cedwards105

Awake until about 5:00am. Two cups of coffee in the evening, trying to get ready for a meeting and a presentation today. Worked in the lab until at least 2:00am. Up again after 9:00am.

Not much time to write this morning. Just some notes, hopefully I will fill them in later.

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Working in the lab

I am working in the lab. Somebody stops in. They point out a candle thing. Has to do with a vent/tunnel. In case of emergency, can crawl through there.

National Park

Walking with a dog (or dogs). Cop, I think. Dogs seem to smell something. Cops looking for something. But they looked where the dogs smell something already.

To national park. Railroad tracks. Dog senses train coming. Dad goes down one path, I decide to join him. A-- and M-- go on another path. Mom goes somewhere. We make it across tracks before train comes.

Fragment

A girl is going on a "date" with her cousin. Not really a date. I don't know why they call it that.

Snail orchids

People carry around these things that look like large snails. It is customary to make fun of your snail, I think, and tell others something unflattering about it. But I think these are also called "orchids". There is one on the ground. It has kind of purplish foliage (it's more plant-like now). Apparently, if you touch it you get a residue on your hands that makes other things you touch taste or smell like - rotting apples, maybe?

I had a decent night's sleep last night. I hadn't been sleeping well for a while, which might have been contributing to my boring dreams. Last night's dreams were a little more engaging. At least, I felt more engaged.

Bedtime around midnight or so, 1.5mg of melatonin.

It may have been a mistake to look at my phone before journalling. I seem to have forgotten some details. Maybe they will occur to me throughout the day.

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Spices

There is some kind of rack - rows of spices are hanging on it. The spices are also people. When one pulls a lever at the side, the spices lower a notch. The lever is pulled as a repercussion for something - it's a prison of some sort. Some of the spices are nearing the bottom. What happens then? That doesn't seem to have been figured out yet. Do they let people go? Or are they executed?

Spider fragment

There is a spider... Was this also the dream with vampires?

Vampires

A vampire woman. Maybe two of them. A guy also. I walk down a hall, there is a door on the left. I enter the room. I think there is a picture on the wall of some interest.

Interesting fragments

There is a group of us. Some kind of an adventure. Going upstairs. We need to sneak past some people. I think that works. Something about blood samples?...

Something else about a girl. They put some balloon like things on her head...

Archaeology and seminar

Doing archaeology amidst a wooden platform, like a porch. I dig down, gathering dirt. There is brown broken glass, and some metal pieces related to a fireplace. Further down, I end up in a room with fireplace tools.

There is also a seminar going on. It is packed, and it's hard to find a seat. I sit down at the right side of the room. I notice at least one girl is still wandering around, but she eventually sits down.

There is a board, with a bunch of notecard-like things on it. Part of the board is covered by a dark, semitransparent cover. This is to be removed as the talk progresses. The guy is talking about somebody named "Ron Trzcinski". To me, the person talking sounds like Ron Trzcinski from The Original Mattress Factory.

At some point I realize that I left the hole I was working in uncovered. That doesn't seem safe. I go out to try and find something to mark it with so nobody steps/falls into it and gets hurt. I go into a trailer, or shed, or something, and find some "Wet Floor" signs. I go back out to the archaeological site/deck. There are some people doing construction there. I set up one of the signs over top of a hole. The other sign seems to have turned into a table or something. That still works, so I put it over top of another partially-filled hole.

Someone mentions that they are giving gifts to people associated with my friend A--. I have been in a small group with him, so I go back up to the seminar room to try and get a prize. I vaguely remember something about balloons. There is also a table with some books on it, one of which is labelled "semi-nudes".

Cleaning up

We are moving a bunch of things. This might have been part of the seminar dream, I'm not sure. We are, at one point, in a large barn-like structure. Some women are pushing posts suspended from the ceiling down a track, trying to remove them I think. I feel a little annoyed, because it seems like they are trying to show off how strong they are. I look for something heavy to do myself.

One of the heavy things involves loading a riding mower in the back of a truck (I think). There are a couple of piles of junk like this...

...There is also a collection of wooden slats. These go with other wooden objects that they fit into...

I think my friend A.V. from my old Church is there. Or maybe she was at the seminar.

Riding in a car

I'm in a car. I think my Mom is driving. Although it seems to me that she is on the right side of the car (which is unusual because this is the USA). Anyway, we are driving south toward my old workplace (a common motif). We are going to St. Clairsville, and I think to myself (or say out loud) that I like that town. I seem to enjoy being there, and I feel as though there is some cognizance of the fact that I was complaining yesterday evening about having the same dreams over and over - this being one of them. Not being lucid, it was as though I was thinking to myself "this isn't so bad".

We get off at an exit, and turn right around to get back on the road north. There is a lot of construction going on around us.

OK, let's try this again...

Edit: I think I will start including more waking thoughts here, as they relate to dreaming/lucidity. Readers may skip this part if they find it boring (not that you need my permission anyway!)

I'm trying to get back into lucid dreaming. I just posted a message in the forums asking for help getting into shared dreaming. I consider myself an open-minded skeptic when it comes to that sort of thing. I don't know if I have seen enough evidence that it's real, but I would kind of like to. Either way, it seems like a good way to get back to work on my lucidity.

On that note, I realize that I have difficulty maintaining self-discipline and even interest in lucid dreaming for long periods of time. This might be due to various factors. For one, I become discouraged when my lucid experiences are short, or seemingly boring. Also, I find the journey of learning to lucid dreaming and dream exploration to be lonely. I will be thinking about lucidity, mulling it over in my mind (I ruminate a lot), and start to feel that the dreamworld is a lonely place. I also start to feel unmotivated and wonder: What good does it do anyone? If my actions don't matter, what's the point?

But then I read dream journals of more proficient oneironauts, and long for the epic adventures and inspiring interactions that they have in their dreams. My dreams seem so mundane. And so lonely.

Enough of that...

I spent some time this evening reading Man of Shred's dream journal. I was particularly intrigued with the Jamie dreams, and the waking-life story that surrounds them. I feel for those two. I really hope things turn out well.

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Dream Updates:

I have fallen out of the routine of dream journalling. Here are some things I remember from recent dreams (not necessarily last night):

Archaeological site

Archaeological site...I'm assigned a place to work at the top of a large pyramidal mound. I'm a dit disappointed because that means I'll be working with really old stuff before this area developed a lot of culture that I find interesting (I don't know why the old stuff is at the top, seems to conflict with the Law of Superposition)...Someone takes a shower, we do something that we try to hide before they get done...

Old elevator

I think that I have dreamed about this more than once. It's an old elevator, almost what might be thought of as the ruins of an old elevator. There is a floor at the top with some old museum-like things. You can go down. I have a feeling that it is related to Quaker Square somehow.

Other recurring motifs

A large building, or set of buildings...you go upstairs and there is a hallway to another business...

Roadside places where we stop for food...

Going back to one of the old colleges...

Airport...

Paths behind my grandparents' old house...buildings off to the north (is that the right direction?)...