Saturday, August 28, 2004

Unknowing Survivor Competitor

[This seems like it would have been a pretty interesting one, but I didn't write it down at the time I had it. Well, no more than what's below, and now I don't really remember the dream.]

- I'm watching a couple of events in this big competition involving people from work (Ron, Roy) and people from school (Scott barker, Jamiee (blond girl), and others I can't remember), and some famous people (Dave Coulier, and some people from Surreal House)
- We all meet up and talk around for a bit while we wait for others to show up. The whole house feels like it's underground, but at one point I'm in "my" room which is like the downstairs bedroom in Grandmamma's house.
- They're supposed to be doing a survivor competition, like the TV show
- first event is something about football
- second event I can't remember
- third event is running from second even to fourth event along a trail. I decide to run ahead of everyone so I can see them all arrive.
- I stop by the side so I can see everyone else arrive and see who wins. I talk to Scott and he tells me that I'm supposed to be in the events as well. I had no idea!
- The next event is to be put into an outhouse (a very smelly one) and listen to a pig being disemboweled just outside. Whoever can take it the longest wins.
- I wind up talking to Roy about trying to start up. I can't seem to go back and do the previous events, but my failure in those events (either just by watching, or by participating and then dropping out) has caused me to already be the big looser.
- Somehow the conversation turns to school. I was saying something to Roy about my grades "last year" and how I almost failed, and then I realized that I meant 11th grade. I said, "Oh! That was 2 years ago! Last year I was in college, but I came back to high school to take a couple of classes!" This means I was 2 years out after graduation (and my "2 years ago!" is inaccurate) and that would have made me 20 in my dream. I'm 27 now!
- Then I went back into the boys locker room, and it was all steamy because someone was running the shower at full heat. I was looking for the stuff that I had left in my locker years ago, but was unable to find it.
- I left the locker room and walked out towards the front office. I then went through part of the gym, and there were a LOT of people around all over the place, almost like class wasn't in. I woke up soon after this.

Thursday, August 26, 2004

Visiting with Some Famous People

Earlier on in the dream, I started out at The Villas in Texas. Em and I were in the bedroom, and we heard the front door open and close. I went out into the living room, and it was one of the maintenance guys with a air conditioner filter under his arm. I think he was a tall Asian guy. I said something to him about, "Oh, you're here to change the filter. Okay." I think that Em was a bit upset at first that he had just waltzed in here, but I told her it was okay.

We both wound up going back out into the living room while he was there. I remember something about going and looking out the front door, and someone else had come buy. I think it was an Asian lady, and she was trying to sell something to us. We declined and sent her on her way.

There was something about Em's parents, too. I'm thinking that they called or showed up briefly, and they were saying that we needed to do something with the car. The thing is, Em's car was at the mall in the parking lot. I think it was at the Harrisonburg mall, but it wasn't a far drive. Em and I got there, and we finally located the car outside of where the theaters used to be at that mall. I remember that whatever it was I had to do took a bit of preparation. I had parked across from the car (in front of it, I think, in the next row of parking spaces) and I was walking and looking around Em's car. In the dream, it was pretty clear as to what I was supposed to be doing, but I don't remember now what it was. Whatever it was, it involved quite a bit, and I know it took quite some time to accomplish.

I remember being outside of the car, and then inside of it, and I know I was doing something with it as I was sitting in the driver's seat. Finally, whatever it was that I was doing was finished, and I was able to get the car out of there and get it home.

After this, I went to some friend's house. I'm not sure who the friend was, but one of the first things that I remember was that it was actually very similar to work. I had gone back into some back room, and there were all these cages with cats in them. They weren't being kept there in some cruel manner. It was more like a pet store. There were ten or twelve cages on the left wall.

As I stood there and looked at them, there was a wall behind me about six or eight feet back, and the majority of the room was off to my left. Past the left end of the cages was the door. It was a tan or cream colored room, and there were windows there allowing in natural light, though it wasn't extremely bright, it was bright enough to not have to use lights.

At one point, Don from work came back through the door and was asking about if there were any cats back there. He then started telling some story about cats, but I forget what it was. As he told the story, the room started to change a bit. On the right side (viewed from still facing the cages), it opened up into a big kitchen. At the same time, it had a similar feeling to being in Pier 1. There were a couple of stacks or cabinets of items around in the middle, and off to their left was the island for the kitchen. I looked around at the stacks, and I looked inside the cabinets, and all the while Don was telling his story. His wife (who in waking life that looks more like Don in a bad frizzy blond wig) was there, and she was talking, too.

Eventually it was more like they were having a conversation, but I think that she may have also been saying things to me. I'm not sure what, but I know I felt a little bit uncomfortable being there. Finally I left the kitchen, and I went into the dining room (which was approximately where the cat room used to be). There were a bunch of people in there, and there was something about talking with people on the phone and hanging around with friends and their parents. I'm not sure how old I was supposed to be, but I know that a couple of the friends were talking about Ward Blackwell (a kid I used to go to school with in elementary school).

At one point, I wound up on the phone in the friend's bedroom. I think I was on there for quite some time, and somehow I have the impression that I was on the phone with someone I wasn't supposed to be. I think it had to do with the parents rather than the friends. Well, eventually I got off the phone, and the dad of the main friend (who was played by a tall, long haired, and only wearing boxers version of William H. Macey, the guy from Fargo and Mystery Men) was saying something about me being on the phone for so long. I told him that it had been Ward Blackwell, and he laughed and said something about, "Yeah, that boy sure can talk!" and he walked off. Evidently that was something that had come up before, and that's why I had said it this time around. There was also some sort of joking or something going around about Michael Jackson and George Michael. (Not joking about them together, but just at different times)

I eventually made my way out to the dining room because we were about to have some big dinner, and I sat at the table. The dining room looked a lot like the dining room of Aunt Irene's house on Clark Street. Mr. Macey was there kind of off to my left, but across the table. He was still standing, and something happened, and he got drenched with water. I remember seeing the water flying at him as if someone had thrown a huge bucket of water at him, but at the same time, the water had no source. It came from no where. One thing that came to mind when I saw it was about his long body hair (arms, chest, back, lets) and how it was all hanging down about six inches after getting soaked.

Then, there was something about me bringing my face very close to the table, and I had some sort of rectangular flat ceramic dish or something, and I was laying toothpicks on it. They were the round sort, and so they kept rolling around. I was laying them on there in such a way that I was trying to lay them as close together as possible without having them touch. On the left side I was laying them horizontal, and on the right side I was making them vertical because there wasn't space for another horizontal row. I had started once and realized they were too far apart, and so I started again putting them much closer together. They still wanted to roll around, and I remember that I had to be careful with breathing on them because that would ruin the whole thing.

Someone was making another George Michael joke, and I laughed, and as I looked up, George Michael was actually there in the room, a couple of seats down and across the table from me to my right. I wondered if he had heard it, and thought for sure that he had, and I was thinking to myself that people needed to be careful not to make him mad.

Tuesday, August 24, 2004

Tornado at Mom's House

I was at mom's/grandmamma's house in Weyers Cave with mom and Em (wife). I remember being inside with everything turned off, and then going outside. I actually may have started out being there alone, but I'm a bit unsure.

I went out to the area where the garden used to be, around the walnut trees, and I remember there being someone else there. I think there were three people, but I'm unsure as to who they were. They were looking for something. They wanted something that was there, either in the yard, at the edge of the yard, or in the chicken house. It seems that it may have had something to do with a car, but I'm unsure. The weather was starting to get bad, such as getting very overcast and windy, so I went inside again.

This time mom and Emily were there, and lights and things were on. There was a bit of talk about Em and I staying the night there, or perhaps we already had. We were in my old downstairs bedroom. In talking to mom again for a short bit, somehow it came up for Em and I to move in with her. I was unsure if that's something that either of them really wanted, but they really seemed to, so I was excited to do it.

We heard the weather getting worse outside, so we went out the front door. I looked around towards Garber's farm, and I saw that the clouds had gotten black in some places. It was very windy, and things were not looking good. Then we heard a loud roaring and lots of crashing noises, and I looked off to the west from Garber's farm, and we saw huge amounts of debris flying up from the ground about a mile off.

In all of this, the clouds looked very low, like I could almost reach up and touch them in spots, and over where the debris was flying around, I saw a tornado that kept extending from the clouds, and then retracting again. It was doing so very quickly, and it was moving south along the area of Keezletown Road. We were unsure if it was going to make it's way over to us, but I kept watching it to see what it was doing. It kept just moving south, staying about a mile away. I saw it disappear around the western corner of the house (to the central Weyers Cave area) and Em and Mom and I decided to go into mom's basement.

In the basement, it was different from how it actually was in waking life. It seemed a bit more finished, and it was bigger and taller (we could actually stand in it), and there was some sort of door or window there that let in just a little light from the outside. I think there may have also been a TV or something down there, as well as a partial kitchen with a sink and stove or something.

We were down there for a bit, and I remember hearing the roaring continue outside for a while. Eventually I decided to go back outside and look around once it sounded like the tornado had gone. I think that before I actually went, I looked up through this window or whatever, and I saw that there were still black spots in the clouds, and some of them seemed to be getting worse. I still went outside anyway, and the tornado seemed to be done. It was wet outside because of rain, and things all looked very windblown. Mom and Em and come out, too, and they were talking again about Em and I moving in with her.

Wednesday, August 18, 2004

Christmas with Mom in Texas

Em and I were back here at the Villas, and mom was here with us. It was Christmas day, and mom had brought us presents. I remember thinking that we had quite a few gifts from her even though she couldn't spend a lot of money. Instead of opening them up inside, though, we went just outside our front door into the breeze way, and we sat around our welcome mat. I believe we had presents for mom, too, but I don't actually remember giving them to her.

Em and I were sitting facing the door, and mom was sitting in front of the door facing us. Em and I opened some of our presents at the same time. One of the first things we got was a set of index cards. I was a little disappointed at first, but Em and mom were talking about the cards (which Em also got). I turned out that with the right tool, they played music, and mom had made them. She showed us that if we touched the letters that were on the card (I don't remember what was written) that we would notice that they were raised. Sure enough, I touched them, and they were, somewhat like the ink on business cards. I also realized that each letter was made out of smaller letters. Mom said that to play them, all we needed was a comb.

I went off looking for a comb, but evidently Em found it first, and she started sliding it down the card slowly, and it was almost like listening to a small radio. She was playing a tune of one of her favorite songs (I don't remember which). Then I believe she tried it out on one of mine and I remember that it played a Gary Numan song. (perhaps "Are Friends Electric?", since that's what's stuck in my head right now while I'm writing this)

Then there was a bigger package under what looked like some more stacks of musical cards. I saw some lights in the paper lighting up, and I believe it was making some beeping noises. I knew that this was supposed to be some toy or game that I had as a kid, and mom had wrapped it up and given it to me again as a kind of "look what I found!" gift.

I guess we weren't fast enough with opening our gifts because after a short time, Mom had to go. She got up, and said something about having to go do dinner somewhere with someone else in our family. (evidently they lived close by) So we gave her hugs and thanked her and saw her off.

The next thing I know, I'm up in the parking lot, and it's night time/early morning, but it's smaller like the parking lot belongs to a house, and Mike (former step-father) is out there, and there's a couple of different vehicles that evidently belong to him. There was something like a jeep, one that was like some sort of souped up station wagon (like that new Dodge Magnum) and something else, maybe like a minivan. I think I needed to go to school, and he was doing something with the vehicles, and so I was getting a bit antsy because I was going to be late.

Finally he had me to take the station wagon thing. It was raining out, and so I was being careful on the road. I remember getting onto a highway (it was supposed to be something like 183?) that had lots of businesses on either side of it. I only remember driving for a short bit before the dream ended.

Saturday, August 14, 2004

House Hunting Obstacle Course

Em (wife) and I were somewhere, and we were looking at mobile homes, and considering buying one. The homes we were looking at were already in a neighborhood, and most of them were yellow. It was very overcast out, but not rainy yet. Even though this neighborhood was big, it still had the feel of being out in the middle of nowhere.

We wound up parking and going into one, and it had some very strange features. First of all, it had movable walls. You could put them wherever you wanted to make the rooms you wanted. Also, this place was huge. It wasn't like a mobile home. It was almost like a mansion or something. It was probably 4000 square feet and mostly all on one level. While looking around through the living room, which had a bit of a western corral or bar theme to it, I turned to my left and found an entrance to a glassed in porch.

The glass had the same feel that some restaurants have where they have a section off to the side that is more porch like than part of the restaurant. The glass slanted inwards, but not very steeply. The whole area was probably three stories tall, and it was dark and rainy out.

As I went onto the porch, I saw that there were rides from an amusement park in there. I don't remember specifically which rides they were, though. As I looked off to the right and down through this narrow (30 feet wide) but long (over 200 feet long) porch, I saw that down at the other end there was a bonfire area.

I also found some red leather recliners and sat in one. I know that there was something about it snowing, but I'm not sure if that was inside or outside. Also, once I got into the recliner, there seemed to be kitty litter that was coming from some machine. The machine had the feel of being some sort of game or amusement and had spinning parts that lit up. There was a LOT of kitty litter coming from that machine. So much, in fact, that sitting in the recliner caused me to be mostly buried in it. There was someone else there in a recliner with me, and he was having trouble staying afloat in the stuff, but he was still kind of laughing or having fun.

Em and I left, and we drove through the rest of the mobile home park. It was feeling less like a mobile home park, though, because we kept seeing all these two story houses around. At one point we also passed under a railroad bridge. The road that went under it was just a two lane blacktop, and after leaving the park, it curved sharply off to the left. This area almost acted as a gate to the park. The track and bridge were up on a solid ridge of some sort, either man made or just a natural ridge.

We eventually wound up at one of the Medieval Times restaurants. In order to get in, there was an obstacle course that had to be run in order to prove your "worth" or something. Michael Moore (Fahrenheit 9/11) was trying to get through it, and he was very winded. It was like I was watching him from some sort of observation windows that showed a very mechanical course below. The course had things like conveyors, swinging things to avoid, and stuff like that.

I was with a group of other people. We all made it through this course fairly easily, but afterwards we were in this elegantly decorated room with white marble and fine rugs, and we were stuck. We had taken a fork in the pathway earlier, which was marked with a heart/club set from a deck of playing cards. There was a presentation of a number of small images in a grid formation over on one wall. The grid may have been about three by three feet, and each image about four by four inches. We were supposed to press one to be able to continue. I believe we only had one (or at least a very limited number) of chances to get it right. We had known at one point which one we were supposed to push, but we no longer remembered.

Then one of the women there speaks up and says that she remembered that we were supposed to push the "South Park" block. She did so and the grid opens up to a three by three foot doorway that we have to crawl through. We wound up having to go through the same obstacle course again in order to get to the main eating area. The second time around, when we got to fork in the hallway, we took the side that was marked with the diamonds/clubs.

Em and I got into this big eating area with large round tables. It had the feel of one of the rentable conference rooms at a hotel, and we found the table off to our left in the back corner where her parents were sitting. We sat there with them and waited to eat.

Friday, August 13, 2004

Buying New Art Supplies and a Tornado

I started out at some sort of mall with Em (wife). I think it was supposed to be the Harrionburg Mall, but I'm not certain. We were in a Sears, and I believe that we were walking around looking at clothes or something. We may have stopped off to look for a bathroom for Em. While she was in there, I started looking around a bit, and I realized that I needed new art supplies.

I started looking around, and I was finding the stuff I needed. I was getting a new art supply carrying case , and I was putting all sorts of things into it, such as pens, pencils, oil pastels, etc. At one point, I was also putting things into a cardboard box that was about a foot and a half long, about 9 inches wide and tall. It was a bit funny because even though the bottom of the box was not taped up, (it was just the flaps folded over each other) it wasn't giving me any problems with holding the stuff I put into it. The art box, on the other hand, was giving me problems because some how the bottom of it was also folded-over flaps, but they kept coming undone and dropping things out the bottom.

At this point, I was no longer with Em in the store. She wasn't there anymore, as if she had never been there in the first place. Also, the store was now more like Walmart, and not Sears. There were other people shopping there, too. They were mostly women around the age of 35 to 45, and they were all getting their art supplies. There weren't many of them around, but I remember talking to one woman briefly in the aisle about what I was getting versus what she was getting. It was actually during this time that the red art box was giving me trouble.

Soon after this, I found that I had filled the cardboard box about 1/3 full with pink wintergreen candies like what mom used to get, and Eric (brother) referred to them as "Medicine Balls" because they tasted like Pepto Bismol. I also had a third item with me, and I think it may have been just a basket for shopping.

I eventually wound up at the check out counter, and things were moving along well, when all of a sudden I realized when I sat down the shopping basket, that I had set the cardboard box and art box down somewhere in one of the aisles. I turned to the dark-haired woman behind me and I said something like, "I feel really bad about this, but I need to get out of line and get something I left in one of the aisles. Could I get back in line when I get back?" She laughed and said, "I left something down one of the aisles, too!!" There was a second lady behind her, but neither one of us said anything to her as we broke out of line and went to get our stuff.

I left my basket there at the checkout, but instead of actually leaving it on the counter, I took it and set it up on top of a big stack (about as tall as me) of soda 12-pack boxes that was by the exit. I then went back and got the cardboard box and he art box (which was still giving me troubles with the bottom falling open. I got back to the checkout, bought the stuff (making sure they opened the boxes to get all the stuff inside) and then I went home to the house that used to be Grandmamma Miller's.

Mom was in the kitchen, and I talked to her briefly about something. I'm thinking it may have been the news or something, but I'm not sure. I heard this strange sound outside, and it seemed like it just kept going. It was like a train in the distance or something. I was walking out of the kitchen and through the dining room when I looked out the window towards the Garber's farm, and back behind it I saw a tornado.

Right at that moment I yelled, "A tornado!" and went to run back to the kitchen to tell mom, but mom had just seen it, too, and also yelled. Even though we knew it was serious, neither one of us went running down to the basement or anything. Actually, I mentioned to her, "Maybe I should go upstairs and get my camera!" I think she replied with, "What!?", thinking that I was crazy to even consider going upstairs when there was a tornado around.

Somehow I was able to know about local news and reports from local people about reporting on the weather, and how it was online. What I mean is that I knew that there was a girl somewhere close that had gotten pictures of the clouds outside her house when she knew the tornado was coming, and posted them on the Internet, before I even got on the Internet.

But I got online, and I checked out the pictures, and she had made a comment about catching the eye or seeing the eye in the clouds. When I looked at the pictures, I saw that there was actually a formation that looked like an eye in the clouds. (whereas before I thought she meant "the eye of the storm"). She had a picture of some blond woman celebrity right below it, and was comparing the two.

The more I looked at it, the more I realized that there was more to the formation than the eye. There was the other eye, the nose, the mouth, and eventually her entire head, just like in the picture, was also in the cloud formation. After this I got offline, and I went and looked for the tornado again, but I couldn't see it. I didn't really hear it either, but for some reason, I didn't think it was completely gone. I thought it had just moved around so that it was in a different location that made it hard for us to hear. I went and looked out the window in the dining room towards the Garber's farm again, and it wasn't there. It looked like it was now dark off to the right, but if the tornado was there, it was out of my view around the corner of the house.

I think I went outside to look for it, and I still wasn't hearing it. I somehow still didn't believe that it was gone, and I was watching the dark area that was over past where the "Big Barn" normally was. In thinking about it, walking out the front door, there was nothing there except the road. No barn. No big maple trees. No dairy barn. Just the road and the field beyond. It was dark there, but I wasn't seeing the tornado. I think I saw it kind of sputter to life again for a brief moment, but it didn't last long and it was gone, at which point I woke up.

At Stephen's House

I don't remember much of what was going on, but I was at Stephen Craig's house for a short bit. I talked to his mom briefly, and I think his grandfather was also supposed to be there. I was saying or asking something about his dad being dead, but I may have been saying it to Irene (Stephen's mom) rather than Stephen. I was outside most of the time around their parking area.

Sunday, August 08, 2004

The Caterpillar

I think I may have actually started out at Mercedes, but eventually I wound up being back here at the apartment. Somehow I came across this fuzzy caterpillar. I believe the whole thing was brown or black (as opposed to the orange and black striped ones I used to see as a kid) I think that Em was playing around with it for a little bit, and eventually I came over by our computers to see it and to see if there was anything I could do for it.

I watched it move around for a while, and then I talked to Em about it some. I don't remember what she said about it, but I suddenly remember recalling squishing caterpillars as a kid. I was thinking of the greenish brown ooze squishing out of their bodies. I think Em may have been talking about eating them or something, and in remembering the squishing of them, I was thinking about what was actually inside of them, and I wanted no part of eating them.

I think I finally got a piece of paper or something, and I set the edge of it down in front of the caterpillar so that it would crawl up on there and I could safely get it outside. I think it would get close and touch it or sniff it, and then it would turn and go a different direction. Finally I decided that I needed to just get it out of here, so I opened up the sliding patio door (it was night time, by the way, and the goose neck lamp on our desk was on) and I finally just scooped the edge of the paper under it and tried to kind of get it outside. I don't think I could ever actually get it up on the paper, so eventually I had to just barely get under the edge of the caterpillar and flick the paper up a little to try to launch it outside. I think I did eventually, and I shut the door.

Friday, August 06, 2004

Crossing the Gorge

Em (wife) and I were on a long drive. We came to a place that (I think) was supposed to be in Tennessee. There was a point in the road where we couldn't go any farther for some reason, and we had to backtrack 100 feet or so and talk to these people that were at some sort of information desk. A blond girl instructed me to go forward again, get onto the platform, and "take it across". I said "Okay," but I'm not sure where Em had gone to at this point. She wasn't around to hear the girl say what to do, so I thought I'd go and test it out myself first.

I went over to these two steel platforms (one in front of the other) that were supposed to be big enough to hold my car, and I laid down on the first (closest) one. As I did, it slowly started to take off, floating up and forward. Even though it wasn't moving very fast, it still gave me this feeling that I was almost being repelled off the top of the platform. I had to really hold on to make sure I didn't go flying off. Even though that worried me a bit, I hung on and kind of had a good time because of getting to see all the scenery. I went quite a way over the country landscape below, and eventually I saw this long gorge ahead that stretched as far as I could see to either side of me. It was fairly narrow, but it was supposed to be very deep as well. The platform eventually came down on the other side of the gorge, and it turned so that I face to the right so that I was supposed to be able to just drive off of it and continue the drive.

I wound up taking the platform back to the main area, and I was able to find Em. I did the platform without my car again, but this time with Em. She had the same feeling as I did the first time that she was going to get thrown off the thing, and I was just telling her to hold on. We went through the same thing as I did the first time, watching the scenery below and crossing the gorge and landing, facing right. Now we just needed to bring my car, so we went back, and we got into my car, and drove down to where the platform was. For some reason, the platform either wasn't there, or I went down a bit farther, but either way I wound up turning left into a dirt/gravel parking lot.

We got out of the car there, and we were at this building that looked quite a bit like a house. We went in, and it looked more like a restaurant. There were tables and chairs and booth seats around. I think it was supposed to be like Outback Steakhouse or something. Somehow, Em was already seated when I went in. I went back to the table she was at, and I sat with her. There were lots of people around, and I got this feeling that there was something bad going on. Not terrible and scary, but just like a lot of these people were picking on the waiters or being asshat customers or something.

Eventually we were supposed to be eating with another couple or group, and we did. There was something strange or awkward about it, like I didn't want to eat or something. I don't think that was it, but I remember getting up for something and coming back a short time later. I don't think I ever actually ate.

Eventually the place cleared out a bit, and we were done, too, so we wound up leaving. I'm not sure if this was part of this dream or another, but there was something about being at a house that was supposed to belong to Em and I. I think that the people from the restaurant were there with us, but I'm not sure. I know that someone was, but I'm just not sure who it was. I don't remember what went on there, but I know it was in a subdivision, much like the newer one that was up on the hill in Mount Sidney, VA.

Tuesday, August 03, 2004

Apartamental Space

The dream started out with me getting onto a big school bus. I was traveling with a group of people in Virginia, but I don't remember where we were going to or coming from. I remember getting onto the bus. I was one of the first ones to get on the bus. I was looking for a good seat to sit in, but it seemed like there was something wrong with each of them. Either the seat was seriously mangled, or the window was broken, or something.

I eventually found a seat at the back of the bus on the "passenger side". It seemed that the bus was very long, and what would normally be the length of the bus was the amount that stuck out over the back wheels. A couple of friends were there with me, including one guy that had glasses, short scraggly hair that kind of stuck out all over the place, and was rather unshaven. It seemed to take a while for everyone (though there weren't many people) to find their seats. Finally everyone did, and we were off.

The next thing I know, Em (wife) and I were here at the Villas at Beaver Creek. (although I don't remember seeing her on the bus) It was night time or early morning, but we were supposed to be moving from one apartment to another. The one we were moving in to was the apartment next door to us. The way that the Villas was set up was a bit different, though. The sidewalk that runs past our building and up to the pool ran straight to our front door instead. And there were four apartments down on the bottom at our "breezeway" instead of the normal two. And the thing that's probably the strangest is that where our door was down on the ground level, the whole front inside of the breezeway" was glass. We could see straight into other people's apartments.

I think that once we were inside of our original apartment, there was a door inside that went over into our neighbors apartment, kind of like a hotel room suite. I think that our neighbors may have been up and about during this time, too, because it seems like we wound up running into them. Actually, it may have been the running into them that caused us to decide to switch apartments with them.

I remember being in our original kitchen, but it was set up very differently than it actually is. It seemed to be back along a back hallway, and all the counter space and appliances were on the left side, and there was just a wall on the right. We had a lot of pots and pans and strange gourds and spices all hung up around the kitchen for decoration.

Then we wound up going outside, and then back in to the new apartment. We were looking around to see how we liked it, and it was very nice. The living room was big, it had a separate dining room, and big kitchen, and then upstairs in a "loft" area there was another living room and two bedrooms. One of the bedrooms opened up into the upstairs living room. Everything was already furnished. I remember seeing a bed with a brass bed frame in the master bedroom, and then going through to the upstairs living room, there was a high-back chair (kind of like the ones that Morpheus and Neo sit in when they first meet in the Matrix) but everything was very nice and decorated to kind of like a country-store feel. There were old pictures and paintings and items up on the walls, and it all just had a very nice cozy feel to it.

Eventually I had gone back downstairs, but when I did, a strange sight greeted me. At the bottom of the stairs and going into the living room/dining room area, there was a big mass of floating gas and lights int he middle of the room. Suddenly I realized that I was actually in space. I found myself briefly walking into a theater, and sitting down somewhere near the middle. As I did, a film started up, but it wasn't quite a film, either. I knew it was going to be a view of flying through space but I had this anticipation that if I didn't hold onto my seat, I'd go flying out of it and into the movie.

On the black screen was this view of flying around past all this dust and stars, and winding up at our own solar system. The picture took me past Saturn and towards the direction of the sun. Saturn looked a bit strange, though, kind of like a digital picture that was "broken" in spots. The picture looked rough, and it had these strange faded purple pixelated blotches down around the bottom of it.

I looked around, and I was standing in the middle of the living room, and I think I briefly saw William Shattner there. I looked back to the screen, and I was in my seat again, and I saw myself fly past Jupiter. I thought, "I'll be home in no time. I'm going to call Em!" So I called her, and I told her, "Hey, guess what! I just saw OUR sun! I should be home in a while!" I was planning, actually, on sooner than that because I was in fact already in our solar system.

The next thing I know, I'm back in our apartment, but it's not an apartment anymore. It's actually a house. The star and dust formation was still in the living/dining room area (though the area now looked very different, but I can't quite describe how) and I was looking at it. Someone came up to me, and we were discussing this big blobby thing sitting there. In talking about it, I decided to reach in and touch the gaseous part of the formation. It was strange because it was solid, and it felt a lot like that green styrofoam stuff that they use for flower fake flower arrangements. (the stuff that kind of crumbles when it gets old) I looked at this thing for quite a bit, though no particular feature of it stands out to me besides the "space dust" that felt solid. I may have found myself flying around inside of this a couple of times more, but other than that, I believe that was the end of the dream.