Dream #43 (September 3, 2009)

This dream is quite extensive and, for me at least, exciting. Unfortunately for my readers it is the longest dream description I believe I have ever had on this blog.

The beginning of the dream started off in a run-down, rusty 15 passenger van. My grandfather (my dad's dad) was driving the bus at full speed down the highway. A bunch of other 20-something-year-old people (guys and girls I do not know) and I were riding in the passenger seats.

Here is the back story that I knew coming into the dream that you need to know:

--All of us young people and my grandfather in the van were a part of a rebellion taking place in Virginia Beach. The lower class people of Virginia Beach were trying to form their own town. However, the Virginia state government would not allow this. In fact, they hired local people to become a part of a Virginia Beach Militia in order to choke the resistance. I chose, not surprisingly, to be on the side of the Rebellion.--

As we were riding in the van, we were trying to crack a coded message that we had intercepted from the leaders of the Militia. After much hard work, we discovered that the encoded word was a French word (it started with a B, but I am pretty sure that it was not a real French word). So, because none of us knew French, we stopped at a 7-11 off the highway so we could look it up on a computer we had.

Unfortunately we chose my grandfather (who is not exceptional at searching the internet, or at least he was not in my dream) to search the French word on the Internet. I went in with him so that I could assist him if he needed. However, after a few seconds on the computer, some leaders of the Militia that I recognized walked in. Not wanting to be in the store longer than the needed amount of time, I tried to convince my grandfather to let me look up the word, but just as he was letting me, I heard a scream come from the van outside. We had been discovered, and the Militia men were storming through the store searching for us (they were being quite ridiculous about it, turning over whole aisles of gas station food, throwing things around, etc.).

Just then, everything calmed down and everyone left. After a few seconds of relief, I noticed that water was beginning to build up on the ground below me. We were being flooded. The room quickly began to fill up, and I had nowhere to go. Somehow my grandfather had escaped outside, but I had no hope of that. Then I found a hatch below me. When I opened it, me and all the water around me dropped quickly down into a tunnel. I floated a little ways, but eventually the water ran out and I was able to walk.

After walking for a little while, I heard a loud voice say to me, "Joseph, you will fight for both sides in this war so that you will learn both sides." Confused as to where the voice was coming from I searched the tunnel only to find nothing. Next thing I knew, the tunnel opened up above my head and I crawled out. I was in the Militia camp. Fortunately there was an empty uniform near the place I crawled out, so I put that on and walked around the camp.

I heard people talking about how they wanted the war to be over and that they wish they did not have to be a part of this bloodshed. Yet they still blamed all their problems on the people of the Rebellion. I was starting to see another point of view.

Then I saw a familiar car off in the distance (it is not familiar to me in reality, however). So I decided to go over to it only to discover that it was a member of the Rebellion who was spying on the Militia camp. I decided to leave with him since he was a buddy of mine.

By now it was dark. We pulled up to a theater where a secret meeting was supposed to be held. To our surprise and dismay, we found that the place had been discovered by the Militia. We were then taken to center stage along with about 12 other members of the Rebellion. The Militia men proceeded to stone us. I was hit several times in the legs, neck, and face. It was a miserable experience. Next thing I knew, the ceiling opened above me (like when the tunnel opened above me) and a rope ladder fell from the roof. I climbed out of the torture before the Militia men knew I had escaped.

When I got to the roof, I found another Militia uniform. Once I put it on, a helicopter picked me up and took me to a Rebellion concentration camp of sorts.

At the prison camp there was a river of lava flowing through it, and members of the Rebellion were being forced to march down the river chained together as they carried large lava rocks. I was up on a platform with a bunch of other Militia men who were throwing little rocks down at the prisoners. I did not want to take part. Then I realized I was standing next to a friend.

Nathan Galvez was looking upon the abuse with regret. Apparently he was a part of the Militia, which threw me off guard. I said to him, "I don't understand how the Militia can do this to the Rebellion. After being on both sides, I think in the end I will side with the Rebellion." Then Nathan said to me, "I can see where you are coming from. However, because I will have been a part of the Militia for so long, I believe I will side with them in the end. It is not as bad as many make it out to be. Not everyone is like these fellows next to us." He pointed over to the men who were throwing stones at the prisoners. "In fact, we do not keep prisoners for more than a few months."

Next thing I knew I was away from the prison camp. I was setting up folding chairs and distributing bottled water at a convention being held by the Rebellion. Reverend Ken Chupp (from Indiana) was going to be talking to us about our calling to be in the Rebellion. It was then that I considered whether or not this was justified and if the church should support either side. Then a large battle broke out in the field behind the convention center.

When I rushed out there to see what was going on, I saw that the two sides were facing off. No fighting had actually yet begun, but I could see that it was about to start. Not wanting to see any bloodshed, I rushed onto the centerline of the battlefield that separated one side from the other (it was actually defined). I tried my best to persuade the people that an actual battle (which had not yet taken place in this war) would be foolish, and they would soon regret it.

My speech seemed to work at first. People began to lay down their weapons and listen to me. But then something terrible happened. One of the sides (I still do not know which one) fired off an explosive that killed many people that were standing right next to me, and it took from my both of my legs. I fell to the ground just as both sides began to rush at each other.

Blood was all around me. Because I no longer had my legs, I was forced to lay there on the ground as people fell to there deaths to my right and to my left. After many people had died or become mortally wounded, the few remaining people continued to fight. To my right was Dan Morgan, who had a grenade (it was actually an explosive gummy worm) and to my left was some woman who had no defense. Dan had been wounded and was barely able to move. Even so, he still managed to throw the grenade, which was very foolish because he would surely die by the explosion along with the woman and me.

Just as the grenade was about to hit the ground right in front of me, I awoke.

I do not know where such a dream came from. It was one of the most intricate and complicated dreams I have had for quite some time, and afterward I had to contemplate it for a long time.

Dream #42 (September 2, 2009)

Strange.

At the beginning of my dream, my father dropped me off at a small town outside of Chicago. Not knowing what to do there, I decided to walk to Chicago.

The places through which I journeyed were very strange in appearance and in atmosphere. The streets were very dusty, almost sandy, and the buildings seemed to be quite dirty and disgusting. Most of the towns I walked through looked this way, though there were two towns that were very shiny in appearance.

Eventually I found my way to the highway, where I walked on top of a guardrail for what seemed like miles. When the Chicago exit came, it walked it down into the city where I was surprised to find an appearance similar to the other towns I had walked through (the look of the dream was light brownish). What was even stranger was the emptiness of the city. There were very few cars anywhere, allowing me to walk in the middle of the road. Furthermore, there were only a handful of people that I saw.

I even ventured into a large, run-down mall where the store signs and billboards were barely hanging from their posts and where people were all sitting down on various benches, motionless.

I was a little disturbed by the sight, so I left. Thankfully I found a Kroger where I would be refreshed by the scent of fruit and vegetables.

Inside the store, I found my dad shopping. As I approached him, I was surprised that he was not surprised to see me. We said hello to each other, and he said he would pick me up from Kroger in a couple of hours, then he left.

Before I could get board of the store, I found a large swimming pool and a load of Hotwheels tracks, tape, and other construction materials. I was excited.

I spent the next portion of my dream developing and building a large double race track across the pool that turned the corner and ended by the cash registers. Along the way, the track landed on little boats that would float to the next part of the track. Interestingly enough, when I tested out the track, I used a Mario and a Luigi action figure instead of a little car.

It worked wonderfully both times I tried it. Then a person I know from camp, Sam Shirts, jumped into the pool and broke part of the track. Worse yet, he did not even care that he destroyed my masterpiece. Instead of scolding him, however, I decided to make conversation with him by asking how school was going.

When we were done talking I left with my father and went back home. When I returned I found my mother running around the house with a broom trying to kill a giant spider. Without reacting to her, I walked over to the spider, picked it up, squished it between my fingers, and fed it to my dog Sadie (who once was alive).

Then I awoke.

Dream #41 (September 1, 2009)

This is kind of strange.

The dream began inside of my Uncle Keith's house in Fort Wayne, Indiana. His family, my family, and David and Carrie Badertscher (my bosses at Prairie Camp) were all playing games together. At the time, we were playing Apples to Apples and, coincidentally, we were eating bright green apples at the same time.

Several times during the game, I stood up from the floor (we were playing on the carpet) and went over to pet a dog in a cage in the kitchen.

The third time I went to pet the dog, I looked out the window and saw something very interesting. First of all, the backyard was actually the backyard of my parent's house in Koontz Lake, Indiana, not the backyard of Uncle Keith. Secondly, there was a big fake gorilla hanging from a noose hanging from a large pine tree.

I wandered outside to investigate further, only to find that Wendy (the red-headed girl from the restaurant chain of the same name) was hoisting the gorilla up in the tree with great pleasure. When she saw me, she screamed and ran away, letting the gorilla fall to the ground at my feet. After looking down into the marble eyes of the gorilla for several seconds, I, for no apparent reason, began to mercilessly beat the fake ape.

After several powerful punches, the gorilla and I both began to sink deep into the earth below us until we eventually burst threw a sewer pipe. The two of us floated rapidly down the stream of waste to an unknown destination.

Suddenly I found myself spilling into the basement of David and Carrie Badertscher.

Then I awoke.

Dream #40 (August 31, 2009)

I'm sorry for the brevity of this post.

In last night's dream I spent the entire time with my friend Neil Silveus in an Alaskan mountain range.

We said nothing, and we focused only on hiking. Though I saw many beautiful mountains, not much happened in the dream that I can describe.

Eventually I awoke from the dream.

Dream #39 (August 30, 2009)

This dream was a lot of fun.

It began inside of a garage that belonged to the father of an apparent friend of mine. Jonathan Ayee, two other guys, a girl, and I were all in the garage checking out a load of bicycles. The girl's father was allowing each of us to pick out a bike we liked that we would then be able to keep as our own. Jon Ayee picked out a sweet chrome blue bike that was very flashy, the other guys each took orange bikes, the girl also took a blue bike that was not quite as showy, and I took an old upright red bike with a basket.

Once we got our bikes we proceeded to bike up a nearby fire escape (we were in the middle of a city) and biked up to the roof of a very tall building. Once on top, we jumped from roof to roof for miles and miles at lighting speed.

After we grew tired, we stopped at a Burger King that was at the top floor of a big office building (in fact it was the exact same Burger King as the one in Dream #9). We ate their while watching X-Games on the little television in the restaurant (which is interesting because I've never been a big fan). When we were satisfied, we continued to ride around the top of the buildings.

After a while, one of the other guys (who I then realized was Matthew Jesse, a guy I barely knew in high school who was several grades ahead of me) rode off a building and fell to the ground, never to get up again.

Shocked by the sudden tragedy, the girl, Jonathan, and I decided to go down to the ground (the other guy went off by himself). We decided to get Slushies in a fancy orange restaurant we discovered. While I was waiting for my drink, I noticed that my waiter was carrying a gun.

Then I awoke.

Dream #38 (August 29, 2009)

This dream started outside a dim blue house in the middle of a wasteland. The sand was flying everywhere as I approached the blue house. There was nothing else besides sand and sky as far as the eye could see, and I was all alone. With me I had a clipboard and a big brown 1 gallon hat. The house had a very large porch on the outside and was decayed badly.

When I reached the door, I knocked several times without answer. Eventually I just decided to enter the house. I set my big had on a chair that was near the door and began to have a look around. I looked down at my clipboard and noticed that there were certain boxes that there was a list of qualifications that the house had to fit. I must have been some sort of inspector.

After thoroughly searching the house, looking under every ledge, behind every piece of furniture, and in every closet, I stood by an enormous window and looked out into the vast, dry desert. I then thought about the blue house I was in (not only was the exterior blue; the interior wall, furniture, and appliances were all blue as well). It was old and out of shape, but I liked it. I did not even mind the fact that the house only had one window (maybe the extremely large size of the window compensated for the lack of windows).

I proceeded to set up for dinner. I pulled out from under the stove three very large pots and began to boil water. I then opened up a cupboard and pulled out several pounds of spaghetti and spaghetti sauce. I dumped everything I had into the boiling water, and I even added some vegetables (whole, uncut vegetables) and spices (whole bottles of hot sauce and ketchup). I also added an unhealthy amount of cheese (cottage, parmesan, swiss, and mozzarella) into the mix.

When the spaghetti was done, I put it all into a large pan that took up the entire length of the dinning room table. Then the guest arrived (from out of nowhere). The list of visitors included my old youth pastor (Peter) and his wife, some nicely dressed old businessmen, and Ed Asner (who looked very unhappy). Because I had no utensils, I served these people with my bare hands, which got very messy.

After everyone was served, Ed Asner approached me and began to yell at me. He mentioned something about my establishment being unsanitary and about the food being low class.

Then I awoke.

Dream #37 (August 28, 2009)

This is not too exciting, but it rather makes up for the exceptionally long dream description of yesterday.

All night long (as far as I know), I kept thinking/dreaming of the mewithoutyou/Psalters concert I attended the night before. All my dreams were a strange version of this concert. I would occasionally be playing with the band onstage. At other times I would be flying around the room as the band played strange music. It was bizarre to say the least.

I awoke surprisingly refreshed.