1) My parents are getting ready to throw this big party, and a couple days before, the daughter of some of my parents' friends dies in a car accident. My parents are debating on whether or not to still have the party. Then the girl's parents tell my parents to go ahead and have the party.

Sabbatical

Letter from the editor:
Due to the fact I'm in the middle of moving, thereby causing internet access which is, at best, sporadic, I'm going to put "Tripping Lucid" on a temporary hiatus. Rest assured, I'm still going to write down my dreams in a notebook, and will enter them back-dated once I have everything set up in Utah. Take care. Sweet dreams.
-cws

1) It's my last Sunday in Misawa, and even though I had told Brian I wasn't going to play piano for Chapel this week, I decide to go ahead and show up anyway. [True, this is actually happening in real life, but this is also how my dream starts out.] So, I show up to play, but there's already this lady there playing in my spot, and I get a little angry and tell her I'll go ahead and play. She gives me a dirty look and gets up. We start the service and I realize that the entire praise team has changed, and they're doing these really weird songs we've never done before. I'm doing my best to keep up, and I look over and see the lady glaring at me and smiling because she knows I'm having a hard time. We get to the last song of the service and I'm totally determined to play it really awesome. Right before we start playing, I see the lady move to another piano where the drum kit used to be. The song starts and we're both playing really loud and I'm concentrating really hard and I start sweating because I'm playing with such intensity. This goes on for a few minutes, then I glance over and the lady has gotten up from the other piano and walked away, and I'm thinking "Aha! I've won!" So I keep playing, and after a few minutes I look up and the people on the praise team are gone and I look out and nearly everyone in the congregation has left and I just feel stupid.

1) I'm at some kind of camp or deployed or something, and all the guys with me are guys from my college fraternity. We're in an outdoor assembly getting ready to hold elections, and I'm in front talking to the current President. I'm trying to convince him that it would be a good idea to get Whitney Houston to come to a party, but he's not so sure. I get really frustrated and tell him I'm not so happy with how things are going in the fraternity, and he gets mad and tells me that maybe I should run for President. But I get all nervous, because if I decide to run for President and I don't win, then I'll feel like a big time loser.

1) I'm working in my office, and I see this kid who's about 10 years old walking around our shop. I ask around to see if anyone knows whose kid it is, and somebody says they think his last name is Cortes. Then I'm thinking I don't even know anyone in our squadron named Cortes. So, I'm walking around the shop, and the kid walks right in front of me and collapses on the floor and stars convulsing. I'm freaking out because I don't know what to do. Then somebody says to just leave him there, and he'll quit. So I'm standing there because I don't want to just leave the kid on the floor, and he stops and gets up and walks away. I'm walking back toward my office, and I see Don, so I give him a big hug, and we're getting ready to go back into my office to chat and just as I start to close the door, the kid comes into my office and drops to the ground and starts convulsing again. So I tell Don that he'll stop in a minute, but then this weird white stuff starts spewing out of his eye, like crazy string or something. So I get up to see if I can get help, and everyone else in the shop starts staring at this poor kid on the floor of my office.

1) My family and I are walking around a big grocery store, and I see this plate of food for sale that looks really good, so I decide I'm gong to buy it for my Mom. We're still walking around the store, and I have this plate in my hand, and I'm worried about it getting cold, so I ask my Mom if she just wants to eat it now, and she just stares at my blankly. My brother starts teasing me.

2) I'm in my shop, and I decide I'm going to shave my head. So I get a can of shaving cream, and I put it all over my hair, and start in with a razor. But my hair is too long, and it just ends up looking patchy and I start to lose my patience. Then I pull out a pair of scissors to cut my hair to make it short enough to shave, and I look up and it's almost 4:30, but I don't want to leave work with my hair all jacked up, so I start cutting faster.

1) I get tickets to a crappy awards show because I think it might be fun and I might end up seeing some minior celebrities there. I get to my seat, and I'm sitting right next to Tom Hanks. He's sitting with two little girls, which I assume are his daughters. He says he decided to attend this awards show because he thought the Oscars were over-rated. They also have a buffet, so Tom gets up to go eat, and I think I'll wait a while, but then I decide to go anyway. I'm walking through the line, and everything looks really disgusting, so I keep walking thinking I'll eventually find something I like. But then I get to the desserts, so I just decide I'll eat a few desserts to hold me over until I can get some real sustenance. I'm wandering around with my plate and I walk through this doorway into someone's living room, and I see this lady and her daughter watching Good Morning America and there's some lady on there singing. When she finishes, they say that Courtney Love is going to be performing on Friday, and I'm all excited. Then there's an advertisement for a Courtney Love action figure.

1) Julia Roberts and I are going to this big movie theatre and we're not sure what we want to see, so we figure we'll decide when we get there and see what's playing and at what time. It's snowing really bad outside, and when we're pulling into a parking space, we hit the curb really hard because we can't see it because of the snow. We get inside the theatre and we're looking around for what movies are playing, but they're not listed anywhere, and all the people working behind the counter are too busy to talk to us. Then, this guy who works in the computer section of my squadron comes up behind us with two big potted plants in his hands, and he starts hitting us with them.

1) We're all in Vegas, and we decide to go to San Diego for the weekend (and, for some reason, we take our snowboards). We stop at a Nautica store and we're looking around, and Paul sees this spectacular leather jacket, and I'm desperately trying to convince him to buy it because it looks really good on him. I'm kinda disappointed because I can't find anything I really like.

2) I'm in some kind of college dormitory, and I go into this one room and all these girls are in there practicing witchcraft. They tell me I have amazing energy flowing out of me and get me to stand in a certain spot. They start waving their arms around me, and all of these cats come out of nowhere and start crawling all up and down my whole body. I'm kinda weirded out, but the girls keep telling me everything is okay, so I believe them. Then the cats jump off, and run away. The girls are all amazed and tell me I have a special spiritual bond with cats and that we'll always be connected. And I say, "Well, that totally stinks because I'm allergic to cats and now I'm going to be sneezing for a week." They look disappointed, and I leave the room.

1) I'm on a train helping these little kids get across the country to raise money for their orphanage. We get to some big park and we're playing kickball, when suddenly, the whole park floods. I'm swimming around trying to find all these children, and I look up and see this big, huge ship coming by. I try to grab on to the side, and I see Celine Dion, and she's reaching out trying to save me.

1) I'm in the States and I somehow end up meeting Heather Armstrong (aka dooce). I have a dog and it's playing with her dog and we end up talking about our lives and stuff. She offers me a ride, so I get in her car, and she hands me her cell phone, but I can't work it because I'm used to Japanese cell phones. We end up going to a big mall where all the guys from my squadron that deployed last October are hanging out because they came back to the States on their way to help with tsunami relief. We've been told to stay away from the plane, but I see other people getting up close to it and taking pictures of it.

1) I'm getting ready to go into a Polo store with Jay and Mike, and they start teasing me about how much money I spend shopping for clothes. So I'm determined not to spend any money in the store. But once we go in, there's a big sale, so I decide to just buy some underwear, but then I see these really cool t-shirts, so I'm going through them, but I can't find my size.

1) I'm in some kind of assembly hall with a bunch of college students. We're all working on this big project for a fair or something. This one annoying guy keeps bothering me and throwing a big rubber ball at me and quoting "Napoleon Dynamite." This other guy is trying to have sex with a girl, but every time they try, a chaperone shows up. Billy Bob Thornton is there, too.

1) I'm riding along with my Mom and my cousin, Elizabeth, and we see an old, abandoned house on the side of the road. We stop and we're looking around, and the house starts creeking and stuff, like it's going to collapse. We walk around to the side, and we see the back of the house is right on the edge of a steep hill. We go down the hill and explore a litte bit. Then the hill starts to slide down, so we run back up to get out of the way. The back of the house starts to fall in on itself, and the rest of the house is close behind.

2) I'm singing in a Christmas program at the Chapel, and Chaplain Rosenthal is leading the music. I'm handing out the sheet music to everyone in the choir, and there are extra copies, so the Chaplain says to give the extra copies out to the congregation, but I'm kinda nervous because these are the same copies we used in rehearsals and some of the people have written crude things in them. So I warn the people in the Chapel that there may be things hand written in the music that could be PG-13, or worse.

1) I'm hanging out with my Dad and my brother, and suddenly, Superman comes along and takes us to the top of the arch in St. Louis. I'm really nervous because we're on top of the arch, and a stiff breeze could come along and blow us off any minute. Then, Superman takes us to the top of the Washington Monument, and starts telling us all these facts about Washington, DC, and how the United States is so great and stuff.

2) I'm helping with some kind of construction project in some kind of third world country. I'm in the middle of mixing a big batch of concrete, and there are all these ladies there standing around watching me because they don't want to get dirty.

1) I'm in Morganfield at the home of Randy Hutchison, a friend of my Dad's, and he's showing me around his house and all the remodelling he's done. He's also telling me about his company truck and how he's only allowed to drive so many miles per month. He's nervous because he's getting ready to go over on his mileage, and if he does, he has to pay the company a lot of money.