Dream #301 (December 30, 2010)

Unlike last night, this dream took place in one setting.

I began the dream by walking up the marble steps of a Roman-style judicial building. I passed through the columns and through the front doors and entered a great room with a chalkboard and desk at the front and many rows of black lab tables (like the ones in the science rooms in my old high school). It was taking a science class. I walked to the front row and sat down.

I was wearing some odd pieces of clothing. I had on a very heavy brown fur coat, thick brown gloves, a brown scarf, a yellow sweater, brown corduroy pants, brown boots, and square glasses. I was also wearing a brown barrette, which it took off and hung, along with my coat, on the back of my chair. I felt like I was in London in the nineteenth century.

This class was the last one of the semester, and we were being handed our final test scores. When the teacher's assistant got to me, he handed me a purple folder that was empty except for a half piece of notebook paper with a '0' written on it in red ink. I was upset because I knew I took the test, and I had studied very hard for it so I was confident that I would receive a good grade. I took the folder up to the teacher's desk and addressed the issue.

The teacher, though he looked like a math professor from Bethel College, was Jeff Goldblum. At first he didn't believe me, but then he started taking me seriously. He immediately ordered everyone to search for my missing test.

Now, there were three sections to the test. One was a multiple choice section, the other was a fill-in-the-blank, and the third was an essay, all done on separate sheets of notebook paper. Immediately the students looked under their desks, and a girl in the classroom (wearing a thick red coat and a red barrette) found the fill-in-the-blank section of my test, which was crumpled up and marked with a '100' in red ink. She took it to the Jeff Goldblum, who then ordered the class to search the rest of the giant room quite thoroughly.

This is how the rest of the dream was spent. The students (including myself) looked through boxes, above ceiling tiles (with the use of tall ladders), in the janitor's closet, and in everyone's backpacks.

There were strange things going on outside whilst we were going about our search. At one point, a fire truck went speeding by with its lights flashing and its siren yelling. Later on, an accident involving a green car, a baby blue car, and a yellow taxi stole my attention for a short while. The owners of the vehicles got out and began shouting at each other, and they caused quite a traffic backup.

At some point in this mess I awoke, having never found the other two portions of the test.

Dream #300 (December 29, 2010)

This dream, Dream #300 by the way, was incredibly long. It felt as if it lasted for days. However, I will try to keep the description relatively brief.

The first part of the dream was a bit violent. I was in a city that was lit by a brownish gold light. I was walking down the sidewalk, observing the people in go-carts driving by me at great speeds. For some reason I stood by a certain street lamp for what felt like hours. I was there until it became dark.

A little after darkness fell, a young boy came running toward me, shouting something. I tried to stop him to see what the matter was, but when I tried to grab him, I caused him to trip and fall into the road. Just then, a bus drove by and violently smashed the young boy. The boy was instantly dead, and the bus kept driving. I didn't know what to do. Just then the boys father came out of an apartment. He was hispanic, and he was carrying a baseball bat and wearing a tank-top shirt and a gold necklace. He looked at me angrily and rushed at me. I wanted to cover up the involuntary murder I had just committed, so I pulled out a knife and stabbed the man in his heart, killing him. I had just destroyed a family and was shaken up.

I entered the apartment of the father and son I had just murdered to see what kind of people they were. I noticed several toys on the forest green carpet, and several dishes and clothes lying about the house. I began to weep.

Then I went back in time to when I was watching the go-carts race by. Then I saw the little boy run by and let him go this time. His father still came out after him with a baseball bat, and I let him run by me as well. Shortly after a tall man with grey hair, a straw hat, and battered clothes, walked up to me and gave me a handful of grain.

Then I switched over to a different dream.

I was staying at some sort of boarding school. I was taking classes, wearing a school uniform, and living in a dorm with a bunch of guys. The dream started in a yoga class I was taking. The class was all males, and many of them were overweight, and quite funny to watch as they attempted the art of yoga. I did quite well (I'm pretty flexible in real life, but I don't practice yoga), and looked as nimble as a ballerina.

When the class was over, everyone went to the shower-room/restroom to wash up and go potty. It was 8:00 p.m. by then, and I realized that I had not urinated since the night before. I walked up to the urinals, which (this is very bizarre) resembled sinks and were each located directly under a drinking fountain. The urinal sinks were pretty high, so the spouts of the drinking fountains were bound to get hit by urine often. It grossed me out. I peed for over a minute. My stream was so powerful and so loud that all the guys in the bathroom began looking at me in awe and wonder. Ashamed, I tried to angle myself so that I could avoid their glances.

I finally finished peeing and went into the shower room. All the piping had been painted red and reminded me of a fire station for some reason.

After showering, I went to my 9:00 p.m. class, which was a typewriting class. All the students crammed into a small one-room building with a screen door, one window, a bookshelf, and the teacher's desk. We were all supposed to type a one-page paper, but their were about twenty of us and only one typewriter (this room was so small that we were all standing, scrunched together, and the person typing was sitting outside). The outside reminded me of my back yard, by the way.

I was last in line to type my paper. While I waited, I looked at all the crazy old books on the shelves and talked to some of my fellow classmates. It was a strange group of people that I've met at various points in my life. The people I knew were Jon Ayee (friend from Regent University), Erin Roseander (high school classmate, whom I have not seen since graduation), Cate Sterczala (Prairie Camp counselor), and Mrs. Denny (high school Home Economics teacher, who also taught the typing class in my dream, though she looked and acted much differently, sharing only the name).

Cate was right in front of me and took an extra long time typing as I sat in the dark classroom by myself. When she finally finished, Mrs. Denny began to freak out because the class time was over but I hadn't even began my paper. She even blamed me for it, which made no sense. As I was about to start my paper, Cate handed me a paper and told me she had written it for me to use as mine. I was surprised and a bit insulted by the gesture, for I love to write and I hate to cheat. Just as I began typing the paper, though, Mrs. Denny told me there wasn't time and that I would have to make it up another time. As I walked through the woods back to my dorm, I realized that I had taken that class the previous semester and that I wouldn't need to take it again. I wondered if I could still get credit for it, for it was a blow-off class, and I needed just 3 more elective credits to graduate. When I arrived at my dorm, I emailed Doug Miller (who was my academic adviser at Regent) to see if I could get credit for the class again.

Then I switched dreams again.

I was back in the city where I murdered the father and son. I was, however, sitting across the street from where I had been before. I sat along a wall to a closed-down store, along with hundreds of others, who were lined up for what looked like a mile, and they all were sitting down. I watched buses pass, I saw clowns walk by, and I witnessed toys marching along the road.

Finally, I became bored and left the long line of sitting people. After walking a few miles down the road, I found a beautiful grassy cliff. I looked down in the water and noticed a large boat (this is where the dream gets a bit disjointed and hazy). I instantly knew that the boat belonged to some evil town-suppressing billionaire. I decided to battle this billionaire, so I walked to a gravel parking lot and found Kevin Chupp and my dad. Together we (after a long, drawn out process that I only vaguely remember) built a battleship and defeated the evil man, blowing up his ship with ours.

Then I switched over to a different place altogether. I was in a snowy city observing the beautiful Christmas lights reflecting off of the snow. I walked by a Taco Bell and a Wendy's, then crossed an intersection and entered a subdivision. The houses, though they were quite small, looked gorgeous. After observing these places I walked back to the main road.

I eventually awoke. I'm sure I missed something; this dream was so long and jumbled that I probably didn't keep it straight.

Dream #299 (December 28, 2010)

A dream. I hope to be more regular, but who knows if I will be?

I was in a large city with my friend Kevin Chupp. I was driving an old, beat up, 80s style brown car, with Kevin in the passenger seat, and we were touring the city to which we had never been. The first place we stopped at was a McDonald's.

We walked in and I saw Rick Hall there meeting with a bunch of white-haired men. He smiled and waved, then looked back to whomever was speaking at the meeting.

Kevin and I sat at a high table and ordered tacos from the waitress (the McDonald's had apparently turned into a high class Taco Bell). Then Alivia Sims (a girl who graduated from high school with my little brother, whom I barely know) walked in with her boyfriend Nathan and didn't bother saying hello, even though I waved at them.

Before we received our food, Kevin and I left. We hopped back into the junker and entered some very heavy traffic. We decided to leave the car in the middle of the road and walk to wherever we were going. It was a piece of junk anyway.

The lighting in the city was a strange twilight for the entire dream, but I only truly noticed it while walking in it. It was almost beautiful.

Then Kevin and I found a little subdivision that proudly held many rows of very leafy trees that blocked much of the city's light, making the whole place dark and mysterious. We walked around there for a while, not encountering even the faintest amount of life. We were a bit spooked, so we ran out of the subdivision.

Then we walked into a gas station that was nearby (though I don't know why, for we had abandoned our car) and again ran into Rick Hall, who was buying a candy bar and a bottle of water (interesting combo).

We left without making a purchase.

After walking on the sidewalk for a few minutes, my dad picked us up in a blue van (similar to the one he used to own), and we rode down the highway at a frightening speed (which is strange, for my dad is a conservative driver). We were going so fast that he was barely able to stop at a construction zone, where the exit we wanted to take was blocked by orange cones and fences.

Then I awoke.

Dream #298 (December 26, 2010)

I keep putting off blogging my dreams. I apologize.

This is nuts. Last night I dreamt that I was in the future. There was a violent civil war going on in the United States, and much of the land was in ruin. The government was desperately trying to control the population, so 10% of Americans were incarcerated. There was one particular prison that held something like 1/4 of all the prisoners in the nation, which was a giant number of people.

At the start of the dream, I had all of this knowledge. I was attending some sort of party being held at Koontz Lake Missionary Church. As I stood in the corner of the fellowship hall, observing everyone, trying to spot government-hired strongmen, a young lady came up to me and asked if I would be willing to work for her. See, I was some sort of bounty hunter in the dream, and I must have been very good at it, for people were typically willing to pay me great amounts of cash for my services. However, in this particular instance, the woman expressed that the couple who wanted to hire me had no funding for bounty hunters. This young woman, however, thought their lives were in danger, so she came to me with not money.

Being the nice guy I am, I agreed to go with her to the couple's house. On the way there (we took a taxi) I realized, while talking to the young woman, that the couple was a very important couple to the rebellion against the government, and I was glad to be helping them, though I was slightly afraid that the forces against them would be too great for even me to deal with.

When I arrived at the couple's home, they were looking over blueprints in their kitchen. I let them be and began playing pool on the table they had near their front door. A few minutes later, three heavily armed girls busted through the front door, each of them pulling out several sharp objects.

I immediately broke me pool stick in half, leaped off the pool table and hit the ring leader in the head with one part of the broken stick. I then picked up that girl's knife, threw it into the neck of the one to her right. Then I took a gun from that dead girl's right boot and shot the third girl. All this took place in only a few moments. I don't know where this violence comes from. It's pretty sickening.

After I conquered the threat, I went to make sure the important couple was alright. They were fine, until about an hour (in dream time) passed by, when hundreds of government officers burst through the already-broken front door and took everyone in the house into their custody.

We were brought to a judge, who was seating in a small, but tall room that sat directly above the giant underground prison (the one that held 1/4 of American prisoners). There was a very quick trial (which primarily consisted of the judge yelling at the couple). After a few minutes, they were shot down a tube into their separate cells. I, however, was not imprisoned immediately. I actually began chatting with the guards, already getting on their good side, before I was even taken in (I was, of course, playing them).

I was allowed to go free, so I went to an Old Country Buffet. However, right when I was about to get a slice of ham, I was taken down by two government officers. The next thing I knew I was in jail.

Time then passed by in a strange way. The next thing I remember, I had already befriended the warden of the prison, and he let me do pretty much whatever I wanted. He had heard of me when he read an article in an entertainment magazine that had me listed as one of the most memorable characters ever seen on film. I apparently was a very violent character in a documentary-style film directed by Greg Beck, a film which the warden loved. I took advantage of that very quickly.

One instance I remember very well was when I was up in the 'box' (the warden's office) with the warden as he made all the rest of the prisoner's poop on the floor, pee on their feces, then carry the spoiled feces to a large pile in the middle of the prison, where they were then forced to all climb atop of. It was absolutely disgusting, and, while I was glad I didn't have to take part in the torture, I was also ashamed that I had gotten out of the punishment while all the other prisoners had not. It was then that I realized that all the prisoners were out of their cells, with only a couple loose chains weighing them down, but we definitely outnumbered the guards. I quickly grabbed the microphone in the warden's 'box' and directed the prisoner's to riot, and riot they did. It wasn't long before we, using the ammunition in the prison, blew a hole in the wall of the prison and escaped, losing not a single prisoner in the process.

I ran out into the daylight, and it hurt my eyes.

Then I awoke.

Dream #297 (December 21, 2010)

Right when I laid in my bed to go to sleep, I remembered last night's dream all at once.

The first part took place outside my neighbor's house (though the house in the dream seemed to be made almost entirely out of glass). There was three feet of snow on the ground, approximately, and I was in the front yard trying to shovel my way through it. It was dark outside, but the snow reflected the moonlight well.

After I started making my way to the road, I realized that I could make a really cool snow maze, and that is what I did. It weaved here and there, and making it was much easier in the dream that it would be in real life. After a short while, I had a pretty cool maze. I ran inside my neighbors' house to tell the guests there (not only were the Ferch's there, but my little brother and several other teenagers were there as well). They all came out and did the maze, having a good time. Once everyone made it through, we proceeded to build snow men, dozens of them, all about the yard.

Then I switched to another dream.

I entered a large store (the roof must have been fifty feet high) with Kevin Chupp and Neil Silveus (a couple of friends of mine from Bethel College). I was accompanying them as they shopped for things to fill their new apartment with. Neil kept grabbing random items, such as wooden spoons, five gallon bowls, cookies, red plates, blue cups, and more. I took them to the cereal aisle to see what they had, but only found two kinds: Fruit Loops and Frosted Flakes. I didn't understand how such a large store could have such a small collection of cereal. However, when we turned the corner, I found much more cereal, with some kinds I can't even remember because they don't exist.

After the cereal spree, Neil decided that he wanted a green bowl from the top of one of the forty-foot tall shelves. I climbed the shelf for him, wondering if it was completely necessary, and retrieved the bowl. Then we headed to the part of the store where the ceiling was more normal and witnessed an old lady stealing watches. She would grab them from the display and put them in the inner pockets of her cloak.

Then I awoke.

Dream #296 (December 20, 2010)

This was different than usual.

In the first part of the dream, I was there, but not actually present. I was some sort of vapor that could only witness what was happening without actually taking part.

I was with Scooby-Do and Shaggy, and we were trying to reach a giant green and blue mansion that sat on the top of a small mountain. We snuck around the front gate (though they didn't know I was there) and into the front yard. To get over the gate, Shaggy jumped off of Scooby's back, then stood at the top and pulled the great dane up to his level. I just kind of hovered over the fence.

Then we reached a manmade waterfall that we had to climb. Scooby began his ascent, but kept slipping, in a very cartoony way, on the fake stones in the waterfall. I kept trying to help him, but because of my vapor-ness, I was unable to do anything. And Shaggy was of no help, for he was standing about thirty feet away, looking all around him for no apparent reason.

Then I switched over to a different dream.

I was in a large gymnasium with the high school boys' basketball team that I played with years ago. For some reason, though, I was just their manager. I was filling up water bottles and collecting loose basketballs that wandered off during their warm-ups.

For one reason or another, the team, after having one the state championship, was scheduled to play the state champion girls team of that year (which, in real life, was the girls' team from the same school, but no in the dream). I had been wondering why all the balls were the size used for girls basketball.

After the warm-ups were over, I went to the concession stand and bought some nachos and cheese, which made the coach angry. But instead of scolding me, he told me to put a jersey on.

I followed his order and joined the basketball team in the locker room. We came out ready to play some ball, and when the game started we, as expected, dominated. I even got to play a little bit (which was a rare occurrence in high school).

I awoke somewhere in the midst of the game.

Dream #295 (December 18, 2010)

This was great fun.

I dreamt that I was living in the suburbs. It was a bright sunny day, and I was walking down the street passing all the houses that all looked, for the most part, the same. I knocked on the door of a house in a culdesac and one of my former campers answered the door (his name is Drew). I talked with him for a while to see how he was doing.

When we finished I walked back from where I had come. When I arrived at my parent's home (it was not my home in the dream), a man came running toward me from the shed behind my house. When he got close enough, he informed me the the house-blimp that my friends were on was in need of my assistance, but it had already taken off and was a mile into the air.

I had to come up with a way to help them, so I got my little brother out of the house and told him to follow me to the shed. When we got there, we pulled out an old dune buggy that had helicopter parts attached to it, along with a big parachute. It was pretty rusty, but it would have to do. I spent the next several minutes trying to convince my brother to join me in saving the people aboard the blimp. He was very stubborn, but finally I broke him.

We had an insane and thrilling ride up to the blimp in our buggy/helicopter thing. Somehow we managed to pilot it right into the loading dock on the house-blimp. When we got on, I saw the problem with the engine and immediate fixed it with little effort.

After all problems were fixed, I decided to go parachuting with some of the members on board. Mike flew the buggy back to the ground while I and a Will Smith/Ben Smith combo, who was talking to the character Carl Winslow from Family Matter, (Ben Smith is a friend of mine; he was somehow mixed with the famous Will) strapped on some parachutes and jumped out of the plane.

It was an awesome fall, and both our parachutes worked. I don't think I need to ever go skydiving after the experience I had in my dream, for it was truly amazing.

When we landed, I decided I wanted to go again. So my brother flew me back up there in the buggy/helicopter and this time we both parachuted down. As I was falling, I heard my cell phone going off, playing the Eels' song "Railroad Man," which is my ringtone in real life. I wanted to answer it, but I could barely control my body.

Unfortunately I awoke before landing.

Dream #294 (December 17, 2010)

Another dream has come.

In the beginning of the dream, I was attending the funeral of Frank Harris, a friend of mine from high school who passed away a couple months ago. It was, like the funeral in real life, very sad. I saw many people whom I had not seen for a long time, and they were all watching a slideshow of Frank's short life.

Though I was present at the funeral, I was standing outside the room where it was being held, looking in the window. I was alone for a while until Mrs. Carver (a woman I have not seen for years, and the mother of a classmate of mine) came and greeted me, giving me a hug. As she said some words about Frank, a middle aged man came through the front doors of the building carrying a baby in his hands. He burst into the funeral ceremony and announced that the child was the son of Frank and that it was a blessing, for his memory would live on through the child.

I saw the baby boy. It looked like a normal baby except for the fact that his thumbs were larger than mine (which is funny, because Frank had some big thumbs as well, a characteristic I had forgotten about him until this dream).

Then I was awakened by Neil Silveus, who had just returned that night from the Dominican Republic.

I fell asleep again and dreamt that I was in a back alley with Sinbad the Sailor from Popeye and we were pushing a trailer-house in which my mom was giving birth. We pushed it through many streets, running stoplights and disturbing traffic, but we managed to make it to the hospital in time.

I'm pretty sure my mother can no longer bear children, but there was a baby nonetheless. However, the nurses kept the baby in a fish tank, and its skin looked very yellow. As I studied it curiously, Jason Suter walked in dressed in the garbs of a doctor and told me everything was perfectly normal. Then my mother walked up next to me wearing a Christmas sweater, not looking as if she had just given birth. I was a little concerned for my parents for the upcoming responsibilities they had.

Then I awoke.

Dream #293 (December 16, 2010)

I'm sorry I'm not blogging my dreams every day. I've been quite busy, and I haven't been around my computer for a while (this is my brother's laptop).

In this dream I signed up, while I was at Bethel, to be an assistant at a boys and girls club. I drove my old white Cutless Siera (the car I had my Freshman year at Bethel several years ago) to the great complex where it was to all take place. It was extremely snowy (there were several feet of snow on the roads even) and it was dark by the time I had arrived.

When I walked into the center, my old band director, Mr. Bertasso, was there leading a big game of basketball. He saw me and asked me to ref, so I pulled off my Woolen jacket and discovered that I was already wearing a ref shirt.

I finished out the game, then everybody began to leave. I walked out into the snowy, tungsten lit parking lot and discovered that my car was gone, so I began walking down the insanely busy highway (I actually chose to walk in the median) back toward my house. As I was walking, I met up with Josh Hartsell (who was my RA at Bethel). We talked as we walked back to Bethel.

Then I awoke.

Dream #292 (December 14, 2010)

This is a bit insane, but very interesting.

I was working for a large company with Kevin Chupps. We each had our own cubicle in a skyscraper, and we were in the future (I'm fairly certain of that). As we were filling out paperwork, a messenger came with a new job for the two of us, given to us by the big boss of the company (he was actually a giant). The job was to enter into an alternate universe and kill ten people, videotaping the murders as they take place (yes, I know this is sick).

Well, we could not say no to this boss, for he would probably destroy everyone we knew if we were to double-cross him. Furthermore, we were informed that we would not actually be killing anybody, for what we were doing would not actually be real. It was a bit confusing, but I still fest wrongly about it.

Anyway, we were sent into this cyber world where our bodies were transformed into pixels, then sent via computer into the alternate world.

Kevin and I were both armed with video cameras. The first person we killed by strangling. It wasn't as gruesome as I thought it would be, for the target was unsuspecting of an attack and was unable to fight back. I felt awful for the rest of the dream, however, for the weight of death was upon me.

Then we shot a few people, some in the chest and one in the head, and got some quality footage of the incidents. (How could I have been so cruel?)

Finally, we entered a log cabin to kill the last two people (I'm pretty sure the amount of people I remember killing don't add up to ten, so my brain must have skipped a couple, for which I am grateful). Unfortunately, though we were in an alternate reality, I knew the two people we were supposed to kill: Carrie Badertscher and Amber Kreider. They didn't quite look the same as they do in real life, but I could tell who they were supposed to be. I didn't want to go through with the slaughter, but I had become accustomed to the violence, and I was no longer as affected by it. Kevin and I both pulled out knives and attached them to the front of our video cameras as if they were bayonets. Then, with a howl and a great force, Kevin stabbed Amber in the face as I went to stab Carrie. At the last moment, however, I turned my knife from Carrie's face, for I couldn't go through with it. Instead I landed the knife in her side. At this point, Amber was dead, and Carrie was stunned so that she could not move or react. Fortunately I don't think she knew who I was in this alternate reality (which is a little sad, if you think about it), so there was no look on her face of a person being betrayed by a friend. However, I had mortally wounded her, so I decided to finish her off by stabbing her in the heart so that she would not suffer.

Then I awoke, disturbed more than ever by what goes on in my mind.

Dream #291 (December 3, 2010)

This is interesting.

I was staying at a campground with my little brother Mike and with Jeff Kreider (a former co-worker at Prairie Camp). There were several small and colorful cabins throughout the campground, and it looked like a comfortable and peaceful place to stay. Even so, we were the only people there.

As Jeff and Mike were making our cabin livable, I decided to walk outside. The moment I did so, I saw a bear swiftly approaching the cabin. I instantly receded back into the cabin and asked Mike and Jeff what we should do. Then Jeff handed me a bow and a bag full of arrows and told me to "put it to rest." I was shocked, for I know that Jeff loves animals, but I obeyed him.

I went back out side, with an arrow drawn and ready to fire. The bear retreated backward into a small red cabin. He back up all the way to the back wall. I was going to let it live when I heard a voice shout, "Kill it!" Then I decided to fire the first shot.

I hit the bear in the center of its nose, but the bear did not react much, other than looking forlorn. I fired another shot, this time hitting his neck. The bear just stared at me. I began to cry a bit as I fired a third arrow into the other side of the bear's neck. I didn't want to keep this going, but I heard Jeff yelling at me to put it out of its misery.

I was crying hard at this point, and I could barely look the bear in the face as I fired ten more arrows into its head. With that, the bear fell to its side, presumably dead. My eyes were soaking wet, so I wiped them off with my long green sleeve. Then I looked around me and noticed that there were hundreds of bears lying dead all over the campground, and each bear had dozens of arrows in its head. I was mortified.

With great sadness, so great that I could feel its weight on my back, I returned to the little green cabin Jeff, Mike, and I were staying in. Then, to my amazement, the bear I had killed was lying in Jeff's arms as Jeff nursed its wounds. I looked at Jeff angrily, wondering why he had pushed me so hard to kill the bear when he did not even want it dead in the first place. Then I noticed that the bear was wearing a diaper, and I knew Jeff had put it on him.

In a burst of anger i rushed out the back door of the cabin and looked at the great lake that was before me, surrounded by beautiful mountains.

Then I switched over to a different dream.

I was inside the Oregon-Davis Elementary School gymnasium, where a bunch of kids and college students were gathered. Everyone was playing basketball and everyone was wearing winter coats, hats, gloves, ect. It must have been cold in there.

I was standing behind the bleachers with Mike and Rachel Phipps. We were playing a game of 'pig,' and it was my turn. I tried to shoot a shot from behind the bleachers. I intentionally bounced a ball from the top of the bleachers and came very close to making it, hitting it off the back of the rim. Then it was Mike's turn. He did the same thing I did and missed it as well.

Then, for some reason, it was my turn again. I shot this shot with a mitten on my hand from out of bounds. I swished it, impressing both Mike and Rachel. Mike tried the shot and came close, but he missed that one as well.

Then we decided to leave the gym and head to Mike and Rachel's apartment. The place was very dark and remained that way for the rest of the dream. Rachel went into the kitchen to make us all a snack and Mike and I went into his bedroom. He wanted to show me a game he bought, but we didn't intend on playing it, for I had a long trip ahead of me. He pulled out a massive board that had 3D terrain. It was pretty awesome, and it glowed in the dark. I then said he was going to get the pieces of the game and that he would be back soon.

I sat on my knees and studied the board, observing the glowing green plateaus, the sparkling blue lakes, and the rough dark forests. The board must have been fifteen feet long and eight feet wide. I waited there for a long time, but Mike never returned. I decided that I should leave anyway, so I walked out of the room.

When I entered the hallway, I saw Mike curling a 40 pound dumbbell, listening to an iPod, not getting the game pieces. I thought that was strange of him, but continued on my way without saying anything to him.

I made a quick stop in the bathroom to wash the glow-in-the-dark substance off of my hands the went to the door. Rachel met me their with her plate of snacks that she prepared: saltine crackers with hot sauce. I gratefully took one, said goodbye, then walked out the door.

Then I awoke.

Dream #290 (December 2, 2010)

This is not nearly as interesting as the last several dreams, but there are some neat elements.

I was driving a car to Ohio with the intention of going to my friend Jason's house. The car is where the dream took place, but the people in the car, and the seat in which I was sitting, changed often.

To start with, I was driving. I was conversing with Jason Suter about what I want to do in life. As I was doing so, the conversation continued, but I was in the passenger seat and Jason was driving. When I finished, I was back in the driver's seat, and Joanna Suter (Jason's sister) responded to what I had just said, saying something about how difficult it is to see what is coming in life. I commented back something about not even knowing what the next second holds, and as I did so, I was again in the passenger seat while Joanna was driving. When I finished my statement, I was back to the driver's seat talking to Joanna, and this time Jason was in the back seat (which had been empty up until that point).

During this entire conversation, I didn't think anything of the odd shifts in space that were happening.

I soon awoke and realized that the dream was strange (Inception got it right as far as that goes).

I managed to fall back asleep.

I was in Koontz Lake Missionary Church. It was the middle of the night, and the only light in the whole place was an amber glow coming from the candles in the window (which are fake in reality, but were real in the dream; that's interesting) and the Christmas tree in the sanctuary.

There were a bunch of older people from Koontz Lake that I know, including Phil Bridges, Marsha Reese, and several others that I can't remember right now. Everyone was huddled together, trying to stay warm (the heat wasn't working apparently). Nobody seemed to care that I was wearing my pink snowsuit that I purchased at CHKD, which I wore for the short film "Chapter One: The Crustacheous Period" (which will be on YouTube soon).

I soon awoke from that dream.

Dream #289 (December 1, 2010)

Scary.

I began this dream with my little brother Mike and my friend Kyle Heffelfinger inside of a grocery store. We were looking at lettuce when we noticed that a lot of people around us were beginning to get clumsy, running into shelves and falling over too easily. One older man hit the ground very hard, so Kyle, Mike, and I walked over to see if he was alright.

The man began to shake and turn green. His skin started to rip, and green roots emerged from his blood. In front of our eyes, he turned into a celery-like zombie, and believe me, this was a grotesque sight to see. Then, almost causing me to wet myself, the celery zombie jumped to his feet, let out a bizarre squeal, then attempted to slice us with his sharp arms. We immediately began to run away.

As we ran out of the store, we noticed that almost everyone had turned into a celery zombie, and those who had not yet were being attacked by those who had.

We hopped into an old mini-van, and Kyle began to drive us away from the horror. When we got onto the street, there were celery zombies everywhere. To cut down on the number of zombies in the world, Kyle began intentionally hitting them head on with the van, causing them to break and fall to the ground. He had no mercy on these former humans, but we were in a time of fear and crisis. Unfortunately for us, the van broke down after a few miles.

Luckily we were in an area that had not yet been infected by the celery zombie virus, so we were able to take shelter in a restaurant, with the intention of warning the people in there.

As we walked in through the front door, I accidentally tripped on lip below my feet, causing me to fall to the ground. This legitimate clumsiness made Kyle and Mike believe that I was starting to lose control of myself as the people in the grocery store had, so they instantly ran away from me. I, however, had just tripped was not actually becoming a zombie, so I chased after them, pleading for them to wait for me. We all got so distracted with the chase that we didn't notice everybody in the entire restaurant turn into celery zombies. When Kyle and Mike finally realized that (which was after we ran through the whole restaurant), they entered a private conference room with no windows and only two doors, and bolted it shut behind them. I was left outside as hundreds of celery zombies were coming toward me.

I shouted and pleaded with them, begging for their mercy, but they had none. Finally, with all my might I busted through the door and showed them that I was not a zombie. While they finally accepted that fact, we realized that my determination had destroyed the only safe place near us, and we were totally exposed to the oncoming mass of zombies. Then we decided that we were going to fight through them to get to the exit.

We ran head on into the massive group of zombies, punching them in their faces, kicking them in their stomaches, and tripping them up. We were so agile that we made it to the exit unharmed.

Then my dream flashed forward and Kyle, Mike, and I were helping a few other humans clean up the town. All the zombies had died, and only a few people remained.

Then I awoke.

Dream #288 (November 30, 2010)

Crazy.

I dreamt that I was flying to Japan (in a plane) to meet a filmmaker there who was going to take me on as his apprentice. I was very excited about this opportunity, so I was willing to leave all the things that were familiar to me (also, I love Japanese film).

When the plane landed, I got off and entered the airport, then hopped onto an escalator that led took me hundreds of feet into the air. To make matters worse, there were no rails on the escalator, which increased my chance of falling greatly. I looked about and noticed that I had entered a labyrinth of escalators and moving walkways, all hundreds of feet above the ground, and all without rails or siding. I was even more nervous when I realized how crowded these escalators and walkways were. People were standing shoulder to shoulder, and I was baffled at how they were able to keep from falling to their deaths.

I had been riding around, holding my breath every time I had to move, for a long time when I realized I was hopelessly lost. Then help came. A young Japanese boy grabbed ahold of my arm and pulled me down, telling me he would show me where to go. I trusted the boy, and followed him through the crowds of people, across gaps in the walkways, and up and down escalators. He made me very nervous because he pushed his way through the crowds of people like he had the right, and I followed him, attempting to remain polite (strange rhyme there). I was given several very angry looks from the businessmen that I brushed against, but most of the people didn't seem to mind.

Finally, without dying or causing somebody else to fall to his death, we made it to the baggage claim. Then the boy asked me where I was going. I told him about the filmmaker, and he led me to his house, which was just a few blocks from the airport. Now, this part of Japan looked like a subdivision, but with Japanese style architecture.

When we arrived at the man's house, the little boy pulled me aside before I entered and informed me that it was Japanese custom to create an explosion to get somebody to get the homeowner to answer the door, and when he answered the door, it was also custom to tackle him to the ground, as a sort of respectful greeting. I listened to everything the boy said and took his words to heart.

I started out by blowing up the house across the street. That definitely got the attention of the filmmaker, for he came bursting out of his house to see what was going on. I knew I was doing well, going above and beyond what I was called to do, so I added some extra speed to my sprint right before tackling the old Japanese man, slamming him into the ground. I smiled at him as I rose to my feet, pleased with myself, until I saw the great frown on his face. I turned my head an saw the little boy laughing hysterically, then turned back to the filmmaker, who was pointing in the direction I had come from. Without saying a word, he told me to leave, and all my dreams of working with him were up in flames like the house across the street.

I walked all the way to the ocean by myself, looking down all the while. When I got there, the only people there were David, Carrie, and Stella Badertscher. They were getting ready to swim, and when David saw me, he handed me an extra swimming suit and told me to join him. I gratefully accepted it and was about to put it on when I received a phone call from my friend Jon Andrew Castleberry.

He informed me that he wanted to meet with me in the nearby Japanese city, so I told the Badertschers that I would return in a couple hours, before sunset, and I ran all the way to the city. When I got there, Jon Andrew was wearing his blue and red jumpsuit (that we used for a short goofy film I helped create with him and Dan Jeter) and standing in a small shack. Then two young wanna-be Samurai, wearing shiny black armor, approached us and challenged us to a game. They said that in this game, one person was allowed to move at a time, and on a person's tern, that person could only make one move. Jon Andrew went first by bringing up his fists in a defensive position. Then one of the Samurai, destroying the innocence of the game, pulled out an enormous Samurai sword and held it in the air. Frightened, I jumped backward as far as I could. In fact, I did this exact move for several turns as the Samurai made advances toward Jon Andrew.

At that moment, I realized that I was forcing my friend to fight the young Samurai off all by himself, so I started leaping forward, in an effort to protect him, but at that point I was already too far away from the action to do any good. Just as the Jon Andrew was about to be slain by the sword, he was saved by a large military parade going through the city, which distracted the two young Samurai (who wanted to be in the military) enough to allow us to escape the game.

Then I realized that the sun had been set for a long time, and I missed my opportunity to swim in the ocean.

Then I awoke.

Dream #287 (November 29, 2010)

This is far less intense than my most recent dreams. I kind of like the intense ones sometimes, but I needed a break.

In the dream I had recently moved to Virginia Beach to prepare for a three-month tour of the world that I was going to take with a bunch of missionaries. We planned on going to Portugal, Spain, South Africa, China, Brazil, and more. I was very nervous about this trip, for I did not really know what I was getting myself into. At the same time, I was very excited to acquire some new experiences and friendships.

Unfortunately, I did not get to visit these places in my dream, for I still had three weeks in Virginia Beach before taking off. The first thing I did was go disc golfing at the dunes in North Carolina (I've never actually been there). Interestingly enough, my brother Mike and Kyle and Kody Heffelfinger were all there. My dream skipped forward to hole 9, which was at the base of a very steep and very tall dune. I kept getting frustrated with it, as did those with me, for we were unable to throw the disc more than ten feet in the air, and it would slide back down every time. We didn't know how to finish the hole and thought it impossible until a couple of other guys came and, without any effort, launched the discs all the way to the top of the dune with one throw.

Then my dream skipped forward to another night. I was outside the Regent Communications Building, waiting for somebody to let me into the school. My friend Jon Ayee walked up to me and asked me if I wanted to help out with a film he was working on, and I said I definitely would.

We went inside and I was asked to mix the sound and hold the boom microphone (which is always what I'm asked to do). The film was being directed by Dan McCullum, and it was, of all things, a musical. It takes a lot for me to enjoy a musical, so I was not too excited about what I was going to be doing for the next several hours.

The lighting setup for the shot that was happening was very interesting. It involved some medical and dental lighting equipment that was being reflected off of many small mirrors. It was pretty cool.

We soon started the first take, and the lead actor began to sing. At first, I was annoyed, but eventually and strangely, the song grew on me and I began tapping my foot. Before I knew it, I was bobbing my head and enjoying the music coming from his mouth. Then Dan cut the take, claiming he needed to rearrange everything.

This meant that I had a long break, so I, for some reason, hid under the actor's chair. At the time, Jeff Kreider was sitting there, and I wanted to hide from him. He soon asked, "Where did Joe go?" and I laughed to myself. I snuck out from under the chair and ran to the bathroom, which had a monitor that allowed me to know when I would be needed. I pulled out a deck of cards and began playing solitaire.

Then I awoke.

Dream #286 (November 28, 2010)

Another war dream.

I was living in the Medieval, and a great battle was taking place. There were knights, both good and bad, scurrying about, slaying each other in the twilight of my dream. I was sneaking around dark alleys in the castle corridors, trying to avoid death and pain. I ran into a couple of enemies, but I managed to overtake them (but I had the mercy to let them live). I was very quick with my little short sword.

I was wearing baggy old clothes, and I knew that I was no knight. In fact, I was a peasant in the dream. The only reason I was fighting was because I was fond of the prince and princess (who were soon going to be in charge of the land in which I was living). In fact, this royal couple was a couple I know in real life: Mike and Rachel Phipps.

As I snuck around the deepest and darkest parts of the enormous castle/city, I ran into Princess Rachel. She was wearing a great white dress and gave off a glow so bright that I was forced to look at the ground when I encountered her.

She was glad to see me, for she could not find her Prince Michael, and she was alone. I told her that I would do my best to protect her, but I was not nearly as good a fighter as Mike (Prince Michael). In fact, I was more of a runner (I often fled battles because I was too reluctant to kill).

She and I ran swiftly through the dark corridors, with such silence that we were about to sneak by even the alert enemies. There was one time where I was forced to fight a man, who had thought it would be great to slay the princess of the great city. Luckily I put a stop to that, but at the cost of the other man's life, who was the first person I had ever killed. I stopped and thought about my actions, for too long.

Before I knew what was going on around me, I heard Rachel shout. I turned around and saw a large, armor-clad knight swinging a sword toward my chest. There was no time for me to dodge the blow, and he cut me across my un-armored chest, causing me to fall to the ground. The knight went to capture Rachel, but she had managed to disappear. I was glad for her, but I noticed that I had a pool of blood all around me. It was indeed my blood, and I knew that I was going to die.

I was alone in a dark place that was, to me, getting even darker. I began to fade when I saw the glow from Rachel's dress illuminate the area around me. She had risked her life and come out of hiding to be with me as I passed away. I smiled, laid my head back, and began to embrace for the death that was about to hit me.

However, I lasted longer than I anticipated. I was able to have one last conversation with Rachel. She asked me what it was like to enter death. It seems like the last thing you would want to talk to a dying man about, but I appreciated the question. I told her that it was terrifying, for I did not know what the 'other side' would be like. I had my faith, but I still had no idea where exactly I was going. I told her that I was, as I breathed my final breaths, able to comprehend more things about life than I had ever been able to comprehend while I was in the prime of my life.

At that point, I laid my head back and died.

Then I awoke.

Dream #285 (November 27, 2010)

Here is a dream about war.

I was in the heart of the United States in the future. War had torn the country apart, and it was a mess of broken down city buildings, smog, and rivers of tar that ran all through the streets. Dead bodies were piled on the side of roads, the government was corrupt, and people were used to living in fear.

I was with a small band of rebels, and I was teaching them about the government's military. I was telling them all about how they are quick to kill and slow to get to know situations. I then gave them a history lesson of how our nation began to decline, a history that started all the way back to when William Jennings Bryan was not elected as President of the United States, getting beat by Progressivism. I talked about war and about industrialism as if I were some great authority (well, in the dream I was, for I was a well-respected leader of a successful band of rebels). When I reached the end of the lecture, I picked up a gun from the hand of a dead man on the street. I began to say that the military men were so paranoid that if they saw me with a gun, they would kill me immediately without getting to know why I had the gun or if it was even a real gun at all. At that moment, as I showed my followers the gun, I was shot in the back.

I fell to the ground and knew that I was going to die. Even so, I still fought hard to remain alive. I had a great fear of death in my dream, and I was terrified. I began to shake, cry, and wail, but nobody would listen to me or care for me.

I went into darkness.

I soon woke up (in another dream) on top of a tall wooden watchtower. I stood up, knowing that I should be on the look-out for enemy troops. When I looked down at the vast field below me, my heart sank as I saw a military completely clothed in black, made up of demons, advancing quickly toward the tower. I turned around and saw that, behind me, there was another army. This army was made up of men and mystical creatures, and I was led by my own father. He was wearing a helmet with rams horns, and he had the most amazing armor. He was going against an extremely threatening force, yet he looked confident and calm.

Then I awoke.

Dream #284 (November 26, 2010)

This is very strange.

In my dream I was visiting Bethel College. I pulled up in a green car (I've never owned a green vehicle) and parked it on the street outside the main entrance (where cars are not allowed to park). As I walked by the fountain, I saw a very tall and loud evangelist, who was nicely dressed in a black suit, standing by the water, screaming out the word of God.

I walked by him, for I had come to meet up with Kevin. There were a large number of people in the area, most of which were having picnics (which is definitely not usual). As I walked past the evangelist, he began to shout at me, asking, "What is your name and why are you here?" I turned and noticed that Kevin was there to meet me. I didn't want to give this crazy dude my real information, so I made up a name and told him I was just exercising. Unfortunately, Kevin pointed out my lie and said, "That's not your name, Joe. Don't lie."

Then the evangelist walked up to me, with a strange confidence, then swiftly put his hand in the back of my pants and yanked out a fistful of butt hair (I know that is absolutely disgusting, but it is extremely interesting). He held it up and yelled, gaining the attention of all the people within earshot. "This is why you have come!"

Then I awoke.

Dream #283 (November 25, 2010)

I missed a few days, but here are a bunch in a row.

I was in a large field of grass waiting for my ride to come and pick me up. I was standing next to Kevin Chupp, and my friends Stan Marks and Joanna Suter were standing across the field from us. I then decided to create a game to pass the time. We would take turns throwing stones toward each other, and if the stone landed five feet away from the opponent or closer, the thrower would get to move around and the opponent would have to stay still in that spot. Now, in the beginning, we all had to stay still, but Stan soon landed a rock just inches from my right shoe, so he was free to move about.

Soon after that, we had all landed rocks close to other people. In the meantime, Stan had climbed up a tower to try and avoid being hit. However, his plan backfired when I landed a rock right beside him, pinning him up there for a long time. I was running free when I noticed that about twenty other people had joined the game; there were rocks flying everywhere. In a few moments, I was startled by a car that nearly hit me in the back. It screeched to a halt right beside me and the passenger window rolled down, revealing Joanna in the driver's seat. "They never said anything about cars."

She drove me to a rock pile that was a half mile down the road so we could load up. However, when we arrived, we were ambushed and pinned to a spot just a few feet from the pile while our opponents took off in Joanna's car.

Then I awoke.

Dream #282 (November 20, 2010)

Three in a row. I'm getting back into the groove.

I dreamed that I was in a small blue car in a large black parking lot with my whole immediate family. We barely fit in the car, but we managed. We were sitting in a parking space in the lot in front of a large unmarked building.

After sitting there for quite some time, my older brother Matt and I decided that we couldn't wait anymore and that we were going to go into the building. When we walked inside, all we could see were crazy colorful flashing lights and bodies gyrating all around. We soon left.

When we came back outside, it was suddenly dark (it was afternoon before). I ran to the car and discovered that my family was nowhere to be found. I looked back to tell Matt, but he was gone as well. Then I noticed a man in a suit with dark, long hair and a beard standing by me, with a bunch of body guards. He was looking right at me with a strange smile on his face.

He was soon distracted by a pregnant Native American woman who was shouting at the top of her lungs as she walked toward him.

Then I awoke.

Dream #281 (November 19, 2010)

Last night was a bit crazy.

During the first part of the dream, I dreamt through the Crucifixion. It was insane. There were close-up shots of Jesus being nailed to the cross, his crown of thorns, his hands, his feet, his face, and his dripping blood. It was intense, especially because there was no rest from the extreme close images I was seeing. It really effected me.

Then I switched over to a different dream.

I was in a pirate restaurant with Kyle and Kody Heffelfinger. When I say pirate restaurant, I mean that all the customers and the waiters were pirates by trade.

Our waiter came to our table and asked what we wanted to order. We all purchased some sort of crazy seafood platter and water, except for Kody, who ordered a glass of wine through Kyle (Kody is only 16 or so). We soon received our enormous plates of highly decorated food and enjoyed the meal. As we were about halfway done with the food, the bouncer came to our table and asked Kody for his ID. Kody retrieved it from his wallet and handed it to the big, scary man as if there were nothing wrong with it. When the bouncer read it, he handed it back, then immediately grabbed all of us and dragged us out of the restaurant.

I decided to then go home, where I met up with Daniel Jeter and my little brother Mike. We discussed what we were going to do the next morning (it was the middle of the night at the time), and came up with a crazy plan. We were going to search for a princess named Dolores, capture her, and take her to an island where she would show us the location of buried treasure.

As the sun was still on it's way to the sky, Dan, Mike, and I journeyed to a nearby school where we hijacked a big yellow school bus. None of us knew how to drive the thing, so we just decided that Dan would be the best option because he is the oldest of the three of us. As he started up the bus, we heard police sirens. Apparently somebody had spotted us, and we were trapped.

Luckily for us, the other busses were pulling out of the school at the time, which created an intense yellow blockade that prevented the cop cars from reaching where we were. Dan then slammed on the gas, running into the rear of the bus in front of us, smashing it up severely. After a few more slams, he managed to force an opening to the road, where we made a successful getaway, thanks in part to the unsolvable maze created by the busses after we pulled out.

At that point, we forgot all about capturing the princess and just drove to the sea. On the way there, Dan drove the bus over a then opening bridge and successfully made it to the other side. When we reached the water's edge, Dan decided that it would be best just to accelerate into the water with the bus, and that is what he did.

There was a loud and confusing impact and, moments later, I was several hundred feet from the shore, holding onto a hunk of floating seat and metal, drifting toward the island.

Then I awoke.

Dream #280 (November 18, 2010)

This was so strange.

In the first part of the dream, I was assembled into a small band of special forces, put together to stop a military uprising in a dark city. The other members of the team were Kevin Chupp, Mike (my brother), and several other people I didn't know. Mike, Kevin, and I went off on our own to take care of the city park. Kevin snagged a tank and drove that around with Mike. I wasn't sure what to do, until this odd feeling came on me. I started to sparkle a little bit, then I became as light as air, and before I fully realized what was happening, I was flying around above the trees.

As I flew high in the sky, I looked down upon the city park, searching for trouble. I soon found a bunch of hoodlums shooting fireballs at cars and destroying public property, while severely injuring many people. I immediately swooped down to confront the teenagers.

They were quite the violent bunch. One picked up a fire hydrant and threw it at me, causing water to burst from the ground. I dodged the hunk of metal and came back with a flying attack. Unfortunately, I was too light to cause any harm to him. Even so, he was still surprised at my ability to fly, so I was able to fly away from him before he could capture me.

At that moment, I noticed something strange about my left arm. Near my shoulder, the hair was much thicker and darker than it had been before. Furthermore, black rubber hoses were growing from my armpit, which really disturbed me. It didn't hurt at all physically, but it was very hard on me emotionally. I looked like a freak.

Then the hoodlums began taking advantage of my mutation. I would try to fly away, but the hoses had grown long enough that they could yank me back with them and pull me to the ground. They had fun throwing me around, slamming me into the asphalt road. After a couple of painful minutes, I was saved when Kevin and Mike showed up in the monstrous tank. They began absolutely destroying the destructive devices the teens were using. The hoodlums quickly fled the scene, for Mike and Kevin were displaying a great teamwork that appeared to be unstoppable (Mike on the guns, Kevin driving).

Just then, my dream jumped ahead to after the war. It was dark, and I was wearing torn clothing. I looked like a homeless man, and probably smelled like one as well. To make matters worse, I was dragging along the long, dark rubber hoses that were rooted somehow in my left armpit, and I walked very slowly.

After some wandering, I arrived at Carrie Badertscher's house. I entered through the sliding glass doors without knocking and wandered downstairs. It was dark down there, but I could just barely see Carrie and Amber sitting on a couch, lit only by the old black-and-white movie they were watching. I said hello to them in a deep voice that didn't seem like it belonged to me. However, neither of them reacted at all. I said it a little louder. Amber didn't even put down her popcorn. As I began to turn to walk away, Carrie, without turning her head from the television, said something to me something like, "Where have you been?" "Away," I mumbled, then turned and walked back up the stairs.

When I made it to the top, my friend Jon Andrew Castleberry was there waiting for me. He looked at my armpit for a very long time, which made me feel uncomfortable. However, after he finished studying it, he told me he could help me out. His hands began to glow, then he placed his left hand on my shoulder and, with his right hand, he grabbed the black rubber hoses. They began to smoke and squeal, and with a single pull, he managed to pull all of them out. My armpit immediately returned to normal. Jon Andrew was about to throw the hoses in the trash, but I asked him to hand them to me. I grabbed them, took them back into the basement, and with a great joy (it was like the first time I was happy for a long time), I showed the removed hoses to Carrie and Amber.

Then I switched to a different dream. Interestingly enough, the dream still involved Carrie and Amber. I was with them in a small circle of grass that was surrounded all around by brick walls. Stella was also there. This is sad, but Stella, in this dream, was twice her height, Caucasian, and extremely obese. I kept telling Carrie, "This cannot be Stella," but she told me, over and over, that it was. I tried to play with her, but she could not move due to her extreme weight. I did not see the same Stella in this girl, but her mother continued to tell me it was Stella. I did not want to believe it.

Then I switched to another dream, again involving Carrie. We were sitting on thrones in a great room, along with Amber, David, and Amy (all Prairie Camp employees). The Prairie Camp counseling staff was sitting below us and telling us some of the things they had learned from the orientation we had just given them. One of the guys began to explain back to me a game I had previously told him about involving dragons and such, and he did it well. Then Katie Zook talked about proper cooking methods in the kitchen, which is interesting, because they don't do the cooking. Then, another guy began to sing a song that I had written, but he had messed up one of the verses. I knew that I had never told him about the song, so I asked him where he had heard it. He told me that he had written it, which I knew was untrue.

Then I awoke.

Dream #279 (November 13, 2010)

I've become inconsistent, but I'm still dreaming.

Last night I found myself in a large carpeted classroom. There were no desks, just wooden tables set up in a strange design that wrapped around the room. There were primarily people close to my own age or older there (sometimes much older); however, they were all supposed to be in kindergarten, while I was their teacher for the day. It was weird.

I had three assistants all dressed in Pepto Bismol-colored scrubs: Allyssa Suter, Joanna Suter, Dori Walterhouse, and Anna Pulley (most of which are nursing students at Bethel). This made the classroom feel more like a nursing home.

After I finished going through the alphabet and explaining several letters (including a, g, r, and x), my assistants and I pulled out some styrofoam plates, metal cutlery, and colorful napkins and set them in front of all the students. Then we pulled out some huge, burnt turkeys and set them in the center of each individual table. The nurses then pulled out some mashed potatoes, gravy, and rice and served it to each person as I sat down to eat with the students.

When the nurses finished serving, they sat amongst the students and assisted them when they needed it. When we had finished the meal, I pulled out a huge pot full of yellow homemade ice cream. It looked so delicious, but I prevented myself from taking very much (I only dropped one little spoonful on my plate). However, when Joanna took the pot from me to serve the rest of the students, she gave them huge portions. I kind of wanted some more, so when she was done serving everyone (including the other nurses and herself), I went over to get some more.

Then I awoke.

Dream #278 (November 10, 2010)

A dream.

I was walking around in my beach house (I don't own a beach house in real life) that I had randomly inherited from an unknown relative. I was alone, exploring various cupboards, closets, and storage spaces to see what was there. It was a neat looking place, and the view of the ocean was awesome.

As I looked at the water in the twilight, I saw a fairly large boat pull up to the dock near my house. A woman walked walked out and looked as if she was inspecting my property (she had a clipboard and was sifting the sand through her fingers and running her hands along the foundation of my house). I continued to watch her until she finally reached the deck in the back of the house.

I went out to greet her and realized that she was Cate Blanchett. She informed me that she was touring around the beach, judging the houses along it for some huge beach house contest. Apparently my house was exceptional, for she was raving about every little thing she saw. She particularly enjoyed the plants that had somehow survived around the deck, even though I had not taken care of them. She even liked some of the run-down things about the house, for she said, "The run-down look is in."

After she gave me many more compliments, Cate left me there, alone again. I watched as her boat headed for the next dock down the shore. After a while, I decided to go into the kitchen and eat a bowl of cereal.

Then I awoke.

Dream #277 (November 4, 2010)

This was interesting. And long.

The first part of the dream started in the Koontz Lake church parking lot in the middle of the night. I pulled my car into it (my car was a blue car that resembled my friend Dan's car). At the time there was only one truck in the whole parking lot, but by the time I got out of my car, several other vehicles had parked there.

When I got out, I found that my father was asleep in the truck. I tapped on the window and woke him from his slumber. He then got out, and I noticed he was wearing a long brown robe. He led me to the front of the church where I was meant with a pulsing fear in my veins.

At the front of the church I saw two lions and two tigers. One lion and one tiger were sitting just to the left of the front door of the church, and the other two were prowling around. As my dad led me to them, I often hesitated in taking the next step. Then I saw that my little brother Michael (who was his young self from ten years ago) laying helpless next to the sitting felines.

I then understood why my dad was leading me there. As we slowly and calmly (we had an outward calmness that was merely a front) approached my brother, the prowling lion and tiger walked in front of us and prevented us from going any further. I looked up and saw Michael Kaser in the distance, running away from the scene. I also saw my grandfather standing behind me, watching his son and me as we tried to save my brother.

Then I lost all calmness and sprinted past the both lions and tigers and picked my brother up off the ground. Once I did so, all four great beasts began to chase me, but something told me that, though I was sprinting as fast as I could, the beasts were letting me get away, for they did not catch up to me.

I ran behind the church and saw a crazy sight. There were all kinds of mystical creatures there;the most prominent and memorable of them all was the a great white beast, standing 30 feet tall, with a lion-shaped body, great falcon-like wings, and a beaked face with fiery eyes. The beast struck me with such a fear that I immediately took shelter in the church by entering its side door.

When I did so, I entered a maze filled with more terrifying beasts. I scrambled through the maze, trying to find a safe place. After sprinting by many giant animals, I found a shallow basement, where I briefly found safety. After relaxing in there for a short while, my grandfather found me and led me out of it, claiming that it would not remain safe much long. He then took me to a locked room. He told me to take my brother into that room, but I did not trust him, for I heard a great amount of noise coming from the room, hearing footsteps that resembled those of the tiger I had seen earlier. However, my grandfather was persistent and, eventually, he pushed me into the room.

I fell into the room, afraid of what I would find. Then my grandfather closed the door behind me. I turned the light on and had a face-to-face encounter with a cat. Not a great cat, just a small house cat.

Then I switched over to a different dream altogether.

I was at Prairie Camp. I was rushing around trying to gather up all the children there, for it was time for them to go. I was more rushed than usual, for several large military vehicles (tanks and such) were driving onto the grounds from all directions.

Finally, all the kids had gone to the front entrance, where they were to be picked up by their parents. When I was getting ready to head over there, I saw my little brother with a game of Monopoly sitting on a picnic table in front of him. I joined him, because he needed someone to play with. I began to set up the game, with his help, when I discovered that much of the money was missing, along with some of the cards. I decided to go look for them, for I thought maybe I had used them for another game.

As I searched for the missing game elements on the camp playground, I remembered I needed to go help check the kids out. I ran over to the front entrance where a large storage trailer (the kind found on semi-trucks) was sitting. I crawled inside of it and was amazed at the amount of boxes there. I never found out what they held.

When I left the storage container, I found Carrie Badertscher (my boss) with her sister Kelly at a table set up for check-out. She was telling Kelly my dream that I had the night before (Dream #278), and they were both laughing at my misfortune in the dream.

Then I entered yet another dream.

I was with my little brother Mike and our neighbor Morgan. Somehow Morgan had gotten a large wad of white chewing gum stuck in her hair (which is a reverse of a real memory; Mike once stuck a wad of gum in my hair when we were little, and Morgan's mother removed it for me). Mike and I tried my best to scrape it out, but was unsuccessful. As we tried this, Nemo (my parents' cat) jumped up on Morgan's head and liked the gum right off. Unfortunately for her, the cat saliva had turned Morgan's hair into a greasy, sticky mess.

Then I awoke.

Dream #276 (November 3, 2010)

This is short, but hopefully it will be the start of many blogged dreams.

I dreamt that I was in the basement of my parents' house talking with Dan Jeter, Jon Andrew Castleberry, and Nathan Galvez (all friends from Regent University), and we were carrying on a conversation that had taken place that night right before I went to bed (my dreams aren't usually so literal).

It was a very boring conversation. Dan kept mentioning how much homework and studying he had to do, I kept mentioning how much I loved to do those things (I really did enjoy them while I was in school), and Nathan kept mentioning how I was a ridiculous person for saying those things.

I later found myself on a street in Valparaiso, Indiana with my little brother Mike. He and I were tossing a tennis ball back and forth to each other for a very long time. We eventually came upon an old schoolhouse, where I was to put on a concert with Phil Bridges (an elderly man from Koontz Lake, IN, who plays banjo; I actually did put on a concert with him in real life). I entered the place and found a bunch of folding chairs set up, but the only person there was Phil. I then realized that I hadn't actually told anybody that the show was going to take place, so I ran out into the community and shouted out the information about the concert everywhere I went.

Unfortunately, I didn't just run into the community as I was. For some reason, I thought that I was not dressed appropriately, so I went into a bathroom to change clothes. When I walked out of the bathroom and ran outside, I discovered that I had forgotten to put my nicer clothes on after taking my other clothes off (in essence, I was naked, except for the black suspenders I was somehow wearing).

For some reason, this did not stop me from entering people's homes and trying to get them to see me perform live music (I must have been short on time).

The crazy thing is that my advertising technique worked. When I returned to the old schoolhouse, it was packed with people. I was also still naked.

Then I awoke.

Dream #275 (October 25, 2010)

This is not quite as cool as my previous dream. Actually, its very short and lame. But, it is my birthday today, so there.

I dreamt that I was playing disc golf with many friends. I was in a beautifully green woods, and I had a great time.

On the seventeenth hole, I lost my disc in a bunch of bushes. As I searched for the disc for quite some time, I encouraged my friends to go on ahead of me, so they did.

After searching and searching, I still could not find it. Finally, the owner of the disc golf course, a short old bearded man wearing a flannel jacket and suspenders, along with his son, a tall man with black hair. They came and asked me about my life, and what I was doing in the area. I told them about my love for music. Then the owner's daughter walked out. She looked exactly as I have always envisioned Little Bo Peep. She walked into the bushes and, after only a matter of seconds, retrieved my disc. She handed it to me and without having to say a single word she returned home.

Then I woke up in a hospital. Mind you, this was still in the dream world. I looked about the dark room and got up out of my bed. I pulled my cart with the IV out the door and looked down the hallway. There was nobody there.

Then I awoke.

Dream #274 (October 24, 2010)

I'm back after a very busy week (every waking moment I was at work). This is a bit crazy.

I dreamt that I was in the middle of a large field with the rest of mankind. Even though the field was huge, there weren't nearly enough people to represent all of mankind, but that was all the people left after a world war.

Everyone was listening intently to the leader of mankind, who happened to be Darth Vader. His group of militants were wandering around the field, killing whomever they pleased. The militants were wearing blue and red bandanas around their heads, and their clothes were tattered, and primarily made of denim.

After staring at Darth Vader for a while, he stood up and commanded the militants to kill every single person not wearing a Darth Vader helmet. I looked around and noticed that many people had put on their helmets. I looked around me and realized that I had left my helmet at home. Then the militants began shooting people all over. I joined a large crowd of people trying to flee the field and find safety.

I ran though a woods as people all around me were being picked off by the militants, falling hard to the ground. There was so much death around me that I grew sick to my stomach. I finally made it to a nearby school, where militants were guarding the exterior and interior. There were so many people trying to run into it that I managed to sneak around the guards, who were preoccupied with murdering the others. I was one of a few who made it into the school hallways. I took the stealth approach, so I had to listen to men, women, and children scream, run, shout, and fall as I slowly tried to make it into a classroom.

I did successfully make it to my destination, where I found a large trash can where I hid. Luckily there was a bunch of confetti in it, so I was well hidden. I listened as some heavy footsteps walked in, around, and out of the classroom. I continued to wait there. After a short while, I heard someone run in. The next thing I knew, somebody jumped into the trash can right on top of me, not knowing I was there.

When I revealed myself, I found out that it was Kevin Chupp, who was also trying to hide. We hid there together for a short while, then decided to try to find our way out.

When we exited the classroom, we split up. I soon found a strange, purple door. When I entered through it, I jumped into the future.

The future looked very strange. I was in a green and yellow city full of smog and light pollution. Their were all kinds of crazy air rails zooming here and there. I then noticed that I was no longer in a regular human form; instead, I was a giant spirit, floating free in the atmosphere. I found a special chamber where I could compress my spirit back into a regular being.

When I first compressed myself, I turned into two large elephants, one green and one yellow. I, as the two elephants, ran around the city for a while to expel the excess energy I had. I then reentered the compression chamber and took regular human form again.

I decided to explore the city. I first wen into the backyard of a fancy house where a large, obnoxious party was taking place. The owner of the house was very drunk. As I approached him, I learned that he was formerly the Darth Vader that had caused so much death earlier in my dream. I went to find out what had happened to him when he fell into his swimming pool and drowned there without anybody seeming to notice.

Then I awoke.

Dream #273 (October 18, 2010)

This one is a little disturbing.

I don't date people except occasionally in my dreams. In this one, I was dating a young, blonde-haired gal, about my age, and I was visiting her parents' house, which was an enormous mansion. There were Tiger-skin chairs and couches, marble floors and columns, gigantic beds, and too many bathrooms that were almost blindingly shiny.

I went up to look at my girlfriend's bedroom (it's weird for me to say 'girlfriend') and saw her collection of stuffed animals that was far too large. As I sat down next to her to look at old photographs, her father walked in an informed us that we were cousins. That freaked me out, but that didn't seem to bother the female. She kept continuing on her flipping through the photo album as I scratched my head, confused about why I was still sitting beside her. Everything had change.

Well, everything did change right about then. I switched over to a different dream (after waking up for a few moments). I was attending a college with Kevin Chupp, Shawn Eastridge, and my little brother Mike. This was an undergraduate school, and was all in one building that was, in the dream, covered with snow. We all lived together in an apartment-style dorm room that was on the fifth floor of the building. In the building there were some crazy decorations. The hallways were mirror mazes, the elevators were designed with Batman comic strips, and the rooms had very high ceilings.

This was a very strange dream. I don't think I've had one quite like it because in this dream (which only happened over the course of an hour), I lived an entire week of school. I showed up late to class a couple times, I did homework, and turned in assignments. I don't really know how it all happened. I even had some classes more than once in the dream. I do remember locking myself out of my room once and having to find Shawn to let me in. I even remember walking from the dorm to the classroom building through the wind and the snow. Time must have just flown by. I can't explain it.

Eventually I awoke.

Dream #272 (October 17, 2010)

This was interesting.

I dreamt that I was in a small, dimly lit McDonald's. I was siting at a table, eating a Big Mac value meal, only because I received Monopoly pieces with the meal (I would have otherwise eaten off of the dollar menu). As I ate the enormous burger, I noticed that Norm Dial (the youth pastor at Koontz Lake) was an employee there. He had a large stack of metal which he began to unroll, revealing it to be a roller coaster track, which he then set up in the restaurant. He also had a small roller coaster car ready, and he set that on the track and began speeding around the customers, screaming hardcore music into a microphone that he was holding.

After a few minutes of that nonsense, the manager came out of his office and called Norm into it. Everyone stood and stared at the door as they waited to find out how much trouble Norm got into, but when he walked out, he had a big smile on his face, as did the manager. Apparently he had been praised and promoted to an advertising associate. Good for him.

I had been in the McDonald's so long that it was about suppertime. I didn't really want to eat a Mc-anything at the time, but I had to get some more Monopoly pieces (I'm not this obsessed in real life). I ordered another value menu item, then even dug around in the trash for some more pieces. I then discovered that the pieces had codes that had to be redeemed online after filling out a bunch of personal information. I was angry.

Soon after that discovery, Alik Hall walked in, and I dined with him.

When we finished eating, I finally exited the McDonald's and walked out into Prairie Camp, where Bethel College was hosting an enormous game of capture the flag. Ashley Miller's younger sister (Ashley was my classmate a few years ago) was running with the flag when suddenly my little brother Mike jumped up from behind a set of bleachers and knocked her over with a mini basketball, taking the flag from her in the process. I tried to run closer to the action, but I was very slow because I had eaten so much McDonald's food.

Then I awoke.

Dream #271 (October 7, 2010)

I've been horrible at keeping up to date with my dreams, but I'm trying to get back on track.

This one was interesting, but I'll keep it brief, for it took place a while ago.

I was with Prairie Camp at Potato Creek, and there was a large picnic taking place there. I was grilling hot dogs when Carrie Badertscher walked up to me and asked me to prepare the bouncy games (inflatable games) over in a nearby field. She sent me in the camp truck, with a female counselor that doesn't exist in real life, and I took off.

The girl, who was about my age, had brown hair, and was wearing a green sweatshirt, was very talkative. She told me about all kinds of things going on with her dorm, but I had to concentrate on my driving, so I was unable to really listen to her.

After several minutes of her talking, she decided to ask me to be her boyfriend (she didn't word it much better than that), and I was taken aback. I didn't really like this girl enough to date her, but I was trapped. I didn't want to make the rest of the car ride and set-up time awkward, so I told her I would date her, thinking I could always break up with her after camp.

Then I awoke. The last thing I remember is a feeling similar to fear that made me dread the future relationship.

Dream #270 (September 30, 2010)

The last day of September, 2010. I did dream, but it was disappointing for the last dream of September.

I dreamt that I worked in a library. I spent the entire dream either sitting behind a desk, sorting out the card catalog, or returning books to their proper place. Throughout the whole dream, only a couple people entered the library (and this was only to quickly return books).

I eventually awoke. Hopefully the first dream of October will be more interesting, though I may not be able to post it until October 2.

Dream #269 (September 29, 2010)

Another dream, somehow.

I dreamt that I was spending the night in a gymnasium with a bunch of guys. I don't recall knowing most of them, but there was one individual I did know, and that was Justin Egger (an old classmate of mine). In the middle of the night, as I was tossing around in my sleeping bag trying to fall asleep (which took up a large portion of the dream), Justin got up and began to magically write prophesies all over the walls of the gym. The prophecies had to do with the deaths of people in the gym and with primarily negative major events. It was weird.

I watched Justin do this for quite some time until, with the warning of a shiver in my spine, two ghosts entered the gym and flew him through the roof. When this happened, everyone else in the gym woke up and began examining the walls. Apparently I was the only one who had witnessed the event. Even so, people believed every word I told them.

After I explained what had happened, everyone gathered their sleeping bags, pillows, and blankets and piled them on the baseline of the basketball court.

Then I awoke. That was a pretty strange dream.

Dream #268 (September 28, 2010)

This was actually kind of fun, though it was school.

I dreamt that I went to a new film school with Kevin Chupp and Chuck Zook. It was not a graduate school, and I was going there just to get the few credits I needed to get my diploma (which, in real life, I already have). It was really late in the night, and I was in the dorm room with Chuck and Kevin. I was wanting to go to sleep just in case I had morning classes (the schedule was not yet released, and I had classes the next day), but I kept thinking of thing I needed done (I had homework even though I did not have any classes yet). I specifically remember a purple notebook that had my transcripts in it, for it was the only thing with saturated color in my dream.

It was five in the morning, and I still hadn't fallen asleep. I then opened up my email and saw that my schedule was emailed to me. I printed it out and looked at it. I was blown away when I read the my English class had already passed, for it was scheduled for 3:00 a.m. I didn't care much, for I knew I was going to drop that class (I already had all of my English credits) I then woke Kevin up and, together, we grabbed our backpacks and headed to a film class.

This class was strange right off the bat, for it met at a small house in a little town outside of the city (we were in Chicago, I believe). When we arrived, we discovered that we were the only ones who showed up and that a middle-aged couple taught the class together. The husband teacher was going over the syllabus with Kevin and me, and I was learning that he was a bit crazy. He would grade things that had nothing to do with the class. In fact, he gave me an 'A' for the day because I brought a telescope to class (he used it to help explain how lenses work). He also gave me an 'A' for playing the living room piano while he went to the bathroom during class.

When that class was almost over, a bunch of people walked in, two of which I knew from Regent University (Dan Ostrem and Andy Didway). The professor decided that he was going to teach a whole different class since more people were there, so I ended up staying for another hour. He talked about baseball bats for about half of that time, for Dan had brought one with him, then went over some of the cinematography discussed in the book for the rest of the time).

When the class was over, Kevin and I started walking back to the dorm. On our way, we had to cross a busy street. When we thought it was safe, we started crossing, only to both get swiped by an old green car.

Then I awoke. This dream made me want to go to graduate school for some reason.

Dream #268 (September 24, 2010)

This was pretty gross.

I dreamt that I was in a hospital/hotel with a few other guys and Carrie and Stella (Carrie's daughter) Badertscher. We were all there (except for Carrie and Stella) because we had to get our chests removed and replaced with a hard plastic/metal chest with a special liquid that would keep us alive. For some reason, the power went out right before our operation, so the doctors would not save us.

We all sat in the dark room, waiting for our lung diseases to kill us. Then, out of nowhere Stella (who is not yet two years old) began to take the replacement chests and prepare them for the procedure. I was curious, so I approached her. When I did so, she pulled out a battery-operated saw and cut into my chest. I did not pass out, but I felt very little pain. I watched as Stella took my old chest out and put my new chest in. She then sucked out the special yellow liquid from its storage container (which the rest of us did not think possible to obtain), and she spat it into its designated tube in my new chest. She closed me back up and I was fine.

I learned how to do the operation from Stella, so I successfully performed it on the other guys. When we were done, we walked outside of the hospital/hotel only to discover that the city had been bombed turned into a desert while we were in the hospital.

Then I awoke.

Dream #267 (September 23, 2010)

This will be short, but funny (to those who know Kyle Heffelfinger).

I walked into a McDonald's in the middle of a small city. For some reason that I didn't figure out until later, the Mac D's was decorated in blue and white. Even the arches were baby blue. That was the main reason that I went into it in the first place (that and I was craving a Mc Chic and a Double Chi).

When I went up to the cash register, I realized that the decorations were for a wedding. I turned to a stage on the right-hand side of the cashier and saw Kyle Heffelfinger getting married to a woman I had never met. I then watched the rest of the wedding, interested in who this woman was.

When Kyle saw me afterward (the reception was right there in the McDon's [how convenient]) and apologized for not inviting me.

Then I awoke.

Dream #266 (September 22, 2010)

This was pretty crazy and in many parts.

The first part of my dream took place at a giant church on the base of a jungle mountain. A wedding has just finished, and I was walking with some of my friends (all of which don't exist) in the parking lot. There I ran into my former editing professor (David Garcia). It was then I realized that I was watching a movie, but not really watching a movie (it was strange, for I knew something wasn't quite real, but I didn't know I was dreaming). Mr. Garcia, for one reason or another, was not acting like himself. In fact, he was acting as if he were mentally handicapped. Furthermore, he made the impression on us that he was related to some famous people.

As my friends laughed at him, I realized that he was trying to be a more lovable character than he really was. At one point he mentioned that Patrick Swayze was his cousin (in my dream, Patrick was still alive). He talked about him as if he had known him forever, but I could see past his lies.

Then I switched over to a different scene, which was only mentally connected with the other dream. I was standing atop an escalator, looking at the rotating glass door at the bottom. Then tons of the same person walked in and began ascending the escalator. Now, all these people were various versions of one man. Some were short, some were tall, some were skinny, and some were fat, but they all had the same face.

After a couple minutes of witnessing this phenomenon, I ran out the glass rotating door, then came back in. When I did so, the entire interior of the building had changed, and I was in the middle of a casino. I then began putting on a sort of show, throwing playing cards (that were stored in my pockets) all over the building. I once threw a whole deck of cards at a pool table, and the cards divided and landed in all six of the holes.

Then I entered a different dream. I was in a dark basement with Amber Kreider, David and Carrie Badertscher, Lucy, and Stella (their very young children). I thought that I was playing with Stella (I was chasing her around the room), but I soon realized the baby I was playing with the wrong baby because Lucy was crying when I tried to play with her instead of laughing.

Then I entered another dream. In this dream, I was in the top story of an academic center at a college. The lighting was dim and reddish. I was playing a game where people had to look at a painting on the wall and pick out which objects were not originally there (it was actually very difficult). Jessica Smith was currently taking her turn. In the scenic painting, she chose a rainbow as a false object, but she guessed wrongly, for the rainbow was originally there.

Then I awoke. I apologize if this post was not as together as usual.