Nazrax

Bed @ 2225*
Woke @ 2330 /w nothing.*
Woke @ 0200 /w nothing.*
Woke @ 0345 - unknown reason

Remote pairing
I'm in "my room" talking with my team lead on the phone, using my Bluetooth headset. My phone shows me a notification that something's crashed, but I assume it's some background process since everything seems to be working OK. My lead is doing most of the talking, and I'm generally making "Uh-huh" noises. It's only when I actually try to add something that I realize he can't hear me. I start fiddling with the phone, trying to get 'unmuted.' Eventually, he asks me a direct question, and after trying again with the headset I disconnect it and hold up the phone to my ear. This time he can hear me and I explain what happened with the headset before getting back to the conversation at hand. He wants to spend most of tomorrow pairing with me on our project, some kind of radio hardware, and we're planning out what we want to accomplish.

Now I'm walking away from my building, crossing shopping center parking lots. I need to get some distance from my office to test something out. I'm concerned that radio signals are just too finicky, and that all the stuff around here will create all sorts of 'hot spots' and 'cold spots' and we just won't be able to make sense of our results unless we get much better testing hardware. At a minimum, we're going to need a proper signal strength meter, but we're also going to need ... something else (I forget in-dream). Now I'm still moving away from my building, but I'm somehow in a sitting position, sliding backwards over the ground, frictionless, though it's a very bumpy ride and I have to watch out for hedges lining the driveways.

Now I'm walking again, approaching the intersection of a couple of busy roads. A utility truck is pulled up onto the grass, and the utility guy is walking around. I can hear rock music blaring even though I'm still a ways away from him. This is my general destination - my lead wants me to test from here, though I don't think it'll work, since I no longer have line-of-sight to my building.

Now I'm standing on the steps of what seems to be a condemned tenement building. The whole thing is painted brick red, though the paint is peeling. There's another similar structure across the street, though it's actually made of brick. My lead is with me, and I point over, saying that we may be able to 'spike' the building across the street near its top with a radio repeater if we can figure out who to ask for permission. As I descend the steps, I look around, wondering if anyone still lives here despite the terrible condition of the building. The board I try to use as a railing turns out not to be connected to anything and I jump, not expecting it to pull away in my hand. I put it back down, then descend the steps even more carefully.I walk along a grassy area until I can finally look back to see the College of Computing, which is at the end of a shopping center strip. It's got a drive-around that I didn't remember being there.

Now I've walked back and gone inside, and I'm in the waiting room of a doctor's office, standing in line to pay. To my left, a frosted glass window opens and the receptionist spays me with water as if from a shower head. I yelp, dashing around, trying to get out of the stream, and she laughs uproariously. I'm not pleased, but I like the people here and I can't feel too annoyed at them. Back in line, I look around carefully, and no more ambushes seem to be forthcoming. The guy in front of me turns and hands me a wallet he thinks I dropped - it certainly looks like mine. I open it and find it's full of British pounds, not dollars, and I tell him it's not mine. Hearing "pounds," another man turns, sees the wallet, and exclaims that it's his. He gives me a hand-written note and some American bills he's been carrying, explaining that he wanted to give a reward to whoever gave found and returned his wallet. His English is good if rather accented - German, maybe. I'm not sure what to do - I wouldn't mind a few extra spending dollars, but I don't want to take advantage of him either. I make a very small effort to return the money, but he rebuffs me, and I don't press it. I'm having trouble counting the bills - at first, I think it's a five and a one, but each time I look at it it's different. At one point, I think it's a twenty, a ten, and a five. Eventually, I remember the note and look at it. It's scrawled in nearly unintelligible handwriting, a thank you for finding his wallet. Along the left side is his own recipe for something. I don't try to interpret the note or the recipe since the handwriting is so bad, but I do keep it for later study.

Now I'm talking to one of the doctors. He's amused, smirking, reminding me of the reason I trust him, that he doesn't take any of my personal information; but then he runs through all the various agencies, groups, and regulations they have to deal with which completely destroy any semblance of privacy I may have had.

BTB @ 0410; can't sleep until 0610
Woke @ 0715

Delta lucid?
I'm looking at a gray-on-gray "field," and I know I'm asleep. I'm aware of the feeling of my right hand. I manage to form an image of a hand and open and close it without affecting my physical hand.

Searching for sky; flight!
I'm in a rather plain room with a family I feel I know, a man and couple of teenage kids. I'm working with some food laid out on the lid of a large Rubbermaid tub. I take a small piece of fish steak out of a square Glasslock container where it's been sitting on wax paper and marinating in something dark. Someone asks me if I know how to handle fish and I answer yes.

I remember that I'm dreaming and reach out to feel the edge of the lid, its plasticy sharpness. The people are gone. I stay calm, moving slowly, breathing deeply, fixing the knowledge that this is a dream in my mind (I forget to rub my hands). I feel the top of the lid, then the wall near me, then start to head outside. I need to get outdoors so I can fly. I move very slowly, as if quick movement will shatter the dream or make me forget (I need to work on that ...)I walk through the doorway and find myself in something like a small enclosed garden - grass on the ground, other growing stuff around, 4 walls, and something overhead. I walk through another doorway and find myself in another small room, then in another enclosed outdoor space. I see a screen door (it's green all over) and launch myself through it, but I just find myself in another enclosed space. I start to get concerned - what if I can't find a way out? I calm myself and don't let myself get sucked into it. I reflect that I'm not yet very good at dream control, so I don't trust myself to bust through a wall, but I can still use simpler, more reliable methods. I stop, telling myself that there will be a doorway around the next corner, picturing it in my mind, picturing the sunlight shining through it. I turn the corner and find myself in a garden with a fence. There's still something overhead, but there's a gap between the covering and the fence, and sunlight is streaming through the gap. I'm so relieved, I feel a huge weight lifted from myself.

I launch myself up through the gap, and I'm out, hovering in the air about ten feet up. I'm so happy, but I keep control of myself. Buildings are on either side of me, and a kind of wide alley stretches out before me; but I can still see the blue sky above. I pause for a moment - I've never gotten beyond this stage, so now what? I focus on feeling confident, go into what feels like a natural flying pose - right arm forward, left arm cocked backwards - and start moving upwards and forwards, out beyond the buildings. I remember that part of my goal is to really feel the sensation of flying, of wind in my face, of speed and height, but I get nothing. I'm out in the open now, with nothing around me. To my left, I see a woman flying in, holding an umbrella. I wake, feeling amazing and slightly emotional.

Fragment: I'm holding my mini-massager, trying to use it; but the battery is so low that it can barely vibrate.

Points: 36