind was rushing in my face.

I kept rising higher and higher. The boat looked like an ant to me and as I looked up I could see a puffy cloud about a foot away from my face. I reached out to touch it and it was surprisingly warm. Someone touches my shoulder and I quickly look to the left to see fucking Edward Scissorhands grinning at me. My dreams sometimes... He bends over and slashes the rope tying us to the boat. The parasail stops going forwards and starts to rise up like a balloon!

We rise into space and by the moon I can see Saturn. I tell Edward to get us over there and he somehow steers the parasail (if you can even call it that anymore ) to the rings. Basically we start go-karting on the rings of Saturn xD.

Anywho, the dream goes on for quit a while after this but I don't feel like typing it all up. Quick summary: we end up finding life on Saturn (even though it's a gas giant in real life, it wasn't in my dream), turn into wizards, and use magic to add more life on Saturn. We create a forest and basically build a whole bunch of homes up in the trees where the people of Saturn could live and that's about it!

Date: 12 June

Total sleep time: 7 hrs

Pre bed: Gingko

Sleep quality and recall: I was tired after getting only 6 1/2 hrs the day before, yet I spent too much surfing before bed. As a result I slept quite deeply, dreams were vivid, averagely accessible. I was not in the mood to take early notes.The LD chain totally messed up my recall. I recovered the key parts, but dream reality was much more detailed.

WBTB: Had a natural wake earlier and then later than planned. Decided to use the later as WBTB, drank 1/2 RB. Was sleepy so no problems there.

Fragment1: My school

WBTB

Fragment2: A friend from the very distant past finally appears in my dreams (at least this year). She wants some help with her research.

Dream3: I am back to my hometown and meet a neighbor friend of mine. I have some thoughts about her excessive use of alcohol and cigarettes. When I see her, she confirms my expectations, immediately starts smoking and we sit in some cafe/bar outside initially and have some beer. She finishes her bottle and as I notice I have also finished mine. She goes to get another one for her and I want one too. She pays for everything. I am concerned that I have finished my bottle so fast and am about to have a second one. I continue thinking that it is likely that we will drink at least 5 bottles each this evening. I feel drunk and wonder if this is going to mess up my lucidity. I heard there is great REM rebound.

Fragment4:I am in a room, similar to my old place, my parents are there. Dad has some issues and gives me one of his disapproval looks. I remember the bed, did I fall asleep?

My subcon takes over and decides it's time to have a lucid

LD1:

I am above the sea surface, remembering one of my non-current goals to check out things from the past. I don't know why but I end up investigating what happened to the titanic. I pay some thought to what has happened. (I watched the movie a long time ago and can't recall the story). I have thoughts/fake memories that in real life they still don't know what happened and concluded it hit an iceberg. They never found the black box. I am watching a zoomed part of a non-sunken ship when thinking this. I finally remember that I never wanted to know anything about the titanic. I want to move on. I am temporarily disconnected. I simply desire to continue the dream.

My subcon takes over and I easily resume from non-physicality/void.

LD2: I am flying over a city, which is supposedly the place in the past where I want to go. Initially it looks like a toy city in the midst of the ocean, but as control my flight (which is hard), it begins to look like a real city, and I recognize it as Rome. I see the Colosseum, which looks a bit different, also lots of buildings with red rooftops. It feels as if I am flying over ancient Rome at low plane altitude. It is so exciting, I really believe that I have managed to go back in time.

I am zooming in and out ancient Rome to manipulate the city into being the real Rome and not a toy replica. I notice that I am chewing gum. I am now in a large empty and borderless room and Rome is like a mini replica taking a large part of the room. I become concerned about the gum. I have a false memory of the room with dad where I think I have fallen asleep. "Yes, I had a chewing gum", I am thinking and believe I can feel it in my physical mouth. I wrongly remember that CL also fell asleep with chewing gum. I become very worried but decide that I am going to spit/take out the gum and this will make my physical self do it too. I begin maneuvering which makes me semi-enter the void and supposedly feel my physical body. I get out three pieces of chewing gum. I don't feel any gum in my physical mouth so I am relieved. The dream destabilizes and I end up in the void.

LD3 & LD4+:

My memory is a bit messed as the exact initial place where this began as I happen to DEILD back and experience a similar fragment of the dream. The dream was fading so I came back more than once.

I am in what looks like the outskirts of some city, it the midst of mostly greenery. I am talking to this guy, then explore around by myself. There are lots of plants so really no way to give more detail. To my right is some kind of a road with barbed fence, I want to go there, but notice only cyclists use it. I walk around a bit more, dream fades.

I am more or less at the same place and I see the same guy ( who is an actor I don't know his name irl) on the initial trail. I am happy to have some partner to explore with during the dream, but he becomes evil. I do my best to change him, by being overly positive. He initially does not change but instead does something to my back, it really hurts. I am thinking about "invulnerability" from DV competition, so I may try to use it if he continues, but the pain is very strange. He calms down a bit and we move along, still surrounded by greenery.

I am by myself, and have spent quite a while exploring around. While there are mostly plants around, I finally reach the city. It looks like a small town, not too modern or at least that part in front of me. I notice a yellow? building in front of me and some sign "Leyle.."or "Harley". I try to memorize the name so that I can check it out later. I can't recall the surroundings so well anymore.

I look to my left, where across the river I see a more modern looking city, illuminated sign with the location, and the Gateway arch (* that excuse my ignorance I had to later google to confirm is located in St. Louis). I continue on my way but the dream slowly fades.

LD5: I enter a white one-story building. There is a DC woman in front of me and she is saying something with an echo effect. I become excited and start talking with a fake accent, but I can't concentrate much on what I'm saying. The dream feels a bit unstable. Still I want to go on with it and think I may go for transformation this time. But then I notice that lots of DCs are sitting behind a table, starring at me, much like a jury. It dawns on me that this is the perfect opportunity to get naked. I look down/stretch my clothes and with a relief see that this time I am wearing an easy long white polo-style dress. I am still worried that I will wake up once it gets on my eyes, so talk to the DCs first. I tell them to sing along, I want to use the sound as an anchor. I keep repeating, now incorporating a melody "Sing along" as I take my dress off. I now go to take my panties off. Panties gone. I do feel a little weird after these actions, a DC woman is looking at me surprised. I really hope that this isn't for real. I am all naked but for a bra that I try to take off as I wake up.

I am in my body and want to go for a DEILD. I lie on my back and wait but it doesn't work. Interestingly, I am also starving. It is not easy to LD.

What I have noticed today: It was much easier to continue LDing when I had a strong desire to resume with the dream. My subcon did the work, with little involvement on my part, which may account for the successful chaining.

Based on location I am approximating the 5+ LDs to an official count of 4 LDs and 1 micro ld.

---------
Progress with this months goals (as of 12 June morning):

- Do 100 RCs (10/100)
- notice real life DS 100 times and RC (11/100)
- 10 proper WBTB attempts -> days (5/10)
- 10 morning RCs (2/10)
- 2 proper WILD attempts (0/2)
- task flexibility
- journal flexibility

LDs: 10 (official count)
micro-lds: 2 (for informative purposes, not counted)
suspicious events: 2 (not counted)

EDIT 22.08: after more experience with lds, I realized that this was not DEILD chaining, as I didn't really wake up from the dream and feel my body in any way, just the dream ended and a new one started.

Another swing and a miss at meeting Art at the Alamo. But the good news is that I managed to remember (and execute) Basic Task of the Month!

Color legend: Non-dream Dream Lucid

Lucid #104: Reservations

I have a false awakening at home and stumble out of bed. I'm disappointed and slightly grouchy that I failed to achieve a lucid dream. Feeling unmotivated, I wander aimlessly through the house, contemplating how late for work I probably am. I think that it's Friday, though, and I'm looking forward to ordering pizza with the guys at the office and shooting the breeze for a while. (Nope, today's Wednesday!)

I wind up in the exercise room but the power rack and dip station are completely missing. It's halfway converted into an office and I see the guts of a half-built computer on the floor. I kneel down to work on it, seeing that the RAM is missing and that the box is full of dust like it's been sitting there for years. I finally grasp how dreamlike this all is and become lucid.

I rub my hands together and assemble my goals. Two come to me fairly quickly: 1) meet NewArtemis at the Alamo 2) go water-skiing. (Oops, Advanced Task of the Month is actually parasailing.) I move into the master bedroom where I see Wife standing nearby as my two young children E and R run around the room. I announce that I'm having a lucid dream, eliciting an "Okay!" from Wife. I phase through the external wall of our house. I'm on the 2nd story, so I drift down to the driveway below, lightly brushing the branches of our oak tree with my fingers as I pass.

It's a bright morning outside and I'm preparing to fly off for the Alamo when I hear the voice of my son E behind me. "Daddy, wait! Daaaaaaddy!" I think that it's probably smartest to ignore him but I can't help looking back. Somehow he's followed me outside and I see him standing about fifteen feet away, looking so small. He looks at me with enormous, pleading eyes and says, "Daddy, can I go with you?"

I start feeling all melty-hearted and I know that resistance is futile. It'd probably be amusing to see E and NewArtemis' DCs interact anyway. "Sure, buddy," I say, scooping him up and placing him on my shoulders. I hop up into the air and we fly together over the neighborhood, heading vaguely northwest. The city's different in this direction, and we pass a park and a block of tall buildings. I decide that the Alamo is in the next block and I tell E this to cement it further in my mind. "Uh-huh!" he enthusiastically agrees.

When we hit the next city block, though, I'm disappointed to find no sign of the Alamo. There's a river running east-west with a simple stone bridge crossing it and a walkway on either side. I shout down to the DCs milling around below: "The Alamo's supposed to be right here! Which way is it?"

A blonde lady walking with her daughter points westward toward the bridge. "It's that way, just past the bridge!" I thank her, land, and walk under the bridge with E still on my shoulders. We emerge to see the Alamo up ahead but there's some kind of enormous line out front. I feel the urge to get in line and patiently wait but remind myself that this is my dream and it is therefore okay to be a bit of a jerk. I stride to the front of the line where I find a restaurant host holding a clipboard. It's apparent to me that the Alamo has been converted to some sort of amazingly popular restaurant.

The host asks me whether I have reservations. "Of course," I say. "Check under [CanisLucidus]."

"Ah yes!" he responds. "Party of fifteen. Your table's almost ready."

Fifteen people? "[NewArtemis] is in our group, isn't that right?" But the host wanders off, saying that he'll "be right back."

I decide to give him a moment before prodding the dream plot onward. I remember Task of the Month (speak gibberish to a DC and see how they respond.) A sour-looking girl of about eight with brown hair and freckles is waiting nearby, sitting on a piece of luggage. "Ooooooga booga booga!" I exclaim.

She looks very annoyed. "Can we please just skip the whole 'Mess with DCs' show?" I hear her fine, but her response shocks me into just saying, "What?" She sighs dramatically and repeats herself: "I said can we skip the whole 'Mess with DCs' show? Have you seen how long this line is? I am not in the mood."

Amused, I turn away. Good enough for me. I want to keep things rolling, so I announce to the unseen host, "So my table's ready then, right?"

The host scurries back into view. "Sorry for the wait, sir. Mr. Graham was napping and needed to be woken up. Who schedules a lunch for a nap?" he says with a laugh, even though I haven't the faintest idea what he's talking about or who "Mr. Graham" is. "Right this way," says the host, and I follow, now holding E by the hand. We're moving through a wood-paneled hallway into the restaurant interior when the dream ends.

I was in my friend's hous, became lucid, saw 3 dc near me - 2 young men and 1 old woman. I decided to make TOTM and became speak in gibberish with the woman - she responded in gibberish too. I turn to one of the men - spoke like bla-blo-blu-bra-bro-bru - he answered in gibberish for a moment, but then said in english - 'I don't know'. I thought that that DC was clever and continued speaking in gibberish. That smart guy said -"it means whats your name' - in russian. I answered - no, you are wrong! and i began to summon a big dinosaur egg on my palm. The egg was like hen's one, i decided to make it bigger and at the size of ostrich one, that smart DC said - "you are a bit to crash into a cat". I thought that its a noncense, because i didn't move. I saw a small lighting near my feet, my egg jumped itself, fell and broken. I was upset and awoke in a moment.

Fragment 1: I was very pleased about some crystals I got that worked extremely well, with obvious results. I think I got them from Judy Hall (author of a few crystal books I own IWL).

Interestingly, I had placed a double-terminated quartz I had once dug up in Arkansas under my pillow after reading that those aid in dreaming, and ended up having more dream/fragment recall than ever. I've slept with various other crystals over the years to no effect. Hmm.

Fragment 2: I was cutting/texturizing the ends of my hair, not even looking into the mirror, just grabbing the ends and snipping little triangles.

Fragment 3: I found out that Merlin was going to continue. It wasn't even going to be a sequel picking up where the finale left off, but stuff that happened between Arthur's death and that shot of Merlin in present times.

Watched the season finale on Syfy last Friday and was very disappointed in it as well as about the series coming to an end.

Dream 1: I was at a place that was a cross between a warehouse, a grade school, and a thrift store (IDK!). I had to help organize stuff and was annoyed about it. There was a guy who seemed around my age who owned or ran the place. I also passed by some schoolgirls while carrying stuff.

Dream 2 (post WBTB): I was sharing a dorm or hotel room with two other girls. It seemed like a school setting, and I don't know where the other girls went, but I was preparing for my upcoming audition.

The place was really cluttered. Still, I thought I should hang up my coat in the wardrobe. On my way, I passed a closet and something inside it moved. I concluded that I was being haunted.

I stopped dead in my tracks because between the wardrobe and the closet I had just passed was a mirror. I've heard many stories throughout my life of people seeing scary figures -- or even looking demonic themselves -- when gazing into the mirror, so I was afraid. But I didn't want to let my fears get the best of me and I also remembered that finding a mirror in my dream and describing my reflection was one of the TOTMs, so I proceeded boldly.

I stopped to look into the mirror, except now it looked like a somewhat distorted 50s style television. At first I got kind of scared because there was something definitely wrong with my left eye. I looked closer and realized that it was swollen (though it didn't look like a real swollen eye would). I figured it was related to the discomfort I've been feeling there due to my recent migraine.

While I was not aware of dreaming in that last dream, my thought processes before looking in the "mirror" resembled my waking thoughts more than the majority of my dreams do. Usually when I make decisions in dreams, it doesn't involve a drawn-out and coherent thought process. The summoning of will and courage in a dream is also something I don't remember experiencing in a dream before. Then again, I was terrible at recall until this year and especially these past two weeks, so maybe I'm just not familiar enough with my dreams.

Also, that last dream is my first successful dream incubation Wish it had been a more pleasant experience, though.

Total sleep time: 7 hrs

Early dreamlet: A guy tells me that whenever cheese is involved he is also there?

Dream1 DILD after WBTB: Me and bf are queuing to enquire about financial help. A DC woman is behind me and she disapproves of me being there. The scene transforms and we are on some kind of platform that is taking us someplace. I see a strange theme park that reminds me of the island Pinocchio went to. We arrive at the destination, the DC woman is still behind me, I feel her body press on me, so I decide to sit on the platform’s stone steps. I look where we have arrived. This is something like a prison that a sect has, and they keep girls with strange clothes there.

I enter the place and it turns into an ordinary apartment. I look around and it feels familiar, as if I had been here before. In the first room I see a girl that is kept there and she is clearly sad about her fate. She is naked and I feel her silky skin, and then hug her to console her. She is very thin and I cannot tell her back from her front, it actually gets distorted but I think it is because she is skinny and I tell her that…I move on. There is no one in the apartment and that gives me a strange feeling. Soon I discover another room where a girl is kept. This time it is an extremely dangerous girl. I try to peek through the keyhole but there is some metal in it. Of course, the door to this dangerous girl is not locked, so she starts moving the door trying to escape, while I am trying to close the door. She is stronger than me so she manages to escape and I face her. She is outright scary, because she is a vampire. Some game-like status bar that looks like a play paper card is there. I understand that I won’t be able to fight her, so decide to flee.

I leave the apartment as fast as I can, and as I get to the stairs I run into Brendan Hines, who I recognize in the dream as a friend of mine and not the actor. I tell him we should get out of there and glide/jump on the handrails as fast as I can. We leave the building and I am on the street lucid. My first thought is that I don’t need to run away any more, but just to be on the safe side, I decide to increase the distance between me and the vampire girl, so I fly forward a bit. I am very happy that this guy (Brendan) is here and have some strange memory that this is the second time I am dreaming him? I want to use him as a partner during the lucid.

I remember 3 of the TOTM (although I decided yesterday to do only two this month), and have a great clarity of mind. This worries me because I feel that this is end of the REM and I am going to wake up soon, so I go to do the tasks. I approach Brendan, but he has transformed into some ugly older dude, who is being engaged by two other DCs on a bench. That irritates me and I try to get his attention, with little success. I notice a small puddle on the floor and decide to look at my image there. At the same time, while walking towards the puddle I consider if I should take my clothes off, and I stretch my T-shirt a bit. I think that not being able to see for a while will disconnect me from the dream, so I abandon the task and concentrate on my image in the water. I am pleasantly surprised to see that it is actually me there, looking quite nice, and smiling. Normal clothes and hair. It seems that I am talking as I am thinking this because as I do, I see the image’s mouth move exactly in accordance with my thoughts/words. I find this fascinating, but soon I feel my real lips moving and I am back in my bed.

I am on my right side, eyes closed and decide to risk and go for a DEILD. I wait quite a while and nothing happens, I am quite awake so decide to go to the restroom and take some key notes. I then go back with the intention of falling asleep and having another lucid. (Yes, that greed!)

As is usually the case with me, this doesn’t work too well, so I spend about 50 mins doing all kinds of stuff trying to fall asleep. I got very sceptical about having another ld towards the end of this insomnia chunk and began contemplating whether I should get up and do something more productive, but I finally fell asleep.

Dreamlet: some plant leaves

Dream2 DILD: I am in what initially looks like my parents place and there is a rat-like creature on the floor. It is white, and has no eyes, so a bit creepy. It later becomes three smaller creatures. There was some kind of story about these but it is hard to remember. We also own some creature in my mind a horse, but then a dog/creature steals our horse and runs down the building. This is my grandma’s place for a while. I chase the dog to get back whatever is ours, which turns into my new handbag from real life.

This person/entity goes down some stairs which lead into the underworld. It is scary. The underworld entrance is a subway station, where the escalators don’t work, so there is no turning back. I consider checking whether the elevator works but enter in a restroom instead. There are two people making out there, I chase them away. I look in front of me, and become lucid.

Once again my brain is working full power. There is a mirror just in front of me, so I take advantage of the opportunity and check my appearance. My hair is a bit darker and my image makes grimaces. I think that I don’t want to be stuck here too long to avoid waking up, so I leave the restroom. The station is still there, and I want to talk gibberish to a DC, so I turn to a DC guy and say the sentence “I am talking gibberish”, but muffle the sound so it becomes something like “Mmm tokah gee-ummmsh” and look for his reaction. He doesn’t seem to understand what I am saying and I am disappointed with his reaction, so I repeat it two more times. He shyly smiles and looks away. Ah, he’s shy, I conclude, satisfied with the result.

Then I decide to go with the next task, get naked. I look around and proudly announce to the surrounding DCs “I am going to get naked!” and watch faces of dismay. I concentrate on taking my clothes off, but it seems I have two layers, one fitting really tight. As I struggle to take them off, the dream fades away and I am back in bed, left side this time.

- Helping complete strangers
- Being angered
- Undermining authority figures
- Multi-coloured skies

Dream, Lucid, Comment

I was going to my final exam (no idea which), and there was another student walking a little bit ahead of me. As he was walking through a doorway, I saw a guy (possibly a security guard) who was apparently waiting for us. I figured he probably wanted to ask us what we were doing here, since it's Saturday. Weekends here are on Friday and Saturday. I thought to myself that I'd tell him the truth, of course; that I had an exam today. I don't really know why the dream considered an exam on Saturday to be weird. It's absolutely normal. Also, today's Tuesday. As I continued walking, I was thinking about how most doors are usually closed on Saturdays. The other student whom I was walking behind passed the doorway before me, and when I reached it, I noticed it's not a doorway any more. It's a wall with a few windows (since I was thinking the doors are usually closed). I thought this was kinda weird, so I tried a nose plug RC. I'm not sure why, but that didn't get me lucid; it did, however, increase my awareness, and I noticed that there was supposed to be a doorway here. I must be dreaming!
Of course, I wasn't going to the exam anymore. I turned right back, heading to the exit. There, I saw some guys I knew back in school. After greeting them, one of them was complaining that he didn't really want to come today. He said something about it being the first day. First day? We're having finals this week! I told them, "guys, if you don't want to study, you don't have to. Let's all just leave!" They were happy to comply. As we were walking, I said: "do you know why it's ok if you don't want to your lectures?" They looked at me, waiting for an answer. I told them, "because this is a dream. None of this is really happening!" They started looking at me doubtfully. Now that I think of it, it's rather strange that I'm the only one that spoke during the entire dream. I wanted to prove this to them, so I attempted to fly, and ended up just falling. I wasn't really embarrassed though; they were just DCs. I then gave them my hand (not literally!) so they can count my fingers. They were all quite eager; they gathered around my hand quicker than you can say "I forgot to stabilize my dream".
And that was the last of it. I hadn't realized I finished a ToTM till I woke up, so I'm hoping that counts anyway. :p

#185 - Time unknown - DILD

I was going for WILD and I hit weak vibrations two separate times but I was disturbed by my wife the first time and lost concentration the second time.

I am in the yard at the old house in Luling, TX with my bro. There was something going on at the church but I can't remember now. Some man walks up talking to me. I suspect he is drunk so I smell his breath as he talks. He purposely talks heavy so that his breath is available for smelling. He has halitosis up no trace of alcohol. There is some conversation.

I go inside to look at something and close the door. There was a lot of panel glass on the exterior wall and door that should not be there. I turn around and really look at the old house. It has crappy siding but I remember brick. My brother is next to me again and I point and say, "That should be brick. I remember brick." Then gradually realize I am dreaming and remember that last time I wanted to burn the house down. I yell at my brother, "Quick! Light a match!" He instantly produces a lit match and it put it to the house. It goes out for a second but I concentrate on what a lit match looks like and it re-lights. I find a quart of motor oil and pour it on the fire. Then I think what I really need is gas. i look down and see a red plastic gas can. I pour the oil on it and the fire trails. I visualize the fire melting the plastic and watch. Jets of fire come spewing out and spread all over the house. The flames looks strange like some kind of fiery water.

Satisfied, I remember the TOTM. I feel like I am going to wake so I hurry. I look at my bro and quickly step into the fire. I feel the warm like an electric blanket is over me and I watch the fire spread from my legs up to my arms and hands. My brother is just standing there, looking at me dumbly. The dream fades but I don't wake up. I have some FA.
I am looking astronomical data. It feels like archived Kepler data. Someone says to look for some star system called "Xeno" "Xenous" Something like that. The dream morphs and at some point Justing Beiber is making out with me. I am outraged when I figure out what is going on and I call him all sorts of names. Britney Spears shows up talking to me like she knows me. I can smell her perfume. I find her attractive for the first time but I realize how much I don't like her and I sort of pity her. I think it is amazing that I am standing here in a Wal-Mart next to Britney and the Beibs. I become lucid but can't remember anything. I must have woke up or had another FA.

There was some dream about Nix and the feeling or lucidity when I woke up for the morning but I can't remember.

It's been a while since I have had a good LD like this, so I'm very happy about all that I accomplished.

Lucid Dream/Tasks of the Month

I was in the jeep with Marsha. We were driving to where this guy lived so I could either pick something up or drop it off. As we were driving I suddenly realized we had gone up the Little Cut. I was surprised. I hadn't realized we were going this far. I hadn't even remembered passing Horseshoe Bend. Right after getting up the Little Cut, we turned right onto a dirt road. The road entered a little canyon, and I remember thinking how pretty this was. I was a little jealous that this man lived in such a pretty place.

All of a sudden I was out of the jeep. I saw the jeep zip on up the road without me. I had no idea how I had slipped out. I started running after the jeep wondering when Marsha would realize I was gone. And what she would think. I ran through this narrow tunnel area that was really cool and kept on running up the road. Marsha wasn't stopping. How could she not have noticed.

Somewhere in here lucidity started creeping in. I don't remember a big "blam" moment. But I started doing flips as I was running. I knew I had the ability to do flips. I also knew that I wasn't getting as high in my flips as I often do. I was going so fast...no hovering.

I finally got to a point where I had full lucidity. And at that point I immediately decided I needed to do some tasks of the month. I had looked at them once at the beginning of the month. I remembered they seemed really cool and right up my alley.

I looked over and saw that I was at this park. I saw a few guys sitting on benches or standing nearby. I boldly walked right up to one guy and started talking to him. He was about 20 and looked at least part Indian (India), but he had blue eyes. I wish I remembered what I said, but his reaction was really rude. I decided that he would be a good one to do the basic ii task on (Telling a DC they are not real).

So I looked right at him and said, "Whatever...but guess what....none of this is real....you're not real...this is a lucid dream."

He wasn't phased. He kept up his rude comments and said something like, "Well you can take your lucid dream and shove it right up your ----."

I said, "Okay fine then". And I stepped a few feet away from him. This would be the perfect chance to try out another task (Light myself on Fire). I held my arms out in front of me and concentrated. Within seconds I could see flames start to rise from my arms. Since I was in bright sunshine I worried that it wasn't enough to be that noticeable. So I concentrated harder and soon I could see flames all over my body. They were still a little dim, but they would be noticeable. So I then looked over to where the rude guy was sitting so I could get his reaction. He had a surprised look on his face. I then noticed that I had set him on fire as well. I looked around again and saw that his friends were also on fire.

"Take that." I said to the rude guy. I was hoping the fire would scare the crap out of him and humble him a little.

The fire wasn't hot. I couldn't feel it at all.

The friends started laughing at this whole thing. I could tell they thought I was amazing and clever for setting the fires with my mind. The rude guy, on the other hand, wasn't laughing. He was freaking out. He acted like his fire was actually hot and was trying to put it out on his head. Finally I put all the fires out and decided to do another task since I was still fully lucid.

I remembered I wanted to try the Lay an Egg Task. I knew that would be simple to do, yet had that fun unknown factor. I squatted on the ground and squeezed a little. Nothing happened so I squeezed and pushed a little harder. Suddenly I was worried that all I would manage to do would be to go poop. I didn't want that. I stood up again. I realized that I had my clothes on. I decided to reach down in my pants to see if I maybe laid an egg and hadn't realized it.

Sure enough, I could feel something down there. I pulled it out. It was a clear plastic ball about 2 inches in diameter. On it were some wiggly eyes. There were a few loose wiggly eyes beside it. Okay, that was interesting. I set them down on the ground and reached down to see if there was anything more in my pants.

This time I pulled out a handful of those little plastic letters with the magnets that people put on the fridge (or at least used to when I was young).

I tried again. This time it was a handful of plastic blue things that I wasn't sure what they were. And there was also a dice.

I was going to do it again, but I noticed the rude guy walking by. I went up to him and put my arm around him and started walking with him. He didn't seem to notice at all. Then a guy that was supposedly a friend of mine went up to him and told him that I was interested in him and that I would like his phone number. The rude guy acted surprised and asked, "Are you sure she would go out with me." My friend said, "Of course." And the rude guy got a little excited at that point and fumbled in his pockets to find a piece of paper on which to write his phone number on.

But at that point I could feel the dream fading from me. I was a little sad, but knew it was alright since I had done three tasks and I need to write them down before I forgot.


The next thing I knew I was standing next to Marie who was sitting on a corner couch/chair. I looked at corner of it and saw what looked like cream colored black widow. It didn't have an hourglass, but everything about it looked like a black widow. As I got closer I could see that it was a very big spider....bigger than any black widow I had seen. Suddenly I was afraid. Marie had short shorts on and her exposed leg was just inches away. I told her we had to kill this spider--that it could be every bit as poisonous as a normal black widow. I got a book and tired to smash it against the wall, but something got in the way and I couldn't squish it all the way. And suddenly it was two spiders and they were both huge.

And at that point I woke up with my heart beating a little fast.

There was big black dog. It was mine, but i couldn't remember its name. I thought that it can't be so, count fingers -six. I wanted to transform myself in live coals, like bad guys in iron man . I did it and went to my son - look! i'm like in iron man! I' m too!!! he said and i saw many red sports on it. His eyes was absolutely black, like in horror films. I said - Look! and spited with a fire. He came to me and touched me. In fact i was afraid a bit at first, but i felt no pain. I spited once again and there appeared a lot of DCs and i went to the garden through the wall.... With open eyes. I went about 2-3 seconds. In the yard i met kids- they were advertising something. I said - you know - you are dreaming....i felt that they attached me, fought with them a bit and went to real.