Dreams: By Tag: Bed

Wednesday, April 28, 2010: Tube, Leper

He got out of bed and walked into the bathroom. He began to shave. He stopped and looked into the mirror at his face. He saw a pink tube protruding from his left jaw. It seemed to run up the side of his face, under the skin. He did not pull the tube; he thought that might cause his skin to tear. Instead, he carefully pushed the tube out of his face. He pressed the loose skin back into place. He had the impression that the tube was left from a previous operation.

In another dream, he was with a group of people in a building. There was a degenerate leprous man crawling in the ducts above the ceiling. They were trying to find a way to expel him from the building without exposing themselves.

Monday, February 22, 2010: Open the door

He was lying on his right side, on a bed in the dark. He could sense that his wife was lying to his left. He could see white light shining around the edges of a door. He spoke: "Open the door! Open the door!"

A moment later, in real life, his wife woke him by saying his name. He woke her up. She said she heard him saying "Door! Door!" in his sleep.

Tuesday, February 02, 2010: Strange House

He was lying in bed with his wife, trying to sleep. The room appeared unfamiliar to him. He got out of bed and walked into the unfamiliar kitchen. He pulled a chair out and away from the kitchen table and sat down. He thought to himself, Am I dreaming or am I awake? He remembered to look at his hands. He looked at his right hand, and it looked normal. He looked at his left hand, and his fingers faded. I am dreaming, he thought. Family members and friends entered, spoke briefly, and exited: his son and his daughter, his father, his friend Jeremy, his friend Bob. He stood up and walked back into the bedroom and laid down next to his wife.

Sunday, October 04, 2009: Hidden Children

It was night in his childhood home, and he was making preparations to go to sleep. It was very dark and he could hardly see. He directed his friend Bob to his parent's old bedroom. Then he thought he smelled burnt coffee, so he checked the pantry. He did not see the small orange-red power indicator light in the darkness. Bob mentioned that he had turned the coffee off already.

He returned to his own bedroom, where his wife was already sleeping in the twin bed next to his. As he was about to close the door, he saw a pale glow in the kitchen, next to the stove. He could make out the silhouettes of two small children, hiding. He whispered to his wife.

In real life, I did whisper to my wife, sleeping next to me, and she woke me up.

Sunday, March 22, 2009: Shifting Faces

He dreamed that he and his wife were lying in bed beneath the make-shift tent of a white down comforter. He suddenly realized he was dreaming. He tried an experiment. He looked at his wife's face, then looked away, then looked back again. Each time, her face changed. Once, she had no nose. Another time, she looked like Groucho Marx.

Wednesday, August 13, 2008: Medusa

He stumbled out of bed into the bathroom. Dark shapes slithered behind the shower curtain. His vision dimmed until he was blind. He called out for help, but there was no answer.

He found himself back in bed. In the dark, his wife stood over him. He began to get up, and saw her face was a mass of writhing worms.

He knew he was asleep, and he tried to call out in his sleep to his wife sleeping next to him. A scratching at his leg woke him; the dog must have heard him crying out.

Saturday, April 26, 2008: Tornado, waking dream, father

He stood in a high apartment with others. Through a center window, he saw a tornado form from the underside of a hovering rectangle. He pointed it out to the others, and warned them. Suddenly, all was swept away by the tornado. He kept his eyes closed, but he could feel himself carried away by the wind.

Suddenly, he woke up, and he was lying in a bed. His father lay on his right next to him, holding him by the shoulder, shaking him awake and keeping him from falling off of the bed. “Where did you come from?” he asked. “I was tired, so I decided to lay down here. You were having a bad dream, so I woke you up.”

Friday, April 25, 2008: Watcher

He woke up in a bed next to his wife, the sheets twisted. Outside of the window, he could see the shadow of a man with a camera, peering through the curtains. “I see you,” he tried to shout, but could only whisper. He pointed his finger at the man. “I see YOU!”

Sunday, February 03, 2008: Dorm

I had a dream that I was living in a dorm in a high-rise building. The dorm had three bedrooms and three bathrooms and no windows. In order to enter and exit the floor our doom was on, I had to ascend or descend many escalators that passed through a department store.

One of my roommates reminded me of a French Pee-Wee Herman. He had a large collection of stuffed animals.

We were hanging around in the dorm lounge. Michael Jackson was there. He said not to get him started on his nose.

Between our high-rise and the city was a large wilderness area. A student guide showed us (my wife and I) through the wilderness once. But when we were returning without our guide, we got lost. We waded through high brush until I spied a road.

I was sitting in on a SNL episode. Mitt Romney was performing a song while playing guitar. But he could neither sing nor play guitar. He covered this up by feigning that he was retuning the guitar. I tried to help by playing some chords on my guitar. But Mitt Romney and the host shifted the blame to me and kicked me off the set.

Finally, I dreamed about a porch with a tree growing up through it. Squirrels were building a nest in the branches, and bees were building a hive.

Monday, January 14, 2008: Waking dream of the snowstorm

I get out of bed. Looking out the front window, I see snow falling, covering the ground. Plows drive by. I want to take a look out the front door to get a better view. I open the front hall door and step into the hall. I peer out the front door window, and a spectral face is staring back at me. I feel afraid. But I know that I am asleep, so I try to wake myself up. I know that my wife is sleeping next to me, if I need to signal her to wake me. I can move the fingers on my right hand, and I can feel my rapid breath flowing in and out of my nostrils. Then I wake up.

My dream recall has dropped over the last week; I do not know why. And my dog was restless, keeping me from falling asleep for hours after going to bed.

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.

Thursday, December 27, 2007: Foot in my face

While lying in bed, I discussed Gurdjieff and Ouspensky with a teddy bear. Suddenly, I was aware of a foot in my face; the foot belonged to my twin brother. I pushed the foot away from me.

Saturday, December 15, 2007: Sleep paralysis and seven other dreams

After falling asleep, I dreamed that I was lying in bed. The room was dark. The bedsheets were white. I could feel the dog lying on the bed at my feet, and my wife was lying to my left; I was turned on my side facing her. I could not move! I could not speak! I tried to wake up but I could not wake up. I could feel shapes sliding past me, shadows, nightmare thoughts, slipping past me, trying to emerge: a mouth, lips and teeth, fingertips. With great concentration, I moved my right hand over myself. I could feel it tingling, as if it were waking up. I tried to speak to my wife. Shelby, help me wake up! I repeated this over and over.

Finally, in real life, she woke me up. She said that she heard me while she was sleeping, asking her to help me. After sitting up with the lamp on for a few minutes, I returned to sleep.

I had a dream that I was investigating a cellar with my aunts Florence and Jeanne. It was dark, and made of old poured concrete. There was a door which we entered from the ground level. The cellar was cluttered with objects so covered with dust and cobwebs, I could not distinguish them. There were spiders and other insects crawling about. I kicked a piece of something, and silverfish crawled from under it. One spider was at least three feet across! At the other end of the cellar was a door, and stairs up to another door. Below the first door was a rectangular drop, without stairs, a ten foot cubic hollow with another door! I asked my aunts about it and they said they did not know where the door leads to. I considered how I would climb down to investigate

I had a dream that I was on a tour bus. The bus was full of people of all kinds. A group of children were sitting together. I told them the story of Jesus. When I concluded, one of them asked with astonishment if it was true. I laughed and said, no, it was not true.

I had a dream that my silky terrier was chasing rats around and bringing them back to me in his mouth. I felt worried that he would catch a disease from them. The rats he brought back had big teeth.

I had a dream that I was chewing something, and the teeth on the left side of my mouth crumbled to pieces. After, I inspected them, and they were all still intact.

I had a dream that I was walking up my street. An old high school friend, Brian, pulled over in a convertible and offered me a ride. I got in the car, and began to tell him everything that had happened since I saw him last.

I had a dream that I walked the dog outside, and it was warm. When I went back inside the house, the house felt cold. I mentioned this to my wife, and suggested we open the windows of the house to let in the warm air.

The last dream left me with only vague impressions of being at a party, and meeting a celebrity, but I can remember no details.

Sunday, June 17, 2007: Seven Dreams

In the first dream, I lived in a mansion, with cream-colored walls. The air felt cool. In an upper room, my friends gathered to play Dungeons & Dragons.

In the second dream, I entered a dark vault. Several scientist-cultists gathered around a black slab; they seemed perplexed. I looked up. Floating overhead was a wrinkled, skinny old man, naked except for a tangled cream-colored bed-sheet. After-images of himself floated beyond him. He radiated malevolence.

In the third dream, I was lying in bed. My wife was sleeping next to me. A lamp on a side table lit the bedroom; it had cream-colored walls and matching bed linen. A goldfish floated through a doorway. It glided through the air towards me. I brushed it with my fingertips, and it swam away. [In real life, I tried speaking in my sleep to my wife, repeating, “Look, a fish!” My dog must have heard me; he woke me, his paws propped up on the edge of the bed and his nose in my face.]

In the fourth dream, my wife and I were walking along a wooded road in Vermont. We were walking to a bed-and-breakfast. “It’s just around the corner,” I said.

In the fifth dream, my wife and I were sitting on a couch, with a sheet wrapped around us, watching porn on television.

In the sixth dream, I was reading a letter from Trent Reznor to his girlfriend. It was taped to a refrigerator.

In the seventh dream, I was sitting in a sound studio with Alice Cooper, The Rolling Stones, and Metallica. They were jamming on Satisfaction.

Friday, May 18, 2007: Bicycle Blues, Church Magic, Big Ape

I had a dream that I was riding a bicycle with blue tires, through a shopping mall, while wearing blue shoes.

The I had a dream that I was at a church gathering, where the preacher was performing stage magic, involving two rings and light.

Finally, I dreamed that I was sitting on the edge of my bed, playing a video game. The game involved killing apes. Suddenly, King Kong peered through my door. He smashed me with his massive fist. I felt like a boulder was dropped on top of me.

Monday, March 05, 2007: Bedroom Window

I had a dream that I was lying in one of the twin beds in the bedroom of my childhood home. A strange woman was in the bed to my left. To my right, near the foot of the bed, was an open window. It was dark outside.

Tuesday, February 13, 2007: The Rat at the Window

I was lying in bed, in an amalgam of my childhood home, and the apartment my family lived after. It was dark. Somebody was lying in my twin brother’s bed, but it was not my twin brother. I could discern a feminine silhouette, lying still in the dark, eyes open and unblinking, lips apart and teeth showing slightly. This person next to me might have been dead. Beyond the doorway, out the kitchen window, in the darkness of the night, a rodent made chittering noises. I tried to wake myself, but I could not. I forced myself to speak in my sleep, and my wife woke me up.

Wednesday, February 07, 2007: Magic in the Office

I was in my childhood home. It was night, and the house was dark. I looked into my parents’ bedroom. I saw my mother lying on the right side of the bed, on her side, facing the wall, under the covers. Then I remembered that she was dead, and I woke up.

In my second dream, I was in an office. The staff was gathered around me as I drew five concentric circles on the carpet. When the circles were complete, I rapped my knuckles on the center circle. We waited. Suddenly, we noticed that the circles became grooves in the carpet. I dug my fingers into the grooves around the smallest, central circle. I lifted out a circular section of carpet and wooden floor, leaving a small hole the size of a hand. I lifted the next ring out, and the next, and the next. As I lifted the final ring, through the opening now five feet across, light fell through the dark hollow beneath, a plunge that dropped as far as we could see, onto some wooden scaffolding, but without a visible bottom. One of the staff was frightened; he told me to put them back. I replaced the rings and closed the hole.

Friday, January 19, 2007: President Favor, Strange Ritual

An old friend of mine, Stewart, was walking with me on Hamilton Street. We were meeting with the president. Apparently, he owed Stewart a favor. A black limousine pulled up next to us at a bus stop. President Bush stepped out of the vehicle. He appeared to be very distracted, as he has urgent business elsewhere. Stewart explained that he needed his help to take revenge on somebody. The president asked why he wanted revenge. Stewart said that he couldn't remember.

In another dream, I was with a group that was infiltrating a castle at night. We subdued any guards we came upon. We found ourselves in strange chapel. Two women appeared, one dressed in brightly colored clothes, the other dressed in dark clothes. They told me to lie down on what appeared to be a hospital bed. I asked them why. A black dwarf told me to shut up and just lie down. When I looked back at the two women, they had merged into one person, half dressed in bright and dark clothing.

Friday, November 17, 2006: House of Rose and Verdigris

I was lying in a bed under heavy white cotton sheets and a lemon comforter. I was alone. I had the impression that I was old. I felt very sluggish, but I could not sleep. I thought that I should rise and take some fresh air. I lifted myself out of bed, walked across the cold white marble floor, across the brick patio, and into a garden of geometrically-sculpted bushes. I admired the view of my palace, with its rose marble walls and verdigris dome.

Slowly, my eyes dimmed. I became weaker, and I sank into the grass. I could not lift myself. I crawled in darkness through the grass, feeling its blades and bare spots with my hands. I thought to myself, “I am going to die, alone, in this place.”

Eventually, I reached the patio, and my bedroom, and I lay in bed. A dark figure appears over me, and I woke up.

Sunday, November 12, 2006: School Party, Two Dogs, Cartoons

I found myself in a brick school building, with other children; I was a child myself. There were remnants of a party all around us: empty cups and trays of pastries. I gathered a plate of cookies and a cinnamon bun for myself. I think it was a celebration of a school reopening.

In another dream, my wife and I were living in a brick apartment. We had two strange dogs under our care, one large and one small. I got out of bed and opened a door to a balcony. The dogs took this as an opportunity to escape. They jumped off the balcony. I looked down, several stories, and they landed without harm. Other dogs were gathering in the street. The big dog and the small dog approached these other dogs. At first, I felt concerned for them. Then I remembered that these were not my dogs, and that I didn't care what happened to them, beyond simple humaneness. I closed the door, happy to be rid of the dogs.

I vaguely recall dreaming about a living cartoon creature, like a koosh ball with legs. Its name was Norubunga.

Monday, November 06, 2006: White Dragon, White Prison

A serpent-like white dragon swooped down from the upper chamber of a massive cavern and devoured me and my companions.

This came as a surprise to our raiding party, and there was much chatter in the VOIP channel regarding the strategy we should apply our next attempt.

The dream repeated, and we found ourselves alive and undevoured. This time, we approached the lair with caution. The white dragon was no longer a dragon, but a large white truck with a roaring engine. The truck swung from the ceiling on heavy cables.

Last night was one of those rare nights I listen to raid chat on Teamspeak while I play World of Warcraft.

I dreamed that I was in a minimum security prison. In fact, I could come and go as I pleased, as long as I was discreet about it.

I recall many stairs, halls, and rooms, uniform in color: beige, I think.

My bedroom was large. The walls, ceiling, and trim were painted white. There were two steam radiators, both leaking; there were dark water stains in the wooden floor. I locked myself in my room and went to bed.

The dream repeated, and I found myself fetching something from the closet, before I joined my friends. Next to the closet was a drafty window. The lights in the room did not appear to work, and I could not find what I was looking for.

Wednesday, October 25, 2006: Pulling Teeth

Standing in the kitchen pantry of my house was Malcolm David Kelley of the television series Lost. He asked me to help him pull out all of his teeth, then push them back in. I told him I didn’t think it was a good idea. He insisted. I suggested that he begin by pulling a tooth that would not be noticed and replacing it. He pulled out a pair of pliers. Then I woke up.

Why do I keep dreaming of this kid? I haven’t even watched Lost since last season.

I stretched out on a large bed in the basement of my house.

I didn’t remember this dream until much later.

Monday, October 23, 2006: Second Story Man

Under cover of night, I scaled a stone building. A rectangular reflecting pool was adjacent to the building. I wore loose dark clothing, and a scimitar on my belt. The stone had many crevasses and decorations to grip. I climbed up to a balcony, entered a room, and examined its contents by touch. What I searched for was not here. I climbed to another balcony, and continued my search.

Somehow, my brother appeared. He wanted to follow in my footsteps, but he was incompetent. He made too much noise. He couldn’t climb well. And he drew attention to us, so much that we were accosted by guards. I drove them back with my scimitar, while my brother hid behind me, clinging to my back. I couldn’t endure my brother’s interference any longer, so I climbed down and left.

I walked to my father’s house; he had moved. His house was on a corner. The road had a lot of noisy traffic, as it seemed to be a common shortcut. He wanted to borrow money, but I said no. My wife and daughter arrived, and I departed with them.

I was cuddling with my wife in bed. She asked me if I ever loved anybody else. I replied honestly, that yes I had, but that was years before I met her.

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, October 17, 2006: Apology

I was sitting in a dimly lit room. Seated with me was a male figure, I think a friend of mine, and another figure whose gender I cannot recall. We were sitting on the edges of a square area of sunken wooden floor. I apologized to the male figure, it seemed, as a demonstration of amicability to the other figure.

Sometimes, I wake with only a fleeting recollection of what I have dreamed while I slept. Several factors influence my dream recall: quantity and quality of sleep, gradual or sudden awakening, bright lights or distracting noises. Lying in bed a few extra minutes, when I have the luxury, benefits my recall, while immediately getting up to walk the dog in morning sunlight will cause me forget.

This amnesia distresses me, and in my distress, I search my thoughts for the memories that are lost somewhere in my head. These forced searches do not usually work. When I have relaxed, and I am no longer thinking about my forgetfulness, and my thoughts are wandering, I sometimes stumble across a thread that leads me back to my dream.

When I woke this morning, I could not remember my dream. Gradually, I recaptured small details, but most of the dream is still lost somewhere in my head.

Thursday, October 12, 2006: Blackmail and Threats

I sat on the edge of a bed-sized granite slab, in a courtyard, as I spoke with a portly, bald man with a middle-eastern accent. I do not remember what we were discussing, but our words became heated. I threatened him. Then, he tried to turn the tables on me by blackmailing me. I thought to myself, “I’m going to kick him in the face!” We ended our discussion at an impasse, and I walked away.

Sunday, October 08, 2006: Celebrity Secret, Vasectomy

Macaulay Culkin was hiding secret messages in his back teeth. He took a strip of paper from a sliding compartment inside a wooden board. He put the message inside one of his molars. Then he pulled a message out of another molar, and put it inside the board.

My wife and I were in a doctor’s office, discussing, first with a nurse, then with two doctors, the details and cost of a vasectomy. I could not actually bring myself to say the word.

I vaguely recall lying on a twin bed with my wife, in a dark basement. She had gained considerable weight. She mentioned that she was having her period. She was also acting frisky.

I also remember a brief recurring dream where I am going through a sequence of movements to get from point A to point B, but I cannot recall the details.

Saturday, September 23, 2006: Nuclear

I was in a house that I felt was my home, but looked different than my current house. I went down into the basement. It was finished in honey-colored wood and the lighting was pleasant. I was looking for my daughter; apparently, her room was in the basement. But she was not there. I opened a door and discovered a new room. In the room was a dark-haired young woman. She was sitting on a chair or the edge of a bed. I sat down on the floor in front of her. As she spoke, rising around and above her was a brilliant orange mushroom cloud. It was as if I could see it through the house.

Thursday, September 14, 2006: Waking Dream, Trees against Window

I was lying in bed and I was unable to rouse myself. My eyes were closed, yet I could perceive that my wife was sleeping next to me, and the dog was at the foot of the bed. I felt a sense of dread. I tried to wake myself up, but I could not do it. I tried speaking to my wife, to get her to wake me up. Finally, I woke, and my wife woke up at the same time. She said she could hear me breathing strangely, like I was having a nightmare.

I waited a half hour before resuming sleep, to avoid a recurring nightmare.

Later, I had a dream that I was in a wood-paneled room, with large glass picture windows. Outside, the wind was whipping trees around. A branch hit a window, then a large branch, then entire trees. Yet, the window did not break. But I was afraid that it would break.

Monday, July 31, 2006: Haunted

I walked into a small bedroom and got into bed. The room was dark. It reminded me of my old bedroom of Grafton Street. The bedroom door opened, and I could make out a shadowy outline. It was my mother. She closed the door. She approached the side of my bed. She was trying to tell me something, but the sound was muffled. I felt afraid of this apparition, and tried to wake myself without success for a long period of time. Finally, I had a false awakening, in my own bedroom, where I was still paralyzed with sleep. I tried to speak to my wife, to get her to wake me, but my voice was muffled. Finally, I really woke up.

Tuesday, April 18, 2006: Giant

I was in a large monastery or cathedral, with complex passageways and rooms, all made of brick or stone. A prayer was being sung, by a long line of identical monks.

I climbed many stairs to get away from them, and finally I found an exit. As I approached the door, I saw eyes peering at me from the high window. “A giant!” I exclaimed. I backed out of the foyer quickly. As the giant came in through the door, I closed the foyer door and locked it.

As he approached the door, I made myself wake up. At first, I found myself waking up in the bedroom of a Vermont inn, but I quickly snapped awake in my own bed.

Monday, December 12, 2005: Sinister House

I was was a young boy. A young girl was with me. It was daylight, but everything seemed washed out and dull. We were investigating a strange house. The house was surrounded by a chain-link fence. The ground was dry, dusty, gray-brown dirt. The house was a three-decker sided in gray sandpaper. There was always a feeling that mean dogs were nearby.

We were confronted by a young shirtless boy and a young wavy-haired girl. They seemed threatening, and we dare not turn our backs on them for fear of harm. They had implements on them that could be used as weapons.

When the boy turned his back, I threw a rectangular piece of shiny metal at him. The piece stuck into his back, on the left shoulderblade. I felt terrible about what I had done, but the boy did not seem hurt. He wasn’t even bleeding. The girl pulled the metal from his back and handed it to me. I examined the metal. The metal was dull, except for one corner that was sharpened.

The boy and the girl went into the house. I followed them in, but the girl who was with me did not follow me in.

Suddenly, the hall was completely dark. As I felt my way down the hall, a blanket was thrown over me, and I was pushed down the cellar stairs.

I removed the blanket, and in the dim light of a small television, I could see a bedridden, morbidly-obese, retarded boy. I could also see my father in a chair nearby.

I left the room, trying to find my way out of the house. Upstairs, downstairs, down halls, nothing gave me a sense that I was near ground level.

I found a kitchen. The mother of the boy and the girl was there. She had wavy dull-brown hair, like her daughter. I tried to distract her with conversation, as I tried to find a way out. She agreed with what I was saying, but I didn't know if she was agreeing with me, or pretending to agree to stall me.

There was something religious but sinister about the whole family.

Eventually, I found my way out of the house, and we ran away.

Sunday, December 11, 2005: Dark Man

I was in my childhood bedroom. It was very dark. I rolled off the bed, wrapped in my bedcovers. I peeked towards the doorway, and I could make out the shadow of a tall man wearing a treachcoat and a wide-brimmed hat. He was darker than the darkness.

This was the boogeyman I used to dream about as a child.

Wednesday, September 28, 2005: Leaky Bathtub

We moved into an apartment on Grafton Street, much like my parents’ previous residence, and we were selling our house.

I got out of bed to get ready for work. I went to the bathroom. As I began to run the water to take a bath, I witnessed all of the water run out of the tub. I examined the tub and found that it was badly damaged, with gaping holes in it. I told my wife and children about this, and said that the house wasn’t sold yet, and we still had time to move back if we wanted.

Tuesday, April 19, 2005: Church, Big Cats, Bus and Champagne

My wife, my children and I were at a church function. The church members were proselytizing very aggressively. I responded in kind by adamantly refusing and refuting their doctrine.

Later, we found ourselves in a house. We were being entertained by an eccentric man, perhaps a rock star. He had two pet lions. One lion was trying to eat the other, which agitated our host.

Finally, we were waiting on Hamilton Street for a bus traveling downtown. The bus stopped, and we boarded it. The driver was an Asian woman. She appeared to be upset. She explained that this was a special celebration bus with champagne on it, but nobody was drinking it. In fact, there was nobody else on the bus but us. As we walked towards the back of the bus, past rows of hospital beds, we sat down, opened the crates, and drank some champagne.

Wednesday, March 02, 2005: Nightmares

While lying in the middle of Plantation Street, I watched as a child hurled handfuls of sticks into the air from the back of a truck. I felt afraid that I would get hurt, and I felt angry that nobody was stopping him.

I started walking up Plantation Street. It was night. It was so dark, I could only see the headlights of cars. After crossing the street, there weren’t even any headlights. I stood in total darkness, wondering what was happening.

I realized that I was dreaming, and that I wanted to wake up. But instead, I found myself in a dream that I was lying in bed trying to wake up. In one part, the dog was climbing up the bedroom curtain. I was afraid he would get hurt. He was barking at something out the window.

In another part, I found myself floating out of bed, drawn to a window. In the darkness, outside the window, I could make out a man-like shape, and a face like a skull.

I tried to speak in my sleep to wake my wife, but she did not wake me. I did dream that she got out of bed. Later, I asked her if she got out of bed during that hour and she said that she did.

I woke up at 4 AM today and could not go back to sleep right away. After tossing and turning for an hour, I fell back to sleep.

I’ve been playing a lot of World of Warcraft lately. The WoW dreams have subsided; I’m having normal dreams again. But my newfound hobby leaves me with little spare time to log what I have dreamed. Not to worry, I’m catching up.

Dream-wise, I’d say that last night’s episodes stem from feelings of depression and thoughts of death.

Sunday, December 19, 2004: Winter Wonderland

Last night, all of my dreams were set among snowy hills, tall ice-capped mountains, narrow cobbled paths, and evergreen trees.

In one of my dreams, I appeared to be a gnome rogue, fighting off large predators.

I saw snowy ruins, with a large amorphous yellow thing lurking under the snow.

I saw the baby Jesus in a manger, Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer, and Babe the pig sliding along snowy lanes, spouting scriptures and Christian aphorisms. A old Christian I knew, Bruce, started rebuking me, so I ignored him.

In another dream, I was lying in bed. I was in a strange apartment, dimly lit, with cream-colored walls. I saw my reflection in a closed metal window blind. But the reflection was walking around and I was still in bed. I got out of bed and tried to glimpse my reflection again. In my reflection, I could see that somebody was behind me. I turned and turned, but the person behind me circled behind me each time. Finally, I turned and saw that it was my son. He was sleepwalking. He started screaming hysterically. I shook him, reassuring him that he was only dreaming. But he didn’t wake up. I asked him what he was seeing. As he described what he saw, I was suddenly in his dream.

We were in on snowy slopes. He was riding a snow-mobile. As he rode up a hill, an enormous pink hand-bag fell over onto him. This kept happening over and over.

Wednesday, October 06, 2004: Gaming Group, Waking Dream

I was at home at night with my gaming group. We stepped off the back porch for a break, and to walk my dog. The cement steps were under repair, so I had to carefully step off of them, since there was no railing. The house was unfamiliar to me. There was a green dumpster tipped on its side, and a television was inside the dumpster. I was opening a bottle of soda. As I twisted the cap, the rush of carbonated air between my fingers made a weird whistling or droning sound. I tried to demonstrate it to my gaming group, but the TV was on, and its volume was loud. The cartoon “Ed, Edd n Eddy” was playing. I asked Josh if he could turn the TV off. He tried to, but it kept turning back on. I tried to shut it off, but the same thing happened. Finally, I figured out that Jeremy had a remote control, and was keeping the TV turned on. But the carbonation had run out of the soda. “Great job,” I said, frustrated, “That’s what everybody wanted to see.”

I am often annoyed at the distracting conversations and activities that take place instead of gaming, while we are gaming.

I had a waking dream. I wake up in bed, facing a window. The window is open, and it is day. Outside the window, I see a swing suspended from a tree branch. The swing is swinging by itself. I notice a branch from an arbor vitae is caught in the swing. The momentum of the swing grows, and as the swing goes higher, the branch of arbor vitae grows. It takes on a man-shape. Finally, I realize that I am dreaming. I try to wake up, but I can’t. I whisper to my wife to help me to wake up. But only my dream-wife hears me. She shakes me a little, and I wake up.

I don't know why an arbor vitae on a swing would be so scary to me, but it was.

Sunday, September 12, 2004: Tornado

I was lying in bed in my house. There was a tapping at the window. My wife drew the curtains back and there before our eyes was a massive funnel cloud. It was too late to do anything; we were swept away house and all with the tornado.

Friday, September 10, 2004: Waking Dream, Younger Brother, Elderly Sleepers, Bus

I was sleeping next to my wife, but the bedroom looked different. It reminded me of when we had to live in my parents’ basement.

In another dream, I was trying to get downstairs from an upper floor of a large apartment building. I saw my younger brother (which I do not have in real life) studying medicine. I found a chaotic back porch, with mazes of railings, stairs, and piles of junk. After I got past those obstacles, I came upon a dark room filled with old people sleeping on mattresses on the floor. “Does anybody know they’re living like this?” I thought to myself.

In my last dream, my house had a huge garage. I pressed a button and opened the massive garage door. A city bus pulled into the garage. A mechanic began to tune up the bus. My father and brother were with me. I asked the mechanic if the buses are going back into service. He said, “It looks like they are.”

The buses have been on strike for two months. Ugh.

Saturday, August 21, 2004: Dream Game

Here’s what I wrote on the notepad next to my bed:

“Dream of a dream of a dream game. Lethargy of sleep. My wife and I go to bed. I have a flashlight and a case of nerves. And low batteries. Multiplying corridors and doorways. Darker and darker. Lethargy sets in. I try to move, speak, wake up.”

“Church children leaving a sleepover with their parents.”

“Decide to run my dreams as role-playing game with my own gaming group.”

I can’t recall the dreams, only what I have written.

Thursday, August 12, 2004: False Awakenings

Last night, I had several false awakenings, where I struggled to wake up in my own bed. I imagined a lurking, unseen presence. I mocked it, and it never really troubled me.

Tuesday, August 03, 2004: Apartments

I was standing across the street from a pair of three-story apartments, sitting on an open plain. The apartments had flat roofs and were constructed, if you had a bird’s-eye view, to resemble the letter W. The house on the left was yellow; the house on the right was white. By way of color, position, and height, the apartment on the right resembled my childhood home on Dartmouth Street, and the apartment on the left resembled... the apartment to the left of my childhood home. Because the apartments were on an open plain, I felt nervous about approaching tornados, though there wasn't a cloud in sight.

A woman was selling the yellow house. It seems I had already bought the white house. “If I had the money,” I thought, “I would buy both houses.”

As I examined the house, I discovered that the basement ceiling was very low, and I was able to move the floorboards overhead. The upper interior of the house had a wide open space with heavy, movable wrought-iron stairs, platforms, and even stranger structures, one of which I think was a folding cube.

My father, brother, uncles, and my father’s (now deceased) dog were in the house. As Bandit, my father’s dead dog approached me, I felt apprehensive, because I knew that, in real life, the dog was dead.

In another dream I had, I was in a hotel bed. I had a cold. My nose was very runny. I blew my nose frequently and put the tissues on the floor next to the bed. Steve (Jack Davenport) and Susan (Sarah Alexander) from the BBC TV show Coupling were in the bed next to me, arguing.

I had a dream that I was living in a first-floor studio of an apartment complex. A young black man outside my window was complaining about how loud my music was.

I had a dream that I was reading RPG review online, something that I was doing frequently last night.

Finally, in the last dream I remember, I was talking to a small latino boy and his family. He had a black pet that could talk, though I can’t remember if it was a cat or a dog.