ErraticHopper

I'm travelling through the Underground with my boyfriend (?). We cross a metallic grey, wide passage, leading from a tunnel to the escalators. White lights beam down from the ceiling and reflect off the walls. I walk behind him as we step onto the escalator. His broad back in front of me makes me feel safe.

Later, I am with some friends, still in the same Underground station. We step off an escalator and walk through a short tunnel towards the platform entrance. I get a shock as we enter - almost the whole platform has crumbled away, leaving narrow irregular ledges that cling to the wall, bricks sticking out here and there below. We hold close to the wall as we inch along the platform, finding our footing with difficulty. I'm terrified of falling onto the tracks.

Then I am in class, but not in a classroom. There's another, similarly dilapidated platform that we are inching along, murky water lapping almost up to the edge. I reach an unstable part with nowhere to place my feet - the next ledge is too far of a leap, and I know that the nearest foothold won't hold me. It's too small. I can't bear the thought of touching that water, so I crouch down against the wall in despair and refuse to move.

A fruitful night.

1.

I'm at school, wandering around, up and down stairs, through empty corridors. No-one is around. All the stairways and passages seem much longer than usual.

I stop on a huge landing at the bottom of the stairs, at ground floor level. The wall to outside is a large expanse of glass, shimmering panes from floor to ceiling. Outside is a raised platform paved with gravel, walled in to the left by another glassy extension to the building while the other two sides face into the open air.

A girl comes up the stairs from the basement and pauses when she sees me on the landing. She is in uniform - a younger girl - and has a ponytail of bushy, light brown hair. We talk although I can't remember what about. Then she turns to the windows and says, boldly, "I'm going to go out on to the balcony!". I gasp. The balcony is off-limits to students because it gives a clear view into the staff room (the other room on the left) and we are not supposed to see in there. She pushes open a door in the glass and purposefully walks out. I feel terrified that she'll be caught. Suddenly, my perspective shifts: I'm on the other side of the staff room, where there is no balcony, standing slightly below the ground floor level and looking in. I see, through blue glass, rows of desks with computers and chairs. I am shocked to see that the room is completely empty.

Later, I am in a brightly lit hallway on the top floor. Although there are no windows I feel very high up. I walk with another girl, who says she wants to find a bathroom - I know her, she is somewhat tall and has long blonde hair. The bathrooms are along this hallway. She says she doesn't like those tiny narrow cubicles, and prefers the wide ones, so I direct her towards one bathroom which has a few larger cubicles. She ignores me and enters the one next door, only to find every cubicle occupied. Annoyed, she returns, and we go in. It is a very bright and spacious room with white tile up the walls. We pass the sinks and turn the corner to see a row of five large cubicles, and several smaller ones opposite. A few are occupied - I see curly hair over the top of a door - but some are open, and she enters one. I hang about outside, waiting, leaning against the wall.

2.

The sun beams down on us as I cycle, with a group of others, around a gorgeous flower field. Just as I become aware of myself, I see I am crossing a broad flat wooden bridge - though no water in sight - and I look up. We are cycling over a 'path' of slightly flattened and crushed grass, which runs all round at the edge of the huge oval-shaped field. Long grasses are waving and among them crowd pink, purple, blue, red and yellow wildflowers, small, tall, pretty. The air has a sweet grassy smell and the sun shines down warmly, making the whole field glimmer. I think how it's been so long since I last cycled, but it's true that you really don't forget - it feels so free and easy, flying over the grass on my bike. Another girl passes me, lightning-fast and scarily close, causing me to lose my balance and veer over to the fence around the wide edge of the path.

I stop right by the fence and put one foot on the ground. Here is dark green, cool and shady, with climbing and overhanging foliage winding around and above the fence and the trees outside it. The fence is white and curvy, two running rails with periodic posts sticking into the ground. Ivy clambers over it and obscures much of the metalwork from view. I lean over and see a deep, muddy ditch on the other side. I'm taking a moment to rest when another cyclist - a boy this time - comes barreling up the path and almost crashes into me. He stops himself at the last minute and proceeds to angrily yell at me: "Stop by the fence, idiot!" I cry back indignantly, "This is the fence! Can't you see?". He flushes red and rapidly takes off again.

I resume cycling, though stop regularly by the fence. At one point, I look over it and see rushing water. Its calming sound washes over me as I pan my gaze across the field.

3.

School again. I am in French class, in our little room at the top of the main building. We are all chatting and gossiping with the French teacher as we often do. I start telling her about when I saw into the staff room and it was empty - and I see her expression growing almost murderous...

4.

Leaving my house, on a rather grey day, I turn to see one of the neighborhood cats sitting in the street a little further up. He's a friendly black cat (and very fluffy) so I head over to say hello. I crouch down to stroke him, and he stands, turning his head towards me while raising his fluffy tail in the air - exactly like a picture of him my dad sent me last week.

Really happy with these dreams - it's rare that I remember so many. And cat! I love dreaming about cats.

It's starting to get really quiet around here so I hope all the people who haven't been online recently will be back soon. I'm missing having everyone's DJs to read

From a station somewhat close to my house (about 20 mins on foot) I take a train to see my friend. The platform extends out from under a tunnel of square white arches, and it's bright with daylight, but everything seems to get darker and narrower once I step onto the train and the doors close.

I get off at 'Westminster' after a half-hour ride*. Her house isn't far - next thing I'm there. It's much larger than her real house. She opens a huge black front door to let me in and we walk through a long, high hallway to the kitchen and dining room at the end. After a bit of chatter I open the fridge as if it's my house and rummage through to see what we could have for dinner. Chicken and chips, I suggest - and ice cream. 'Ice cream?' she repeats sceptically. 'Well,' I reply, a little embarrassed, 'I guess we don't need that.'

We make dinner and proceed with plates down another long, white corridor, into a vast and bare living room. The ceiling is double height and the walls are panelled and painted white. There is a white sofa in the middle of the room and a TV against the opposite wall. (Seriously this is all - IRL her house is a MESS) We settle down to watch together, chatting meanwhile.

I can't remember our conversation, though I recall it was interesting. Later, I leave, heading through yet another winding corridor through this maze of a house back to the front door (now, it's white). She unlatches the door and pulls it open for me as I step out into the dark chill night. I take the train home again - it's dark and eerily quiet - and finally shut my own front door behind me with a sigh.

I remember, later on, my mum appearing to rant at me about how I can't just keep coming and going from my friend's house every week. I ignore her.

*This is not where she lives, nor can you get there from the station where I was - besides, I always walk to her house.

Lucid! at last...

I'm wandering around the school, I phase through some doors and walls and do some reality checks. Seems like it's lunch break.

I am trying to follow someone, maybe he is a teacher? He has short brown hair and a stubbly beard. He's gone outside and I, in an empty classroom, decide to follow. I jump up onto the sill of the round window and hesitate, then remind myself I'm dreaming. I do a reality check (which fails) and then purposefully leap through the window glass and float down to the street.

There's a building in front of me, an abandoned-looking office building made of beige stone/concrete with dark brown windows. I wonder how to get in - I know I want to explore the right side of the building which I am standing in front of now. I try to fly up, but it takes me a minute to get the hang of flying. I take a jump and at first flutter my fingers by my sides, imagining where I want to go. It doesn't really work so I flap my arms instead, slowly, powerfully wheeling them down on the wind like a bird's wings. I propel myself upwards - too far upwards. I don't want to be above the roof of the building so I stop moving my arms. Then I fall rapidly. I start to flap once more but I can't control my direction - I am careening towards the ground and the wall. I collapse to the ground and quickly get up.

I look for another entry point to the building. There are no doors but a big window above me - from the right distance, I could take a big leap and get right through the window onto the first floor. But now, somehow, I'm worried about people in the school seeing me do that. I walk around a ways and stop in a sheltered area (maybe for parking cars?) under the building, there is a stretch of rough stone wall to the side. I could just walk through it. But, I think, this a bit far from where I want to enter, and once I'm inside I might not be able to find the right room. I pace around the building pondering my dilemma when I turn to see the man I was after returning up the road towards the school. I know it's time for class to start again so I follow him up the exterior stairs (these are new) into the school building. Alas, next time.

Fragment: some kind of superman action, leaping between office buildings in the city and stopping on a windowsill to talk to people inside.

Maybe this was just semi-lucid? I was lucid enough to know I was dreaming, I knew I could do some superhuman things and did a few RCs, but was also dragged into the plot of the dream. I never asked myself why I had to explore that building. I wish I had gone in though! Also, 4th LD, yay!

What do you think? I know lots of you have many more lucid experiences than me. What's your usual level of awareness and self-control?

I'm climbing a staircase - I quickly realise that I'm in my primary school. The steps are smooth, angular concrete, and so are the walls - I remember that in reality, they were brick walls painted white. There is no artwork on the walls as I climb; the stairwell is cold and empty and my footsteps echo off the walls. It rises up a great shaft through the square school building.

I step onto a landing and turn to a set of grey double doors with small windows, to the nursery. They have no frame and are flush with the wall. I push open the doors and enter the nursery. Straight inside the door is a narrow hallway, the staff bend over tables on both sides of the wall. The space feels narrow, crowded and chaotic. I make my way through them and the hall opens into a much wider, clearer room, lit up brilliantly from all over. Half-height bookshelves double as partitions between different areas of the room, coloured beanbags are scattered about and children mill throughout the room. I'm not sure if I'm one of the children or not.

At the back of the room is a wall of narrow cubbyholes. I search for mine; I know whereabouts it is, but someone has let their coat hang out of their cubby so that it covers mine. I fumble around for a bit before finding my cubbyhole, only to discover someone else's stuff inside. I pull it out: it's a black drawstring bag, almost empty so that the fabric sags when I pick it up. I'm wondering what to do with this when I feel a tap on my shoulder.

I turn around. The girl standing behind me is someone who went to my school, but left before Sixth Form. We used to chat from time to time. "Sorry," she says, "that's mine - I'll take it. I just left it there for a moment." I hand her the bag and notice that her hair is darker and shorter than I remember it. "Did you get a haircut?" I ask. When she fully turns to face me I'm stunned to see that there's nothing left of her hair but sparse, thin and wispy curled strands; I can see clearly her near-bald scalp. I know she sees the shock in my eyes as she looks away with a regretful smile. She tells me that she was diagnosed with lymphoma ("lymphomatic") recently and is being treated. I don't know what to say. A crowd throngs around us of girls trying to collect their belongings.

I leave the nursery. As the doors fall closed behind me, something compels me to open them and look inside once more. Every teacher in the hallway snaps their head towards me, terror in their eyes. Each wears a plain dress, a crisp white apron and a cloth bonnet, and they bend over to tend to babies wriggling and squirming on the tables. Left speechless by their reaction, I slowly close the doors again and leave.

Then I am on the train, going home. It's cramped and I am squished against the wall of the carriage, arms clutched to my chest. The light down here is cold and dim, occasionally flickering. The train rattles as it rushes through the tunnel. I feel tired of the monotony, my eyelids flutter.

Soon I am walking down the high street away from my station. I compulsively check my belongings; touch my backpack strap, check. Feel my coat over my arm, check. Then I feel around under the coat and on my shoulder, but I can't find the tote bag that I always carry. At the realisation adrenaline bolts through my body and I almost feel sick. Where is it? At school? Then I have to go back. My wallet, phone and keys are in there, not to mention library books. What a pain... I'm already dreading the thought of getting back on that train.

As I'm figuring out what to do I clench my left hand and feel the resistance of something hard. It's my phone. That should be in my other bag, and it's here - but the bag isn't. All these different trains of thought and lines of reason swirl into a whirlwind of confusion. I stand stock-still in the middle of the pavement, mind racing as I begin to feel worse and worse.

Ugh I am not having a great time on the site recently... Every time I visit I get to spend much more than a few seconds 'verifying you are human' which then repeats itself after a few minutes and in the process logs me out and deletes the DJ I am editing. Drives me mad!

Long dream this time!