Crater village, Utica, and lucid superhopping

I can't remember how it started, but I had an explanatory monologue going about legal distinctions in the word "island", showing a bunch of places on the globe that were called "island", but were actually craters or other land depressions.

The view soared over a vast semi-wilderness in a dry western area (brush and scrub, not many trees, lots of open sandy dirt). The land was pock-marked with depressions with sandstone walls, apparently formed by ancient water erosion; each was big enough for maybe 3-6 houses, and each little pocket was vaguely connected to the rest to form a network/town.

I went down into one of these depressions, where there were three or four houses. The rightmost house had a fancy exterior, so I decided to take some pictures. With my camera, I took three or four pictures starting from the left house and panning over to the right one, to make a panoramic picture out of later.

I then walked over to the pretty house, around to its right side, and found a staircase leading up along the side of the house. I walked up and ended up in a covered balcony/veranda area. From there I walked inside the house, noticing that there weren't any particular doors or locks preventing me from doing so.

I wondered if maybe a police officer lived here, reasoning that his very presence would justify an unsecured house. I cautiously continued through the house, going downstairs, but never did run into anyone.

Around now, the house had transformed into the first floor of Aunt Mildred's house in Utica. I wandered back towards the kitchen. Around this point I started to feel an anomalous sensation, and had an inkling that I was more in control of the dream than usual.

This influenced my behavior now; I was wondering whether to go upstairs or downstairs. I glanced up the stairs from the kitchen on the right, and noticed Greg's cat Jori walking down; but despite this distraction, I made up my mind to go down the stairs on the left, because I wanted to test walking into a space I couldn't remember well (i.e. the basement).

Almost immediately after getting down the stairs and turning left, what would have been the basement became the empty lobby of a city building; I was facing the exit, located on the outer corner, all glass doors and windows.

I walked out onto the sidewalk, then straight toward a grassy area with a tallish deciduous tree in the corner near the street. When I had approached the tree, I decided to try seeing how high I could hop (to test whether I was able to control the dream). First hop, I didn't quite reach the lowest branches. Next hop I did, and then I hopped a few more times, at least once hopping higher than the whole tree. Strangely, even on the high hops, I seemed to fall quite a bit faster than gravity should allow (maybe close to landing on the same time scale as a normal human hop), and when I landed on the ground, I felt no impact.

(I started to have the repeating phrase "Ich kann huggenen buschen [something something]" running through my head.)

As I walked to the right, toward a large bush, I started to pay attention to my breathing (which presumably was my actual, non-dream breathing). I started to think I don't really need to be breathing hard, or at all, if this is a dream (and other elements of reality, such as impact force, were missing anyhow).

I also tried to quiet my inner monologue, which was, as usual, quite saturated. But as soon as I did, I started to wake up.

So, this was the longest I've ever dreamed lucidly, and the most stable I've felt in light of realizing I was dreaming. However, it was interesting that there were things missing relative to reality: no people, no tactile sensations, not much going on auditorily, except my inner monologue. Upon successfully warping reality (by jumping really high), gravity did not act normally; not sure what the basis was for that -- lack of experience? video games? Drawing attention to, or altering, my breathing and inner monologue seemed to have triggered the exit. Will have to be more careful next time.

Estate + ferry: shortcut out of DC

I was riding in a car driven by a woman I knew well, who was maybe my mother's age. We were on our way out of the city, which identified with DC in my mind, though a bit different.

There was a huge river running through the middle of the city, for one thing. But I'll get to that. We had figured out that the best route to take was to drive south and enter an impressive, yet compact, estate. We drove our car from the back gate, into a courtyard filled with gardens, green copper statues on stone pedestals, and a circular center with maybe a sundial or fountain in the middle.

We stopped for a moment in the circle, and I turned and took a picture out the window of some small copper statues, perhaps cherubs or children. I looked at the picture on my camera's screen, and for some reason, the focus was messed up. There were three statues, the closest one on the right, the other two behind it and slightly to the left. I had tried to focus on the middle one, but the focus ended up showing up intermittently in different parts of the picture.

We turned right from the circle and continued through a small tunnel towards the front exit from the estate. As we were coming out, some of the estate's actual residents (at least one dark-haired guy) were walking up the covered front steps (kind of like a valet area), and looked at us, as if trying to remember if we were guests staying there or what. We glanced awkwardly at them and continued out.

Basically the only thing accessible from the front exit of the estate was a ferry that crossed the very wide river that ran through the city (though here the shores of the river looked pretty mountainous/woodsy and not built up at all).

Chilling fox and waving bear

I had just woken up (not actually, but in the dream), and was lying in bed. My bed was in the basement, but it was near a small ground-level window, out of which I could look at the back yard. I saw mom and dad in the back yard, along with the dogs. But I also saw a red fox there. Surprisingly, it wasn't doing much of anything. It wasn't scared of the people and dogs there, it wasn't trying to attack anything or run away. It just kind of stood around.

I grabbed my point-and-shoot camera, which was in my bed with me already, zoomed in on the fox, and took a couple pictures and a short video, expecting the fox to run away at any moment. But the fox never did go anywhere. It was just chilling.

-

Next dream: in the back yard of our current house, near the far back gate of our tall wood picket fence. My dad was sitting in a lawn chair, facing away from the fence, and next to him was a news anchor — Brian Williams, I think — interviewing him.

I walked up towards them, and suddenly I caught sight of a large brown bear in the woods behind the fence. I waved to it, and it got up on its hind legs and waved back, with a vacant expression on its face, then started ambling towards us. I told Dad and Brian Williams to get moving, and we fled towards the front of the house. Every once in a while, the bear would get back up on its hind legs and wave again, then continue ambling over towards us.

We got out to the front yard, and headed inside the house (which now more resembled our Cantilever house in Lake Ridge).

Dude! Jet trails!

In a restaurant with a group of friends (guys and girls). One friend comes in from outside the restaurant, saying "Dude! Jet trails!" It seemed like he really wanted someone to take pictures. A couple of us (including Greg) come out to see what is going on. Outside the restaurant was an interesting little area. Despite being outdoors it was almost completely surrounded by urban-relic type walls and most of a ceiling, so that there wasn't much way to see beyond the enclosed area. But in front of us, where most of the people crowded around were staring, was a long opening revealing something of an alley or passageway with another wall behind it.

I heard a droning noise, figuring it must be the plane my friend was talking about. I trained my camera on the only possible place we would see anything (the passageway), and a few seconds later, it looked like two planes, one chasing the other, passed through from right to left. I was taking as many pictures as I could (multiple exposure setting) but I only caught a glimpse of part of the pursuing plane. It was a lustrous muddy greenish brown color. Someone mentioned that it must be a "commando unit", which got them pretty excited.

We waited, and a little while later the droning came back and so did that second plane, passing through the passageway again. I didn't catch much more on the camera the second time — I was having a hard time positioning the shot through the viewscreen. But very soon after, a motorcycle came through the alley and stopped right in front of us. A military guy jumped off the bike, threw (or launched) something that looked like a grenade towards the crowd, said something cryptic, and said we had "two minutes".

My group ran back into the restaurant to say what had happened. I was going to show my pictures, when I noticed that: a) the latest batch of pictures came out in sepia for some reason, and b) even though Greg and I agreed that the military guy had come in on a motorcycle, the pictures on the camera showed him getting out of his airplane (which was smallish, and had propellers in interesting places).

We got ready to evacuate down to the basement of the restaurant where hopefully the explosion wouldn't hurt us. But we had some leftover pizza in boxes on the table from some other occasion, which we had been dragging around with us (it was mixed slices of pizza from two or three different places). I grabbed a slice of onion-studded pizza and we went off toward the basement. Unfortunately there was a bit of a line. Before we even got to the basement door, we heard voices from various places around (even some still outside) counting down... 3... 2... 1... But there was no explosion.

After giving a few more seconds for good measure, the crowd started coming back outside again. Now the military guy was standing by a bus, telling everyone to board. Two guys (the equivalent of Fred and George Weasley) were tossing rocks at the explosive, and it did actually ... barely.. explode. It went off with a low thud. I thought I saw the military guy chuckle a little.

On top of the bus, surrounded by low guard rails, were a bunch of horses (actually, I think they were Przewalski's Horses). I had a feeling we would be needing those horses wherever we were being taken. I also still felt suspicious of the military guy, and wanted to make sure he wasn't trying to get us all killed (again). So as I passed by the right side of the bus, I quickly peeked underneath and check for bombs attached the bottom of the bus. Instead, I saw a family of very vicious looking dogs. They didn't attack me, thankfully. I thought to myself something like, "Note to self: Circumprescription counterproductive. Stick to the club house."

As we were about to get on the bus, a friend of mine noted that the crowd was being organized into groups and people needed to take positions. He thought I should consider "first bass" or "second bass". I was pretty sure we already had a first bass guy, and I didn't think I was yet talented enough with bass to take that position.

Two (or three) towers

I had lost track of a girl I was with earlier (with medium length dyed redhead hair). I was walking through a sparsely wooded park (reminiscent of Rock Creek Park in DC) in autumn, along with some friend of mine. Off to the side, in the distance, but not too far off, I spotted two massive light gray towers, sort of castle style with battlements, but maybe the size of the steam stacks at a nuclear power plant. These two towers belonged to a complex, and a third tower, a little bit separated from the other two, was also present. I decided to take a picture, but even at this distance, I could only fit the two towers closer together into the picture.

I believe I later went over to that complex, and possibly found the girl from earlier in the lobby there. But I can't quite remember.

Scenic train ride to the east

Preparing to take a train back east with a bunch of townspeople. Everyone made sure to collect all their belongings and bring them to the train. For me, this included my bike, bike rack, bike lock, bedclothes, hoodie, half-eaten granola bar, backpack, suitcase, etc.

The train conductor noted that our one guard in town was the only guy with a gun and so anyone who wanted to board the train better be on the guard's good side. The guard was flattered and half-chuckled. I was standing near the guard when that was said, so I gave him a little salute.

The train set out -- source was maybe somewhere around Colorado or Wyoming; the route would take us directly east via the Black Hills of South Dakota. Looking out the window, we saw plenty of interesting scenery (and surprisingly little wilderness). The first thing I noted were the giant dandelions which I had first seen in real life in Colorado. At that time, I had only seen the seed stage, but in the dream, I saw some of the flowers too, and they did bear some vague resemblance to dandelions; bigger, less vibrant yellow, more droopy -- but maybe they were dying off.

I got hungry and dug into my suitcase, finding a peanut butter and jelly sandwich whose two halves were, in some ineffable way, shaped like two chicken fingers. Ate it.

Next, we passed through a hilly area, where these very small clouds were floating, quite close to us, and not far from the ground, ranging from eye level to maybe 50 feet up. There were a lot of them, and as close as they were, they zoomed by as quickly as the train zoomed along. I spotted a fleeting space between a group of clouds that looked like China, and I mentioned it. Mom mentioned she saw one that looked like Ireland, but when I looked up to see it, it had already passed. I went and got my Nikon camera to take pictures of the clouds, but by the time I was ready, they had all passed.

My camera had a little glitch, and I had to remove the battery and put it back in to get it running again. It wasn't a simple operation, as there were a few buttons (all of which appeared to be power buttons) to be pressed and a bottom panel that slid up out of the way. When I touched the battery it was kinda hot.. Anyway, I got the camera on again and fiddled with it, when suddenly a magnificent towery-castly-cathedraly thingy whizzed by on the left (with other, less impressive development on either side of it...). I was on the right side of the train so I wouldn't be able to get a very good shot. But I decided to go for it, so, with camera in hand, I leaned backwards and to the side and hit the button. I didn't hear a click, so I figured it hadn't worked, but when I looked at the review screen, I had taken a surprisingly nice picture of the lower half of it.

I wondered how it had worked if the shutter hadn't clicked. I turned it around and took a close picture of my eye, but that time the shutter worked. I was confused. Mentioned it to Greg and Neil, sitting in the seats behind me.

It was very digestious!

Greg, Neil, and I are in maybe the family room of a house, and I am looking in a large plastic bin under the coffee table, while Greg and Neil are sitting on the couch facing over the table. I see several digital cameras, and I almost think I see the one that died from falling in the Potomac River, but it turns out to be an older (and functioning) one. I check out a few others. Neil has my Nikon DSLR, and is taking various pictures (now we appear to be outside in a parkish area, with iron-fenced off areas and a street). He aims the camera at me, and I close my eyes and start walking towards him. Eventually, we end up just past where Neil was standing, now apparently the third story of a church (with very open architecture, perhaps semi-cathedralesque). We are standing at the top of a staircase, with a balcony overlooking the first floor below. I am humming something and I realize there is an acoustic sweet spot at one particular deep note, and I keep humming up to it (and some big guy on the second-story landing below is doing it too).

I walk down to the second-story landing and I have a clear view of the first floor, which is set up for a wedding. The floor is all tiled black and white like a checkered flag, and at the head of the room there is a rounded, slightly raised platform. And standing there on the platform by herself, in full wedding gown and veil, is Q's assistant, who is apparently getting married to Wolverine (or Ray now?). [Note: for Q's assistant and Wolverine's previous encounter, see the previous dream.] This seems to be the wedding rehearsal. Several people I recognize are standing off to the sides, getting ready to sing something. I recognize at least Heather D and Katie K, both off to the left side. As the song procedes, (in the key of E, although now I can't really remember how it goes), the words seem to slip from whatever they are supposed to be into commentary about the things that happened that day, very movie-musical-like. Katie K looks up to the landing and sings something to her dad about how they all went to the Cheese Shop (a tasty sandwich place in Colonial Williamsburg) earlier. The song switches into a "bridge" of sorts, sung by the dad:

(key of E major, melody notes descending) (A) (B) C# C# C# B A G# F# It was ve-ry di-ges-tious (A) (B) C# C# C# B A G# F# Al-so (ve-ry) di-ves-tive (rhythm of words:) X...x...x...x...X...x...x...x... | | | | | | |

And at that point I woke up.