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So I volunteer at the zoo.

I don't remember much, but the other night I dreamed that:

I leave the indoor elephant area to find Captain Picard (who I know to be the zoo curator) and the elephants' zookeeper sitting on lawn chairs facing the outside area of the elephant exhibit. There's an empty lawn chair between them, but Picard tells me to feed the elephants instead of sitting. Obliging, I pick up a basket of eggs and throw them one by one at a basketball hoop that's high up on the outside of the gate. However, I miss all that I try to throw (and hit an elephant once), so I turn back to Picard and say something like, "Can we just not? 'Cause all I'm really doing is egging the elephants." Picard nods, stands, and says something that I don't remember, then we all leave together.

I'm walking out of Dad's house, wearing my work uniform, to my car that is parked almost in the middle of the street. I get in and start driving up Lakeside to get to work.
The road is steeper and windier than I remember. I see pine trees and lots of big, granite rocks. There are also tons of moose roaming around. I see the silhouette of one by a tall rock and tree. It is surreal.
The road has ended and I am now walking on a dirt road. Dad is with me, saying how this is a more direct route to my mom's house.
We're approaching the top of the hill and im texting either C or F about how I'm going to see Frozen.
We get to a house and I climb up through the entrance. I hear a voice talking about 'how babies are made'.
There's boys room and a girl's room; I go into the boys. My grandpa and a young boy are laying on a large bed. My sister is here, complaining about how she wants to stay with me but can't. She leaves.
I lay down but feel that my shorts are damp, like I've been swimming, and I want to change them.

Yesterday I came across the SSILD thread on the induction forum, and decided to try it out. Success!

Ritual: Slept about three hours, woke up with awareness of having dreamed though no recall of specifics, but figured since I had been in REM I might as well give the SSILD technique a try. Doing the sense-cycling delayed sleep onset more than I expected, even more than with my usual WILD technique of incremental counting, even though I kept reminding myself that I wasn't attempting to WILD. Interestingly, when I was starting to get closer to sleep I was experiencing much more vivid flashes of hypnogogic imagery than usual, which I attribute to having primed my attentiveness to it with the technique.

On the verge of falling asleep finally, when I sense that I'm in an empty room with plain white walls, and that it's substantial enough to enter as a dream space. "I can work with that," I say to myself, and close the door. The handle has a pleasing feeling of solidity and the door closes with lifelike sensations, so I know this is actually working.

WILD: What to do now? Well, I need traction, so I decide to just use my body a bit until I feel more substantial. Last night my husband showed me a video of a guy doing amazing acrobatic tricks on a pole, and that must have subconsciously inspired me, because without really thinking about it I start emulating him. It's fun because I could never do anything like this in RL (who could? It's real gravity defying stuff) and even in a dream it takes a bit of concentration, so it is a useful way to integrate myself better into this space. As I do it I remember to occasionally rub my hands in front of my face for more traction, and for some reason it occurs to me that it would be a good idea to feel my head, which I've never tried before, but the lifelike sensation of the shape of my head and texture of my hair is very helpful, they make this dream body I'm in feel more like "me." The vividness and clarity at this point is quite high, and I'm wondering what I look like. I see a mirror on the wall (the walls were featureless initially so the mirror seems to have manifested in response to my intention, though not before my eyes... it was just there once I decided to look for it) so all I have to do is position myself properly in order to see my reflection. I'm pleased with how much like me it actually looks, although my hair is different: loose, shoulder-length and with a layered, almost spiky cut. But the face looks just like mine, especially the eyes. It was remarkably like looking into a real mirror, which is not my usual experience of reflections in LDs.

Given how lifelike my body feels and my reflection looks, I decide to play with it a bit. A couple times in my LDs I've experimented with trying to create an extra set of arms, like you see on some representations of Hindu deities, and I want to try that again. I'm now standing on a sort of balance beam, looking at a second mirror that has manifested on the next wall (a little more conveniently positioned than the first) and I start waving my arms and trying to create a second pair. With a little concentration I have a partial success: I think I can see and feel a second pair, but they are moving in tandem with the first. To be more successful, they would have to move independently, all four arms moving simultaneously in separate directions. I try to get the second set to move independently from the first, but I can't figure out how to do it! I realize that I simply have no mental imprint of what this would be like. Perhaps with a little more creativity or effort I could get this going, but I sense that at this moment the strain might be close to disrupting the dream, so I give up the attempt, amused by how tricky this is, and re-stabilize.

What next? I remember my current task: "Creo vim." (I've been working through spell combinations from Ars Magica.) I anticipated this would be a fun one because I had no idea how it would manifest, and deliberately tried to avoid anticipating anything in particular, hoping the dream would surprise me. So I hold out my left hand and concentrate on the spell. Nothing happens at first. How should I do this? I wonder if I should be using my right hand (my dominant hand in waking life), but figure that since I instinctively started with my left, I should stick with it. "Creo vim," I murmur, since I've found that saying the name of the spell aloud can be an effective focus. A tiny bubble manifests in the air above my open palm. It looks like a soap bubble, and as I have this thought, it bursts like one. But I'm emboldened by the fact that something is happening, so I keep concentrating, and another bubble appears. It grows larger and slowly sinks until it is a half sphere sitting on my palm. From there it keeps growing, getting larger and lumpier and turning grey in color, but still completely weightless and seemingly inflated with air. When this mass is about a foot and a half in diameter, it lifts from my hand and sinks gently to the floor, and transforms into a small white goat.

The surroundings have changed around me while I was focused on the spell. I am no longer standing on a balance beam in a white room, now I am outdoors at night, standing on the ground, looking at this goat that has inexplicably appeared. My husband is lying next to me, asleep. Standing in front of me is a horse harnessed to a cart. I ponder the goat, wondering what it might signify. On the one hand, it is an extremely cute little goat, with long white fur and two straight horns that are only a few inches long. On the other hand, it subtly disturbs me for some reason I can't identify. I remembered a trial take of a commercial that I saw many years ago. The commercial was intended to advertise a financial services company, and was showing clips purporting to be the customers. The most memorable one was a dignified elderly gentleman who for some reason was accompanied by an equally dignified white goat. It was so random and surreal, elegantly and subtly satanic, that the image always stuck with me—though I learned later that the scene was cut from the final version out of concerns that people might be disturbed or distracted by the goat. So what to make of this little goat in front of me now? The goat itself was just standing quietly and not revealing anything, until before my eyes it abruptly transformed into a few pieces of ripe and runny brie cheese on a plain white plate. This was even more mystifying.

I wanted to ask someone's opinion about the goat and its transformation, but I looked around and couldn't see anyone else in this landscape. There was just me and my husband, but he was fast asleep and I didn't want to disturb him. Finally it occurred to me to ask the horse, as the only other creature around. I figured the question of the goat's moral status could be answered by how the horse responded to the cheese, so I picked up a piece from the plate and offered it to the horse to sniff. "What do you think?" I asked. The horse readily accepted the cheese and ate it with apparent relish. This seemed to speak well for the goat! "Want more?" I asked, offering the horse a second piece, which it consumed as eagerly as the first. I decided to try a bit myself, and found the taste and texture very much as I would have expected from a runny brie.

There was a cemetary nearby, surrounded by a low wall. I could see the tops of gravestones over the upper edge of the wall, and I instinctively knew that one of them was connected with the goat, so I should investigate it to find out more. The entrance to the cemetary was just across the lane on which the horse and cart were standing, so I walked around them and went inside. From my original glimpse across the wall I had made a mental note that the relevant gravestone was the fourth one in, so I counted the stones I passed until I reached the fourth. It was an old style of slab carved from reddish stone, only about two inches in width, about three feet tall, and with a simple curved top, unadorned except for the text that was carved on it. I knelt down and looked at the inscription. I was pleased to discover that I could read it easily, and one phrase that immediately caught my attention was "Ghast of Vail Light." I took this to be the title of the mysterious goat. It sounded a bit spooky after all, but I loved this phrase! I immediately determined to remember it. "Ghast of Vail Light," I repeated to myself several times, and even said aloud to myself, "Remember that." I wanted to get it just right. Was it spelled "Vail" and not "Vale"? I looked again at the inscription. The letters were remarkably stable, and the spelling was distinct: "Vail."

I hadn't done any tactile stabilization in a while, so I decided to run my hands over the face of the gravestone. It had the cool touch of real stone, smooth overall but a bit gritty in texture, like sandstone, and I could feel the indentations where the letters were carved in. I was still muttering to myself "Ghast of Vail Light." I didn't know how much longer the dream would go on, and wanted to make sure I wouldn't forget. But I concentrated so hard on the idea of remembering this phrase when I woke up, that it woke me up! I wasn't disappointed, though, because I had plenty to write about already.

Type: Procedural
Perspective: Character, adolescent boy

NLD: I'm a young boy with no parents who has been raised by relatives, perhaps an aunt and uncle. They've been very stingy, working me hard and giving me the minimum that I need to survive. Now I'm about twelve and they've decided that I'm old enough to strike out on my own, so I am preparing for the journey. It is winter, so I know that I'll need to pack carefully: I'll need a bundle light enough to carry but with the necessities to survive. I've already prepared most of it, and now I'm consolidating. I have a little backpack with my journal and a suede pocket with a zipper that holds my writing implements [RL: I have one like this], and a few more things I deem essential. I had a Hello Kitty riding glove in the backpack, a single one for the right hand, sized for a child's hand, and I realize it isn't essential—it isn't even mine—but sentimental; it belonged to a girl who was my best friend. The thumb is split at the seam and she lost the left-hand glove so she let me have it as a memento. But as I pack things from my room I come across a similar glove for the left hand, slightly different in color but with a matching Hello Kitty pattern. I wonder at first if it's the lost partner of the first glove, but the different hue suggests that the match is coincidental. Still, I decide that I can put them together and give them back to the girl. I won't have a memento of her anymore, but at least then there will be one less thing in my pack, and maybe she'll be able to use them again. They still look usable, even worn as they are.

I have a big heavy box, a long rectangle, with heavy glass partitions. I know I'll never be able to carry this, but the first part of my journey will be by wagon, so I'll load it on board and try to use up or trade away the contents before I have to go on foot. I forget what the original contents of the box are, but there are some empty spots and I also have a few bottles of beer, a light brew in clear glass bottles, so I'll consolidate by putting them in the empty spots. So now I have the heavy long box, my little backpack, and a bundle containing my clothes and bedding. Once I get rid of the heavy box, I'll be able to carry the rest. But I still need to worry about food.

There was another whole side plot earlier with my uncle, and me lying on my back in the water of a pool or pond, and him having compassion and perhaps even offering to let me have breakfast in the big house before I go, but I can't remember this well.

From the building where I was packing, which is on a hill next to another building (the big house where aunt and uncle live further off to the right) I go down the hill to the stable where I've been working. I've been working as a farmhand ever since I got big enough, but still being a young boy and small for my size, I've been able to squeeze into a tiny spot between the other hands on the seat of our crowded wagon. I figure the fact that I don't take up much room will come in handy when taking the wagon out.

I go through the stable saying goodbye to the animals. I also come across another girl I know (not the one I was thinking of earlier), a dark-haired, slightly older teenager leading a dark bay horse. I tell her I am leaving and we say goodbye. I wish I had something to give her, but figure she knows that I have very little and won't hold it against me that I didn't give her a parting gift.

In the back of the stable I say goodbye to a big gray rabbit who is in an empty open stall, then a few minutes later come across a little white rabbit at the bottom of a bucket with a few inches of water in it, so the rabbit is half-submerged. I worry that it can't get out [RL: this comes from the fact that I've found deck lizards in a bucket in my garden in this predicament a few times], so I reach in and lift it out. I want to take it over to the big rabbit where it might find a friend, but as I'm carrying it, it bites me. Being a wild rabbit who is undoubtedly frightened at being handled this is understandable, and I don't mind, though I worry that it might be carrying rabies or some other disease. The wound is on my thumb [RL: I have an old scar from a real rabbit bite there] but doesn't look deep. I set it down quickly and watch as it hops straight over to a bowl of cream that the cats have left uneaten in a bowl and consumes it all ravenously. I am somewhat reassured that it doesn't look rabid; its actions now seem very deliberate. I reflect how well-fed the cats are, that they would not even bother to finish this bowl of cream, compared to the little rabbit who doesn't even naturally like cream, but is probably devouring it because of such great hunger and thirst. I go back to the big rabbit and wonder if I can get him any food or some stalks to chew; he doesn't seem interested in the hay in this stall, but there were some larger, sweeter stalks, like corn or sugarcane, over where I found the little rabbit, so I bring some over.

Next I plan to feed the chickens. I have a shallow rectangular tray that I take back up to the building on the hill to prepare some foods, like cut up tomatoes, a hard-boiled egg for some reason, other vegetables and fruits. As I exit again carrying the tray, I'm standing for a moment just outside the building distracted by my thoughts when I feel someone press something into my left hand. It's not money, it's segments of something that has the texture of nuts. [Not any substance recognizable from RL.] I look up and find a tall young man with a dark beard [odd how often this archetype appears, I've never known someone with these features in RL]. He says his name is Keith, and this is for the food—he abruptly grabs a handful from the tray. I have the impression that he is starving but too honorable to just steal from me, so he has offered this token payment, but won't risk rejection by asking for the food. I feel sorry for him—and realize that I might soon be in the same boat, as he looks like a traveler—and offer, "Would you like any more? Take the hard-boiled egg." I figure that will offer him better nutrition than the handful of grapefruit or somesuch that he has grabbed in his haste. He thanks me and takes the egg and a few other things, and leaves.

As I continue down the hill back toward the stable, I reflect with satisfaction on the fact that I was not frightened or startled by his abrupt appearance, but kept my cool and even managed to be generous. I also remember two other occasions earlier when guys stopped by hoping for food in a similar manner. (I think this was a false memory, that is, I don't think these events actually occurred at any point earlier in the dream, they are just something I was "remembering" at this point.) I realize that all these hungry travelers probably means food is scarce on the road, and I'm going to have to deal with this very situation soon. It occurs to me that hard-boiled eggs might actually be a good thing for me to pack; they won't last long, but in this cold weather they might last two or three days, and they'll be great nutrition. However, that had been the only egg on my tray. How could I get some more? Would aunt and uncle let me have them? They're just eggs, but they've been so stingy in the past. Still, they did offer me breakfast. I hope they meant it; I should eat a big breakfast before I leave. I ate little yesterday and nothing so far today. What if leaving on a full belly meant the difference between life and death, adding another day before the possibility of starvation? But maybe they'd be more likely to let me have the eggs if I brought them myself to the house and only asked if I could boil them. I can probably get some from the hens in the stable: it's morning, some of them might have lain already. Could I even boil them myself, and avoid asking aunt and uncle altogether? But I'm not sure how I would start the fire, or find the pot to boil water in.

I set down the tray, and the chickens start eating. While they are occupied, I check their nests. Sure enough, I find an egg... and another... and another. Three eggs in this nest? This worries me actually—why hadn't the eggs been collected for the past few days? They should still be good to eat, but—had aunt and uncle been intending to let them hatch? If so, they might be angry with me for taking them; once they cooled down (they are still warm from the heat of their mother) they would no longer be viable. I'd better wait and ask, maybe the girl I ran into earlier will know. Also, are these even hen eggs? They are a bit larger and bluer than I would have expected. Could they be duck eggs? Without the fowls in their nest it's hard to know. But duck eggs might be better to bring, oilier and more nutritious, even if they taste a little odd. I go a little farther and find another bank of nests that I think are those of the chickens; so I conclude that I was right about the ducks; the chicken eggs are also about three to a nest.

I table the egg question, but there's something else I need, something that is in the building next to the one I live on on top of the hill. I call up and say I am from a radio station, HKWAN—the stable does double as this radio station so I am not lying about that, but fibbing a bit by suggesting I am an employee of it calling on official business—and ask for the password to get into the building. I wince a bit as I ask, knowing that the girl will never give it away to someone calling up on the phone, and sure enough, she says she can't. But then I realize, of course I still know the password to my own building, and maybe I can get what I need from there? I no longer remember what it was I thought I needed though, and around this point the dream ends.

-The ‘The Fresh Prince of Bel Air’ show was on again. The dad had lost weight and it was mentioned more than once how he’s changed, wasn’t surly anywhere, was cleaned up. Carlton’s voice was kind of high-pitched.

Inspiration: Not sure, haven’t seen it on lately and I never watched it myself.

-Something about fishing and losing against someone else.

Inspiration: Parents just went fishing, maybe that’s why. Fiiish. *q*

-I’m getting a hamster (maybe for someone?). The owner guy directs me to a line and tells me that if I’m brave enough to get some bedding from the dirty cage the person in front of me is holding, I can have one.

Seeing the way I’m looking at it, someone hands me some bedding and I present the toy (yep, it changed). I think that ‘isn’t water more important’?

I’m looking at the hamsters, and they’re gray and all have differently shaped heads, like a hippopotamus and a wolf. :O

Inspiration: Took my sister’s over to her new place recently.

I’m in the kitchen at grandma’s house(?) and see out the window that the animals are fighting. One is a wolf. Someone tells me to go find a small animal to make sure it’s okay. I find it and carry it inside.

In a facility, I’m hurrying down a corridor and calling kids to me, but all of a sudden it gets confusing – there’s a haze and dimness everywhere making it hard to see. Someone is trying to get the kids. Some of them start going down the other corridor to the left.

I start calling louder to the kids “Here kitty kitty! (??)] Someone appears at the entrance to my corridor and gives a pretty speech to get them to come to them. But I know that they just want the kids to put aliens in them to use as experiments.

I whistle really loud with my fingers in my mouth and keep calling the kids to me. An Asian girl stops and calls out to me that she loves me and watches my show.

A man and robed figure are talking to this guy in a small room. I think they’re asking about his tattoos. He looks like Jack Sparrow. He spouts this long line in a foreign language and the woman says it means something different than he thinks. There’s also a short number like 7702 and the robed woman says “That’s it, that’s what we needed to know.”

The man leaves. The women leaps up onto Jack’s head like maybe she’s going to break his neck with her legs, but she stops and looks in the mirror. No longer robed, she has exotic looks, with some kind of red hair and nose piercing (barbell?). Kinda looks like Irisa in Defiance.

In return for something they did, ‘we’ were trying to help someone/thing become a centaur. We put it in a suit. “It’s a bit tight, but.” And set it off running. There was another centaur ‘riding’ on top of it, causing them to topple. [Actually looked more like a dinosaur.]

The fake centaur passed by a bird creature as it ran…only it stopped, looked and saw that it was not a bird but another creature flapping its appendages and flying with some leaved branches. The fake centaur asked how it was doing that.

We’re in a shack that might also be McDonalds or something and I’m making burgers based on what the guy there told me.

We’re in an enclosement and on the way north I’d been looking for something along the fence. I come across a black device with a round button and click it. I see blue light twinkle around the enclosement’s edges. I go inside and say I found something. That’s when I hear a bark.

We look out and an ominous air gets thicker and thicker as we listen. I can practically see creatures coming towards us. They tell me to turn it back on and I do. I hope in the minutes it was off, nothing got out. I remember seeing a car or something pass outside on the left.

We wonder how to fight if needed. Someone (maybe the guy there) says, “Magic, of course”. I had forgotten that that’s how we fight since we didn’t have weapons.

Inspirations: I had just read the Homestuck comic ‘Hunting Lesson’, watching Aliens?, my fan clicker, I’ve had a few other fence dreams inspired by the place I used to live, reading an article on how to make goo hamburger patties

07-01-2014 -- Working a shift at HOI, relieving Jim for the weekend shift on Friday night, and arrive when it is already late, perhaps 9 or 10, but there are still a lot of people running around, going in and out of the building. I stay there for quite a while, just poking around, at first, then hooking up my computer and working on it for a bit, back in the receptionist/security monitor area, but the customers and sales people keep wandering around. Eventually I find lots of people entering the place and heading back to the parts department for some sort of meeting, I decide to check the time, and it is already something like 6 AM, and I've completely lost track of the time.

People have been working and in and out of the showroom all night long, and as it is now morning and the day shift is starting to come in, I realize I had better get the security keys, which Jim had left hanging in the door lock. Actually should have gotten them many hours ago. It's still pitch black outside, and I can't decide if it is because it really is that dark, or if it is the new, super dark tinting on the showroom windows. Turns out it is a case of both. Though it is now getting on to 7 or 8 in the morning, it is that rare day when the sun just doesn't manage to get up until even later. (Once in a great while really did see days like this.)

I decide to start getting my stuff together, including packing the computer up and wrapping the power cord around the flat screen monitor (wish I had had a flat screen back then, would have been so much easier than hauling around a CRT.) The day time security guard arrives and tells me I can go, but I realize I never clocked in on a time card. I figure I will have to hand-write the clock in, and just clock out. The clock and the cards and rack are all here at the reception counter, but as I start trying to find a card, all I can find are other people's cards, which they are already using. After a lot of searching, I finally find a stack of blank time cards buried under some other stuff, and grab one. I try to fill it out, but I am writing my name wrong and messing up the letters and just can't do it. I finally give up on that card, fold it up and stick it in my pocket. Want to get another card and try again, but again I can't find the cards.

By this time the other security guard is really pushing for me to go, and he goes as far as to call his company and complain about another guard being here and not letting himself be relieved. But first off, he is relieving me early, and second off (as I take great enjoyment in telling him) I don't work for his security company, I work directly for the House of Imports ... even if only for a couple of holidays a year. I'm trying to look through the stuff where I found the last card, but the tiny ledge by the window that they were on is getting larger and larger, and soon I can't reach the stuff without climbing onto the ledge, itself. The receptionist has arrived, and wants me out of there, but is at least trying to be helpful about it, and joins the search. But it seems they are just about to switch to new cards that were just printed, and which they were going to start using on the next pay period, in a few days. But these cards are jet black, and nothing is going to show on them from the old time clock, which is the one that is still in use. So I finally give up on managing a time card at all.

I start looking for my stuff, and just can't manage to find it anywhere, so I start to wonder if, even if I can't remember it, I might have already taken it out to the car. I head outside, and start to look for the car (the old two-tone Oldsmobile I had when I was really working at HOI), but it's not there. I am starting to get aggravated, wondering if my car has been stolen AGAIN (happens all the time in my dreams, never in real life) but then I notice the sign by the road, and remember they do street cleaning on Manchester Sunday morning, and either ticket or tow cars left on the road at their discretion. Blast it! They also have heavy construction going on on the street, with only barely enough space at the driveway open to get a car in.

I head back up to the showroom, one assumes to pass on word of what happened, though it is not like the dealership can actually do anything if the police towed the car, but as I approach the showroom stairs, there are several people there screaming at Francisco and the other morning help, yelling about the construction along the road. They are a weird cross between customers, the next dealership down the road, and a news crew, and are screaming about the mess and the difficulty of getting around the construction, and demanding information about how long things are going to be like this. Francisco and the like are just the guys who drive the cars in and out and get them washed and things, so he isn't likely to have detailed information on any construction, and certainly isn't the one who should be asked. So I am apologizing to them for the idiots screaming, not that it has anything to do with me.

I end up walking down the sidewalk, heading toward Orangethorpe and eventually the 7-11, and I end up walking with the folks from the other dealership/news crew. We're dodging around construction, half climbing over small pipes and things, and the entire time the pipes are gurgling, and every few seconds, this thick, slimy, red sludge comes spitting out of the pipes. Some is all over one of the news lady's stockings, some more splashes all over my clothes, though I try to avoid it, and I have to admit it is annoying and disgusting. I keep walking, until I am on my own, and get further and further down the street.

Soon I am passing several short sky scrapers (five or six stories tall, not that great for sky scrapers, but much taller than anything actually on Manchester) and come up with the idea of calling the police. If I stress my security work enough, and sound pathetic enough, maybe I can get my car released for only $20 or $30, so I pull out my cell phone to call them, only to discover that some of the red slime got on the phone and melted the screen, and I kind of collapse to the ground by the fence separating the road from the freeway, and start to cry, as it has all gotten to be too much.

But then I start to realize it is too much. My luck is being so bad, it is absurd and highly unlikely. I glance at the sky scrapers, and realize they are out of place. I look at a sign on the freeway, glance away, and then look back, and the numbers are changing and shifting around. I hold out my hand, concentrate on my fingers, and they start stretching and distorting! I thought so ... I'm dreaming! I concentrate on my finger, and it stretches out five or six feet, and pokes a sleeping feline by the fence, an odd cross between lion, tiger, and perhaps bobcat. The thing jumps up and starts to snarl and stalk me, and I whisper soothingly to it and gesture at it with power, and it starts to calm down. I slowly start to pet it, and every time it starts to get upset again, I mentally calm it.

By this time, the scene around me has changed, and instead of being outside by the freeway fence, I am inside a building. I can remember walking in a back door that was unlocked [though I never did so, things just shifted around me] and I am still trying to soothe the bobcat. Then I hear somebody unlocking the front door and opening the office, and I realize even if they left the back door unlocked, they aren't going to like me being in here. So I bolt for the back door I entered by, and the guy coming in the front hears me and chases after me. I draw his attention by running, and he demands to know who I am. I give the false name of Fred Flores [sorry Fred], but am kind of stuttering, and he starts claiming that I said the name wrong, which indicates I am this or that, and it just doesn't make sense. I run out the building, and into the next building (heading back toward HOI) and it is a cross between the other dealership and a parts store.

I run through the place, duck under a counter, and out a back door, and I find myself on a very strange loading dock where a large crane is picking up box trucks and hoisting them into position at the dock, in the air. I am trying to get out of the way, but I just can't move quickly enough. I manage to avoid the first truck easily, and the second truck with more difficulty, but only barely make it out of the way of the third one. So I am standing there, breathing heavy and trying to catch my breath when the lighting fixtures right above me start to lower, turn into some sort of equipment, and start dripping boiling hot oil on me. It's turning into those nightmare sort of dreams where everything mechanical is coming to life and pursuing me, and I have to kind of flex my mental muscles and sort of scream "Enough! This is still a dream, but it is MY dream!" and things start to settle down ... which is when I wake up.

June 23, 2014

---

I was traveling with my dad (or rather, someone's dad. I wasn't "me" in this dream, but I don't know exactly who I was), and we had just walked through a large garden/yard, with paths cutting across in various spots. (Whoa, I just remembered a dream from ages ago)

We came up to a large house (two floors, lots of glass windows, I could see a huge TV on the ground floor) in a bowl-like yard. As we walked toward the house, to the left was a row of other, much smaller houses along a street. I don't remember noticing what was on the right side or behind the house (OMG I just remembered another dream from a long time ago. Shit, man)

That night, I was sitting outside the house, looking at the roofs of the line of houses to the left of the house. There was something strange about the gable of the house at the end of the row, closest to the garden/yard we'd come through to get to the house, though I can't remember exactly what ws strange about it. I just know that I was staring at it, inspecting it, trying to figure out why that different thing about it was different.

Then, there was a mother and her son walking in from that garden. I blinked, and I was out of my body, watching the mother and son running through that garden moments before. Then, I watched through the mother's eyes as she and her son jumped over a fence in the garden, figured out it was an enclosure, and jumped back over. I (she) was searching for something, but I didn't know what it was. I just knew that safety was just a little bit further ahead, but it was always just a little bit further ahead. Behind me, hopefully far behind me and my son, was an abusive husband-an abusive father. We'd run away from him.

My son and I descended into the bowl-yard (holy shit I keep remembering really random dreams from years ago) and got separated. I panicked. I looked every direction, but I heard a loud, sharp, painful BANG, more panic, I started running without much direction, looking for my son, when there was another BANG and everything stopped...

I left the POV of the mother then, and was seeing through my own eyes again; the mother and son had been two animals. I had thought they were human at first, since it was dark and I couldn't see well. I think they were deer, but I'm not certain. I turned to my right to see my father, holding a smoking shotgun. "Why did you kill them...?" I was shocked and so sad. "It was just a momma and her baby...!" I suddenly got super angry at him, and stormed off into the house. I ignored him for the rest of the night, and wouldn't speak to him the next morning. He kept trying to make me feel better, or to make up for killing the animals, but he wouldn't give me the one thing I wanted, which was an apology. He wasn't sorry at all, and that's why I was so fracking mad.

I had sat down in front of the huge TV at some point that day, but couldn't get it to work; there was some sort of password to make it work, and I didn't know it. I asked my father, who was in the kitchen, if he was at all sorry about shooting the son. He'd shot the young one first. "He was so young..."

But my father still wasn't sorry. I was so angry that I just left the house alltogether. I stood outside, wondering what I could possibly do. It wasn't much, but I decided to make a small memorial for the mother and son in the spot where the son had been shot. I went back inside to watch TV, since my father had gotten it working, but as I was searching for a channel, it turned off and I couldn't get it to turn back on.

So I went back outside, and suddenly, where I'd made the memorial, there was a bank drive-thru. My dream self (who still wasn't really me) didn't seem to be surprised, haha. I walked up to the teller and asked to withdraw $10 from my account. The teller smiled and asked me when I would like the withdrawal to arive at my house.

"Can't I just get the money now...?"
"Oh, no, you need a Start Account for that. Normal accounts can only withdraw on a 2-day minimum waiting period."
"Well how do you know I don't have a Start Account...?" I asked.
The teller pointed to a few people who were suddenly there. They all had a small blue pin on their chests. The pins had "Start" written in mirror-writing in white ink. I looked down at my own chest; I had no pin.

Then I woke up.

Wow can't believe it's been nearly a year since I last updated my dream journal here..Anyhow, thought I'd share some dream fragments from the night\morning before last.
The first I recall is a venomous spider landing on my shoulder and me panicking & not being able to get it off before it went to bite me.. Before I could though I'd woke myself up crying out in anguish! Now I think what had happened here is my girlfriend had got up before me, opened the bedroom door and let the cat in who jumped up on the bed & pawed my shoulder which I mistook for a spider in my dream state! I can't remember when I last had a reality dream merger like that so found it interesting.
Also I dreamt of these puppies that myself and an old friend had, they weren't just normal puppies though as they hatched from eggs and started off tiny things as big as your finger..Can't recall if that fragment occurred before or after the spider one but I'm erring towards before as it was more like a proper dream, more vivid but also mildlky lucid in that I was acutely aware of the absurdity of these egg hatched puppies yet loved them just the same and they either grew really quickly or time skipped on to a point in the dream when they'd grown to a more normal puppy size!
The next next dream fragment I recall was to do with my job where in reality new health & safety rules have prevented us from being able to empty our own workstation waste bins into the bailers machine..now in my dream we'd found a loophole by making big cardboard walls around the bailer (so it looked like a big cardboard castle!) That's all I recall from that one, also can't recollect which order this fragment occurred :/
Finally the final dream fragment I recall from that one night involved yet another animal, this time a horse. I had ran up some stairs like the kind you find on a bridge going over a train track..I was escaping this white horse that was chasing me and it somehow managed to climb the stairs after me, I'd fallen on my arse and there was no room to roll left or right so I had to get up or be trampled by this horse but I awoke before that could happen!
Anyway thought I'd share this eventful nights dreaming to kick start my journal after nearly a year off recording my dreams, good luck to anyone attempting to interpret any of the dream signs mentioned here

All the big dream signs were present in this one: girlfriend, girlfriend's mom, and conventions.
The three of us were headed to a big con, and for some reason we were riding on a large platform that grinded over a sort of railway system. It was a very intense experience, but it felt good, sort of like riding a roller coaster. The platform eventually stopped, and we left it, entering a small jungle-like area. This was apparently the entrance to the con. I noticed a kangaroo nearby and walked up to it. Probably the dumbest decision ever, since it ended up kicking me in the nads.
A snake fell from a tree to the ground nearby me, and a grizzly bear also sauntered over from nearby. It was clear that this was no ordinary convention, but my non lucid self was like 'Not again!'
We ran away from the animals and made it to the con. Most of what transpired during it is blurry to me, but I do recall walking by myself towards the end of it when the convention center was empty. I ended up getting a text from my girlfriend saying we had to leave.
I ended up at my house, resting after a tiring con, and heard my grandma outside. I walked out there, and for some reason there were red colored fireworks shooting up all around us. It was almost nighttime, but not quite yet; that time of day where everything is a dark blue.
My family and I gathered around a bonfire in our yard and discussed multiple things, and I intently drew a picture of Rust Cohle from True Detective.
And that's all I remember. The day prior to this dream was pretty worry filled, due to work and me messing up. However, for the past two days, I've been waking myself up at 6:00, or around that, after going to bed at about 11:40 or so. This seems to be a period of time where my recall is high, because for the past two days, both times I ended up recalling a dream in vivid detail. I think I'm gonna try waking up at 6, jotting down a dream, then sleeping for another hour and waking up at 7, which will hopefully result in more dreams recalled. Wish me luck!

Dream 2. I’m on a bus and say ‘this is why this character was written, for people like you’. I’m looking at a part of the Eyeshield 21 manga with Habashira Rui in it. The ‘people’ I’m talking about are to the right of me. They’re supposed to be delinquent types, or those without a purpose. When I look at them, they’re the Oujou White Knights, with Sakuraba in front.



People around the bus start chiming in their agreement, and the person to the right of me is holding up a paper. It pretty much felt like they (and the paper) were all saying “This!”. I asked if I could hold onto the paper too, and held up the right side.

There’s an announcement about some death.

-Jump-

I’m in a classroom, and there’s a dire discussion going on about how my old classmate, Ron’s, dad ‘Jack’ was found out to be a killer. There was something about a dead raccoon. Ron is up front talking about how he should have known, and how he let his sister(?) ‘Amanda’ blind him. He is seeking forgiveness from us.

Inspiration: So weird to dream about Ron and Eyeshield 21 out of nowhere! The killer part comes from me watching the new episode of The Walking Dead and thinking about it before bed.

Dream
Lucidity

I was in a house in a rural area. We were making a big dinner and I went out. I found Darth Vader and invited him over. On my way back I noticed he had a lot of brass keys on a necklace. When I got back to the house, people were happy to see him but then they found out that he was with the dark side so they got upset. I knew something was gonna happen so I grabbed my P229 and put it on the small of my back. People started eating at the table and then started arguing. Suddenly a guy pulls out something and I know it's a part of a gun. Another person gets up and everyone starts fighting. I chase the guy that pulled out the part of the gun and beat him with my gun until he dies. This causes my gun to break. I can't pull the hammer down but then manage to fix it. I keep going but my gun breaks again. I start taking it apart and can't fix it to I tell myself to do something, either do a dream rewind or summon a new gun. My new gun has a blade under it and I test it out. I hear someone teleport behind me and I run. I go to the backyard where I see a pond, a campfire, and some dogs along with Ace around it. Ace had a broken leg. I decide to go back in the house and finish everything. I sneak through the front porch and the house is on fire. I see 2 guys and one of them starts attacking me. As he's coming towards me I realize I'm dreaming. He kicks me in the nuts and I close my eyes and say "When I open my eyes I will be in a small, dark room", remembering my objective for my next lucid dream. I open my eyes and I'm still in the same place. I do it again and nothing happens. Finally I decide to dream spin. I spin and spin and spin until I feel like I've done it. I stop and fall to the floor, dizzy and unable to stand up. As I'm on the ground, I know I'm in the same area I was before but later on in the night. I'm surrounded by cars. To my right is a white car, to my left is a red car that reminded me of my GF's car, and behind me is another vehicle which I think is a dark grey truck. I do reality checks. I push my finger to my hand but it doesn't go through but I can see a large indentation of where my finger is pushing on the other side of my hand. I pinch my nose but am unable to breathe. I notice my ears haven't popped and when I notice it, they do, like in the waking world. Everything feels so real. I look at my left hand and count fingers. 5 fingers and a thumb. I tell myself "That's all the proof I need" My objective for my next lucid dream was to sit down and learn to control and summon stuff in the environment. I single out a rock on the gravel and try to lift it with my mind. I hear a loud noise in the waking world and it transfers to my dream as a gunshot in the distance to my right. It distracts me and I notice my dream ending. I tell myself to dream spin but it's already to late. I lost lucidity and I wake up.

3. I’m inside grandma’s house. She tells me she’s made something to eat, and I’m disappointed because I was planning on going home for that, so I could watch what I eat.

While eating, grandma tells me about a dinosaur that was spotted. Me and Rane talk about how we used to see them more when we were younger.

We’re riding in a car down a road, looking out at the woods for signs of the dinosaur. We see a field of black goats, and I say that the dinosaur must not be there because the goats were okay. I say it must have gone off into the woods.

We drive into a town full of houses that look like they were made of cheap kid’s furniture. I say that it seems a shame to waste a whole town [just because the people in it before were forced out for doing something wrong]. Rane reminds me that it’s being used for ‘this’ now.

She seems to be looking for a specific house, mumbling under her breath. She stops and opens a part on one light-colored house. Inside are two envelopes. I think they’re old mail left from when the people left and she’s looking for supplies. This is a dystopia, after all.

She takes one and starts opening it, and I ask if I can open the other, to which she replies that I can.

In her package, there was a bag full of jewelry and things. They were a few heart shaped pieces.

-Jump-

I’m in a central building there, talking to a little creature (reminds me of Boota from Gurren Lagann – without the glasses of course!). He’s talking to me about what I need to do to get signed up there to store things. Apparently everyone already has a basic account, but you have to make it official by signing a form.

I look around and see relics from before the apocalypse. There are some anime things and even a few ‘gifs’. I contemplate about the less conventional things, like yaoi, what about people who like those things, but then shrug and realize they still have the internet.

We hear someone come in, and I bend down to look under this metal block. I see someone wearing a skirt or dress and assume it’s a woman. The creature seems to know her, and he runs up my body. I instinctively clutch him and he hides against my body. He doesn’t seem afraid though.

Inspiration: Maybe from watching Helix? And I got a package in the mail recently, and Rane gets things sometimes.

4. Duplicating socks, one was a homemade pair by mom. I thought that duplicated items weren’t as effective as the originals, but seeing the results, I thought it was a really cool idea.

5. I woke up and all the thoughts of my dreams I’d had were scrambling around my head. I had my iPod Touch, opened up Notes and pressed the + sign. I started making a word-list of things I could remember. One word was ‘eggs’.

…I woke up for real, confused, and realized I’d had a false awakening. And had no idea what the eggs part was about.

Notes: The FA is a great sign! I’m so focused on recall when I first wake up, I only do an RC after I’ve got it all straight in my head. I guess I can only wait and see how it develops from here.

Also, turning to lie on my back instead of sitting up worked well for making sure I got the dreams in my palace, because I can’t get to sleep on my back. After that I just had to keep my thoughts from wandering off so I could focus on putting the dreams in.

1. Car keys, red hair dye, playing with my old Gameboy Color accessory, I turned the light off on it after looking through the zoom part.

Inspiration: I put mom’s car keys in her purse, and also saw my sister’s keys. I recently died some of my hair red. No idea why I suddenly dreamed about that old accessory (mine had a top accessory part with a magnifier and light), wow. XD Maybe because one of my palaces is Pokemon Platinum… I only ever played Pokemon back then.

Also, I woke up at 1:36, which is only about 3 hours after I fell asleep. I notice I’m starting to wake around this time for my first awakening, but it's harder for me to remember details later, I need to really work on making better triggers for earlier dreams like this one!

2. I’m talking to someone about some of my old Japanese translations, and there’s a thick book that’s fallen apart in half towards the back. I look at the page number on the second half, which is 40. I’m discussing with someone the plot of the book and where the fallen off half goes.

3. In a field-type area, Cronus rides in on a horse. Eridan looks really glad to see him. It had the feeling of Cronus giving in to something after a long time of not doing it. Like Cronus was accepting his part in whatever was happening. Eridan gets up on the horse behind him.
The image of the two was a bit fuzzy, like I couldn’t gasp the features just right.

Inspiration: ‘Cause I’m rereading Homestuck, just read the conversation between Eridan and Rose where she blows up his computer. xD Also, I just left off in the part in my book where a dragon (probably) finally accepts his place in his destiny. Also, there was an army camped in a field talking serious business. And I just remembered that Eridan rides a seahorse...

Notes: I woke up many times last night, omg. I think it was from overexcitement, my brain was too active. I had tantalizing glimpses of at least two more dreams but couldn’t tease the details out. :/