Shopping Mall

Woohoo! Just had my second lucid dream this week! I achieved it by sleeping late today and then drifting in and out of sleep before getting out of bed. I had just woken up from a non-lucid dream in which I was driving through a part of the city I never go to, and I passed a big purple shopping mall that I didn't know existed (it doesn't really). I had someone in the car with me and didn't have time to stop. I woke up a little, and as I drifted back to sleep, I consciously made an effort to get back there.

I returned to the dream, but now I was looking at a satellite view of the mall from Google Maps. I zoomed in on it, and suddenly I was descending through the sky toward it. I landed softly on the roof and found that it was like a giant velour airbed. This is about where I became fully lucid. I bounded up the gently sloping roof toward the apex, but there wasn't much detail here, and I knew it would be much more interesting to go inside the mall than to bounce around on the puffy rooftop.

I wasn't horny this time, so I decided instead of seeking sex with a dream character, I'd concentrate on exploring the dream space. I hopped off the roof, which was about four stories high, and I drifted down to land comfortably about ten yards away from the front door. I remembered a comment I read from someone on this web site that said it's often easier to drift where you want to go rather than walk, so I did just that. (It's weird that I was thinking about this web site while actually in a dream.) I floated a few inches off the ground and drifted toward the glass door, which had a large wooden handle that I recognized from somewhere. I was just about to "will" the door open, because I was afraid that using my body would destabilize the dream. However, everything was very vivid, and I really wanted to feel the handle and the weight of the door in my hand. I reached out, almost surprised that I was able to manifest an arm and hand (I don't know why this surprised me, because I had already occupied a dream body when I was up on the roof). I was amazed by how real the door felt in my hand as I opened it.

I went inside and started to walk around. It was about what you'd expect for a shopping mall, but a bit more open and more mixed-use. I think I lost lucidity for a few minutes, because I got distracted by something that shouldn't have normally interested me: putt-putt golf. There was an entrance from inside the mall to a weird putt-putt golf course where you make your way through an indoor course mocked up to look like a fancy home. I walked upstairs through one or two levels of it without playing. Instead of putting into holes, you had to chip your shots up into specialized cups that were placed on the table, the chairs, the cabinets, etc. I headed back down to find where you could rent the clubs and the ball, but I couldn't find the rental counter. I became lucid again and realized I'd never find the counter, because I was no longer interested in the golf.

I walked over to the food court to watch the people, and there was a huge playground in the center that I thought was quite dangerous. It had some kind of a jungle gym that was built so steep and high that even some adults were climbing up to get a view. I know that I then proceeded up the escalator to the second level of the mall, but for some reason, I can't remember getting there. I walked along looking at all the shops, and I laughed when a giant black man wearing original Batman eyebrows jumped out at me and yelled "Alakazam!"

Right after that, I was approached by two men, one of whom was clearly there to take orders from the other one. They greeted me and handed me a white cake covered with the largest shavings of white chocolate I'd ever seen. The leading one said, "It's great to have you on board with us. I know that someone with your qualifications is going to do a fine job." Now, I love white chocolate cake, and I wanted to eat the thing without getting bogged down by irrelevant conversation. I told the dream characters that they had the wrong guy, and the subordinate one replied, "Well, that's disappointing," and he took the cake back from me. Suddenly I noticed that we were in a dessert shop kind of like Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory, but with pastries. He placed the cake into a big display case with many just like it. I knew that I could eat as many dream cakes as I wanted without any calories, so I marched over and took a cake out. I popped off the plastic dome and dug in with my bare hand. Under the icing, it was pre-sliced, so it wasn't as messy as I'd expected it to be.

After I dug out my one piece and ate it, I tossed the rest of it onto the floor. I was expecting an angry reaction from the dream characters around me, but I didn't get it. It was as if they all knew it was a dream, and so they didn't care either. The cake wasn't as sweet as I'd expected, nor nearly as satisfying, so I walked over to a glass pastry counter that was being attended by a guy dressed in white. I ordered a slice of coconut meringue pie, and he gladly served it to me, not bothered at all that I scarfed it down right in front of him without paying. I proceeded to order and eat several more pastries, but none of them were satisfying. They tasted good enough while I was eating them, but there was no substance to them once I swallowed. I continued to scan the case, and finally I found what I was looking for: something unique to my taste that I'd never be able to buy in the real world. There was a tray in there piled high with squared ropes of cookie dough coated in white chocolate. I told the man to give me the tray. Now THOSE things were delicious.

In the middle of my enjoyment of the white chocolate cookie dough, the dream rapidly destabilized within only a few seconds. I barely had time to even think about stabilization strategies before I woke up. I realized then that my sleep had been disturbed when my fiance shifted positions in bed next to me. In a way, I was glad to be woken up like that, because otherwise, I might not have remembered the lucid experience.

Now I'm thinking about those cookie dough ropes and wondering if I can make them in real life. I imagine that I could stick some cookie dough through a Playdough extruder to get the squared ropes, and then dip them in white chocolate. Maybe even fry them for a second first? MMMmmmm.....