Dream #368 (March 31, 2011)

The last dream of March. You may not know this from all the dreams I've been having, but I've been getting very little sleep as of late. It takes me hours to fall asleep these days. Yet my dreams remain.

I dreamt that I was in a park pavilion, which was about a quarter-mile from the ocean and not far from the city, with David Badertscher, Mike and Rachel Phipps, and my brother Mike Baughman (all co-workers at Prairie Camp). David was quizzing us over the Bible, flipping to random pages in the enormous book and asking us questions about the verses he read to himself, expecting us to know the answers. We were all having a rough time answering correctly.

Suddenly a larger-than-life bus pulled up next to us and dropped off a bunch of campers. There were hundred of kids, and many camp counselors were accompanying them (including Jacob Bartlette). We began to prepare for a picnic.

Suddenly, the weather turned bad. Unfortunately, the bus had already left, so we were stranded.

The wind began to punch us and the rain started soaking everything open to it. The pavilion was no use, for the wind pushed the rain right through it. The area began to flood. Soon enough, hail began to drop from the sky. The kids all huddled together. Mike was over on the other side of them with David, and they were all under an overhang, so they were partially sheltered.

Rachel and I were in the pavilion. I began to shield Rachel from the hail for I didn't mind the pain as much as her. However, she began to freak out and, though I tried to calm her down, she took off and began running out toward a fence that was between the park and the road.

I chased her, trying to get her to come to her senses, but she climbed the fence, hopped down, and began running to the ocean. I warned her that we were on the highest ground in the area, and that she risked drowning. Then Mike Phipps also leapt over the fence and joined his wife in a panic. Because of their example, all of the kids and counselors began to run. David, Mike, and I tried stopping them, for I wanted to keep them together on the high ground, but it was no use. Some kids ran with Rachel and Mike toward the ocean, and other kids ran with Jacob Bartlette toward the city (probably a better idea, but still a bit foolish).

Then a rush of water swept down the road causing the kids to disappear from our sight. There were large vehicles floating down the water, out of control, and I feared for the kids' lives. Suddenly, David pulled up in his old Jeep minivan and picked up Mike and I.

We were unable to drive toward the kids, so we were forced to head back to our camp, which was only about a mile away, to regroup.

By then, it was late in the night. I told David that I would take a quick nap so that I would have the energy to swim in search of the children. I went into my little room in a large cabin and fell asleep. Twenty minutes later, I awoke, and decided to go search for the kids. I met up with David, who was just coming back from looking for them. He told me that he would accompany me anyway. As we were putting on our large boots (I believe they're called floaters or something like that), I saw an angry-looking old man peering at us through a small window in the cabin door. I warned David of his presence.

When we got outside, the man startled us and told us to get in his van. We obeyed, for we didn't know what he was capable of. Once we got in, he lightened up and began chatting with us about how we could go about looking for the campers. He was actually a very pleasant guy, and very helpful. He joked around a lot, and he lightened the dark mood a bit, which gave us more energy.

We drove around looking for them until morning, with absolutely no sign of life.

The old man dropped us back off at the camp and told us he would keep his eyes open for any signs of them.

We were disheartened. Then I remembered that Mike was still asleep. I woke him up and told him that we couldn't find anyone.

Suddenly, I heard honking coming from outside the cabin. I ran outside to see its source: a big charter bus. Campers and counselors were walking out of it in a single file line, looking exhausted. I ran over to Jacob and asked him if everyone was there and if they were alright. He informed me that every camper and counselor were accounted for, and that they had found shelter in a nearby gas station, where a sympathetic owner allowed them to spend the night.

I was relieved. Then a thought came to my mind. Why didn't I just call Mike Phipps and ask him if he was alright? I have his number in my phone. It may not have worked, for his phone might have been ruined by the flood, but I didn't even try.

Then Carrie arrived and called a meeting with the core staff and the counselors. She asked us what we could have done differently to prevent this whole thing. I said that we should have all stuck together, and, though I sympathized with Rachel's fear, I suggest that the staff should have been more level-headed, for they set an example for the campers to follow. I also said that they should have stayed on the higher ground.

I was then immediately taken back to the point when the wind began to punch us back at the park. This time, all the counselors and campers followed me to a large white rock that we climbed up and rested on while the weather beat down upon us. The rocked protected us from the wind, hail, and rain, and we watched as the area about us flooded. I turned to the other staff and told them, "See, we should have stayed up on the higher ground."

Then I awoke.

Dream #367 (March 30, 2011)

This was violent.

I dreamt that I had two associates; one was a grizzly bear wearing a pinstripe suit, and the other was an oblong hula hoop with eyes floating above its head. We were teamed up against another man with two associates; the man was the evil drug guy from a 90s anti-drug video with a bunch of cartoon characters (viewable at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_AYvYZB1rLI), and his sidekicks were just a couple of strongmen.

We started out in the playground of Oregon-Davis Elementary School where we were fist fighting. I punched one of the brute opponents in the face about fifty times in a row without him hitting me, but nothing seemed to phase him. I was getting tired of hitting him.

The fight continued into a bar. The hula hoop guy was 'biting' (he didn't have teeth) the drug guy, but was doing no good. The bear threw a chair at the two brutes, knocking them to the ground. I then switched places with the hula hoop and took on the drug guy.

We were immediately transported to an ancient stone structure amidst a bunch of tourists. The structure was in the middle of a grassy field, and it was sunny and beautiful outside. The tourists seemed to ignore the crazy throwing of fists that was happening before their eyes.

I hit the drug guy in the face over and over and, like earlier, delivered no damage.

I eventually awoke.

Dream #366 (March 28, 2011)

This was odd.

I first dreamt that I was wandering around the figure 8 shape of Oregon-Davis High School. I made the complete 8 many times, but after one of the later ones I saw a chalk board on the wall with my name at the top left. Then, under my name, three women wrote their names under it, symbolizing that they were interested in me (I apologize if this is ridiculous and a bit arrogant).

Then I walked through a door and found myself at an indoor beach. There was sand and an ocean there, but there were four walls and a ceiling as well. Seth Bartlette (a talented event coordinator and youth worker I've worked with in the past) was speaking to a bunch of teenagers, trying to get them to laugh. He wasn't doing well, for the audience looked like vegetables. He asked if I could help get their attention. He suggested we sing a parody of a Justin Bieber song.

I don't actually know any Bieber tunes, and I told Seth that, so he looked up one on the internet and had me listen to it as I read the lyrics (all while the teens just stared blankly at us). I told him it would be difficult for me to remember everything about it after one listen, but I gave it a shot.

I ended up kind of making up my own melody and my own words, but it seemed to crack a few smiles among the teens. Then I saw the three women who had written their names under mine earlier. I apologized to them, saying that I wasn't interested in dating any one of them because of where I was in life, not because of who they were.

Then I switched over to a different dream.

I was Homer Simpson, though I didn't look anything like him. I was married to Marge, and I had two children, Bart and Lisa. We were a typical family, and the only resemblance we had to the cartoon family was our names (though Marge's hair was still blue). This dream wasn't a comedy, for in it I had recently sacrificed my family for a promotion at the nuclear power plant. I was working for Darth Vader (which is funny in retrospect, but wasn't at the time), and he made all of his higher-up employees wear Native American headdresses. Each time they did something good, they would earn a feather.

I was in Vader's office when I began to realize his corruption. I then decided to battle him.

My dream turned into a 2-D video game. I was on top of a castle with a starry background, and Vader was flying around in some sort of hovercraft. He had my family tied up in the bottom right corner of the screen and was shooting things out of his hovercraft down at me. I soon figured out that I could jump off of these things and eventually jump high enough that I could land on Vader's head, taking down some of his life points. He told me that I was only 1 feather away from reaching the greatest status anyone could have reached at work, but I didn't care. Then I saw a feather that had fallen from Vader's ship. I jumped off a hunk of junk he shot down at me, and hit the feather with my fist. I was immediately transformed into a super hero, and I could fly and shoot things out of my hands. I flew up to Vader's head and shot him off of his hovercraft. Bart, Lisa, and Marge all cheered me on from down below.

Then I awoke.

Dream #365 (March 27, 2011)

This is short.

I was up until 4 a.m. working on a stop-motion animation with Daniel Jeter and Jon Andrew Castleberry. For many hours in the night I dreamt that they were still working on the long and difficult shot without me. I kept telling them that we had finished and that we didn't need any more shots that night, but they wouldn't listen.

I eventually awoke, not very rested.

Dream #364 (March 26, 2011)

I'm sorry for being late.

I dreamt that I was going to visit my brother Matt Baughman in Washington. I was living in a small apartment that resembled my brother's old bedroom in the basement. I had ordered plane tickets from Southwest Airlines, and was preparing for my flight.

Then I got a call from my dad, and he informed me that I had misread the itinerary, and that my flight was in an hour and a half. I didn't know what to do, for I was flying out of Chicago, which was over 2 hours away from my place. I called my younger brother Mike and asked him if he had made it there on time, and if he did, to go on without me. He didn't answer.

A couple minutes later, the doorbell rang, and I found Mike at the door. Apparently he had misread the flight information and was also too late. We decided to head to the airport anyway to see if we could find some sort of flight out there.

It didn't take long to get there for being over 2 hours away. The lobby area, where we were asked to wait until somebody could assist us, was enormous. The ceiling must have been seventy feet tall, and there were all kinds of high ropes (zip line, rock climbing, a huge net people were climbing on) and inflatable games inside. All of the people there were junior high and high school students that I recognized from substitute teaching at Oregon-Davis Jr./Sr. High School.

Mike and I waited on a bomb shelter that looked exactly like the one that was in my backyard when I was very young. Finally, an airport employee told us we had a flight.

We were immediately with my brother in Washington, though his house and yard was nearly identical to my parents' house. Mike, Matt, Brittany (Matt's wife), and I were eating dinner rolls when I heard a knock on the window. I went outside and saw a teenager with a bow drawn, aiming the arrow right at me. I dove out of the way just in time as the arrow flew over my back.

I sprinted into the woods for safety, for I figured the trees would be on my side. I found a good shelter from incoming arrows behind a big woodpile. The angry teen kept shouting at me, saying he was going to kill me. Then I decided I needed to strike back. I leapt over the woodpile after an arrow was fired and marched over to the guy. I must have scared him, for he fumbled around with his next arrow and dropped it on the ground. When I reached him (he was standing on a long wooden bench among many benches), I punch him in the face, causing him to fall to the ground. My brothers and Brittany then decided to come out and see what was going on. I continued to punch the guy.

Then I awoke.

Dream #363 (March 25, 2011)

This dream is a bit insane.

I began the dream walking in an old city. The buildings weren't all that tall, but they were close together. I made my way to a strange house that was elevated about twenty feet above the ground by several concrete beams. After walking up the metal steps to the front door, I was greeted by an elderly couple and a young girl. The old man offered me some tea, and I accepted (though I don't like tea). As the elderly woman was fixing it up for me, a masked man came into the house, armed with a handgun, and kidnapped the little girl.

When he left, the telephone rang. I answered it, and a man told me to meet at the public library that evening.

I immediately left the home and appeared in the library.

As I walked about, I noticed that everybody there was acting oddly. Suddenly, Vinnie Jones (actor, from "In Bruges" and "Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels") walked in, carrying a gun. He announced on the loudspeaker that he was going to kill the man who kidnapped the little girl. Though I had nothing to do with the crime, I feared for my life.

Then I realized that everybody else was carrying handguns. I then began to stealthily creep about the library so as not to be seen. The only man that had spotted me was an employee of the library who had a cast on his left arm and a bandage on his stomach. As I snuck about, I heard several silenced gunshots and bodies falling to the ground. When I entered the study area, I saw a man point over to another man and shoot him in the chest. Then another man said, "This is ludicrous. Why is one guy making us kill each other?" He then was hit in the chest by several bullets.

Then I heard another voice on the loudspeaker, taunting Vinnie Jones. Just then, I ran into Vinnie. He handed me a gun and told me to watch my back. The voice continued talking on the loudspeaker. I began to crawl around again and I discovered that it was the library employee with the broken arm making all the commotion. He winked at me and signed for me to be quiet.

Then I decided to leave the library. I don't know why I stayed there so long. When I walked out of the front door, I entered an enormous metallic hallway that was fifty feet high and fifty feet wide. There was nobody else in the hallway. A bullet came from inside and hit me in the lower back. Though I was in great pain, I kept quiet so as not to attract attention from whomever had hit me. I began running down the metal hallway for several minutes, until I finally found a sign of life.

There was a treehouse with a rope ladder leading up to the front door. I climbed it up to the top, but found that it was locked. Then a woman walked up with some groceries, and when she noticed me with blood dripping from my back, she screamed. I told her that I meant no harm. She seemed a bit crazy, and she wore clothes that resembled those of a witch from a children's movie. After I told her that I just wanted to dress my wound, she finally told me where the secret key to the door was. I walked in and saw a cozy little bedroom with a kitchen to the left of it. It was a pretty neat place. I walked over to the sink and washed out my wound, then thanked the woman and left.

For some reason I went back to the library. I thought I should help find that little girl who had been kidnapped, I guess.

There I found Vinnie Jones and the library employee shooting at each other from across the library. The employee was holding the girl with his casted hand, and she looked quite frightened. Vinnie gave me a mean look, and he must have known that I had left him hanging all alone.

I then decided to sneak up on the employee from behind. Before I could help any, however, Vinnie had shot the criminal, and the girl was free. Then he vanished.

I made my way back to the tree house and used the secret key again. I startled the crazy woman there, and she told me that she regretted letting me in on her secret. Then I saw Jessica Smith there (Bethel friend). Apparently she was the crazy woman's roommate, and she explained the the woman that I could be trusted, which settled her down.

Then I switched to a different dream.

I was taking an advanced course on rocket launching in a giant space station.

Each student had their own supercomputer, which were about eight feet tall and six feet wide, with hundreds of crazy buttons, and each student had their own rocket launching pad.

Adam Pflugshaupt, Erin Rosander, Alik Hall (all former Oregon-Davis High School classmates), and Chris Curl (sound guy for Prairie Camp and formerly for Bethel College) were also students there. During lunch break, after I had finished reading a thick manual, I went over and talked to Adam about his rocket design. It was pretty awesome. We also at out of old school metal lunch boxes, which was neat.

When lunch was over, I went back and prepared to launch my first rocket.

Then I awoke.

Dream #362 (March 24, 2011)

Here's a dream.

I dreamt that I was at Prairie Camp late at night. I was hanging out in a long metal barn (that doesn't exist in real life) with my little brother Mike Baughman, Jeff Kreider, and Ben Smith. We were playing a card game called Bohnanza to pass the time as we waited for David Badertscher (who lives at camp) to return with a basketball so that we could play.

After several minutes, David returned, but he said all the basketballs were flat and there were no pumps. Jeff then tried to pump up a ball with a little pocket pump thing he had, but it didn't work. Then Ben said he had to go home, and he left. Jeff left soon afterwards.

David then invited Mike and I to accompany him to his house for a meal. We accepted his invitation. When we got there, the house was completely dark.

Then I jumped to another camp dream.

I was a counselor in charge of a bunch of kids at a water park. One of my campers was Aaron Cavinder (an adolescent fellow I know from Koontz Lake and from Prairie Camp). He was having a great time, except for the fact that his older brother (who, in real life, is Josh Cavinder, but in my dream was Nathan Rasbaugh) was also a counselor, which caused many problems. Nathan was constantly nagging Aaron and abusing him. When we were on top of a water slide, Nathan tripped Aaron as he went down, causing him to go head first. I then pulled Nathan aside and told him that he needed to set a better example for his campers, and that his attention shouldn't be focused on his brother anyway. He didn't seem to be listening to me wholeheartedly (Nathan is a good guy in real life, by the way, nothing like this).

After I went down the water slide, I accompanied my campers to a weird circular metal pavilion that resembled a cage in a way (for those who know Prairie Camp, it looked like that weird yellow tower in the playground). Night had fallen quickly, and we were setting up our sleeping bags to sleep on the concrete there. Then Nathan ran up to Aaron and kicked him, causing him to fall to the ground. He looked like he was in great pain, and he began to cry. Nathan said, "Stop faking," to which Aaron responded, "I'm not!"

I told Nathan to leave and I walked over to Aaron and saw a pool of blood underneath him.

Then I awoke.

Dream #361 (March 23, 2011)

A dream with famous people.

In the first part of the dream, I was setting up for a concert in a large barn in Knox, Indiana. I had created videos, light displays, and pyrotechnics for this performance. The performer was Mark Oliver Everett (also known as simply 'E') of a band known as Eels. I love that guy, so I was very excited for the opportunity (though I wasn't sure why he wanted to perform in Knox).

In the barn I had set up a couple hundred folding chairs near the stage, and there were concessions in the back. Brandon Kercher and I were on opposite sides of the barn, each manning a large studio camera.

Finally, E came in carrying a baby blue electric guitar and an acoustic. He climbed onstage and began playing one of the funnest shows I've seen to date. I must say, my videos and light show were superb.

When E had finished his set, the crowd began to cheer loudly, for they wanted an encore. E was ready to leave, but he decided to appease them. Before going back up to the stage with his acoustic guitar, he asked me if i wanted to play along with him on the piano. I asked him what song he was playing, and all he told me was that it was in the key of D.

He began strumming and I began plucking the keys along to the tune.

Then I kind of stayed in that dream, but entered a different one.

Instead of E playing a concert at the barn in Knox, the show "The Office" was shooting an episode there. In the storyline, Michael Scott had taken his employees to a concert that was really loud. He had met a film director there who was looking for actors for a new film of his; Michael wanted to impress him, so he pretended to have turned def after the concert. It was very goofy, and I though it was a pretty dumb episode myself.

Later on, Michael Scott returned, with his employees, to the office. There he continued to act def, to the annoyance of everyone else. Then, randomly, he found the love of his life (an older woman with red hair) and began doing things to impress her, while still acting def. (This part of the dream doesn't make much sense at all, in case you haven't noticed).

Then the whole crew from the office went to a football game and ended up, somehow, on the field playing.

Then my point of view switched back to my own. I was standing in a restaurant/bar watching the episode on a small television there. There were tons of commercial breaks, and one commercial that kept playing over and over was one that said, "If you spot what color the balloon is that plays in the third setting of this commercial, you will be credited as the cinematographer for this episode of The Office." That was ludicrous. Jacob Bartlette (a friend of mine) was standing next to me, making fun of how strange that reward was.

Then I walked over to the restaurant part of the place and saw the episode playing on more small televisions in there. The place was crowded, and everyone was there to watch the show. I saw Brandon Johnston eating a Philly cheesesteak, and I wondered why he was there by himself.

Then I awoke.

Dream #360 (March 22, 2011)

I now have a complete circle of dreams. This one was very interesting to me.

The first dream that took place was set up in a strange way. It started out with my brother and I listening to a record that my dad had picked up from the library. We were in a dark purple room that was dimly lit and had two beds, a desk, and, of course, a record player. I began to play the record and was immediately taken away by the story.

When I entered this story, I had no memory of the purple room, or of the 'fact' that this was only a story and not my real life. I had completely become the main character.

I was in a snowy woods in an unpopulated area in Alaska. I was with a fellow researcher, and we were studying the habits of a giant bird. This great brown creature was the last of its kind, that we knew of, so we were very excited to finally see it in its natural habitat.

I was communicating with my partner via radio when the absolute quiet of the forest was pierced by the shrill screech of the giant bird. A shadow was cast upon me from its great wingspan, and I beheld a sight that I will never forget. I was so pleased in that moment.

Moments later, my pleasure was taken away as the bird fell from the sky and crashed into a group of trees close by. I rushed over to see if it had survived, but it was dead. The creature looked very old, and I hypothesized that age was the cause of his death. I radioed my partner and informed him of the bad news. It was possible that I was the last person to see this creature alive, a thought which haunted me.

Then, out of the corner of me eye, I saw an egg resting in the wing of the great bird. I approached it and noticed that it was beginning to crack open. Soon enough, a tiny little bird, which resembled a penguin, emerged from the shell and began walking down the snowy path as if it knew where it was going.

I followed it a while, then decided to pick it up and study it. I radioed my partner and described it to him. It's dorsal feathers were black, while its ventral feathers were white, and it had a few yellow feathers around its golden beak. It was a lovely creature.

Then I jumped further along in the story. I was at a great ball that was taking place inside of a museum, where an array of my Alaskan discoveries, including photos and notes on the small penguin bird, were on display. I also had with my a woman, about my age, with me. I'm slightly unsure of her origins, but I believe she was a native from the area I was studying. She didn't look Alaskan, though, for she had fair skin and long blonde hair. To be honest, she was probably one of the most beautiful people I had ever seen (this, of course, is within the dream...maybe).

Anyway, she was with me, and I was teaching her about some of the customs of Americans (though I myself do not understand many of them). Somehow she was able to speak a fair amount of English, so she could ask question after question as we walked about the museum. I had a great time.

After we finished looking at the displays, we decided to visit the local theater, where a crazy production having to do with tall, lanky clowns was taking place. After we watched a little of it, the two of us were a bit estranged, so we climbed up to the balcony and sat by a fountain.

Then I awoke from my trance back in the purple room. The first side of the record had finished, and I needed to go flip it over. I wanted to take a break from it, so I left the room and went into a kitchen and asked my dad about the story (I really liked it and wanted to know more about it). He told me it was a fairly old story narrated by some congressman (I remembered his name this morning, I don't think he is a real person, but I have since forgotten it, so I'll never know for sure).

Then I switched over to another interesting dream.

I was at Bethel college (it was a much bigger campus in this dream with many more students), sitting in a lobby studying. I was having a tough time concentrating, for a girls' softball meeting was taking place at the same time. There were a bunch of strong guys there as well, watching the softball meeting, talking about their respective girlfriends.

I decided to pay attention to what was going on. I saw the head coach walk up to the front of the lobby. She pressed a button on a remote that was in her left hand (she had a mic in her right), and a crappy slideshow of the girls' softball season began to play. When it was over, the coach began to give out typical sports' awards (MVP, Most Improved, Hustle Award, ect.). I left the building before it was all over.

As I did so, I saw a package lying in the snow right outside the lobby. I walked over to it, picked it up, and was shocked at what I found inside. There was a bag of pills labeled "cocaine pills," an enveloped that read "dirty pictures of the CFO of Bethel College," and a note that read "to Stephanie." I knew that Stephanie was one of the softball players (she had dark black hair and very dark skin from too much tanning) (by the way, I don't really know this person; she was just in my head), and I decided to report this to the vice president, Dr. Dennis Engbrecht.

I began to head over to the academic building at Bethel, and on the way, I ran into my brother Matt Baughman. I told him about what I had found, and he joined me as I went to report it.

We walked into a building on campus (one that doesn't exist in real life) and, as we did so, noticed that Stephanie and another softball player (a 6'-5" beast with long blonde hair and a mean look on her face) were catching up to us.

Matt and I began to run up the stairs, all the way to the top. We discovered that the offices there were closed for the day, so we were forced to turn around, but blocking are path were Stephanie and her body guard. They were trying to tell us to give them the package. They were actually being nice about it, which surprised me, but we refused to submit to them. Then Matt kicked the tall girl in the stomach, and I shoved Stephanie aside, and we both rushed down the stairs, out the door, and over to the admissions building.

It was filled with a crowd of people, so we had to shove our way to the front so that we could speak to Dennis. When we presented what we had to him, he looked disappointed in us. He then walked with us back to the front door of the building and showed us a woman, whom he introduced as Stephanie's mom. He went on to tell us that she was mentally unstable and that she often would leave incriminating evidence on campus, trying to get her daughter kicked out of the college because she thought that would allow them to spend more time together.

Dennis then showed us the pills and pointed out that they were merely tylenol, not cocaine. He then opened the enveloped which supposedly contained dirty pictures of the CFO. There was nothing in there except a few plank pieces of paper. He asked us how we could have been fooled by such things, and we didn't have an answer for him.

There I parted with Matt and headed for my friend Kevin Chupp's dorm on campus (it's more like an apartment, I guess). On my way there, I noticed that a huge cult battle had begun, and people with huge snow plows were plowing great amounts of snow in front of other people's dorms, preventing them from getting out and getting food (this was a serious battle, not a game). I then saw that Kevin's place had been blocked off. I was very worried about him, so I tried thinking of some way I could help him.

Then I saw a powerful-looking four-wheeler (it resembled a tank) that had a snow plow on it. I hopped on and drove off, avoiding the rocks that the owners were throwing at me.

I diverted my path so that the owners wouldn't realize where I was going. When they were no longer on my tail, I drove over to Kevin's place and removed all the snow from in front of it. Then I thought to call him to see if he was alright. As it turns out, his dorm was emptied before the battle began, and he was sitting with my brother Mike Baughman in his dorm room in Oakwood (the Freshmen dorm at Bethel). I asked him if he wanted to go see a movie. He said he was busy at the moment, but he might be free later. Then he asked when I wanted to see it. I said, "Now."

Then I awoke. What night of dreams!

Dream #359 (March 21, 2011)

I apologize for missing a couple days. I remembered my dreams the day of, but I have since forgotten them.

In this dream I was with Bo Ennis working on a film project. We had two scenes that we needed to shoot; one was in the middle of a sunny green field (resembling a field at Potato Creek State Park in Indiana) and the other was in a dark wooden room with a window that looked out to the starry sky.

We set up the field scene first. We had about a dozen Muppets, including Kermit the Frog, Miss, Piggy, Animal, and Ralph, that we placed in a circle. Then we went over and set up the dark room, in which Nathan Galvez was playing Hamlet.

As I was setting up the second scene, Bo disappeared. When I finished, I drove back over to the grassy field and found Bo finishing up the shooting. I was a little angry that he had done it without me, but he told me to watch it first before judging him.

The scene was slightly funny, with some comic stunts performed by Kermit and Miss Piggy, but the overall quality was poor. I saw Bo's arms as he controlled the puppets on numerous occasions, and the framing of the shots needed some work.

However, we didn't end up shooting anything more. For some reason we were forced to use what Bo had shot as the final product, without any editing.

I was sad, so I walked back to the hotel I was staying at (the sky transitioned from blue to grey on the way). I went and sat at the back alley behind the restaurant within the hotel and watched the cooks occasionally emerge from the kitchen with large bags of scrap food. Then I saw Bo and his wife Amy walk into the restaurant together, looking quite ebullient.

It was then that I decided to take a ride on the rollers that rolled trays of the customer's uneaten food back into the kitchen.

Then I awoke.

Dream #358 (March 18, 2011)

Here is a crazy mashup of dreams that might be worth your time.

In the first part of the dream, I was working with Amber Kreider over the phone. I had her pick up a bunch of weird cheese things (they were like cheese puff, but they were large rectangular prisms). Every time I had her order one, I would also asked her to shave it down to a skinny stick of cheese puff, then send what she had made to me. I would instantly get what she made right after I asked for it.

Out of the skinny cheese puffs, I created a chair for the stop-motion puppet version of myself for the film I am working on. It was very frustrating, for the cheese things kept crumbling, and my fingertips were becoming dark orange.

Then I switched over to another dream.

In this dream, I was looking for a place to go camping. I had a car full of my camping gear, and I pulled into the only campground in the area. It was far too busy for my liking, but I needed a place to rest. I finally found a place to set up my tent. It happened to be right next to Terry Pucel's tent (a guy I know from Koontz Lake Missionary Church). He was having a wild marshmallow toast over on his site. If I had had more energy I would have joined him.

I decided to walk up to the front of the camp to the booth where they collected the camping fees. There I saw Peter Badertscher (my former youth pastor), whom I have not seen for a long time. I ran up to him, then realized I wasn't sure if I was supposed to hug him or shake his hand. I decided that he would probably want a hug (I myself am not much of a hugger), so I went in for one. He stopped me and said, "Brothers don't hug; they shake hands" (a mixed up line from "Tommy Boy").

Then we talked about the time we were sucked into Narnia together (which, of course, didn't happen in real life. I wish that could have been in the dream).

Then I went into yet another dream.

I was in a different world. I was in a horse pasture. The sky was dark green and cloudy. I was armed with a broad sword and several knives, and my skin was blue and my body was muscular. I ran and leapt over an electric fence and hurdled over cows as I made my way to a giant evil ship that was floating on the grass in a nearby pasture. I began to speak with some of the horses that were galloping beside me, and they informed me that the evil emperor of the land was making his way through the villages, destroying the lives of the people there. I told the horses that I would free their land of him.

I picked up the pace and dashed toward the ship. It was guarded by a giant electric fence that moved along with it. I asked one of the horses to assist me, which it did. I climbed on its back and, after it jumped, I too jumped, and flipped myself over the fence. I had made it.

I climbed aboard the ship and declared everyone to make their way off of it or I would slay them. Everyone (about seven monstrous creatures in all) drew their swords and prepared to fight. Then I did a crazy move. I jumped up to the mast, attached seven knives to it, then chopped the mast down with my broad sword, causing it to land on my opponents. The knives that I had attached to it cut through the foreheads of each of them.

Then the emperor made his way out of his cabin with his magic wand. As he was about to cast some spell on me, I chopped his head off.

Then I switched to a different dream.

I was in my parents' house (though it looked more like a house I visited a couple times as a child). I was hungry for a bowl of cereal, so I searched through the cabinets for a bowl. I couldn't find one; instead I realized that my parents had replaced all their old dishes for new ones that had weird and crazy curves on the edges of everything. Then my mom walked in and I asked her where the bowls were. She said that they only had saucers now, which are much too shallow for a hardy bowl of cereal.

Then I switched over to still another dream.

I was in a giant sanctuary. A ceremony for the Olympics was being held there, and medals were being awarded. It was strange for they were awarding track runners as well as writers and directors (it was as if the Oscars were grafted into the Olympics). I was nominated for several awards (Best Director, Best Original Screenplay, and Best Original Score). I sat through the awards for the 100, 200, 400, and 800 meter races. Finally my categories were announced, and I didn't win any of them.

Then the Olympic MVP was announced (the person who had won the most medals) and it was some woman from Indiana who was a shot put and discus thrower, as well as a long-jumper. She had won three gold medals, yet she was surprised that she had won.

After the ceremony, I saw Reed Lyons (Bethel friend) walking toward me. He had a big plastic bag filled with tiny magazines he had made (they were 1.5" x 1" in size, roughly). He had made them for me, and I began to look at the covers. They were all comedic plays on movie titles, and though I didn't get most of the references, I laughed hardily at all of them so he knew I appreciated his hard work. One cover I remember had a bunch of walnuts that stood in the place of the people on the cover of the "Adventureland" movie, and Reed had entitled it "Walnut Land."

I asked Reed why he had granted me such a gift. He told me that he appreciated the Christmas card I had given him (I had actually filled out a notecard for him once in real life, but had forgotten to give it back to Jessica Smith, his fiance, before she mailed a bunch to him; this fact was also known to me in my dream, so I wondered what he was getting at, though he seemed genuinely grateful). Then we sat down by his fiance and Neil Silveus (his former roommate) and talked about the tiny magazines he had created.

Then I finally awoke.

Dream #357 (March 17, 2011)

Here is an interesting dream.

At the beginning of this dream, I drove from Virginia Beach back to Indiana by myself. I was visiting my parents home for Easter. My brothers (Mike and Matt Baughman) were both there, as were my parents, my cousin, Betsy Thomas (formerly Betsy Baughman), Amy Ennis (Prairie Camp co-worker), and my mom's sister.

When I first arrived, I went into the basement with Matt and Mike and we pulled out all of our old Fisher-Price toys (the pirates and knights with no eyes, if anyone remembers those) and began playing a game with them (something we actually did a couple of years ago). Then we heard our mother call, saying it was time for the annual Easter egg hunt. We all three dashed outside and looked for our designated egg color. My color was yellow.

After I found a couple of eggs, I saw Amy sitting behind the little garage in my backyard. I approached her to see if she was alright. She seemed fine, so I asked her where Bo was, for I wanted to see him (it's been quite a while since we last spoke). She said to me, "I spoke to him last night." For some reason, this made me cry (I don't cry that easily usually).

Then I remembered it was time to go back out East, for Brandon Kercher (more recent Bethel friend) had arrived at my house in a van and was honking his horn. Mike and I both got in.

Then Jason and Allyssa Suter pulled up in their blue car. Jason informed Brandon that he was going to lead the way.

After a while we were on a major highway that was elevated hundreds of feet above the ground. Traffic was bumper to bumper, yet all the cars were moving at 70 mph. It was nuts. As we were driving, I wondered how cops pulled people over on this stretch of road, for it seemed impossible to me.

Shortly after that thought, the road sloped downward and connected with a more normal road at the bottom. There, hundreds of cop cars were stationed, all of them aiming their speed guns at the cars coming in. One after another they would pull cars over.

Kerch didn't get pulled over, but he did pull off to the side of the road just to be safe. There was a big pile of snow there, and we became stuck.

Mike and I got out and pushed the van free. I then became distracted by all of the flashing light, and I wandered around in the snow aimlessly as if I were under a spell. A few moments later, I jumped back into reality (the dream reality, that is), I realized that the van was gone. I was relieved to see it a little was up the road. I ran up to it and wiped off the foggy window (hoping to see Kerch), but instead I saw a stranger and realized it wasn't the same van.

I looked around and saw no sign of Kerch, but I did find my brother sleeping on a pile of snow. I asked him what he was doing, and he said he was tired. I told him to call Kerch on his phone, but he didn't have his number. In fact, I had his number in my phone in the dream, but for some reason I enjoyed the fact that we had been left behind, so I acted as if I didn't have it.

There was a Bethel classroom on the side of the road that Mike suggested we look into to see if any of Kerch's friends were there (someone who might have his number). I wiped the fog off the window (as I had done with the van), and when I looked into it, I saw Chet Shepherd and Greg Fox staring back at me. I waved at them, and they waved back.

Then I awoke.

Dream #356 (March 16, 2011)

I just dreamt an entire Batman film. It was awesome (and very long).

It started out with some backstory on the Joker when he was in his early twenties (I was the Joker and Batman in the dream, seeing things from their perspectives and from a third-person point-of-view seemingly at the same time; I'll tell the story from a third-person perspective to prevent confusion). Anyway, the Joker was a crazy dude, and his face was still painted white and red, but he was a little scrawnier than he was in the "The Dark Knight."

The Joker had planned some intricate scheme against a city official at the Gotham. He was tied up at the city library, which was a huge place, and they were both in the aquarium room (which had several tanks with great white sharks). The Joker went on about the city official's dirty history and how the official had harmed him in the past. The old chubby man apologized for everything he had ever done, but it didn't help. Then the joker removed a curtain and revealed a woman dangling over the great white sharks. He plucked some of the city official's blood, climbed up a big ladder, and dropped the blood sample into the shark tank, making the great whites quite restless. The woman with dark hair died blonde began to panic.

The city official fainted. The Joker then cut him up a bit and dragged him into a different room that had gas leaking in it. After that, he revisited the fake blonde and began chatting with her. It turns out that she was working for him. She was actually Selina Kyle, but it was before she had become Catwoman.

Then the dream jumped over to Bruce Wayne's story. He was in Germany at some museum, half-heartedly looking around at some abstract paintings. It took him a long time to figure out if the security guards were speaking French or German (it was German). Finally, what he had come for happened. Out on a great lake that was right outside the museum (it was partially on the water), a car drove to the shore.

Bruce then asked a man (who was dressed in a tuxedo) what that car was and how it performed such a feat. The man explained that it was a new German model, and it had to travel at 256 miles per hour in order to drive atop the water. Bruce was quite interested in it, and he took a few notes in a small notepad that he had kept in his breast pocket.

Then the story jumped back to the Joker (still part of his backstory). He was with Selina Kyle at a doctor's office hospital. Apparently he had been found, and the doctor's were operating on his brain to see if they could cure him of his insanity.

Then the story jumped back to Bruce (as Batman this time). He was dressed in his bat-suite doing aerobics. The whole while he was chanting some sort of arrogant thing about how he was the best and how he had caught the Joker. It was pretty goofy for the Dark Knight. Then he ran and jumped around on his bed, which had Batman blankets on it, then ran over to his dresser, which had a toy Batmobile and a Batman and Joker action figure on it. Apparently Batman was a bit of a lunatic as well.

The story jumped back to the Joker. The surgery was over, and he was sane. He visited Selina in one of the doctor's offices, where they were showing her some pictures of the Joker's brain. He was bewildered by everything. Then the doctor's slipped the fact that they had used a new experimental chemical, one that Selina knew much about. This chemical could help unbalances in the brain, but if it was offset again, it was distort the brain more than it was distorted before the use of the chemical. This made Selina very nervous, but she was glad to see the Joker (she called him Brian) acting normally again.

Then the story jumped into the present (the Batman story had always been there). The Joker was again plotting evil to take place at the hospital where the doctor's had temporarily cured him. He snuck around wearing a hoodie, blending in with some of the youth there. The hospital had a library, and the Joker began walking around in there.

Then the story jumped back to Batman. He was meeting with the mayor about some information he had discovered about the Joker. He showed the mayor the picture of the Joker's brain that had been x-rayed several years before. He knew the Joker's history, which would give him the upper hand. The mayor pulled out some wine and he and Batman began to celebrate.

Back at the hospital library, the Joker was setting up small metal boxes that were releasing toxic gases (it was a mutation of the chemical used on him at the hospital in the past). He was also planting guns in various places (handguns, machine guns, shotguns, all that he was carrying in a wagon behind him).

Suddenly, people began to freak out (the gasses had got to them). They grabbed the guns and began shooting up the place. After a while, policemen began to arrive on the scene, and they were shooting at the people who minutes before were completely sane. There were kids and mothers shooting and being shot at, which gave the Joker much pleasure. Before long, the building was ablaze.

Suddenly, Batman came swinging into the building from out of nowhere. He had with him a small spray bottle that sprayed some sort of chemical that healed people of their insanity. He went around helping people, avoiding their bullets all the while.

Finally, he discovered the Joker and pinned him up against a wall. (This was confusing, for I was both characters at the same time.) Then the Joker began to laugh and pointed behind Batman, where several young kids (kids that I know from substitute teaching at Oregon-Davis high school) were aiming weapons at him. Then Batman turned around and picked up one of the kids.

Then I awoke.

I fell back asleep and dreamt that I was racing my brothers, Matt and Mike Baughman, and a woman I don't know, in a huge outdoor swimming pool in the middle of the night. We didn't swim, though; we ran in the water. I thought I was doing very well, but at the end of the race I had finished second; I was defeated by a guy who wasn't there at the beginning of the dream.

Then my brothers and I were sucked into a Mario game. We were in one of the castle's from Super Mario Bros (from Super Nintendo), climbing around on a net. We were supposed to collect a bunch of blue coins. Apparently I had missed a bunch, and Matt began shouting at me, for we were almost out of time.

Then I awoke again. I had slept much longer than I had planned.

Dream #355 (March 15, 2011)

This was weird and interesting.

In the first part of my dream, I was headed to some world famous theater play that tens of thousands of people were attending. Interestingly enough, I was carpooling with several high school classmates. I was in the backseat of a car that Nathan Ferch was driving, riding with Adam Pflugschaupt, Brandon Johnston, and Austin Corneil (all big dudes that played on the basketball team). In the car behind us were Adam Konkey, Abby Carver, Abby's sister (Ryan maybe?), Erin Rosander, and Alik Hall.

After a long and tight car ride, we finally arrived at the arena where the play was being held. Unfortunately, the parking lot was packed, so we spent another long time riding around aimlessly. I remember seeing Brandon Surma (another high school classmate) walk by the car.

When we finally found a place to park, we all got out and headed for a nearby pavilion where we could eat lunch. As I walked, I bounced a little rubber ball, not paying attention to what anybody was talking about. When we made it to the pavilions, the two groups of people split up to eat. I didn't know who to join, for I was friends with people in both groups. I decided to stick with the basket ball players.

They each had brought two 'Five-Dollar Boxes' from Taco Bell, while I had nothing. As they were eating, they noticed I didn't have any food, so Nathan offered me one of his large fries (I know T-Bell doesn't have fries). As he did so, Konkey came into our pavilion and reminded me that Alik had brought my food. I then joined the other group for lunch. I had a stimulating conversation with Alik and Konkey about mathematics. Then I began discussing film with Abby and her sister.

After a little while, the doors to the great stadium were finally opened, and the show was almost ready to start.

The two groups joined together as one and we made our way through the doors. We walked down several hallways (all very fancily decorated with stylish carpets, chandeliers, and windows) until we reached one of the many theater/stadium entrances. The seats were very comfortable, and the ones we sat in had a pretty good view.

Then the play started.

Then I switched to a different dream.

I was with my cousin Molly Baughman inside of another person's home (I was house-sitting there). She was telling me some stories about the many places to where she has traveled as I fed the pet gerbil at the house.

Suddenly, with no explanation, the gerbil died. Molly and I didn't know what to do. For some reason I began throwing food at it, hoping that would wake him up. That, of course, didn't work. However, it did attract two mice that came running up from holes in the wall. This made the situation worse (I don't mind mice, but I knew that the owner probably would approve of them taking over the house).

Then I switched over to yet another dream.

I was with my brothers, Mike and Matt Baughman, and my grandpa (on my father's side). We were building a miniature of the Hawaii base where my grandpa had served when he was in the U.S. Navy. We had already created the sand, the buildings, the clouds, and the water, but we hadn't set up enough palm trees yet, according to my grandpa, who was looking upon the set with binoculars for some reason.

When Mike opened up the packages of extra palm trees we had ordered, he noticed that they had black and blue leaves instead of green leaves. We didn't want to use those, but it was all we had.

Then Matt told me to set up the trees in the background, which was hard, because I had to lean over the vast amount of water we had put in the middle of the set. I was leaning to put the final tree in its place when everything began to break.

Water began filling the room at a frightening speed, and Mike, Matt, my grandpa, and I all had to tread water to stay afloat.

I soon awoke.

Dream #354 (March 14, 2011)

I have forgotten most of this dream.

I remember working on some sort of carpentry outside of my house with my dad. It was bright and sunny outside, and we worked for a long time on what looked like an enormous porch.

I woke up at some point. I don't remember if anything interesting occurred.

Dream #353 (March 13, 2011)

I'm a few days late.

In this dream, I was traveling with my brother (Mike Baughman), his friend Brandon Kercher (I traveled with the two of them to Virginia a couple weeks ago), and a new band known as Scout and the Finches (containing Bethel friends Lyndsey Tschetter, Jessica Smith, and Karen Dickerson). We were all piled in a small blue car that I was driving, and we were on our way to Virginia Beach, though we were at the time only in Goshen, Indiana.

While we drove, we listened to Paul Simon, which lasted us all the way to Fort Wayne. There we decided to rest for a while.

Scout and the Finches were planning on doing some shows there, so they wouldn't be continuing on with Mike, Brandon, and I, but before we went our separate ways, we visited my grandfather's house. He wasn't there, so we let ourselves in, walked downstairs, sat up some folding chairs, and viewed some of my grandpa's old slides. We had a very fun time (my grandpa is a good photographer) and afterward, Lyndsey, Karen, and Brandon cooked up a tasty meal.

When we had finished eating, we said farewell then left in the little blue car.

Then I switched over to a different dream.

I was at my iMac watching the news live. After a bit of talk about the weather, Matt Lauer introduced a clip from the Simpsons that they aired.

The clip had real people in it, so I'm not sure what it had to do with the "yellow people cartoon" (as my dad calls it). Anyway, in the clip, a guy delivered a pizza to this girl's house. She asked him to step inside, and when he did, she began to mutate into some weird creature, and another woman burst out of her body. It was gross and strange, and I quickly closed the news window on my computer.

I walked into the kitchen where my dad, mom, and grandpa were eating dinner (chicken, salad, and green grapes) and told my dad about what I had seen. He immediately sent a text to the news station about my complaint (which is weird, because my dad seldom texts anyone). I then decided that I would write Matt Lauer an email.

Then I awoke.

Dream #352 (March 12, 2011)

This was very real at the time.

I dreamt that I had just moved into a big city. The first thing I did when I arrived was join a music apprenticeship program. There were about thirty or forty people participating in this program, all of which I had never met before.

At the first meeting, the instructor (who wore garments similar to what Splinter from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles would wear) had everyone sit in a circle as he explained the workings of the apprenticeship. A couple times a week, the group would put on a concert at a nearby fairgrounds, and three different people would perform each night. Every performer would be assigned a partner who would serve the performer by getting water and food for them, and doing other various jobs that needed done (fetching instruments, communicating with the sound people, etc.). Another group of students would run sound and lights in the back of the tent that the concert would be held in. Yet another group of students would sit with the audience and boost their spirits. The rest of the students would not be required to attend that show.

The first event began soon after that. I was scheduled to perform in the third time slot, meaning that for the first one I had to be the water boy and for the second performer I had to run sound.

The first guy, a young blonde dude with a modern country style of music, was a poor performer, but I worked hard to serve him. I fetched at least three bottles of water for him while he was singing and ran to the back sound table twice to communicate issues.

During the second performer, a young African American girl with a powerful voice, was outstanding to watch. I ran the sound board for her and had a great time listening to her voice. Her set ended all to soon.

That meant I was up next. My assistant (the blonde cowboy) began setting up my accordion and guitar on the stage as I paced around, deciding what songs I wanted to sing. Right when I got on stage, I picked up the accordion and began playing a song I had written while pacing around (I wish I could remember what it was).

Then my dream jumped ahead to a debrief of the event led by the instructor. The feedback was positive, and everyone felt good about the performances.

The next day I wasn't required to go to the event, but I went anyway. When I got there, I saw that a large group from Prairie Camp was there, and many students that I had worked with in the past were in that group. I went over to see how they were doing.

As I approached them, however, they left, and walked into a nearby tennis court. They hadn't seen me, however, so I decided to follow them to see if anybody would notice me.

When they walked into the court, they began walking up a very tall winding staircase that led to the top of a great curly slide. I caught up with them by the time nearly all of the campers had began climbing the stairs. I shouted up at Carrie Badertscher (who was leading the group), and she waved at me, along with all the other campers. One of the girls threw a tennis ball down at me, which I threw back up to her. She threw it back again, but this time it bounced over the fence into some thick brush.

I ran out of the gate with the intention of fetching the ball, but I saw that much of the brush was poison ivy. I walked into it a little bit, but then I saw Mr. and Mrs. de Araujo (Mrs. de Araujo has been a Prairie Camp nurse for many years). I asked Mr. de Araujo if he was allergic to poison ivy. He told me he wasn't, so I asked him if he could fetch the tennis ball for me. He didn't understand what I had asked, for he lifted up an old fence that was lying on the ground (he thought the ball was under there). Then I told him where it was, and he got it for me.

The ball he fetched probably wasn't the one that I had lost, for it was brown, crusty, and decaying. I took it anyway and went back to the bleachers where the Prairie Camp kids were now sitting. Another show was about to start, so I threw the ball into the group of kids (I heard many complaints of the ball's disgusting condition after doing so), and went back to the sound board to enjoy my peers' work.

Then I awoke.

I fell back asleep and entered a different dream.

I was riding a mountain bike along a skinny mountain path in Utah. I dodged several falling rocks and ran over a snake.

I eventually awoke again, staying awake this time.

Dream #351 (March 11, 2011)

Here are a some dreams I had last night.

The dream began inside of a supermarket. I was by myself in the store (there were many other people there, but none of them were with me), and I didn't really know what I was looking for.

In the shoe section, I saw a mother trying to get her twelve-year-old son to try on shoes, but he would have no part of it. He even began climbing up the aisle so that he could escape his mother.

Then I saw some teenage girls loading up their carts with makeup. They carts were overflowing, even though the girls had enough makeup on their face to last them for a few months.

Then I saw an elderly woman trying to pick out muskmelon. She looked like she was having a difficult time deciding what to get.

Finally I walked back to the front of the store and saw a tall man, about thirty years old, trying to buy some Nike shoes. The cashier, a young woman who looked like she didn't know what she was doing, had trouble ringing up the shoes. She asked the other cashier, an elderly woman, to help her out, but she couldn't figure out the problem either. After much trial and error, the older lady told the man that he couldn't purchase the shoes. He was pretty upset, and he began to complain. To compensate for the mistake, the woman told the guy that he could have a free lawn chair. There were dozens of fancy lawn chairs sitting at the front of the store, so the guy walked over, picked one out, and carried it to his car.

Then an announcement came on that all the lawn chairs were free. I grabbed one that was marked at $80 and walked out of the store. As I left, I saw some much more highly priced lawn chairs that looked awesome, but I knew I wouldn't be able to carry them.

The parking lot was indoors. I saw the man who couldn't buy the Nike shoes, and I ran over to him to congratulate him on his free lawn chair. I said, "Did you see that one of the chairs cost 5,000 bucks?" He didn't acknowledge my existence and entered a very expensive looking car (I don't know cars, so I have no idea what it was called, if it was a real car at all; I just know that it was shiny).

I then remembered that I didn't drive to the store, so I left the lawn chair in the parking lot and headed for the exit (the building that the parking lot was in had roof that was at least 50 feet high, by the way).

When I got to the back of the parking lot, the small door that led out suddenly burst open. Nathaniel Wertz burst into the lot, along with three other guys, and they were all carrying airsoft guns. Before I knew what was going on, Nathaniel began shooting at me. Not knowing what to do, I began hitting Nathaniel until he dropped his gun. I then rushed out of the lot and into the hallway from where they had come.

I locked the door behind me and I began to walk cautiously to the other end. When I was about 50 feet from the opposite door, Kevin Chupp, carrying a 6 shooter with a curved barrel, entered the hallway, followed by Mike Coon and my brother Mike Baughman, and they began to approach me menacingly. I then realized, though it doesn't make much sense, that this was a big game put on by Bethel College (they actually play a game similar to this, but it uses water pistols instead of airsoft guns). Kevin then lifted his barrel. "Sorry, Joe."

I threw myself into a men's restroom that was to my right, dodging the bullet. I heard them come after me, so I hid behind the door.

Nobody came in for a long time, so I peeped out of the door and saw that the hallway was empty. I wanted to find out if I was really safe, so I began to creep down the hallway yet again. Suddenly Kevin's gun and arm burst through a low hole in the wall. Startled, I accidentally kicked his wrist, and he dropped his gun. It took me a short while to realized that I now had the advantage over him. I picked up his weird little weapon and went to chase him. By that time his whole body had fallen through the hole, so he took cover in the bathroom where I had once hid. I chased him in there and saw that he had climbed up to the top of the stall and was trying to crawl into the ceiling (he had opened up a ceiling tile). I fired a shot at him, hitting just above his head.

Then I felt pity on him. I didn't want to hurt Kevin, and I didn't care much about the game, so I put the gun to the ground and ran away.

I finally made it out of the door at the end of the hallway. There I saw Mike Coon climbing up a sloping roof (apparently we were on the top of a city), trying to escape me. I caught up with him and told him that I didn't want to be his enemy. He was cool with that idea, so he told me he could lead me to a safe place.

He took me to a room with a large glass window that overlooked the dark city. It was a beautiful sight. As I was lost in the scenery, my brother Mike snuck up behind me and put a gun to my back. I turned and saw that Mike Coon had tricked me, and he had notified my brother and Kevin of my whereabouts. I was trapped.

All of a sudden, Nathaniel Wertz burst into the room and began shooting up the place, hitting both Mikes with several pellets. Then Kevin retaliated and hit him and a couple of his followers with some of his rounds. In the end, I was the only one who remained untouched.

Then I jumped forward in time. I was sitting in my bedroom, checking my email. I red that Nathaniel Wertz's team had won the airsoft game, though Kevin Chupp was awarded with the MVP.

I then decided it was time to take a shower. Oddly enough, I had a full bath in my bedroom, and I hopped in there and began to wash up. Then I realized I had left the door to my room open. I also remembered that my mother had invited Lita Hall and a bunch of other ladies over to the house. I didn't want anyone to walk in on me, so I stopped the shower, dried off, closed and locked the door, and got back into the shower.

Then I switched over to another dream.

I was riding in an old truck that Shawn Eastridge (former Regent University classmate) was driving. He was talking to me about graduate school. Several times he almost hit trees that were lying across the road (we didn't see them until the last second, for it was very dark outside).

Suddenly Shawn turned into Kyle Heffelfinger. Kyle then drove the truck into an a field where his family was having a picnic. Without exiting the truck I saw his mother and his brother there, along with a bunch of people I didn't know.

Then I awoke.

Dream #350 (March 10, 2011)

Here we go.

In the first part of this dream I was in an upper room of a cozy blue house. I was with Ryne Sweeney, Dan Hennigsmith, Justin Egger, and Nathan Ferch (all former Oregon-Davis basketball players from when I 'played' basketball in high school). We were playing Go Fish and eating popcorn.

After a few minutes, Ryne got a call and informed us that it was time to "get ready for the tournament." We put our cards up, walked over to the closet, got out our jerseys, and put them in our black duffle bags. Then we headed downstairs and outside where a 15 passenger van was waiting for us. We boarded it (Coach Reese was driving), and took off.

On the way I talked to Justin about his father and how he was doing. We went on to have a deeper conversation than we ever had in real life.

When that was over, Ryne began howling like a dog, and I noticed we had arrived at the gymnasium. When we entered the gym, we saw the competition warming up. They looked awful.

Then I entered a different dream.

I was disc golfing with my brothers (Mike and Matt Baughman), Brittany (Matt's wife), and my parents. After a couple of typical wooded holes, Matt and I began to play ahead. On the fourth hole, I launched my disc much further than I needed to, and it went into a thick forest of brush and briers. Matt then threw his even further into the mess than I did.

After some painful searching, I finally found my disc. We then saw what looked like a trail made from Matt's, and it led into an old log cabin. By that time our family had caught up with us, so we all entered the cabin.

It was trashed with candy wrappers (mostly Laughy Taffy and Now and Later wrappers). Even so, we found Matt's disc on the ground.

Right when Matt picked it up, a very young German Gestapo officer from World War II began shouting at Matt, claiming that he was responsible for the littering that had taken place there. He pinned him against the wall and said that he had to take Matt to the commanding German officer. Matt explained that he had nothing to do with the littering, and that he would not accompany the German to his officer.

The young guy began to weep, saying that he needed somebody to blame for this mess, otherwise he would be severely punished.

Then I awoke.

Dream #349 (March 9, 2011)

Here are some very interesting dreams.

In the first dream, I witnessed myself from outside of my body, which was not my body at all. I looked a little older and was wearing an Old Dominion sweatshirt and black slacks. I was a detective, and I was hired to investigate the man who played Perry Mason in the old television show. Apparently he had since become a mob boss (I believe he has passed away in real life).

I met with him in a large coffee shop on a bright and sunny afternoon. He had become very skinny in his old age (though in real life he became overweight). As he was talking to me I could tell that he knew my intentions and that he knew almost everything about me.

Several minutes into the conversation, the two of us stood up and prepared for a fist fight. Then we went at each other, but as we did so, several strong men (who looked like body builders) came at me. One hit me over the head with a wooden folding chair, and I was out cold.

When I awoke, I saw that all of my clothes were lying on the ground, but I wasn't there (I still had a third person view). I went to a different setting and found me dressed in the same clothes. However, the person dressed in my clothes wasn't me, though it was difficult to tell, for the room was very dark.

Katie Zook (Bethel College friend) came up to me and began talking to me, asking how I had been. It was then that I discovered that the two of us were imprisoned in some laboratory. However, Katie soon discovered that the man wasn't me, but a refugee that had been dressed to look like me, for the man had different colored eyes and he could not speak English. I remember him being Romanian.

Katie then led the Romanian look-alike to a desk and sat him down. Then she decided to try and figure out what was going on. She looked tirelessly for a way to escape the room, but she couldn't. Minutes later, the real me was thrown into the room. When that happened, the lights in the giant room next to us lit up (there was a giant window that acted as a wall between the rooms, so we could see everything that was going on).

Several engineers were working on a large white machine that had something to do with space travel. Katie asked me what they had done to me, and I told her (though I didn't know the things I was saying until I had said them). I explained how they dressed an impostor to look like me to divert suspicion from the authorities (they had him go to my work place and do the usual things that I did before locking up and going home). As they did so, I was taking into the giant lab and tested in many ways (height, weight, reflexes, eyesight, and more), for they intended to have me operate the experimental space travel device. This made Katie very sad, for she knew how dangerous that could be. I would most likely die in the process.

After I told my story, she was determined to find a way out. As she began searching the walls for weak spots, the room behind us lit up (another giant window separated the room we were in from the room behind us as well). There we could see an entire classroom of science students taking notes on the building of the space travel machine and on our behaviors and reactions to the testing. All the students sat at white desks (the rows of which sloped upward, like stadium seating) and were wearing white tights, and there was an intense glare coming from that room.

As we squinted, we could see a little boy in the room as well.

Then my dream jumped to his perspective. He was playing with a bouncy ball underneath the stadium desks. He accidentally kicked his ball beyond the desks to the front of the classroom. He followed it there and saw what was happening. Then he made eye contact with me and felt pity on me. He ran over to a giant switch on the wall and pulled it, not knowing what its function was.

Then I switched back to my point of view, and I watched the sealed door to the room slowly open up. Katie shouted with joy and began to spur all of the others to wake up and leave so that they could be free. People began sprinting out, but for some reason, I didn't leave the room. Before Katie left, she stopped by me and asked me why I had not yet left.

Then I switched over to a different dream.

I was substitute teaching an English class at Oregon-Davis High School. Though they were upperclassmen, the teacher had instructed me to show them Bambi 2 (is there a Bambi 2? Probably). We watched as the young animal danced around in a woods, talking to rabbits, squirrels, and skunks along the way. It was terrible. Finally and announcement came on that everyone was to report to the office to get their special box.

I didn't know what that was all about, but I followed the instructions. The students formed a line at the door, then I held it open for them as they left and followed them down the hallway. On the way I saw Wayne Schafer (a former classmate of mine; I haven't seen him since high school) opening up a locker an putting books into it. Apparently he still hadn't graduated. Then I saw Patrick McCullough (another former classmate of mine I haven't seen for years) mopping the floor in the hallway, for he was the school's new janitor. I waved at him, and he asked me what I was doing there. I told him I was a substitute. The I said, "Wouldn't it be funny if I were still a student here? Hey, I 'm a Junior in high school again."

I continued to follow the students through the hallway. Then we walked through a strange corridor that never existed at the school. It was dark and eerie, and I saw Adam Pflugshaupt (another former classmate) in there (he was also substitute teaching), though he didn't see me.

Finally we arrived at the office. Each student was given a box that had a telephone cord attached to it. They were instructed to carry their boxes around the figure 8 shape of the school so that the cord would have enough slack when the event began (I still didn't know what was going on). I also received a box.

I walked around the school for a bit, then walked, with my students, out the main entrance of the school. As I went through the doors, I saw the basketball team walk in. They were all wearing tuxedos and were also carrying boxes. I recognized two the guys: Daniel Hennigsmith and Andy Lawrence. I waved at them, but they didn't wave back.

It was dark outside, which is strange, for it was a school day.

As we were about to walk back into the gym entrance of the school (where the activity was going to be explained), I ran into Carrie Badertscher and her daughter Stella. I stopped, and made my students stop, so that I could play with Stella for a little while. However, Stella was tiny in the dream, no bigger than the size of my hand. She was playing on a mound of dirt when I knelt down close to her and wived at her. Then I had her pound my fist with her fist, which impressed all of the students. Then stella ran over to a little boy (who was only half as tall as my knee though he looked like he was twelve years old) and karate chopped him in the neck. The boy looked like he was going to beat up Stella, so I picked him up and told him to go back to his classroom in the elementary school (I don't understand why I had a weird little section in the dream with tiny people).

After that incident, I waved goodbye to Carrie and Stella and entered into the school with the kids. When we got there, we had discovered that the great event had already started. Everyone was wearing black sweats and was carrying a light gun (they were like the guns used for laser tag, though they had a bigger beam). People were running around shooting each other, and when people were hit with light shots, they froze right where they were. When people saw my students and me, the began shooting at us, though we were unarmed. The students ran in several directions, though I held me ground. I looked into the box I had been given earlier and discovered that I, too, had a light gun. I pulled it out and fired back at my enemies. However, I didn't know the rules of the game, so I tried to call a temporary truce, but nobody would stop and listen to me.

In a burst of confusion I left the bench I had taken cover under and ran at my opponents, hitting them each in the head with a beam of light, making them freeze (not literally, but like in freeze tag). I though I was free to look for more targets, but I had missed one student, who shot a beam of light at me, which hit me in the shoulder. I wasn't sure what that meant, but I shot the guy in the face anyway, making him freeze. He shouted at me, saying that he had hit me in the head (which he did not), and that I should be out. The other people who had been frozen there for a while sided withe me, putting an end to the argument. As I left I asked was was going on. Someone behind me shouted, "One in the head and two on the body."

As I ran off I tried figuring out what that meant. I soon understood that one shot to the head meant I was out and two shots to the body would also take me out.

As I ran I noticed many junior high kids were frozen with angry looks on their face. They had been the easy targets and they weren't too happy with that fact.

Then I heard what sounded like a stampede coming from behind me. Before I could escape, a band of men dressed in black sweats and black masks came upon me. However, before they began shooting, they stopped. Their leader took off his mask, and I recognized him. He was Chuck Zook (Katie's older brother and also a Bethel friend of mine). Before he shot at me, he told me that I should be out (apparently the guy who hit me in the shoulder was one of him friends). He held up one finger, then pointed to his head. I knew this meant he was about to shoot me, so I rolled on the ground, dodging his blast, then hit him twice in the chest, knocking him down somehow (which is a shame, for I would have liked being a part of his team). I also managed to hit three of his men in the head.

I turned to make my escape (the band of men in black still outnumbered me greatly), but was hit in the back of the head by a beam of light. I was finished, and I felt very sad, for I had been doing quite well up to that point.

I stood there, frozen, watching the band of men run off to take out more people. I'm pretty sure Chuck was somehow revived, along with the three guys I had taken out. They may have been cheating, but I didn't knew the exact rules to the game.

After a while, and announcement came on. The voice delivering it belonged to Chuck, and he said he noticed that he was shooting the same people on several occasions, meaning that some people were cheating. He specifically mentioned that he had three head shots on a young girl with black hair wearing a green sweater.

I then ignored the announcement and began thinking of ways that would make the game better and less subjective.

I soon awoke.

Dream #348 (March 8, 2011)

I don't remember much of this dream.

I dreamt that I was a substitute teacher in the same elementary school classroom in which I found the zebra head in the dream the night before. I went over a simple Math lesson with the third graders there. After the lesson, I led them out of the classroom, down the hall, to the drinking fountain, where each student was allotted three seconds to drink water (that seems pretty strict to me; I always hated time limits at the drinking fountain).

I eventually awoke (there may have been more to the dream that I have forgotten).

Dream #347 (March 7, 2011)

It's a bit late, but at least it made it on the blog.

The first part of the dream revolved around Jon Andrew, Dan, and me as we worked on the origin story for the Jumpsuit Cousins (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LtC-_Nu8K20). We were trying to decide what to use for the skin on the stop-motion puppets, and the idea we came up with was to cut up bananas into thin slices and bake them to dry them out. After we cut the bananas up, we put them on a pan. Just as we were about to put them into the oven, I asked if they would go bad after a while. This puzzled us.

Then I switched over to a different dream.

I was in Oregon-Davis Elementary School, and I was participating in a scavenger hunt. A bunch of people were searching through various classrooms trying to find the newest item they had to look for. Each item contained a clue that would lead to another. Well, I found a doll head that was painted with zebra stripes, and it had a clue attached to it. However, before searching for what my clue referred to, I went to search an old grandfather clock to see if I could find the final piece. However, someone else had beat me there and found the head with the crown (it had no clue attached to it). The guy didn't know what it was, so he handed it to me. I took it from him and claimed that I had discovered it.

I carried the piece over to Mr. Bertasso (my former high school band teacher) and acted as if I had found it. I soon became overwhelmed with guilt, and I confessed that the other man had found it before me. Then Mr. Bertasso told me to keep following my clues to see how many heads I could collect before the end of the game.

Then I awoke.

Dream #346 (March 6, 2011)

Here is a mash-up of a bunch of short dreams.

In the first dream I was walking in an ever-expanding field on a cloudless, sunny day. There were a few dozen people not far from me working on some sort of project. I walked closer to them and noticed that there was a large chain linked fence stretched out behind them.

The people working were mostly strangers except for Jon Andrew Castleberry, his dad Richard Castleberry, and Dan Jeter (with whom I'm currently working on a stop-motion film). Everyone there was cutting off the tops of water bottles, filling the bottoms with water, then putting them in a freezer that was located in the center of the work area. Apparently they were going to use the ice as mountains for the stop-motion video we were working on (which makes no sense, for it would melt very quickly).

Then I switched over to a different dream.

I being led down a narrow white hall by Neil Silveus (Bethel College friend). He led me to a small white room with a white bunk bed with a white pillow and white blankets. He was very accommodating (unlike the room), and I gave him a tip before he left.

I had only one small green bag, which I place underneath the bottom bunk. I sat down on the bed and began thinking about what I was doing in this white place. A quiet alarm sounded in the room, and I knew it was time to leave. I got up and walked through several white halls (it reminded me of a Skinner box, for those who know their psychology) without seeing another person the entire time. Finally I arrived at a set of doors that were open. Inside of what sounded like an expansive room I heard much friendly chatter. However, the room I was entering was pitch black. I hesitated, for I didn't trust this white place, but eventually I entered.

Then I was in yet another dream.

I was in a locker room sitting next to Brandon Johnston (former Oregon-Davis high school classmate). He was tying his red basketball shoes as he talked to me about the upcoming game. I was back in high school, playing basketball.

A few moments later, Nathan Ferch walked in and began discussing the other team's strengths and weaknesses. When he was finished, Coach Hannah walked in and sat next to me, explaining my role in the upcoming game. When he finished, he left, and Brandon began talking to me about his future plans of going to college.

Then I awoke.

Dream #345 (March 5, 2011)

This was insane and very funny.

In the beginning of the dream, my brother Mike Baughman and I, along with a large group of people that we were associated with, arrived at an airport coming into the United States from China. As we walked through airport security, all of us made it through smoothly except for Mike, who was pulled aside for further searching.

They made him open his bags and pull out the contents (as he did this, he gave me an annoyed look, for we had packed the bags as tight as we could, and we didn't have much time before our connecting flight was leaving). His clothes were strewn about before the security guards discovered what they were after.

They were most upset about the Chris Brown album that Mike had on vinyl, along with several hip-hop posters (apparently hip-hop had been banned in the U.S., and Mike had purchased these things in China; he doesn't actually like Chris Brown, by the way). They confiscated all of these things and told him to go on his way in shame.

When he met back up with us, a half-crazy man from our group walked up to us and told us how angry he was with the airport government and that he wanted to get back at them. He told us he planned to stage an airport hold-up, for he had snuck a bunch of fake guns into the airport. I expressed how terrible the idea was, but he would not listen to me. Apparently this guy had many connections and resources, for at the touch of a button on a remote control he carried, everything went crazy.

People entered waiving around the fake guns, and all the airport customers fell to the floor in terror. Mike and I snuck off to a side room where we watched all the goings on of the next several minutes.

The half-crazy dude stood at the front of the airport with his cell phone, talking to somebody about acquiring a tank as several masked men ran around beating the airport security guards on their heads with the butts of their fake guns.

Finally, the only man left standing was the owner of the airport, a slightly chunky white-haired old man. The crazy guy had something special planned for him, but he got distracted by the person he was conversing with. As he was talking, he sad down and began to cry, for he couldn't get the tank he wanted. As he sat down, a huge truck with an enormous painting of a sunny suburban landscape pulled up next to the airport, stopped for a while, then left.

Then I switched to a different dream.

I entered a blue room that was very dark. As I did so, the lights came on and a bunch of people shouted "surprise." I was startled, for it wasn't my birthday. I saw Lita Hall there (a lady from Koontz Lake church) and asked her what the special occasion was, and she told me they were throwing an engagement party. I was confused, for I couldn't recall getting engaged.

I thought back to conversations I had with my parents a while before, but I couldn't recall ever telling them that I was engaged. Then, as people began to dance around and eat the party food (little sausages, baby carrots, and lasagna) my parents came up to me and my mom handed me a wooden box. I opened it and found a ring that had been passed on through my family (I don't know if we actually have such a ring in my family in real life) and a hand-written note from Brittany Baughman (my brother's wife). It expressed how happy she was for me, and I felt very guilty as I read it, for she had seemingly put much effort into it.

I didn't break the news to my parents just yet, for I wanted to figure out to whom I was engaged. I never did. I walked around and talked to many people I know, but could not get any further information. I began walking back to my parents when I ran into Claire Lyons (Bethel friend). I asked her what was going on and she said she had no idea. Then she began hopping around like a rabbit, and I tried following her so I could ask her who had set up this party (my parents don't know her, so I figured someone else may have been responsible for the whole misunderstanding). However, I couldn't keep up with her, for she was bouncing at an inhuman speed.

Then I walked over to my parents and broke the news to them. They were disappointed and they immediately walked left the party. I left with them.

I rode in the backseat of the car with both of my brothers (who made their first appearance of the dream in the car). They were joking around with me about the misunderstanding, and my parents began to see the humor in it all.

Then I switched to a different dream.

I was walking in mud that was waste deep in a field outside a cathedral. It was storming outside, and lighting was flashing all about me. I finally made it to the entrance of the church where my brother Mike was there waiting for me, holding the door open.

Then I awoke.

Dream #344 (March 4, 2011)

This is a day late.

In this dream I entered into a small, white church building. In the sanctuary, and bunch of twenty-somethings were having a short film screening. I went in and sat down in one of the few open folding chairs, and happened to sit right behind Jordan Miller (former Regent University classmate). She turned and greeted me, then we both turned our attention to the film playing.

Zach Gillis (I guy from Bethel College I don't really know, and whose name I may be spelling incorrectly) was showing a film he had made with 35mm slides (something I had done recently), and it was very interesting. He was also projecting images from his computer on the same surface of the screen, which looked very interesting.

Then Zach began to described his film, and I entered a different dream.

I was disc golfing with Jon Andrew Castleberry, Kevin Chupp, and my brother Mike Baughman. The course was fairly hilly, with a few huge oak trees here and there. After playing the first hole, we ran into a bunch of hipsters who were taking there time (they were also smoking pot). We decided to skip that hole so we could move around them. After playing the next whole (Kevin did very well), Levar Burton (Star Trek, Reading Rainbow) ran up to us and asked if he could play with us. Oddly enough, he was wearing a dress and a blonde wig, and he looked very strange. I told him that we weren't too interesting in having another person join us, and he went away sad.

We played one more hole, then I awoke.