Non-dream Non-lucid Lucid Dream 1 - Moonwell of Love It's almost like a game, I'm a character who seems to be stronger than everyone else. Everyone else is kind of a newbie. There's a girl who I'm with (although it's a 'game', it seems it's more like a real world with levels?) who I race to reach a moonwell. There are two moonwells, they resemble the moonwells you see in Warcraft. I reach one first, so she has to go to a different one. The water in it is blue and glows slightly, I wade into its shallow depths and feel my power being replenished... My mana is recovering, which I seem to have used earlier on in the dream. Almost like an announcement, something occurs saying that I've reached the stage 1 of the love blessing. The requirements were that you have to love someone truly and unconditionally. There are 6 stages and when you reach the end you attain special powers. Because everyone else is new I thought I was the first to discover this power, but I was apparently wrong. A man approaches and he is buff as, he apparently has the blessing of love and kind of seems like an enemy. Dream 2 - Seeing old friends I'm wandering down a hallway at school (so many school dreams O_O) and see a class with its door open. I peer in an see Hanno, and old friend . I strike up conversation, surprised that he recognized me after not seeing each other for so long. Some other friends show up and gradually I feel myself being pushed out of the conversation. I decide to leave to go to form class (a class just before period 1 begins to check attendance). As I wander out of the door I see Aditya, an old friend who shared the same form class, except he's HUGE now. He's really tall, and his body looks badly proportioned too. Like his legs were way too long compared to his upper body. We talk a bit and another friend shows up, this is around the point the dream ends. Dream fragment - There's a school trip on today, it's occurring at my university Marine Science class where we have a trip to go skiing (not related to the class itself for some reason). But I completely forgot we were going on a trip, I thought we just had to meet up and do some test and then go home... I ended up realizing I wasn't wearing warm enough clothing and that I had no gear, like towels and a toothbrush so there was no way I could go no the trip. I approached my teacher and asked if she could step to the side with me for a private conversation, where I admitted embarrassingly to her that I hadn't prepared for the trip . Dream 3 - First day back at school (yet another school dream ) It's the first day of school and I think I'm unprepared because I haven't got the right clothing on (green shorts, a black shirt with a thin black hoody and a dressing gown over top). I seem to have headed out to the streets around the school (which resemble the residential area of my university) possibly to get food. I start heading back and arrive at school, but on my way back (I was running for some reason) and spotted a girl I knew called Mikayla. She was sitting on the deck of persons house chatting with her friends, I decided to ignore her because I didn't want to intrude. I continue running through the school, not sure where I'm going. I pass a girl who looks like Mikayla who was hanging with another girl I knew, Rhiannon. I pass them and stop, then spin on my heel and yell out "Hey, Mikayla! Is that you?". "Yeh, hey" she replies. Kind of seemed hesitant which was pretty lousy -.- we were best friends lol "Did you dye your hair?" "Yeh I did haha" this time she seems more interested, and we talk a bit more. But then for some reason we all like... Fell over? And they bumped their heads on a wooden seat and nearly knocked themselves out. I propped them both up against a wall sitting down to help them out. A teacher then shows up and WOW she was a bitch. She started accusing me of assaulting the girls! Couldn't believe it, I used my syllogism to figure that she had been told to be strict with students because it's the first day at school. She had a whole bunch of students with us now and we were all in trouble for some dumb reason. The bell went and I wanted to go to my 3rd period English class so I could get my bag which I had apparently left at the field camp in the previous dream fragment. We weren't allowed to leave though, because we were supposed to be getting on a bus to go to detention or something... She (the old bat of a teacher) ordered us all onto the bus, but for some reason I had the feeling she forgot about me and I realized I could just... Walk away . So I did. I headed off to my English class, and a long the way I spotted my old friend Oliver from school. I had thought he had also been on the detention bus though. He told me that when we got onto the bus he went to the rear exit and hopped off without the teacher noticing haha. Sly dog. We ended up talking and just catching up with each.
Homework Stress Today is July 1st. One of the first things my [old] chemistry teacher does in class is ask for the homework. It was our choice exactly which assignment to do, but we were supposed to do 50 points' worth of homework. I haven't done it, because I forgot to check the syllabus. Frags: "alien invasion" [??]
Extra Concerts Somebody's been adding extra concerts to the program. It's almost concert night already, and we haven't known about the concerts long enough to prepare adequately. The conductor advises us, in lieu of getting the notes right, that we focus just on the rhythms. She sends me and another musician out into the hallway to find a room to do some last-minute practicing. The hallway's crowded, so the other girl pulls me into a practice room. It's small, and there are no windows, so I find myself wondering if she plans to make out with me--though I realize maybe that's wishful thinking. Even though I'm not a singer, I've been given a part to sing. But there's no music on the page; it's just the words. How am I supposed to learn the song if I haven't been told what the notes are? I try to look around for someone who looks like she knows what she's doing. Now I'm acting in a demonstration of some kind. I have to improvise my choreography on the spot. It's kind of fun, though, because I have one of those wide brooms. I've always wanted to dance around with a broom. I'm in a department store, and I do some flips over clothing racks. Then it occurs to me that I could pretend to be Harry Potter and fly around on the broom, so I accelerate down an aisle and come crashing into the floor. I think it works pretty well as a stunt. Afterward, Mom tells me that she counted at least nine cool moves in my choreography, which is gratifying. Also, she says she saw one of our neighbors in the audience; maybe I should find him to chat.
Public Service Lesson My sister is carrying some food, walking towards us. Maybe a pound of PB&J slides out of her food and lands on the sidewalk. Gross. But of course she doesn't even pause to consider picking it up. My mom takes the opportunity to grab a paper towel and clean it up for her, at the same time giving her a verbal lecture about being a good citizen. Obviously, my sister's heard all of these things before, but Mom gives the explanation as though she's talking to a small child. I think that's a good way to do it--subtly imply that anyone except a small child should already know these rules. Mom finishes the lecture by pointing out that if any food gets stuck on the rim of the trash can while you're throwing it away, you should wipe off the trash can as well. Private Investigator I'm in a diner, talking to a suspect. I'm trying to trick him into admitting something. I know that he knows that's what I'm trying to do, though, so I'll have to be doubly clever. We're walking around the building, through various rooms, when someone body-checks me into a counter. In a threatening voice, he says I've been talking to too many Asians. Obviously, he wants me to stop asking so many questions. I walk toward the front of the diner. A manager sits at a table there, talking to someone else. It looks like they're doing a drug deal, except they're exchanging magazines. Frags: "election results"During the morning, I'm walking around doing various things, all of which must be completed by a specific time in the afternoon. When I check my watch, I realize that it's already past 11:00--much later than I thought it was.
NOTES: Afternoon, 100 countdown A mall. I am trying to escape. From who or what? Seems everyone is an enemy. I need to change face. I was on the road, traveling, walking. It was raining. The secret names of god. We are unprepared for risk.
P.E. Tests It's the first day the semester. I'm walking through the halls after my third class, heading to P.E., thinking about my schedule. I can't remember eating lunch. I also can't remember having gone to the Discrete Mathematics class I'd planned on taking. If I'm not in that class, shouldn't I only have three classes today? I suppose I must have had a backup plan. It's the end of the week, and that means it's testing day in P.E. These days always make me nervous, because you have to compete physically against your classmates. I see two people playing one-on-one basketball, which makes me even more nervous. I've never been good at basketball. A bunch of other people are walking around with red yoga balls. I take one for myself, but a few moments later someone kicks a ball at my feet and I trip over it. Later, a siren sounds. I wonder if it's a fire, and I walk over to the boundary of the field, from whence the sound emanates. I overhear a bearded instructor talking about the animosity between Scotland and Ireland. Apparently there's been violence in Southeast Asia, and one of the two factions has completely wiped out the other. That's bad news for one of my classmates--he's native to Scotland (or was it Ireland?). I walk along the bottom of a low, grassy ridge in the yard. A bunch of bloated weeds grow along the top of the ridge. Some of them look like over-sized caterpillars, or leeches. Or sea cucumbers. I'm interested, because some of them are waving back and forth as though they're a GIF. I try to make some of the others do that, too, but it doesn't always work. I notice some of the coaches have dispersed from the meeting they were having. They must have finished planning for the tests. That means it's time to get started. But I'm not wearing my shoes; I left them with my other stuff over by the side of the field. Only, I can't remember where, exactly. I look around, but the terrain doesn't seem familiar. I also notice that only a few other students are visible. Well, that's a relief--the others must still be getting ready, so I can't be that far behind. Suddenly remembering my way, I start to trot off around the side of a copse of pine trees.
Bottomless Towards the end of the women's choir concert, a soloist walks on. I don't recognize her as one of the members of the choir. Her first few notes have pretty bad tone, which I realize must be because she hasn't done any singing yet in the concert (so she isn't warmed up). As the song goes on, she doesn't get much better--although she does have a nice stage personality, so the song's still enjoyable. But eventually she stops and goes into the bathroom. It's kind of dark, so I'm not sure about this next part, but . . . when she comes out of the bathroom, it looks like she's not wearing any pants or underwear. Dreamer's Tales I'm reading from a random dream journal on DV. The writer uses a large, boldface font. The basic story is that he's incapacitated the leader of the bad guys, but he's still looking around for the rest of them. Then he realizes that in the time he's been looking, the leader may have woken up again. For all he knows, the leader could be standing right behind him, right now. The DJ entry stops there. I'm delighted to realize that I understand why: the sense of being followed is sometimes scary enough to cause the "Abort! Abort! Nightmare!" response. Overall, I'm impressed with this dream and with the way it was told. Revelry My dad is laughing about something he just heard from one of his friends. Apparently, that friend just received a call that his son was arrested in Philadelphia. As far as anyone knows so far, he got drunk with some friends, and they decided to fly over there to watch our state football team play an away game? Either way, it's hilarious. Gaps I'm writing in my dream diary when I realize that I'm running out of space: there are some more notes in the diary, below where I'm writing right now. I must accidentally have written on that page one time when there wasn't enough light to see what I was doing. I have plenty more stuff to write, though, so I need more room. I look back at the previous page and notice five or six blank lines on the bottom. I have no idea why I skipped those, but good thing I did! Now I have enough space to finish my entry. Accio Glasses I'm home between classes, working on something. When I look at the clock, I realize that it's way past time for me to be heading back to school. Class has already started. Even worse: I just remembered I have a worksheet due today. I meant to work on it during this break, but it completely slipped my mind. Hurriedly, I gather up my things from the room and start towards the door. I notice that everything looks a little fuzzy, and I realize I've forgotten to put on my glasses. I run back to the room in which I left them. They're all the way on the other side of the room, and my sister's sitting in an easy chair, reading a book. I suspect she's irritated about all the noise I'm making, so I try to make a joke. "Accio glasses!" I say, pointing my hand across the room. That way, she'll realize I'm in a hurry (since I wish I could just summon my glasses, rather than walking to them). Hopefully she'll also think I'm in a good mood ('cause it's a joke), and it'll put her in a better mood (since it's a Harry Potter reference). Anyway, my glasses case rises from its resting place and floats across the room to hover in front of me. It opens, and my glasses float out and unfold themselves. Bemused, I reach for them. But apparently they were expecting me to reach for a different part, because they helpfully dart a foot to one side, causing me to miss. On the second try, I grab them. Cast Iron I'm being chased by a wild animal, a bear or something. Right in front of me is an alley guarded by a cast iron gate. If I can climb over the gate, I'll be safe. But the bear is right behind me, so I have to climb quickly. Once I start climbing, my arms and legs suddenly feel like they weigh fifty pounds apiece. They get tangled in the gaps in the cast iron, and I know I won't make it up in time. I decide to try again. This time, I'm being chased by a gorilla with tentacles on its chin, like Davy Jones from PotC. But it's also farther back and I'm already halfway up the gate. I manage to get over in time. I watch as it runs up to the gate and starts climbing after me. Uh oh. I run to a door at the end of the alley, just a plain rectangle of wood, painted white. It opens inward, but the space behind is almost entirely filled by the door itself. I try to hold the door at just the right angle to squeeze around the edge, so that I can shut the door behind me. Presentation Day I walk into my English class, and the teacher says "Let's talk about [insert author here]." I'd completely forgotten about that reading. I remember him assigning it almost on the first day of class, but I thought he would remind us at least once before the day it was due! Apparently he expects us to keep track of everything we should be doing. Which is fine, except that I've failed that expectation. I'm supposed to have read an entire play, but I have no idea what it's even about. A small group of students goes to the front of the room to do their presentation. Sometime during the course of class, I accidentally scratch a girl's ankle. I wake up [falsely]. Taking a long, sharp metal stick, I go into the front hall and begin scratching the wooden floor, writing down my notes for the dream I just had. My sister walks by just as I finish writing the name of the girl I accidentally scratched. I notice she's looking at the name, and I'm worried she'll recognize it, or perhaps mistakenly associate the name with someone else she knows, who just happens to have the same name.
Worms The world's being invaded by evil worms. They move orthogonally through 3D space, and they're composed of luminescent, transparent red air. (These worms are the same thing as those white threads of light that Rand al'Thor sees in the sky in Book 2 of WoT, in the place where he first meets Selene, so it's a good thing they didn't notice him then.) There are only a few homes that haven't yet been invaded, each defended by one lonely human who knows the cause is lost. The worms obey a strict turn-based warfare and the territory of each side is well-defined (so it's like a game). But the worms just keep coming, so even with the best strategy, all of the defenders will eventually be overwhelmed. In the house we're watching from right now, a worm has just tried to enter through the window. Alternate Universe I'm living in an alternate WoT universe where Rand hasn't yet met Mat or Perrin. Everybody also has different names, and I have trouble keeping all the names straight. For instance, Perrin's name is something like "Satch." There are two buildings in the woods, fairly far apart from each other. One of them is sort of our base of operations. While investigating the other one, I learn that it's about to be attacked by a dragon. I hurry back to the first building to warn the others, but when they run off to defend it, I hang back. I know I'm probably supposed to help, but I think they can manage on their own. Some time later, I walk over to see what happened. My team lost, but most of them are still alive, sort of hanging around the building with the people they were fighting. Mat and Perrin aren't there, though; they must have fled underground when they realized the battle was lost. A woman walks up to me and tells me to find one of them (Mat, maybe), because she's his girlfriend. So I head into the basement, where there's a long, dark hallway. It's kind of scary, but there's enough light to avoid crashing into things, so I decide that for fun I'll go down the hallway without turning on the light. I run most of the way. At last I see light in the hallway, spilling in from a doorway on the side. I go inside, intending to tell Mat and Perrin how much fun it is to go down that hallway in the dark. My words die on my lips, because I seem to have interrupted something. Both Mat and Perrin are fully clothed, but they seem to be trying to have sex on the couch, doggy style. After a moment, I tell Mat of the woman's request. With a rueful grin, he gets off of the couch and follows me out the door. Once in the hallway, he becomes one of my high school friends. We walk back down the hallway, trying to remember which of the side doors will lead to a staircase that will take us where we want to go. Eventually we try one at random, probably not far enough down the hallway. We end up outside, on a city block. The sidewalks are crowded with people, so I have trouble keeping up with him. Then my Mom appears and starts asking me about something. Whatever it is, it makes me feel really stressed about all the things I'm supposed to be doing right now, and I almost start shouting at Mom about one of them. Then I recognize this stressful feeling: it usually happens when I'm dreaming. Half of me believes that I can escape from these imaginary obligations by waking up, and the other half still thinks that I can't wake up yet because I have work to do! Then my alarm goes off.
Water Damage It's time for my lesson to start! The instructor and the one other student are already swimming out from the shore. I hurry after them, but then I realize that I'm still carrying the 600-page novel I've been reading. Water damage! I panic and get out of the water, extremely grateful that the covers of the book are laminated. Only the first quarter inch of pages seems to be wet. I don't know how many pages that is, but I sit down and start peeling them apart one at a time, blowing on each of them, for all the good that will do. This is a library book, and I have to save it, and my lesson can wait. By looking at page numbers, I notice that sometimes the pages are stuck together so closely that I flip three of them at a time without realizing it. That just goes to show how dangerous water damage is. Despair For the last week or so of class, the instructor is alternating days between individual work and group rehearsal. There's one piece that we'll all play together as an orchestra, but all the other ones we must each prepare on our own. Today's for individual work. I feel like I've been pretty productive so far, but I'm still worried that I only have half an hour of class time left. My project doesn't feel close to finished. I get an unexpected call on my cell phone, so I walk over near the doors to the auditorium while I answer. It's a young boy, I'd guess about thirteen or fourteen years old, and I can't quite figure out what he wants. He says something about a ScanTron, and he seems to be asking my permission for something. He's not very coherent, and whenever I ask him a question, there're about five seconds of silence on the line before he answers. Other people in the auditorium are staring at me like I'm being rude, so I leave to go pace around the hallway instead. Eventually this boy says, "Your answers were very helpful," and with a shock I realize what he must be talking about. Not long ago I took a short quiz for this class, and I turned in my ScanTron by dropping it into a slotted box in the room. This kid must have taken out my ScanTron and copied my answers when he went in to take the test, and then his parents found out about it, and now they're making him call me. I hadn't realized that the test I took--questions from the 11th grade ACT--used the same set of questions as the actual ACT for eleventh graders this year. This is not a good situation. But I don't see that there's anything I can really do about it at this point, so I don't react strongly one way or another. Another voice comes on the line. It's an older man, probably the boy's father. "You've been surprisingly nice to my son," he says. "Nice?" I ask. "Yes. We were worried you might press charges for theft." Theft? Wait, did this kid actually steal my ScanTron without putting it back in the box? That would be bad news; that test is a significant portion of my grade for this class. I ask the boy if he put my test back. He doesn't seem to understand the question. I sometimes hear an indistinct voice in the background, as if his dad is coaching him about what to say. I try asking him other questions, but he has trouble with all of them. Eventually I back up and ask if he's even in eleventh grade. That, at least, he answers in the affirmative, though he doesn't enunciate very clearly. He eventually says something that reassures me that my test is still safely turned in. That was all I wanted to know, and I'm fed up with this horrendously ineffective conversation. But I don't like this kid, so before I hang up, I give him an angry, rapid-fire lecture about everything he's done wrong. I tell him to answer more quickly when people ask questions over the phone, and I tell him never, EVER to take anything out of boxes with slots on top. I also threaten to come after him if there are any problems with my grade on that test. I hang up without waiting for him to answer (though I wonder if maybe I spoke too quickly for the slow-minded fellow to understand anything), and I go back into the auditorium. Another student is just finishing giving his presentation (a slide show about something from physics), and people are packing up to leave. Crap. The instructor must have asked for volunteers, since presentations weren't supposed to start for another day or two. That this guy was already prepared makes me feel even worse about my own project. A friend of the presenter's drops some review worksheets on the seats at the back of the room, near the exit. I grab one on my way to get my things, even though my chances of being able to do the worksheet without having heard the presentation are very low. When I try to put the worksheet into my backpack, I knock a hose loose from a glass jar, and the hose starts filling my backpack with water. I'd stuck the hose in the jar earlier because I couldn't figure out how to turn off the water. And now it's ruining everything in my bag, taking my progress on the project from "very little" to "absolutely nothing." It's too much. Maybe I should try to turn off the water or control the damage but it's too much. I give up. I seize one of my juggling balls, hurl it across the room, collapse tumultuously into a chair, and start sobbing. Some of the nearby students are looking at me; others are trying to ignore me. I see people throwing my juggling ball around the room. At my feet, the water coming from the hose thins to a trickle, then stops, and I know the instructor has shut off the water supply. Moments later, he comes to look at me from the next row forward, frowning. "I've seen a lot of reactions like this in the past few days," he says. It didn't work, I realize. Despite my complete breakdown, he's refusing to show me any extra sympathy. What an unfeeling world this is. My dad comes to drive me home. Suddenly I realize that, in my distraction, I've forgotten to put on my seat belt, and my dad is careening straight towards some cars stopped at a light. With my free hand, I seize the strap and pull it across my body, hoping that holding it in place will be useful even if I haven't managed to fasten the buckle. Dad swerves out of the way, narrowly avoiding an accident, and explains that he was trying to do a live performance arrangement of "Jingle Bells" using sounds that a car makes. Shaken and annoyed, I tell him irritably that that was a really bad idea. He seems to think it's my fault, though, since I was humming the tune earlier. Back in my room, I decide to do something really simple to convince myself that I'm not a complete failure at life: I put on my glasses. But the glasses don't work. I can't make the world come into focus. I can't even do that. I try reviewing some German instead. I stare at the word "ssssssssut" for a time, but it doesn't make any sense even though I know it should. At this point, basically the only emotion I'm feeling is despair.
Airport A bunch of my buds and I decided to go to the airport together. We've been delayed in various ways, so I'm relieved when one guy finally gets back with our boarding passes so we can head to our respective gates. I start speedwalking along a hallway. There's a stranger about to cut me off going around a corner (I'm squeezed between him and the wall), so I try to dart past him. The only trouble is, someone else tries to do the same on his other side, so we all end up crashing into each other and making a really awkward scene. I hurriedly apologize and start lecturing everyone about what a bad decision we both made there. The other guy apologizes also (as much to me as to the stranger, it seems), and I recognize him as a high school friend. But I'm desperate to vacate the scene, so I dash away again without saying hi. I feel bad about it, since I never got a chance to talk with him over summer break, either. As I walk through more hallways, I see a girl a bit younger than me trying out a kind of play microphone. From what I hear as I pass by, it changes your voice so you sound like a robotic alien. I reach a green tile ramp set into the middle of the floor; it's about twenty feet wide. I set down my things beside me and happily slide down it. There are lots of twists and turns, forking paths, and side hallways. I start to feel a bit confused about the layout of the airport. Once, I shoot off the end of a flat section and gravity doesn't work too quickly, so I crash lightly into a vertical wall a few feet farther forward. I'm frustrated that the ramp didn't work properly, but I'm not injured or anything. I continue going down. A girl comes sliding out of a side hallway, and I recognize her as a housemate right before we crash into each other. We both laugh about it. Behind me, I hear some people from the group I arrived with. They're talking about how it's later than they thought it was, and they were supposed to be at their gate quite a while ago. Upon hearing this, I realize that I'm not even sure what gate I'm supposed to be going to. Well, that kind of takes the fun out of sliding. I get off the slide and fish my crumpled boarding pass out of my pocket. It's the smaller part, the stub that ushers usually take when you go into the theater. I hope I still have the other part. But whatever, gate information should be on this part as well. When I look for the gate, I'm horrified to see that the terminal is specified not with one but with FOUR letters, which seem to follow a complicated pattern of upper and lower case. This airport is far more confusing than I feared. I have no idea where that terminal is, much less how to get there. I'm probably going to miss my flight. Uncomfortable Music There's a concert coming up, and I still need to practice the music. I pull it out and start working, but it's the most uncomfortable music I've ever played. I feel like I'm engaged in spiritual battle with some demonic entity, and the music is feeding it, making it stronger. I decide to stop practicing before the music kills me. But now it's concert time, and I still haven't practiced. This is one of those orchestras where you only get a couple rehearsals and you only get the one concert, so if I don't do a good job on this concert, I may as well not be in the orchestra at all. So while we're all sitting on stage warming up, I try to get in a bit more practice. Realistically, though, it's too little too late. Climbing Rock One of the main attractions in this building is its indoor climbing rock. Its surface is rough but its shape is roughly ellipsoid, and its dimensions in meters are about 15 by 20 on the base, and 3 high. It's granite, or anyway some kind of gray stone. The sides are a bit steep, so the attraction is that it's challenging to get on and off of it, but once you're on top you can run around and play games with the other victors. I finally reach the front of the line, and I reach the top without incident. I don't have anything to do up there, though, so I just walk across to the other corner and try to find my way down. Turns out this side is much steeper than I expected. As I'm clinging to the rock, a building employee walks over and sticks something on my arm. I can't pick it up since I need my arms to hang on, so I use my forehead to try and press the thing more firmly to my arm. I'll look at it later. Anyway, I fiddle and shift around for a few minutes without making much downward progress, but then I notice that some "rungs" have been cut into this side of the rock a few feet to my right: rectangular gouges about two inches deep, spaced like the rungs of a ladder. I use them to get down, but then I start feeling like I cheated, and I start wondering whose idea it was to put rungs on the climbing rock, anyway. I see my old math TA standing nearby, so I ask him if there's a more legit way to climb down the rock in the place I had been trying to do it. He doesn't know, but during the course of the conversation I become convinced that for the sake of my own self-worth, I need to go back onto the climbing rock and try again. The rungs on the rock go all the way down to a hallway below the floor on which the climbing rock is located. I'm not allowed to go back up the rungs, so I'll have to find some other way to the floor above. There doesn't seem to be an elevator in sight, and I begin to wonder whether this building is designed to make it difficult to get back to that floor. I wander around for quite some time. In the process, I come across a darkened room with a bunch of merry-go-rounds or bumper cars or something spinning all over the place on the floor. I need to cross the room, but it'll be hard to do that without getting my shins severely bruised. Seriously, who thought this room was a good idea? I do some desperate dives and jumps and hops, and somehow I make it. At another time, I see something in the wall that looks like an elevator button, and I press it without thinking. A second later, though, I see that the windows in the sliding doors on this wall are showing me an underground tunnel, not an elevator shaft. This button must call a subway train. Horizontal transport rather than vertical. Sure enough, a train soon comes roaring up to the station. Ha ha, very funny, building designer. Finally I find some hallways populated by people, and I even recognize some of them. They're students from my university. I'm surprised to note that a lot of the girls look quite attractive. Isn't my school one of those where you're supposed to need a special pair of goggles for this kind of thing? Maybe that's not true! That would be cool. Anyway, I go into a room where some acquaintances of mine are having a baking party. Road Rage I accidentally drop a rubber duck behind a movie screen playing Finding Nemo. Damn it. I'm going to have to tow it out with my car. I get in and start zooming down the highway, swerving haphazardly between other cars and going just about as fast as my car can manage. Once, I start passing a car just as it starts passing the car in front of it. Meanwhile there's yet another car in the far left lane, so for a few seconds there are four of us cars driving side-by-side in a three-lane highway. I don't care. I'm angry. Eventually I decide it's time to turn around, so I pull one of those parking-brake 180s and shift gears without putting in the clutch. For a while I dodge traffic going in the opposite direction until I find myself on the right side of the highway, halfway between two lanes and tailgating both cars in front of me. One of them suddenly brakes, and I almost crash into it. That was a bit too close for my liking, so I try to give them a bit more space. But there are cars everywhere and I'm still trying to get things under control when I look up and there's a white screen with the word "Nemo" right in front of me and I swerve just enough to crash into the screen broadside, and the car comes to a halt. The rubber duck falls out, rolls behind the movie screen, and this time rolls all the way under the refrigerator as well. Damn it, now I'm never going to get it out! Party at Alex Day's Tonight is an orchestra rehearsal. It's the first one, but it might as well be the dress rehearsal, since we only get a couple of rehearsals before the concert. I decide I should wear concert attire, just to get used to it. I'm running late, so I resent the few minutes it takes to turn on my laptop and check my email to find the one where the conductor tells us what concert attire will be. By the time I'm dressed and outside, it's five minutes to seven. I can't remember whether rehearsal is scheduled for six or for seven, but in either case, I'm going to be late. I decide to go anyway, because even half a rehearsal is better than none when you only get two in the first place. Unfortunately, there's some car trouble. It takes a few minutes to work out, and then Dad and some of his friends give the car (in neutral) a push down the road. I start running down the road after it, trying to reach it before the road curves and the car crashes into the fence. I barely get there in time, diving into the car to cheers from the group still standing around my driveway. I dove too far, ending up in the passenger seat, so I climb back over to the driver side. I stick in the key and twist it, the engine comes on, and I turn the steering wheel. As I drive out of the neighborhood, I try to think of what else I need to do in order to get the car under control. Maybe I should turn on the radio? Later, I'm walking. I decide to take a shortcut through some buildings. It's a more direct route, but I'm not sure if there actually is a path all the way through. I go up some stairs, down some stairs, and through some arches. The buildings are made out of butterscotch-colored stucco (or plaster or something; I'm not sure what it's called). Suddenly I see an arch that opens onto an apartment full of people, including Alex Day and my sister! Alex invites me in, and we start talking. There's a really fun atmosphere at this party; I'm impressed. I wonder if Alex and my sister are dating. Just for fun, sometimes I answer Alex's or my sister's questions in Spanish. He invites me to stay, but I insist that I must be going: I've got places to be and work to do. My sister explains that Alex feels threatened by my productivity as a musician. Hmmm. Interesting. I ask Alex if he knows any way though the buildings so I can finish my shortcut. He doesn't, but he tells me I should ask Kim (Nieuwenhuis). "Her apartment's just upstairs," he says. "I spent a couple of days up there a while ago. It's one of the happiest places I've ever been." Well then. I guess I should go up there. Just then, a group of girls run past in the hallway outside. They're laughing and running upstairs, and I think I recognize Kim among them. "Kim!" I call, hurrying to the doorway. But either it wasn't her, or she didn't hear me. No one turns around. In any case, I think I remember this place. I think I've been here before. If memory serves, I should be able to go down this hall and around a corner and--yes! I'm outside! It should be easy to get to the concert hall from here. But then I realize that I've left my viola in Alex's apartment, so I have to go back for that. Somehow I start watching a new video of his that's based on a pun on his name: Alex Day vs. Alex Night, or something. There's a bouncing ball that turns into a bounding dog that turns into two smaller balls that Alex throws that turn into one bigger bouncing ball again, and so forth. Frags: Watching an online advertisement for a cosmetic skin productPosting on the DV forums. I was glad when I realized I was doing this, because that meant I was actually participating in the forums beyond just my introduction thread.
Group Project My group has to put together a project to present to the class. The project consists of two lessons. We have the first one more or less done, except that we still need to buy a few of the supplies, such as blue skin dye. But I'm having the hardest time getting my group to buckle down and choose what our second lesson will be. The presentation is coming up and we really ought to have decided by now. Compliments A spy has been caught by the bad guys. He takes out his pistol and tries to shoot one of them in the chest, but the bullets--all four of them--just flatten into metal splotches on his jacket. Obviously he's wearing a bulletproof vest. I have to wonder, though--doesn't he worry about getting shot in the head? He's wearing no protection for his face, so I guess he's banking on the spy being a bad enough shot (even from this ten-foot range) that none of the bullets will go that way. At this point, one of the bad guys in the room delivers a one-liner, something along the lines of "You'd best start thinking of compliments, because you're not in any position to be making threats."
[I must have woken up after just about every REM cycle last night. Not sure how I pulled that one off.] Soiree Some of my cousins arrive for a function my family is hosting. They brought cupcakes--chocolate and one other flavor. They ask which flavor I prefer, because somehow the arrangement of cupcakes in the baking tin will reflect the seating chart for the event. I reply, "Probably chocolate." I've agreed to contribute to the evening's entertainment by playing a short (two page) piano solo by Gershwin. I know I haven't played piano in ages, but everything on those two pages looked sightreadable when I glanced over it a while ago. However, when Dad discovers my plan, inexplicably he freaks out. I guess he's really concerned that I'll embarrass myself in front of the relatives. It's annoying, though. In fact, Dad's been annoying me a lot lately. For instance, he's recently gotten it into his head that he should learn to play piano himself, and he expects me to sit down with him to prepare piano duets. That does not sound like fun at all. The previous group finishes performing, and now it's my turn. I figure the crowd is busy socializing, and they won't mind if I take a minute to look at some of the tougher chords. But to my horror, I open the music and discover a third page. What I thought was the end of the music is just a thin double bar! The third page isn't unplayable, but it has a lot of fast arpeggios over several octaves which will be very, very difficult to sightread. I probably should have taken a closer look at this. I start to feel uncomfortable about the amount of time I've delayed, now; the audience is probably getting impatient. John Green the Sponsor I've just finished TAing for today for a two-week class for math teachers in primary education. I and the teacher for the class spend a few moments calculating in percentages how close we are to finishing the class. It's towards the end of the second week. It's dark outside as I walk through the quadrangles on my way home. On the way, I pass someone who looks exactly like John Green! I didn't know he was in Chicago! But I pass him without getting the courage to ask for an autograph. Mere steps later I consider turning around to chase after him, but I don't. Inside a building, I run into one of my students from a previous summer math program. We talk for a bit, but we both have to be getting somewhere, so he leads the way out of the building. The building's door is rather heavy, and I feel bad that he tries to hold it for me. The pathway outside is narrow. I follow it into a smallish quad that's packed with people. I learn that it's called "Jones Quad," and it's a popular after-hours gathering place for students. I also know that I've been this way before. A girl from my house waves at me from inside a pack of her friends. I wave back--rather saucily, to my own surprise (namely, by lifting my left hand and repeatedly bending and unbending the last two knuckles of each finger simultaneously). Someone else waves at me, but I don't recognize her, and she makes a disappointed grimace. I run into someone else from my house and we remark upon how many housemates seem to be on campus tonight, despite the fact that it's the middle of summer. It occurs to me that the John Green I saw might just have been a very close look-alike to the famed vlogbrother. I decide that I should go find him again and look more closely. As I wander around, something weird happens with the lights and the music in the building, and I guess that must mean it's about to close down for the night. No one seems in a hurry to leave, though. When I come back a few minutes later, everyone's still there, though they leave soon thereafter. Back outside, I walk around a street corner and see a pizza place across the street. On a screen above the building, an advertisement plays. It's this same John Green guy. He's basically sponsoring the pizza place. I guess the pizza company must have heard about the Pizza John shirt and decided to capitalize on it. I still can't decide if the guy is actually John Green, though. It seems unlikely that he would do something so commercial. Locker Checkout It's the Saturday after finals week, and I'm trying to do my last bit of packing before going home. I've been storing some stuff in a locker on campus, so I head over to the building to pick it up. To my dismay, the building is locked. Apparently Friday was the last day to remove your belongings from this building. I spend a few minutes mentally cursing the idiot who thought that was a good idea, but then I decide I'd better try to do something about the situation. Using cleverness, I'm able to reach the first of my two lockers, which contains a fairly new car battery. I've been switching this one in and out with my car's old battery. Only, it seems like doing the swap would be a fairly complicated operation, and I can't remember ever having done it before. Oh, well. I must have known how at some point, and it's just been so long that it's slipped my mind temporarily. It'll come back, I'm sure. I put the battery in my backpack. Unfortunately, the second locker is definitely unreachable. I check the building's hours, and unfortunately it won't open again until long after I've left town. By that time, they'll probably have thrown out my stuff. "My stuff" includes my Tae Kwon Do uniform, so I definitely don't want this to happen. Then I suddenly notice a sign on the window proclaiming the location and hours of this department's interim office. It's open today! Until 4:00! I hurry in that direction, checking the time. It's 4:11. Just my luck. Well, maybe there will still be someone around. My mom hurries to follow me. I enter my target building to find a stark concrete entryway with stairs going both up and down, and hallways going in a few different directions. For a moment I'm disoriented, until I remember that the interim office is in a basement room. I go down the stairs, which twist and turn a few times before depositing me in a hallway only slightly more furnished than the original one. Along the wall to my right, dozens of cardboard boxes have been haphazardly stacked. Incredulous at my good fortune, I run down the row of boxes until I find one that's been labeled with my initials: last initial first, then first. Opening the box, I find my Tae Kwon Do uniform, along with everything else that's supposed to be there. Well, that's a relief. But I should probably talk to someone before taking it, else they'll think I stole it, and I'll be in trouble when I come back next term. I continue down the hallway into the interim meeting room, which is actually a concert hall. That's kind of funny, but unfortunately I don't see anyone in the room except a female custodian up on stage setting up the ghost light. I turn back and try searching the hall in the other direction. I manage to flag down a dark-haired woman just on her way out the door. She seems to know me from somewhere, and it turns out she's coincidentally the one who's been answering my questions over email about Study Abroad. She tells me she's not the one to talk to about locker checkout. Fortunately, she says that the right woman to talk to is still in her office; it's right back there in the direction I've been going. Wading It's the day after finals week, but some of us are still hanging around to hang out. A girl from my high school class invites me to visit the forest with a group of friends. "What forest?" I ask. You'd think I'd know the forests around here by now, so I'm a bit embarrassed by my question. Oh well. She replies with the name of the forest, which I don't recognize. I agree to come anyway, and we head out. Soon after, we enter a restaurant on the outskirts of campus. While we eat, some housemates start planning what they're going to do to earn points for a big school competition which started today. For instance, apparently this restaurant (or the hotel it's a part of) is a sponsor for the event, so you get a points multiplier for eating here. I wonder why it was decided to hold the event after the end of Autumn Quarter, when there are so few people around. Vaguely I recall that it has to do with avoiding conflict with a big Study Abroad event happening in the middle of Spring Quarter, but that still doesn't explain why they didn't decide to do it during Winter. Oh well. We leave the restaurant. Most of the group is heading back to campus from here, but I take a different path, one that leads toward the forest. At some point, I'll have to cut across the grass. But the grass is actually flooded quite deeply with water. The water's clear, but due to refraction it's difficult for me to tell quite how deep it is. Would this be an okay place to wade across? Tentatively, I start lowering my foot into the water. But even by the time the water reaches the top of my knee-high waterproof boots, I still haven't touched bottom. I retract my foot. My friends are calling to me from across the water, telling me to go around the way they did. Yeah, their way was probably smarter. Meanwhile a boy from the group that decided to stay on campus is trying to tell me not to wade across anywhere, because it's all too deep. But I don't listen to him, and when I try the route my other friends suggested, the water's only about a foot deep. All three of us are in werewolf form (from Skyrim) with the silver pelt and claws of an Ancient Behemoth (from Heroes III). I splash up to them and I attempt a growl. It is rather feeble, and one of the girls giggles. I introduce myself to her, and she shakes my hand, although she points out that she thinks we've met before. "No doubt we have," I reply. Jumping Ahead My dad and I have been taking turns playing a 3-D platform game while one of my high school friends watches. The gameplay of this game is a lot like rock climbing. You have to move each arm or leg individually, trying not to put too much strain on any one of them for more than a split second. We're trying to get to the top of an outcrop that has a sort of half-enclosed tunnel zigzagging up its vertical face. There's this one tricky spot where you have to jump over a gap, but one of the most attractive handholds actually attaches to a section of rock that swings down on a hinge. It can really upset your balance if you're not careful. Also, in order to get enough height, you need this section of rock to stay in its upright position. I try it for a while without much luck, then hand it over to Dad. My friend points out that we don't actually have to go up this way; there's an easier place to ascend a little bit farther along this switchback. But I'm kind of stubborn, and I'd just like to prove that it can be done this way, even if it's not what the game's designers intended. Unfortunately, it proves to be a bit too much for Dad, and he falls off the edge to his (cartoon-style) death. That means we have to start over from the beginning of the level, which is frustrating, because I really thought I would get past that section on my next try. But Dad's bored of this level, so he jumps way ahead in the game to the last level he did on his own. That's his style: don't bother with continuity; as long as you finish all the levels eventually, you're golden. Oh, well. The level selection screen is itself a 3-D environment, and the levels are yellow dots lined up in a path laid out along the ground. He realizes that he needs to buy a new "computer," since he lost the old one when he fell. When he does, the dots change to yellow rings, rather than filled circles. Also, two new "assistants" run in from the side of the screen, get a powerup of some kind from his character, then run off again. He selects the level he wants. A bunch of enemies start running at him from all sides, so he starts beating them up using combos. Somehow he discovers a new combo--something like "knee in the face, punch, power kick"--which sends the unfortunate recipient flying backwards for about fifty meters. He encourages me to try it, but I have trouble until I realize that I'm doing a regular kick. For a power kick you need to hold down R1 at the same time. I feel a bit overwhelmed, but it's kind of fun once you figure it out. The animation's also cool because my character looks like a Star Wars bounty hunter. Later, we're part of a larger party in the middle of a battle, trying to help the weaker members level up. This involves passing around 5-foot playing cards from character to character, which we all hug to our sides using our arms. The cards also double as protection from enemy characters, so there's some strategy involved in how you distribute your cards. Unfortunately, I'm running low on cards right now, and a thickset, bald thug is advancing on me in a rather intimidating manner. Frags: dictating to my dream diary in Spanishother various false-awakening-dream-journal-writing
From Yesterday: Last Night's Dreams: Dream 1: I suddenly was visiting my high school marching band. It felt like I hadn't seen them in years. But as I looked there was Ed, and Geoff and Kelly. I could see that they were all lined up for a competition. Some of the members saw me and we started talking. There was suddenly a map on the wall next to us. I started teaching them the "States Song" but for some reason all I could remember was the "Countries of Africa Song". Several time I started, but had trouble. Then suddenly I realized that half the band was gone. The competition had started with only half the band. I looked out and could see them on this big stage. I told the other members that we had to somehow sneak out there without it being too obvious that we were late. I tried to follow Kelly, but she ended up further ahead and I was behind the percussion. I slowly worked my way over towards her. I wondered if it was obvious that I had no idea where I was going or what I was doing. Suddenly the band started doing this whole part in sign language. I fantically looked around and tired to copy the people around me. I hoped I wouldn't be responsible for the band receiving a low score when it was judged. Oh what a typical "unprepared" dream. I got to tell my friend Ed about it this morning and he got a good laugh too. So it was worth the temporary agony.
July 21, 2010 Synopsis: Yucky school food again. A frightening flood threatens to drown me and my sister. Gotta get ready to evacuate asap! Note: I had this dream on my birthday. Just going back in my little journal and trying to log in my entries here. Flood on my Birthday! What am I waiting for? The lunch line is so long and I just want a bloody salad. The people in front of me are soo slow. I peek over their shoulders and I see the lunch ladies are also serving pasta and bread. Like so many other lunch line dreams, the food is going real fast. But I just want the salad. Later I meet up with my family. Me and my sister have moved into our first new apartment in New Jersey, and mom was dropping us off. Our folks say goodbye and drive all the way back south to Texas. It seemed kind of nice at first being so far away from the rest of the family, until I started watching the news. A terrifying flood has risen 1000ft!!!! (is that even possible??) And it's coming this way! I look out the window. It's dark outside but I can already see it's flooding pretty bad. It's at least three feet high already. Me and sister are on the fourth floor. We may be way high but the flood is rising fast, and who wants to be trapped in a flooded city? We have to leave this damned city! I quickly run into my room and toss everything I can think of in my backpack. It's too heavy and I'm pulling out my hairs trying to decide what to leave behind. (I have so many sketchbooks and journals!). I toss my sandals, they're probably useless with this flood. Sis is just watching TV casually like nothing is wrong. Hello! 1000ft high flood! Sis yawns and just says "I give up, were going to die. Oh well." "I wanna live!" I quickly come up with a plan in my head. I'll have to trek in the deep water on foot, probably for miles to reach the next city. But I know the way. I strap my backpack on, I'm ready to leave without my sis - and then there was a knock on the door. It's my parents. Mom came as soon as she found out about the horrible flood! Wait a minute, how did they drive here when the water was already too high? I look out the window again, and like magic, all the water is gone. Oh that's nice! Mom however did not make my dream magically safe with her mommyness. Later on everyone was getting settled for sleep. I change into my pjs and head for the kitchen for a glass of water. I walk into the dark living room. When I notice the silhouette of a man next to me, lounging for me! I run back into my bedroom terrified, I want to scream but I can't. Sure in dreams there are some frightening monsters and demons you run from. But there is something about monsters that can exist in the real world, rapists, murderers, that invoke a much deeper fear in me! I'm so terrified of the invader I want to cry. But somehow the invader gets trapped into my closet. My sister opened the closet door just too wide, and he escapes. He was like smoke. And just like that he was gone. I woke up shortly after.
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