Raptors ate the hall monitor!

I had a dream last night that involved an infiltration mission into my old high school, after it had been infested by dinosaurs. Interestingly, among the people in the team that were headed into the danger zone were some of my college professors. The infiltration was as scary and as exciting as you could imagine. I had to dodge and try to outrun velociraptors in the hallways, using decoys and such. Some others seemed to have an easier time outrunning the raptors ("you just have to lead them on and keep ahead of them"), but I wasn't very confident in my ability to out-velocirate a velociraptor. At one point, I ducked into a small room to hide from danger, and found a rather large kitchen knife (larger than any kitchen knife I'd expect to find in real life, but still in the style of a kitchen knife). Turns out that room was Party Guy Marty's hideout, who I had passed previously in the hall (he returned while I was in the room).

That dream gives a whole new meaning to the term "hall monitors".

A Sandy Cowgirl

I had another amazing dream last night. Skipping to the good part, I was wandering around at Burning Man, when I came across a camp where a girl was building some sort of machine. She was petite, total DFC, completely topless, probably wearing hotpants (I was focused more on what she wasn't wearing than what she was). I was captivated by her at first sight. I found out somehow that her name was Tara (pronounced like Terra).

She was putting a large flat panel in place, which was covered in dust (desert dust). She pounded on it to get it securely in place, and the dust coming off of it covered her completely. The machine then swallowed her up, as it was apparently operational, and it apparently had a shower facility somewhere inside (it was big, but I still couldn't help wondering how in the world she could have fit inside it).

Meanwhile, I chatted with the machine operator who was sitting off to the side. Finally, the girl came out, all clean, and started complaining that the machine tried to shave her (fortunately, she still had a full head of hair). It was obvious to me that the operator was the girl's boyfriend, and she started going on about how he tried to make the machine shave her as an excuse for him to cheat on her (because it would make her ugly? I really don't know).

Anyway, because I was chatting with the guy while she was in the machine, the girl asked me if her suspicions were right. The guy hadn't told me anything to suggest such a thing, and I was eager to allay the girl's suspicions, but I was also hesitant to get in the middle of this quarrel. So I kind of just stuttered. She told me I was scary - I guess, being the random stranger - although I don't think she was being completely serious (even with all the quarreling, she seemed more in a playful mood than anything else). I told her I was just scared, and that she was the one who was scary (you know, because pretty girls scare me).

But then she told me that being scared just meant that you were confessing something. So I asked her, "does that mean I'm confessing to you?" She was leaning in close to me at this point, and she smiled very sweetly. Then she kissed me, right smack on the lips. And in full view of her boyfriend. I was totally flustered; the guy was enraged; and the girl seemed delighted by the mischief she was causing. I politely extricated myself from the situation, trying to apologize but the guy would hear nothing of it. I left the camp feeling like I was sitting on top of the world. =)

Dreaming

I had an amazing dream. I was back in grade school, but I had an unprecedented level of self-confidence. I confessed my feelings to the girl I had a crush on, and we had a deeply personal conversation (the details of which escape me). I stood up to the teacher who was treating us unfairly. And I fought back against the jealous bullies who got physical after realizing they couldn't break my confidence and self-esteem. One of them maliciously dumped coffee on my lap (lucky for me it wasn't hot), and I attacked him in a rage. For a moment, I imagined that I was Wolverine, and I smashed his skull between my clawed fists. (That'll teach him to make a fool of me).

Shortly after, I found myself alone and in nature, returning to a scene that I feel is from a previous dream (though that could have been an illusion), where I fought a bear in the clearing of a large wood. I flew in with some personal flying device (some sort of jetpack/hang-glider thing) and was looking for myself to rescue. I saw a signal flare (and, strangely, also had the sensation of firing it off) and followed it to its source - a clearing on the bank of a stream. I recognized the place. There was a bear lying dead in the stream. At that moment, being out there in nature felt incredibly good, like as if it alone was intrinsically a feeling worth living for, and that nothing else that might get me down mattered in comparison. Then, it was getting dark, which made for some dangerous flying to get out of there. I disturbed a flock of birds on the ground to get them to fly up so I could follow their silhouettes against the sky (which was only barely lighter than the pitch black ground).

In an earlier dream, still in a school atmosphere, but not directly related to the other one, I had another encounter with a girl. I was outside, for some kind of recess or something, and the weather turned sour. She appeared out of nowhere and shared her umbrella with me. We weren't alone, but on the other hand, I was proud to be seen associating with this girl in this way. A big storm was called, and we were all brought inside and taken to the assembly hall. The girl sat down with her friends, but I was still holding onto her umbrella. With uncharacteristic confidence, I approached her to return it, hoping to engage her some more, but she just told me to keep it, and I got the feeling I was being shooed away. That's when I realized she was just the type of person who does nice things for others, but it doesn't necessarily mean anything personal. I was disappointed.

In yet another, even earlier, dream, there was [another] zombie invasion. I remember very little now, except furnishing a crawl space in an attic, accessible only by a small hole in the ceiling of a room, without any kind of ladder or anything to assist in getting up there. It was pretty cozy.

I get the feeling I had an extremely vivid dreaming night, which is not common for me (unless it happens without my notice), and I can't help wondering what, if anything, triggered it. Oh, to repeat the experience! Dreams are billions of times more fulfilling than life. Even the bad dreams, funnily enough.