Dream #553 (August 11, 2025) Inflatable Ark

Little sleep but still a dream.

    I was (and this seems to be common in my dreams even still) working as a camp programmer. This particular camp was a weird combination of forested areas and closed down shopping centers (with vines growing up the walls and everything). I was taking a group of kids on a hike. We circled around a geological formation similar to a small Devil's tower, but covered in moss, then crossed a very long and very high rope bride. One of the campers had a bow and shot the rope bridge with an arrow. leaving a huge gash in the rope. I said allowed, "This is going to come in to play later I'm sure" (it never did). Then we walked through an old mall with flickering fluorescent lights and vines growing along the walls. Right as we entered the mall it started to rain. I looked at a pocket radar I had and saw that heavy rains were expected. I let the camp counselors take the kids to their next destination and I called the director.

    She told me that severe flooding was coming and that we needed to gather all the campers and board them onto an ark. I was trying not to panic, but there were a lot of kids that needed to be gathered and not a lot of time. I instructed all the counselors I could find and we started lining up campers and sending them toward the ark once each group was accounted for.  The floors of the mall were starting to flood, and some areas were nearly impassable. There was a smaller kid struggling to wade through the water so I carried him for a bit. Nobody was panicking too severely and the evacuation was going smoothly.  I waited in the mall until every counselor and camper made it out safely, then followed them across the rope bridge and down to a nearby pier.

    The sky was navy blue, and amber lanterns lined the pier that led to a giant blue inflatable ark. All the kids boarded and I did a quick check to make sure nobody was left behind. However, before I could board, a huge wave came and crashed into the pier, causing it to collapse. I ran and leapt onto the ark just in time as the pier disappeared into the water (which was dark as oil). The kids were safely in the hold of the vessel, but I was sliding around the top of the ark. Because it was inflatable, it was difficult for me to get solid footing. I nearly fell off the edge several times and the waves and rain harassed me. I finally saw a way down to the hold.

Then I awoke.

Dream #552 (August 10, 2025) Prairie House Strangers

 I slept poorly but I had a dream.

    I went with Cat to a house in the middle of an empty prairie to visit friends of her who lived there for the first time (they only exist within this dream). Jason, his wife Stacy, and Ethen, all in their 30s. It was an older house with lots of sticky looking wallpaper, yellowed floor tile, and old wooden furniture (some of which was cool looking). We got in late in the evening so we prepped for bed. Ethen was really close with Cat and they went off and chatted in another room while I prepped a couple of air mattresses. Jason and Stacy talked to me about something that I don't remember, then gave me general instructions about where to find the bathroom, where they keep their towels, etc.  I ended up going to bed.

    I awoke (within the dream) to find Jason lying on top of me (I was sleeping on my stomach). Having only just met him that made me very uncomfortable. I asked him if he would get off of me but he didn't. Then I saw Ethen sitting in a nearby chair laughing at the situation, making fun of me for being sensitive. Cat was laughing as well from the other side of the room where her air mattress had been moved to. Stacy must've still been asleep.

    Finally I gently forced Jason off of me and asked if I could get some more sleep since I had only slept a couple hours, but Ethen was anxious for everyone to get up so we could play his game. Eventually I was left alone in the room as everyone else was getting ready for this game. I took my time getting around because I was so exhausted and unmotivated. I didn't much care for the vibe of these people. I eventually made my way downstairs. I helped myself to a bagel in the kitchen, then went to the backyard.

    There I found a gigantic encaged field with complicated markings and lines all about. There were clear plastic walls surrounding all sides of the field, and it was shaped like an 'l.' There were about a dozen people all dressed in athletic gear playing this game, including everyone in the dream so far, some random strangers, and Questlove. In this game, the players would chuck marbles at the walls and other players would try to catch them before they hit the ground. It seemed very dangerous and too simple to be fun. Questlove seemed to be having a great time though, so I thought I'd give it a try. For some reason there were rubber bands lying about everywhere. Questlove chucked a big marble near me and I dove on the ground to catch it. Someone else threw a whole handful of marbles at me while I was lying on the ground, which seemed like not a part of the game. I looked up and it had been Ethan.

Then I awoke.

Dream #551 (August 9, 2025) Video Gaming Stranger and Camping

My therapist wants to talk dreams and this is the best way for me to remember them. I guess Blogspot still exists.

    I don't remember the circumstances that led me to this stranger's bedroom but there I was. He was in his late 20s or early 30s, short beard, glasses, brown hair (though I'm weirdly not great at remembering hair color in real life so this could be inaccurate) and a few inches shorter than me. I was supposed to be retrieving something from him but I don't remember what. He was busy playing a vintage video game on a small CRT television in the corner of his room (though it was vintage and first generation Nintendo-looking, he had a headset and was talking at the game the whole time). I tried to interact with him but he was too busy, so I studied his room for a bit. He had completed lego sets displayed on his shelves, a colorful Star Wars comforter made nicely on his bed (similar to one I had when I was a kid), several other gaming systems set up on various dressers, and some photos of him and his partner (in the dream I knew of him through her but I don't recognize her in real life).

    I decided to go find a bathroom and wandered through this gigantic house to find it. There was a massive living room with vaulted ceilings and a style that you might encounter in a rich person's retirement home. A grandfather clock, flowery patterned couches and chairs, carpeting, beige walls, etc. I went to the bathroom (had a similar style and made me think this guy lived with his parents maybe [no shame in that]).  When I returned to his room he had finished playing. To make small talk I asked him about one of his gaming counsels.  It was some version of a Switch, but instead of just the side controllers coming off the screen, the screen split in half down the middle and could be taken apart. I asked the guy how it works out of curiosity, and he insisted on showing me and playing the game with me. I talked about how I probably needed to be leaving soon, but then he started talking about how I was going to go help him shop for groceries.

    Then I awoke (or so I thought). I found myself on a large gravel parking space in a campground. I was talking to my friend Andrew DeSelm about the dream as if it were real life, telling him I got to play the new Switch 2 (in this portion of the dream I started realized that the gaming experience I had was a dream as I was telling it to Andrew, so I wasn't straight up lying to him at first, but kind of was by the end of telling it?). Andrew, my brother Mike, and I were all working with a bunch of teenagers for a sort of camp. Mike and my responsibilities were mainly to film and photograph the campers, though I also had to run some of the programming (similar to a job I used to have). We were camping in North Carolina near Grandfather Mountain and there were a ton of campers and very little staff.  Andrew went off to prep food for the campers while Mike and I started taking photos. Some other staff member had borrowed my camera so I looked at the photos they had taken. They were all terribly out of focus (I have cinema prime lenses which don't autofocus and they probably didn't realize that).  I took some photos of campers setting up their tents, then I went and helped set up some giant tents with other staff members.  I also for some reason was supposed to make a short film with everybody so I was trying to plot out different scenes around the campsite.  My friend and drummer Mal was there as well, setting up for a show her band (The Matriarch) was going to play later that night. 

    Soon it was time to lead all the campers on a mountain hike. In my dream I remembered a hike from some other dream I had who knows when and decided to take everyone there. I directed the 15-passenger-van and bus drivers where to take the students. As I was about to leave, I realized that Mal had disappeared. I saw a text saying she was taken into custody for protesting something, which was concerning. I sent Mike to go be with the campers while I went to the tent where Mal was being held by some sort of law enforcement. I found that they had some other prisoners being held there, but they told me Mal had to be relocated but wouldn't tell me where.

    Not knowing what to do, I went back to the campsite to find the director (Carrie B. who used to be my director at the camp I worked at). She was busy prepping a scene in the large tent for the short film I was supposed to work on.

Then I awoke.

Dream #549 (September 6, 2018) - Game Board and City Basketball

This dream maybe doesn't justify returning to the dream blog after nearly a year of absence, but whatever.


I was on a flat earth that was a life-sized version of a board game, suspended in deep space.  The game board resembled a lightly wooded exterior, though it was apparent that the grass, rocks, paths, and trees were all laid on a totally flat surface.  The first space on the trail started right outside a glowing cave that didn't seem accessible by a creature of my size.

I began strolling down the path, collecting small stones and searching the area for little bonus items that I might be able to use.  As I walked, I could occasionally view myself from a birds-eye perspective, as a player of the game.  After the first bend in the trail, I came across a blank tombstone with some freshly dug earth and decided to dig.  As I was digging, I heard two voices chatting as they past me on the game path.  I didn't want to fall behind too early, so I decided to give up on the dig and return to heading down the trail.  I saw that the players that had passed me were Cat and Janelle.  I sprinted to catch up, and I met up with them at the edge of the game board, which looked out into space.

Near us was a small building that we all decided to enter.  It was a chapel lit only by candles.  As Cat and Janelle explored the altar, I sat in the back pew.  I couldn't shake the feeling that I had missed something in the grave I was digging up, and after a bit of resisting, I left the chapel and returned to the tombstone to continue digging.  It wasn't long before I found a red rock that seemed special.  Out of instinct, I returned to the beginning of the board where the cave was and saw that there was a hole in the cave entrance that was the same shape as my rock.

I walked up to the entrance and placed the rock in its special place, causing the door to open up.  As I did so, a bus pulled up beside the cave and loads of kids with backpacks got off and started walking down the trail away from me.  I entered the cave.

Lights dangled from the ceiling, swaying to a breeze that I could not feel.  I walked across a rope bridge that stretched several hundred feet.  Below me I could see signs of a civilization: tents, wagons, small shops, but no people.  I paused on the bridge, closed my eyes, then reopened them.  As I looked around, I saw hundreds of ghost-like people walking about.  They were not translucent, but their faces were eggshell white, as were their ragged clothes and accessories (walking sticks, necklaces, hats, etc.).


Then I awoke in the middle of the night.


I returned to sleep and dreamt that I was walking in a sprawling city.  The sky above me was such a thick fog that the buildings all disappeared into it, appearing to be endlessly tall.  All these buildings were brown.  I walked aimlessly for a while, then entered through the double glass doors of one of the buildings.  I realized that I was carrying a basket containing a jersey, shorts, a headband and basketball shoes.  I found a locker room and changed into the athletic gear, then made my way into a gymnasium.

I walked immediately onto the basketball court, shoes still untied, and began playing in what was an Indiana state tournament game for high school basketball.  Most of the team I played with in real life was there as well.  After a short while, we were victorious.

I left and wandered about the city with my basket of clothes, still wearing my jersey.  I entered another building and realized it was a church that resembled Koontz Lake Missionary Church (where I attended during grade school).  My Nord keyboard was setup onstage and I knew I was to play it.  Norm was leading the band on guitar, and my brother Mike was on the drums.  Some other people I didn't know were playing as well.  I joined in midway through a song.  I was playing pretty well, but for some reason I kept playing a high C note during the D chords, turning the chords into a D7, which wasn't appropriate for the song.  I knew it was wrong but kept playing it.

After a couple other songs, my old high school friend Alik came and chatted with me.  Apparently he was also on the basketball team and wanted to know when and where we were next going to play.  I didn't know the answer.

I left and again wandered the brown, roofless city.  I entered a burger joint and got in line.  There I found other basketball teammates, Nathan and Brandon, and we talked about the last game and the one upcoming.  We took our orders (the restaurant was famous for their green burgers). I saw a massive line forming behind us, so I bought an extra burger and fries in case another of our teammates walked in.  Not long after we sat down, I saw Brandon's brother Shawn enter the back of the line.  I wanted to let him know that I had already picked him up some food, but I couldn't get his attention.  The place had become so crowded that I couldn't even move over to him.  I tried yelling his name, but my calls did not reach him.


Then I awoke.

Dream #548 (October 13, 2017) - Halfway House and Cadet Society

How quickly dreams fade from memory.


In the first dream, I was wandering around a mid-sized city at night.  I walked past apartment buildings, small parks, and a college, all lit with amber lights, making amber the only visible color.  Finally, I arrived at a sort of halfway house for the severely depressed.  It was a place where people could come and live communally with others suffering from depression, as well as counselors and caregivers.  There were a lot of people walking about in pajama pants upon arrival, since it was late at night.

I walked up to the front desk and asked several questions about the place, out of curiosity (though they initially mistook me for an incoming patient).  I then decided to donate several movies from my DVD collection (which I had with me in a backpack for some reason), including There Will Be Blood, The Departed, my Quentin Tarantino collection, among a few others. I'm not entirely sure why I thought such dark films were a good idea, but it seemed appropriate at the time.

I was excited about the work the place was doing.  People there seemed happy. It was setup much like a hotel, with a general lobby and dining area in the center, and hallways lined with doors reaching out from the center. When I left, I immediate sought the company of my friends Matt K and Adam P (a friend from high school) and told them all about this place.  Adam immediately decided he would donate a large set of rainbow umbrellas and blankets that he had stored near Koontz Lake in an old garage.  We gathered these things (I remember thinking that these would make for good props for a stylized video shoot) and took them to the halfway house.  They accepted this donation with great joy and had us set them up around a beach area they owned.

After finishing this task, I joined Matt and Adam in exploring the property a bit further. We saw only a few people as we walked down the various hallways.  Finally we found a somewhat-hidden entrance to a basement, and we explored down there. We found some nursery areas and kids' playrooms, which had all the typical toys.  Then we discovered the bathroom.  There were pools of urine on the floor, and green slime crawling down the walls.  The door jammed behind us and we couldn't get out the way we came in.  We were fortunate that there was an open door on the other side, though unfortunate that we had to wade our way through the urine and unknown gunk to make our escape.  I had the sudden urge to go to the bathroom, and did so in the toilet, though I'm sure it didn't matter where I went.

We finally emerged from the bathroom and made our way back up to the sandy beach.  We discussed for a while how we could improve the living situation of the guest at the house.


Eventually I transitioned into a different dream.


I was living in some sort of cadet society.  It was like a weird combination of military and farm life.  We had a farm to attend, but also took part in rigorous military training.  I was a younger version of myself, and everyone there was in their late teens.  The leaders were all middle-aged, and they were also all quite cruel to everyone living there.  The cadets had not volunteered to be there, and were instead something like slaves, for we didn't get paid for our work.

All the cadets slept in the same barn loft. We had only sleeping bags with no extra padding, and no area for privacy.  There were a lot of goofy characters there, including a very scrawny kid who spoke quite highly of himself regarding his success at charming the ladies.  There was another kid who was a pyromaniac, and enjoyed lighting fireworks and starting fires at inappropriate times (often getting the rest of us in trouble).  I seemed to live out several sitcom-y episodes, though there was a much darker element to it (as if Hogan's Heroes actually portrayed a more realistic prison camp).  There was a lot of racism among our leaders, and those among us with darker skin (including the pyromaniac) often got more severe punishments.

We, the cadets, were at last fed up with the way our leaders were treating us.  They had their fancy house were they all had their own living spaces.  They ate well while we ate terribly (many of us were malnourished).  They enjoyed entertainment, while we had to creatively come up with ways to get our minds off of our living situation.  But at least we had each other's company.

One among us was a combination of Chris Pratt and Ryan Gosling.  He was the oldest of the cadets, nearly 20, and he was beloved by everyone, for he often stuck out his neck for the rest of us.  At one such occasion, the leadership grew threatened by his leadership, and decided to overly abuse and torment him as a warning to the rest of us.  They took and beat him severely, nearly to death, and chained him up high in one of the large barns on the property.  Then the leaders locked the barn so that we could not visit him after they showed him to me and a few others.

I knew that we couldn't let this happen.  I gathered a couple of close friends (including the pyro), and we snuck out at night and made our way silently to the large barn.  We couldn't figure out a way in, so I decided to climb up to the roof with Pyro.  There we found a loose spot that we could pry back just enough to allow me to slide through.  After I had made it, I heard the voice of one of the leaders shouting at Pyro, who was forced to flee (I did not blame him at all), leaving me alone with the leader close behind me.

As I climbed around on the rafters, looking for a spot to drop down to the floor of the barn, I saw that the leader had climbed in after me.  He then descended, almost magically, to the floor far below and began to taunt me, laughing ferociously.  But I could not give up.  I saw a wire nearby that looked strong enough to hold my weight, and I leapt from the beam on which I was balancing and grabbed the wire.  My momentum carried me, allowing me to swing all the way to the wall where a ladder was resting conveniently.  I latched onto the ladder and came to the floor.

The leader began threatening me, pointing at what he had done to Chris/Ryan.  This particular leader, though strong, was of a heavier build, and I knew that I could outrun him (though I also know it would get me into further trouble).  I decided to run around him and leap up onto the rig that stood near where Chris/Ryan was dangling.  The leader tried to follow me, but I threw a wrench that was sitting on the rig down at him, hitting him in the face and knocking him out.  I leapt once more and clung onto the chains holding Chris/Ryan and was able to free him.  He fell a small ways to the ground, but managed to have a decent landing.

I heard shouts coming from outside the barn.  More leaders had come out.  As I considered my options (or a lack thereof), I heard another, more exciting noise: the sound of fireworks, followed by the screams of the leaders and of blasts hitting the barn door.

I climbed up the large door and unlocked it, and walked quickly with Chris/Ryan to the cadet barn, accompanied by Pyro and a few of his friends, who were covering us with firework blasts to keep the leaders away.

There we discussed what action we needed to take next. Pyro began to talk more like a leader and he assembled a large amount of angry cadets who were ready to take a more violent stance against the leadership.  There plans were to coral all the farm animals into one of the barns and threaten to light it on fire if the cadets could not get there way and their freedom.  Others wanted to capture a few of the leaders as well.

I feared this type of violence personally (I was very fond of the animals of the farm and did not want to see them come to harm.  However, I completely understood Pyro's perspective, and knew that extreme measures probably had to be taken at this point.  I was torn, as were several others among the cadets.

As we debated, the sun began to rise (which is rare in my dreams).  A gray early morning light began to shine around us through the various holes in the barn.  I was then able to see into our future.

I saw a vision of us inside the leader's home, tying down several of the leaders and trying to get them to agree to our terms, but then I saw the leaders overcoming us, causing us to fail in our attempt.  I saw another vision of a burning barn and of devastating animal cries.  I saw a vision of cadets sneaking along a river, hunting a large species of river rat in order to eat them to stay alive, always staying low and out of sight.  I saw many of the events of this dream replayed on a television, with different faces faking all of these experiences. I saw families watching at home, eating meals in front of the screens, enjoying themselves.


Then I awoke.

Dream #547 (January 10, 2017) - Con Artists and Cults

This dream was very long.  I've been told dreams only last an hour or two, but it's difficult to believe that sometimes.


I began this dream as a clean-shaven, brown-haired man married to a blonde gal.  We were con artists and traveled around the state of Oklahoma (I'm very unfamiliar with that state) and would con semi-wealthy folk into investing in pieces of real estate that we didn't own (I don't really know how this worked exactly).  We would take over property of people who were on vacation or deceased or whatever and bring in customers and make the transactions all in the matter of a couple of days, collect the money, and move on.

After a sort of montage of this behavior (that portion of the dream was pretty long, included a lot of hand-shaking with portly old men smoking cigars, and me dusting and arranging furniture), my wife and I accidentally broke into a home that was still occupied.  Inside this beautiful farm house were dozens of black-haired men with bowl cuts and white button-up shirts and black jeans.  It was apparently some sort of religious cult and they all stared at us without saying a word or looking particularly upset or angry with us.  They just had totally blank expressions.  For some reason they were scattered about the room arbitrarily, and they all were slightly leaning on something (a wall, a railing, etc.).  I was freaked out and wanted to escape.  Then I noticed that my wife had started to form the same expression on her face as she stared at one of the men.  I grabbed her arm and ran down a long glass hallway that led out into the backyard of the house.

A bunch of friends of ours were there with portable water-based entertainment (little pools, squirt guns, water bombs, water balloons, buckets, swimming suits, etc.).  They thought that we would have control of this property for a week, but I had to tell them they had to move their water party elsewhere.  My wife and I joined them (we followed their fleet of pickup trucks in our wood-paneled station wagon) to a remote grassy spot.  We set up all the pools and sprinklers and whatnot and the party commenced.

I couldn't stop thinking about the weird men we had seen; I wanted to know exactly what was wrong with them and if they could be helped.  I decided to leave the party (my wife stayed with them) and I returned to the farm house.  I hadn't noticed before, but there was a huge conference center built into the farmhouse (I wondered how I could miss such a thing).  The driveway and side door of the house, by the way, looked very similar to the driveway and side door of my family's old house that we lived in when I was very little.

I got out of my station wagon and walked through the glass hallway again, but this time taking a different turn that went deeper into the conference center.  The once empty hallway had since become nearly full of people.  It made me feel less conspicuous, though I felt weirded out by the masses.  They didn't all have the same bowl cut or clothing style as the men from earlier, but for some reason that didn't make me feel any more comfortable.

I entered the cult's gift shop, and there were all kinds of porcelain knickknacks and books with somehow stomach-churning graphic design.  A short elderly man with perfectly circular lensed glasses and simultaneously warm and eerie smile was at the cash register taking people's money.  He saw me and grabbed an angel figurine and offered it to me.  I refused it and continued walking.

Past the gift shop was a vast open space with a lot of windows and high ceilings, resembling an airport terminal.  All the decor was grey.  I saw my brother Mike talking with a group of his college friends, and I approached them.  They told me they thought this cult was hilarious and that they really wanted to see a service because of how ridiculous they hear it was.  I told them I would probably join them.  I was really curious.  I told them I would meet them in the sanctuary when the service started, and I left them and continued to explore the building.

I found a weird offshoot room that didn't resemble anything else.  It was a wooden, garage-like room with an insane amount of support beams connecting the floor, ceiling, walls, and other beams at varying angles.  There was a spinning wooden wheel in the center of the room with a trough of water below it.  The wheel was spinning without any sort of force propelling it.  I heard a choir singing in the distance and thought that the service was starting, so I headed for the sanctuary.

The sanctuary was blocked off by a huge concrete wall with four solid, windowless doors that led into it.  I saw my brother and his friends enter, and I starting speed-walking so that I could see where they were going to sit.  Then a boy started walking toward me from the sanctuary, causing me to pause.  He was a normal looking boy from his head to his knees, but his body ended there and his shins and feet were replaces by large metal forks that made an excruciating screech as he walked.  My heart was racing because this kid really freaked me out.  To top it off, he was wearing this green pair of goggles that had swirling black circles where his eyes should be.  I couldn't help but look into those goggles when he stood in front of me.

In the eyes of the goggles I was able to see inside the sanctuary.  I could see that my brother and his friends had all exchanged their regular clothes for white robes and were singing in the choir.  Their eyes looked dead.  I gathered that there was some sort of hypnotic quality to the service and decided I shouldn't enter.  Instead I headed to the nearest exit.

When I left the building, I discovered that my car was at the farthest corner of a vast parking lot and not in a driveway.  I wasn't sure if someone had moved my car or if there were something illusory about the whole place.  I began to see more and more people in the parking lot that at first looked empty to me.  They were all screaming and running about, flailing their limbs.  My car was the only car in the parking lot and some of the people were trying to get into it.  I also noticed that parts of the parking lot were burning and I was scared I would walk into a fire without seeing it.  I didn't know what things were real and what were illusions.

I managed to shove away the people around my car and I quickly got in and shut the door.  Then I heard someone pounding on my window and I saw Donald Glover (aka Childish Gambino - I called him "Childish" a couple times in the dream).  He was begging to get in, but I wasn't sure if I should open the door.

He appeared to be real, and in less of a panic (but still worried) than the other people in the parking lot, so I scooted over to the passenger seat and let him in.  I asked him if he knew the way out and he said he did and he booked it out of there.

I looked out the passenger window as the chaotic parking lot passed by.  When I looked at the driver's side, I saw that Donald was no longer there.  I called out for him, checking the back seat, but he was gone.  Then I realized that my left foot was stretched out over to the gas pedal and that I was in fact driving the car, and at a dangerous speed.  I looked through the windshield just in time to avoid crashing into a tree.  The car spun out and I climbed back into the driver's seat and continued driving. I had no idea where I was.


Then I awoke.

I tried to go back asleep because I wanted to keep that dream going, but that, of course, never works.

Dream #546 (January 9, 2017) Beach Firecrackers

Extra.

I was with Matt (older bro) on a hazy beach in a gloomy twilight (it felt like day, but didn't look like it).  We wandered through a series of locker rooms, past the navy lockers which looked like they could use a little touch-up.  Matt was wearing a grey hoodie and I had a blue Dashboard Confessional shirt (which once belonged to Matt in real life).  I was also carrying two awkwardly long (12 feet) firecrackers and I wasn't sure what I was supposed to do with them.

We made our way out to the beachfront and saw a college girls soccer game to our left and high school volleyball to our right.  Neither of us had much interest in watching either of them, so we walked right through the soccer field to the water (annoying spectators and players and referees).  The waves were tall, but gentle when they landed on the sand.  Matt and I walked away from the people for about a mile, as I tried to figure out the purpose of my firecrackers.  We didn't talk (my brother and I), but not because we were angry at each other or anything like that.

We encountered a large wall made from red sand bricks, on top of which we saw a dozen men pulling up a dozen stones using ropes attached to pulleys above the wall, all in unison.  They ignored us as we walked past the wall to a large rock face.  Matt decided to climb it, but I felt that it was important for me not to let go of my firecrackers, so I let him go and I walked back to the locker room alone.

I sat on a massage table in the middle of the room and decided it was at last time to take a rest from the firecrackers, so I set them outside the locker room building and relaxed on the massage table and fell asleep.

I woke up to a soccer player turning me over by the shoulder and diving in for a kiss.  I fought it off and ran outside.  Then I saw that the fuses on both of my firecrackers had been lit, and I sprinted away from them without much thought needed to consider the danger.

They exploded with a disappointing bang, but the flame produced was marvelous and horrifying.  The overhang above the locker room door caught on fire, followed by the whole building.  It was then that I realized the exteriors of all the buildings around me looked like something from Aladdin, and they all started to catch on fire.  A tiny firetruck (about the size of an electric car) pulled up to me and asked me the source of the fire.  I pointed to where the fireworks had exploded.  I knew we would all soon be engulfed in flames and didn't know why it mattered where the fire had begun.

Then I awoke.