Dream Log: October 1, 2000

• The phone rings; it's my mother. She asks me how I'm doing, what I've been up to. Then, in the same casual tone, she tells me that one of my best friends, Mario, has died. I'm numb. I hang up the phone. Wow. Infinite sadness.

• Playing hot lava with August. We're outside and climb up into the rafters of an ivy-covered gazebo. His face is speckled with sunlight dripping through the greenery. I laugh, barefoot, thinking "I don't ever want to grow up".

• A conversation about dreams. I'm sitting with three girls and Mario. We've all realized that we are in a dream. There is no question that we are all real people and not figments of the sole dreamer's imagination. I almost wake up a few times, but stay dreaming by looking at the palm of my hand and tracing the lines with my fingertip. I teach the technique to the others. We talk about how time is so much different inside a dream, how you can sleep for an hour but the dream will last anywhere from a few minutes to many years. It's a hot, sunny day and we're sitting crosslegged in a circle under the trees. I remark on how nice the sun feels on my skin. No UV radiation to worry about here. I turn to Mario: "Tell me a secret that you've never told me before," I say. "I want to ask your real self if it's true." In my mind I see Mario's grandmother, but Mario tells me he once thought he saw my SO in a beer commercial. Hmm, okay. I turn to the next girl (who I now realize was made-up). She says, "I love you". That's your secret? "Yes, I'm in love with you." Hmm, okay. I realize my hand is cold and I remark on it. Someone says it's probably cold in my bedroom and my hand is sticking out. I try to rub it but it does no good. Dream ends. My hand was bent with the circulation cut off.

Weird thing is I wake up totally cool and quiet, with a very relaxed sensation and slow heart-beat.

But I felt disturbed. I can't imagine the meaning of this dream. I even felt for a moment like I was Bruce Willis in The Sixth Sense, I mean, I had died but I didn't realize it... Well, this morning my parents talked to me as if I was here, so I guess that rules out the possibility...

When I woke up, there were alarms going on, and staff next to me hadnt noticed my waking because they were too busy trying to fix things with a large computer. I looked at my arm, and it had two shirt-button sized glass dots with circuits running inside them. I stood up, and soon noticed that there was gas inside the facility, and the techs tried to turn it off because even smallest spark could light it. The teleport used huge amounts of energy, and it seemed to be built idiot-proof against shutdown attempts. Heavy metal doors to the lift were closed, so my only change of escape was the teleport itself. I ran through the corridor, and when I got to the teleport room, I noticed two green switches on the opposite sides of the room. I pulled them down, but when I was stepping inside the glass tube, the gas exploded, and as the flames engulfed me, I woke up.

I woke up in a metal chamber, and as I checked my arm, it didnt have implants anymore. I opened the chamber, and when I looked outside, I was still in the teleport facility, but everything was covered in ash and the techs were nothing but friend black skeletons on the floor. I somehow realized that I had been a copy of myself, and my original body was to be disposed while I'd live my life in the new body at the next destination. I walked through the same corridors, and saw my previous corpse in the teleport room, but though the teleport was blacked with ash, it still seemed to work. There was nothing else to do, so I stepped inside..

DISCLAIMER: No, I didn't dream this all on one night. This is an ongoing attempt to connect many of my wildest dreams into one semi-coherent story.

I was an agent.

My partner and I were in a town that looked like it was in late 19th century America. After I talked to the locals a bit, a lad sold me a strange unicycle based on what seemed to be a modified, shortened bicycle frame. It had one wheel in front connected to the pedals by a chain. The whole contraption was counterweighted so that by leaning forward, I was able to keep my balance. Another boy led my partner and me to what he claimed was his home. A door in the basement led us
<bgsound src="The Fixx - One Thing Leads to Another.mp3">
to an underground tunnel world. The little fellow and his friends guided us through the wide pipes until they turned tail on us and ran away.

Eventually, we found our way to an exit that led to a school. This school was different in that it had a shopping mall and a health club right inside the school building. It was probably an elite college. (How 31337!) Anyway, a few thugs chased us all the way to a dead end in a restroom. My partner jumped down a large drain pipe. I complained to my partner that she had been playing too much Super Mario Brothers, but I followed her anyway. We found ourselves in a restroom in a doctor's office; we could hear a doctor talking in the next room about a deadly disease and thought it would scare the bullies. Jumping back down the pipe, we returned to the school restroom and reasoned with the thugs, telling about the awful disease we learned about.

To make sure we would not get hurt, we dashed to the nearest exit. Turned out we were in a Commonwealth country. We found scissor-shaped bicycles and left; a friendly gang picked us up. We rode through private property and found ourselves some dogs who needed better masters than the ones they had. Eventually, I recognized a house that looked strangely like my home. I opened the door, let my partner in first, and inside was...

...the enemy headquarters, with police waiting to capture us. They took us to the Rockefeller Penitentiary. But on an activity break, we found
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a secret exit. We looked for an exit in typical James Bond® fashion but didn't find one. On the other hand, we found a well-hidden area
<bgsound src="Green Day - Basket Case.mp3">
inhabited by aliens whose heads were twice as big as ours. They could also pull their small bodies into their hollow heads.
My partner turned to me and asked, "Precious Moments?"
I responded, "Peanuts?"
An alien about 80 cm tall, wearing what looked like an orange parka, came forward to speak to me, but I could not understand its muffled speech. Luckily, it still understood me, and another little alien was there to translate.
<bgsound src="Primus - South Park Theme.mp3">

UPDATE (December 3, 2000)

• December 19, 1997: the underground tunnel world
• October 1, 1998: the school
• June 10, 1998: restroom and scissor bikes
• November 3, 1997: the prison and South Park

1. All of the other performers are professionals
2. We haven't practiced at all
3. We still haven't chosen our songs
4. This kid won't sit still!

I wake up to my brother poking me to make sure i'm alive. He accidentally left the gas stove on all night, and when he woke up the room smelled like gas and i wasn't moving.