Lucid Dreaming - June 2009

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I wanted to show my brother something else, too, I believe about my application to the company he's working at, and then he got angry and went away. I had to do something for Dad, but I decided to go ride my bike instead. But as I was riding down the driveway, I heard my dad call my name from the front door, so I had to go back. He wasn't really angry at me though. I remember wanting to work on something but didn't want to be in the same room as my mom because I knew she would distract me. I think she was working in the formal dining room.

Dream 1:
I was back at GSET, but now there were 200 students, rather than 80 or 90. I wasn't one of the students - perhaps I was a counselor but I'm not sure. You know how it is in dreams - you're mainly just an observer.

I got a text from Michael Huang in Chinese, but the characters put together didn't make much sense. I didn't know who Michael Huang was, so I signed in on Gmail online and clicked 'Report spam' for the text message and forgot about it.

Later on, someone asked me if I'd seen Michael Huang recently. I hadn't, but I recalled the text message. I went back to my Gmail inbox and Google had replied my spam report with a message saying "Google thinks this is a possible abduction." The message continued, suggesting Michael might now be in Mendelova [some made-up city]. I promptly e-mailed Michael Huang's parents and Blase Ur (the GSET coordinator) about the text message and Google's response.

While waiting for replies, I went to Mendelova, Colombia to search for Michael. I remember being in a big open lot next to a strip mall. Looking up, I saw a short monorail train, stopped at a station. Suddenly, many motorcyclists appeared and began surrounding me and an SUV in front of me. I figured they were about to mug the SUV vehicle, and I did not want to get caught in the incident and become an injured bystander. Fortunately, before the ring of motorcyclists became too dense, I got out without arousing any attention. I walked off as far as I could and found myself back home. I suddenly realized Google probably meant the Mendelova in Mexico, not Colombia.

Back in my house, I found Mom and Dad lounging in the family room. I told them about Michael Huang and they were shocked. They drove with me back to GSET.

When we got there, Michael's parents were already there. I talked with Michael's mom, who said she wanted to ask Derrick Wu some questions. Apparently Derrick was Michael's friend or the last person he talked to before disappearing. I did not hear the conversation between Michael's mom and Derrick, but by watching, I could tell Derrick was probably hiding something, as he seemed fidgety, nervous, and suspicious. Derrick then offered to take Michael's mom into a house. I feared he would murder her inside, so I followed them. Once we were two rooms into the dark house, I looked back toward the entrance and in my peripheral, I glimpsed a lady ninja with a long shiny sword, but she vanished quickly. I grabbed Mrs. Huang and we both ran outside. Then Derrick and the ninja had a sword fight.

Dream 2:
Lauren Chiaravalloti had a huge stomach. I asked her if she was pregnant. She was. When was she going to give birth? Some time in July. She explained, "I want as much time to raise my baby as I can before I start college." I remember talking to another high school classmate who had already given birth, but I forget who it was.

Dream, part 2: I was at a marching band competition. I was in the show. I started next to the 40-yard line. I panicked and I forgot the memorized formations, so I just tried to blend in by following what everyone else was doing. For whatever reason, I didn't have my instrument, and neither did many other members.

We got to a point in the show, and the people who were supposed to be the focus weren't there. So Peter Coccia and some other people improvised and carried the show on well.

Next, Alaap Parikh (a fellow GSETtler, Princeton '12) led me and Ken onstage. There were two pianos, one perpendicular to the stage edge and one parallel to it, with the keys facing the audience. I chose the perpendicular piano. Alaap said into the mic, "We're gonna play July _____ (Fire?)." I sat down at the piano, and Ken and Alaap brought out guitars to play and sat behind the parallel piano. Alaap was writing down some notes and chords on paper, so I asked him what key the piece was in and what the chord progression was. He said there was none. So I said "cool" and started jamming.

I eventually did get to my apartment and found two suitcases and a backpack to throw all my clothes in. As I was packing, I woke up.

Reflection: This dream reflects certain aspects of the previous night. I had just lent Thomas $5, so perhaps that was why there was a money trail in my dream. I had been hanging out with my REU group and some other people watching the Magic-Lakers game, so that explains the presence of a group of people. Finally, you can see how my procrastination habits show through even in my dreams - even when everyone else was ready to go and waiting for me, I still get distracted and go off on tangents (like looking for free money).

The book was titled something like Into the Anacorbis, which was some place in South America apparently. After reading a few pages, I gathered that my brother had been depressed and went to Anacorbis in search of happiness. I remember reading and wondering when Ray had become a writer. The book was well crafted and the vocabulary was sophisticated. In particular, I remember seeing "mand ____," and not knowing what 'mand' meant. According to Google, apparently 'mand' is a property (dullness) of kapha, "the lubricating element in our body."

Before leaving the library, I looked for ZHOU on the bookshelves and saw some books with that label, but no Lillian Zhous. Someday, though, I'm sure there will be.

I went to check out Ray Hsu's book, and the attendant at check-out was Annette, an older lady who I used to work with at Staples. She told me how she was working 365 days per year and suffered from back and foot pains. But most strikingly, she seemed as bubbly and happy as ever. She seemed to enjoy working at the library.

When I went home, I asked my parents and brother, through teared eyes, why they never told me Ray published a book. I forget their reply.

Next thing I remember, I was in a swimming pool. An electronic board on the wall displayed all the swimming classes you could take at Yale. There were over 20 classes, like the following:

The class names resembled those of the YMCA swimming classes: Polliwog, Guppy, Minnow, Porpoise, etc.

I was in the pool, part of some diving class. The instructor told us to practice doing a dive off the board where we spun longitudinally like a football while diving forward, a spinning forward dive. The instructor blew a whistle and then asked everyone to demonstrate. Everybody went and did okay, and I was the last to go. When I went, I remember jumping and rotating, but the rotation caused my legs to come apart, and I landed on my side. I don't even think I broke the surface of the water. Then I woke up.

Then I saw Ken. "What are you doing here?" He told me he had transferred here from Cornell. He said three other people had transferred here as well: Mark Hansen, Lisa Coutu (from Mercer College, though in RL she goes to University of Delaware), and Lindsey. "Lindsey Waldron?" "No, Jackson. You probably don't know her." I didn't.

In the dream, Yale was located in Alaska, and so right now, during orientation at the end of August, there was a light frost over the landscape. The school was also next to some icy mountains and a big lake. I thought, once we get some free time, I'll take Ken around and we can take some pictures. But first, we both had to attend some orientation programs, though we were in different ones.

I entered an auditorium full of students and everyone was wearing a shirt that was either purple, pink, or some shade of blue. Clearly, you were supposed to get together with everyone else wearing the same-colored shirt as you, but I wondered what the colors represented. I struck up a conversation with someone wearing a dark blue shirt, and he told me people were split up depending on whether they had to write a senior essay, do a senior project, give a thesis defense, or do an art project and presentation. He then started shouting, asking no one in particular, "But what if you don't want to present or your project is too controversial [like Aliza Shvart's]? Can't you substitute a quiz instead?"

I left this person to his ranting and I went over to a group of blue shirts, since I had a blue shirt, too. I saw Kelsey Sakimoto and asked him, "Is this the group for those people who have no idea what we're doing?" "Haha, yeah, I guess," he replied. So I stood next to him for the remainder of the program.

Afterward, I bumped into Ken in the hallway, and I took him out into the frosty fields next to the lake, where he pulled out his camera and started taking pictures. Next, he said he wanted to go see the graveyard, so we started heading over in that direction. On our way there, Ken exclaimed, "Oh, look who's here!" I wasn't sure who he was addressing, but I saw him run over and give Christine Chen a big hug. Christine and I didn't know each other too well - she was my suitemate David Zhang's friend. After Ken's hug, we weren't sure how to greet each other, as a hug seemed over the top. So after an awkward moment of indecision, we settled for some high fives.

Dream: I was on the run with my family from something, presumably an evil force, flying around the world.

I ended up on a boat and sat in a circle with a bunch of badguys. We were playing some sort of game where we took turns with a rolled up piece of paper, which we put to our mouths like a cigarette. Then the person would blow into the roll and shoot out a dart at somebody. If you got hit, it would injure you and perhaps kill you.

When it was my turn to shoot, I decided I didn't want to get injured or risk dying. I got up and started backing away toward the door. When I had reached it, I shouted out the magic word to forfeit from the game, then I shot the dart, and then I started running up the stairs to the deck of the boat. As I was running, I felt darts whiz by me. The badguys were after me.

I made it to the deck (of a cruise ship, as it turned out) and leapt off into the water. During the leap, I remember thinking, "Oh crap, did I jump from too high? Will I lose consciousness on impact?" But of course, I broke the surface painlessly.

Next thing I remember, I was atop a tall rectangular pole. It was about the width and length of a college dorm room desk but it was many stories up in the air. I looked all around the pole for a way to climb down but found none. The pole started swaying a little in the wind and I was scared I would fall off, so I got on my stomach and clasped the desk tightly with all my limbs and called out for help. Eventually, a ladder was extended up to me and I climbed down safely.

The final part of my dream I remember was being back inside a house. I was observing an Indian family with one son. I caught a glimpse of the boy in the window layout something on the ground, and it turned out to be a trail of marshmallows. I followed it until I found the boy sitting on the rug in front of a lit fireplace with marshmallows and caramel corn, celebrating Christmas.

Part 1: I was riding on a monorail through an underground tunnel, like one of those in the tunnel networks that were used in Europe during WWII. I was bouncing all around, and by 'I', I mean the vehicle I was in. It was like a roller coaster car for two people and was attached to a monorail track. The car was going very fast through the tunnel, and periodically, the car would hop from one track to another or jump over breaks in the track, like this were some level in Donkey Kong.

Eventually, the monorail stopped and I got out. I exited the tunnel through a door and came out into a gym, filled with black ninjas training. They finished up some sort of game and headed towards the exit. I followed them and got in line for the exit. When it was my turn to exit, I looked behind me and saw Mike Siciliano.

In the hallway, I headed for the bathroom. I saw all the ninjas head toward one bathroom, but Mike told me to use the VIP bathroom, so I did. Inside I saw Jon Huang. We didn't say much to each other.

Part 2: I was in the Stevens Burchard building for the research program. The program coordinator Professor Yao had replaced my research group's graduate student mentor Fangming with a new person. Immediately, I had uneasy feelings about him.

I was riding an elevator with my roommate Gustavo and I had a gun in my hand. The elevator door opened and I saw my new mentor. I fired at him and hit him, but he barely flinched and continued walking toward us. I fired and hit him again, but once again he was barely affected. He entered the elevator and grabbed Gustavo by the neck. Panicking, I started firing repeatedly at the person until he finally let go of Gustavo, backed out of the elevator, and the elevator doors closed.

As Gustavo and I headed back to the apartment, I thought to myself, no one was safe here anymore because the person who had assaulted Gustavo probably knew where the apartment was or could find out easily.

Part 3: I was relocated to a new building a few blocks from the original apartment where I had stayed with everyone else. Again, I was many floors up, but my room was like a jail cell in the middle of a foyer. Three sides were barred and the fourth was a wall. Surrounding the cell were doors to other apartments.

My family was with me helping me unpack my stuff. Randomly, my brother told me how bad my writing was. He said his writing sucked too until he had a college literature professor that opened his eyes to writing. I asked him which school this was at. He said Columbia. I asked him to refresh my memory about his college career, so he told me he went to Columbia for two years, then did a work-study program at the University of Chicago for a year, and then went to UPenn for his senior year and graduated there. [In RL, my bro attended Penn for all 4 undergraduate years.]

My mom and dad told me this jail cell would be a lonely place to live. I said I would go to the library. Suddenly, I was in the library and I saw someone practicing feet cubing in a pretty open space where many people could see him. After watching him for a few seconds, an announcement came up over the loud speaker telling the feet cuber to stop doing what he was doing. He paused and looked up and everybody around laughed.