Dream #402 (July 11, 2011)

Back from the dead.

This dream was crazy. Several people and I were renting a house at Sleeping Bear Dunes in northern Michigan. It was right on Lake Michigan, though the terrain was a lot more extreme in my dream. There were rocky mountains, sandy mountains, and huge crashing waves all about the coastline. There were few other homes near ours, and we were pretty secluded.

I decided to leave the crowded house on this particular day to explore my surroundings outside. With me I took a clone of my younger brother. Now, this clone was an exact replica of Mike when he was about 12 years old. We both journeyed through a field of very tall grass (a small path had been made through it before by somebody else) and arrived at the shoreline.

Without thinking, the clone Mike ran and jumped into the lake (this was very dangerous in my dream, for the waves were violently pushing into the rocky shore). It was not long before he was swept away.

I panicked. I looked around and gathered some bamboo and built myself a raft and pushed it out into the lake. I drifted along the coast for quite sometime without a glimpse of the clone.

Suddenly, I saw his head come up. He was close enough for me to throw him a vine, and he caught it. However, a sudden and great wave blasted at his back, causing him to let go of the vine and go under water. I didn't see him again that afternoon.

I returned to the house when night fell, disheartened. I knew that it was just a clone, but it was still my brother, in a way. I found a small kitchen closet and fell asleep there for the night.

The next day, I bundled up in a thick green winter coat (it had snowed heavily that night and was very cold). I was given a few provisions by some of the others staying at the house (saltine crackers, peanut butter, and water), and was sent out into the dark cold.

I pushed through the biting winds and the stinging chill until I reached the shore. There was no sign of clone Mike, so I climbed atop the tallest rock there (this rock was like a small mountain) and stood there to see if I could spot him. I could not.

I turned and looked into the mountain behind me and saw a camera moving about. I also saw a monitor. Apparently, the news was reporting about the beach where I was standing, and I just happened to be there as they were doing so. The camera was hovering near me, and seemed to be controlled by a remote somewhere far away. I grabbed the camera and, after looking at the monitor to make sure I was being broadcasted live, I asked if anybody had seen my brother, then I gave them my phone number so they could contact me if they had.

Then I climbed down from the rock. Right after doing so, I received a call on my cell phone from an unknown number. I answered it and found the caller to be Laura (a person my brain made up), an elderly woman who lived a couple houses down from the house in which I was staying. She told me that clone Mike had wandered naked into her home and she had taken care of him.

I then walked about a mile down the beach until I reached the house. The kind elderly lady welcomed me in, gave me a bowl of tomato soup, and sat me down next to my clone brother.

Then I awoke.

I fell back asleep and entered a different dream.

I was living in the same rented house in northern Michigan, but this time it was with a group from Prairie Camp (both the staff and the campers were residing there for the week). I was told by Carrie (the camp director) to create a complex game on the spot, so I did just that.

I made a mystery involving several different stations that the groups of young teenagers had to visit in order to solve a murder mystery I had created. I made maps on the green poster board that I had lying around (I have a bunch of that stuff in real life that I use for a green screen). I only had time to put a couple of the destinations on the maps.

Then, for unknown reasons, I took a bunch of tennis balls and placed them at various destinations. I thought to myself, I'll make the mystery open-ended so that the students came come up with their own solutions that are neither right nor wrong. I planned on making winners of the most creative crime solvers.

Then I climbed up to the attic of the house and crawled out of a window there. The window led into the middle of a sand dune, and I had to mole my way out. En route to the outside, I discovered two buried tennis balls. I didn't know how they got there. I set up a little station at the top of the dune, then walked across over to a rocky mountain and set up a station there.

After that, I returned to the house and instructed the other staff members to put together a few graham cracker and frosting houses. Then the kids entered from outside and Carrie told me to tell them how the game/mystery was to be played. I was still unsure of some of the guidelines of the game, but I started explaining anyway.

Then I awoke.

Dream #401 (May 31, 2011)

This is craziness. By the way, this may be the last update for a while. I'll probably throw a dream online every once in a while, but my summer is going to be very busy.

I first dreamt that I was in a forest with several weird creatures that were from various children's television shows (not real TV shows; the only real character was Grimace from McDonald's). Grimace, my brother Matt Baughman, a slimy little purple creature, a human-sized doll, a bunch of animals, and I were dancing around a bonfire. As we danced, the purple guy oozed up a tree and began singing. Then lightning struck that very tree, frying the poor guy to death.

We were all shocked. Because most of us were from make-believe children's worlds, we didn't really believe that death was possible. Therefore, we continued to party as if nothing had happened.

What felt like hours later, we checked back on our former friend, and he was still there, now more of a charcoal black color than a purple, still smoking. We decided to face the facts and bury him.

We all dug a hole (Grimace was the most efficient digger) together and placed the dead goo into it. Matt said a few kind words about the creature, then the service was over. But, before Grimace began to fill in the hole, I stopped him and convinced everyone that we should leave the hole uncovered, just in case we were still mistaken about our friend's fate.

Another couple hours later, it began to rain heavily. I heard a sudden and shrill outburst coming forth from where we had our burial. I ran to the still open hole and found that the purple slime had resurrected. Everybody celebrated.

Then I switched to a different dream.

I was with Amy Ennis, my brother Michael Baughman, and three other guys I don't know (they were from Italian decent) in a family-owned Chinese restaurant. We were in the area because of a wilderness camp we were running there, but we had abandoned the kids to eat out. We were having a good time, talking about how the week was going and eating General Tso's chicken, when zombie children began pounding on the windows of the building, trying to get inside.

The kids were taller and fatter than most, and they had nasty, decaying skin. They were quite scary. Amy, Mike, the Italians, and I began barricading the doors to protect ourselves (we were the only ones left in the restaurant, for there were no other customers and the owners had fled). Our blockade was failing, and violent, big children were entering the restaurant, one by one.

I picked up a chair and ripped a leg off of it and began beating the kid zombies with all the energy and fear I had in me. I managed to defeat many, but their supply was endless. I looked out of the corner of my eye and saw a kid sinking his teeth into Amy's left arm.

Then I awoke (though I was still within that same dream). I found myself in my wilderness tent. Had it all been a dream? I woke up my brother and the three Italians (who were sleeping in the same tent as I) and asked them if they had remembered child zombies. They said that they had no memory of such a catastrophe. I went outside the tent to get some fresh air after such an intense dream.

It was still dark out, and the dead and decaying leaves on the ground were wet. It must have been autumn in my dream. I looked about the campsite to assure myself that everything was alright. But it wasn't. I saw a man dart behind a tree when I looked his way, then I noticed a strange tent not far from our campsite on property that we had reserved. I chased the guy down, but then I realized that I should get help in case things took a fuzzy turn (that's a strange phrase; I don't think it's real, but I'm sticking with it).

I went and grabbed Mike, one of the Italians, and a shotgun, and made my way over to the tent. The man had hid in there (what a horrible hiding spot), and I shouted at him until he showed his face. It was Zach Morton (a guy I haven't seen for years), and he informed me that he was a boy scout and he wanted to make sure our camp was operating smoothly. I told him that we had everything under control, and he then began to cry and apologize for sneaking around. He fell to my knees and begged for forgiveness. I told him not to worry about it, as long as he packed up his things and left before morning. He then began showing me his belongings: a pair of binoculars, a saber, and a compass.

Then I awoke.

Dream #400 (May 28, 2011)

Dream #400. Holy guacamole.

I dreamt that I was with Brent Thomas in the gymnasium at Prairie Camp. All the campers were in there playing with special paper airplanes that Brent and I had assembled earlier that day. They buzzed about in the air much longer than typical paper airplanes do. The campers were also bouncing small rubber balls all over the place. These balls had a 101% bounce, so they never stopped bouncing and increased their speed with every contact of a surface. The gym was a crazy place to be, so I took half of them out to the climbing tower and had them entertain themselves there.

I awoke eventually. I wish I could have had a more eventful dream for #400. Maybe #401 will be better.

Dream #399 (May 27, 2011)

Yet another alien dream.

I dreamt that I was working at Prairie Camp. However, camp was much different than it is in real life. Everything was dark, and unquenchable fires were burning all about. A camp assembly was being held at a large set of bleachers. The seats were all full of extra terrestrial campers, and the humans had to sit on the ground next to the bleachers.

Suddenly, the alien campers began shooting the human campers with their laser blasters. This, of course, upset me greatly, and I tried to get my bosses (different than my bosses in real life) to kick the aliens out of the camp, but they told me that they wanted species diversity. It bothered me that they didn't take the death of several campers seriously.

Then the aliens received a stern warning not to kill anyone else. They promised that they wouldn't, but when I was explaining a game later that night, they began shooting campers again. I became very angry with my superiors, and I let them know my opinions. Then a bunch of men in black suits came and shut the camp down, ordering everyone to leave.

I sat by the exit to the camp (which was a small carpeted room) and watched the campers and their parents leave in a single file line. The only people in this line that I knew where Brent Thomas and Bud, Cris, and Dori Walterhouse. As Dori walked by me, her young face turned old, which startled me.

Then I awoke.

Dream #398 (May 26, 2011)

This was strange.

I dreamt that I was cruising down a back road in Hamlet, Indiana with my brother Mike Baughman. I was driving a blue car from the 80's. We were moving right along until the car suddenly hit a nasty bump that caused the passenger door to fly open. I stopped the car immediately.

Mike and I got out to observe the damage. We discovered that we hat hit two wooden blocks with weird, thick antenna sticking out of each of them. I picked them up and put them in the car. I was about to drive away when I noticed in my side view mirror that my wallet and some of my other possessions were lying by the side of the road where we had hit the wood blocks. I got out of the car and got my things.

I then drove to a house in the country where a graduation party was being held. There were several people there, and I was telling them my story about what had happened. Then one of the guys there informed me that somebody had place those weird wood blocks in the road so that he or she could steal my wallet. It was a weird technology.

Then a young guy walked out of the house and informed everyone that aliens had just contacted Earth for the first time.

I then left the party with Mike and drove down the road, contemplating what it all meant.

Then I awoke.

Dream #397 (May 23, 2011)

I was on vacation from blogging.

I dreamt that I was in my front yard with my little brother. We were having a bake sale.

There were several wooden table set up under the pines trees there, filled with various breads, cakes, muffins, roles, pies, and more tasty treatsies. Now, my brother (Mike Baughman) and I don't bake very often, but this dream made me want to learn the art form. There was so much good food.

Well, not very many people came to our bake sale. There was an old lady who was dripping with perfume, weighed down by several pearl necklaces, who purchased a few loaves of bread, but that was our only customer.

After a while, Morgan Ferch (my neighbor) walked across the street and asked how things were going. I informed her of our lack of business, then offered her a piece of carrot cake to take back home to her family. Then, suddenly, she began to strangle me.

This strange reaction was the result of my older brother (Matt Baughman) throwing his dog into my bed (in real life), causing me to come painfully into consciousness.

Dream #396 (May 14, 2011)

Another dream.

I dreamt that I was at a campground with Kevin Chupp and Mike Baughman (my younger brother). We were living in a cabin there, for we were the overseers of a teen retreat that was taking place. We had just returned from the grocery store, where we had purchased the groceries for the week: Craisins, cereal, milk, chips, and a frozen turkey.

There were a bunch of teens playing Frisbee with disc golf discs in our front yard when we returned. Mike and Kevin went inside the cabin to put away the groceries while I stayed and played around with the young guys. Brandon Snodgrass (a camper of mine from years ago) was there playing with Kevin’s yellow Beast (a kind of disc). I asked him where he had found it, and he told us that they had borrowed the discs from our house. I wasn’t too upset with that, for I was glad the guys were having fun.

When I walked into the cabin, I found Stan Marks there telling Mike and Kevin about his wedding plans. I asked him how he was doing, and he told me that he wanted to watch Star Wars. I thought that sounded like fun, so I walked over to the DVD player and popped in Episode II (why did I choose that one?).

Then I awoke.