non-lucid

Homework Stress

Today is July 1st. One of the first things my [old] chemistry teacher does in class is ask for the homework. It was our choice exactly which assignment to do, but we were supposed to do 50 points' worth of homework. I haven't done it, because I forgot to check the syllabus.

Frags:

• "alien invasion" [??]

Cat Surgery

I walk into the basement to find an unfamiliar young man sitting with some of my parents. He's holding one of our pet cats, while my dad holds the other. [IRL: The other cat died, actually, about a year ago.] The other cat (a white one) gets away from dad, so I go after it. Evidently something is being done to the cats which they don't like, but which is good for them. Eventually I find the white cat and bring it back downstairs.

Now the stranger is sawing off the cat's front paw with a hacksaw. My parents assure me that this is a necessary surgery, since the cats' paws never healed right from that time they fell from a great height. I remember that event; it was somehow my fault. [IRL: No such thing has ever happened.] Despite my parents' assurances, I still think that this operation will probably kill the cats. Which is a real shame, because I think this first cat in particular had a long, eventful life ahead of him, in spite of his limp. The man finishes with the first cat, and we give him the second one.

Later, the first cat jumps up onto the couch next to me. I'm shocked to see that he has both front paws back already, and they don't seem to be paining him at all. Do cats have some kind of regenerative ability?

Manual Roller Coaster

Right up ahead, my sisters and I see the entrance of a big covered slide. We dive right in; I'm last. It's a sort of man-powered roller coaster: the idea is to crawl through as quickly as possible. Visibility isn't so good, so sometimes a sharp curve will take you off guard. Then suddenly I reach a long downward segment that I can just slide straight down. This is a blast! A bit later, I accidentally run into my sisters, who apparently just ran into each other. The youngest one apparently tripped because of an unusually long, sharp turn (something like 720 degrees), and then we all crashed right into her. Still, we extricate ourselves in moments and continue the ride.

At the end of the ride, there are a bunch of computers. You can type in your identification and it will tell you how long it took you to go through the ride, and how you compare to that day's other participants. I got 611th, which I think isn't too bad. Then I talk to my sisters, and it turns out the youngest one got 609th. I hadn't expected her to do better than I did! I'm a bit put out, but good for her anyway.

Exclusive Buffet

I'm eating dinner with some classmates at a big restaurant. We're having an important conversation, when suddenly someone comes out on the stage at one side of the room. The person talking to me has his back to the stage, so I try to shush him so I can hear what the woman on stage has to say. I realize I seem a bit rude, but surely he'll understand. A few other actors come onstage, and they start performing a play.

I have only a moment to feel surprised before a bulky, intimidating man comes up to our table and starts taking away our plates, whether or not we're done with them.

"I'm sorry," he says firmly, "we're closing now unless you're part of the club." He has a bit of an accent.

I remember that this place serves a buffet until 8:00, when the actual fancy dinner starts. You have to pay extra to be part of that, or something. And now it's 8:00, so we have to go. On the way out, some of my classmates snag something from the dessert station at the buffet. That's a little rude of them, since technically we're not allowed to eat anything from here anymore. Good thing I got my dessert earlier. Outside on the sidewalk, I hear some other classmates complaining about not having eaten a full dinner because there was nothing good at the buffet. I'm glad I avoided that problem by eating plenty, even if the food was pretty unremarkable.

First Day of Classes (LUCID)

I get up later than usual and hurry to find breakfast. I pass one of the dormitory suites, where apparently someone has set up a small continental breakfast. Interesting, to see such a business here. I get some food there. Then it's time to find my first class.

A lot of time has passed, so when I go back into the hallway, I see a gigantic line of people coming out of the suite's main entrance. It goes all the way down the hallway and down a staircase. I'm glad I missed the line, but suddenly I realize that so many people in line means these are probably the people who get breakfast immediately before heading to class. So I have very little time to collect my things and find my class. I hurry down the staircase, trying not to jostle the line of people too much.

[about 6 classes later . . .]

My next class is titled something like "Practice Session." My guess would be that that refers to a free slot for me to practice my instrument, but that doesn't make much sense, since I'm not a music major and this is not a conservatory. But in any case, I have to find the classroom, which is called the MUSIC room, appropriately enough. But the name "MUSIC" is actually some kind of alphabetical index of where to find the class. Like, I need to find floor M, then hallway U, etc. I suppose the music department thought they were very clever when they designed this room numbering scheme.

I'm hurrying down a surprisingly dark corridor, feeling rather lost. I think I'm on the right floor, but I can't find "U" anywhere. Suddenly, I come upon a library, where my orchestra conductor is talking to some of her students. Well, it's good to find other live people here, but I don't really want to talk to her right now, so I avoid them. Consulting my class schedule again, I realize that my next class isn't even in the MUSIC room. I've had about three other classes in there today, but this one is somewhere else. That's a relief, until I realize that the room shouldn't just disappear if I don't happen to have a class in it right now. But I don't have time to worry about that; I have to find this other place.

It strikes me that today has been an inauspicious first day of classes. I had been hoping that after last quarter (which was very stressful) I would have learned something about avoiding stress and staying calm--but alas, it seems like I have not. Especially since I seem to remember that I skipped most of one of my classes this morning because I had to finish an essay that was technically due last quarter.

My map has a sort of sticker on it, labeled with the name of the place I'm looking for, but it's way out in the middle of nowhere, and the map doesn't show any route to get there. I'm not convinced that's the right place, so I wander around some more. Then I realize I'm just pretending that it's not the place because it's much farther away than I expected. I should just suck it up and go there, even if it will take a while. Looking at the syllabus for this class (which is a small, staple-bound book with a brown cover), I notice that there's even some advice printed on the back cover: the professor says we should leave for his class within ten seconds of the end of the previous class if we want to make it to his class within ten minutes of the alleged start time. I start walking, but then I realize I'm not carrying a backpack or any school supplies at all. And I have only fifteen minutes until class starts. I might make it on time if I keep walking there, but I'll definitely be late if I go back to my room first. I wish I could just "Accio" my school supplies so they catch up to me while I'm walking. Of course, that's just wishful thinking--

--but then I realize that I'm dreaming! Sweet! Okay, I can fly back to my room, get my stuff, and fly to class, and still be there with time to spare. So I set out to do just that. [On my way to class, I lose lucidity.]

The route to class turns into a dirt hiking trail. I try going straight to the classroom, but the path leads under a giant boulder, and I discover that there's not enough clearance for me to squeeze through. Backing out, I make my way around the boulder instead. There are two young boys jumping around on the rocks, shooting at each other with what I identify as laser guns. One shouts at the other, "Mister, show me your ID card!" Clearly, they're imitating the adults from around here, the security guards that watch the entrance to the secure facility in which my class takes place. Okay, I should try to find the guardhouse so I can gain entrance to the facility. There's a small wooden cabin across the road that looks promising.

Inside the cabin, I find the teacher for my class. In order to pass the gatehouse, every student has to sign a contract. All of the contracts are hand-written (by the professor), and I can't read mine at all--it's totally illegible. But one by one, all of the other students are leaving the gatehouse to go to class, and in desperation I finally just sign the contract.

The classroom seems rather like an art studio. There are a lot of heavy-duty tables spread around the room; some of them are pushed against the wall like booth seats at restaurants. It is at one of these latter tables that the professor is sitting, and he invites the class to gather 'round his table while he explains what we'll do in today's class.

Cross-Dressing

A guest on a talk show demonstrates his attempt to dress like a woman. Then there's a video clip showing him in the outfit that the show's hosts create in order to teach him how to do it better. The outfit is red and black with bows in various places. I'm impressed. It makes a distinct statement while also seeming to suit the man quite well.

Group Project

We're working on our project (which is due soon) when suddenly we get assigned a new group member. That's really unfair. We have to add a new section on "Charm" (as in charisma) in order for there to be enough substance in the presentation to accommodate a new member. The rest of the group votes that I should work on this section, and it's clear that they mean this to be derogatory (by implying that my personality needs a lot of work). We sit in hostile silence for a few minutes. I decide to give them the silent treatment and work on my own for the rest of the project.

Saruman

I'm working with some friends on a level in a game. In a room near my character, a wizard starts leading a ritual which we cannot allow to be completed. We try to run amid the gathered orcs and kill things, but there are just so many of them! I score a lot of hits, but I can't see the health bars, so I don't know how much more work will be required. And I'm not focusing on just one target at a time, either: I'm just running in circles and loops, slashing at everything that I pass. I pass the wizard and take a swipe at him, but then I get a better look at his face. It's Saruman. I feel scared, now--I'm not prepared to face him.

Slightly Daring

I'm sitting in someone's lap. Feeling a bit daring, I squirm around a bit, ostensibly in order to get more comfortable.

Climbing

It's the beginning of the last level of a game. I have to climb up a rocky slope on a mountainside.

Comic Book Art

I'm with a friend. He tells me to come look at some of his "coolest things." He shows me an intriguing piece of comic book art: a monster flipping a coin. Somehow the art conveys the artist's desire to make the monster "challengingly" grotesque to the reader, in the sense that we are supposed to view it as an empathetic, sentient creature, but all the details are calculated to make the monster repulsive and fearsome. I immediately try to imitate the drawing on a blank sheet of paper, to see if I can convey the same feeling. Somehow, the skin of my replica monster looks much drier than the skin on the original.

Gunman

I'm browsing a mid-sized room in a supermarket. A gunman comes out of the hallway and starts shooting everyone. In the confusion, I fall over. I'm about to get up and run away when I realize that it's probably smarter to play dead. The gunman is just here to kill people; he's not going to waste bullets on dead bodies.

Later, I go into an office with cubicles. The gunman isn't shooting anyone any more, but he rules tyrannically over everyone in the office. We live in fear that at any time he'll come around the corner, start an apparently pleasant conversation with us, then kill someone for no reason other than a momentary desire to commit homicide. I talk to a woman who gives me some documents that I must carry somewhere. The mission is part of a resistance effort, and it is very risky. I admit to the woman that I'm scared.

On the way, the gunman (now a certain YouTube personality) falls in beside me, greeting me jovially. I am terrified of this man's whims, and he knows it--he exaggerates his unpredictability. I'm not sure how to make him go away; he seems determined to accompany me wherever I'm going. At one point, we engage in a rock-throwing battle (like the one in Braveheart).

Superpower

I'm practicing my superpower. Some other people with the same superpower are doing the same thing nearby, so we're having a sort of friendly competition. It turns out that I'm better than they are, which is a satisfying feeling.

Sparring

I meet up with an old friend from high school for the first time in a while. I pretend to do some Tae Kwon Do moves at him, and suddenly he counterattacks while saying some words that I recognize from the dojang. "Where did you get those words??" I ask incredulously. He must have taken up TKD! We continue sparring for a little while. I am reminded of something my instructor once said: "Think of sparring as a way of saying hi to your partner."

Confidence

Someone is supposedly fated to slay a terrible dragon. But the person is a staunch supporter of free will, and hence has trouble believing in something like fate. So ze is very unconfident about the prospect of fighting this dragon, which clearly hurts zir chances of succeeding. [I don't recall whether this person was me, or somebody else.]

I Quit (8:00)

I'm at a sports club, where we're doing our warm-up workout outside. The current exercise involves teams of three. We lock arms in a specific way, then take turns trying to lift the people on our left and right using our core muscles. I'm the last person in our group to do it, so I wasn't expecting it to be as hard as it is. I try it once--try it twice--and then give up. With hardly a goodbye, I walk back towards the locker room to change and go home.

On the way is a swimming pool, and I accidentally trip and fall into it. At the last moment I remember that my shoes are muddy, and I hook my legs over the side of the pool so I'm hanging upside down from the edge. That way, the water stays clean.

After I pull myself back out, the club's head instructor is standing on the other side of the pool, looking at me. He commends me for my civic responsibility in keeping the mud out of the water, and as a reward, he says he's willing to overlook my embarrassing decision to quit the club. "We're back together," he says, and it's clear he's enjoying the double entendre. This guy seems kind of like a sleaze-bag, and I don't think I want back into the club. I throw an apple core at him and go into the locker room.

Inside, there are some students practicing Apparition. It makes me sorry to realize I'll never get a chance to learn it, now. The trick has something to do with having complete faith that when you turn around, you'll be looking at the new location; I never quite got the hang of it. Oh well.

I look over towards the secret door, which I also never figured out how to open. Then I see there's some kind of locking mechanism in the upper right corner. It's moving around, which must mean someone is trying to come through the door. Probably the head instructor trying to talk to me again.

Indeed, it is him. As soon as the door opens, we start fighting. It's a mix of Tae Kwon Do sparring and a knife fight. We end up back outside, advancing and retreating and circling around one another. I'm rather proud of myself for being able to deflect all of his attacks.

I am joined by a team of fighters on roller blades. They are part of a resistance group that has an ongoing feud with the sports club. Sensing my opportunity to cut ties with this place, I go with them when they leave.

Hot Porn

I'm re-watching an unusually good porn video. There's a strange jump cut in the middle, though, that confuses me.

Frags:

• "Thanksgiving plot (which class? hwk done?)"

Have to Study

I suddenly realize that I have only a few hours left to study for my Formal Languages final at 1:30. [Interestingly, that /is/ the actual time of the final, though at the time of dreaming I still had an entire day left to study. I woke from this dream feeling definitely anxious.]

Frags:

• "professor story"
• "psychological [illegible]"
• "borrow car, teleport?, materialize car"
• "machine gun"

More Acrobatics (4:10) (LUCID)

I'm jumping around a room and doing backflips. At some point, I realize that I'm dreaming. I try to duplicate some moves I've done previously. There is a man in the room who comments, "I've always thought that anything you like doing is worth doing three times." I think this is very wise.

Log Cabin Tent (10:46)

I'm setting up our family's tent at the campsite before the rest of them arrive. Its walls are made of logs, and they unroll in sheets. I'm trying to set up a pole when somehow I drop it. It falls precipitously into the neighboring campsite, where another family is setting up. They express commiseration and come over to try to help me, but I show them that even though it looks like a log cabin, it's not really any harder to assemble than a tent, so I can manage on my own. Suddenly the family's dog runs in the front door, barking. It jumps up to put its paws on the front wall, and the wall falls over. Okay, I'm willing to admit to the family that /that/ was annoying. They apologize and leave in order to restrain their dog.

Later, I'm getting ready for bed, when I realize that all of the windows are open and everyone in the nearby campsites can see me undressing. There are at least five people visible, walking around. So I stop what I'm doing and go around zipping up windows. Suddenly I hear another zipper, and I see a shadow on the roof that indicates someone is walking by, zipping up the ceiling window as they go. It feels like an uncomfortable violation of my privacy. It also makes me feel bad, because that person was evidently annoyed by my undressing--enough so to come over to close the windows zirself.

At some point my family shows up, and we start decorating the house. Right now, it's the kids' job to chop up garlic into bead-sized pieces and put them in small dishes in the guest rooms. The garlic is lilac-colored. It seems like a rather silly chore, but my parents insist that the guests will appreciate it. When I'm almost done, I notice that the ziploc bag containing the garlic is itself made of garlic. Not wanting to waste any, I cut off a piece of the bag with approximately the same mass as the other pieces we've been cutting. I put it in the bowl, but somehow I can't bring myself to leave it there. It looks so stupid sitting next to the uniformly shaped other pieces.

Frags:

• "dishwashing" (?)
• a road map with a yellow highlighted route--some kind of tour

Teacher Comments

Over SSH, I open up the log file of my grading hours to find that the professor has edited it to leave me a message. I thought only I had permission to modify it. Hmmm. Oh well.

Enough

During a break in the lecture, I've been talking with a classmate about how to prove the next major proposition. He thinks he has an idea, so he tells the professor. The professor (who's only about 30 and has a carefree attitude) tells him he should go up to the board and present the proof to the class. My classmate is somewhat taken aback at this unusual request, but he obeys. Of course, he doesn't completely understand his proof (he only knew the general outlines), so a minute later he runs into a problem and his presentation stumbles to a halt. The professor steps in to say that it's a good start, and also, "That's probably enough for today. We'll finish the proof next time." I'm confused again, because we still have a few minutes left in class--plus it's weird that he ended the lecture with a rough student presentation. It seems to me that his carefree attitude doesn't lend itself well to being a good teacher.

Feral Fox

I get out of the car to see a mangy fox running around our driveway. I expect it to run away from me, but it charges! I kick at it in an attempt to avoid getting bitten. Who knows what diseases it might have. It dodges my foot and runs a few yards away, but I'm not sure if I've scared it off for good yet.

Clock Lag

I wake up and roll over in bed to check the time. I scribble some short notes in my dream journal, then check the time again to record when I woke up. To my surprise, the time seems to have jumped forward by five minutes. I check my cell phone's other two clocks. [My phone has three alarms, which in the dream I must have confused with separate timekeeping devices.] First one, then the other, ticks over from one minute to another minute five minutes later. It must be a kind of lag induced by having been in idle mode all night. Soon I wake up for real. [The actual time was about a half-hour earlier than the time in the dream.]

Frags:

• "faster way home"

Giant Spiders

I'm playing a hard HOMM3 scenario. I decide to put in a cheat code and skip to the end of the scenario, just to see what it's like. I'm moved to the end of a dungeon, where I get the key that unlocks the way to the final boss. Then I exit the cave, emerging to a darkened portion of the overworld map that I've never seen before. To the north, past some mountains, a giant pair of red eyes is moving around. The final boss must be a giant spider; I've fought these before. I look for a passage through the mountains. Then somehow the light improves and I can see the rest of the spider's body. Well, not all of it; it doesn't all fit on the screen. This spider is much bigger than the ones I've fought before. Even though this is only a game, I feel a distinct sense of fear. Suddenly I don't want to find a passage through the mountains; I start looking around the rest of the nearby map area instead. As I do, suddenly I see motion to the east. Panning over, I see a new spider, a blue one, almost as big as the other. It's looking for me, and it will get here in moments. I run away.

Frags:

• granola bar
• Due to an accident, I smell totally rancid.
• Someone is commenting on a picture of religious protesters. One of the protesters is holding a life-sized caricature of a naked man with a sign hanging from his erection. I think maybe the man is supposed to be Romney.
• I have to shave my beard. It's kind of a shame, because it's a full beard about an inch long and it goes well with my longer hair. [IRL: I can't grow a full beard.]

Mom's Army

My mom is an evil wizard. We would be able to deal with that, but apparently she is somehow using her powers to give similar powers to other people as well. I discover this when I overhear some men talking about how they're on their way to a ceremony gain those powers and join her army. They say that she's planning to convert one percent of the world's population, then stop, allowing them to rule over the rest of humanity. This is bad news for me and the rest of my family.

Cruelty to Animals

A woman from the housing system has taken my family's dog for a walk while we're on a camping trip. While most everyone else is distracted, I see the woman use the shock collar to zap the dog for absolutely no reason. This makes me very angry, and I immediately report the event to my dad.

Frags:

• bugs being scary
• "fly -- over [illegible] northern realms"
• orchestra audition

Salsa Skills

One of my salsa teachers (a girl) comes up to me at a dance. She says she's been really impressed by how much I've learned, and she wants to dance with me.

[Sadly, no such thing happened at the IRL dance the previous night. :'( ]

Pirate Crew

I've joined the crew of an infamous bearded pirate. There's a gigantic swimming pool inside the ship around which everyone sleeps at night. Once, I accidentally set of a musical alarm of some kind that woke up the captain. In response, he declared that there would be no music of that genre played on his ship any more. In fact, no one can even get that kind of music stuck in zir head, because there's a mind-reading device aboard that will instantly know. [The dream goes on to illustrate what the punishment would be, but I can't remember it any more.]

Out of the Frying Pan . . .

I'm near the docks of a city. There are a number of ships made of fog moored in the water. Later, a person meddles in some kind of voodoo magic that results in zir writhing on the ground, apparently feeling as though ze's being boiled alive. In order to avoid death, ze is forced to use a counterspell. But then another person standing nearby tells zir that as a side effect of the counterspell, ze is now possessed by about twenty different malignant spirits. Suddenly, the person seems very confused and dizzy.