Dreams: By Tag: Book

Wednesday, March 24, 2010: Journey

He was seated next to a friend, on nothing more than two seats with wheels, rolling down train tracks across a sunlit grassy and wooded countryside. They were having a conversation. An orange hardcover book, The Theory of Celestial Influence by Rodney Collin, fell from his lap to the ground. He leaped from his seat, grabbed the book, ran and caught up to his seat, and sat down. "I am happy to risk missing the train to save that book," he said. "It is very rare!"

Thursday, July 10, 2008: Mephistopheles

He was rummaging through two boxes of books, when a strange man appeared. He was tall. His skin had a golden sheen, his eyes sparkled, his head was bare and bony. He wore fine clothing spun from gold of different colors. With a gesture, he set a box of books on fire, and said in a smooth, deep voice, “You will not find what you are looking for in those.”

“Yes, I know,” he said.

“If you want to learn real magic,” he explained as he handed him a scroll, “Have your wife sing this Persian song with three others in this temple.”

“It must be a spell,” he thought.

Tuesday, January 22, 2008: Comic books

My old friend William pulled two comic books from a shelf and gave them to me to read.

Last night, I was thinking about William, and how I have not seen or heard from him in a long time.

Friday, January 18, 2008: Test

In a college dorm, two students and I were preparing for a test. I felt anxious about the test. They read aloud a list of terms and questions that might appear on the test. I did not think I was well-prepared, but I answered the first question correctly using previously acquired knowledge.

Saturday, January 05, 2008: Road through the woods, auditorium, book store

Rounding a bend in the road through the woods, I realized I was dreaming, and became lucid. During this moment, I examined a shrub: on the tip of each branch was an eye. A constellation of moths flew by.

Suddenly, I found myself in an auditorium surrounded by people. I was still lucid, so I made myself slowly rise up from my seat and into the air. As I hovered over the heads of the crowd, I radiated some kind of energy that revealed that the crowd was insubstantial.

I shopped in the store of my friend, Roger. A lot of the books were really old. In fact, it seemed like he had no new books at all. As I carried three books to the counter to pay for them, all of the light went out in the store. I could see only by the light of the open front door. I asked Roger why he turned out the lights. He said it was sundown on the Sabbath.

Friday, January 04, 2008: The office, books

In the office, coworkers were taking down Christmas decorations and replacing them with April Fools Day decorations. We walked in on a meeting, led by a woman in a gray business suit, as it was about to begin, and just as quickly, it ended.

I way lying in bed. A pile of books next to the bed spelled out the answer. But I was too asleep to understand it.

Tuesday, December 11, 2007: Mission, Aging Friend, Pavement

In my first dream, I was with a group of agents. We were on a mission. The enemy had discovered us. They sent large guided slow moving bombs after us. They were round, black, with tail-fins, at least ten feet in diameter, and floating slowly through the air.

I climbed a brick building and ducked inside through a door. I ran down wood-paneled halls, escalators, and stairs, past some people. As I approached the exit, I saw a camera. I had a cane in my hand. I tapped the back of the camera with the cane, and something turned off. I met with my fellow agents at the glass doors.

In the second dream I had, I was hanging out with an old friend Bob. We were looking through his comics and gaming books, all wrapped in plastic. He seemed more worn out than I remember.

In the last dream I had, I exited my house. I walked down the driveway. As I reached the end of the driveway, I noticed that a section of my fence was rusted and pushed in, as if a vehicle had struck it. I stepped out of my yard and walked towards the section of fence to inspect it. Then I noticed that there were no houses or trees or anything around my house, as far as my eye could see, only pavement.

Friday, October 12, 2007: Class Room Anxiety

I sat in a chair at the front-middle desk of a cramped and dim classroom. I wore a dull green winter coat, a gray wool hat, a dark blue scarf, black gloves, and black boots. I arranged a heavy load of books and a backpack on my desk and under my chair. I thought that I must stand out; not only was I encumbered more than my fellow students, but I was also the only adult in a classroom of teenagers. The teacher spoke up; she reminded me of my high school French teacher, a large, pale, light-haired old woman. She told us to begin our assignments.

I shuffled through a stack of mimeographed papers. Upon examination, the assignment seemed to be a comic strip about aliens, written in their language. But there were no blanks to fill. The teacher, to clarify, held up a copy of the assignment; it was a different one that I was looking at. I shuffled through my papers again and found the correct assignment, which had a lot of blank space for writing, and appeared to be a geometry assignment, with diagrams of circles and triangles. But as I was writing my name at the top of the page, the teacher said to hand them in.

As I handed her my incomplete assignment, she said that my mother had called to ask if she needed to pick me up at 6:45. I thought for a moment and said yes, though in the back of my mind, I wondered how she was going to pick me up, because she was dead.

Sunday, May 20, 2007: New Club, New Home, John Updike, Kramer

I was invited to a club opening. I arrived early, and sat in a dark corner, alone. Several homeless people sat nearby, here for the free alcohol. I asked a waitress about mixed drinks, explaining that I never drank anything but wine. She brought me a glass of red wine, and I sat, sipping it.

The club filled quickly. A man asked me if I should be drinking wine. They asked if my religion permitted it. They said that if I did not know, that I should ask a religious leader if it is permitted. I said that I did not believe in religions that required one to ask another what their own conscience should tell them.

I dreamed that I was living in a new house. The house contained a menagerie of animals. At bedtime, I herded the animals into a single room, and closed the gate. As I got into bed, I noticed that my wife was sleeping on a different side.

I had a dream that the author John Updike was showing me around his house. It was full of books. He was searching for a particular collection of stories he wished to lend me.

Finally, I dreamed that Kramer, from the TV show Seinfeld, was loudly humming a song, whose lyrics, should his companions recognize the song, would inform them about a person at another table.

Wednesday, February 21, 2007: Driving a Truck

I was sitting in an armchair. Next to me was a side table, a lamp, and a book. I stood up and walked to the driving cabin of an 18-wheel truck. I sat down and drove the truck. The roads were snowy and slippery. Steering became difficult, so I pulled over to avoid jack-knifing.

Saturday, January 20, 2007: Black Books, Foreperson, Mantra, Mirror

While browsing a comic book store, I came across three books with black covers. They were a set of graphic novels, written and illustrated by Eric Willand. [Eric was an acquaintance I made back in high school. I had admired his artwork.] I purchased the three black books.

Later, I dreamed about an female Asian foreman. She was shouting at two truck drivers, “Stop, you’re mixing them!”

I dreamed of a mantra, “Money, energy, matter, and time.”

I dreamed that I was purposefully gazing into a mirror, because I was thinking to myself about the nature of mirrors in dreams. When I looked into the mirror, I could only see a small portion of my face, whichever I was focused on.

Tuesday, January 02, 2007: Ghar Point

I sat in the classroom of a professor named Doctor Grady. He had a round, rosy face. He gave us a quiz on an epic poem. I had already completed the first question. The second question asked, “What is a ghar point? And is there a passage in the poem that could be described as a ghar point?” I looked up ghar point in an English textbook, and it said that a ghar point is the crossing of a river, often symbolic of death. I reviewed the epic poem, and such a passage did exist in the poem. The professor also mentioned a significant series of numbers, 2-5-9.

Saturday, December 02, 2006: White Room of Cats, Apartment

I was living in a large house. I explored the basement. I found some strangely shaped heat radiators. After that, I found a golden curtained glass wall. I opened the curtain. Beyond the curtain was a white room. I marvelled that I found a white room here. As I peered into the room, I saw that there was a glass wall on the other side, and a door that opened to a lawn. At least a dozen cats came into the room. I thought to myself, “How am I going to get rid of all of these cats?”

I had a dream that I was in a bookstore with some friends: Bob, William, and William's father.

I had a dream that I was moving very quickly along a road, with a view of grass, trees, streams, and ponds.

Finally, I had a dream that my family was living in a third floor apartment. We found that the second floor apartment was unoccupied, so we explored it. The walls were covered with brown paper. The walls themselves, in some places, were very soft, as if they had nothing beneath them but insulation material. In the kitchen were large heating vents.

We went to a bank to take out a mortgage. The bank agent was a middle-age woman with brown hair and glasses. As we were talking to her, I wondered why we were taking out a mortgage on an apartment.

Wednesday, November 08, 2006: Vermont Hostel

My wife and I were vacationing in Vermont. We entered a roadside shop that combined a general store, a diner, and a hostel. I inquired about a rest room, and the proprietor gestured towards the back. I stepped beyond a curtained doorway, and found a room with no furnishings except worn pillows, sleeping bags, and a hole in the floor for eliminating waste. There was vomit on the floor near the hole and near several sleeping bags. I imagined that a violently ill hiking party must have spent the night here. I quickly washed my hands, not wishing to catch whatever caused these hikers to be sick, and returned to the front of the store, nauseated.

Before the Vermont dream, I vaguely recall a dream where I am discussing, with an unknown party, The God Delusion, by Richard Dawkins, and why I am an atheist.

Saturday, November 04, 2006: Game Room Preparations

My gaming friends were gathered in my house. My house appeared to be a mix of all of the apartments and houses I have lived in before. The windows in the large dining room needed repair. I pried nails out of the window frames that did not belong. There was a cold breeze blowing in through one window.

Will and I were discussing the short story I was writing. He said he could not determine the time period of the story. I said that detail was intentionally vague. I asked him if he knew where the story was set. He said he thought it was somewhere in the Middle East. I told him that was correct, and that is what I intended also.

We went to Musicquest, a music/comic/gaming store in our neighborhood. We flipped through RPG books.

We walked down Dartmouth Street, and came across a couple with three dogs: a large dog, a medium dog, and a small dog. The large dog appeared threatening and dangerous. The small dog appeared to be injured, as if somebody had stepped on it. We left the dogs quickly; it seemed like a bad situation.

Back at the apartment, I found two Stimpy keychains and two Stimpy plush toys near some stairs. An old church friend, Mike, appeared.

Separate from these dreams, I had a sex dream. My partner and I were trying to find a place to hide in a house full of people, so we hid in a pantry. Still, we found we couldn’t be alone for long.

Also separate from these dreams, I saw six elderly men sitting in chairs, waiting to dine in a restaurant. “Frickin’ fish,” one of them said. Another chided him, “Don’t say frickin’ fish.”

My dream frequency and recall is much better on the weekend, when I get to sleep longer.

Will and I both write and have discussed our writing in real life. The short story we were discussing is a story I am actually writing now.

There is a strong association with Mike and Stimpy; we were both big fans of The Ren & Stimpy Show.

My gaming group hasn’t gathered in a long time, and I do miss them. As I miss all of the places I have lived before.

Thursday, October 26, 2006: Electronic Book, Old Co-Workers, Corrupt Church Leader

I designed a book with dynamic, hyperlinked text. It seemed to use electronic paper and ink. I flipped through the content, page by page, and clicked through other content with a stylus.

In another dream, I was in an off-white painted basement filled with pipes and machinery. Many of my former co-workers were there. We reminisced about when we worked together.

In the last dream, I witnessed a leader from the church I left hiding young boys in a closet. He didn’t know I saw this. Later, I found myself in a pharmacy, picking up a prescription. The leader was also there and sought to humiliate me. He announced to the entire store that my prostate medicine was ready. I said that it was to prevent cancer. I also said that I know a much worse secret of his, and that he should keep his mouth shut in the future.

Thursday, October 19, 2006: Bedside Visitations

While napping in an out-of-the-way room, I felt a presence enter. I opened my eyes. An old friend, Josh, entered the room and sat down at a computer. I sat up and said, “Hello.” He said, “Hello.” He apologized for waking me, and said that he was just going to be a moment; he was checking his email. The room got brighter, and another old friend, Bob, suddenly appeared. “You old hippie,” I joked. He laughed and hugged me.

These visitors departed, and I continued to nap. My wife wandered into the room with a basket of laundry. I showed her the book I had cut and taped together into two strips, joined, and twisted, to form a Möbius loop.

I napped more. My son came into the room and left.

Still I napped more. My daughter came into the room. She sat at the foot of the bed and asked what I was reading. I opened the book, and began to read from it.

As I read, my own voice became the voice of a narrator, and I was in the story, guiding a white sports car along snowy hills, simultaneously a passenger inside the car, driving, and outside the car, holding in my hand a small replica of the car. The car skidded off the road, crashed, and drove on.

I have been reading Mark Z Danielewski's Only Revolutions. This is the source of the Möbius loop and the driving narrative.

In the dream, I felt as if I was more than napping; I was convalescing. I felt at peace, but I was resting because of illness or age.

Tuesday, September 21, 2004: Gaming Store, Tooth Falls Out

While browsing the books and other supplies in a gaming store, I found a book with pages of white faux-leather and gold lettering. I also found a miniature figurine of a giant wooly caterpillar with a large howdah on its back. In the store, I saw a girl wearing Victorian-goth clothes. I said hello to her. She seemed surprised that I could see her, as if she were a ghost.

In another dream, while looking in a mirror, one of my molars fell out of my mouth, leaving a large black post where it was. The post seemed bigger than the actual tooth.

I don't actually have any teeth with posts in them.

Friday, September 17, 2004: Snow, Gaming

My family was on the back porch looking at the yard. It was night, and apparently, a blizzard of wet snow had fallen. My wife tried to walk in the back yard, only to sink up to her waist in slushy snow. I thought to myself, “If there is this much wet snow, what does the basement look like!” I went to the hall and open the basement door. The basement was flooded and frozen up to the stairs. My wife asked, “What are we going to do?” I said to her, “Well, this is only a dream.”

In the other dream, I was in the kitchen of my house. My gaming group was gathered around a table. I was showing them the World’s Largest Dungeon book and maps. Some of them suggested using the Palladium Fantasy game system instead of the Dungeons and Dragons game system, which surprised me, because none of them have ever expressed an interest in that game system before. One of the players, Will, stood up, opened the door to the basement, and said, “Uh-oh, Rob, it wasn’t just a dream.” I looked into the basement, and it was flooded with slushy snow.

I don’t recall ever having a dream couplet like this, where the topic of dialog carries over into another.

Thursday, September 16, 2004: Office

I was in a large office. The ceilings were high, the furniture was made of a dark wood. The carpeting was dark, too. There were large bookshelves and desks without cubicles. I picked up a financial magazine, which said that my company was growing more successful. There was a woman with a new iMac on her desk, instead of a PC.

Tuesday, September 14, 2004: Leak, Dogs

It was raining outside. There was a leak under the sink. I checked the leak and it started gushing. All of the wood in the pantry became saturated with water. It was so soft, it gave under a little foot pressure.

I had a dream that I was preaching to a crowd of dogs. I was quoting scripture from a dog bible.

In the last dream, I was taking my dog for a walk, outside of the fence around our house. A gang of roaming dogs approached. I picked up Pippin to protect him from the dogs, and made my way back to the house.