Dream #408 (August 21, 2011)

This will be fairly short.

I dreamt that I was at some sort of huge retreat that took place at a campground in the middle of a city. In the middle of the campground was a resort center that resembled a castle. It was tall and wide, and it was made of stone. Many people were entering and exiting it at all times. Furthermore, there were numerous lines of people marching in several different patterns and in different directions.

I was in charge of running activities inside of an enormous cage that was setting over a patch of grass. There were several wooden tables set up, and I had created different game stations within the cage, most of them involving water. A lot of teens that played the games I recognized from Prairie Camp's Teen Camp.

After I had entertained several groups of teens, I was told to go into another cage. There I was united with Norm Dial, Mike Phipps, and a middle aged woman, and we were instructed to enter into a cage within the cage that was covered with several purple velvet blankets. Inside of this smaller cage, several wooden tables were covered with items wrapped in magician-themed wrapping paper. A whistle blew, and Norm, Mike, and the middle aged woman began unwrapping the gifts. Once the would unwrap one, they would put in a pile behind them, then return to the table to open more presents.

After half of the gifts were gone, I was invited to open some. I was excited, because Norm had opened a package with five hundred dollars in it. My gifts were much different, though. I opened up a cone-shaped light prism (it probably would work in real life as well as it did in the dream), an NES gaming system (with a picture of Super NES's version of Donkey Kong and Diddy Kong), and a green cloth napkin (that resembled the napkin into which I blew a great wad of snot at a scholarship banquet at which John Ashcroft was the guest of honor and had a speech, during which I audibly passed gas, which caused several heads to turn; that is a story that must be told another time through another medium).

I looked over my gifts, and I knew they weren't worth much. However, I was very grateful for them. I knew I was blessed even to have participated in the opening of gifts. Moments after this realization, I had another: all the gifts were items given from my parent's house (none of these items are possessed by my parents in real life, by the way).

Then I awoke.

Dream #407 (August 19, 2011)

I dreamt.

I was inside of a bookstore that resembled a house. There were both used and new books there, all in very good condition.

I was with my father, and we were both searching through the used books to see if we could find anything we were interested in. After a few minutes of this, I heard some commotion outside and found a group of young adults throwing a frisbee around. I knew several of them, but the first person I ran into was a man by the name of Adam Linse.

Adam graduated with me from Oregon-Davis High School in 2007. He was a goofy fellow, but very kind and fun. Most students called him 'Talls' because of his height, which was somewhere around 6' 3" or something like that. A lot of people picked on him, unfortunately, for foolish reasons. He definitely did not deserve the abuse he put up with throughout his years.

Anyway, I haven't seen him for several years, so I was excited to say hello. With great excitement he told me about a new video game he had purchased, and he even reenacted it right in front of me, pretending to shoot down enemies with a gun that was visible only to those with imagination.

After talking to him for a few minutes, I literally walked into Dan Napolitan, who was wearing a 60's style suit with an even older-looking hat. He was a bit annoyed when I did so, and he didn't seem to recognize me at first, but after a second, he remembered who I was. However, when I called him Dan, he acted as if that wasn't his name, so I pretended that I was actually talking about another Dan that we both knew.

Our awkward conversation was quickly broken up by a frisbee that was thrown in our direction, accompanied by "Five hundred!" shouted from about thirty feet away. An intense game of 'dollars up' (also known as 'jackpot') had ensued, right in the middle of the suburban street, and I wasn't about to let anybody beat me at catching a frisbee (I'm not typically competitive, but I was in this dream for some reason). I fought Dan for the next throw, but, though he is shorter than I, he beat me to the frisbee and won 200 points. Then next throw, I ran into Shana Beers (whom I didn't know was even present), knocking her over, letting some young boy (who resembled Oliver Twist in my mind) catch the 700 point frisbee. I apologized and decided that I should go back inside before harming anyone else.

When I went back in, I bought a bright green book right away, without really knowing what it was. When I looked inside, I found a special package stating that I had won. When I read a bit more of this package, I discovered that I had won an opportunity to play baseball for any major league team I wanted to. Furthermore, I was instantly a talented ball player. My dad asked me who I wanted to play for, and I told him that I wasn't sure.

Then I switched over to a different dream.

I was on a train in the middle of the desert. Suddenly, the train broke down and all of the passengers got off. Then I discovered that a strong, shirtless man was on the train. I bring him up because he claimed to be Superman. For some reason, everyone else believed him, but I wasn't so sure. I tried to test him physically by telling him to fly here, or lift certain heavy objects, but he never quite did what I asked of him. By the way, I was Spider-Man in this dream, though nobody had reason to believe so, for I myself never used my mutant powers.

Louis Lane was also on the train, but at this point, she had never met Superman or even heard of him. She seemed to have a crush on the guy, and I tried to explain to her how foolish she was for believing him. Then the man became angry and said he was going to show off his power on me. He leaped down a sand dune, carrying a shovel, then threw the shovel back up the dune (which was impressive, but not super human). Then I sprinted down the dune and sprinted back up very quickly (I don't know what I was trying to prove; I was fast, but not unbelievably fast).

Then everything changed. I was now watching this dream on a television screen. The train had begun working again, and all of the passengers boarded it and took their seats. I leaned back on the couch and drank from my glass of water.

Then I awoke.

Dream #406 (August 18, 2011)

This was a dream.

In the beginning of the dream, I arrived at a house with David and Carrie Badertscher, Jeff and Amber Kreider, Amy Ennis, and Jacob Bartlett at a house on the beach we had rented. The sky was dark and cloudy, but the temperature was great when we got out of the red fifteen passenger van in which we had come.

Right when we got there, Carrie ordered Jacob and I to pull out a bunch of candy that we had stored in the van. We were all supposed to deliver the candy to poor children in the area. We each grabbed a large bag of candy (I had green apple Sour Straws), and we split up to find poor kids.

The city was designed a lot like a campground with different lots for each family. I found about 11 kids right away that enjoyed the candy I gave them, but after that I struggled finding poor kids. I came across a lot of kids, but they didn't seem poor to me, and we had been instructed to give the candy only to poor kids. I specifically remember talking to a few kids who were outside of their home jumping rope.

I returned, a bit dissatisfied, for I was supposed to deliver candy to twelve people. I ran into Amber, who was giving away Twizzlers, and she told me to keep looking for another poor kid.

So I retraced all of my steps and walked again through the small city, finding no more poor kids.

When I returned again, I found Jacob there playing some sort of crazy game with a bunch of teens. The object of the game was to collect a bunch of dud grenades and smoke bombs (that looked just like the grenades and smoke bombs in an old James Bond game I used to play called Nightfire). Now, there was more to the game. Every player was given several smoke bombs and grenades at the beginning, and these were no duds. However, when they exploded, though they caused people to fly all over the place, they didn't harm anyone. The teens were dressed for the event; many were wearing some sort of armor (shin guards, trash can lid shields, bucket helmets, metal siding breastplates, etc.). I jumped into the final game and was blown up right away, and before I even knew what took place, I found myself several hundred of feet away from the game. I watched as the game quickly came to a close, revealing Jacob as the winner.

All the teens left after this, but I wanted to play again, so I challenged Jacob to a one-on-one match. He accepted the challenge, and we began to play. I started off great; I deflected a grenade thrown by Jacob, knocking it into a trash can and smoldering the blast by sealing it off. Then I threw a smoke bomb in Jacob's general area, causing him to lose sight for quite some time, giving me time to collect about 8 smoke bomb duds. After I grabbed those, I found the mother-load of grenade duds, but right when I reached for them, I was blown away by a second grenade from Jacob. I had lost.

Then I awoke.

Dream #405 (August 17, 2011)

This was odd and felt very real.

I was working at Prairie Camp's Family Camp. I was walking past the Children's Tabernacle when a mother approached me and asked me to watch her children for her. I told her that I would love to, but I was busy at the moment preparing for a teen camp game.

I then hopped in a golf cart and rode over to Dave and Carrie Badertscher's former house (they lived on the house that rests at Prairie Camp). I got off and looked at my phone and saw that I had a voicemail, which I then retrieved. My brother Mike had left it, and he informed me that an alien had landed in a nearby field, and the alien wanted to speak with me.

I hopped in my car and drove to the site where I met up with by brother and Adam Pflugshaupt. They were both conversing with the alien. This alien didn't look all that inhuman. His head was a bit more elliptical, his skin was pale green, he didn't really have a nose, and he only had three fingers on each hand. This alien's ship was still intact, and it looked much like a regular rocket.

Then Adam invited the alien back to our apartment (in the dream, Adam and I lived together in a one-room apartment).

The apartment was full of metal, jankity bunk beds that looked just like the beds at Prairie Camp. None of the beds had mattresses. The alien (who had befriended Adam), was excited to stay with us. We were all tired, so we went to bed. I didn't sleep well, for the alien slept above me and green liquid was dripping off of him.

It was so bad that I walked outside to get a breath of air. Then I saw the rocket, and I became curious, so I crawled inside.

When I got in, everything locked down, and I was strapped to a bed by robotic arms. Then the rocket took off (I could see everything through a long window that was across from my bed). The rocket went far into space at crazy speeds, then began spinning rapidly, making me sick.

Eventually, the rocket landed back by the apartment (which was by the field where the rocket had landed). When I got out, I saw the alien there waiting for me. He told me that the rocket had been programmed for a joy ride that many humans would have trouble stomaching. I had survived, but I was still very dizzy and ill from the ride. Adam then pulled me aside and scolded me for taking the rocket without asking.

Then I awoke.

Dream #404 (August 16, 2011)

A couple days late with this one.

This dream took place in a strange twilight. In the beginning I went to attend Lebowski Fest. I hopped on a big yellow school bus full of all kinds of people (there were several mullets in the crowd, though). The ride didn't last long. Before I even had a chance to see who was all riding on the bus, we had arrived.

The festival (in my dream) took place at a big resort area. There were several log cabins, a swimming pool, and a lot of grassy fields. There were several punk rock women selling Lebowski Fest t-shirts (they were black with some purple letters on them), but there weren't many others there.

I wondered around the area for a while, stopping for a few minutes to look at a flag pole that seemed out of place. It was lit from underneath by very white light. It was then that I noticed all of the colors there seemed pure.

Suddenly, Lebowski Fest was over, and a new thing began. Nathan Galvez (a friend from Regent University) and I began to take over the resort area by force. We each grabbed a flame thrower and set fire to several cabins. Then we went to the general store and threw concrete blocks through the windows. After that, we went to a grassy field and build a giant card tower (I don't know what the significance of that was).

Soon, daylight came, and I noticed that all the ground was suddenly, instead of the pure green grass that had been there, turned to fine gravel. A large mob of people had gathered in a basin that was at the edge of the resort, and they challenged Nathan and me to a test of skill. Two semi-trucks were brought in, and each truck had a bed that was covered in a massive card tower. Nathan and a random opponent from the angry mob were each given a bow and some arrows. The goal was to knock down all the cards in the fewest amount of shots possible.

Nathan's shot was first. Right when he shot, I knocked over some cards for him (I had snuck over to the truck to assist Nathan). However, one of the mob members saw this and became infuriated. But Nathan shot again immediately and knocked over the rest of the cards, proving his skill. Then the other guy shot two arrows and knocked over his cards in the other truck bed.

Then I awoke.

I fell back asleep. I was on top of a mountain that was lightly covered in snow and heavily covered in people. Carrie Badertscher was there, and I asked her to direct a group of people in a dance on the mountain top because I wanted to reenact one of my past dreams for an audience (and this dream called for mountaintop dancers). Then I called a guy and ordered him to drive a yellow bus up as an homage to the Lebowski Fest dream.

Then I awoke (again).

Dream #403 (August 15, 2011)

This is a bit weird. And it's my first blogged dream for quite some time (I've returned from summer camp).

In this dream, I was working at Prairie Camp. However, Prairie Camp didn't look like Prairie Camp; instead, it resembled a state park that I stayed at as a child somewhere west of Indiana.

Anyway, I was performing many of my maintenance duties (weed whacking, lawn mowing, fixing up posts, and so on), working on my own while most others were still asleep. It was very early morning and the sun had just risen.

A couple hours into my work, I walked over by the Retreat Center (which is located at PC) and witnessed Josh Cavinder (a counselor this year) taking his kids up onto the porch and having them jump off of it for fun. Just as I was about to tell them that it wasn't a good idea, Carrie came out of her house and scolded him.

Next I walked into the retreat center. It was dark, and I had trouble locating the pair of athletic shorts that I had in my room (I didn't bother turning any lights on). I changed quickly, then ran over to the gym.

Now, the gym at camp is kind of nasty, but the gym in my dream looked more like an NBA stadium. There were a ton of people my age there, and they were all involved in a strange version of dodgeball. Everything looked similar, but there was a major difference: there were no balls. Instead, people were chucking at each other large cardboard creations (that resembled the cardboard boats I had the teen campers make a couple of weeks ago). I jumped right into the game and immediately began to dominate.

I threw a mess of packaging tape and cardboard at a guy wearing a headband and knocked him to the ground after hitting him in the face. I also hit a guy in the foot with the very next throw. Next, I picked up a huge raft of cardboard and threw it across the gym (from the baseline) and smashed it into Eric D. I had ended the game.

Then everyone came together and decided that it was time to go to bed.

Before leaving the gym, I began talking with Eric D and realized that there was something strange about the way he was speaking and walking. I approached him and asked him what was going on. Then he informed me that before the dodge cardboard game, everyone had randomly switched bodies with another player, which, in his opinion, was why I had played so well. He told me I was used to my body type, which is why I had the coordination to dominate. I wanted to play again and temporarily switch bodies with somebody else, but everyone else was too tired, so we left.

When we walked outside, I realized it was nighttime already. I tried figuring out who was inside of Eric D by looking at his posture, and by observing who else was there. I came to the conclusion that it was one of the Matteson boys (Cam or Adam), for he had a similar posture to the two of them. I talked a bit more with Eric D's body to see if I could figure out which one he was. He then told me that he had dressed up as Candy Cane the night before, and that his brother had dressed up as Mad Dawg, and the two of them went around camp, setting off fire crackers. They had also 'rung the bell' (there is, for some reason, an appeal for some teen campers to ring the big bell at night). By the way, Candy Can and Mad Dawg were two characters created and acted by Norm Dial and myself; they were hardcore bikers who ride a moped around and talked crazy at teen camp. I was a bit angry that Cam and Adam had tried to frame Norm and I by dressing up as our characters, but I was also a bit amused.

I followed Cam or Adam back to his campsite and said goodbye.

Then I went to McDonald's in the middle of the night.

There was a great group of young people there who had just arrived on a big yellow bus. They were all ordering food, so I had to wait for all of them to finish before I finally got the chance to order. When it was finally my turn, I realized that I had no money (I didn't forget my wallet or anything like that, I just realized that I actually possessed no cash or credit of any kind).

I walked away sad and hungry. I was stopped by a homeless-looking man who was drinking a strawberry milkshake. He took the lid off of his shake and put his hand right inside of it and pulled out a wad of cash and coins and threw them on the ground in front of me. I was about to bend over and pick some of it up when a flock of teens dove onto the floor and picked up all the money before I could act. The man, who didn't seem so homeless to me anymore, looked at me and flipped me a quarter, for which I thanked him.

I tried to buy a McChicken, but the cashier wouldn't let me.

Then I awoke.