Okay...I was supposed to spend the day today looking for a job, but I woke up with a headache that would drop an elephant in its tracks. So, I've spent the morning laying on the couch taking 30-45 minute naps here and there. Waking only when I had to go to the bathroom, or the ducks and geese in the pond behind my apartment make too much noise.

Well, I just woke up about 10 minutes ago from the most lucid of all the dreams, and I actually spent the last minute or so in it realizing I was dreaming. The dream took place inside some high rise in downtown Chicago. I know my mother-in-law was there, and I want to say my wife was too, but I can't be too sure, but we were standing and watching some important board meeting. It only lasted a few minutes and then we mingled with the people inside and I told one of the men that I was having DejaVu from the board room because it looked almost identical to a large outside pool area from a dream I had once before. The board room was on the corner of the building, it was rectangular in shape, and ever wall, except for the one connected to the building that went to the hallways outside, had no wall, but some kind of wire mesh mixed with glass. So, it appeared that the room was only held up by the floor. Anyways, the man laughed and walked away, nervously, which I now find interesting. Kind of like when someone is playing a practical joke on you and doesn't want to be caught.
Anyways, suddenly, a young guy walks in, probably in his early twenties, with a large book that he is showing one of the guys from the meeting. I overheard that he was asking to allow funding to some sort of writing branch and the older man just nodded and said, "Yes yes...whatever..." Then my mother-in-law introduced me to this young man and told me he is an assistant to J.K. Rowling. She was in the building, using one of the main offices to write her book. I expressed interest in writing, so I started telling the young man I would love to meet her and I actually had some short story I wrote with me and wanted to give it to her. He said she doesn't like to be bothered but he would give her the short story and also said that she is in a bit of a slump right now and has no ideas and is there any locations or places that I can think of that she might use.
So, I begin to tell him about the place I dreamed about that look almost exactly like this one. Something happens and he has to walk away, and this happens like 4 times. I am not able to tell him what I dreamed because as soon as I started talking about it he had to go do something real quick. So, I think I gave up and was just happy that he had the short story. So, my mother in law, some other guy, and myself were taking an elevator downstairs when all of a sudden, right in the middle of downtown and probably only a few blocks from us, a tornado formed. I pressed the stop button on the elevator, pried the doors apart and had to actually pull my mother in law from the elevator because she was in shock. We were probably on the 20th or so floor and ran to the stairs. I found it odd that we only walked down 2 flights before we made it to the ground floor.
The stairway turned into a basement of sorts and suddenly debris and pipes were falling down. My mother in law started screaming, "Please, please, I'm so scared, stop it!" Which I thought was a weird thing to shout at a building being destroyed. When I realized she was looking at me. I suddenly realized I didn't remember how we even got to the city and into the building in the first place and that last I remember I was laying on my couch. It was instant, I suddenly realized I was dreaming. And, being someone who usually remembers his dreams, but not often realizing he is dreaming, I think I was momentarily stunned as to how much the dream looked, sounded, and just felt real. Even though I knew I was dreaming, the building was still falling apart, so I still sort of panicked. I looked at my mother in law who was not screaming anymore but was smiling and nodding. Almost like, "Go ahead, you know you are dreaming. Wake up and save us."
So, I closed my eyes, and shook my head until I woke up with a start on the couch in my living room. I know with little more practice and time, I would have been able to stay in the dream and just left the building or stopped what was happening but I knew, even in the dream, that that was out of my control at that moment.