Something about lawyers

I wish I could remember this dream. I went to bed around 11PM and woke up at 4:45 AM. I told myself that I'd remember as I replayed scenes. Had I kept my MP3 recorder by my head like I normally do, I would have recorded it. But I put it in my bag in preparation for the gym today. I won't be telling myself that I won't have cool dreams...

And it even finished, too. I didn't just wake up at a critical point. The dream had a good story and it completed... :(

Walmart's a gym?!

I drove over to the gym to get some exercise as is my wont. When I parked, the building looked entirely different, much like a WalMart, instead of Lifetime Fitness. I was a little surprised to say the least, but no matter. Walmart has fitness equipment, so I'd just use that. Oddly enough, I didn't have to look for it, I found it quickly. Dave Kelly was there, too, and had taken up a career as a professional bodybuilder, but hadn't gotten very far yet, since he didn't look much bigger than the last time I saw him.

Well, there was also some guy whom I don't know. He was rather imbalanced in that he spent a lot of time working on his upper body, but his lower body was fairly scrawny. He was benching some 300 pounds to warm up with, but having trouble with leg curls exceeding 100 pounds. Anyway, he was giving Dave some advice on how to build up his upper body.

I then remembered that I had a second membership to a different gym (based loosely on what I'm considering in reality): I think it was Gold's Gym. Anyway, I went over there and did my workout, but then I went back to the first one to buy some stuff. All hell had broken loose: the equipment was being moved all over the place, the employees weren't sure if they were personal trainers, sales associates or cashiers, and all the customers (except me) were acting like children.

How did things get so bad? I went outside to move my car, in case the mayhem spread out to where the vehicles were. It had started snowing...

Anyway, so I moved my car to the opposite end of the parking lot, the furthest point away from the store, and went back inside. Once there, I managed to get through the store and find what I was looking for, and get in line to purchase it. But then something happened that prevented me from making the purchase. I don't recall what it was, so it must have been something insignificant. In any case, I woke up shortly thereafter...

Running among islands

I don't know why I keep having these Christendom-related dreams, especially with the campus being entirely different than what it really is...

This is also a mildly recurring dream, inasmuch as I recognized this version of the campus from a previous dream, but the events aren't the same.

OK, so this time, the campus is split up on different islands. Some students on one island had left their home island, crossed over the different rivers (or seas) to the other islands and taken the rest of the students hostage. The scenario is dark (because it's nighttime, not just because of cloud cover) and rainy. But in order to provide some light, there were torches being used both by some students and also set up as lights around the island.

The dream had been going on for a while. I remember that the entire student body was inside a hospital for something, but I don't recall why, nor do I recall how we got out. Where I really remember was that I was on one island was one of the hostages. They were distributing Communion to the hostages, so I decided to receive before breaking out. I didn't follow the Communion line -- I broke the line behind Sam P. and Katie F. I was going to break the line between them (because Sam was currently receiving, and I wanted to receive quickly before enacting my mischief. But I thought better of it. After all, it would be rude to cut between the two of them. I knelt down to receive Communion before the extraordinary minister, and he gave me this look which said both, "How dare you cut in line!" and "How dare you kneel!", but it didn't phase me. However, instead of Communion, he gave me an empty pyx, and said that I was the perfect man for the job. I think he assumed that I was working for them, and that I was going to attempt to steal Communion from others, so he gave me that. I put the empty pyx in one of my pockets (I had absolutely no intention to do what he intended me to do) and took off running.

Alex S. also had enough of being held captive by these punks. Since they were the ones with the weapons, we didn't fight back, but we were able to break out of the hostage area. Shortly after that, the captors seem to have lost control, because everyone else in our camp was out. Sean V. was running the opposite way we were going with his backpack on. Kelly F., AJ D. and Fred G. were hopping in place. A big group of girls were hopping around on one leg. It became clear that they were trying to be a distraction -- I assume that they were succeeding, because we just ran past all of them.

Our intention was to get the students on the other islands free as well, or at least just raise as much cain as we could. So, cartoon-style, when we ran, we ran across the water separating the islands. We ran up to what looked like the main island. We say it was the main one, because it had the biggest building on it: a large stone castle.

Alex and I slowed down as we approached the island, and sneaked up to the castle. We searched for an entrance, expecting to have to go inside. But it was quiet -- to be cliché, too quiet. I paused and looked around. I saw shadows moving against the torch-light, but nothing looked too out of the ordinary. We kept moving along the side of the castle, but something still didn't feel right. I looked again, and then I saw what I should have seen the first time. The shadows that I saw earlier were from two people sneaking after us. They were dressed entirely in black. A bolt of lightning flashed across the sky, and I saw that one of them was Matthew B. I don't recall what he was holding, but it was clear that I wouldn't win in a fight. They raised the alarm, yelling, "It's Alex and Smitha!" From another part of the island, we heard, "GET THEM!!!"

We ran around the building, frantically searching for entrances and exits, only discover that we were running around a hospital. A doctor runs into the main entrance, but we didn't really want to enter there. By this point, a big group of guys is chasing us openly. Matthew B. is sneaking around the building, trying to stay out of view as much as he can. We got around to the other side of the building, and saw a bonfire a little ways in front of us.

Alex and I bolted. It looked like the hostage camp where the students were supposed to be being held, but they had broken out when the alarm was raised. Alex saw something that made him change course and leave me to run at the camp. John E. jumped in where Alex left off. AJ had come over to this island, and began a song-and-dance routine that was a really funny blend of Monty Python and Christendom music.

Anyway, so John and I ran right at the guards, and...

...then I woke up.

Baseball

It was another year at Christendom, and college baseball season was in full swing. I got asked to play baseball for the team. When I went to look for my uniform, I couldn't find it. Then I remembered that I turned it back in freshman year. I went outside to volunteer to be the van/bus driver, but they boarded the van and took off and left me. But oddly enough, they were only going to the other side of campus, so I ran over to watch them warm up and play.

Every baseball player had his gal on the van, and they all came out much like movie stars. The fans were on either side of a path screaming and waving, while Jeff S. and his gal came out, followed by Ben M. and his lady. Shortly after them came two very interesting couples: each C. boy had an R. girl. Michael and Bridget looked great as they exited the van, and Daniel waved to his fans (all da ladies) while Veronica shook out her red hair.

"Wait -- what?! No, Anthony: Bridget has the red hair. Veronica's hair is brown."

Not this time. Bridget still had her red hair, but Veronica's was definitely redder. I'm still scratching my head over this one...

Dreams...

You know, I've been trying really hard to record my dreams -- or even remember them. I've had several fascinating dreams over the past few days, but they were just not quite memorable enough to remember less than two minutes after waking up. I meant this quite literally. I have an MP3 player/recorder right next to my bed for quick access. As soon as I wake up, I push record and talk into the voice recorder.

For instance, three night ago, I had this dream where I was visiting with a friend in the area, Ashley C. A couple people I didn't recognize were there as well, and we started talking about making our delivery. So I went and changed my clothes (from what to what, I have no idea). Our mission was to deliver medical supplies to a hospital. Sounds innocent enough, right? Well, not quite. For what are hospitals known, if not infamous? You're absolutely right: the backless gown. Well, somehow or another, the hospital convinces me (and only me) that I need to be wearing one of these things, and sure enough, I'm in one. No, I have nothing else on underneath. My clothes are gone. Eventually, after a decent amount of "negotiation", I get my clothes back, but not after people have had a lot of fun at my expense.

Two nights ago, I had what I called a "Star Trek" dream, but I don't remember what was so Star Trek-y about it. I vaguely remember a spaceship, but the bulk of the dream was about flying and low gravity environments. My jumping was equally proportional to that of a grasshopper, assuming a grasshopper was my size. The difference is that when I jumped up, I didn't fall straight back to the ground. I drifted slowly down, and was able to cover a lot of ground in the air. While I didn't land gracefully at first, it only took a couple jumps to get used to it. Then I discovered something which made the dream soooooo much cooler: I had a set of feathered angelic-style wings sprouting out of my back (think Angel/Archangel from the X-Men). Wings like this makes any dream awesome. At the next bound skyward, I spread my wings out to full extension (what I vaguely recall being somewhere between 15'-20'). Then, I took off and didn't land again. But that's a common theme in good dreams for me. And somehow, all this tied into a Star Trek theme. And somewhere in there, there were talking animals...

On a side note, my recordings to jog my memory more amusing than anything. I wish I could upload the audio files here, because I didn't know that I sounded so weird immediately after waking up.

Something about a new song...

They say that the best way to remember a dream is to write it down as soon as you wake up. In the past, it's never been a problem to do just this. However, last night, I dreamed that I was working with a group on a song. In the dream, I was surrounded by people I didn't know, writing a song that I've never heard before. Well, let me rephrase that. I'd never heard the music before. I'd heard most of the lyrics before. With my musical "abilities", I'm much better with writing down music than I am with writing lyrics. I'm fact, I'm a terrible lyricist...

In my dream, there was a drummer, either one or two basses (I can't recall if it was acoustic or electric, although I think it was electric), two electric guitars (one of which was either an overdriven or a distortion guitar, I'm not certain), and a lead vocalist on one side, and the other side was a DJ (who I distinctly remember being African American), and a small squad of cheerleaders (all girls, no guys).

In any case, it opened with the bass guitar riffs, joined by the drummer, then joined by the first electric guitar, then joined by the overdriven/distortion guitar. The vocalist came in after the guitars were done playing around and had gone to a more-or-less stock riff that they had hit upon while playing around. After the first verse, the DJ put on a funky scratch with his tables, and when he was done rapping, the girls took over, while he continued scratching.

Meanwhile, I'm writing all this stuff down on a score sheet, or trying to. The problem is that the notes are all coming so fast, that I can't really keep up. (If you've ever seen it, think about the final composition of Mozart in the movie Amadeus. For this scene, I'm Salieri, and the bands are Mozart.)

The highlight of the dream was the music. The music was awesome. It was perfect for my adrenaline mix for the gym. It was lively, it had an awesome beat, and it had hard-hitting lyrics (granted, none of them were original -- I know I heard some Ludacris and Kriss-Kross in there). The problem was that there was no way to write all this down. I would have needed a recorder next to my bed to hum/sing/beatbox it in there. It would have been worth it, though...

And the sad thing is that my MP3 player is my alarm clock. It is right next to my head. And it has a recorder on it. Curses...

Mass in PJ's

I was in my PJ's at Mass. I don't know why or where.

I was praying in the very front of a relatively modern church, and it was early in the morning. Next to me was my duffel bag with a change of clothes, a couple prayer books, and some music in it. As I was praying, this a minister (priest or deacon, I'm not sure) comes out from the sacristy onto the sanctuary. I look up quickly and only notice the vestments. Then I go back to my prayer book.

We all kneel down (the church is somewhat full at this point, and I'm still in my PJ's). The minister begins Mass. It's then that I notice that the minister isn't real minister, but a fake one. It becomes obvious the instant she opens her mouth. I'm still concentrating on my prayer book, so I still don't actually notice the gender of the priest, but in my subconscious, I know it's a woman, and I'm praying that my ears are fooling me. I refuse to look, because I don't want to get mad in the middle of my prayers.

As "Mass" continues, we all stand up appropriately, and the entire congregation shouts at me from behind, "Go change your clothes!!!" I realize that I'm still in my PJ's. The mock ceremony takes a turn for the worse, and the woman heads straight for the tabernacle. She puts in the tabernacle key, but it will not open the tabernacle. She fights with it to open, but it won't open. She gets all embarrassed and asks for help. We all just stand there looking at her, not saying or doing anything. I grab my duffel bag and walk out.

I head over to the restroom to change my clothes. I throw on some jeans and a T-Shirt. Then I remember the situation in the church. There's no way that I'm going to participate in the rest of that blasphemy, but if no one else in the church has a problem with it, then I'm not going to get in their way on their fast track to hell -- certainly not the right thing to do in real life, but it was a dream. I remember this building from a previous experience here, where I had taken a paper clip and picked the lock of a small case that held a book I wanted to see. It was in one of the halls that was leading to the church.

I go back to where this case was and, to my surprise, it's in the exact same condition it was when I picked the lock. I took the paper clip out and walked back to the church. My intention was to throw it at the people and shout, "BURN IN HELL!" Instead, I opened the door to a huge party going on. If you remember the closing scene of Star Wars I: the Phantom Menace, where Boss Nass holds up this blue ball and shouts "PEACE!", and everyone suddenly starts dancing, that's what I was faced with, except that she was holding a ciborium over her head. I looked for the culprit who had opened the tabernacle for her -- a dirty little mexican was standing right next to her, looking very pleased with himself.

I woke up to a mild adrenaline rush as I prepared to end this blasphemy in the style of Judas Machabeus...

Dreams when fighting something...

Usually whenever I have a cold or a virus, I have these dreams where I'm either doing battle, or setting up battle formations, or something. For the past week or so, with the exception of last night, I've been dreaming that I've been setting up battle formations to ward off an enemy. The problem is that the enemy is already there, and has a much larger army than I do and is very well organized. As soon as I set up one formation or barricade, they either destroy or overrun it.

The funny thing is that dreams like this often cause a lot of physical motion while I'm asleep. Whether it's my foot jerking around, or my entire body looking like it's going into a seizure, it hardly ever wakes me up. So far, two people have both experienced this, and have both woken me up. The first time, I woke up sweating -- I had just been dodging what seemed like Sci-Fi giant bacteria flying at me, and I had the agility of Spiderman. The second time (two nights ago in the currently-running series), I woke up both sweating and breathing heavily, as though I had just run a marathon, and in my mind, I had been. There was an army of something coming after me. I didn't stand a chance. As I ran, I was setting up barriers of all kinds to slow th enemy, but no matter what it was, they kept coming: whether it was a concrete barrier, a 20' stone wall, or a legion of men (all me, of course), they either came through it, over it, and in no uncertain terms destroying everything in their path. Perhaps, it's because I keep running from it that I have not overcome whatever it is I've got yet.