the dream journal

things my subconscious deemed important

a night out with ringo starr

i'm watching a show with ringo starr. (think a live theater performance. we are seated towards the back.) while i don't recall the exact show we were watching, i am certain it was bad. during the show, i leaned over to ringo and whispered "they put as much effort into this show as you did into octopus' garden." (this is a very mean thing to say and waking me does not agree. that is one of favorite beatles songs. i stand for no ringo slander here.) ringo was understandably upset by this. he replied "i put a lot of effort into my music." i asked him what song he put the most effort into, and he replied "Peppy's Gweeble Band" right as i woke up, drenched in sweat.

failed lucid dream

i've always had a passing interest in lucid dreaming. the concept of training myself to control my own dreams sounds like- well, a dream. since high school, i've attempted to learn to do this on and off, to very little success (to be honest, i simply don't dedicate as much energy as required. easy in theory, hard in practice for me.) this particular night was one of the few times i've come close, and it was... something.
i dreamed that i was at knott's scary farm (a halloween layover of a theme park where i grew up, knott's berry farm). i haven't been there in about four years now, which was what made me realize i was dreaming. after all, i don't even live in the same state anymore, and it's a little too early in the year for scary farm to be running. with that, i went lucid for a few brief minutes. my control over the dream was limited at best. i had control of my own actions, and could change the environment slightly, but everything was murky and hazy. walking felt like wading through syrup. or some non-newtonian fluid. and there were vague figures following me the entire time. they weren't outwardly threatening, but their presence was there. i could feel them watching me, judging me as i tried to control the dream world around me. i woke up within a minute of becoming lucid, and it took a while to shake that feeling of being watched. i haven't attempted lucidity since.

zombie apocalypse (so basic)

one of the strangest series of dreams i've ever had. for the first and only time i can remember, i woke up from the same dream multiple times and was able to fall back asleep and restart it. the actual content of the dream was pretty basic, all things considered. it was a standard zombie apocalypse story where i was on ground zero. (ground zero just happened to be an olive garden that i was working at? i've never worked at olive garden). one of the customers there suddenly turned into a zombie, and infected the rest of the staff. just as i was about to be turned, i was woken up to a phone call (don't remember what).
after the call, i drifted back to sleep, and found myself in the same olive garden from before, minutes before the infection started. using my foreknowledge of what would happen, i planned an elaborate escape. i don't remember all details, but i have a particular image in my mind of riding a bus through the city as chaos descended and the infection spread. i recall deciding i needed to get as far away from people as i could, so i took a plane to the other side of the globe to hide out somewhere. woke up again sometime on the plane. as i was still tired, i ended up slipping back to sleep again after this
and there i was, back in the olive garden. this time around, i decided to try and save the people around me, but this proved futile. we waited too long, and had to run on foot from the infection. the last thing i remember is getting lost in the woods with a small group around me, trying to hide from the wildlife.
this is the only time i've ever had a seemingly exact same dream repeat more than once from the same starting point. it was a sort of way shittier groundhog day experience around a zombie apocalypse. should i ever end up working at an olive garden, know that the end times may be near.

spectator

the first dream of the year that i woke up recalling thoroughly. this was one of those dreams that in restrospect, was so absurd i feel anyone with common sense would have gone lucid. and yet, in the moment of the dream, it is no less real than the keyboard i type on now. the dream began with me and a few friends (no one in particular that i can recall, just people that had the energy of a friend to me) on a playground, playing tag. i cannot recall if we were children or adults, but regardless, we were playing tag on a playground, and it was wonderful.

at some point in the game, i found myself wandered away from the playground, silently observing my friends as the game continued. i remember having a feeling of yearning, to see the world from the eyes of a ghost. an invisible spectator of sorts, watching the world turn and clock on, all the while i myself am imperceptible, gone to everyone but me. somehow, this yearning manifested to reality, and i found myself floating above the ground, free to explore the world.

i spent hours just watching people live. from the playground and beyond, i was the wind, and i was everywhere. i struggle to remember exactly i watched the entire time, save for the very last thing. i found my new spectral form floating alongside a train in a large city (likely my brain's attempt to recreate the cta), weaving between cars and rails, observing every type of person that the train and where they went. i relished the feeling of being nothing but perception, my physical form having long faded to dust.

and yet, someone on one of the trains looked directly at me. a child. he stared, smiled, and waved at me, beckoned me back to the train. i closed my eyes and woke up.