Kermit's Journal

[kermitthefrog]

Two near misses last night. In the first, I was at my parents' house looking through a closet of old shirts. Somehow, I "knew" this was my old closet from when I was a child and these were my old shirts. The problems with that are: one, I have never lived in the house my parents now live in and two, I swear I've never seen the house I was dreaming about (or the room, or the closets, or the shirts). Anyway, I felt a sharp, but small pain on my wrist and noticed that there was a spider on one of the shirts -- a blue and white striped shirt. The spider was just in the process of crawling up under the collar. I just kept looking at the other shirts, but then the thought came to me that the spider might have been poisonous. But -- strangely -- I could no longer find the shirt I had just been looking at. Then, I had a spontaneous thought that losing something you just looked at is the type of thing that would happen in a dream. I thought I would try to do a reality check to see if I was dreaming. My RC of choice is looking to see if I can get text to change, but it often does not work. I went over to a bookcase that had some games on it (monopoly was one) to find some text. I was very careful about performing the RC, but it was a false positive. Per the RC, I was not dreaming. Then I dropped the whole thing. Don't remember the rest of the dream. The second near miss: I was sitting down playing the guitar. I remember trying very hard to make the chords and looking at my hand. Then all of the sudden, I thought I might be having a dream. Suddently numbers appeared on the frets of the guitar. One of the numbers was "386." I tried an RC (tried to get the text to change), but again I got a false positive.

[kermitthefrog]

After a fairly long period of non-lucidity, I had another "near miss" and a "hit" last night. The near miss: I was driving down a suburban street (the type lined with strip malls and fern bars). I turned into a side street next to a big brick bank and then turned around in their parking lot. As I pulled out back onto the side street headed back to the main road (I was going to go back the way I came for some reason), I happened to notice it was night and I was looking at the constellation Orion. That's when I thought that I might be having a dream because I often become lucid by looking up at the sky and seeing "unusual objects" there. The objects are typically planets or alien space craft (I know, I'm a campy dreamer). Somehow, the experience tends to cause me to become lucid. Anyway, I looked up into the sky for any suspicious characters. Nothing but just regular looking stars. So, I dropped the whole thing. The hit: Later on during the night, I was dreaming about standing next to a bus and then I wondered if I was dreaming. I didn't think I was, but I did an RC just in case. I was (all of the sudden) sitting down with a calculator in front of me that had big colored keys. I moved my thumb off and on one of them and watched to see if the number would change. When it did change, I was astounded. It just didn't seem like a dream. I tried it with a few of the other keys and finally convinced myself I was dreaming. I was very lucid and remained lucid for about 15 minutes. I remembered that one of the things I wanted to try and do the next time I was lucid was to examine the dream and see how real it was. One of the main things I was going to check out was whether I could feel my own body. I had gone into a basement room that had dirt walls and a dirt floor and a window on the side that let in a lot of light. I sat down and asked myself if I could feel the effects of gravity, if I could feel my clothing, etc. I could. It felt exaclty like it was supposed to. I clapped my hands together, hard, and that felt right, it even stung a little. (One strange thing about lucid dreaming -- even though I knew I was dreaming, I was still a little concerned about spiders in that room. It looked spidery.) What frustrated me, though, was I was not able to control what appeared in the dream. I tried making various people appear and could not. It was as if I just had to let the dream come up with what it wanted to. Which strikes me as odd since it was MY dream after all. Why wasn't I working with myself. I've noticed other lucid dreamers having the same problem.

[kermitthefrog]

Some dreams from last week: (1) Monday: was with a group of people in a room I've never been in before. I wasn't sure what I was there for or who the other people were (or how many there were). All of the sudden, I had the thought that I might be dreaming. I was standing near a closed storm door (the outer door that is mostly glass). Then, it is as if I knew I was dreaming. I didn't perform any RCs. In order to rouse myself (I usually have to do something "radical" and exciting in a dream to rouse my mind and not lose lucidy), I picked up a figurine from a nearby coffee table and hurled it at a window near the door. I did not break the window, but hit it hard and made a noise. The other people in the room got quiet but I don't remember anybody saying anything. Now, I was more fully lucid and I went out the storm door and was on a porch. I decided to try and fly and was not able to. I fell to the ground, but was not hurt. I tried again to fly and flew to the top of a tree in the back yard. Somehow, I was now in my grandmother's old back yard (she does not live there anymore). Woke up soon after. (2) Wednesday: I was sitting inside a car and was looking at the interior. I was noticing how "rich" it looked. There was real wood-grain and beige leather inside. I got out and was walking around the car. It was grey and new. When I got to the back of the car, I saw that it was a Toyota Echo, and I was very surprised that it had real wood and leather interior. I started walking down the driveway. Did not become lucid or even close. But I should have. I had realized there was something strange about the car, but I didn't think further about it. (3) Wednesday (later in the night): I was at my parents' house thinking that it was getting late and about time for me to leave. My mother came into the kitchen (this dream kitchen doesn't look anything like their real kitchen) and said that it was too early to eat any of the cakes she had just made. I said okay and then went into the bathroom and was looking at myself in the mirror. As I was coming out of the bathroom, I had the thought that I might be in a dream. I did an RC by looking at the text on some jars in the kitchen. The text changed and I realized I was dreaming. Then I said to myself that I could go and eat some of the pies because this was just a dream. So I went over to where the pies were. They were triangular in shape and flat as pieces of bread. My mother had lined them up on a high shelf on plates. They looked like triangular pieces of bread with strawberry sauce and whipped cream on them. I don't remember them having any taste. Some complete stranger then came up to me and asked how the pie was. I told her it was okay. Then she said that she used to eat "budgy pie" all the time. I did not know what that meant (and had lost lucidity by this point), but a "budgy" sounded like a type of little bird or hamster-like animal to me (I am not sure why). So I didn't like the idea of her eating pies with budgies in them. Next, my alarm clock went off and I was up for the day. (4) Friday: I was walking along a short stone wall just after it had rained. I was looking down at the stones and suddenly became aware that I was dreaming. I looked down at the stones and noticed how clear and distinct they were and also the small puddles of water. Then the wall turned to the right and I walked along it that way. I saw a man dressed in some sort of traditional Hindu robes (although I'm no expert on those). He was walking toward the wall and looking at something beyond it. I turned to look in that direction too and saw a humungous snake curled around the bottom of a tree. Either woke up or lost lucidity soon after.

[MidgetsInStupidSocks]

The Budgerigar (Melopsittacus undulatus, nicknamed Budgie), is a small parrot. They are often called parakeets (especially in American English), but the term "parakeet" refers to many small parrots with long flat tails. Originating in Australia, the budgerigar is found throughout the drier parts of the continent. The budgerigar has survived in inland Australia for over 5 million years. Are you dreaming? Better check!

[kermitthefrog]

Thanks, Midge... I swear to god I didn't know that. Wow. These from this week... Monday night: I was at a Star Trek convention (have never attended one, but have three friends who go all the time). There was a man there who looked like Sulu and he said his name was "something." I don't remember it, but it didn't sound like Sulu. Next, I was in a hotel room, looking at myself in the mirror. I was blurry. I became lucid at that moment. I noticed that my hair was much longer than it is now, but even though I was lucid, I didn't realize that until I woke up. I was not lucid for long. Next, I was in a mall parking lot and saw a UPS van driving across it in an unsafe manner. I needed to ship five or six packages. I stopped the van and gave the stack of packages to the driver. He started putting special stamps on them. I wondered how much it would cost. I remembered having mailed something earlier in the dream (this was a false memory -- I had not dreamed about mailing anything earlier in the night). I remembered that it had cost me $1.34/package when I mailed them earlier. Then, I noticed that the packages looked like instant soup bowls you get in the grocery store. Then, as if my mind was picking up on that theme, I noticed the UPS driver had a huge pot of stew sitting next to him. Then, a lady walking a german shepard came up. I petted the dog (somewhat afraid of what he might do). Later, I was driving and as I drove along, my lane got smaller and smaller, so that I could barely fit on it. It was making me mad and I was thinking that it was unfair that my lane was getting so small. This would have been a good time to become lucid if I'd only thought that deeply about the problem. Tuesday: some people were sitting in a circle playing a game. I was just finishing an apple and was putting it in a box and then throwing it away. I noticed that the picture on the box was of an eaten apple, but where there is supposed to be some of the red peel still left at the top and bottom, it was blue. I looked at my apple and noticed the peel was blue on it too, so I decided it was okay to put it in the box. I mean, what kind of sense does that make? No wonder I'm not lucid -- I feel like I'm just not playing with a full deck when I'm dreaming. Thurdsay: I was going to the library with a friend to hear a lecture and while we were walking through the parking lot, I realized I was only wearing a sheet (it was big, but still...just a sheet). We went in and up to the registration table and I picked up a couple of big pieces of paper that had questions to consider during the lecture. One question was about the communists (I'm reading a book about the red scare during the 30s in real life right now). We're going to get our seats, and I'm looking around noticing that everyone else has on regular clothes and I'm getting self-conscious about the sheet. Wishing that I'd just worn regular clothes. My friend comes up to me and says that the rule is you have to wear regular clothes to this lecture. Now, I'm embarrassed. The dream ends shortly after that. Friday: I had a near-miss with lucidity. I was riding with someone at night and the only light inside the car was a small red light on the radio. I was trying to turn the radio off (I can't remember the song), but no button I hit would turn the thing off. I then thought to myself, "this is like something that would happen in a dream." I thought about doing a RC, but it seemed like a lot of trouble at the time.