Dream #294 (December 17, 2010)

Another dream has come.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Then I awoke.

Dream #293 (December 16, 2010)

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

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

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

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

Then I awoke.

Dream #292 (December 14, 2010)

This is a bit insane, but very interesting.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Dream #291 (December 3, 2010)

This is interesting.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Then I switched over to a different dream.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Then I awoke.

Dream #290 (December 2, 2010)

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

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

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

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

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

I managed to fall back asleep.

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

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

I soon awoke from that dream.

Dream #289 (December 1, 2010)

Scary.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Then I awoke.

Dream #288 (November 30, 2010)

Crazy.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Then I awoke.