Thread: My First Lucid Dream! (A few questions, also)

This happened after I was woken up by our puppy and I drifted back to sleep. It was a short nap, though, only about an hour.

I was going through my morning routine with Drew (the hubby) and a friend of mine, Gour, was sleeping on the couch. Apparently, he snuck into the house through the unlocked front door and crashed there for the night. After we’d “woken up” Drew headed off for work and Gour followed me around the house. At one point, I’d put on a top but had no pants to wear in the room. He sort of leered at me and followed me to the laundry room where I couldn’t close the door because the door frame was too wide. I had to pull the door towards the lock to make it close and, when it wouldn’t close (it didn’t matter because the door was transparent anyway) Gour and two of his girlfriends appeared and they stared at me, one of the girls doing the evil villain make-out thing to his ear.
I had enough. I was so uncomfortable with the situation that I just wanted to make sure it wasn’t really happenening. So I did two reality checks. The first one, I pinched my cheek. I have no idea, either. The other, I pinched my nose, I kept breathing through my closed nostrils and I said aloud “I’m dreaming!”
I felt my mind shudder with disbelief. The dream flashed and I felt myself waking up. Suddenly, the dream came back only now, the laundry room was empty, there was no door, there was no Gour. I felt like I had a ‘false awakening’ but I did another check and I was still dreaming. Out of curiosity, mostly just to see that I was really in control of my dream, I tried something easy. Summoning a dryer in the corner of the laundry room. I covered my view of the corner with my hand said “I want there to be a dryer there” and when I moved my hand, there it was, thudding onto the ground. I had a pair of pants in my hand now with a wet spot in the middle. I remember finding them while Gour was watching and I touched them with my hand, right on the wet spot and said “dry.”
I put my newly dried pants on and walked to the bedroom. The trip was instantaneous. I looked around at the wood paneling and said “this is ugly.” I looked around at the rest of the room and saw how remarkably clean it was. It was at this point I was rubbing my hands together to keep the dream stable. It worked.
I wanted new colors in my room so I just started saying things like “I want the walls to be Forest Green, now Red. That’s too bright. What about.. rosewood?” And the colors stopped changing when I was happy. I changed the ceiling and molding apricot, too. I was very happy with the result.
It was at this point I remember thinking “I wonder how fast time is moving in real life” and “I don’t want this to end.”
I stood at my curtains and said aloud “planets, stars, dark orange” because I wanted to have a beautiful sky in my dream world.
I walked through the closed, glass window, with the glass stretching over me like saran wrap and letting go with no strain on my part. I looked up and saw no planets, no orange but I did see a beautiful sky. It was light blue, vivid, and the clouds were small and scarce. There was no wind. Through the blue sky I could see stars though and I commented on the beauty. Not what I wanted but it was at least a beautiful sky.
I teleported back into my computer room but I wasn’t sure I was still dreaming. The dream felt so real that I reached out and touched my fish tank and it actually felt like it was there. I pinched my nose again and continued breathing. I remembered that I was dreaming and walked outside through the window. This time, I wanted to fly. I rubbed my hands together to keep it stable, I ended up in the entrance way and put on my shoes, walked outside, took a deep breath and jumped. I kept thinking to myself “I won’t be able to do it.” But, as I soared higher and higher, I kept thinking to myself “I’m going to fly. For the first time, I’m going to fly.”
And I did. Flying over the lowest clouds, I saw my dream island. For some reason, I could just feel in my gut that it was mine. I flew down and on my way to the shore that came before the island (it was round and around it was a heart shape. I couldn’t tell whether it was reef or boats or other, smaller islands.)
I floated down, letting my feet touch the ground only once and I flew by Arnold Schwarzenegger who was repairing a car. I made an “I’ll be back” joke and we talked smack about Reb Brown. But I wanted to see what was up with the island so I flew down to the shore, rubbing my hands. I kept doing my reality checks and, on my way to one of the side islands, I felt the dream fading. I desperately kept rubbing my hands to keep it from fading but it was already nearly gone. I closed my eyes and focused on my hands. And when that didn’t work, I tried to open my eyes but couldn’t. I still recognized that I was in a dream and tried looking through my closed eyes (which is a recurring theme in my dreams, even since I was a child) and it worked! But the world around me was already beginning to turn a light gray. I saw the island I was trying to reach fade into the gray, I no longer had a body and I woke up.

I did get to fly for the first time ever in my dreams, though! So I couldn't be happier with my first LD experience.

I always dream vividly and I remember most of my dreams anyway. I only started research on lucid Dreams on the ninth and I had this dream on the 13th! I haven't had one since but I'm still very happy with the dream I had.

I did have a few questions, though. Since I'm new to lucid dreaming, can anyone help me figure out why the shock of realizing that I was dreaming didn't kick me out this time? This isn't the first time that I recognized that I was dreaming but I've always been woken up after that happens. Was it because I became lucid in a familiar place? Or was it because I was starting to understand what a lucid dream really was?

I've read about induction techniques and reality checks and things to try while lucid but I never found an explanation for why I always got kicked out of my dreams. It's just something I'd like to keep in mind before I go to bed, y'know?

Thank you very much for taking the time to read this and thanks if you'd like to help this poor newbie. <3
~Kez