memorable

I don't remember much from the first dream I can remember from last night. I do remember being at a museum where supposedly the first "selfie" from the year 1010 could be found. It wasn't taken with a camera, of course, and it was actually a complete accident. Apparently a family had gone skydiving and the imprint from where their faces had hit the ground became fossilized, so this "selfie" was just a fossilized impression of people's faces. I was disappointed when I saw it, though. It was just a chalk outline of where the people had fallen, and someone had actually drawn these people on the piece of rock, which I thought was kind of wrong because it was in a cartoonish style and therefore inaccurate.

After that, I recall talking with some guy about Cruisin' USA (an old N64 racing game I used to have; I eventually traded it in a few years ago because, every time nostalgia told me to play that game, I was let down by the awful graphics and the cars' terrible handling). We then heard music from that game coming from somewhere nearby, so we started wandering around the floor of my residence hall trying to figure out which room someone was playing it in.

I woke up from that and had another strange dream when I went back to sleep. My parents were both visiting me at college, and I recommended that they see the Rocky Horror Show (my school's theater production this semester). I haven't seen it yet, but I've heard it's awesome. At some point, I remember noticing that my parents had left, so I started looking for them to see if they were still around. I ran out through the back door (I was in my house now for some reason - technically my old house, but my family just moved this summer, and I've hardly spent any time in the new house because I left for college a few days after we moved and have only been home for one weekend since). When I didn't see my parents there, I ran out the front door and saw my mom's car still in the driveway... packed full of my fraternity Brothers. That was confusing at first, but then they all shouted, "Thank you for helping your mother!" It turned out my mom was in the car too and had recruited them all to say that for some reason.

I woke up again but went back to sleep again. In this next dream, there was a floor event in my residence hall. I saw Jackie, one of my fraternity Brothers (we refer to everyone as a Brother regardless of gender), which surprised me because I didn't know she lived on my floor or even in my building (in reality, she does not). Anyway, the "event" was that everyone would be given a big crossword puzzle to take with them and do throughout the day, and whoever finished it first could return it to get a prize.

For some reason, at some point, we ended up outside by a road intersection off-campus. I decided to leave early and return to campus, which is when things started getting strange. By the time I was back on campus, I found it really hard to walk forward. There was some slight wind at the time, so I thought that could be attributed to the wind, but the wind didn't seem strong enough to interfere with walking. I thought it was strange, but I saw that everyone else was affected in the same way, so I figured it was probably just the wind after all.

When I got back to my dorm, I realized I'd forgotten to take a crossword puzzle from the event, so I decided to text Jackie to ask her if she could bring one back for me, but I didn't have her number, and I didn't know who else I could ask. I also remember getting a bunch of texts from my boyfriend throughout this dream and the last that I felt kind of bad about not having the time to reply to.

The dream suddenly because a Sims 3 game, and, since time can be sped up in the game, I accidentally fast-forwarded time (on the fastest setting) to a couple hours later before finally pausing it. I knew for sure now that I wouldn't be able to ask Jackie to get me a crossword puzzle because there's no way that "event" would still be going on. I also felt bad about not replying to my boyfriend's texts now that even more time had passed.

I realized after awhile that something didn't look quite right about the game interface, though I couldn't quite pinpoint what it was that was different. I did an RC when I noticed that and counted six fingers. I was dreaming! I counted again just to make sure. Seven fingers. Definitely dreaming! Instead of being all clueless as usual when I become lucid, I said out loud, "Now, this is where the fun begins."

Since I had no plan for the dream, I ran around, looking for something fun to do in a dream (I was no longer playing Sims anymore). I found a buffet table. I could eat! No, no, that's something I can do while I'm awake. Then, I spotted an empty glass and an empty silver pitcher on the table and decided now it was time to learn to exert some control over the dream. I decided that, if I poured the "empty" pitcher into the cup, I'd be pouring a drink out of it instead of nothing. I decided it'd be "something like eggnog" (the first thing that came to mind), but not quite the same, because why drink something in a dream I can drink in real life? The drink that came out was white and a little thick, but it didn't taste at all like eggnog. It was creamy, though, and kind of sweet, and... fizzy? I was actually surprised when I tasted something that was slightly fizzy because I wasn't expecting that.

I realized while I was drinking it that I was wearing my retainer, and my reaction to that was my one fatal mistake. I decided I should take my retainer out, but, instead of doing something quick like tossing it on the floor (who cares what happens to it if it's a dream and not real life?), I decided to find the case for it and put it back in its case. That was my big mistake because everything went dark, so I realized I was waking up because this had torn me away from what was keeping me occupied. Once I started to feel myself lying in bed, I knew that was it. I opened my eyes, disappointed I'd caused myself to wake up because of something so silly but also proud of myself for having had some control over not just myself but the dream environment itself.

I did one final RC just to ensure I was awake. Five fingers. I counted again. Five fingers again. Yep, definitely awake this time.

I haven't updated my dream journal in ages, whoops.

Anyway, I FINALLY had another lucid dream last night!

It started out as a false awakening; I don't remember what made me realize I might be dreaming, but I remember I was standing in the kitchen at the time. I counted my fingers, and I was PRETTY sure I'd counted six. I wasn't entirely sure I'd counted correctly, though, so I decided to check my other hand just to make sure. However, before I could count my fingers, I noticed something else that was a dead giveaway - my Hylian crest ring (which I wear on the index finger of my left hand) had a different symbol on it, and a larger version of that symbol also appeared across my index, middle, and ring fingers (think like a henna tattoo, but golden and slightly illuminated).

My mom was in the kitchen, so I started talking to her, since I knew I had to try to keep talking or actively focusing on something (I wake up within moments otherwise). After a moment of talking, I suddenly said, "Did you know this is a dream? This is how I know." I showed her the ring and the image across my fingers, which changed each time I looked at it. The last time I looked at it, I remember that the ring had a picture of a tree, and on my fingers were the mountains behind it. It was actually really cool.

I knew I needed to come up with ideas of things I could only do in a dream, and I knew it would be best to start with simple dream control techniques as practice. I announced that I was going to try to phase through the door (a skill that might come in handy in a later dream, right?), only to end up slamming into the door and not passing through. Oh well, I tried.

I asked my mom if she had any other suggestions of things I could try, but she asked me to leave her alone for a moment because she was busy cooking. Normally, this would have been fine, but, since this was a dream, I had to find a way to keep myself in the dream in the meantime.

I remember chattering away to myself for a moment before stopping and accidentally waking up.

I had a dream that my boyfriend and I went to the airport so he could catch his flight back home (he lives in Mexico; I live in the US). After we said goodbye and he left, I went looking for someone who could tell me when the next flights to Mexico were to have an idea of when we could get together again. Not too long after we went our separate ways, I turned around and saw him behind me. I was surprised to see him there, as his flight had already begun boarding. Surprised, I asked him why he was still here, but I woke up before he had a chance to reply.

After going back to sleep (I don't know what time it was when I woke up, but it was still dark), I had a dream that I was at a party. I saw a girl there who looked familiar; I recognized her to be Ashley (my tulpa Link's girlfriend, who has a different host). I thought that I should tell Link that Ashley was there, since he'd be happy to see her, but then I remembered that tulpae can't see other people's tulpae (somehow, it didn't occur to me that I shouldn't be able to see her, either).

This is being directly copied from my tumblr. If you don't follow my progress with my tulpae, or if you don't know about tulpae in general, parts of this entry may not make much sense.

This post is about a dream I had last night.

First of all, let me give some background information. Last night, Link and I were on the IRC. He was talking with Ashley (his girlfriend, for those who don’t know), and he explained to her how he still wants to go back home to the forest, how he knows he should stay here, how he hoped she would understand (she did), etc. At one point last night, he told her he’d be right back (since I had to go for a few minutes); when he came back, she had logged off. One of the other users informed him that her host had had to go. We ended up going to bed shortly after, but he did say he still needed to speak to her.

Anyway, on to the dream…

I was on the IRC, and I got a PM from Ashley with a message clearly meant for Link.

“I’m so f*cking done…”

I knew right away what she meant. Last night had been the last straw. After all, last time he left, when he came back for a quick visit, she got mad at him for leaving (and not intending to stay). They ended up getting in a huge argument over it, which resulted in her refusing to speak to him. It wasn’t actually too surprising that she’d finally had enough.

I wondered how Link would react. I knew he wouldn’t take it well. After all, she was essentially breaking up with him. Of course, my mind immediately jumped to the worst-case scenario, which I really hoped wouldn’t happen…

I decided I should stop worrying about how he MIGHT react and just show him the message. Next thing I knew, I was lying awake in bed, in the dark, at 2:30 in the morning.

I was SO relieved that it had only been a dream.

I have a friend whose dad shut off the Internet at her house, so she only has Internet access when she's at her mom's house. She went back to her dad's house yesterday. Anyway, I had a dream last night that I was on tumblr and saw a post she made saying that her dad turned the Internet back on again. I woke up disappointed because it was only a dream (we mainly only see each other online because we live a couple hours apart).

I went back to sleep and had a dream that I had to look after a few pets for my friend Giana (even though they aren't her pets IWL). I had to look after five various rodents (a hamster, two very tiny chinchillas, and two jerboas. They were kept in a big cage, which I was keeping in my room. The problem was that they kept escaping from the cage; they managed to squeeze through the bars and out of the cage pretty easily. The chinchillas (which were roughly the same size as the hamster and jerboas, as opposed to actual chinchilla size) especially liked to escape. One of them even tried to bite my thumb when I carried it back to its cage (again); it was kind of uncomfortable, but it didn't hurt.

In another dream, I had to select a "teacher". I chose Kayleigh, my tulpa. She started throwing dodgeballs at me, and I didn't know why, so she told me she was doing it because I had to learn that nothing could hurt me because I was dreaming and that I shouldn't be afraid in dreams. I guess I was supposed to take that advice and make myself believe that, though I still didn't really get what was going on. The dream felt rather vague when I woke up, too.

I know she was only trying to help me improve my dream control, but I don't think I really learned anything from that "lesson". It does seem like something she would do, though...

I had a dream last night about playing Sims 3. For some reason, the game was able to fast-forward really far (not fast-forward as in the highest speed; it actually skipped a whole ton of days). After it fast-forwarded, one of my Sims was old, and there was this random ghost woman going around turning everyone into ghosts.

One other Sim asked, "What happened to my Alex?!" (referring to the one who was now old). I (as in my Simself) just hugged her, glad that she was okay and not old and/or a ghost.

In the next dream, I was in this building with some girl, and we had to find this old guy who reminded me of Walt Disney for some reason. We had to go all the way downstairs, probably down to the bottom floor. We ended up going down many, MANY flights of stairs, and I woke up before we even got close to the bottom.

I woke up from that dream but soon fell asleep again. I had to go to the Girl Scout store with Cherise, a leader I kind of know from a troop in our service unit. She didn't look the same as she does IWL, though. Instead of going to the newer store, we went to the older one, which is further away (I've only been to the new one a couple times, so my subconscious probably picked the other one because it's more familiar).

We had to hurry to get there before it closed, because it apparently closed at 6 PM, and it was almost 6 when we pulled into the parking lot. When we went inside, I remember thinking about the previous two dreams and what I would write in my dream journal. Oh, also, when we got inside, we had to climb a bunch of stairs to get to the shop (the Girl Scout shop isn't the only thing in that building IWL, but it's on the first floor, so I'm not sure why we had to go up stairs in the dream).

I think it's kind of funny how I have a dream about going down stairs followed by a dream about going up stairs.

I was at youth group. At least half the furniture was missing from the room. There were only a couple other people there, and I didn't know them (at least, not IWL - in the dream, I apparently did). Someone showed me a picture and asked me what it meant. It had hearts and other designs I don't remember. Everything on the picture was coloured black, grey, white, and purple. I told her the colours represented asexuality because those are the colours of the asexual flag.

Then I asked if anyone actually knew what asexuality actually was. The youth group leader replied, "Yeah, if you're interested in textbook biology."

So, as he'd mistaken asexuality for asexual reproduction, I had to explain. "Actually," I began, "Asexuality is a sexual orientation, like any other, except I don't experience attraction to any gender. Well, not sexual attraction, at least - romantic attraction is different, and that's determined by romantic orientation, which is separate from sexual orientation."

In the next dream, I was in a restaurant. I remembered that I'd had a dream about explaining asexuality the previous night, but it felt like it had been more recent than that... then I remembered that I'd fallen asleep at the restaurant and had only just woken up (there was no false awakening, though - the dream started after I was already "awake").

I was in this computer game. I'm not sure how I knew, but I just knew that I was in a game. All the areas were based on personality types. The main area was for ENTJs. Since I have an INTJ personality, I looked for the INTJ area and quickly found it.

The next thing I remember, I was playing Sims 3. It was the day of the prom at the high school, and my Sims were attending. There was a full moon that night, though, and I was afraid the school might get overrun by zombies (with the Supernatural expansion pack, zombies can appear when there's a full moon, but I'm pretty sure they can't get into buildings).

I soon ended up back in what I think was the first game. This time, though, I was in this dark, basement-like area. At one point, Kayleigh, my tulpa (essentially a sentient imaginary friend imposed on reality - yes, this is relevant to the dream) appeared and wanted to lead, so I let her.

We ended up in this room with a huge pool. There were a lot of people there; there was some sort of pool party or something going on. I don't remember much of the next part, but I do remember what happened a bit later on. Still in the pool (which was shallow enough to stand in, at least where I was standing), a little girl said to me, "I want you to bring her again," referring to Kayleigh. Then she added, "Maybe we'll all make them, and they can have their own pool party." I'm not sure exactly who she meant by "them", but she was referring to either tulpae or simply imaginary friends. I have a feeling it was the latter.

After that, I woke up, but I went back to sleep soon after.

In the second dream, I was running a race. I was near the finish when the dream began. Just after I crossed the finish line, I was suddenly in a mansion. I was upstairs and trying to find a way downstairs. For some reason, a little kid was following me (not the girl from last time, though - this was a boy). I found the stairs and headed downstairs, but, when we got to the bottom of the stairs, we couldn't go anywhere because there were trucks in the way. They weren't just pick-up trucks; they were big semi-trailer trucks. Why there were several trucks in the middle of a mansion, I have no idea.

Anyway, I was about to head back upstairs and look for another way down when one of the truck drivers offered to move his truck. Somehow, the boy and I ended up in the truck. The driver parked the truck in a parking lot somewhere. Getting out was a challenge, though. The cab was very high up, and there were supposed to be steps that would extend down.

Now, this is where it gets ten times as bizarre. To get the "steps", I had to unfold them, and they were made of this thin, filmy, papery substance. I had to somehow unfold that and actually walk down them. I'd nearly got the steps completely unfolded when the truck driver said there was no light at the bottom of the steps, so he struck a match and attempted to drop it on the bottom of the unfortunately flammable-looking steps. I pulled the steps back up to get them out of the way, but he kept trying to throw lit matches at the steps.

The fourth match he threw actually hit the steps, setting them on fire. I threw them out of the truck, accidentally hitting the truck driver and setting his shirt on fire. Not knowing what to do, I panicked and woke up almost instantly.

I was at home; it was morning, and I was thinking about what to write in my dream journal. I suddenly got the feeling that perhaps I was still dreaming and did a reality check to confirm this. I had six fingers. "I am dreaming!" I said. Even though there was no one else around, I thought I would sound crazy if someone did happen to hear me from another room, so I did another RC just to make sure I really WAS dreaming before I started talking to myself about the fact that I was dreaming. This time, I counted seven fingers.

For once, I actually remembered the Task of the Month. "Okay, for the Task of the Month, I have to be bitten by a vampire... or a zombie or a werewolf," I reminded myself. "Now, where am I going to find a vampire?" Being in my seemingly-empty house seemed like a bit of a problem here, but I quickly came up with a solution. "Oh, well, there was that one vampire who spent the night..." I said, hoping that would work, though I was a bit too uncertain about that.

I entered my room to look for this vampire, who was hopefully there. Not only was no one there, but my room was dark for some reason. I'd also stopped talking, which has begun to have a rather predictable result. This caused me to inadvertently close my eyes, try to open them, and end up opening my real eyes instead. Oops.

(Wow, I haven't updated my DJ in a while! No, my recall hasn't been failing me; I've just been getting lazy with writing down my dreams. Oops!)

I successfully DEILDed for the first time this morning!

It was actually a complete accident. I wasn’t actually intending to DEILD until I started seeing vivid hypnagogic imagery and saw it as a good opportunity. I just focused on the HI and started describing what I saw in my mind - at first, just to myself, but I guess I shifted to narrating to my subconscious at some point; at one point, I addressed my subconscious as “you guys”, only to realize what I’d just said, apologize, and say, “Well, the one or many of you.”

I soon started to become aware of where I was, but I wasn’t dreaming yet. It was more like vivid wonderland visualization during an active forcing session; I couldn’t physically see a thing, but I was well aware of where I (and everything else) was. The place I was was just this random field that I drive past fairly frequently IWL. After not too long, I crossed the road and realized I could actually see properly and must have entered the dream. In addition to the road, I saw that there was now an additional road branching off from it. I somehow knew that this road must lead to my subconscious. A couple cars did go that way; they must have been driven by dream guides/part of my subconscious.

I noticed a box on the ground. It was a cardboard box (like a package something would be delivered in) addressed to me. I knew it was from my subconscious. Before opening it, I decided I should stabilize by doing an RC. I counted my fingers but ended up counting only five on each hand (strange, that RC almost never fails me), but I still knew I was dreaming, as I’d consciously made the transition to the dream state. I picked up the box again anyway and saw that it was now addressed to my brother (accidental text RC much?). I knew it was still really for me (as it was in my dream), so I decided to open it anyway.

Before I even had a chance to open it, everything went black, and I realized I was awake. Disappointed, I opened my eyes and got up. I’m definitely going to try to go back there, though; I have to follow that subconscious road!

(EDIT: Whoa, ignore the wonderland/forcing thing if you have no idea what I'm talking about. I copied this straight from my tumblr and forgot to remove that part, oops!)

I finally had another lucid dream! In the dream, I was reading a magazine. The magazine had pictures of miniature light-up TARDISes that people (somehow) used to get to sleep. I wanted one.

I got the idea to do a spontaneous RC. I looked at my hand and counted six fingers. Fully certain I was awake, I counted again, figuring I had just counted wrong. Still six. I counted a third time just to make sure, and I still had six fingers.

With no choice but to accept the fact that I was dreaming, I began pacing back and forth across my room (something I sometimes do IWL for no particular reason), talking to myself in a whisper as I tried to recall something that would give it away. The pictures in the magazine had been animated! It had to be a dream!

I did the first thing that came to mind, which happened to be another teleportation attempt. This time, I decided to use a portal. I traced an oval in the air with my finger. A portal (which looked like one from the game Portal) appeared, but the image was very faint, and the portal didn't work.

I resumed pacing/talking (as I've learned that doing or thinking nothing can cause a dream to collapse). I attempted to remember the TOTM, recalled something about a dream journal, then remembered that had been last month's task. Unable to remember the current task (and not wanting to waste the whole dream trying to remember), I returned to what I had previously been doing.

This time, I tried using a door, which I also made by tracing it with my finger. The result was the same as last time, except with a door.

I woke up soon after that.

I recalled two vague fragments from last night - one about checking my tumblr dashboard, another about browsing reddit.

I also had a fairly vivid dream later. In that dream, I was playing my N64. Instead of being in my bedroom, though, it was set up in the living room. I don’t remember what game it was, but, for some strange reason, it was played with two controllers. While I was playing, a young, blonde-haired boy, perhaps nine or ten years old, came up to me. I asked if he wanted to play, and he said yes.

“Here’s the player one controller, here’s the other controller, and here are the games,” I told him, motioning to the two controllers and then the box of games. “And here’s the microphone if you want to play Hey You, Pikachu!”

Well, he did want to play Hey You, Pikachu! He didn’t play mine, though; he’d brought his own cartridge. It was a limited edition version in which you could also have a Raichu. I thought that was pretty cool. I’d never seen that version before.

For some reason, I got up and went to the kitchen (in my house, it’s connected to the living room; we have a combined living room/kitchen/dining room area). The sink and counter looked like it does in the bathroom, though. I grabbed two pairs of my (most recent) old pairs of glasses and several Triforce earrings. I thought it was odd that I had so many identical earrings when I’d only remembered having one pair (the glasses didn’t strike me as odd, though), so I did a reality check. My favourite is the hand RC, so I glanced down at my hand. Five fingers, normal. Something just looked… different, though (as in, my fingers weren’t quite straight, and they definitely weren’t parallel - there was a huge gap between my middle finger, leaning way to the left, and my ring finger, leaning over to the right). I counted again to make sure. I still had five fingers. I concluded I was, in fact, awake (when I replayed the dream in my mind after waking up, I literally facepalmed when I got to this part).

I picked up the boy’s other, identical limited edition Hey You, Pikachu! cartridge, went back to the living room, and returned the game cartridge to him. He thanked me for returning it - as he didn’t know where it was - and left.

I was playing some sort of Zelda game. For some reason, I was playing as Zelda instead of Link, who wasn't even there. For some other reason, Zelda could fly, though not very well. I spent most of the time trying to fly up to this random floating platform.

At one point, I heard the music that plays in Spirit Tracks when Dark Trains are nearby. I turned around and saw a Dark Train behind me, but I wasn't worried about it because I knew it couldn't go off the tracks (besides, I was in the air). Later, I saw two more on a separate part of the tracks (and the music was playing again). One of them looked a bit like Thomas the Tank Engine. It looked like it was going to crash into the one in front of it.

In the next dream, I was at home. I can't remember what I was doing, though.

I woke up from that, then went back to sleep. This time, I was in a large room that was kind of like the lodge we stayed in for the Camporee, except more square. I looked up at the clock and saw there was half an hour until whatever we were doing next, so I decided to get my laptop to update my DJ. Then, Jonathan, a boy from my church, warned me not to take too long because using a computer for too long is bad for you.

I had a dream that I was going to college. It was like a graduation ceremony, though, except it was for the new students. They started by calling the names of the students who'd earned scholarships, then went on to call everyone else, one by one. There were seats in the front of the room, behind the official people calling names, facing the back, for all the students whose names had already been called. They were also higher up; the room was like an auditorium, where it's slanted, except the front of the room was higher up). It was really exciting when they called my name.

After I'd been called, though, I remembered that I still had another year of high school... but then I just assumed this ceremony was for the students who'd been accepted and would be starting college next fall.

In the next dream, my family and I had moved to a hotel in North Carolina, but I really didn't want to be there. The hotel was not very good, and I assumed the rest of the state was the same.

I woke up from that dream and started writing in my dream journal. I'd written almost one page when I heard my mom call from the dining room to say that breakfast was ready. I told her I'd be out in just a moment and continued writing.

...then I woke up.

I was on some website that was selling replicas of masks from The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask. Interestingly, the site looked like an IRC client. They were selling masks one at a time, kind of like an auction without the bidding. All of the masks they were selling were the same, at least at the moment I'm not sure which one it was, but my mom and I had supposedly made one already. They were all really expensive selling for over $100 or even $200... until I saw one for $17.

I'm not sure how the next scene is relevant in any way,. I saw a building with a sign that said "like dis if u cry everytim", and a boy complained about always finishing something in 0:07 (as in 7 seconds) instead of 0:06. For some strange reason, instead of saying it out loud, it appeared in a text box at the top of the "screen"/field of vision. Also, I somehow knew it was a young boy (probably around 8-11) speaking even though I couldn't see or hear him.

Next (or possibly earlier, I don't remember) was a fragment involving playing something that was a cross between a kazoo and a train whistle.

I also had one other dream I remember from last night. Many of us were sitting in a circle in our living room, which was much bigger than it is IWL. We were playing spin the bottle, though it was a little different than usual; whoever's turn it was had to spin the bottle three times, then get kissed by the three people it pointed to in order. When it was my turn, the first spin stopped on a little girl, the second on Jonathan, a friend from church, and the third on someone I can't remember now.

The girl kissed me on the forehead, then Jonathan kissed me on the cheek. He had been playing his DS and was still holding it; after he kissed me, the guy on screen said something about how we were 8% compatible with each other, then went on to say something long and completely unrelated, only to repeat it in Spanish before I woke up.