non-lucid

I was riding the train with some friends. There was a man wearing a dress on the train, and some other guys were trying to start a fight with him. There provocation succeeded, and a full brawl began. The man in the dress turned out to be deceptively strong. Things were getting out of hand, so I pressed the security button. By the time security arrived, the man in the dress had pretty much wiped the floor with all of them.

My friends and I made our way to a bar, which turned out to be a strip club. My parents were there, taking in a poll dance. Gross. We proceeded to get rather drunk, and then I decided I wanted to leave. Worried about my safety, my friends decided that one of them needed to accompany me home. One of my oldest friends agreed to walk me. When we arrived at my house, we ended up sleeping together for some reason. It was weird and instantly regrettable. I kept asking myself why I had done this; cheated on my boyfriend, ruined my friendship with this person, and probably ruined a few other friendships too. (I was super relieved to wake up and realize that it had only been a dream).

Disgusted with myself, I jumped in my truck and drove away. I was trying to drive south, but I kept missing the exits on the highway and kept driving completely the wrong way. I eventually turned off and ended up in some ritzy town-house area. Then I woke up.

1. I'm looking after a classroom of children, but we are not in a classroom. Two of the boys get in a fight, and the smaller, scrawnier one ends up on top with his foot on the other boy's neck. He is stepping down as hard as he can, and I realize that he is trying to kill him. I am shocked at this behavior from such young children. I break up the fight, and I grab the scrawny boy and push him into the hallway. I scold him furiously but he seems to have no remorse for his actions. His head is covered by a tightly fitting glass dome.

2. I'm looking at this magical board that is covered in numbers. I have to find the right numbers for a certain task. I am inside some sort of strange shop. I get the feeling that I work here. There is another woman nearby, and I think that she works in the shop as well. She reaches for something on one of the shelves, and pulls off another board like the one I am using. I try to warn her against using that board, because I remember that bad things have happened to others who have used it. Before I can fully explain to her the dangers, she passes out and hits the floor with a sickening thud. I run over to her and see that there is blood seeping from her ear.

3. I'm skateboarding around town, and for once I can actually stay on the board.

4. I'm lying on a floor, unable to get up or speak. There is a dream character standing over me, and he keeps saying things about how he wants to save me. I get the feeling that I am dead or dying, and that is why I am unable to communicate. The dream character says he wants to give me a healthy perspective on life and fix all the distortions in my thinking. He leans closer to me, and I notice that there is some words or symbols tattooed on his chest that have started to glow. They glow brighter and brighter as he comes closer to me until everything disappears in a flash of white.

1. I am working at some crappy dingy bar. For some reason, it is owned by Donald Trump.

2. I am on the skytrain, and I pass by a big empty wall, not attached to a building. I decide that I am going to borrow my friend's rock climbing equipment so that I can repel down the side of it and paint something on it.

I'm down at the Pacific Ocean. I'm wading into the cold water. Little fish are swimming through my legs and seaweed is wrapping around my ankles. It's beautiful, but then I remember how the ocean has been contaminated. I also remember how after Chernobyl, radiation could be detected in the seaweed here. I think about Japan and how it's just across the ocean from us, and I run out of the water. I can't get the seaweed off of my body. Looking back at the ocean, it looks disgusting. It's full of plastic and oil and nasty gunk.

A group of people, including myself, have stumbled upon a heavily guarded government secret. As a result, we are all on the run from the law. Secret agents in gas masks are hunting us down. We break into stores for food and supplies.

I can't remember much more of this dream, just that the government secret that we discovered had something to do with chemicals being sprayed into the sky.

Also I remember listening to the Pixies in the dream.

I'm helping a friend search for a young woman who has gone missing. We talk to several people who knew her, but get no leads. One of the people we interview makes us French toast.

1. I'm having my sketchbook shown to an important woman in the artistic community. For some reason a few of my family members are around. Apart from some gnarly figure drawings, she is rather unimpressed with what she sees. She tells me that what I have is nothing special, I should just give it a rest. I get rather upset and embarrassed and lock myself in a closet. People are banging on the door trying to get me to come out, but I keep holding the door shut.

2. I'm walking down some bizarre road/walkway that is made out of thin strips of multi colored plastic-like material. It's elevated off the ground.

3. I'm wandering around the streets of some suburban neighborhood. I'm dressed very strangely and I have a large backpack on. There are patches of snow on the ground, and I start spinning around (but not in a dream spinning way) until I fall over into one of the patches of snow. I hear something from the house across the street, and I look up to see two people staring at me from an open window. I walk over and realize that they are two people that I knew in childhood, but grown up. I ask if they remember me and they don't really seem to. This is when the dream gets fuzzy for a bit and I can't remember what exactly happens, but later I am riding on some small and incredibly fast bike. The two people from the window are chasing me.

4. On some bizarre structure again, climbing up and up but not reaching the top.

1. I'm swimming in some stream with my boyfriend. The stream is pretty deep but the current isn't very strong. There are lots of ducks in the stream. I keep laughing at them quacking and swimming about. I tickle one of the ducks' feet under the water, and the duck quacked angrily and flapped away, causing me to laugh hysterically.

2. I'm packing in a hurry, but I don't know where I'm going. Someone is telling me that people are coming to get us and take us somewhere, but we are going to be unconscious for the trip. Once we finish packing, they tell us to look left, right, up and down. We all pass out and I vaguely feel my wrists being bound together.

We have woken up in some strange mansion. They dressed us all very fancy. We have dinner in a huge dining room. There is a very elegant dark haired woman sitting at the end of the table. She is very polite but seems very cold. I have a note in my hand that I am supposed to give her. I walk over to her, and for some reason I start speaking in French. I say "J'ai une note pour vous", and she nods as I hand her the note.

3. I'm climbing up some kind of wooden structure, and I can never seem to get to the top. This reminds me of my dream that I had the other night, and I suddenly realize that I am on the street, feeling the pavement, trying to stay lucid. It must not have worked, because I can't remember what happened after this.

1. Someone had left some mayonnaise out in the sun, which resulted in someone else getting food poisoning.

2. A girl I went to high school with was on the cover of a magazine.

3. Someone is following me. I hide in a bathroom but they know where I am. I try to lock the door but it doesn't work. I have to hold the door shut while they try to open it. I start to panic.

1. I find myself in a concrete basement, with really interesting art on the walls. Some are paintings, and some are stencils. I am particularly interested in the stenciling. Someone I know is in the room, and they tell me that the artist is active in street art and wants me to do pieces with him. I start a strange painting that keeps changing on me. The artist comes out from the back somewhere and helps me decide what to do with my painting. We discuss stenciling. He has a large beard and a grey sweatshirt.

2. I walk into a strange church that is full of medical examination tables. I sit on one that isn't covered with that paper sheet.

3. I am going on a fishing trip with some friends. I am trying to convince them that it would be a good idea to bring a compass with us, just in case, but they fail to see the merit of it. I am very insistent because I know how easy it can be to get lost out on the ocean. I drive to a store to get one. We go on the trip, and I can see the boat as though I am not in it. Then I am back in the boat, and the current is so strong that we are having difficulty steering.

1. I found some cats that were part domestic and part wild. The really liked me. I was petting them and they were all purring.

2. My friend slept with a considerably older woman, and she was very insistent on them having a relationship. My friend was not into it at all.

3; I go into some coffee shop but not for coffee. I give the guy at the counter $100. He seems pissed off. I feel a huge wad of cash in my pocket. I see a ghost car outside so I leave and start walking towards the station.

There are some earlier dreams from last night that I only have vague recollections of.

1. I'm at my parent's place, and my ex boyfriend comes over to see my mom. I'm super pissed about it.

2. I'm in some self-serve cafe trying to figure out how everything works. The deserts look really good.

3. My mom has entered me in some pageant for goth kids or something. This is confusing to me as I do not consider myself goth at all. My mom and I argue about it for some time. I get up to use the bathroom. In the mirror, I see that I am myself at 14 years old. Black hair, black lipstick, black eyeshadow and all.
I go back and sit with my mom. I hear them call my name which means it's my turn to go up for the pageant. I don't want to at all. I don't even want to be here. Everyone is watching me as I stand up, and I just start running as fast as I can. I'm out the door, outside, running through the parking lot and into the nearby woods. As I am running I somehow realize that this must be a dream.

Lucid:
I stop on the path I am running on and fall to my knees. I feel dirt and chipped wood of the pathway and it feels just like it should. I look up to see a large stage coach rounding the corner up ahead and coming towards me. I don't feel like dealing with this for some reason, so I hurry off the path and start to spin. When I stop spinning, I find myself at my old elementary school playground. There are kids playing everywhere and it seems to be recess or lunch time. I walk into the playground and it all seems so real. So much so that as I pass a kid, he bumps me and knocks my bag off. Even the sounds are real. Kids yelling and laughing, whistles blowing, seagulls, everything! I see an old teacher that I had when I went to this school. I am surprised she is still here. I walk over and start talking to her. I ask her if she remembers me, and she says that she does. "But, this is a dream, right?" I ask. She nods. I ask her if she ever lucid dreams and she says that she does all the time.

I decide to go in and explore the school. I start to walk around the side of the building, and I notice that the gym door is open. I walk through the gym and it is much as I remembered it, although not quite. A few things were changed. No matter. I continue through the gym and come out the other side by the office. The secretary is young and I do not recognize her at all. I have a sudden mischievous whim and I decide that I am going to piss off the principal. Walking just into the doorway of his office, I see that he is on the phone. He looks up at me, and I make an obscene gesture. "Can I call you back?" he says to the person on the phone. He starts to chase me through the hallways, and I laugh because I know he cannot catch me because I can run as fast as I want. There's a big janitors cart in the hallway and I push it on it's side as I run past, creating a barrier. Then I start to spin again. I want to keep exploring!

After spinning, I end up on a beach somewhere. It's nighttime and it's so dark I can barely see. I am only sure that it's a beach because I can feel the moist sand and hear the waves. This is not as interesting as I had hoped, so I start to spin again.

I have a false awakening, where I spin so hard in the dream that my real body starts to spin too, and I roll out of bed. I get up and start updating my dream journal, only to really wake up shortly after and realize that I had to start all over.

I know I only explored an elementary school, but damn if that wasn't the coolest thing I have experienced in a long time! I think I am finally getting the hang of staying lucid for more than a few seconds!

1. I'm stuck in some sort of prison camp. The guards are making us take Prozac and there is a big cut on my arm. Strangely enough, the other prisoners seem happy to be there. Suddenly these large robots come in and start breaking down all the doors.

2. I'm taking a bus somewhere, but I'm not sure where I am going. I get off and go into a big house. There are lots of people inside who seem quite busy with something. A man passes me on the staircase and I ask "Hey, do you know where the hell we are?". He doesn't seem to know either. I'm holding in my hand a book of french lessons. Suddenly I notice that the book is hollow and full of illicit substances. I walk out into the front yard and suddenly it's sunny out (it was dark when I arrived at the house). I walk out into the driveway and see people that I think I might know all cramming into a car. I walk over to them and try to give them my book. They won't take it and someone scolds me. Someone reaches into my bag and grabs a sandwich that I had packed. I hear the song "Lost Highway" by Hank Williams on the car radio. I pick up a rotting tomato slice on the pavement and take it over to what seems to be a compost bin. I open it up and toss it in, but while I have the lid open, dozens of bees start swarming out and I run away.

3. I feel my rib cage and I am horrified to find that I have lost a very unhealthy amount of weight. All of my ribs are sticking out way further than they should be. Suddenly I can see myself as if I am outside my body. I see my stomach swell out as if I am pregnant, but the rest of me stays frail and skeletal.

4. I'm trying to make burritos, but I keep screwing up the tortillas. They are ripping and unraveling all over the place, and the burrito filling is getting everywhere.

5. I'm in a house that I do not recognize. There is some sort of gathering there. For some reason, Tony Soprano is there. Maybe because I fell asleep watching the Sopranos. I run into him in a room in the house where we are alone, but suddenly the scene melts away and I find myself laying on a staircase. I get up and walk around. I think that I am supposed to meet my mom somewhere. I go outside and look down the hill that the house is on. I see a crowd of people wearing academic robes. I can pick my mom out of the crowd, because her robe is bright green and the rest of the crowd wears black. My cell phone rings and it's my mom calling to tell me that the ceremony is taking a long time.

6. I'm sliding down a road on my stomach, as if I were on a luge headfirst. I am going faster than any car could go. It's kind of like half sliding, half flying. It's night time and I can see the lights of a city in the distance.

I had a bad night's sleep last night, which I think effected my recall. I have some brief impressions though.

1. Someone, an older man, pulling me by the arm. He is very angry with me for something I did.

2. Taking some sort of test.

3. One of my friends being arrested.

That's all I can remember, dammit!

1. I'm in an apartment that I don't recognize. I know that for some reason I have to get all the way across town very soon. I have a large beer that I am trying to finish as quickly as possible. There are large bowls of ramen noodles. Someone makes a toast and they say that it is for "the most boring man in the world".

2. I'm going to class. I don't recognize the setting of the classroom. I sit down at a desk away from most of the people in the room, because I do not know anyone. We have to watch a video, but from where I am sitting, I can not see at all. Some of the dream characters notice this and beckon me over. I grab my bag and I sit at a table full of DCs. The instructor hands out some papers. I look up and notice that the instructor is my old boss. This confuses me for a minute. "But I was fired... Wasn't I?" I ask. He doesn't seem to know what I am talking about.
I look down at the papers that he has handed out. The heading of the text starts moving in a psychedelic way. This should have been a dream sign, but instead I think that I am having an acid flashback or something. I hear someone laugh, and I look up to see a girl about my own age with dark skin, dark hair, and grey eyes. She is smiling and laughing at me. "I know that look." She says and winks.
We talk for a while, and when I look back on it now, it seems like she was trying to hint to me that I was dreaming. She tells me that her name is Zenia or something similar. I also talked with a few other DCs but none of them are quite as memorable.
I go outside for a cigarette, even though I have quit in real life. I run into a friend of mine, and we wander for a bit and end up in some strange mall. I realize that we will probably get in trouble for smoking in the mall so I suggest that we head back the way we came. We pass by the class again and Zenia and her group of friends are still hanging out outside. I go over and say goodbye to them, then I run back to my friend and continue on our walk.
We turn down one street and come across a family of wild pigs, inexplicably living in the town. The babies are very cute. When they see us, they run out into the street, and my friend and I desperately try to save them from being hit by passing cars. I grab one and it struggles to get away from me, and even tries to bite me. I run and put it down on the other side of a nearby fence. As I am running around to try and save the others, I realize how absurd the whole situation is. I think that I must be dreaming. As soon as I have this revelation, the dream starts to fade. I get down on my knees and feel the ground. At first it feels like concrete, and I breathe a sigh of relief. Then it starts to feel soft like the sheets on my bed. I start to worry that I am waking up. Suddenly it feels like I am standing on my bed in the dark, holding the headboard for support. I can't figure out if this is really happening or not, or if this is part of the dream.

It was part of the dream, as I got rid of my headboard several weeks ago. Another lucid though! Even though I'm still having trouble making them last, the fact that they seem to be becoming more frequent is encouraging.