I was watching the street from indoors. A very strong wind was blowing in the direction of the street from left to right. I could hear the sound of the wind howling throughout the dream. A huge broad-leafed tree sailed slowly through the air accompanied by a lot of bricks flying in formation. Then a smaller clump of branches flew past quickly like a projectile and smashed into a bus stop. A motorcycle and its rider flew past but landed safely. A white car flew by at a slight angle to the road and wrapped itself around a lamppost. Several other vehicles also flew by but managed to land safely. By then the street was a mess. Traffic wasn't moving at all and there was debris everywhere.
I was back in school again. This time the school must be really desperate. They were having a marathon and were giving out $20 phonecards to encourage students to participate. So, on the day of the event, I was driving a buggy round the school compound. (Very weird.) I was quite forgetful that day and had to return home earlier that morning because I had left my running clothes and number behind. My number was 1015, by the way. A friend was also driving a buggy right in front of mine. He turned around and said that he did not get a phone card and asked me if I had received mine. Then I realized that I had been had.
I was captain of a starship that, although small, was in possession of an unusual substance. It was a paste that, when rolled up in a piece of paper with the ends closed off like a cracker, would start a fire when twisted. It was no surprise then (tongue in cheek) that soon, my crew and I were captured by an enemy starship for that substance.
I found myself in a conference room with my crew and our captors. There was a chalkboard on which a scientist, a crewmember of the enemy starship, was writing a lot of equations. While he was busy scribbling, I made circular motions with my index finger behind his head. (the "he's nuts" gesture) Then he tried but failed to make the paste start a fire. So he made me show him how to do it. But as soon as I picked up the paste, the room faded out and I found myself in a gray void for a few seconds. Then I woke up.
The heater was working in overdrive again making the room a little too warm. So I removed my sweatshirt and went back to sleep. Then I woke up again still wearing my sweatshirt. Since the room was warm, I removed my sweatshirt again and went back to sleep. Then I woke up another time and again, I was still wearing my sweatshirt. After this happened about five more times, I finally woke up for real and for a few minutes there, I did not know whether I was really awake or dreaming that I was awake.
In the second dream, I was lying on the grass surrounded by flowers of various colors in a meadow. I was reading a little paperback book. The story was about a boy who ran away from home to live in the woods and who then became a master herbalist. The book had many strange names for plants such as "progitin" and "chite". As I was reading the book, night fell. The night sky was full of bright stars. Also, something, of which I was not aware until it was almost complete, was happening to me. My body was gradually being absorbed into the ground until only my hands holding the book remained. However, I did not feel any alarm or panic upon that realization since it felt so natural.
There was a big dinner for everyone at work. Everybody was seated at dozens of tables in an enormous hall. The hall was open on one side and there was a multi-storey parking lot there. I was served some hors d'oeuvres that looked like mushrooms in rice.
Road trip! Nothing spectacular but I did recognize some country roads that I traveled when I was younger.
October 18: What does everyone think of tonight's episode of Sliders about the dream masters? The story was pretty good and the writers did do some research, it seems. (lucid dreaming was mentioned) The same theme (ability to enter someone else's dreams and the abuse of that ability) previously appeared in Dreamscape, a movie I liked.
This is a cartoon dream. Everything, including the background, was in bright solid colors and outlined in black. The cartoon me was standing on a footpath facing someone named "Mandingo". (He didn't actually say that but it was in my dream memory.) There was a line of all sorts of people (fat, skinny, tall, short, and even a few generic furries) waiting outside a small building. I asked Mandingo what those people were waiting for. He replied that they were offering food to the Buddha.
Then a thought balloon appeared over my head. First, there was a black outline with the background still showing through. Then the thought, which was in black letters on a white background, faded in. It read, "Nah, it can't be. They must be getting something good." So I started running towards the line of people. Unfortunately, I was running too fast, could not stop in time, and bumped into the person at the back of the line. This set off a ripple through the entire line and sent food falling all over the place.
As everyone scrambled to pick up the food, I saw what was actually happening. Every time someone came up to the door of the building, a pair of hands appeared to get the food. They weren't really giving food for nothing. Someone in the building was sending food back out again. The person who offered a basket of corn received a basket of fruit in return. The person who offered a basket of fried chicken received a basket half-filled with fried chicken and half-filled with chicken bones. (a bad deal in this particular case) When it came to my turn, I was a little worried that I had brought nothing but then I saw a basket of rice (actually, this looked more like the dish that I made for dinner several times this week) that someone had dropped and forgotten, and so I offered the basket to the mysterious hands in the building.
Then Mandingo appeared by my side and said, "It is time to give the fish a phone call." At that time, I woke up because the rain was coming in through the window and landing on my face.
I was cruising with a friend in my car, which had inexplicably become a convertible. Since we were getting hungry, my friend suggested we stop at a fast food restaurant with the golden arches. So I pulled over into a vacant parking spot that just happened to be at the right place. (In dreams, parking is easy.) As we were walking to said restaurant, I noticed that the walkway leading up to the entrance was covered in sand up to my knees and I had a little trouble walking in that sand. Then I woke up.
I was sitting in a rather dark room at dusk. There was a small plastic canister, about six inches long and an inch in diameter, in my hand. There was some writing on the canister but I could not make it out, nor did I know what was in that canister. A shadowy figure entered the room through the open door, took the canister, and left. Then I woke up.
I was at some sort of party at in a relatively modern (gunmetal paneling, suspended walkways) big office building. There were lots of rooms along the sides of the building floor and I wandered in and out of those rooms making idle chatter with the people there. When I looked through one of the windows at the parking lot, I saw the ground covered in snow. A sophisticated-looking lady had a cigarette in her mouth but, as far as I could tell, it wasn't lit.
In the first dream, I was sewing with a sewing machine again. It was a costume of some sort and sitting next to the machine was a President Clinton mask. (No, this was not a nightmare.)
In the second dream, I was cooking at an electric stove. I must have been giving a demonstration because I was cooking right in the center of a supermarket. I realized that I had forgotten some vital seasoning, so I walked over a few aisles to get it. At that point, I woke up. Then as I was lying in bed thinking about this dream, I found myself once again in the same supermarket. This time I was standing in front of a food court. (It was a big supermarket.) I walked towards a row of cash registers and then woke up again. Both dreams together took only about 15 minutes according to the clock radio, so I wasn't sleeping very well.
October 29: One change I have observed recently is I have started viewing my dreams from a third person perspective while participating in them. One moment I was inside my dream persona and a split second later, I was standing about ten feet away looking at my dream persona. Sometimes, I could see from both perspectives at the same time and that felt quite weird. In addition, whenever I was in third person mode, I found that my dream character rarely looked like me in real life. Sometimes he had someone else's or an undefined blurry face and sometimes he looked like a cartoon drawing. (sometimes furry and sometimes not)