I can't believe I did not recognize it was a dream :(

I have been studying/practicing lucid dreaming for the past few weeks. I have been keeping a dream journal and am writing as much as I can in it. I have been reading books and reading plenty of threads and others' questions.

Last night I feel asleep early around 11pm. I am usually in bed around 4 or 5am now that I am out of school and work part time in the afternoons.
I woke up at 5am after a dream. The dream was more vivid than most of my recent dreams. I quickly wrote it down in my DJ and tried to go back to bed with lucid dreaming on my mind. While laying there I realized in my dream when I went to my car to grab my knife it was not the same. I looked at it and said to myself, this is not my knife, its a bit smaller and has a different shape. I ignored it and went on with my dream :(
If only I would have said hey this is a dream and look 6 fingers on my right hand I would have had my first lucid dream lol.
Hopefully next time right.

I thought i'd share this with yall lol

I've had things like that happen a couple times too. During my stay in India, I dreamt that I was taking a shower back home. I knew that couldn't be possible on account of me being on the other side of the planet but after a while I convinced myself that I was indeed back home. I eventually looked at my hands and noticed I had an extra finger but I kept counting them until the extra one disappeared. Might not sound like much but it was one of the weirdest lucid experiences I've had.

Once I had a dream where I saw something really cool and thought to myself "I wish this was a dream so I could join in without being able to get hurt." /facepalm'd myself when I woke up for not realizing that I was dreaming.

This happens quite often so don't worry about it. It takes time for things to click, you'll get there eventually, probably sooner than you think... ;)

don't worry about it we've all missed out on some opportunity. like one time I went to Panda express and saw the new mountain dew lucid, and even said i wanted to try that.. not realizing for once my dream was trying to help me become lucid. just stay motivated and concentrated, but dont overwork yourself. you'll have a lucid in no time!

haha thanks for the responses guys. This has motiviated me more and I cant wait till I have a lucid dream

I can't believe its not butte... reality.
Anyway, thats one of the reasons why everyone should RC upon awakening