Snacks From the Butler's Pantry

Driving to work with my girlfriend, we pick up the guy I work with as a hitchhiker. We give him a hard time in the car, making fun of his Capricorn tattoo. It looks like a zebra with an elephant's ass. There is a huge smiley face on the elephant's ass. He talks about how it got infected and took forever to heal. He got a coupon for it at Baskin Robbins

We reach our destination, at a large department store. It is a dreaming store, and I am curious to see what they consider dreaming merchandise. I'm excited to see a whole department dedicated to lucid dreaming. This excitement soon turns to disdain, as I see that they only carry burgundy and brown old-man-sweaters. There are rows and rows of shelves with nothing but folded up sweaters. There are racks of these sweaters on hangers. I look at a few of them, and realize they are all the exact same sweater, with minor differences. Each one has a map of the United States printed on it in white puffy paint. One state on the map is filled in pure white, with the rest only outlined. Below the map is the phrase "Lucid in Texas!" or "Lucid in Nebraska" depending on which state is highlighted. I am mad that this is the best they can do for their lucid section. I think, "I hope this shit glows in the dark, at least!"

I visit the watch and jewelery counter, and see some neat trinkets. Most of the jewelery is new-age type stuff with crystal rings, amber, and zodiac charms. I am fascinated by a few old fashioned brass clockwork devices like sextants, mechanical astrolabes, and watches. I see one that is marked for lucid dreaming. It looks like an intricately carved brass globe, made of several sections that interlock but are still able to rotate and move. Attached to the front of it, is a metronome pendulum. There are prongs coming off the top of the globe. You can somehow use it to time your sleep cycles and alert you when you are entering REM sleep. It has an ancient, one of a kind, feel to it, and I really want to buy it.

DV Member Tragedy:

I am hiking along a swampy looking lakeside. It is raining, and the ground is treacherous and slippery. I am trying to catch up to Ninja and Two Shadows ahead. They round a corner, and jump down to the trail below. Suddenly, the whole hillside collapses in a mudslide, and I see them tumble into the lake. The landslide brings down trees and mud, and I know they are trapped under the water. I jump in to try and rescue them. I pull Ninja out right away, but T.S. is trapped somewhere under the debris. We dig out endless amounts of broken tree branches and bamboo, but she is nowhere to be found. I am horrified that she has been underwater so long. Even if we do find her, there is no way she will have survived this long. I call to ninja, in a panic, asking him if he knows CPR