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12-21-09

I had a super long LD this morning.

I was driving a truck and having problems controlling it (typical dream sign) I finally was coming up to another truck that had some either surf boards or snow boards sticking out the back. I started slamming on the brake, but the truck kept going at a slow roll until it ran into and broke the "boards" on the back of the other truck. I was horrified. But the feeling and situation caused me to become lucid.

I don't remember all the details. I remember flying around a lot. I ended up at my grandparents. I saw that the neighbors had Christmas decorations out front that was 8 reindeer pulling an RV. As I watched it took off flying. I had the momentary thought that they spent way too much money on something that fancy. I flew around some more. I flew across the valley to the mountains on the other side.

At that point I remembered that TOM to find Santa's sleigh. But as I looked around none appeared.

I flew some more (and I really think I was doing things that I have now forgotten)

I do remember feeling pain in my finger and looking down saw it was covered with these little burrs. I tried to pull them out, but they had these really sharp little barbs and they just stuck to my other fingers. I tired to just make them disappear, because I knew this was a dream and that I had the power to do so. But they wanted to stay. So I did the next best thing. I landed on the ground next to a group of ladies and said, I know you all have tweezers with you. Can you pull these out?" They then all pulled out tweezers and quickly pulled them out. I felt pretty good about taking care of that problem so easily and quickly.

I was about to leave when I noticed I had one burr left on my finger. I saw a teenage guy. He had sandy brown hair that curled a bit over his eyes and over his ears. He had blue green eyes and a light sprinkling of freckes across his nose. I went to him and asked him to get it out. He did. I then sudden had this desire to kiss him. So I went to him and started to make out with him. He kissed me back. It was one of those odd kisses and felt "slimey". So I then flew away.

Later I noticed that slimey feeling in my mouth still, and I started spitting out all this green slime. I remember thinking "Oh sick, that is so nasty. Why did my mind have to do that??"

Dream 1:

I was driving on these crazy roads. There were right out of a Dr. Suess book...up in the air going at very steep angles up and down and twisting. I was getting really nervous driving.

Dream 2:

I was in a crowded place and suddenly saw Yuri. I wondered if he would recognize me. I walked up to him and said hi. I could tell he had no idea who I was. I told him my name. He still looked at me blankly. Finally I told him how he knew me and I could see a faint light bulb going on. Next thing I know we are in bed together. I knew he wanted to get intimate. I remember telling him that there were two reasons we couldn't have sex.

Dream 3:

I was in what was supposed to be my backyard. There were little ponds all over. I could also see fish that had jumped out of the ponds. I ran to one particularly fat fish. It was about 18 inches long and looked like a carp, but was really round. I quickly scooted it back into a pond.

I started out driving from work toward a bar. I was going to meet a man there I know a bit from work, and don't really know and don't really like on some kind of date or happy hour. But I wanted to call it off, and say another woman would attend in my stead (this is a woman I do not know in real life). I did not know the direction to this bar but was driving there any way, though I did not know where I was going. I was desperately trying to use my phone to either get directions to this bar or to call this man to call it off, confused which.

In mid dream, my husband showed up and he was now in the driver's seat, and he was telling me that I would not be allowed to use my phone or iPad any more because he needed all our data plan for himself. And while I thought this was harsh, I accepted that I deserved it. I had caused the loss of the election - it was all my fault - I felt profound guilt. In the middle of this discussion though where my husband is saying how I lost all my phone privileges, I interrupt him to say that I now have to use my phone to either look up directions to the bar or to call the man I was going to meet to tell him that I am not coming but another woman is coming instead.

Side note: I found the references to my two dreams from June 6th in this dream fascinating. It's like this dream is a continuation and spin off of those dreams:

http://www.dreamviews.com/blogs/joan...te-vote-47125/


http://www.dreamviews.com/blogs/joan...m-lucid-47126/

Dreams:

Fragment:

I was reading a book and getting to a part where the girl main character is about to come face to face with a bigfoot.

Dream:

I was in a car in the middle of this wide road in the city. I had friends in a car behind me and they were supposed to be following me. We had been stopped for some reason. When I start back up and try to drive I have no control over the car. I try to turn but my turn is slow and wide and I am frantically trying to turn the wheel. Luckily there are few other vehicles on the road. When I turn to see if the other car is behind me I see that it is not. They had pulled over. I get out of my car to see what is going on. One of the people in their car (Mary) had to go to the bathroom so they pulled over again. I watched as Mary walked over to some bushed by the side of this building to go pee (I have been camping too long...haha). But before she could go the ground caves in and she falls 10-15 feet. I could see that the dirt she had been standing on was actually on top of a bunch of branches that were not packed solid. Her weight had made the below branches collapse. I ran to her to help. I could see that she was crying and possibly hurt, but still able to move. I tried to get to her, but the ground was very unstable. I knew I would fall in as well if I got too close. I ran back to the car and grabbed a rope. As I got back I saw that some people from the building also had some rope they were lowering for her. I still wanted to help so I lowered my rope too. But in my stress I ended up throwing all the rope in so I had no way to pull her up. I was really frustrated.

Then my alarm went off.

Sleep Pattern:

Timings:
Time Awake - 12:00-02:30
Lights Out - 02:30
Sleep - ~3:00

No attempts or methods, just trying to fall asleep.

First Recalled Awakening ~ 9:00

Don't fully remember, but I think I woke up. I really need to start writing these posts as I get up instead of getting to sleep...

Next Recalled Awakening - ~11:00
Last Recalled Awakening - ~11:45
Up - 12:00

Modifiers the Day Before:
-DnD.

Modifiers Going to Sleep:
-Still sick...
-Computer and phone...

Modifiers Getting Up:
-Alarm at 12:00

Dreams:
1) Semi-lucid. I am being recruited into an army in a non-our world. I am aware that this is a dream, but still don't question the story and follow along. I packed a bag but forgot clothes, so I go back to get some. In the meantime, I come across my DCs scrambling around backstage, out of character. (I remember the implication of them being out of the roles they were supposed to, as I apologized to them for messing up the routine).

-Time Skip-

A girl from my high school is next to me in a movie theater, and I put my arm around her. She seems surprised, though not unhappy. Still semi-lucid.

2) Driving down a highway I have never been down before, having a bit of trouble making all the lane changes and turns, realize it is a dream. Pull the wheel up and the car flies vertically.

My son is headed to camp this summer with the scouts and I've decided to accompany them on the bus. I know I don't have enough money to actually participate in the camp but I felt like I should come along just the same.

The bus arrives in camp and a sharply-dressed staffer boards the bus to give us the orientation directions. After pointing us in the right direction we all head towards the barracks that will be our home for the next 11 days.

[img]http://mountainsidebride.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/camp-wedding-wooden-signs.jpg[/img]

I must admit I'm fairly upset that my son has brought a huge radio with him and I'm chastising him since I know it won't receive anything anyway. Besides, we're in the woods and I'm sure people would prefer to hear the sounds of nature versus the boombox he is toting around.

Of course, my son protests, and I decide to back off as we enter the main room of the common area. Immediately I realize how weird it will be to have co-ed sleeping quarters but in all honesty that's not important right now. I see that another parent is there with her son and she is getting him ready for his ceremonial swearing-in as the leader of the contingent. I know he's not ready for the position and isn't up for the responsibility but I keep these thoughts to myself.

Turning around in the cramped cabin I find my son has placed his radio on a nearby dresser and has turned on the music. To my surprise it is picking up radio stations just fine, but even more surprising is the TV I see mounted to the wall as I look up. I can't believe that we're in this remote location and the camp has hi-def TV.

My son starts eating a bag of chips and unloading his stuff from his pack. I call him into the hallway and I'm fed up with his constant eating so I start yelling at him though I'm not really upset so I lower my voice and begin talking to him in a more conversational tone. It's good that I did lower my voice as the raised tones caught the attention of the camp scout-leader and he looked worried. My attention returns to my son and then pauses as he turns to ask some of the scouts entering the room about their snacks, bags of chips and goodies that are loaded up by the armful.

"We actually got there at just the right time, "says Kevin, one of the taller and older scouts. "The line was empty when we got there but by the time we were leaving there were fifty people lining up. I'd suggest getting your snacks now while they still have some."

I look at my son, knowing he can probably wait, but then I think better of it and just encourage him to head up and get his shacks now. He heads out of the room and I decide to follow him.

The main area of the camp is slightly muddy from recent rains and hundreds of pairs of boots tromping through the square. The mud continues up the steep hill that leads to where the scouts are all headed to get their snacks. The hill is grassy and has clearly benefited from recent rains but the boots of the scouts have turned the trail into a slippery and muddy path, despite many flat steps cut into the hill to prevent erosion.

[img]http://johanna.wandel.ca/JDF/IMG_6675.jpg[/img]

I'm especially impressed with how green this part of New Mexico looks and how nice the air is and I'm glad we're far away in a remote area of the state, distant from all the cities and urban areas that plague our home. My thought is barely finished when I come to the top of the hill and I see the distant vista of downtown Baja, New Mexico, the largest city in the state.

[img]http://www.johnharveyphoto.com/HongKong/CityViewAtNightHg.jpg[/img]

I nearly gasp seeing the tall buildings and sprawling city laid out before me over the next ridge. My son clearly knew more than I did when he decided to bring the radio on this campout. Even more strange than the view is where the path now leads; We're on top of a parking garage, a muddy trail leading from the hill to the far corner of the cement parking lot. In the corner sits an older man and his friend, two chairs and a white plastic cooler their only equipment.

I approach as my son finishes his transaction and I get a brief glimpse at their offerings. Cold beverages fill one side of the cooler and various other snacks sit on the ground at their feet, slightly hidden by the open lid of the cooler. I'm a bit put-off by this sight and I had hoped for better from a camp that could afford to put HDTV in the camper's rooms.

It's time to head back to camp and I see one of the other scouts from our troop nearby, also ready to head down.

"Let's race!" I call to him and the next thing I know we're both racing down the muddy hillside. I can't believe how fast I can go and after taking a particularly large step I know I'm dreaming. I can see that I'm about to land in a rather muddy spot so I pull up my feet and let my momentum carry me a distance of nearly 25 feet beyond the mud, a great moment of control and satisfaction. I want to wrap up the race in a grand way so I turn sideways and slide down the rest of the slippery hill of mud, a feeling of exhilaration that is as close as I can get without flying. Naturally I win the race.

Now that I'm at the bottom I start to take a look around and I find the camp actually lies on the edge of a suburban part of Baja, the tree-lined streets almost giving the impression of some small town in Tennessee. Slightly in front of me and to my left is a old, brick firehouse, now abandoned, and a pair of railroad tracks lies between me and the building. A couple of cars navigate the nearby neighborhood streets. I feel so odd having a camp this close to the neighborhoods of the city.

[img]http://www.texasescapes.com/TexasTowns/GrafordTexas/GrafordTexasFirehouse1007MPrice65.jpg[/img]

To complete the odd scene, a motorized contraption straight out of the late 19th century appears, an oddly-shaped machine with spinning wheels and a sputtering steam-muffler. The conveyance is clearly designed to travel on both train tracks and regular roads, overly-complicated with gears and flywheels that make approaching it seem dangerous. I watch as the machine rides the rails around the building and then enters the road on the far side of the building.

I take this as my cue to follow the driver and I suddenly find myself in a Chevy Blazer, an older model that is both cramped and over-powered. My daughter is driving and I know she is planning on passing up the strange contraption we are rapidly approaching. My cousin-in-law leans in behind me to tell me that, "Everything will be okay, we can easily pass the machine. This Blazer has a V8 engine and is more than powerful enough to catch it."

We pass up the machine and continue along a road that slopes down towards an intersection ahead, though my daughter shows no sign of slowing. I can see the slightly-obscured stop-sign and I yell at her to stop before we hit something. On cue a man appears running across the road, as far from a crosswalk as he could be, his diagonal path on a clear intersection with ours. I brace myself as we hit the man and he goes spinning up and over the hood, though he shows no real sign of injury and continues on his path.

"Okay, " I'm thinking, "that was weird." We turn left at the new road and I realize we're heading deeper into the city of Baja, a place I've never been and I can only vaguely picture on my mental map as in the northern part of New Mexico. I still can't believe how green it is, but even that pales in beauty to the snow-capped mountains I see to my left, illustrating how high up we are in elevation. To my right is a wide meadow that is clearly a park used for sports like Frisbee and impromptu games of touch football. The air is warm, perhaps 60F, but there remains a little snow along the edge of the field. Every part of me is marveling at the beauty of this place and I start considering what it would take to move there from Texas.

[img]http://media.indiedb.com/images/articles/1/130/129140/auto/rocky_mountains_sml.jpg[/img]

Sensing my desire to look around and get a feel for the place my daughter stops driving and parks the vehicle right in the middle of the lane, a bit further out from the curb than one would normally park. I watch as she leans out of the door and sprawls out over the pavement, her head in one lane and her left arm stretching out into the next lane of traffic. A car is approaching and I pull her arm back quickly to avoid it being in the way of traffic. My pleas to get up go unheeded and I can't believe she would go to this length just so I can look around at the trees and mountains, a scene I know my mind has created but clearly a place I want to explore.

Unfortunately I wake up, remembering a location and experience more pleasant than I could possibly describe.

May 31, 2013
Lucid Dream 513: Criminals at Large
Series: Fearless, Episode 7
DILD
Technique: ADA



Me, my dad, and brother are in an apartment. There is a dead guy on the floor. I'm shouting to them, "Ok, its time to go. Grab everything you need and lets get out of here now." My dad said, "Relax, he just now called it in, they won't be here for another hour or so." I replied, "They want us caught more than anything, just hurry up and lets go." I grabbed arm-fulls of documents and other things. I threw them in a trash can along with a small napalm bomb. I then lit the trash can and we exited the building. We jumped into the car and pulled out just as a cop was pulling in. I said, "I told you they would be here faster than 1 hour." Several cop cars pulled in and the police entered the building. Suddenly, it exploded into a fiery blaze! We cheered as we sped off into the sunset.

The dream skipped and we were still driving and listening to the radio. They were talking about us on the radio. It said, "R3 has struck again. Their status as dangerous contract killers has been upped to serial murderers." A man along with 4 police officers has been killed. This ups the number to 30 victims in one month." We talked it over and made sure we were burned the evidence and left no tracks. It turned out that one of the officers survived and he had saw my dad's face.

We had arrived at a city and Dad, who was driving, accidentally ran a red light. A cop turned on his lights in an attempt to pull us over. Dad said, "Just relax, he doesn't know who we are. I'll handle this." I cocked my gun and told him to hold on before he pulls over. I'll dive into his mind real quick. I focused my attention toward him and concentrated on the interior of his car (apparently I had super powers ). I heard the cop thinking, "The license plate matches. This is the big one!" I told dad, "He knows! Step on it!" We got into a high speed chase.

The chase went on for quite a while and we couldn't seem to shake him. I shot out several cop car tires, but a new cop car replaced the wrecked one every time. Eventually, we gained some space and bailed on the car to get a new one. Suddenly, the cops came out of nowhere on foot. We took off running and ran into a shopping mall. As we were being chased, I suddenly became lucid.

I told my dad and brother to stop and come join me. We sat down at a table nearby and a female cop came up to us with a gun pointed at us. She told us to get down on the ground. I laughed and said, "Who are you?" She told me she was a police officer and I replied, "I can see that, but that isn't all you are is it?" She looked confused, so I explained a bit more. I said, "Sometimes, I'm a Pirate, or a Ninja, right now, we are Serial Killers. Right now, you are a cop. I just wonder what you were dreaming of last night?" She blushed and smiled as she said, "I was a swimsuit model." I smiled and said, "Dreams are great aren't they?" She agreed and then joined us at the table. I jumped up and proceeded to summon a sword.

I held my hand out and traced the sword with my fingers, it appeared, but looked like it was a drawing. I grabbed it, turned my head away, and turned it back several times until the sword looked real. I walked over to the nearest DC (right beside the cop lady) and swung for his neck. The blade went clean through, but his head stayed on his shoulders. I then grabbed him by the hair and lifted the detached neck from its perch. I then tossed it in the middle of a group of DCs at a table. The head landed in their food and they screamed and ran away. All the other DCs at the other tables didn't seem to notice or care. The cop lady pulled her gun on me and I said, "Remember? its just a dream. You are just playing cop." She laughed and said, "Oh yeah, I forgot." I then asked if I could see her gun and she handed it to me. I immediately slammed the barrel into her mouth and said, "You shouldn't have forgot." I then blasted her brains out. I then began slicing the heads off of random DCs in the area with my sword. I made a game out of it and tried to see how many I could slice with one swing. I managed to take off six heads with one swing at one table. Every now and then, I couldn't cut through some of the DCs. The sword would stop part way through and once I pulled it out, their wounds would instantly heal. Some laughed and said, "You almost got me!" After a bit of more slicing and dicing I woke up.

Series Details
Join all the action in the dream series, "Fearless." You never know what I may run into, but you can guarantee I'm ready for a fight. Stay tuned for more blades, guns, and explosions in this series!

Early afternoon of May 20, 2013. Monday.



In my very clear lucid dream, I walk around in our house (which is much larger in my dream) wondering what is going on. I start to get into the habit of touching my face and mouth regularly in my dream to check if I am breathing properly in real life. This is because, at the time, I remember that I am sleeping with a pillow over the side of my head but there is plenty of room to breathe.

I walk around until I notice that our back hallway is so much larger than in real life, I feel amazed. It is so large that there is now a shiny white car in mint condition, possibly a 1980s Ferrari Testarossa, parked between the bathroom and storage cupboards facing north to where I am standing in the larger than real life kitchen area.

Being fully lucid, but with too many ideas on how I can utilize my lucidity, I walk to the car and start tapping it on the top and front and it makes a sound just like someone slapping the side of a washing machine, with a slightly hollow effect. This makes me happy, as I start lucidly feeling all the cool areas of the outside of the car. I am able to open the unusual car door (though on the second attempt). Curiously, I am actually able to fit inside the car comfortably after being able to get in. (As I have documented before, cars are often too small to get inside of in my dreams.)

I move my feet over the floor of the car, not really touching anything with my feet, and I turn a key to hear a soft sort of engine sound. Suddenly, I take off very fast, north, right through our house. It does not matter at all because I am dreaming. There are no obstacles; I just drive through as if nothing was there to slow or block the car.

I eventually drive near a cliff, but then the car is vertically upright, facing downwards, hovering high in midair, and I am looking down at about dozen people on a rocky beach near the ocean. A few people look up at me. I start thinking about all the things I could do in my dream, but I am also thinking that I had been asleep long enough and decide to wake up.

---

Two fragments.

Dream 1 (fragment): False awakening. I woke up and glanced around my room. It was a bright, sunny day outside. I did not leave my bed, and fell back asleep.

Dream 2 (fragment): I was driving past some stores. One of them was a jewelry store - with no front wall. It was also a bright, sunny day.

Note - Today is rather cloudy.

EDIT: I remembered one more thing after posting this, but only got the chance to edit this entry now.

Dream 3 (fragment): I was in an elevator. There were two people with me - I seemed to recognize one, but the other I did not. I exited the elevator, heard something about artists being untrustworthy, and entered what resembled my grandmother's condo. I was wearing some kind of cross between a trenchcoat and a raincoat - and it was blue.

DJ Log: April 3, 2013 – 6:15AM (USA Eastern)
• NON-DREAM • NOTES • DREAM • LUCID •

I am driving through an older development in my home town, looking for a place where a friend of mine from many years ago lives. I pull into a circle at the end of a street and say to myself, “Shit, I think I'm on the wrong street. I should be on the next street over.” I pull into a driveway to turn around, then I start to back up. As soon as I turn my head, I see the guy I'm looking for walking into his house. I stop and wave and he waves back. I roll down my window and tell him, “I'm looking for a certain place and I'll come back once I check it out.” He waves again and walks inside.

I drive around to the next street over and try to drive up the road. The road is blocked, so I get out and walk into what looks like a clothing store in the middle of the road. I look for a moment, then turn around and walk back to the house I stopped at before. I knock on the door and my friend answers the door and says, “Come on in.” I walk in and just inside the door, he stops and looks at me, then he smiles and reaches up and boops me on the nose and gives me a really cute grin. We talk for a bit then I wake up.

#1 - I dream that I am playing a new sort of MMO. Gameplay wise, it functions more like a side-scroller, but it looks a lot like World of Warcraft. Guild recruitment in it is really weird - if you're unaffiliated and somebody defeats you in battle, they can force you to join their Guild. It sucks, because I end up in a Guild full of jerks that I really don't like.

Another thing is that once you enter certain sections of a stage or a boss battle, you can't back out of it, and you're severely penalized for attempting to leave or dying. My teammates all think I suck because I'm low-level and new to the game.

#2 - My family is eating at a diner, like Steak & Shake. I see an older woman sitting with what appears to be a newborn baby and a little girl. I smile at her. She starts a conversation with me, asking me what I do for a living and things of that nature. To be polite, I answer and ask how old the baby is. She starts talking about the baby. I thought she was its grandmother but she is actually its mother.

When we go home, she comes with us, bringing the baby with. She hangs out all night long and never stops talking. I notice that something is really weird with the baby. Its skin looks wrong and tight and its face looks weird, more like a doll; the more I look at it, the more it looks like a roast pig, except for the face, which looks like one of those creepy shrunken heads. It never really moves or cries. I ask her if her baby is o.k. She waves me off and says it will be fine.

At maybe 5 a.m., she asks us for a ride home. It turns out that she lives a whole city away. I manage to wake up my uncle and talk him into driving, because my sleep deprivation and medication has made me unable to drive. We drive through the mountains for maybe an hour and a half, and the sun comes up. The woman lives in kind of a run down green house on the edge of a lake. It becomes apparent that the baby is sick and might die, but she doesn't really seem to care. We drop her off and wave goodbye. I'm glad to be rid of her.

I guess I should have had a clue that this was a dream, because my uncle was actually nice to me. On the highway, he pulls the car over and asks me to look at the mountains. I do so. He tells me to look in a specific direction, and I do. He says that in that direction is a major temple, and I might be able to see its outline against the sky. I look harder, and my dream-vision zooms in, and I can just barely see the temple. He says something to the effect of, when I don't feel good, to look in that direction and try to find it.

I wake up.

Three dreams tonight, and two fragments.

Dream 1: I was outside a school, apparently mine, except it was in a completely different location and appeared completely different.

It was about...five to ten times longer than it was wide, and had a complicated network of small flights of stairs and small rooms instead of reasonably large hallways and classrooms. The color scheme was a beige color for the walls, floor and ceiling, with a brown for the doors. Everything was also a mess. Chairs were randomly placed around rooms and such, and there were no tables. I wandered around for a bit, finding the aforementioned information, talked with a few DCs (though I do not recall the conversations), and the dream ended.

Dream 2: I was playing some kind of third-person stealth shooter with a friend, and I cannot recall any details about him. There are a variety of scenes I remember, such as a wooden bridge spanning a cliff in a desert, with a guard at one end. There was also something about a dragon, which I cannot fully remember, but it was green and resembled a plushie, to an extent.

At one point, we were infiltrating the enemy base or some such, and it had overly-large hallways, as if they would move tanks around or something. The color scheme was blue. For anyone who has played Lost Planet 2, there was one level that resembled this. There were windows and guards everywhere, but we were somehow not detected. There was one part in particular where there were two paths - one forward, turning right, and an offshoot to the right, which led to some kind of security room to the left, and a lounge/bathrooms to the right. Proceeding down the hall and turning right, there was some kind of dual-gate security checkpoint.

At this point, it was less "playing a game" and more "controlling the character directly from a third-person perspective." I knew there was a guard on the other side of the door, but I thought I could take care of him. I closed the first door I passed through, and went to open the second one.

In retrospect, as I am recalling this, I distinctly remember never actually having any weapons of any description. I also apparently referenced the Metal Gear (Solid) series when referring to the guards - though I have only played MGS4.

So, the second door closes. I am facing the second door, and turn to the right - there is a window looking out into the corridor. Of all things, I see...a Heavy from TF2 run past, and it starts opening the door. The door opens and the Heavy kills me.

I woke up briefly at this point, did a RC, and it was not a false awakening. It was about...5:30AM.

Dream 3: I was driving to school. The route is completely different. There was someone who looked like he was wearing three traffic cones (one over each leg and one over his torso), and he was jumping back and forth on the road...at 60kph. Another driver and I passed him by driving into the oncoming traffic lane over a divider, then ran a red light.

Note - this is definitely not an accurate representation of my driving skill.

We eventually come to some kind of mall or some such - which is full of those large cargo containers you find on trains and the large cargo ships. We park, and I suddenly find myself outside the car. This "mall" was open on two sides - "open" as in "did not have an exterior wall" - something that would definitely never happen in Winnipeg. Maybe in Hawaii. The roof resembled the interior roof at one section of a place I worked - a greenhouse, though not the "greenhouse" part. My mother apparently buys me these two magnets, with an odd shape - an oval, with a name of some university, then a connecting bar, then a rectangle. On one of them it said something about preferring yellow silk over black gold.

While silk is nice, oil is somewhat important, dream characters....

Anyways, at one point I look up, and seem to briefly drift into something of a daydream/fantasy/what have you - one that occurs in real life from time to time, and I speak to this other character (specifically, Lucina from Fire Emblem: Awakening), and mutter something about "being home." (Note - I use these "daydreams" for lack of a better term to interact with whatever characters are present in whatever game I'm playing to pass the time, or to relieve boredom). We get up to the "school" which is an incomprehensible mess of what looks like oddly-shaped vehicles and buses parked together. I'm looking around for an entrance, and see some of my (IRL) friends.

We chat briefly, and I ask where an entrance is - one of them says that they are waiting for people to get out of the way, as all of the entrances were blocked. So we wait about five seconds, and walk up some stairs. We enter this "bus" for lack of a better term, and I sit down next to them (not noticing that they are already sitting - and they were definitely behind me). Another friend of mine sits down next to me. I notice a third friend on the other side of the "bus." The second friend goes over to her. I look across, and I see something about free lunches, with a cost of "5" "10" "100" (no currency given), etc. and they were denoted by traffic cones of three sizes and shades - not much difference between them, they were all orange.

At this point I noticed I had no shirt on, but before I could do a reality check, the dream ended.

I think, at this point, I'll consider stairs and traffic cones dream signs until proven otherwise, and perform reality checks as normal.

Dream 4 (fragment): I was playing some kind of turn-based grid-based strategy game resembling Fire Emblem: Awakening. There was a level involving clouds, and I was apparently levelling up the character Morgan (...also from Fire Emblem: Awakening). I also was apparently going to recruit another character on this level, but there were special spaces (which resembled wooden posts) where if I attacked them large sections of the level (which looked like a circle about 6 tiles thick, with a ~5 tile thick bar on the top) would cease to exist, obliterating any non-flying unit beneath them. I accidentally obliterated the character I was going to recruit with Morgan, despite Morgan being on the other side of the map, outside of movement range and such.

I'm not sure whether or not I should play more Fire Emblem or less. Having the characters as DCs should be entertaining, if nothing else.

Dream 5 (fragment): This one was a false awakening, though I forgot to do a reality check - I apparently woke up, and walked over to my closet, which had a white, sliding door on it. I open it up, and walk in. While my closet is a walk-in closet, this one was smaller and wider, and had a peaked ceiling. There was a second sliding door, also peaked, and somehow worked. Opening it, there were several shelves with towels. Dream ends.

All of these dreams were...rather vivid, actually. A shame they were not lucid. I do know which friends of mine were present in Dream 3, I am simply not mentioning their names.

I took a pass at Advanced Task of the Month (turn a lump of coal into a diamond) but was running into all kinds of cognitive and dream control problems. My brain seemed to be a little zonked. This was my first lucid where I'd taken Valerian Root for sleep, so it's something to consider. Still, a nice long dream, even just counting the lucid part! If I'd managed to get lucid earlier I might have even had more time (and avoided that chaotic freeway scene.)

Color legend: Non-dream Dream Lucid

Lucid #84: Vehicle Fire

Everything in the house is breaking at once. The plumbing is leaking all over the place, the dogs have destroyed a bunch of stuff, and I hear some kind of weird crunching noise from outside. To top it off, we're late picking up the kids from something.

I head outside to find my brother-in-law Muppet swinging around like a monkey on one of the external brick columns that supports our house. Each time he swings around, a couple of bricks fall off of the house and land nearby. Plus, the pillar is actually moving a little bit each time he goes around it. "What the hell are you doing?" I say to him. "You're gonna break our house!" I perform some half-assed reality check and it succeeds.

"What did you do just now?" asks Muppet.

"That was a reality check," I explain. "Everything is such a mess that I hoped I was just dreaming."

"Ah," he says, not especially interested. He points at our roof. Three objects that look like wooden shipping pallets are sticking out of it. "Hey, what are those?" asks Muppet. I grimace, thinking that they must have fallen out of a plane or something and wound up embedded in our roof. Muppet gets distracted, makes some remark about the flowers on the banana plants in our back yard, and then hops away over the top of our house. (Yes, over the top of our two-story house.)

Wife and I get in the car to go pick up the kids. We drive around the city for a long time but every road seems to be closed. Finally we take a tollway but traffic suddenly gets really heavy. I lightly bump some car as I'm driving around but nobody makes a big deal about it. Looking up ahead, we see the reason for the delay: ahead of us a disabled car is engulfed in flames. Black smoke billows up to the sky.



"We've gotta get off this road," I tell Wife, and steer the car toward a left exit. Just as I do that, though, a fire engine comes racing toward me, going the wrong way up the exit. I throw the car in reverse to try to get out of the way. I have to bump a lot of cars to clear a path, but I figure that's okay.

Finally, our car gets totally stuck, so I hop out and start pushing it sideways, kind of lifting it each time. I realize that I'm way too strong and become lucid. Wife has vanished, which is probably for the best -- the scene has grown totally chaotic, with cars driving around everywhere bumping into each other and the siren from the fire truck wailing in my ear. I pick up the car over my head and throw it across the road. In mid-air it changes from an SUV into a yellow Volkswagen Beetle. Then it becomes just the front half of a VW Beetle.

The license plate looks like a bar of soap with words carved into it in cartoony handwriting. I get closer so that I can study it. There are four words, but I only remember "ship" and "check".

Now I remember Task of the Month -- turn a lump of coal into a diamond. Unfortunately, I start trying to conjure a diamond at first. I'm very aware of my hands for some reason, and even when I put them behind my back I can't seem to make myself buy into the conjuration. I bring my hands back to the front of my body and see that now I'm wearing these black, rather lady-like leather driving gloves. Annoyed, I take them off and pitch them away. I try the conjuration again -- again, more lady-gloves. Then I remember that I wasn't even supposed to be conjuring a diamond in the first place but a lump of coal. I start working on that, wind up with lady-gloves again, and start getting frustrated. A car clips me as it goes by, I start getting agitated, and darkness comes over me, pitching me into the void.

I feel relaxed, and start probing at my dream body. It's only a few seconds before I find myself standing in my own bedroom, walking toward the door. I say something encouraging to myself like, "Hell yeah, sexy new dream body!" For a moment I contemplate turning around to see whether Wife is in bed and might be down for doing something sexy but I get scared that approaching the bed I'm actually occupying IWL would be destabilizing.

I head to the top of the stairs. The baby gate's blocking me but I just power through it and it sort of snaps open. I get nearly to the bottom of the stairs when everything stretches way, way out and takes on that stereotypical "endless hallway" look. I keep moving but no matter how far I go everything seems to stay in the same place. Then the entire room suddenly rotates 90 degrees, floor becoming wall, and I slide down the rest of the way to the first floor.

Our coat closet has been replaced with what looks like a giant iPhone. The screen is displaying a game with a 5x5 array of tiles. When you touch various tiles, you receive prizes in the form of troops for Clash of Clans. I earn 4 Minions and a Hog Rider just pushing tiles at random, but now I'm interested in learning what the rules of the game are. I'm trying to figure this out when the dream ends.

I pulled off Basic Task of the Month in this one and got part of the way through Advanced. Considering that I came into this dream in a bit of an unfocused mood, I'm calling this a success!

Color legend: Non-dream Dream Lucid

Lucid #83: Expensive Snacks

I WILD into a scene where I'm standing in the driveway of our house. There's a dark blue jeeped parked here. I notice that the jeep's license plate is made out of paper and as I lean down to investigate it, Wife comes up from behind me and says, "You're going to pick up the kids, right?"

I say something along the lines of, "Huh?" I turn to face her but she's already walking away. She waves over her shoulder, calling, "Thanksloveyoubye!!" before vanishing back into the house.

I turn my attention back to that weird "license plate". It's filled with extremely small print that mostly seems to be related to lucid dreaming. I try to memorize a little of it but I can tell that the text is changing. I give up on this hopeless task and climb into the jeep.

Two child seats are jammed into the back, totally askew and clearly not properly installed. For a moment I worry about picking up the kids in seats that are this unsafe but I quickly remember that I have no intention of actually going to get the kids. I'm interested in the car, though, so I climb into the driver's seat.

Without me having to do anything, the car starts driving itself backwards through my neighborhood. I have no idea why it's in reverse, but the car's going at a fine pace and making great turns, so I just go with it. I decide to chill a bit and just let the car drive me around. I think of how comfortable my seat is and it automatically reclines for me.

I happen to glance over at the passenger seat and notice that one of Wife's rings is laying on the cushion. I try to remember whether she lost this ring IWL. No, it's not missing. But the Task of the Month occurs to me and I decide to give the ring a taste. I jam it into my mouth and start sucking on it. The taste is slightly oily at first, but I'm not getting a lot of flavor. I start to suck a bit harder and I feel the top of the ring begin to melt! My mouth is filled with the taste of vegetable oil.

I spit the ring out and see that about a third of it is completely melted. The damage bothers me so I grip it in my hand for a moment to repair it. It comes out whole again and I toss it back onto the seat.

I want to go for the Advanced Task now (transform a lump of coal into a diamond), so I conjure a lump of coal by "finding" it behind my back. As I bring it forward to look at it, though, I feel the scene darkening and losing focus. The change is sudden, so I'm left with no time to complete the diamond transformation. I get ready to DEILD but when the scene collapses I'm left totally awake.

A possible Lake House dream...

The visuals were very realistic... I was driving down a long straight highway. It was daylight but the sky was overcast. The road was lined with leafless tall trees on both sides. My GF was with me. The mood was fine. I made a right turn from off the main two-lane highway, onto a straight single lane road. After a mile or two, this road came to a grouping of half-dozen or so one-story cabins.

I only slightly recall being inside our cabin. It was old, browning, and looked unused for many years. I had the impression we were renting it for vacation.

We left after a brief stay and came to the spot on the narrow road that connected back to the main highway. Instead of returning the way I came, I made a right turn...

I felt uncertain as to what my destination was at this point, -then I woke up.