Dream #510 (August 18, 2013) Defeat

Exciting and thoughtful (for me, probably not for any given reader).


I was riding in the back of a 15 passenger van which had all the back seats taken out.  Several of my buddies were with me (the only real person with me was Bo Ennis).  We were having a good old time off-roading for the fun of it.  Bo was driving like a maniac, which was awesome.  We flew over bumps, swerved around trees, and bursted through bushes, laughing all the way.

After a good amount of this fun, a war suddenly broke out.  Bullets were flying and the Enemy was pursuing us.  It turned from great bliss to terrible fear in an instant.  They were popping out from behind trees, from within bushes and from under the mud.  Bo turned to me and asked if I had a gun.  I said, "Yes, an airsoft gun."  He told me that it would work for now and to start shooting.  He, meanwhile, pulled out a real gun, which made me sick to my stomach.

I was a pretty good shot with my airsoft Desert Eagle, but it didn't do much good because it mostly just annoyed those pursuing us.  However, with a group effort, we all managed to escape the danger.  Our van outran them, and we arrived at a large carnival.  We were greeted there by Joe Nehls and Michael Kaser.  As the two of them began talking to Bo, I looked around the carnival and saw that all the cool rides were made of logs.

Then Joe pulled me aside and told me to take his gun, because we were going back out to face the enemy.  I argued against that decision because I didn't want to kill anybody and even if I did, we would still be terribly outnumbered.

We argued for quite a while.


Then I awoke.

Dream #509 (August 16, 2013) Mega Church and Toys

These days I don't blog my dreams as much as I'd like.

In this dream I was in a house painted blue on the outside and the inside.  There were several rooms, all perfect cubes (same height, length, and width), and I explored each.  All the rooms were empty except the final room in the far northeast corner of the house which contained a large white plastic box full of action figures.  Many of the toys I had owned in real life, though a few I had merely wanted to own.

After looking through these toys for a while, a young man entered the room and asked me if I'd accompany him to the local supermarket where we were supposed to buy some more toys together.  I accepted and followed him to his old white car.

Once at the supermarket we found ourselves in the midst of havoc.  There were over a hundred people running about this place, throwing at each other whatever they could get their hands on.  I luckily dodged several fruits and vegetables, as well as a stereo and some pool toys.  The young man who took me to this place quickly joined in the chaos and started nailing people with apples.

I decided to look for the toys that I was supposed to get in the first place, so I carefully made my way to the action figure aisle.  That was no place for a shopper, for all kinds of toys from G.I. JOE to Lord of the Rings characters were flying about in the air at great speeds.  I decided to leave the store altogether (on foot).

I walked through the dark city, which slowly became a light city as the sun rose.  I made my way into a neighborhood, where I found an enormous, bicuspid church (two steeples!).  I walked in and discovered that it also was painted blue on the outside and the inside.  I also discovered that Carrie Badertscher, Geoff Cocanower, Amber Kreider, and (randomly) Craig Robinson were scheduled to speak at this church.  Carrie asked if I would play a certain song (that doesn't exist in real life) on the keyboard during the offering while Nick Tunez did some spinning on his turntables.  I agreed to this, though I didn't realize how big of a production it would be.

Carrie led me into a dressing room where I changed into an extravagant ship captain's outfit (it was also blue, with yellow decor).  When I came out she showed me where the keyboard, Nick Tunez, and I would be elevated from underground to center stage.  I was beginning to get a bit nervous.  Then she handed me sheet music for the song, which looked very complicated and involved a lot of synth layering, then she left me.

Instead of warming up, learning the song, and practicing, I went and found David Badertscher (Carrie's husband) and Craig Robinson and I talked with them about how they were doing.  Soon enough, it was my time to perform, so I ran to my keyboard just before it elevated to center stage.

There was a huge crowd, and they seemed genuinely excited that I would be playing for them.  Nick Tunez started off the song with some scratchin'.

Then I awoke.

Dream #508 (June 26, 2013) Houndmouth and Mixed Geography

I apologize for the gap in dreams blogged.  Since the Mars dream I've had a tough time finding the effort to blog my dreams.


In this dream I drove up from Koontz Lake, IN through Fort Wayne, IN, stopped briefly by my grandpa's house to pick up some 35mm film and other photography equipment, then drove 8 hours up to Birmingham.  Now, knowledge of United States geography would make one wonder how I drove "up" to Birmingham.  Well, in my dream, Fort Wayne, though still part of Indiana, was actually in Michigan and Birmingham, though still a part of Alabama, was also in Michigan near the norther border to Canada.

It was late at night when I arrived in Brimingham, so I found a random house, parked in the driveway, and walked up to the front door and was greeted by a young woman who said she had a spare room in which I could stay.

It just so happened that Katie of the band Houndmouth was on a solo tour through Michigan and Canada and was staying in another room of this young woman's house.  I saw her playing pool while the young woman was playing an old Nintendo 64 video game on a CRT television.  I asked Katie how things were going with the band, and she said she just had some songs she needed to perform on her own before rejoining the band in a few days.  I didn't want to distract her from her pool game, so I proceeded to my room and prepared for bed.

The next morning the young woman had made an omelet for Katie and an omelet for me.  As we ate breakfast, I asked Katie where she was headed next, and she said "Toronto" without waiting to swallow her mouthful of egg (in the dream Toronto was actually just North of Birmingham [the dream Birmingham, that is]).  She asked me if I could take some 35mm B+W stills of the show because it was supposed to be at some interesting museum of Canadian agriculture.  I told her that I probably couldn't since I had left my passport at my grandpa's house.  I wanted to go, so I left the table and called my grandpa to see if he could rush me my passport, but there was no way I could get it in time (considering the drive was 8 hours from Fort Wayne to Birmingham).  I hung up and wished Katie a good trip.  The rest of Houndmouth was going to be staying with the hospitable young woman, so I asked if I could stay for a couple more days, and she said I could.

I spent the rest of that morning and afternoon riding various bus routes through the twilight city of Birmingham.  I photographed my experiences, which were not all that interesting (though visually there was some cool stuff).  I finally returned to the house of the young woman, and there to greet me were Matt, Shane, and Zak of Houndmouth.  Spirits were high, and my arrival only made them reach greater heights.  They invited me to join in their poker game, and I agreed.

We played late into the night as we discussed potential future projects and told our various travel stories.  Finally we all grew tired enough to sleep.

The next morning I packed up my stuff and left the house with Houndmouth.  They told that they wanted me to document the rest of their tour, which excited me.  I asked where they were headed next, and Matt said, "Toronto."

Well, I still didn't have my passport, but I called my grandpa anyway.  He said he could meet me halfway, which seemed like a good idea to me.  I told the Houndmouth guys I'd meet up with them later, hopped in my car, and begin driving back down to Fort Wayne.


Then I awoke.

Dream #507 (June 1, 2013) Mission To Mars

The Red Planet.  I will try to be very brief, considering the amount of time that passed in this dream.


I was selected to join a team of men and women journeying to Mars.  We were to be the first people ever to set foot on the planet.  However, it came not without a cost.  It was to be an eight year journey, with no return.  When the selections were made, I was among the elect.  The rest were strangers, except for Amy Ennis (a former co-worker of mine at Prairie Camp) and George Takei.

Well, the ship was enormous, and had a prodigious control room with an expansive window looking out across the space before us.  I had the duty of inspecting all the various machinery in the ship, and keeping it up and running.  I was quite handy, and was able to fix just about any malfunction.

I didn't socialize much on the journey.  I kept to my self and spent most of my time reading classic literature.

Somehow, in my dream, a whole year and a half passed.  There was a meeting of all the astronauts in the control room at that time, and our Earth correspondent had sent us a video message stating that the ship was not operating as expected and it would have to return to Earth, otherwise it would not make it to Mars safely.

I was both excited and depressed, and I spent the next year and a half back both anticipating and dreading the upcoming return.

A large party was thrown for all the astronauts by friends and family, and I remember eating meatballs, little sausages, and cheese in a little blue bedroom with Amy and a bunch of our friends (including Amy's husband Bo, and Dave and Carrie Badertscher).  I felt very disconnected with everyone, and I longed to return to space.  I felt so strongly that I could no longer exist on Earth and that I belonged away from it.


I awoke from the dream, but that feeling has stuck with me, even till now as I write this post nearly a month later.

Dream #506 (May 29, 2013) Bobby and Batman and Illegal Activities

OK.

In the beginning of this dream I wandered onto a property on the outskirts of a huge city in the middle of the night (the whole dream took place at night, though over several dates).  I found a warehouse there and looked into the window.  I saw a few people inside moving about suspiciously (I'm not sure what, exactly, was suspicious about their movements, but that was how I perceived them).  Suddenly, I was tackled from behind by a couple of strangers.  They flipped me over, put a ski mask on my head and introduced me to Coach Hannah (my former basketball who was apparently a crime lord in his free time).

He helped me up and introduced me to his criminal enterprise inside the warehouse.  He instructed me and the other goons with ski masks to carry a bunch of supplies (primarily explosives and zip ties) from a store in the warehouse, through a secret door, down a long hall, through another secret door, and into a secret room that stored their explosives and a bunch of classic cars.

I spent the rest of the night moving things into that room from the warehouse store.  When I was finished, Coach Hannah offered me a full-time position on his criminal crew, where I would commit to working 5 nights a week.  I accepted and went home to rest.

To wind down before bed I watched an episode of King of the Hill.  Now, in my dreams, King of the Hill (KOTH from now on) had reemerged with new episodes.  In the particular new episode I was watching, Bobby Hill, who was a young adult, came out of the closet and announced to the world that he was gay during a press conference.  In that same speech he declared war against the intolerant Batman (apparently the Batman and KOTH cartoons had collided in this show).

The show had a cliffhanger ending, and I had to wait a day to find out what would happen (yes, this cartoon aired every day).  After I slept, I returned to work at the warehouse, where I did the same old stuff (though this time I tried having conversations with the other criminals, but they thought I was goofy and only made fun of me).  I then went home and watched another episode of KOTH/Batman and in this one Bobby built a large pink car with elegant and lifelike wings (it could fly).  He and Batman had a great battle, which ended in a sort of draw.

Then I lived a sort of montage, where I would go to work and move stuff from the warehouse to the classic car room, then return home to watch Bobby Hill fight Batman.

At last the season finale was getting ready to air.  The day before, however, I received a Bobby vs. Batman graphic novel in the mail.  I was so excited that I brought it to work.  I asked my cocriminals if they had been keeping up with the series.  I also asked them if I was supposed to read the graphic novel before the season finale, or if it would spoil it.  Well, nobody else was watching/reading anything about it, and they all had a laugh at my expense, though I didn't care.

Finally, after work, I had a bit of extra time (I had taken off early), so I opened up the graphic novel.

Then I awoke.

Dream #505 (May 28, 2013) Combo Girl and Plastic Fork Stabbing

This was, as usual, bizarre.


I began the dream walking around an area surrounded by concrete walls that looked very much like a prison yard.  People were setting up hundreds of brown folding chairs in preparation for a movie that was going to be presented there later that afternoon.  I was with my brother and his girlfriend.

Now, in this dream, my brother's girlfriend was a combination of his current girlfriend and another girl with whom we are both acquainted, and it was a perfect 50/50 combinations.

My brother pulled me aside for a moment and confided in me, letting me know that he was growing tired of this particular girl and that he had no choice but to dump her onto me.  For some reason, I was unable to resist  this (literally - there was some sort of force controlling my dating life).  So, after a quick conversation, the girl was now my girlfriend, and I was her man.

The first order of business was to watch the movie together (a movie in which I had no interest).  I was nervous, so I snuck behind a set of bleachers (which was near the back wall of this prison yard) and found an old Oregon-Davis High School friend Jeremy Robinson.  I told him of my situation, and he merely laughed at me.  He proceeded to flick my ear, which I didn't find funny, so I left him and joined my new girlfriend.  We sat down together and sat in an uncomfortable silence.  Before long another old high school friend, Andrew Jensen, sat on my right side, and we began having a good conversations about what each of us had done since we had last talked.

Unfortunately, the Combo Girl didn't appreciate me paying my attention to anyone but herself, so she put an end to the conversation between Andrew and me.  Then she took my left arm and placed it around her back, resting my hand just under her hip bone.  I didn't like the way I could feel her skin resting on that bone, so I moved my hand just above it, which made me slightly less uncomfortable.

I then turned my attention to the movie, which was black and white and starring Jimmy Stewart.  My makeshift peace didn't last long enough, for the Combo Girl became bored with the movie and led me out of the prison yard and into an old, run-down tabernacle.  I followed her around the rubble for quite some time, with no real purpose.  At last, she left the place and walked over to a tabernacle (similar to the one at Prairie Camp) that was in working order.  I stood with her in the back as a preacher delivered a sermon to the onlooking congregation.

At last I built up enough courage to sneak away from the Combo Girl, which I did successfully.

I ran down the road until I found my way into a small city.  I entered a large hotel and began thinking back to my single days.  I wished to myself that I could be single again.

I soon ran into yet another former classmate Ryne Sweeney, and he told me to follow him up to the third floor of the hotel.  I did so and discovered that Jeff Kreider was lying in a bed, pretending to be sick so that he wouldn't have to go explore the town with Ryne and me.  We begged him over and over, but he wouldn't budge.  Finally, Ryne trying pulling him out of bed, which caused Jeff to go absolutely berserk, flailing his limbs all about.  He ended up kicking Ryne in the leg.  I heard what sounded to be the cracking of a bone and called a nurse up to the room, who then took Ryne away.

Amber, Jeff's wife, became terribly upset with Jeff, so she walked up to him, picked up a plastic fork, and stabbed Jeff in the neck

Blood began shooting all over the place, yet Jeff seemed to be alright.  Amber told me to leave while she and the nurses bandaged up the wound.

I met Ryne outside and saw him in crutches.  He informed me that his leg was indeed broken.

I no longer had company, so I entered another room in the hotel hoping to find a new companion who would walk around town with me (I was still avoiding the Combo Girl).  I was surprised to find Kareem Abdul-Jabbar eating dinner with his wife (completely a fictional character in appearance) and Louis C.K.

I watched them, and they completely ignored me.

Kareem demonstrated some hispanic food preparation he had learned, but was interrupted by a sudden urge to poop.  He rushed into the bathroom and did his business.  He soon discovered that there wasn't enough toilet paper to finish the job, so he snuck back out to the dining room table and grabbed some paper towel, claiming that he wanted to clean the mirror.  Suddenly a couple of large-toothed fish jumped out from a small fishbowl and bit into Kareem's arm.  A flower of skin grew from his arm and Louis C.K. tried to pluck it, only to be smacked away by Kareem's wife.


Then I awoke.

Dream #504 (May 19, 2013) The Bike Shop Girl and Wilt Bird

I feel like I dream all night sometimes.  This will be abbreviated due to its length.


The dream began in a city.  It wasn't day, nor was it night; it was something like a twilight with no memory of the sunset and no hope for a sunrise.

I was hanging out in my apartment on the fourth floor of an eight-story brick building.  My room was kindly lit by a few heavily diffused lamps.  I had a television that I never used.  I was reading a book by Sinclair Lewis (that, in real life, doesn't exist) about Native Americans living during the Industrial Revolution.

After reading for a while, I decided to go grocery shopping.  Before I could make it out my door, however, I was distracted by a yo-yo I had on my dresser.  I stopped to play with it for a while, then went on my way.

Outside the apartment I could hear faint hints of arguments, diluted by traffic and the wheezing of factories.  I walked to my red bicycle and, after unchaining it, realized I needed to take it into the bike shop to get a tune-up, so I forsook grocery shopping.

I walked my bike down the long, busy streets, past mimes, jugglers, and buskers, to the local bike shop.  There I was greeted by a black-haired teen employee who let me know how knowledgable he was of bikes before he took mine into the back.  As I waited I browsed the colorful and shiny bikes displayed in the store.  However, my eyes were soon distracted by a young woman who entered the shop to get a tune up for her bike.

I watched her hand the bike off to the same teen, and she seemed to have a grace about her.  She caught me looking at her, but I didn't, somehow, feel awkward.  She approached me and began talking to me as if we were longtime friends.  We connected so strongly, and I desired for the bike-smart teen to not be as knowledgable as he let on so that our tune-ups would take longer.

Regardless, the tune-up ended soon than I desired, and I was given my bike, and she was given hers.  We walked out of the store together and I was sure that we would work out a time to see each other again.

But that was disturbed by a young man with black hair, a patchy black "beard" (he would have called it a beard, but it may not have been worthy of the name), and a black polo.  He put his arm around the young woman with whom I'd gotten along so well and proceeded to mock me.  His aggression caused me to stutter as I tried to continue talking to the woman, giving the man more material with which he made me look (or feel) to be a fool.  He walked away with her, leaving me sad.

I didn't even ride my bike back to the apartment.  I had a difficult enough time putting one foot in front of the other.  It was more than my fallen hopes in this young woman.  When I returned to the apartment, I thought a shower would make me feel better.  I placed my bike in the bike rack and found an outdoor shower near my apartment where I proceeded to strip down to my boxers.  I jumped into the ice cold water, exposed to the public.  An older Italian man was shouting at me as I washed my back,  claiming that I was disturbing the peace and that I should leave, but I ignored him until my shower was finished.

I did eventually take his advice, and I hailed a cab and rode it out of the city and up a mountain.

(I'll skip some of these even more boring details).  I walked around a bit, observing the flowers that managed to grow out from rocks.  They were all bright white and yellow, contrasting the dreariness of the twilight and fog.

Eventually I was joined by Neil Silveus, and he persuaded me to come down from the mountain back into the city.  He told me he wanted me to accompany him to a film festival, so I followed him.

We walked through a strange cabin that was near the base of the mountain (after a long hike down), and ran into a couple characters from the sitcom "Friends" (I never watched the show, so I don't really know who is who other than Jennifer Aniston and perhaps a guy named Joey or Ross or both).  Jennifer and Joey (I think) were acting out a scene, arguing about something.  When we walked in, they acted as if were weren't there.  Soon after we entered, spirits of celebrities began to appear in the cabin.  First came Brendan Fraser, who said, "I knew the cameo was a bad idea!"  Then some famous female celebrity appeared, followed by the spirit of Wilt Chamberlain, who was wearing Big Bird's head.  Wilt looked down at me (through Big Bird's eyes) and said something muffled about basketball.

Neil finally pulled me out of the cabin and into the theater where the film festival was taking place.  I sat down next to Danny and Josh from Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr. and watched a film about a swimming instructor who fell in love with a bicyclist.  After that film played, there was an intermission, and I followed the Jr. Jr. guys into a special fancy suite were beautiful and delicious food was sitting there waiting for us.  I ate of it and studied the interesting furniture supposedly designed by Frank Lloyd Wright.


Then I awoke.