The Bachelor

Some stuff about my house and the deck

I was in a group of other people, and we were all competing against each other for the affections of an affluent, famous man. There were all kinds of other people in the running, teams and solo players. There was someone else in the game that I knew. I’m not sure if she was competing or not, but I knew her and she knew I was competing. There were different events that we had to complete like cooking. I’m not sure what I prepared, but I remember looking at everyone’s entries and thinking that I needed to be different. Instead of the fancy offerings, I decided to make something homestyle and hearty. We all had to leave while The Man was judging things. I took the opportunity to move my things to the dorm area set up for the contestants. To do that I had to navigate a swampy water area with crickets and such. It was dark there. Some stuff happened, then it was time for another event. I’m not sure what happened, but the gist of it was that this event was the final bid for The Man’s attention. Something huge and big. I was at a loss at what to do. I strolled through the dark, swampy place by myself, skipping a handful of tiny rocks. I noticed that every time I skipped a rock a small fish died, so I started catching them in the convenient net/strainers I was carrying. It would make for good eatings later. My coworker/familiar person came over to me as I was doing this. We talked about something, and I woefully explained that I didn’t know what to do now that it was the final bid. Eventually, I made my way out to a parking lot. It was after hours, so the lot was mostly empty save a few straggling cars. That’s when all of the sudden an idea struck me. It struck me HARD, and I knew that it was going to work! They hadn’t given us much direction for the final event, just that it had to be something exceptional that The Man would like. I started pulling and placing a huge set of barrier fences around the parking lot, the quickly diminishing sun still giving enough light for me to at least place the border of my grand scheme. By the time I was done, I had the “perfect” boundary and setup for my ultimate goal. The only thing standing in the way was an old Windstar minivan. Since it was there, I just incorporated it into the plan. That’s when a man started walking over to the van and to me. He seemed surprised and impressed by what he saw, even though I hadn’t even started yet. Curious, he got to talking to me, and I explained excitedly what my plan was. He was really down to earth, calm spirited, and easy to talk to. That’s when I realized who he was: he was The Man himself. No one had met him thus far. That Windstar was his. I immediately felt nervous, but tried not to let on that I’d realized who he was. He told me that my plan was super original and that he was looking forward to seeing how it turned out. It felt good.

Towed Car, Work

Terrible, terrible dream to have!!

I got to work kind of late and decided to park on the street in front of the building. It would be right under the windows and easy to see if my car was okay. I get inside to the 3rd floor and am going about my day when I happen to glance outside. My car is gone! I exclaim that I got towed, remembering that I’d forgotten the put up my permit. I’m freaking out and my coworkers aren’t as empathetic as I’d like, but who cares what they think, there’s a crisis on my hands. I run outside to try and find the tow company’s number, planning about using an Uber to get to the impound lot. When I get outside, I remembered that the street doesn’t belong to the building, it belongs to the city! The city towed my car?? Then why not the other cars?! I make my way back upstairs through the stairwell where 3 girls are giggling with each other. I figure out why because the only way to get to the 3rd floor door is through the world’s smallest gap between the wall corner and the metal railing. The girl squeezes by and I squeeze through, too, sucking in my gut as hard as I can. The 3 girls giggle as they watch me, and I go through the door. I tell my office again about my dilemma and still no one cared. I use my phone to try and find the tow company’s number, but for the life of me I can’t find anything useful at all on the internet or the city’s website! Time is moving quickly by, and I’m running out of time before it gets dark. I run outside again, this time to the sidewalk and notice the NO PARKING signs that somehow I’d missed before. There are a crowd of people milling about and I stand there furiously browsing and scrolling on my phone getting more and more afraid and frustrated because there is NOTHING online to tell me what to do. I’m trying all the search terms, search engines, website, NOTHING. I don’t have a car. It’s going to cost SO MUCH to get it back, and I have to pay for the ride there, too! I’m about to lose my mind-

-when I wake up. THANK GOODNESS. It took me a while I realize that it was just a dream and not happening in real life. What a nightmare!

Neighborhood, Cora, Police, Bored

I was walking Cora through my neighborhood. She wasn’t on a leash, just trotting happily by my side. For some reason we were walking through the center of the 4-way stop when another dog walker with an offleash dog walks by. I don’t think much of it until I realize which dog I’m with and immediately grab her collar. It’s a good move even though I grab some fur and skin more than her collar because she’s growling, hackles up at the other dog, body tense. I tell her to knock it off, and the other dog leaves. When she does quit, I go to praise her and she’s suddenly rambunctious to the point that I fall over the top of her, tucking into a roll, and laughing. As I stand up, I realize we’re still in the middle of the road and that a police SUV cruiser is driving by slowly. I guide her over to the sidewalk to go home trying to signal that it wasn’t a fight, we were just playing.

Except I didn’t go home. I continue down the sidewalk to the other neighborhood where I see 2 men. A different police cruise comes by, and an officer yells out the window for everyone to stay put. He gets out and addresses a female down the road near a house. The other 2 guys with me stand, waiting, and I start to leave, but one of the men tells me that I need to stay. The officer turns around and I point at myself, asking if he meant me, too. He smiles, nods, and explains that it has been incredibly difficult to track me down. Oh. What? Why? I eventually get a piece of paper explaining why the police are looking for me. I can’t remember exactly why now, except that it is for something benign like I forgot to do something, or they want me to fill out a report on an incident from before that I know about. The officer turns his attention to the other 2 men who are on first name basis with the cop. Seems like they have some history. I listen and wait for my turn.

Before I know it, the entire place is crowded with people. The officer is gone and replaced by a panel of people. They’re talking about budgets and plans for future events of the group, explaining that each member of the governing body is going to be dressing up as a different character from some anime or show. They’re going to build 2 rows of fish aquariums in the meeting space and decorate the walls with Asian-inspired deco. The words go on and on, and not only am I bored out of my mind, but there are no chairs. Everyone’s standing and listening intently. I don’t belong there and the cop is gone. I’m contemplating if it’s rude of me to leave, but can’t bring up the courage to do it, so I sigh and squat down to alleviate the exhaustion in my legs. I see that a few other people start doing the same thing and smirk a little. I guess even people in the club are bored, too. The thought of just marching out grows more and more appealing as the words just keep coming, and I remind myself that I have nothing to do with these people. Just as I stare towards the exit and muster up the courage to straight up leave-

-Cora literally wakes me up. She never does that.

Bathroom

I had just had a great vacation/trip with my family, and it was coming to a close. I was commenting on the best aspects of the trip (the fact that there are so many places to eat, so many varieties of food to choose from) and lamenting that now that it’s back to normal, I find it all depressing. It was the last day in the house before heading back. The place was really dark, and I sadly went into the bathroom to take a shower. The bathroom was huge with lots of space in the middle for who knows what. I have a fear of public bathrooms to begin with because I find them gross (especially small tile!), but at least this one we’d been using for a week. When I get in there, I see my coworker G. The understanding arrives that the bathroom is so large because there’s more than one shower. OKAY, so one person is not the end of the world. I start carefully taking off my clothes, trying not to step on the floor with my bare feet if possible. That’s when another female comes in, one I’ve never seen before and am unfamiliar with. She’s tall with an athletic build, brown hair pulled into a ponytail, and exudes confidence bordering arrogance. She immediately strips and starts taking a shower while I try not to look. I hadn’t even realized that there was a shower right next to the door. Out of the corner of my eye I notice that it has a glass enclosure. No wonder I hadn’t noticed. I’d taken off my pants when I realized that I’d forgotten a towel. No biggie, I’ll just go grab one. It’s still early, it was dark, no one would be awake yet.

I walk out the door pant less, and holy cow the place is HOPPING with unfamiliar people. No backing down now! I put on as much bravado as I could muster and strut out to look for a towel… except I can’t find anything. Everything I think is a towel is actually a folded up blanket. My fake courage is starting to unravel quickly the more people stand next to and pass, excessively aware of my lack of pants. I worry that the underwear I’m wearing is stained or holey, or both. Finally finding one, I rush back into the bathroom and shut the door. My relief is not to found because the bathroom is now busy, too, and it really is a public bathroom. I head over to an open shower stall, trying hard not to look too closely because the pink, small tile is freaking me out, and I think I see algae and mold on stuff. I get in, noting all the people around, and turn on that water to get it warm. There’s nowhere to put my towel, so I have to hang, naked, out the door to struggle with the clothes hangers there, and hope that it doesn’t slide off. I try to kick off my shoes, but they’re not coming off without a fight, and now I’m aware of young boys and all manner of other people milling around other showers. I can’t believe I’m having to endure this, but I do, and hurry on with the shower. I close the door which is just some wooden slats with a few missing. I straighten up in the warm water and realize that the shower stalls are only high enough to reach my armpits. Can this get any worse? Why did I ask that? My neighbor is a female my age with brown hair in a bob. She exudes a coolness vibe. Just as I take her in, a male pops his head up on the stall next to her. He smiles at her while she frowns and tells him to stop staring. He apologizes, the smile never faltering, and tells her that he really likes the products she makes and wants one, too. Seeing a business deal, she starts talking shop, though never looking at the guy. All I can think is that I’m so glad he’s not over here staring at me, and hurry on with the shower, my head cold, but the rest of me warm.

I don’t know what happens next because I wake up feeling super cringey.

Dog Belly Rub

It was only a snippet, but I was petting a dog. It was wearing a harness or shirt or something on its back and I couldn’t see its face because it was lying down on its side, but it was colorful and fuzzy. My initial thought was that it was my boy Gable. I rubbed the brown fur with dark markings from his chest, to his shoulder, and then to his belly. That’s when I realized that there was too much fur on his belly to be Gable. As soon as my mind understood this and my vision grew more clear, I realized that those weren’t stripes, they were ticking, and that the belly wasn’t tapering off like a greyhound’s should. The color deepened to a shade of brown and black and white and I gasped.

Then it was over and I woke up to find a smile on my face.

Work, Video Game

I was at work except it looked nothing like work and the doctors were all guest doctors, not the real doctors. I was in the break room with my coworkers which looked a lot like my grandparents’ basement with all the wood paneling. There was also a dog in there that I don’t recognize, a little chubby thing with a bulldog type of face and the body of a beagle. I bummed around for a little and everyone was just standing around. The female doctor was about to leave for lunch or to go home or something and I noticed that the dog wanted to go to the bathroom. I ran out and quickly told the doc that her dog needed to go out. She looked like she didn’t believe me, but the dog, hearing this, ran out and stared at her with pleading eyes. She sighed and took the dog out. Relieved, I went back into the break room and my coworker pointed out a little puddle where the dog had leaked a bit of pee. Later, my coworkers were all working while I wasn’t for some reason and a male doctor came in to replace the female one. I pointed out the little pee spot to him and he apologized and started trying to wipe it up with some paper towels which wasn’t working very well. I offered him some Clorox Wipes and he gladly took some. OKAY. Problem solved.

Then it was time for ME to get to work. I had been standing around for so long that I was super extra late for my patient. I went out to get them (Lynn) and walked all the way over to the posh waiting area on the other side of the clinic to call for “Lynn” except that for some reason I couldn’t even say the name properly. A person stood up anyways and came with me. When we got to the seat, I asked her if she knew about the next patient on my schedule. I figured that I could just get started on two chairs and then I could manage my time better. She told me yes and we went back to the waiting room to grab my next patient. All three of us made our way to the seats. As I was asking the new person her name because I was skeptical that it was the same person, she said a name that was nowhere on the list. I tried to be helpful by looking in her mouth to see if she matched anyone and to see if there was anything obviously wrong in her mouth. There wasn’t. She hopped up, now irritated. I triple-checked the schedule and didn’t see her name anywhere. I told her to go take it up with the front desk, but she ran over to my doctor and started berating him because she was in pain and needed to be seen. He apologized and I stopped listening because it was no longer my issue.

I turned my attention back to my patient who was now my customer. She wanted to order some food and I was new at the restaurant and didn’t know too much at all. She gave me her order and I put it into the system. Seemed easy enough. Then I ran around, stressed and not sure of what to do. It was getting really late, when I realized that I hadn’t checked on her in almost 45 minutes. I’m a terrible waitress, I told myself as I hurried towards her table thinking that she’d probably be super mad and complain. She was super happy. She was such a nice person even though she’d JUST gotten her food. She ate it there with me in attendance and told me that she was a little disappointed in the dessert that she was so excited about because the guy that made it broke the whatever. I couldn’t follow what she was telling me because I had no clue what they served there. I wanted to get her a new dessert for being such an awesome patron, but my supervisor told me no. I looked at her apologetically and she understood. Then the place was closed and I could go home. I went over to check out, asking the guy in front of me what I was supposed to do. He scanned his fingerprint and input a code into the scale. I didn’t have one. The big scary lady behind the counter told me that she had to sign me up.

To do that, I had to follow the prompts on the screen which turned out to be a video game. I had to come up with the code, but first, I had to pass a series of tests. First written, then verbal, and then the final test which was the game. The controls were terrible because I had to use the scale buttons and were completely nonintuitive, but I’m used to playing video games. The level was hard to fight through (old beat em up style) given the controls. In between stages, my phone rang. It was my family there to pick me up after my first day of work. I didn’t get a chance to respond because there was no pause button. Finally, I got to the boss, the stress of the restaurant closing and my family waiting for me heavy upon my mind and shoulders. The last boss was so incredibly easy. I beat it within seconds. The scary lady was impressed and that’s when I was allowed to choose a code. I put in 01632, and then wanted badly to run out to the car to go home.

That’s when I woke up late.

Patient, Ex Co-Worker, Game

I was at work and dealing with a couple of different patients. One that I’d been seeing for a long time was there, LH, and she was talking to me. I guess we had finished our appointment. The office (unfamiliar) was busy with other people seeing patients, as we stood around talking. I don’t know what we were saying, but all of the sudden, LH lost her temper and shot me a pretty scathing comment. I took it in stride, as I’m apt to do at work, and said something neutral in return. Her hand immediately flew to her mouth and without replying to me, turned and left the office. I was left confused for a moment, then what happened processed in my mind. I ran to the door and shouted down the staircase at LH’s retreating back that I wished her a great summer and that we’d see her again soon. Back in the office, I sought out my coworker with whom I’d just been discussing this patient and was super excited to tell her that I finally found that inexplicable undercurrent that usually ran underneath the surface when dealing with LH. In a way, I felt that her outburst was the real her and that in the future, our relationship as patient and clinician would be stronger, even. She always tried to appear super calm and happy, but there’s always something under that.

Then I was visiting a house that turned out to be the home of my old ex-coworker who had moved to Texas. She looked quite a bit different, bundled up in a robe and looking rather stressed out. Her son was running around and being a bit of a pain. Normally, she’d be pretty strict, but it seemed that she was going through some sort of depression. I tried to make things as warm and casual as possible to try and cheer her up. The house seemed extra messy and cluttered. As we sat around in some blankets on the couch talking, there was a big bag of termite bug killer on top of another bag of some sort. I watched with fascination and amusement that the top bag, full of termites, were busy picking up the opposing ant faction and dropping them off the side of the bag cliff. Then there was a large green spider trying to get in on the action (usually, spiders don’t like either termites or ants due to formic acid) that kept spinning webs that would break every time I’d move. We ended up on the deck outside which was also extremely cluttered. My family was with me at the point sitting around a grill. I was still trying to cheer up H, and was drawing some images in my sketchbook. A convulted set of events started and ended up with me sharing the images with the others while starting the grill so that we could eat something good.

Then, I was with 2 other people, and we were escaping a building that looked like either a school or an old office building. I ran to a stairwell with a window and quickly pulled it open enough for us to squeeze out. When the last person came out, I closed the window, and we jogged over across the street. The male I was with was tasked with dealing with the puzzle that was there. I’d already attempted it in the past and was not eager to do it again. It was nice to be the observer and not the doer for once. I knew what was going to happen, so I walked around taking in the scene from a different vantage point. On the other side of the wall was a busy electronics store housing a convention with famous people. I walked around taking it all in and ended up in front of display. In a short time, there was going to be a very famous person holding a class and everyone was abuzz with anticipation. I thought about what I was supposed to be paying attention to and then-

–I woke up just in time to get up. So sleepy…

Monster, Fire

I did not sleep well at all. I kept waking up feeling cold, or my hands and feet kept feeling itchy, and then when I got up this morning, I realized that I couldn’t breathe very well.

I was living in a busy city in a high-rise building. My home was pretty large and shared with my family. There was something about trying to sleep and then going into a room and dealing with Pokémon the game or something like that. All very unfamiliar. I went to take a shower and felt like I was not alone. Like someone was watching me from the shadows. I was spooked and didn’t feel safe. I kept it to myself, though. The next time I went to take a shower, I was floored. The bathtub and surround were cracked! Like not even cracked, just broken like the wall and the floors separated somehow. When I saw it initially, there was a red liquid pouring out of the walls that turned neon green. By the time someone came in after hearing my yelling, the liquid had vanished. As I was exclaiming about this disaster, I saw movement behind the walls. Something very large and hairy standing up on 2 feet rushed away as soon as I noticed. Eventually a worker from the building came to inspect it and was also shocked at the damage. There was no real way to explain it. He took down some of the walls, and I saw how poorly that place was built. On the other side of the wall was the clear wall of the adjacent bathroom. It was a really nice bathroom, though there seemed to be zero buffer betwixt the two.

Then I was involved in some sort of action adventure. We were running through the streets of the city, the 3 of us. It was nighttime. All of the sudden there was a fire, and I knew immediately that the building would explode. I ran for a garage nearby and tried to keep the door from closing while my 2 teammates rolled underneath. I scrambled under myself and took refuge behind a parked car in there when an explosion rocked the night. We could hear debris hitting the garage wall and looked at each other with fear in our eyes. Things were getting out of control!

Work, Enemy, Escape

I was walking around my office building despite the fact that it was the weekend. I don’t know why I was there, but I decided to walk up to the office’s floor through the staircase. I was walking around the floor when I saw a woman walk from the direction of the office to the stairwell. We passed each other and I had to turn around for a double take because although she had the body of a woman, her head was completely wrong: instead of a head, there was a camera like you would see on the side of a house. I stared rudely, trying to wrap my brain around what I was seeing. Then there was another one getting on the elevator. I stared at that one too, and it noticed me, staring back at me. Something weird was afoot and I noticed voices coming from inside of the office. I walked in through the back door, noting the large ceiling mounted camera pointed at the door. It was kind of dark in there (per usual for a dream) and I walked through the hallway towards the source of the voices. I came up to the front where one hygienist and the assistant where standing there watching what was going on in the waiting room. I tried to say hi, but their faces and the energy of the place put me on red alert. I think I came at a bad time. Out in the waiting room both of my doctors were talking to a man. I could tell there were other beings or people there, too, I just couldn’t see them. In that moment, I understood that my office was being coerced into something by that man. Something big. The cameras and the robot people were definitely his doing. That’s why on a weekend, the place would be open. I was sure they had noted that I was there. Movement was occurring, and so I decided to pretend I didn’t understand the gravity of the situation and went to use the bathroom. Back down the hall, I went and closed the door (the bathroom was located mid-hallway) quietly. Locked it and decided to not turn on the light. I was trying to come up with an excuse as I used the toilet (because I really did have to) about why I didn’t turn on the light, when I heard footsteps. Immediately, I popped up. I got pee on my leg, but it didn’t matter. There was a curtained shower being a full bathroom, but I dared not move into it lest someone come in and find me there. For some reason I could see through the walls and saw that my office members were being led down the hallway in a line. They all walked by the bathroom door without a single thought about it being closed. Just as the line cleared the henchman tailing the group decided to open the door. Seeing this, I immediately grabbed the curtain and pulled it in front of me. There was no time to jump into the shower. Thank goodness it was the fabric kind that didn’t make noise. He swept his flashlight swiftly around, obviously not expecting to find anyone in there. I heard him mumble something about wearing sunglasses, but I was so busy holding my breath and being super surprised about not getting caught. He closed the door behind him, and I could breathe again. That’s when I could process that he was wearing sunglasses while searching in the dark bathroom which is likely why he didn’t see my feet or realize I was the big bump behind the curtain. I also processed that my coworkers had been asking about me as they walked by and said something along the line of the fact that they weren’t surprised I’d hightailed it quietly without anyone realizing.

I had to do something. I stepped out into the hallway after some surveillance through the walls (somehow), and immediately took out some guards. I was able to take 2 others with me and we ran hard down the stairway. I knew the front would be well guarded, so I ran all the way down to the basement, through the creepiness there. Having already played that level twice, I knew where to go and what to do… except this time, I had other people with me, and the place was swarming with baddies. There was no way out without a firefight. The time for covert operations was over. I pulled out my weapon and started to fight the enemy approaching me. Somehow we were able to beat off most of them. In the process, we rescued someone wearing red and fled through the corridors. Reaching the storage room, I ran for the passage only to find that it had been sealed up. Oh no. These people were relying on me to escape and the only way out was no longer there. I desperately banged on the wall, knowing full well that they had reinforced the other side. In my mind I knew that even if we were to bust our way through, they’d likely be waiting on the other side especially when they could hear what was going on. My entourage was now panicking, and I couldn’t even hear myself think. I started looking at the giant box that was there, but I knew they were coming down the hallway towards us. I was trying to calm myself, to think about the mental map I had of the place, when–

–I woke up. GUH. I wanted to know what was going to happen, though maybe I woke up because I had messed up.

Driving, Woods, Dept Store, Enemy, Buggies

The other night: I was on the deck tending to my plants. That’s when I saw that there was an infestation of squash bugs despite me not planting anything in the squash family! WHAT?? I had to eradicate them right away lest they kill all my plants again. I went in and somehow they got all over me as I was entangled in some vines, and then I was flailing, freaking out because they were all over me and it was itchy and scary, and no one was able to help!

Then I woke up and got a muscle cramp from all the flailing. To note, I was also battling an allergic reaction to food, hence the all over itchy. Ugh.

Last night: I was driving around in a creepy location, backwater, one-lane heavily forested road. I wasn’t by myself, but I don’t remember who I was with… I think it kept changing between male and female. The car kept changing, too, from RV to van to sedan. We came across either a house or some people. There was a pool. Then the group grew much larger and I was with several teenagers. Perhaps family, perhaps just classmates from a long time ago. We were walking now as the road had ended near a body of water. The forest was dark and was a little humid and swamp-like. The adults were back near the car. We all ventured forward trying to find a way out with kids spreading around to different areas to cover more ground. I walked forward to where some boys had found a door with a lock on it. What were the odds that we’d be able to open it? It seemed to be an entrance or exit to someone’s house and I had a bad feeling like the mean man was inside. However, we had to get out and our group was large, so I decided to just give it a try. I whipped out my keys and while the kids scoffed at my attempt, I immediately knew which key it was and boom, it opened. Even I was surprised. With the padlock on the ground, I stood up to go back and get the adults when one of the boys immediately pulled open the door. Oh boy. Why??

All calamity broke loose. As it turned out, the door led to a cult who were our enemies. We somehow managed to start the fight/war inside of a department store… almost like a dimensional portal. The people there had no clue what was going on as we chased our enemies around the store. We had to stop them from getting away. Everyone split up again and used items from the store to fight back. That’s when the enemy made it to the front end and started checking out their evil items (they were adults). Seeing as this was unfair that I was losing, I rewound the time and placed myself in a better position to actually fight back instead of just watching my team fail miserably. Even armed with a plastic boat, I missed horribly and the enemy STILL were able to go to self-checkout. As it turned out, my teammates were busy having fun in the toy section. Ugh. I ran to the front and was trying to decide what to do, when I opted to appeal to their better natures. It seemed to work and I could see most of the adults shedding their evil ways. The leader was the hardest, but he, too, had stopped to consider my words.

Then a thunderstorm happened and I woke up. Very anticlimactic…

Wife, Arcade, Work, Computer

A few nights’ worth

The world was a bit destitute, like post-calamity. I was a wandering merchant or something similar. People treated me with respect and only a little caution. I came upon a town that looked something like out of a Western. One house in particular caught my eye and I came to visit them. They felt very honored to have me there, a young wife and a husband. Their trade seemed to be that of a cobbler or tailor. My view bounced from 3rd person to 1st a few times. I’d just come back from speaking with the young man. We’d been outside maybe 15-20 minutes. When we entered a few customers had just left. I noticed right away that the wife seemed nervous and wouldn’t look either of us in the eye. Immediately, I understood what had happened, though the husband did not. As a little test, I came up to her with her husband at her side and gave her a big big side hug. If my station had not been so important, he would have thrown me out right away, but he wasn’t concerned about me, more about why she was upset. While I rubbed her back, her nervousness turned into shame and tears formed in her eyes. My suspicions confirmed, I began to look around their house. It was a very humble place with only a single bed to share stuffed into the back behind the shop. Even their waste situation was meager. She was so desperate to produce a child that she’d turned to any stranger willing to help. It seemed her husband was infertile. That’s what happened in the little time that the husband and I were talking to each other. There was not much I could do, so I left.

Then I was in an arcade — something so rare in this day and age. It was a small place, rather dusty and not well known. The machines were ancient and only in fair condition, but it still made me excited to play. I tried a few machines while the attendant/owner looked on hopefully. My presence drew in a few kids and teenagers. While I was there, they took delivery of 2 new machines in similar condition as the others, but working! I left, but was definitely coming back

Something about Christmas lights.

Then I was at work. It was getting close to closing, but I had a 2 more patients to go. Why work never has lights on in my dreams I have no idea. I’d finished my patient, seen a child and was cleaning up to go home when my boss showed me a patient on the screen and told me to tell him if I see any caries. Confused because Idiot Hygienist had already seen him the other day, I went to the back where my other boss started talking to me in the sterilization area. She had a funny look on her face while I asked her about the patient that had just been seen. While I talked, it dawned on me that she wanted me to do another cleaning. I glanced over to the restorative op to see the family sitting there again. Considering I technically still had an hour left in the work day, I told her I guess I could do it so they didn’t have to come back again, and she was extremely happy. Ugh. I started setting stuff back up while people I don’t recognize ran around laughing in the halls. When I got back to my op, the entire family was there to say hi. My patient was already out of his wheelchair and into my chair, ready to go. The others were speaking to each other and I was prepared not to understand, but half of their words were understandable! What? Then they asked me about my familial origins and they seemed to be able to speak some! Oh boy. I don’t advertise that, ever. My doc must have said something…

Then I was in a car with some people. I didn’t want to be there at all and didn’t really fit in. I’d already witnessed their group installing CPUs to a building. I think I was their prisoner because during the crew’s installation, I was lifted up multiple times by my neck into the air as I tried to oppose the installations. They had a female sitting next to me in the back. On the other side of me was the last computer module that the master, himself was going to install. As the driver drove, the machine started making noises. I was thinking about whether I should tell them, when images started projecting onto the master’s back (in the front passenger seat). I watched, confused until I saw the enemy’s icon show up. I whacked the images in alarm. They asked what I was doing. I explained that I think the enemy (the enemy of my captors) was hacking into their systems and bragging about it with the projections. As much as I was a prisoner, the enemy might blow the machine up next to me and that made my captors my colleagues in that moment in time. The driver started driving even faster, but we all knew he wouldn’t make it in time. Fear gripped us all, unable to do anything at all as we raced through the city streets to try and make it in time.

Dad, Family, loading screen, Cora, Shopping, Searching, Checkout

The most interesting part of my dreams last night were all the loading screens in between segments… really. Like, a static loading screen with an image and some text, a spinning loading wheel, and music.

I was driving with my family and found myself driving to the house I grew up in. For whatever reason, I knew that my dad was living there. As I drove down the hill, I noticed that the house looked weird. Like he’d taken either some dynamite or an excavator to the front area, having ripped out all of the plants. On top of that, the street in front of the house was half covered in dirt and looked like he wanted to add that portion of the street to the property, which is totally illegal. I make my way down the driveway, noting all the painted lines in the ground. C3, C1, and just some lines were painted in different spots up and down the driveway. Thankfully, he wasn’t home at the time. I went in with my family and not sure why we were there. Some time passed, and he had come home and was outside on the deck reclined and talking animatedly to someone on the phone. I was doing something in the kitchen and my mom was puttering around in there, too. Everyone was tense and on alert. I kept trying to hear what he was talking about. Later, it turned out that he had gone to a Ford dealership to test-drive some trucks and they gave him something for free. I just wanted out, so I made my way to the door, trying to come up with some sort of excuse.

My brother was driving now and they sky was very dark and cloudy. A little cold, too. I walked into Walmart and was pushing a cart around. I wanted to look at the garden section and whatever else they had on sale. I played with a few Christmas items they had on clearance, especially a horn door ornament that was playing music loudly. No thanks. I made my way over to the garden section and was looking through the fertilizers they had on the shelves there. Two other women were there talking in the aisle. I was looking for the Epsoma natural fertilizers and weed preventers, and as I looked, I felt myself not only get hot, like really hot, but having breathing problems, too.

I woke up for a little bit and shifted my blankets around.

Back to Walmart, my brother and I met back up. The cart was oddly full of stuff. My items accounted for maybe 3 things total. A worker started tallying my things right in the middle of an aisle, explaining something about cashiers checks in a longwinded explanation that I barely could follow. When she was done, my brother picked up one of my heavy items. I ran over to him to give him the other heavy item so I could carry the last heavy item, myself. We walked out of the store having magically transported the things to the car and with Cora at my side. I wanted to go into Home Depot and it seemed he wanted to leave. I wasn’t about to go back to my dad’s house, so I demanded to go into Home Depot. Cora, who had apparently been with me all along, happily ran over to me when I called, her leash wrapped loosely around her neck. I grabbed the leash, and held her tight to me as we entered Home Depot. I hadn’t even known that Walmart allowed dogs…

Inside, I made a beeline for the garden section, having promised to go quickly. I turned around and saw my mom had entered the store, too. I wandered all about and was playfully jostling some other person, before it was time to go and I actively started looking for my mom. I got the bright idea to use the store intercom to find her even though I saw her in front of me. She walked to the entry of the store, and then I had to go contact my brother to say that I found her.

A loading screen with music showed up, and I woke up to find that I was over 10minutes late getting up! Whoops!

Kids, Female, Kill

I had found an object on the ground where I was walking in a small, quaint city full of cobblestone roads and small pedestrian bridges. It seemed like a broken off piece of jewelry. As I was examining it, I heard voices yelling at me. Turns out that I’d found a piece of something that had broken off a woman’s neck ornament. She kept back and forth turning into a small statue for me to figure out if she was telling the truth or not. As I was listening to the friend’s story about it, I determined that they were telling the truth because the broken off piece fit perfectly on the statue/lady. I agreed to give it back to them, satisfied with the outcome. Both women felt incredible relief and left.

Some stuff about lottery, and a bunch of other things

Then I was both playing a video game and experiencing things first person. My character started off inside of an old, abandoned church. It was snowing outside, and the place was just full of red-uniformed soldiers. I walked down the stairs from the starting point. Right away there were patterns of movement of the soldiers and the children who were forced labor there. I had to make my way undetected into the bowels of the level in order to take out the main target. The controls were weird and unresponsive, but I managed by dumb luck to steer clear of anyone’s line of sight. The lone kid making his way down the path I was met a tragic end by my blades. Immediately, soldiers from all around rushed towards the sound of the kill, and I had no time to either hide myself or the body to confuse them. Game over. On my next attempt, I had a plan which was instantly foiled by the fact that there wasn’t just one kid walking, there were two. Oh no. I was already in the thick of it, though. At my first opportunity in the shadow of the walkway near the church, I reached out and used my bare hands to knock them both out. Unfortunately, one of them had about 1 HP left and was trying to escape while the other went down easy. I closed the short gap between us, and desperately grabbed the boy’s neck with my hand, squeezing has hard as I could. I could feel the structures in his throat crush and he expired. There was no time to dwell on the horrible experience that was because my messy assassination had gathered a little bit of attention. I ran towards a known disguise spot, but it was gone! Frantically, I searched for a hiding spot and finding no place for myself or the bodies (again!) ran as fast as I could to where the guards were nonexistent: the child labor area. It was FULL of hay that the kids were pitchforking, moving, and baling. The kids themselves were mere shadows, fully black figures with no distinguishing features. There was a creepy song being sung by them as I ran around trying to hide somewhere. One of the kids with a big creepy smile, guided me over to an inground holding tank and started pitching hay overtop of me. They just kept on singing with their empty, happy faces, and as I let myself be covered with hay, I wondered why the enemy kept so many children (older aged) doing such mundane and otherwise useless tasks. My mind was running the gamut while focusing on the sounds of guards arriving, ready to leap out and make a break for it if necessary.

Walmart, Shoplifting, U-Haul, Mercedez Benz

I was wandering around some place and came upon this strange, black, plastic platform raised way up towards the ceiling. I tried to look it up on my phone and it came back as something about a nerdy tabletop game table.

Then there was a montage of famous people playing D&D and other games on it, until I was driving places on some hilly, rural landscape. Somehow, I made it back to the black platform, and it turned out that it was a car cleaner… a high-tech, futuristic luxury car cleaner. In fact, it knew what kind of car was there to be washed and if it wasn’t a nice car, it wouldn’t work. I watched a demo of an old minivan trying to get washed and it wouldn’t work, while a Mercedez-Benz immediately caused the machine to work. It would lower the car down into a cleaning area, tilt the vehicle and clean it both outside and inside. Everyone loved such a neato service, and the best part was it wasn’t too expensive! Only $54 a wash, and more if you wanted other packages. What a great deal!

Then some stuff about driving my car through an extremely narrow and crowded place. There were tons of people walking around and parking was extremely limited. I decided to pull over on the side and proceeded to scratch my wheel something nasty on the protruding brick facing. When I moved forward to the usually crowded parking area, there was signs everywhere warning that only super important people with written permission could park there. Somehow, I got out on foot and walked over to where I was supposed to pick up my mom from work. She was there trying to stuff things into some bags. I was annoyed because why do we always have to have so much stuff! We compromised on what we were going to take, both parties satisfied.

Then it was morning again and drove to Walmart where my mom was working. I was only wearing my home shorts because I hadn’t really intended to go in, but my mom wanted me to look at some clothing items that were on sale, so I did go in. I poked around a bit and my mom was on break or something, so she was helping me pick out some pieces of clothing. I thought I saw my own articles of clothing strewn about, so I picked them up, but suddenly felt conscious that I would look like I was stealing if I just walked out with what was essentially mine. I looked through some other clothing articles and was a holding a few that my mom wanted, when the cashier at the little kiosk on the side of the store there calmly greeted me and wanted to look at the shirt I was holding. I complied because why not, and while she checked the tag and stuff, I set about deciding if I wanted the sweatpants or not. She then told me that I needed to produce a US credit or bank card. I asked her if she wanted me to buy the items right then and there, as I understood that I’d been flagged as a shoplifting risk. I mean, sure, whatever, I was definitely going to pay for everything. I put my stuff on her counter and reached for my wallet… which wasn’t there. OMG. I must have left it at home and drove there without my license! AUGH. I told her I think I left it in the car and wanted to go get it. She gave me a look, and I plopped my keys on her counter as collateral. That seemed to appease her, though I took it back because I needed it to get into my car. Frowny face. That’s when I decided to ask my mom, who was still hanging around, oblivious, to pay for things. The cashier recognized my mom, and my mom came over, confused, but totally cool with paying. The cashier seemed like I’d foiled her plans somehow. I left after that, clearly the store had me marked as a shoplifter. As I tried to leave, though, the exit from the store was like trying to get across a country border! There were 6 employees standing there watching me with stony hard faces. I had the receipt and everything and walked through, but their hostility was clear even though they let me go.

I got into my U-Haul which was illegally parked in the fire lane and backed the hell out of there. It’s a good thing the truck came equipped with a backup camera! I got out onto the main road. My neighborhood was only 2 lights down. There was a large semi stalled in the left lane in front of me, but thankfully the car in the lane next to me was incredibly slow, so I was able to get the U-Haul over and around to turn at the next light into my neighborhood. As I drove, I kicked myself for not remembering my wallet, and was trying to decide if I should grab my wallet and go back to finish my shopping.

Work

Ugh. What a terrible dream to have: work, after working all day long.

Something about family and my grandma’s house. My grandpa had just died and I was to not only move in but take over the basement which was incredibly dark with the dark wood walls and very narrow hallways. You have no clue how large the basement was because of the parallel narrow halls. There were pictures hanging on all the walls everywhere, and my first order of business was to take them all down and replace them with mine. Everyone seemed upset at my eagerness to remove any trace of my grandpa but were totally fine with me actually doing it. I walked through the halls taking stock of things and feeling extremely overwhelmed at the scope of what I was trying to do.

I was working, and as usual it was dark inside with only natural lighting from the windows. I was preparing to get my next patient which was not a patient I normally saw. Not only that, but I’d be seeing her mom, too. My coworker’s note stated that despite her being a child, she was hard which made me worried. I saw that they had arrived and checked the chart once more. That was no child, she was about 50 years old! Wanting to get started, I called her back and, of course, her whole family came back with her. I walked them to my operatory and suddenly she was in a wheelchair. Oh. I asked her if she could get out enough to get on the chair, and she went and got onto a massage table instead. I was speechless, but she then moved herself over to the actual operatory chair to my relief. The process had taken longer than I’d like, so I was preparing to get started when more of her family showed up and were insistent on being there. I was stressed and was about to get started when my boss shows up and wanted to do the exam right away. I’m not opposed to that, but then she complained that I’d not taken any x-rays and she wanted them. Ugh. I got up to go get the sensor when I realized that my workplace was not familiar at all to me, as it was MUCH larger than any office would be – like a dental school.

I couldn’t find the x-ray stuff, so I went in search of G. I went into the “break room” which was 10 times the size it was, FULL of chairs and the works. I found her there and asked her to help me with the x-ray stuff because I had no idea what I was doing on that side of the building. If I was on the other side, it’d be easy. I was freaking out because all the searching had taken up so much time AND I could not for the life of me remember how to take them with the new operatory unit. G directed me to find a particular box while she fetched the sensor. I looked in the tech station and saw a lot of boxes. No one could help me and eventually G came to look for me. She picked a box up that looked quite a bit like a kid’s toy house and told me to follow her. I trudged, embarrassedly back with her and she stopped to me hook things. Up. I didn’t know how to do that either! And no in front of my own patients! G sighed and started hooking things up for me. I checked the time. I’d wasted 30 minutes of the appointment already. She was called away and I was left struggling with the strange x-ray system by myself. Someone took pity on me and helped me move the sensor, and the x-ray unit around while explaining things like I was a newbie (which I was, clearly). He said that normally they’d print them out at the printer station, but because I was so behind, they’d just save it digitally to show on the screen. In order to distinguish the different images, I had to press a letter (only 2 available) to mark the images. I finally got 4 images I needed, but then I needed to get that displayed somehow on the operatory screen. I had to ask someone else for that, and they walked me all the way over to the printing station. I had given up being able to clean my patient at all by that point. In fact, they could have just left, and I’d be totally okay with that. The little box had to be hooked up to the larger machine, and then I had to press several buttons to work the thing. Not only would it direct the images to the patient’s chart, but this person had me print them out, too. I was so happy to see things working and grabbed the printed images before wending my way back through the bustling dental students to my patient. I think I had about 10 minutes left in the appointment and was busting my brain as to how I’d be able to manage that when–

–I woke up feeling completely and utterly unrested.

Work, Cooking, Coworker

I was at work and for once it wasn’t dark. I was working on a patient I thought I’d just seen just a few days prior. He seemed much more like a normal person (the patient lives in a group home) and sat well throughout the appointment. I was able to complete the appointment and the exam was completely normal, too. My boss was pleased. I cleaned up my op and brought everything back to the sterilization room. The office was super busy and as usual filled with people I don’t recognize. My old coworker was there and some young girl I didn’t recognize was there, too. Q took my tray and set it aside while setting up a new tray for me. In the meantime, I went back to grab the flower comforter that looked suspiciously like my dog’s blanket to set it in the back with the other pile of dirty things. It smelled weird back there but I didn’t want to say anything just assuming that it was the pile of laundry.

I took my stuff back to my op only to find that my work had changed to cooking. And I was behind! I started up the induction plate and set some water up, before scrambling to construct something from the ingredients I had available to me. I kept glancing at the other workstations to see everyone else working seemingly calmly and confidently and wondering how I even got into this to begin with. The judges took my meal away after the timer went off and I was directed to clean up and work on the next assignment. I rushed my things to the back, filled with stress and worry. As I walked down the hall, I realized that things were a bit drafty because I was totally topless. A part of me was extremely self-conscious until I realized I’d been like the whole time and no one else seemed to care in the least. At least it helped with the heat! I made it back to the sterilization area. Q took my things again and once more set up a tray for my next task. She was also topless, and I was busy trying not to notice and thinking about that little kid that was walking around. In the corner of my eye I saw my boss holding the comforter I’d thrown back there. She had cleaned up the rest of it and went out the door, I assume to go to the laundry room. I took something from the cabinet and took my tray. I expressed my worry for the next examination, so Q gave me a carafe with cream in it and also some other ingredient. I hurried back to my workstation to find that yet again I was late!! The other contestants were well into their food making and I only had half the time left! I did my best trying to make a dessert out of gelatin. It looked like a clear pancake stack slightly charred on top surrounded by foam and topped with syrup, cream, and some fruit/mint. It looked good. It was at that moment I decided I was hungry, so I went ahead and ate some. A monitor was walking around. They stared at me eating, shrugged, and walked away. I guess it was allowed after all. And also, it tasted really badly. Extra sweet, no flavor, too much vanilla. Given that it’d taken very little time to whip up, I decided to make another attempt at it except this time I’d give it a fruity flavor and use soda to give it bubbles.

That’s when things got weird. There was something about a Japanese app that needed to be used to get special ingredients. I couldn’t read any of it, though the pictures were cute. Then it hit me that if we could use an app, then I could use the internet to try and look up and idea about my dish. I kept trying and trying, but the search engine just wouldn’t work! I was forced to use the app after all. Somehow, I managed to get some rice and something else from poking things on the app.

Then it swapped to me driving around sundown. On that part of the map, I needed to find a certain item. What I found instead were the unhappy spirits of a male and a female. I picked up the item on the ground. A big, creepy old man directed me a few yards over where I saw the glowing bodies of a male and female except, they had been somehow impaled to the hill there. The old man startled to laugh menacingly, and I realized he’d killed them. They must have trespassed there, and he’d run them with his car up against the hill and they died. While he laughed, I snuck away. Then there was something about a locker with tactical gear, a bunch of people, and then me driving over to a parking lot near a church except I wasn’t very good at parking and was worried that I’d get towed.

Monsters

It was dark inside a building. The world felt like the end of times or at least some cataclysmic disaster and I felt like I was in a video game. As I carefully traversed the dark space, I found a nice heavy-duty flashlight and clutched it like a lifeline. My adventure took me down a floor hatch in the floor of the museum looking building that I’d unlocked by solving a puzzle. Thank goodness for all the times I’d played those types of games. Another puzzle unlocked yet another electronic puzzle. As I pressed buttons on it, the instructions bade me shut off all the lights I’d lit. Uneasy, but desiring escape, I complied. I heard something unlock. I also heard the rustle of fur and loud, fast clicking of something that sounded exactly like claws. Long claws. I fumbled for my flashlight whose originally incredible beam had started to diminish. The machine gave me the last instruction which was to collect all 25 of the newspaper icons scattered around the building before I could unlock the grate covering the door. I was not alone. Raising my light, I saw not 1 but 2 werewolf creatures advancing upon me. The light stunned them a little. I had no hope of defeating them, so I focused entirely upon collecting the dumb newspapers.

Some stuff happened, like me sitting around on a couch inside a cave on the side of a rockface overlooking the ocean. There were several people there and one guy was commenting on how Link was a badass and powerful little being. On the TV was a depiction of Link? A cartoon or the latest trailer for a brand-new game. I wasn’t paying full attention because I was on my phone. I glanced up to see Young Link with the arms of a juiced body builder. My next glance up saw that he, along with a turtle and a fish were escaping from a water filled caved by way of water spout.

Soon, I found myself back in another building, a train station type of place this time. It was dark again, and there was a countdown to collect as many items as possible before the timer cut out. I wasn’t alone. I, along with the person, ran around collecting as fast as possible. I didn’t have anywhere to store everything, so after trying to eat them, started jamming them into my pockets. 25 newspapers and pamphlets take up a lot of space! After our success, the lights kicked on to reveal a large crowd of people huddled in a corner. Outside the glass windows were a horde of zombies just waiting to get in. There was some confusion until I called to everyone to proceed towards the open train car. Surprisingly, there was order and not a mad fight for getting to safety first. They all filed in, when the lights kicked out again, and the zombies started banging on the windows. Something bad was about to happen, so I searched frantically around for the next thing I needed to do.

I don’t remember what happened next, if anything. All I know is that I slept really well, and I did NOT want to wake up today.

Moon, Helicopter

I was in a rural place in a field just walking through it. It was getting on to late afternoon into the evening. I looked up into the sky to see the full moon and was marveling over how beautiful it was, when I noticed that there was a blue aura around it. As I puzzled over this, the moon started to move. At first, it seemed to just be moving the way the moon moves, just faster, so I thought that time was fast forwarding, but then it moved all over the place without the sky or the sun following it. I fumbled with my phone camera to take a photo and a video because no one would ever believe me otherwise, but the app jammed and then I dropped the phone. By the time I got the phone up and working, the moon wasn’t there. Instead, I saw a helicopter flying around. Odd, though I saw it, I couldn’t really hear it. That was the least of my concerns because the helicopter was flying very close then coming back into the sky and coming close… As if it was trying to recover something. I looked around the parking lot I was now standing in and saw that in a tree there was something there. The helo did another pass-by, confirming it was trying to figure out how to get to the thing in the tree. I decided to get on top of my car to try and reach what appeared to be a pennant. It was JUST within my reach, so I freed it from the branch and walked out to a clear area to return it to the helicopter. The lady inside reached down to take it from me and said something like “the highest honor is a free ride” and then they flew away. Pretty anticlimactic. That’s when I was able to think about it and realized that the helicopter was electric-powered! No wonder I could barely hear it! I could hear the propellors but not the motor! I ended up landing somewhere else. I guess they were government officials investigating the strange moon occurrence. Was someone trying to steal the moon?? And I’d gotten footage of both the moon and the helicopter!

Then something about a backyard and large animals as I attempted to watch and upload the footage from my phone with no success.

Bathroom, House, Roommates, Police, Train

I was walking around the outside of the house I left. We were certain that my dad wasn’t home at that point or maybe he had died or was out of commission, either way we had no qualms about walking around the property. I was appalled at what he’d done to the place. There was this huge ditch from the house street to the road behind it just dug into the ground, by the side of the house, separate from the driveway. What a terrible idea not only for drainage, but for people randomly using it as a pass through. Because we all know how well he takes to people on his property… Part of the walk was nostalgia for me given I hadn’t been back to that property for well over a decade at this point. There was junk strewn about like the place had been seized and pawed through for some reason. I played with a dismantled piano, remembering how we’d gotten that piano to begin with, and a bunch of other things. We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves there even as the sky darkened.

I was in the house I grew up. We were supposed to be sleeping, but I really needed to go to the bathroom. I got up to go, trying not to bother my parents, only to find that the bathroom was in use. Clearly, my brother was in there. Still not wanting to bother my parents, I went back to bed and lay there, waiting. I talked to my sister a little bit before eventually falling asleep.

Then both of us were on a train. It was pretty small and mostly for entertainment as if it was more an amusement park ride than an actual, useful train. I was sitting on the front edge of the thing as it sped along, not worried in the least about being thrown off or the fact that my sister was teetering on the edge of it worse than me or even that the other passengers kept sliding all over the seats as if they would fall off. A high rate of speed later, I got off in the middle of a bustling paver courtyard. Now I really had to go to the bathroom, so I hightailed it into my dorm room. There was this whole debacle about me having been there for about a semester already, but never actually finding the key to the place. My roommates had always helped me get in and out (3 males). I entered the main door and headed to my room, dead set on finding that key. Something was happening with one of the roommates. Not my problem or business. I needed to use the bathroom. The nicest roommate opened the door for me, and I thanked him immediately plopping down on the toilet still talking to him with no regard for the fact that my “room” was only divided from the rest of the place by a big curtain that I hadn’t even cared enough to draw all the way. He didn’t seem bothered in the last, as if this was a common occurrence, or we were a couple. It was nice to empty my bladder (not in real life thank goodness!). While there, I realized I was super tired and closed my eyes for a little nap (yes, while on the can).

That’s when some other craziness started happening. Around the edges of the curtain, I saw one of my roommates getting assaulted by 2 people, one with dark hair, the other with blonde hair. He went down and they started stealing his stuff. I got up and came out from the curtain. That’s when there was some other commotion on the opposite side where a man had driven his car into the place and was trying to drive into a screaming lady. Outside of the dwelling, I heard police doing something, so I started yelling as loudly as I could, “HELP! HELP! HEEEELP!” Everyone turned to look at me (I hope I was decent…) telling me to stop yelling because it wasn’t as bad as it seemed! A few moments later, several officers showed up asking what was going on, so I started explaining that the two to my right had assaulted and robbed my roommate (they protested), and about the man in the car and the woman. The cops looked around like they did believe me but asked how I know any of this. So, I had to explain that I’d been behind the curtain taking a nap. Everyone looked incredulously over to my “room” as if no one had noticed it before, and I was self-conscious about the little “room” which looked more like a jail cell than anything… It was about 24′ by 6′ with a single bed against a wall, an open toilet at the end of that, a very small window, and my junk stacked around in the remaining area. The cops seemed satisfied and set about rounding up people.

Jet Li, 90s, Patient

2 nights

Some stuff that I now forget

I was/watching Jet Li. He was very young and I assume acting in a movie? Anyways, he was a young man in his 20s trying to live his young life. It was a tight city in China and after doing a job, was guided towards a particular woman where he would be able to sleep, eat, and recover his wounds. When he wound up at her house, she immediately knew who he was. Her house wasn’t an eatery nor an inn like Jet Li thought… It was simply her house. She fed him at their small, humble table, and gave him a bundle of bedclothes. He followed her over to a double-sized bed that was clearly being used by her and her family. He felt weird, but she directed him to use it, helping him change the bedclothing. He shrugged and utilized it because he was very tired. Some time later, it was night. I was now seeing through the eyes of an unknown person who somehow knew where to find Jet Li. There was a Chinese window directly behind the bed where he slept, and it was slightly ajar. The person reached in and started taking his belongings from right beside him while he snored gently, deep in sleep. I, still seeing from the eyes of the robber, was indignant and alarmed that someone would do this to Jet Li, but I needn’t have worried. When the robber reached in a third time to take the last item, they were met with Jet Li’s open, scowling eyes. It probably turned into a fighting scene, but I didn’t get to watch that part.

It was the 90s! I was outside/ watching a scene outside. The sky was yellowish the way the 90s were in the summer for some reason (maybe tv? or maybe just the sun beat differently where I lived?). Something about Spongebob and Squidward with butt-head (literally), then there was some gag about the “world” being manipulated by the “bad guy” character pulling up and down the layers of the ground. There was a big group of kids who might have been characters from old 90s TV shows/movies. They were of the knowledge that this was no longer the 90s, and were recreating and trying out things that we used to do and use and eat back then. Wearing clothes from that era, and such. Eventually, they decided that wearing clothes from back then was not feasible given how small such articles are now that everyone is so much older. I, too, started going through a dresser drawer full of old shirts of mine. Some of them would not fit even my hand through the sleeve it was so small. I found a shirt that was size 12 kids. I tried to put it on, but then got it stuck and had a terrible time getting it off. I decided to leave the 90s in the 90s because we were all way too old now.

Then I was in my room and the people from work were wandering in an out… working?? In my house. They were making a huge racket while I lay half on my bed and half on Cora’s bed. At one point, my boss had a question about something and came down to sit next to me on the bed while I answered and I didn’t even bother to move, still lying on both the bed and Cora’s bed. She got up again, then J mentioned that someone had died on Saturday. I immediately perked up and asked who it was. She said the name SP, and I wailed in anguish. Not him! Of all the people! His wife seemed to be in a worse position than he, why did he have to go first! I went online to confirm and see if there was an obituary, and all I could find was a weird blurb from someone in a blog or a forum claiming that some other people and SP had died from toxicity from some mediation or other chemical. Oh. It was one of those hogwash people sites. I was still super upset about it and no one could console me.

Hotel, Arcade, Elevator

I was with my family. My dad was driving (!) and I watched from the backseat of the small sedan as we passed buildings. We’d been on a 3-lane highway with small stores, but things were changing and fast! The beach houses were showing up. No one else had noticed, since they were napping. I called out that we’d reached the ocean when the road abruptly stopped and only went left or right. My mom woke up and was very excited!

On foot, I walked around the place. It wasn’t very large and a part of me was nervous that they wouldn’t take too kindly to Asian people in the area. At least it was touristy? My sister and I had wanted to go to a tavern type of place later, and my mom had seen a large building with a 100 Anniversary banner on the front of it and lots of balloons. I wandered about on the sandy road with no cars, probably waiting for accommodations to be arranged at the hotel. I looked here and there, noted that my brother (who was little) had bought a drink from somewhere already was over near some arcade games. I found some of my own, but was more interested in money-winning ones. I found this interesting machine that I thought was a money-winning one. I remembered that I only had about $10 in cash in my pocket. I fed a $1 bill into the machine and tried to figure out what it did. It was a kind of pinball-ish/fighting game arcade. As I watched the game progress, I noticed that someone had either dropped or forgotten their wallet on the side of the machine. The contents were mostly spilled out, mints, trash, and cash. I lifted a $5 and put that into the machine, too. The game turned from being a straight fighting game to an adventure fighting game! And the sad part was that it wasn’t hard. I’d wasted the $5, and I knew that I’d be called to the hotel soon. Should have just pocketed it.

Later, I was in the hotel room looking through an old sketchbook. There were drawings in the back portion of the book that I didn’t recognize and that were really good. That’s when I remembered many years ago spending a vacation with some old friends. Like really old friends. After that, I turned my attention to the rooming situation. I was hanging out in a single with a female that was supposed to stay in that room… I can’t recall if she was a friend or a cousin? Either way, I had no bed. My mom’s room had been reserved with only her, her aunt, and my brother in mind. In a way, I was glad I wouldn’t have to share a room, but the bigger issue was that I didn’t have one. I was supposed to go ask about getting a room for myself, but I kept dilly-dallying. Eventually, the friend/whoever came with me to the desk downstairs.

I could barely suppress a laugh. The attendant was not only a cartoon/anime person but was having an identity crisis. They kept flopping back and forth between a female and a male by abruptly turning and flipping their hair. I did NOT want to be rude! Eventually, they gave us a handful of keys and tools and told us to go check out all the rooms and choose one. WTH. I kept dropping things as we made our way over to an elevator. When it arrived, I got on, except it was more like a cabinet door with strings. I hit the #4 and was almost crushed on the ceiling. I had no clue how to control the dang thing, while my friend was already where we needed to be. I was about to figure out when–

–I woke up, LATE!

Work, Search

I was driving to work. I get to the parking lot which is around a large, bricked building that looks a lot like an old school church. My normal spot is taken by school buses, so I begrudgingly park in a different spot. I’m early, so I decide to lay back in my car and take a rest/nap before going in at 9am. I’m not sure if I sleep or not, but all of the sudden my boss pulls up. Normally I don’t care and just keep going until it’s time to go in, but I start coughing and moaning about how sleepy I am and she comes over to sit with me in my suddenly convertible car. The seat is something incredibly comfortable like a plush bed with blankets, so she’s effectively sitting at the end of my bed talking to me. She asks how I’m feeling, and I am bitter about my lungs’ condition. I complain about being delinquent on my inhaler and can’t breathe well. She asks why I’m delinquent and I rant about not wanting to use it anymore. It makes me feel funny, and I just hate that I have to use it. I wasn’t always like that. Until 4 years ago, I was free as a bird, doing things and going where I’d like without worry about something as simple as breathing. She and I talk for a bit. She shows me some lump/bump she has on her armpit area. I sit up abruptly to see as she clearly wants me to, but I see nothing. Then she pokes my face and says that everyone has bumps on their face. I still don’t know what she’s talking about, but we continue yammering about stuff. I suddenly check my watch and find that though my watch is dead and showing 12:20pm, my phone says it’s 9:30am which is not better! I’m LATE! Talking to my boss! I scramble out and make my way up the stairs.

I think I meet one of my patients outside the office

The office is pretty high up and I’m anxious because I’m late as heck. However, the office is not busy or in a state of panic at all. I walk in and it turns out that not only is my first patient not even there, but looking at the entire schedule, I only have 2 patients all day long! The rest of the office’s schedule is better than mine, but not by much. I go up to my other boss and ask what happened. He shook his head and said that all of the messages said that parents couldn’t get their kids out of school to come. He rolls his eyes, and it turns out the rest of the week is like that, too! I’m trying to decide what holiday it is that’s coming up that would cause that. That’s when I notice that the front desk as two females I don’t recognize at all. One of them, the main one is brand new that day, but she is extremely confident and skilled. She’s also really personable. I walk up to my coworker and ask if she knows what happened to the other two. She just shrugged and rolls her eyes. She’s more annoyed about her patient who is demanding special treatment. She explains that she already drove him to his destination after the last appointment and doesn’t want to get into habit of doing special favors like that.

My next patient walks in the door, and I go into my operatory to get started. She’s a really tall, skinny woman with graying hair. She’s acting kind of odd already, and she just seems a little kooky. It’s fine, though, because I have many patients like that. She’s nice enough. I get her to lay on my chair which is all the way to the ground for some reason. Like almost flat on the floor. My chair is also basically on the floor, meaning that she basically has to rest her head on my legs for me to work. I scoot myself in so that her head is cradled on my thighs, and look in to work. All of the sudden, the entire environment changes. It’s brighter, the office is different, and it’s bright and beautiful outside. The view is of the ocean and the office is simply relaxed and nice, filled with couches and other comfortable things. My patient opens her mouth and I notice all the worn, smaller teeth in there. Her jaw is super narrow and super long, and I start praising her for opening her mouth. Her tongue moves around, but I can deal with that because she’s so cute! Her fur coat is black and white, but the fur has gotten rather gray with age. Her teeth, white worn is in great condition. I keep praising the cute and well-mannered greyhound while giving her belly rubs and pets. She’s super happy and wiggling but staying open for me to see in her mouth. I do my job and start to wonder what the story is! I look over to see a Golden Retriever in another “operatory” which is a couch. As it turns out, a man married 3 dogs. There’s a whole book about it, too.

Then a long dream about a scavenger hunt in a department store which is mixed in with Mario Kart.

Brother, Appointment, Cousin

I needed to get to an appointment and couldn’t get there myself, so I needed my brother to take me. It was winter and cold. We loaded into his white with blacked emblems Porsche 911 GT3 RS. Our first stop was to a fast food place. I’m not sure if we got food or not, but we definitely got drinks. I was holding the tray of fountain drinks when we got to the place. It was a very busy medical center with a huge parking lot. He parked, and I got out first with the tray of drinks to get to check in on time.

Something about a fertility clinic nearby and my friend/ex-coworker.

When I got inside, I no longer had the drink tray. It was really crowded inside in the chairs, but not the desk. I walked up to the desk where a smiling woman greeted me in a friendly way. I was relieved to see someone who was warm. I started talking to her saying that I needed check-in, but the large black lady next to me was really loud about needing to check-in, herself. At first, I thought she was in my space, but turns out she was just really big and spilling into my window. She suddenly exclaimed, “WAS I NAKED?!” Confused, I looked closer and saw she was referring to an image they had taken of her when she first came to the place. The workers were laughing, and then I started laughing too. No one was upset, it was legitimately funny that she looked indeed like she had not been wearing clothing on the ID image. I spoke up, laughing and told her that I was pretty sure she had been there 6 months prior when I was there, too, and that she was wearing a tube top because it was summertime. She was very relieved. I continued with my desk lady who then asked me for a government issued ID. I pawed around in my bag, although I’d immediately remembered that I’d left it on my computer desk at home. I told her as much with anxiety and dread. She only nodded and asked softly if my sister could go home and get it for me. I said, yes, I think so, but it would take a while. She proceeded to print me out a map and circle the fastest route on it, then told me to hurry back. They weren’t going to cancel me! I quickly went in search of my brother.

I think my appointment was over and we were simply leaving at that point. He left out the doors first, and then I followed after disposing of my empty drink. The parking lot was much emptier at that point, and it was afternoon. I kept looking for a white Porsche, but the only one I saw was one getting towed away on a flatbed. I wandered around until I saw what looked like my brother’s head inside of an old green conversion van. I opened the door and climbed in. While my brother was in the driver’s seat, my cousin was in the passenger! I had so many questions in my head! The car started moving and my cousin made comments on how my brother was driving really fast for the age and size of the vehicle. I commented on how I liked the vehicle and my cousin said he hated it. I had meant that extremely old yet modernized Model T-like car on the side of the country road we were on.

Then it turned into a driving video game.

Mom, haircut, driving

I had a bunch of other dreams but only remember this one which was from a nap that caused me to be late this morning

Something about the woods, bears, a whitewater rafting type of water body, and a house in the trees

My mom had gone to get her hair cut. It was nighttime. I was supposed to go pick her up. She was in one of those dying indoor mall type of places. I walked in through the door and immediately into the only obvious hair place. There were 2 workers and 1 client. I didn’t see my mom anywhere and while the ladies looked at me, they didn’t recognize me as a client. I sat there for a bit wondering if my mom was in the bathroom. When it became apparent that she wasn’t and I got bored, I left the salon. That’s when I noticed that there were some chairs set up in the middle of the open space there. How had I missed that? One person was having their hair cut. I kept hearing my mom call to me yet couldn’t see her. Finally, I found her on the other chair and immediately knew something was wrong. She didn’t seem happy at all and I walked over to sit near her. She asked me what I thought of her hair and I was like, “uhhhh…” She confirmed that the haircutter person said she was done. It was a bad job. A really bad job. She told me that she didn’t want to leave until they fixed it. When the other client was done, the barber (a tall, young guy with Spanish vibes) came back over to her. Again, he thought he was done, and my mom basically had a mullet now. I walked towards them and the barber guy seemed a bit nervous and asked my mom, “Does he need a cut, too?” My mom responded, “Not a he. A she.” Dude took off at that point. I told her to just let me do it when we got home. She shook her head and agreed. We went to leave, the last people out, and the Asian guy who leased the space for the barber, came over shaking his head and said, “I told you earlier to go to the salon instead.” We went to go and I told her the same thing. Outside in the dark, I walked towards the driver door while my mom defeatedly said that it looks like it was time for me to break out the clipper. I was stoked to give it a go!

Inside the car, I started the car to drive but was having trouble seeing to negotiate. For some reason not only were we parked inside of the salon, but I was sitting on the right side of the car. It was odd to look at my 360 camera on the left side instead of the right. I wondered how I’d gotten into the parking spot to begin with. As I navigated out of the salon, the workers gaped at me. We’d reached the door when I found that going through would be nigh impossible. I sent my mom out to see if she could move the thing blocking my path. As she went out, suddenly we were outside in the parking lot and it was bright morning. My mom was trying to move the large rubber piece of something out of the way. Three or four cars came out of nowhere, impatient at me for not moving, and tried to go around me, almost hitting my mom even. I was pretty mad. I jumped into the left side seat and moved my way in front of the jerks trying to get out before me. The pickup in front of me was gone, then me, then the other impatient people. I took the sharp turn onto the parkway way too fast, so it was wide. The two cars that I’d blocked, tried to cut the turn shorter than me to beat me out because they were still upset at me. The red Pontiac Vibe tried to go too fast and too short, and they managed to smash into the curb directly behind me as I sped by. I saw in my mirror that their wheel broke off the axle and they were stuck. The other car, seeing this, had come to a halt and only slowly making their way onto the parkway, now afraid of having the same thing happen. I zoomed off in my much sportier car, laughing. The view cut to a map screen, marking my progression. I was going way too fast.

I abruptly remembered that I’d left my mom behind. Oops. I fumbled with my phone and the map on the car. I had no clue where I was at that point, so I tried to turn around by driving around a fast-food place’s parking area. I had to let my mom know I was coming back to get her, but first I had to navigate the double doors, and the stairs before getting back on the parkway.

Fire

I was with my family. We were traveling through a rural town and stopped by what appeared to be a dental office or at least some healthcare office. Though we were just visitors, it became apparent that I worked there or at least once worked there. Some stuff happened, then it turned into a house that we were living in, except they weren’t my familiar family anymore and just a family. In fact, I’m not sure I was me, just that I was somebody. There was my “mom,” and 1 or 2 siblings, younger than me. I think everyone had blonde hair. My “dad” was some deranged guy that we were all afraid of and recently separated from. However, we saw him outside the window. He demanded to be let in, but we would not let him in. My “mom” was terrified, but I kept reminding her of why they were separated to begin with. At first he pled and begged, but soon devolved into what drove us away from him to begin with. We all huddled together in the living area, afraid to go anywhere else in the house – me especially because I wanted my eye on him. He raved and ranted outside for a while, but never left. By the time we were afraid enough to see this as life threatening, the emergency department had closed for the day. I desperately tried to call, to text, to no avail. It was past 6pm! That’s when things took a turn for the worst: my “dad” had fire. I kept spamming the 911 number (in dreams, things are so hard to do!) until I could talk to someone or at least leave a message? The worst part was that the upstairs was on fire and he was waiting for us outside. I saw at the edge of the property that the fire department had come, but I hadn’t known the address to give to them, so they were unsure of where to go and left!!

For the next several tense minutes, I kept calling and texting, until I talked to someone else who said that they did send them out, but there was no fire. I tried to explain, but that’s when I realized that something was happening outside. I ran out, feeling safer with all the rescue people there… but they were next door fighting a full on fire! My only thought was that my “dad” had gone and torched someone else’s house! I looked back on our house and saw that it was not on fire at all! What??? I watched in horror as the firemen pulled bodies from the home. My “dad” was nowhere in sight and I was chilled to the bone at what he had done. I had no idea where he was.

Then some stuff about walking through a charred home that was mostly intact

Work, Warm, Video

I was at work. My patient had a friend with her and seemed to be a tough nut to crack. I kept trying to make conversation with her, but she was awkwardly quiet and her face gave nothing away. Finally, I just gave up and finished my work. Before I went to go get my doctor for an exam, I told her that I was jealous of her hair which was cut really short because mine was too long and I needed a haircut. I knew that she couldn’t see my hair under my head covering, but you can see enough to know that I don’t have long hair. I was standing up to leave when I saw her not only smile but her cheeks tinged rosy. As I was back there waiting for him and watching the hectic hullabaloo, he came up and asked me if I was feeling warm because he was. I was like, uh oh! Did he have a fever? Then he left to go do the exam and I was left there thinking about how the office might have to shut down if he couldn’t work. Also, if he was feeling that way were others feeling the same?

I went back to join him in my op. He was checking her. As soon as he turned to talk to me, though, somehow the patient suddenly had her friend in the chair and was working on her! We both looked at each other. My boss shrugged and left. I was left wondering what to do. I approached them, trying to make light of the situation. This time both were quite talkative. My original patient got up for me to sit down and do my job as I guess the friend was my next patient?

We were talking jovially together and there was a TV going on in the background. I could hear/see a commercial in particular that featured an old, catchy song. I laughed and told them that I love that music video and was surprised that they were showing it on TV! The two of them giggled and in unison said, “Nickelodeon.” Then the visuals from the music video popped up like I was watching them on a mobile device. I kept playing it back and forth and then it was like I was watching the video in a little paperback book that played videos. You turned the page when the next segment of the video started. I began to doodle absently on it, lines around the video itself while listening to the others talk. My fine tipped sharpie kept trailing off and I had to keep redoing the line. It didn’t matter whether it was straight or not, but it mattered to me. Overall, I was just happy, and warm in the spring brightness.

Pool, dad, family

I had been wandering around a building. It was a place where one would live or perhaps a vacation place. It was a higher rise with outdoor facilities like a pool and outdoor seating and gates surrounded by bushes. I was inside looking out at a window. With me was Cora. I picked her up and tossed her out the window. She fell into the water as a rainbow kitten. The teenage boy that was sitting on the chair there saw it and immediately jumped in to save the kitten. Suddenly, I saw Cora in the pool, too. Thankfully, they were both paddling around and not drowning. From the 5inch gap in the open window, I called out to him asking how I could get down there. He pointed, and I remembered that the door would lead directly out down some stairs.

I was in a house. As I walked around I saw my dad. He was dressed in “going out” clothes and seemed anxious, scared even. It was the weekend. I made my way over to my mom to tell her that he was dressed in the clothes and might be expecting to go somewhere. She rolled her eyes really hard and shrugged. She was wearing sweatpants and home clothes. My sister was really excited about something. Getting married, I think, and was with my mom yakking about stuff. Some sequence regarding a calendar where I wanted to jot down the important dates, but could not remember when the events were going to be. When I went to look up at the window again, my dad had removed his outside clothes and my brother was standing with him. I was about to go tell my mom again when my dad put on a hideous fuzzy green overcoat.

Then I was both on top of an under a wooden deck. It was huge and a story up and spanned the backside of the large house. Cora was with me. I forget now what was happening on it

Xray, Doctor, Friend

Some convoluted things

I had been video chatting with my friend. She was at a restaurant with her daughter and showing me that her kid was doing a handstand on a pillar in the place which was kind of dark. No one seemed to mind that this was happening. I had happened to be outside in the same shopping area with my sister. We were looking for ingredients to make things for an event. Specifically, chocolate. We walked into the restaurant which also had a store attached to it. As we walked in, I mentioned that my friend Q was in there. We didn’t make it too far past the front door because my aunt C happened to be working behind the counter! My sister and I were very surprised to see her there, and my aunt exclaimed that no one told her that we were coming! Eventually, I made my way to my friend Q and she had her daughter repeat what she had done on the phone. I was like, wow! Great! But then her daughter wanted me to take a picture, so I pulled out my phone and did that. Then we walked over to the dining area, did some stuff, then left.

There was a part about a shopping in a grocery store that involved my mom that I can’t remember now.

I was later walking through a building looking for someone or something. There were a lot of construction workers around. We were trying to leave through a door when we ran into a man who might have answers to what we were searching for. A little bit of back and forth there, when suddenly, I was wheeling him in a wheelchair to an examination room to wait for a doctor. The room was spacious and had some large equipment and some pull down screens. I tried to help get some information from him. He was hoping for a diagnosis and maybe some surgery. We were waiting for what seemed like forever when a nurse ran in and wanted to warn us that the doctor that was doing the examination was well-known to be impatient, arrogant, and extremely rude. Great. Shortly thereafter, he showed up pushing a cart full of equipment and parking that outside the room. He strutted into the room loudly announcing his name and title. Immediately, he ordered an x-ray be done of both of the patient’s legs before he would even consider surgery. My aunt runs in and starts lining up the patient to take the x-ray of the right knee. It was a little awkward because I had no idea what I was doing, and to take the x-ray, you had to complete a minigame that looked a lot like Lightening Force. That side was successful, but from my information gathering the patient had had a total knee replacement on the left side. The doctor then ordered the other knee to be taken and was getting mad that it was taking so long. Unfortunately, I had to take the left side and still didn’t know what I was doing. Everyone had a hard time positioning the patient properly, and no one could play the mini game well enough and wouldn’t let me play. Whoever was playing was doing a really awful job. As it turns out, the doctor had every ability to skip the mini game but had chosen not to up until that point. He was rude, demanding, and a bit scary. I encouraged him to give it a try because everyone else was simply incapable to handling it, clearly. I tried, but had the hardest time too, then suddenly he was nicer about it. He positioned the camera which was moving all over the place and directed the button push 4 times. I was afraid he’d blow his lid at the quality of the images, but he wasn’t upset at all. He was able to see what he needed to by comparing the images, and gently okayed the surgery. I was shocked by his sudden kindness. Maybe having to try and do it himself, he got to understand how difficult it was.

Animals, People, Tattoo, Target

Some stuff about animals near the ocean with a lady who was taking the animals in her care out for some “nature” time. There were sea creatures, land creatures, small creatures… She was taking her “Oyster mites” out for some wild time, too, dropping 3 of them into the sand near the lapping waves. I turned to whoever was with me and whispered that there was no way she’d be able to get those back, let alone any of the other animals.

Then I was in a group of people! It wasn’t clear if we were all prisoners or refugees, but each person was assigned a “booth” inside of a large open place reminiscent of an airport. Each booth was cordoned off with fabric and metal. We got our assignments and were expected to reside in them. You were allowed to choose the type of items you wanted and had 3 choices. For some reason I was walking around talking to people instead of sitting in my booth. Perhaps I was a higher up? I was checking in on the others to see if they were doing okay. They all seemed annoyed to have to exist in the booths, but otherwise no overly negative feelings around. One guy on the corner only had a bunch of baby carrots. Many others had chosen carrots, too. One girl wearing all white had chosen a bunch of items instead of food. I told her while watching her begrudgingly open things that it’s okay, because I had made sure to send her food. I eagerly watched as she opened my package, and she smiled when she saw the things I had thoughtfully packed for her (I guess I was an official after all). I moved around to the different folks checking in and making sure people were overall okay. Even my coworker/friend was there. Although I knew the conditions were not ideal, at least I could help make everyone’s lives a little more bearable.

Then I was at an amusement park kind of place. I watched this guy try an interesting game/ride a few times. Basically, he was strapped to a long line which he held onto, could pull slack as he’d like, and would use the slow descent from the line to leap off the tight walls until he reached the end. It was a wall-jumping game, like Shinobi-style. He tried it twice, hesitating because he was scared, but I wanted to try, so I did. It was a lot of fun, and I didn’t get dizzy! I got to the end, touched down and exited the door. The attendant who had been watching me on the screen exclaimed to my sister that I had done a really good job and I’d almost landed a record for time. Oh. I hadn’t realized there was a time to beat! I wandered around a bit looking at things before finding my sister at a table getting a tattoo. She saw me, finished and left. I went over with a voucher for a free tattoo (won it somehow). The guy was excited to be able to do a tattoo for me. He showed me a few pictures in his little book and after pretending not to see the obscene choices (which was about 90% of the images) I chose a cartoon cat. He then started prepping the equipment, and while I waited, I started realizing the gravity of getting a tattoo. It’s permanent. Things were going too fast! He was preparing to start when I stopped and asked two questions: one what would happen if I was allergic, and two, could I request a different, custom tattoo since it was going to be a permanent thing. He brushed off the allergy question but asked me what I was thinking on the custom tattoo. I knew that it was a free tattoo, so I didn’t want to burden him with anything insane. While I explained that I wanted a Cora face tattoo, I was trying to search for my own artwork depicting that, and trying to decide where the heck I wanted it. I couldn’t find it in my phone anywhere, so I tried to draw it for him, but had to try like 20 times and still couldn’t get the line drawing right. He, however, had seen what I wanted and already had his own version of it drawn out. He was ready to go, and I was still trying to stall…

Then I was going into Target. It was cloudy and gray outside. The store was really small and very crowded. As I picked my way around the leagues of annoyed shoppers, the workers kept loudly telling me about the major fights I’d missed yesterday. Apparently, that was the reason for the extreme security measures they were exercising then, which is why everything was so slow. I hid myself in the corner of the store looking at items just to get away from everyone.

Survival game, doors, cat, water, house

I was with a female. Some stuff happened, we were wandering around and we end up in this brick/stone chamber with a shallow (I think) pool of water covering most of the floor. There is a small ledge to walk around it to an exit, but everything appears stagnant and slick. The water itself isn’t the cleanest. I hop and pick my way around it, in and out of the several exits, but we keep coming back into the room. At some point it takes the place of the TV room in the house I grew up in. I leave then come back to find that the narrow walkway is now covered with large black trash bags, and my partner is perplexed because she has a dish she’s trying to wash but the water is too dirty and she’s afraid of it. I’m slightly annoyed by this and offer to get her water from the sink in the bathroom just across the hallway, but she’s adamant that it must come from the water there. I shrug because she knows magic and I don’t. I grab some object and start moving the water in the floor basin around. It’s red which I hadn’t noticed before, and I comment that it looks like blood. Though I’m chuckling about my minor joke, assuming it’s just the coloring of the bacteria in the water, her face isn’t amused at all and it shuts me up. Some moments pass, I make my way (somehow) over to the other side of the pool only to see Cora with her nose near the water. It’s too dim to tell if she’s drinking it or just smelling it, but I scold her and she looks at me like, “what?”

I convince my partner to leave with me to the rest of the house. Once we leave the chamber, a man with the nametag Atkinson shows up and accompanies my partner away. I check out the sewing room and see another man with the nametag Atkinson. He accompanies me away now, towards our respective partners, and we make our way through the rest of the house.

Some stuff about the upstairs.

We walk through another door which sends us into another world. Things are strange there, the world not acting like it should. I wander around the kitchen there with stone floors and wooden walls. There are 2 women doing things and not acknowledging our presence. I see a shelf that has cats on every level. Fat kitties. Someone starts warning me about the cats when I see the one on the very top looking a little woozy. I looks at me and I reassure it that I’ll catch it, then it starts to fall. I catch the big cream-colored fuzzy marshmallow, then the orange cat 2 shelves down topples, too. I also catch that one and now I’m cradling 2 fat kitties. They’re soft and warm and doze happily in my arms. I turn back around to my partner smiling. Something happens that I don’t remember.

Then, I’m with a large group of people. It’s dark and we’re being herded somewhere. There’s a strong sense of urgency. I’m a little worried but keep moving. Suddenly, we’re walking on water towards some seemingly powerful entities! I have a strong feeling like they’re Gods or at least on a Titan level. The leader on the human side warns everyone not to look down, but of course I do just that. I’m being supported by jets of water and the powerful entities are being kept from us by a void-moat surrounding their own jets of water. I look down into the depthless fathoms and feel fear. Consumed by my thoughts, I don’t hear what they’re saying, and then suddenly I’m running along with everyone else while a woman who is clearly running the show gives us a rundown of what is happening. We’re in a competition for our lives. Everyone is assigned a partner. Together you must survive and make it all the way to the top. Only 2 people, so 1 team can win, so you must work together to survive the ordeal. The trial round will eliminate 4 players, before starting the real tournament for your life.

I’m near the front behind a slim young woman with soft blonde hair in a braid. Her face shares the same expression as mine: shock, fear, and determination. She reaches the glowing circle first, then takes off for the elevator. I reach it next and large text pops up asking me to confirm our partnership. Given that I know no one else, and that time is off the essence, and that she’s clearly a top performer, I immediately hit Confirm. I race over to her. A cursory glance at the “elevator” shows that she and I need to grab onto the small ledge which will pull us up. I grab onto the small ledge, my hand next to hers. The machine starts moving, but it’s so slow! The others have arrived and latch on underneath of us. My partner and I share a wordless look, agreeing silently with each other. The next level we need to reach is impossibly high above us. As projectiles start firing and the remaining contestants vie for the bottom spots by knocking off other players, I grab onto my partner with my free hand and legs to both shield and hold us together lest we fall. Not a single person in the slowly rising column of people speak, all of us trying hard not to see or hear what is happening to the stragglers below, nor think about what we must do above.

After what seems an eternity, I see the hole that signals that we’ve made it to the real battleground. I reach up and haul myself through the hole (because the damn elevator is so slow) as does my partner. Weapons and gear appear on our bodies, and with one last nod at each other, we split up. It seems that we’re doing a laser tag of sorts. High on the wall or perhaps projected into the air are images of the contestant faces with our teammates and a running tab of how many lives we have remaining. I go around solemnly firing my small arrows at the orange targets everyone has on their backs. My accuracy is good. Quickly, however, I come across a rather tall and robust (in the build sense, not fat) female who rubs me the wrong way. There’s something wrong with her and her partner. I want to warn my own partner but there’s no way to communicate with someone on the other side of the area. I decide that I want to eliminate her as quickly as possible. She’s cocky, arrogant, and seems to know something we don’t. She’s at her last life because of me, when all of the sudden the target on her back disappears. She’s cheating! How?? She laughs at me, and I race away from her lest she hunts me down, desperately trying to find my partner all the while dodging other players. I run into my partner at the end point where we would try to ascend to the goal after defeating enough players. We’re not done yet, but it seems that she’s also been the target of my enemy’s partner who is also cheating. Why are they gunning for us in particular? The announcer/leader of the event is standing there, smiling innocently. I pull her into a little room off to the side away from the projectiles and hurriedly try to tell her about how the others are cheating. My partner listens, silently agreeing. The announcer titters in her God-like voice, looks at my partner and me and says provocatively, “You can, too.” She pulls my partner forward into her arms and starts to seductively remove her gear? Clothing? I am aghast at this turn of events and don’t know what to do! I have to save my partner, but what can I do against a demi-god? Also, is the game rigged? Is it all a test? Without my partner I am doomed to fail the game! I’m watching my blonde partner, unsure of my next action when I simultaneously see my enemy approaching, a huge leering smile on her face, and my partner begging me for help with her eyes.

I don’t know what my decision is, just that I continue to fight against others in my struggle to survive, except that it’s no longer a game, and that deception is a means to an end. Just as answers and a resolution start to arise, I wake up.