Dream 270

I was driving to get to a meeting place, and I had to drive through a massive tunnel.  

It must have been at least 16 lanes wide, and I found it very intimidating.  The traffic was very heavy, and the lights were very vivid.  The brightness and the darkness combined made my eyes hurt.

A cop put on his lights behind me, and I pulled over to the side.  More late, I thought.  I waited, and gradually all the traffic left.  And it was just me and the cop.

I waited.  Eventually, I knew that I had to go, so I slowly eased back into traffic, and drove slowly past the cop, waiting for him to escalate.  

But he didn't.  As I passed, I saw his face was frozen with terror.  Like he'd seen the same vast dark-light cave that I saw, but he couldn't comprehend it.

I stopped, led him out of his car and put him in my passenger seat

And I drove out of the tunnel.  The first building, on the left out of the tunnel, was a police station.  

I pulled in, helped the cop in, and told them, "I saved this man's life, you'd better shred that ticket."

I drove out, glancing horribly at the overhead night sky.  I didn't know what else to do but drive.

Dream 269

I had been invited to a party with the folks who had been producing the "Star Wars" TV and movie series for some time.  I honestly didn't like the shows, but the people were very friendly and I enjoyed myself at the party.  I had done some visual work for them, but I wanted to fix some possible production, or matte paintings I'd done, so I used my hands and trimmed out some colors and edges.  

When I was done I asked if I could have some paper towels so that I could clean my hands, but everyone was having such a good time I was pretty sure they didn't hear me.  As I moved through the party, the paints on my fingers dried and I found I could easily peel them off.

When I saw the excerpts at the party, I was pretty sure they hadn't used any of my work, but I'd been paid and it was a nice party.

Dream 268

 I awoke in the middle of a June day to discover that snow was covering the ground.  This isn't possible, I thought, and as I stared out over the snow covered lawns, the snow began to fade, first to black, and then to transparency.

It seemed like too much work to figure out what was happening, so I went to a movie theater.  I sat next to Lyz from AYCYAS, who was friendly and pleasant.  They showed us a monster movie, which was largely stupid.  One of the characters said that the monster's main power was its "Notoriety."  

We laughed so hard at that.  "Oh no!  It will attack us with its NOTORIETY! How can we defend ourselves against that?"  

She turned to me, and kissed me.  And I kissed her as well.

Dream 267

I had just aquired some tutorials about a 3D animation software that I was anxious to try.  I didn't have a computer with me, but I knew that a local study hall had one that had the software installed, so I headed that way.  

I found that when I arrived, I had neglected to dress, but sat anyway in front of the computer, hoping that a handy pillow would conceal me.  While I was waiting for the computer to warm up, a couple of other people arrived and began setting up.  One of them was a screenwriter for a Star Wars series, and while I didn't like the series, she herself turned out to be very personable and friendly.

I left the study hall, having found some "tube pants" and was walking along a grassy stretch when some people signaled that I should come see what they'd found.

I joined them, and we walked along a hedge wall lined with trees until a break in the trees revealed a modest house behind the hedge.  An older woman was raking the yard, when she turned toward us, we could see that she had a single eye in the center of her forehead. 

"Excuse me, ma'am," said one of us, "are you a cyclops?"

She became somewhat agitated and said that we should leave, before there was trouble.  Before we could move, the air became darker and we found that we were nearly frozen in place.  With difficulty, I moved forward and into the woman's yard, and said if she let the others go, I would take whatever punishment was necessary.

At once, a fearful apparition appeared before the two of us.  It stood upright, like a man, and had a lengthened horses head, multiple spindly limbs and was covered by what appeared to be nails.

"I will determine your punishment," it said.  "It will be necessary to send you on a journey.  I will give you items that will protect you.  But your death is almost a certainty."

Dream 266

I was with a select crew set on a massive starship.  We were sent into interstellar space to explore various aspects of the universe.

But something went wrong.  We were cut off from communication with Earth and unable to control the ship.  A lot of people went into despair, and some seemed to go quietly crazy.  Shipboard discipline disintegrated.

After a while, the crew settled into a nomadic existence aboard the ship.  The mission was forgotten by all but a select few.  I couldn't tell how much time had passed, it felt like centuries.

One day, all the systems came back on again.  The instruments showed we still were orbiting Earth, and the ship was preparing to land.  We were all worried that the ship might crash, but when we checked the viewport, we had already settled on a hill outside a small town.

I looked at the town and recognized a city where I had once lived.  I was concerned that I was simply seeing what I wanted to see, and asked the others if they saw the same.  Everyone confirmed what I was seeing.

I was still worried.  I'd read too many stories.  What had happened?  Was it all a dream?  Would we open the doors and walk out into a nightmare?  Or worse, a familiar world we had just left behind, and had never left, despite the centuries?

Dream 265

I wanted to go to the Vinegar Syndrome store, and Jay Bauman offered to drive me there as he was going as well.  

Once there, I discovered that it was a large older wooden house where each corner had a particular section devoted to a genre or a filmmaker.  

There were lots of drawings, photos and other objects, but I couldn't find any videos.  

I wandered around through the corridors.

Finally, Jay led me outside where there were even more stalls, set here and there in sandy hills with scrubby vegetation.  I told him I needed to get some sleep so I could wake up at six, but he didn't seem to hear me.  I was worried that the day was getting brighter, meaning morning was coming.

In the distance, I saw some more buildings and wondered if I could get a ride there.  When I got to them, they were the same strip mall of boutiques we had passed on the way in.  I wondered if I could walk home from there.

Dream 264

I was sleeping on my ex-wife's couch when suddenly something thumped against me.  

It was a medium sized dog, some kind of hound by the look of him, with his paws on my chest.  He looked somewhat anxious.

"Who are you?" I asked him.  "How did you get in here?  Have you been here all night?"

I persuaded him to back up a little so I could get off the couch.  I put on a shirt and led him through the house to the front door.  The cats were spinning around, seemingly with excitement.

I let the dog outside and he trotted to the house across the street and blended in with a whole lot of other dogs.  I followed and stood just on the edge of the lawn.

Some of the dogs barked at me, but one came over to be petted.  He was so pleased to be petted.

Crossing the street, I went to the ex's apartment.  It was located on stilts behind another apartment, so I had to climb a ladder to get back inside.  Once up the ladder, I could see no way to enter, however.  There was a door located at the opposite end from the ladder, so I carefully crossed some wooden beams...but found that the door was below me with no way to reach it.

At this point, one of the neighbors started hammering nails into the wall, apparently in an attempt to fix their TV reception.  

I could now see the door where it should have been at the ladder, but wondered how I could get to it.