Exceptionally Strange

From the little I remember of last night's dream, it involved playing a board game in which people must be "saved" by planting and growing white bush things made out of Legos. Barbies, Starburst, sand, and kittens were all involved.

Cars, Rivers, and Dancing in the Rain

After a couple of strange dreams throughout the night, I managed to have one worth telling.

First, I started my teaming up in  a campground/business park with a man who really knew how to do business. I was supposed to be at a family reunion, but my cousins' grandma was a little scary, so I was avoiding her. Anyway, this business man was at first a con man in my mind, but really he just knew what he was doing. We ended up selling gold cars to people instead of the dealership selling them, and though our customers paid more, they got a better quality car, and we made more money. By the end of the day, he and I (along with our third partner) were sixteen million dollars richer.

After we celebrated, though I don't remember how we did that exactly, everyone went to bed. I was supposed to be sleeping in my tent, but our third partner, who was apparently my best friend, had died and was now a ghost in the giant bedroom where everyone else was sleeping, and all I wanted to do was to sleep there with her. So I went back to the tent to grab my stuff and my camera.

At one  point, though I'm not sure how this all fits in, I ended up spending a good deal of time with another family at the campground, and they had a ton of the most adorable kids all dressed up in little outfits.

Anyway, when I got to the tent, it started to rain. A lot. Which meant that the river started to rise quickly, and everyone in the campground had to scramble to get their stuff to higher ground before they were swept away. Since everyone in my family was  up at the bedroom, I was the only one who could save our stuff. I spent a lot of time trying to keep the boat and the kayak from washing away, which wasn't exactly easy. I ended up having to deflate the kayak and tie it around a tree, and then hold on to the boat as best I could.

Once morning came with an absolutely amazing sunset (best picture in my head right now), the rest of my family returned, and I looked down the river to see every single family at the campground all dressed up in a different style raincoat per family.

Then, in the strangest part of the dream, I remembered that we were in India, because a whole bunch of people dressed in traditional Indian clothing (very colorful) came out and started doing one of those cool dances they do. I really don't know why, though.

Sinking Down

How's this for a dream?

I was trained to become one of a group of intergalactic peacekeepers who sink through the floor into other dimensions and fight evil. Most of the time I wouldn't remember when I would go into other dimensions, but then a crisis happened. We, and our powers, were discovered by a large alien race called the Dilnar, whose one desire was to take control of the dimensions and rule the universe with terror and pain.

At first we tried to run to keep ourselves safe. We found each other in the several dimensions until we were all in a large group and on the run together.

"We can't keep running!" I said at one point while we were hiding from the Dilnar. "If we just keep going down through the dimensions, they'll only follow us until we sink so low that we can't get back out again."

So we decided to stand and fight.

I'm a little fuzzy on the details of the fight, but I know it wasn't pretty. Most of the dimension sinkers were human or human-like, which meant that most of us were half the size of the Dilnar (who were enormously tall, red-faced aliens that were disgustingly ugly). But eventually we did win the battle, even though only a few of us survived.

The Dilnar defeated, we all returned to our own dimensions changed people, but we could never talk about what had happened to us or what we had done.

Because other people don't notice the dimensions like we did. For them, we never left when we sank down, because time doesn't work the same way in the other dimensions. For them, the entire journey was just a blink of an eye, but I was never going to be the same.

Uh...

Vacuuming up dead bugs is not my idea of a fun dream, but at least I was helpful. I think I've got Cedar on my mind... I just hope I find the head of the giant one that got stuck in the vacuum before someone decides to sit on it. That'd be fun for my dream friends.

Oh, and apparently I know where I can find a whole bunch of rock that looks like the Bloody Baron, blood and all. Too bad I didn't actually get to go see it before I woke up. That could have been cool, and it may be something I use in a story sometime. Talk about a recognizable landmark...

Yeah, I Can Drive

Have you ever seen a cross between a VW Beetle, a minivan, and a bicycle? I have, because I built one last night in my dream.

My dad and I worked on it on and off for most of the dream (not during the family reunion moments and babysitting). Picture this: The body of a minivan but with crooked handlebars in front for steering. The engine of the Beetle, placed without a hood so you can see just how cool my new ride is. Yep. Awesome.

I took it for a test drive just before my alarm went off, and both my brother and sister were impressed. Sara looked kinda funny riding her bike, but that was probably because she was wearing a pale purple wizard hat to go with her light green skirt thing. Maybe they were shorts... Rob was just impressed that I built something that could run at all.

And let me tell you, I'm an awesome babysitter for kids who don't like staying at church. We planned to read, but by the time I found the book, the kid had already fallen asleep. So we both took naps until my mom came home, and she thought it was such a great idea that I really think she thought about joining us. I don't remember who this kid was, but he was pretty genius, and I really hope my child is like that in the future. But I bet dream kids are always just a bit cooler than real kids. That's just the way things work.

Airport Slushies and Disgusting Food (Made Just for You)

In case you're wondering, the airport is not the best place to get dream food. Especially for a kid (which I was last night), getting limp corn dogs and missing the popcorn because you're going through security too quickly does not make for a fun flying adventure. To add to that, since I was part of the kids and not the chaperons, I couldn't get a big cup. I got stuck with a little cup that gave me absolutely no nourishment.

After my alarm went off, I fell back asleep because I hadn't yet figured out how to get a big cup. For the next two hours, I dreamed about the big cups and finally figured it out. I had to be an adult.

I'll remember that next time I dream I'm in the airport.

The Lake

So today (yes, today, not last night) I had this dream about a lake.

I must have dreamed about it before, because we were returning. Apparently. My roommates Kadi and Stephanie joined me on this lovely adventure to the lake, despite the fact that it looked like the dead of winter. At least, it would be at night.

The wolves were doing well, I noticed. The female had gotten a lot bushier than I remembered her being...and a lot more orange. That was okay, though, because we could tell she and her hubby were happy and thriving.

As Steph and Kadi started gathering our stuff to set up camp, I gazed out over the lake, watching the fish jump and the waves roll around--around, not toward shore. None of this normal stuff in my dreams, no. Anyway, I was just pondering about how the water looked more like melted ice cream than anything when I remembered that I had completely forgotten to bring a jacket. Okay, that was a lie. I had a jacket, but it was a nice one, and I definitely didn't want it to smell like campfire, because that would mean I would have to wash it, which would ruin the total softness of this super nice jacket. I also forgot my blanket, which meant that I had nothing to keep me warm when dead of winter struck us once the sun went down. Great. I did, at least, have my sleeping bag and my pillow, despite my lack of sleeping pad. It seemed I had forgotten a lot of things.

That was when Kadi, who was now swimming around in the lake, discovered the whale. The killer whale.

At first, he looked about the size of a large tuna. But as soon as Kadi started to pet this whale and start crooning about how cute he was (just like she did in reality with a stink bug), the whale started to grow. Pretty soon he was full size and only half-submerged because he wasn't a very smart whale--didn't realize, you see, that he merely had to knock Kadi out of the way and swim to deeper water.

That was when my father woke me up to tell me it was time for dinner, and that was the end of that.

Here We Go

Okay, so I'm a dreamer.

And when I say that, I don't mean I have big goals in life (which I do) and secret ambitions (which I definitely have). No, when I say I'm a dreamer, I mean I dream. All the time.

Especially in the summer.

You see, this summer, I don't have a job. My two summer classes have kept me busy a total of three days since I've moved home. I'm rather friendless because all of my friends either have jobs or live elsewhere. I stay up late, wake up late, forget to eat lunch because I had breakfast an hour earlier, and I only shower if I'm actually going to leave the house. Sad, I know, but this lifestyle leaves me plenty of time to dream.

Being a creative writing major, I tend to think about stories whenever I'm not thinking about what is directly around me. Even then, my subconscious is stewing underneath my waking thoughts, always ready to spring something on me when I least expect it.

That's usually when I'm asleep.

And I don't just dream, not like most people. If I wake up in the middle of a dream and fall back asleep, I get that dream going again just because it's an interesting story. Usually it stays along the same path it was on before I woke up. Especially now, when I can sleep in until eleven without worrying about missing something exciting, I keep dreams going for a LONG time.

So that's why this is here.

Many of my dreams are epic stories of daring adventures, rescues, soap operas, and straight up weird. Rare is the dream where something normal happens. Sure, that's how a lot of people dream, but I feel like mine are a tiny bit more exciting.

And I am going to share.

Both for my sake and for yours, I'm going to write up my dreams. This way, I'll remember them better, and you can laugh at how weird I really am inside. It's a win-win situation here.

So welcome to my dreams.