side notes

I remember two dreams from last night. In the first one, I'm inside an old house. There's a man in one of the rooms doing something that the rest of us are trying to stop; conducting some sort of experiment or something like that. I don't remember what he's doing, only what the outcome is. Suddenly there are all of these insects in the walls. They're visible because it's like the sheetrock is transparent and you can see the wires and wall frame. The insects look like a swarm of bees and they're moving through the walls from the exterior to the interior of the house. Suddenly the lights go out and it's pitch black inside. A man's voice tells me, "Don't worry; they're going after him.", meaning the man in the room. Apparently, whatever he is doing is attracting the bugs to him. I feel some of the bugs crawl across me but they don't attack. I sense that to me, they're harmless. But the man in the room, I hear him start to scream. About a minute later, the lights come back on and we run to the room where the man had been. When we get there, all we see is a giant swarm of insects beginning to disperse and die. Within seconds, they're all dead and lying on the floor. I can now get a good look at them and realize they're not bees because their bodies and wings are longer and thinner. A man, perhaps the same one who told me earlier not to worry, calls me over and shows me little vials of blood that they have extracted from each of the insects and tells me that they apparently drained all the blood from the man's body before consuming it.

In my next dream, I'm in a cemetery and there's a funeral going on. I'm sitting with some of my family behind a grave that appears to belong to Leonard Nimoy. Besides his name on the headstone, there are photos of him and flowers and momentos laying around. But it's not his funeral because in the dream, I know I've been to his grave before. The funeral appears to be for William Shatner. His grave is just in front of Nimoy's and there is a similar collection of photos, flowers and momentos around it. I am a bit shocked by this because I didn't even know that William Shatner was ill; I thought he was in good health. Then the thought occurs to me that if he had been sick and lost some weight, he would look more like Captain Kirk from the original Star Trek series and that could be a good thing. Off to the side, one of my relatives is pointing out that Zsa Zsa Gabor's name appears on several of the headstones in the cemetery. Someone speaks up and says, "She married your uncle." Apparently, the names of the parents are on the headstones and that's why her name appears on more than one.

I'm disappointed that I did not pick up on any of the obvious clues that this was a dream. Zsa Zsa Gabor never married anyone in my family and both Leonard Nimoy and William Shatner are alive and well in the real world.

Okay, last night's dream was really strange and seemed to go on for a long time:

I'm at a large airport that doesn't resemble any I know in real life. I'm outside and planes are being moved around and parked on the tarmac. Most of them are models I am familiar with: MD-80's, 737's, etc. But one of them is like nothing I've ever seen before.

It's huge and triangular, wide in the back with what look like delta wings like on the space shuttle, except that these don't look wide enough to give the aircraft the necessary lift it would need to fly. It almost looks like there are two fuselages, sitting one on top of the other, and held together in some kind of yellow tubular framework. The body of the plane ends abruptly at the front with a completely flat nose, not curved like most airplanes are. I can't help but stare at it and wonder what kind of drag that flat nose would cause on the aircraft itself. It's almost like it's the rear section of what would eventually be a double decker aircraft of gigantic proportions.

Next, I find myself inside the airport. I am walking and talking with a woman who is wearing a one piece flight suit with military type markings and insignia. She is excited because she has just been chosen for her first assignment where she will parachute out of an airplane. We are walking outside because she wants to find the airplane she will be parachuting out of. We get outside and I see only three aircraft that look intact enough to fly. I tell her, "It's either this one", (pointing to one airplane), "that one over there", (pointing to another one), "or.....(pointing to the strange looking airplane), "it could be that weird airplane back there." We're not sure which airplane it will be, so while we're waiting, we decide to take a closer look at the strange aircraft. Looking at the flat nose section, I remark to her how much it looks like a pig's snout. We walk along the side of it and I tell her that it looks like it has an upper and lower deck, both with seats and point out what at first look like seats out in the open, not enclosed or protected by any walls or bulkheads. The seats are very small; at first I think they may be seats for babies to sit in. But that doesn't make sense because babies would not survive sitting outside an airplane when it is flying; they'd freeze to death. But then I notice the name "Gerber" printed on several of them and realize that they must be for baby bottles. "That makes sense," I say, "because they could store the baby bottles out here and they would be refrigerated by the airflow and high altitude. But how would the flight attendants be able to reach them in flight? They'd have to be wearing some kind of pressurized flight suit." Nothing about the design of the aircraft seems to make sense.
At that point, a man I know in real life, T.P., walks up and tells us the our airplane is arriving and fixing to touch down. We're watching it's approach and the pilot is requesting instructions for landing. T.P. is telling the pilot to land but he seems to be making jokes, saying things like, "Kiss the runway" and "slap the pavement". The pilot is so confused and/or inexperienced that he overshoots the runway and has to circle around and try again. I look at the woman and ask her, "You're going to jump out of that???" Then I woke up.

Last night, I tried out a new app called Lucid Dream Brainwave for iPad. My dream recall seems to be going in reverse, so I wanted to see if it would help any. I had it playing all night and saw no improvement whatsoever. This morning all I remember are fragments of one dream.

I'm at the airport with my mother and two of my brothers. We've just arrived from somewhere and are on our way to our car. As we're leaving the terminal, I stop to hold the door open for everyone, including two or three women who are behind us. One of my brothers yells for me to "hurry up", since I'm falling behind and I have the keys. I explain to him what I was doing, then we continue on to the car. My brothers aren't sure which car it is, so I take out the keys and use a button to open the trunk. They proceed to put their suitcases in the trunk then get in. I take my mom's suitcase to put it in the trunk and comment to her how light it is. She responds by saying she just packed enough for an overnight trip.

Later, I'm walking down a side walk to a large, really long table. Some kind of contest on going to go on there and the participants are finding seats. I'm dressed in nothing but shorts and a shirt and carrying some kind of curved stick. It's what I will need for the contest and all the participants have them. I notice some of the participants are guys that I work with at my job. I walk along the table looking for an empty seat. But since the seats are so close together, I'm trying to find one that still has vacant seats on either side of it. I finally find one and prop my stick against it to save my place. Looking at the way some of the other participants are dressed, I decide that should have also worn underwear and a pair of flip-flops.

Next I am walking up to a table where my mom is sitting and getting ready to eat dinner. I'm carrying a towel, some shorts and a pair of underwear wrapped up in the shorts. I alos have on a pair of flip-flops now. There is a woman standing at the table next to where my mom is sitting and she is stirring something white in a small pot of hot water that is sitting on the table. I ask my mom what it is and she tells me it's underwear and she's having it washed so they will be clean. She also tells me it's for Jasmine, who is one of her grandchildren in the waking world. I stand there and consider doing the same thing to the underwear I have, since I'm not sure if they're dirty or not. I decide not to (they look clean) and sit down.
Then two more peole join us at the table; a woman and a young girl. We greet them and my mom looks at the girl and says, "What a perfect little person." I turn and look at the girl to see what she looks like. She has long straight black hair, dark skin and braces. She smiles at my mom.

That's all I remember.

I had five different dreams last night:

In my first dream, I'm in the military I think. I'm in a room with some other poeple (friends?) and we've been told to pack up all of our belongings because we're relocating. But I'm worried because I have a lot of equipment and we don't have much time. One of the guys asks me how much of the equipment is mine, so I show him about two or three speaker amps and some other stuff, then lead him into this room that has transparent walls. I show him some video game consoles of mine. There's an xBox 360, only it's been taken apart, customized then mounted on something that resembles the racks that computer servers are mounted on; only these racks are transparent as well. In the meantime, this man (the man in charge) keeps sticking his head in the doorway and announcing that "We're leaving."

My next dream is really weird, because I find myself inside the body of a female musician (along the lines of Joan Jett but it's not her). We're inside a big auditorium with a stage set up in the middle and we're about to give a concert. There is a crowd of people lined up outside waiting to get in. I walk up onstage, pick up a guitar and place the guitar sling over my shoulder. I'm thinking, "This sling is really comfortable" and look to see what brand it is. (I can't remember) Then I become nervous because I don't know how to play the guitar. I'm wondering since I'm inside someone else's body, will I have their abilities as well. I try playing a few notes on the guitar and to me they sound terrible! But everyone else seems to be pleased, which I find strange.

This next dream is one I 've had several times before, soit's familiar:
I'm walking around what looks like a large library. There are multiple floors and I'm lost. It alternates between a library and what looks like a college dorm. I think I'm trying to find my room.

In my next dream, I'm outside at night. It's like a scene from an old black and white horror movie: all the trees and grass are dead. I'm with some people I know: my sister-in-law, my daughter and my wife. There is a large fallen tree on the ground and we have to get past it to proceed. But there are wolves around and they are threatening us. I see a boy sitting on the ground that the wolves are going after, so I try to help him. But before I can reach him, the wolves drag him away. This scene repeats itself three times during this dream, which should have alerted me to the fact that I was dreaming but it didn't; I just went alonng with the dream. Anyway, I find some sticks/clubs/boards and hand them out to everyone so that we can attack the wolves and chase them off. We try to go one way but can't, so I start looking for a way through the tree, or up and over it. I can't find a way, but my wife walks forward and brushes away some leaves and branches to reveal a red brick floor. A hole opens up in the bricks and I see stairs leading down to a door leading to what looks like an old time outdoor shopping mall.

In my last dream, I'm riding around on a golf cart with my daughter. We're inside a hotel but it's set up with wide hallways, so it's easy to get around. I'm trying to find my way outside but keep taking wrong turns and having to turn around. This annoys my daughter because we have food and some glasses of water on a small tray in front of us and my driving makes one of the glasses fall over and spill water. I eventually find the door leading outside but when we get outside, it's raining hard and we have to stay under a small covered area to keep from getting wet.

I had several dreams last night, one of them lucid:

In my first dream, I’m in a field with some friends of mine. I look up into the sky and see some kind of small aircraft approaching. I watch it fly overhead; I’ve never seen anything like it. It’s small but it has all these gadgets attached to it, so I conclude that it must be some sort of drone aircraft. Then I notice a few more in the sky; they seem to be circling. Suddenly, one of them bursts into a bunch of small pieces and I realize that the small pieces are dropping down like small missiles and exploding when they hit the ground. People on the ground are in a panic and running for cover. As one of the small drone planes bursts directly over my head, my friends and I jump into this vehicle (truck?) for cover. But looking up, I see that the small missiles are dropping straight down on us and I know that if they hit the truck, it will explode. So I tell my friends we have to run. We leave the cover of the truck and run towards an area of ground where the missiles have already hit because I know we’ll be safe there. We end up at the top of this 3 story house and have to descend down to ground level to get away.

In my next dream, I’m in the lobby of a big building. I take notice of how detailed my surroundings are and realize that this must be a lucid dream. I do a RC by holding my nose and find that I can breathe through it. I also look at my hands and find them a little deformed. I notice that the carpeting is kind of rough, like sandpaper, so I ask that the floor be softer and smoother. Instantly, the carpet becomes soft and smooth. So I start exploring and find that I’m in some sort of office building of a company that makes gag gifts. I walk around, marveling at the detail and realism of everything, sometimes even back tracking to look at certain things again. This goes on for what seems like about ten minutes. I even check my hands again to see if I’m still lucid and they once again appear deformed. I end up on what looks like a loading dock and tell the dream I need to find a toilet, since I need to go to the bathroom. Looking around, I see that there is a toilet on the floor but it’s not hooked up. So I ask one of the dream figures what they do when they have to go to the bathroom. The DF, a woman, replies, “We just go on the floor”, and points to a small puddle on the concrete floor. I find this surprising and funny, and wake up.

I’m pleased that I had a lucid dream (my third) but disappointed that I really didn't accomplish anything other than walking around. I need to remember to try to focus and tell the dream more what I want (dream tasks). I haven't even flown in a dream yet.

I remember two dreams from last night.

In my first dream, I’m outside of a house. Someone is telling me that there is an animal of some kind (a raccoon, squirrel or opossum) up in the attic of this house that makes an awful racket at night when people are trying to sleep. Me and another guy (unknown…but in the dream I know he is a friend) are going to try and catch whatever it is. Funny thing about the house, though, is that the front outside wall is missing so we are able to climb ladders and access the attic from outside. When I get to the top of my ladder, I look inside and spot something moving – it’s a small monkey, like the kind you see with organ grinders. He seems friendly, so I coax him over and grab him with one hand. This startles him and at first I think he’s going to bite me. I winch in anticipation, but the bite never comes. So I take the monkey and toss him outside onto the ground, then climb down the ladder. But when I turn to look at the monkey, I see that it is no longer alive and has somehow transformed into a toy stuffed monkey.

In my second dream, I’m driving a van and there are a couple of guys I don’t know in the van with me. We also have two women with us but they seem to each be sealed in some kind of big, square plastic bag filled with water. They are both alive and angry and demanding to be let out. I know somehow that we have kidnapped them and are driving someplace. One of the men in the van is angry with me because we are driving close to a news van/crew and he’s afraid they will be able to see inside our van and see and/or film the two women being held hostage. But I reassure him that I’m swerving in such a way that the news crew won’t be able to see them.

That’s all I remember from the second dream. I need to work on my RC’s throughout the day because, as crazy as some of my dreams are, there is no reason why I should not be recognizing them as dreams.

Had several dreams last night, some of them fragments.

In my first dream (fragment), I am at a hotel or office somewhere with some friends of mine. All I remember from it is that I had several bumps or welts on my face, neck and arms, like from a bug bite. But on closer inspection, the bumps seem to each have a little window on top of them and inside you can see tiny mechanical or electronic components. They look something like small Borg implants from the TV series Star Trek: The Next Generation.

An interesting side note: I actually AM staying at a hotel right now in Roatan, Honduras. And you have to constantly stay sprayed down with insect repellent because there are these little no-see-um bugs that bite and leave welts like mosquitoes. I’ve been lucky and haven’t gotten bitten but some other guests at the hotel are covered in bug bites.

In my next dream, my soon-to-be-ex wife and I are in a car and I’m driving us somewhere. When my wife finds out what route I took, she makes a comment that I should have taken a different route because it’s much shorter coming that way from where we live. I agree with her and suggest that next time we use her Garmin and follow the route it tells us to go. She likes that idea. This dream seems to repeat itself a couple of times, or maybe we’re just going to different places.

In my last dream, I am riding a bicycle. I had parked my truck and was trying out riding my bicycle from where I had parked my truck to a specific point, either work or home, I don’t remember. There is another man on a bike following behind me and he gradually catches up to me, since he’s going a little faster than I am. We greet each other and I explain to him what I’m doing, telling him I’m doing it to get more exercise. He tells me that’s a good idea and we end up giving each other advice and pointers about riding on the roads. I stop at a point along the way to meet some friends and eat lunch (or dinner) and invite the man inside to join me. As I’m inside, taking to some friends about a book I just read, I notice that the man I invited in has the exact same book in his hand. I don’t remember the title or author of the book, but I think it’s about bike riding.

At first when I woke up, I only remembered one dream. But as I was recalling the one I had just had before waking up to go to the bathroom, a couple of dreams I had had earlier suddenly popped into my head.

In my first dream, I’m in the cafeteria or snack bar of what looks like a high school. I’m trying to get myself a soft drink but I’m having difficulty. The students have one way of getting and paying for food and drinks, but I am a visitor and have to use a different method. There are special cups and lids that I have to use and, while trying to get myself a cup, lid and straw, I end up knocking everything onto the floor. I pick everything up and try to put them all back the way they were, all the while conscious of the fact that one of the students is watching me. But I feel like some kind of idiot because at first I pick them up and or/stack them wrong and I know the student watching me knows this. I finally get everything back the way it was and go to the machine to fill my drink. The machine is large and rectangular, like most coke machines in the waking world. This one is painted white, with a red vertical rectangle on the lower right side and matches the design on the cup I have; that’s how I know which machine to use. There are about 10 different buttons on top and a single slot in the bottom where you place your cup to be filled. I want to get diet coke, but don’t know which button to press because, while a couple of the buttons have the type of drink listed on it, most of them don’t. One even just has a gum wrapper instead of a drink label. So I look around, trying to see if I can find a student to see if they can tell me which button is diet coke.

In my next dream, I’m in a convenience store walking up to the cashier. As I’m approaching, a young man with a mohawk and carrying a floor waxer is climbing out from behind the counter and leaving the store. There is a small crowd of customers gathered around and as the man leaves the store, they all applaud the cashier behind the counter, who happens to be a friend of mine from work. I look outside and see the man walking back to a truck parked in the street outside and there are two or three other men with him. The man with the mohawk is angry and saying something to his friends. Suddenly he turns around and tries to run back into the store but his friends restrain him. At this point, I notice that the street is all torn up, like somebody dug up all the concrete in different places. It suddenly dawns on me that the men outside are some kind of con men, who go around contracting with different businesses to do different jobs but don’t actually do the job (or do it badly), then demand to be paid anyway. I turn to my friend behind the counter and say, “Let me guess; they tried to con you into paying them to wax your floor”. To which my friend replied, “And he didn’t even do anything.” All the other people had been applauding my friend for making the man leave the store. But I am worried that the man and his friends will come back and harm (or even kill) my friend.

In my last dream, I’m in a kind of club with a bunch of people, including Danny DeVito, who seems to be in charge. There is a girl standing up on a small stage, wearing heels, shorts and a sleeveless button down top. She appears to be new to the place and a little bit nervous because she is auditioning to be a stripper and has to take her clothes off in front of us as part of the audition. After a little coaxing from the crowd, she finally removes her top and her shorts. I notice that her breasts, while not very big, have large nipples and areolas, which I find very attractive. Some of the other men in the crowd make favorable comments as well and one man even follows her when she leaves the stage to go into a small office. At this point I get the idea to “pass the hat” and collect a bunch of small change and give it to Danny DeVito, telling him that they are the tips the crowd gave the girl. My reasoning behind this is that Danny thinks the girl will make him lots of money but by giving him just a bunch of loose change, it’ll be like playing a joke on him. As one man pulls out a pocket full of coins, I notice that they look strange. They don’t look like regular American quarters, dimes and nickels. The backs of all the coins have little full color flowery borders on them, with a little poem or quotation inside of it. I can’t recall what it said but I remember taking offense at one of the quotes, since it doesn’t seem very patriotic or American. One of the guys standing around assures me that the quote is correct and has every right to be on the coin. I then give the money to someone and tell them to give it to Danny DeVito. But when they come back, the person tells me that Danny wasn’t in the office, just the girl was, and so he gave the money to her. He says she was resting and didn’t look at the money; she just looked up from the couch and said, “Thank you” when he told her it was her tip money. At this point I am angry because the joke didn’t go over as I had planned and because the girl will most likely be offended when she sees how little money is there. At this point I wake up.

I want to point out that the man who tells me the quote on the coin is okay is a friend of mine who lives in another state. We belong to the same scuba diving club and only see each other when we go on scuba diving trips. We are on such a trip right now.

Had several dreams last night. I wasn't sure how my dreams will be affected because I am on vacation in Roatan for a week. But the bed in the room is very comfortable, so I'm hoping that the relaxing environment will help me have more vivid and lucid dreams.

In my first dream, I found what looked like a dead dog underneath a porch or walkway. It looked like a dog, but it’s body was long and skinny like a snake. Then I found another dog. It had a normal body and at first I thought it was dead as well, but then I noticed it was breathing. It raised it’s head to look at me and suddenly I noticed that there were several dogs under there, all seemingly strays. I tried to coax them out with some food, but only a couple of them came out.

In my next dream, I’m outdoors, playing golf with some friends when I hit my ball into this field. Suddenly my friends are worried because we need to get my ball back; it’s important for some reason. But I’m not sure where it is; I only know where it might be. But to get it back, I have to get in a golf cart and drive a long way down this road (into town?), then turn around and backtrack across people’s yards and private property to get to where my ball is. The dream ends before I find it.

In my last dream, I’m in the military. I’m a lower rank because other people are giving me orders. One of them sends me down the hall to our commanding officer’s office to tell him something important that happened to a ship or a plane, and that he’s needed back in our work area. When I get back to my work area, I notice that somebody had thrown my lunch away that I had left on a table. When I asked why it had been thrown out, I’m told it is because the CO didn’t like me because I had disobeyed a direct order to shave off my goatee. For some reason, everyone wanted me to shave off my goatee because it has gray hair in it.

This last dream kind of coincides with real like in that I have a goatee and my daughters think I should shave it off because it has gray hair in it and it will make me look younger.

I wasn't figuring on being able to remember any dreams from last night because I had a fairly potent margarita with my dinner. But I do remember bits and pieces of it:

I'm outdoors somewhere with some frineds of mine from work. And I'm carrying some kind of handheld device which lets me see things the others can't. We seem to be in some sort of competition with another group of guys from work and one of them (a guy I work with named Wade) is carrying a similar device. We seem to be driving on some kind of circular track. My team is driving counterclockwise, while the other team is driving clockwise. Or maybe it's just me and Wade who are driving, because I remember looking through the device and being able to see him coming at me. I'm unclear on what the rules of the race are.

In another dream, I find myself driving along a road approaching a 90 degree turn to the left which leads to a long bridge. It's been raining and there is water flowing over parts of the road as the water rises. I'm wanting to cross the bridge and get to the other side before the water gets too high and I am unable to cross.

Sidenote: This bridge scene has appeared in my dreams quite a few times in the past. I don't recall it being a bridge that I've ever seen in waking life, but in my dreams it feels as though it's a familiar sight.

I had several dreams last night, the last of which was my first ever lucid dream. Finally!!!

All I remember from my first dream is standing on the front walk of what I know in the dream is my ex in-laws house. But no such house exists in the real world. Another strange thing is that the house, it's foundation and even a layer of soil, is sitting on the ground (kind of crooked) like it had been pulled up from the ground and set down somewhere else. I also notice a trail of ants running up and down the length of the front walk.

In my second dream, I found myself in a large cavern of some kind. There seems to be some kind of community living here. There is one man whom everyone calls "the bird man" because he raises all kinds of different animals as pets. I walk over to his part of the cavern and see a small pool. Then I see a small dinosaur, like a baby, about the size of a large swan or goose. It looks like a stegosaurus, except that it has light purple fur on it's body and the plates running up and down it's back are brilliant shades of yellow and red. When it first sees me, it swims away across the small pool. But then the bird man enters and the dinosaur comes running to me as if for protection. It's rubbing up against me like a cat does.

After I awoke from this dream, I laid in bed, briefly considering jotting down some notes in my dream journal. But I decided to go back to sleep and try to re-enter the dream. This is when I had my first ever lucid dream:

I'm sitting in the waiting area of a small office. The door to the office is open and I can see my oldest daughter sitting in there. I'm talking to her about dreaming and telling her how to to a reality check by holding her nose and trying to breathe. She does it, but is able to breathe. I'm thinking that she's not holding her nose tight enough, so I decide to show her how to properly do it. As we're doing this, two men walk into the waiting area where I'm at. I look at them and say something like, "We probably look pretty silly doing this, huh?". I keep trying to show my daughter how to do the holding your nose reality check, but I'm thinking I must be doing something wrong because it's not working for me either; I can breathe. Then I look at my hands. They're all blurry, not like an out-of-focus picture but like a pastel drawing that has been smudged. It finally dawns on me that this must be a dream! I get up and walk around, looking at everything. I enter another room that looks like some kind of call center, because there are desks everywhere with people sitting at them and talking on phones. The walls seem to be made up of panes of blue glass that are illuminated from behind. I pass by a middle aged woman sitting at a desk and nod in greeting to her; she smiles and nods back. I decide to continue exploring and walk back out of the room. But now I'm in what appears to be a grocery store. I walk by one of the check-out registers and decide to look at my hands again to see if I'm still dreaming. My hands are in perfect focus, but both hands are misformed. There are only small nubs where my index and pinkie fingers should be. I remember that one thing I wanted to do in a dream is find "the girl of my dreams". I look around, wondering whether to ask one of the dream figures or just ask the dream outright to show me the girl of my dreams. Just then, I notice a woman walking up one of the aisles towards me, browsing the items that are on the shelves. She is wearing a white dress, has blonde hair, pale skin and is wearing red lipstick. I walk towards her and as I approach, she looks up and smiles as if she recognizes me. I want to ask her if she is the girl of my dreams but she is talking to me. She says in an excited voice, "Oh my God, I didn't think there was anyone else here who wanted to dance!" Before I can reply, these two guys appear out of nowhere. I can tell by the look on the woman's face that she doesn't like them. She asks, "What do you want?". One of the guys pulls her to him and says, "You said you wanted to dance." But before I can intervene, I lose lucidity and wake up.