Interesting Dreams on Christmas Eve...

Although these are not particularly festive, here are some scenes from last night's dreams (yes, my dreams from this Christmas Eve).  They are in no way connected--that I remember at least...  They were just jumbled and vivid, and I was grateful when I awoke.  

1. I was taking refuge in a great walled city.  What was I hiding from?  Like all of the people from my hometown, I was hiding from the Storm: there was a great black cloud coming, gathering on the horizon.  Slowly, it crept towards the great walled city, threatening to overrun even that sanctuary.  Then, somehow, I became aware that the storm was after me.  I am not sure how I knew, I just did--with all of the certainty that comes in dreaming.  And so I mounted my flying steed (yep, it was like a flying tiger), and flew as far from the city as I could.  The Storm followed me.  The last thing I remember was flying, flying, flying--never knowing if the Storm was going to catch me.
2. I was at a bookstore, with my arms full of books that I wanted to buy, when it was announced that the store was closing immediately and no more purchases could be made.  I should have been worried about my safety--why were they closing early, after all?  Was there a security threat?  Yet all I could think was that I couldn't buy the books...  And I was greatly disappointed.
3. I was working at some retail place when one of my co-workers passed out.  The manager called 911, and then decided that it would be quicker to take the person to the emergency room herself.  (The hospital was practically across the street.)  On the way, however, my co-worker died.  It turned out that my manager had poisoned him--and knew that driving him to the hospital rather than letting the ambulance take him would ensure that he would succumb to the poison.  What had he done to earn her wrath?  I never learned, because I woke up.

As I said, not the most cheerful of dreams...  but dreams to document, nonetheless. 

Strange Technology

Last night, I dreamt that I had an interesting kind of phone: one that automatically transported me from where I was to the location of the caller--and, unfortunately, had no reset button, so I could never get back to where I was.


Honestly, the little gadget was much more problematic than it was worth.  To understand that, though, I should explain the rest of the dream.


Technically, I was a member of the royal family of a strange little kingdom somewhere.  My great uncle was the King--and a bad one at that.  There was a bunch of unrest amongst the people, and quite a few assassination attempts on the King's life.  As a result, the rest of us went into hiding.  


Yet all of us had these silly phones, and we couldn't seem to get rid of them.  I'm not exactly sure why, but they were connected to us.  So, whenever we would find a safe hiding spot, we would get calls that would immediately transport us from there to the location of the caller.  


This was all very dizzying.  I spent a good portion of the dream getting jerked around from place to place.  At one particular point in the dream, I found refuge at the birthday party of one of the commoners--she didn't know that I was part of the royal family, and had invited me to join her celebration.  While I was there, I got a call on my phone.  I tried not to answer it, but my host insisted.  


Immediately upon answering, I was transported to the location of the caller--who happened to be my sleazy half-brother (in the dream, I mean; I have no brother in real life).  He was trying to get me to sell out my great uncle the King to the revolutionaries; his plan was to take the throne in his place.  I would have nothing to do with it, and I left in a huff.  


Unfortunately, as previously mentioned, the phones had no ability to take me back to the birthday party.  So, I had to fight my way back to the birthday party to apologize to my host.  At that point, my host realized who I was--and agreed to help me get rid of my phone.


I woke up before we succeeded at this task.  However, I did not wake up before my great uncle the King was disposed of, and my sleazy half-brother found his way to the throne.


...All in all, it was a fascinating and rather disorienting dream.  It also has quite a bit of story potential...  perhaps at some point, I may try to work it into a short story of some kind.

Star Trek meets Shark Week

My dreaming has been fairly vivid recently...  Complete with strange creatures and in-depth mythological debates.  So, why have I not been posting here?  Because there have been quite a few juicy ideas that I am working on incorporating into my stories.  You know--the ones that I want eventually to get published.  I figure it best to keep those ideas under lock and key until a later time, when it doesn't matter as much.  :)


Still, there is one from last night that I definitely can share--involving a cross between the original series of Star Trek and the Discovery Channel.


Basically, there was a transporter accident (isn't there always?) that transformed Kirk, McCoy, Scotty, and Sulu into--you guessed it--sharks!  Kirk was a Great White, McCoy was a Nurse Shark, Scotty was a Sand Tiger, and Sulu was a Mako.  They were rather blissfully unaware that they were sharks, which left Uhura and Chekov trying to figure out how to get them back.  


Throw in a bunch of Klingons--who were changed into Hammerheads--and a fun time was had by all.  Eventually, a strange, all-powerful and benign force showed up who snapped its fingers and made everything go back to the way that it had been.  


Oh, and where was Spock during all of this?  At the very beginning of the dream, he thought the whole thing was illogical, so he just left.  


...Fascinating.

Please Insert a Quarter...

Early this morning, my computer woke me up in the middle of a dream (it was installing updates).  So, like a normal person, I got up and dealt with it.  I then climbed back into bed, nestled under the covers, and started to fall back asleep.


As I fell back to sleep, my brain gave me this image: "Please insert a quarter to continue."  So I inserted a mental quarter, and my dream resumed right where it left off.


Bizarre!


This is right up there with the dream that I had a year or two ago, that came with a DVD menu.  I watched the entire dream, and then it took me to a menu, complete with dream-image-montage.  I kid you not, it even had scene selection!  So, now to the list of strange dream mechanics, I can add, "please insert a quarter to continue."

Insecurity Dreams...

Last night, I dreamt that I went back to work at my first real job, fresh out of college.  It was very stressful...  They had changed everything--the process of the job, the software, even the location of my office.  Yet, I was still expected to know how to do everything seamlessly.  I was even yelled at when I asked questions.  It was not fun at all...  I was very grateful when I woke up!


Then, I went back to bed, and dreamt about moving into a new apartment and burning a frozen pizza in the oven.


...I think that, perhaps, I prefer the crazy off-the-wall dreams to these based-on-reality dreams!

Many Dreamings...

The last two nights have been pretty active, dream-wise...  I haven't gotten a chance to write them down until now, so many of the details are rather fuzzy.  The main ideas, however, are still very clear.  And so, here are the dreams from my last two nights:


Dream #1
Last night, I dreamt that I was an average human girl who was somehow transported into a world of magic.  Only, it was definitely not as cool as it seemed--the magic beings (who looked like humans, but weren't) were extremely hostile to my presence.  


Eventually, after being threatened and captured, I was befriended by one of the younger magic beings who tried to help me escape.  For his efforts, though, he too was captured.  At first, they were going to execute him; somehow, I managed to convince them only to exile him to my world.  Once back in a world without magic, we tried hard to figure out a way for him to get back to his own world.  After all, the current government of his world was corrupt... all we had to do was oust them and set up another group of rulers.  Unfortunately, I woke up before we succeeded.  


Dream #2
The night before that, I dreamt that I was caught in a time loop.  The events of the dream kept happening over and over again--I would wake up, go on some grand adventure to defeat a dragon, and then as soon as I walked through the door to my house, I was sent back to the beginning.  I think I defeated the dragon about 4 times before I woke up--all the while, trying desperately hard to figure out a way to break the time loop.

Barnes and Noble, dream-style

Two nights ago, I dreamt that I ran into one of my past coworkers in a Barnes and Noble store.  (No, I will not say which coworker, and from which job).  We stood around and talked for several moments, and then we parted ways.


That was really it.  We did not talk about anything important, and there was nothing vaguely eventful to recount.


However, what was interesting was the setting.  That particular Barnes and Noble is a reoccurring image, and has been featured in many of my dreams.  Whenever I go to a bookstore in my dream--whether it be a Barnes and Noble, a college bookstore, or a used bookstore--it always looks the same.


And it looks nothing like any bookstore I have been in.  


To begin with, I never see the front, so I don't know what it looks like from the outside.  To get inside, you go down a  narrowing flight of steps to a huge doorway.  Once inside, the carpet is tan and the walls are a light burgundy--almost pink.  There are dark shelves lining the walls, organized neatly on the floor--all filled to the brim with books.  Not just new shiny books, straight from the publisher, but used books and vintage treasures.  If there is any book that you'd ever be interested in finding, it would be there.


This particular store is also multiple stories high.  Science Fiction and Fantasy are always found on the second floor; coffee table books are available right as you walk in; the sciences are on the top floor, where there is also an observation telescope.  There are fluffy chairs and sofas everywhere; tables are there, too, inviting you to sit and write.  The basement is the childrens' section, where there is a giant play area filled with legos and dress-up clothes.


Whenever I am there, it always feels like a realm of possibilities.  In fact, in my dream from two days ago, I was finding myself annoyed that my former coworker did not appreciate the bookstore as much as  I did (it was eventually what made us part ways--they walked in and immediately decided to leave).


And so, that apparently is my dream bookstore.  It is one of the few reoccurring places that show up in my dreams, and I find it fascinating that it is like nothing I have ever seen in the waking world.

Recent Dreams...

As soon as I start my dream journal, I have a nice, quiet night!  Not a dream to be remembered! Ah well.  I'll just go ahead and post some of my dreams from the last week (the whole reason I started this journal in the first place).


From Friday night:
I dreamt that my family and friends were being chased around by dinosaurs, Jurassic Park style.  The dinosaurs in question were juvenile T-Rexes and some species of velociraptors.  They completely ransacked the house, destroyed the furniture (which, unlike real life, was beautiful hand-carved mahogany)...  But, I am pleased to announce that everyone survived!  We ended up taking refuge in a traveling gypsy camp, who took pity on us.  They also had developed anti-dinosaur tactics and technology, so the dream ended well!


From Thursday night:
This dream was a little unsettling.  (In other words: WARNING, not for the squeamish)...  I was a scientist who was researching a species called Blood Ants.  They were called this because they gathered most of their nutrients from, you guessed it, blood.  They also laid their larvae in the flesh of unsuspecting animals--including humans. Therefore, my role was trying to figure out a Blood Ant repellent, so people would no longer be targeted--because Blood Ant infestations were both very painful and very gross.


From Wednesday night:
I dreamt that a famous actress (who was actually unidentified in the dream) had gone missing.  The only clues to her whereabouts were these little blue beads, found in different locations.  They were all part of her favorite necklace, that her mother had given her.  I was her cleaning lady; I eventually found her hiding out in the middle of a state park, where she was hiding from the paparazzi.  Luckily, no one followed me; she was able to enjoy her nature in peace.


From Tuesday night:
This was a long and complicated dream--elements of which I want to use in one of my stories.  So, I will just leave it at this...  There was a man who lived in the desert, and a woman who lived in the nearby river valley.  The man was the head of his tribe, complete with superhuman powers such as telepathy and extreme physical endurance.  The woman was simply another member of society, fairly average all around.  The woman's home was being attacked by dragons; she started having dreams of a man from the desert who could save them.  So, she went on a quest to find him.  The dream was the chronicle of that quest (and the resulting epic battle between the dragons and the man's telepathic allies).


...So there you go!  Dreams from this past week.  Hurrah!  :)

Always Dreaming

I have always had crazy dreams.  

The earliest dream that I can remember was actually before 4th grade... I think, perhaps, I was 6 or 7.  In this dream, there was a genie (the good guy) and an evil mermaid (the bad guy) and a killer whale (the innocent bystander).  The dream had conflict, resolution, and amazing special effects.

The day after I had it, I told this dream to my older sister.  She, as a a present, typed this dream out on a typewriter and illustrated it.  I thought it was so wonderful, seeing my creation in print!

It's more than 20 years later, and I'm still having crazy dreams. 

And so, I'm starting this blog.  I do not plan to psychoanalyze what I write here (although I'm sure Jung would have a heyday).  I do, however, plan just to document all of these amazing ideas--it will be nice to have an outlet for them!

So, what will you read here?  The visions that I have while I sleep.  Some of them may be cute, some of them may be strange, some of them may be ridiculous.  But they will all be products of my head--and, just like that first dream that I remember, I want to give them a chance to be in print.