Thanks fogelbise for the encouragement and for reading! Glad to have you back. Hope your weekend went well.

Asleep: 11:45
WBTB: 3:26, 4:46, 6:25, 7:15ish
Awake: 8:30
Tech: MILD, WBTB + MILD, WBTB
Dreams: 2
Lucids: 0 (read on, I had an experience that is hard to fit into a category)

1. Fragmentary recall - I am at the restaurant where I work part-time. While my usual co-workers are there working, there are also beds (or at least 1 bed?) in the restaurant. My manager, Michelle, gave me the 'early section' that is usually empty before the rest. I went to eat food but Michelle told me I couldn't sit at the usual section because it was too early and we were still too busy. Around 8:56 dream time (I thought we closed at 9:00pm), I decided I needed to make the bed so I could leave? I remember struggling to do that, and it was taking much longer than I thought so I didn't think I would finish by 9:00. (Memory Blank) I then got desert which was a huge plate of cookie cake served with ice cream and ate it on the bed while talking to 3 of my co-workers. I kept seeing their eyes look towards the bowl so eventually I went and grabbed three forks (or spoons?) and let them have the rest. One guy, Joey, seemed to eat the rest of the cookie cake in one bite.

2. This next experience was either a lucid moment or very vivid HH. I'm not an expert on the terms so I'm hoping someone can tell me based on this description. I woke up when T was leaving for work and used the restroom. I then laid down and did MILD. I was tired and my thoughts were drifting; I was experiencing visual HH. Suddenly, I'm walking out of a restaurant (with no memory of being in bed). It is very vivid. I see my friend Kyle having dinner with a girl. Although we make eye contact and I wave, he doesn't seem to recognize me. After I exit the restaurant, I see my best friend from high school and his girlfriend walking through the parking lot. Again, they don't seem to recognize me. I think about how weird that is and that maybe this is a dream. I try to do an RC but I feel sleep paralysis holding my arm down and this attempt at movement causes me to "wake up". After this event, I relaxed to to fall back asleep and entered sleep paralysis on 4 more occasions. It seemed that by laying still, I could enter full paralysis within 20 seconds. Personally, I hate sleep paralysis and it freaks me out. So each time, I struggled to move my head/neck until the paralysis "broke". This is why I stick to DILD's lol.

Commentary - Regardless of whether the 2nd experience was a lucid moment or vivid HH, I'm still proud because it involved reasoning about the situation to come to the conclusion that it wasn't real. My only previous lucid moment came about from "just knowing" that it was a dream. But this time, I reasoned about weird events to draw a conclusion that it was a dream. My recall tonight was not as good as past nights for some reason. Even though I woke up naturally at 3:26, 4:46, and 6:25 (estimated). I think I will stick with MILD for now since it again gave me this "lucid moment" and did not cause insomnia.