1) I'm on this big trip through the mountains with everyone from the Hospitality House. We're all in a big bus and the roads are really curvy and everytime we go around a sharp curve, I keep thinking the bus is going to fall over the side. We stop at a rest stop because Jean-Marie has to pee. I get an e-mail on my phone from Don, who is waiting at our destination, asking where we are and how long until we get there. I write him back saying we should be there in a couple hours. We get back on the bus and the trip seems to be taking a lot longer than a couple hours. We finally get there, and we're in this big city and Melissa is there. We go into a bar and Melissa starts riding a mechanical bull.

1) I'm talking to this guy who sells cars, and he asks if I'll help him. We go to some kind of convention and set up a booth, but nobody stops to talk to us, so I quit.

2) Ann Williams and her husband, Jon, are in Utah for Jon's promotion ceremony. It's at the Chapel, and I walk in and see a local TV news crew doing a segment, so I'm trying really hard to stay out of the view of the camera. There's a children's choir singing and they sound really great. Later that night, I'm at home watching the news, and I see the segment.

1) I'm at a big science fair, but it's, like, in the 1800's or something because they have an old telephone here and the people are talking about how it's going to revolutionize the future.

2) I'm at the BX looking for a last minute gift for someone and picking up my dry cleaning. They're getting ready to close and the lady working there gives me attitude about being there so late.

1) I get hired at Gap as a manager, and it's my first night of closing the store. I can't remember all the stuff I'm supposed to do, so I do what I can and then drive over to another Gap to ask their manager if I did everything right.

2) I'm getting a new job as a civilian on base, and the lady I'm going to be working with is showing me around the office. We're walking around, and we go into the Chapel and I see a Chaplain and his wife that say they recognize me, but they can't remember from where. So I start listing off all the places I've been stationed and TDY and deployed, and then they say where they know me from, but it's not one of the places that I've been. But they keep insisting that's where they know me from, so I just go along with it.

1) A bunch of people from Misawa are staying at this big hotel suite on a mini-vacation. We're going out the lobby doors and I see this really attractive girl, and she asks me what my name is, so we start talking and she tells me she has a drinking problem. She comes with us and we start going to all these different festivals around the area. We're all at one festival where everyone is jumping up and down and carrying these big sticks, and Kerry tries to explain it to us. We stay out all night long, and get back to the hotel suite the next morning. Everyone checks out and goes home, but when I get home, I realize I've left some clothes at the hotel, so I have to go back.

1) I'm getting ready to leave Japan, along with Jimmy, and they don't have room for us in billeting, so we're staying at this tiny Japanese hostel. It's on the third floor of this old building, and to get up to it, we have to put a ladder together. But everytime we put the ladder together, someone comes along and takes it apart. Later, we're walking around outside and I jump in a little pond, but I don't know there's a drainage line in the bottom of the pond and I get sucked down into it and have to push myself out.

2) I'm walking around a mall and there are three guys walking a few feet behind me. They're talking really loud, and I can hear them say mean things about me. I get outside the mall and I see a big lake. As I'm walking by the lake, I see Jean-Marie hanging out in a little speed boat. I get in and we start talking. Then she gets out, so I decide to take the boat for a ride around the lake. I'm driving around, and I see a big cliff and Paul is at the top getting ready to dive off. I stop and watch him dive, then he swims over to the boat. I get in the water and start swimming. We're swimming around underwater, and I start to run out of breath, but Paul pulls me down and somehow conveys to me that he wants to know if it's possible to feel the presence of God underwater. I'm about to run out of air, so I just nod yes and start to swim up, but Paul pulls me down again and tries to ask me another question. I just start nodding and then Paul nods back and we both swim up to the surface.

3) I'm at a Gap in Vegas and I'm asking them about getting my old job back, but they tell me they're over-staffed. I start talking with everyone and then Mike, one of the managers, asks me to take some jeans back to the stock room. I take them back, and Mike meets me back there and tells me he's going to put me on the schedule anyway.

1) I'm at my old house in Morganfield, and Jeff Young is there and he's really upset. I'm trying to talk to him and find out why, but he won't tell me. So, I'm walking around the back yard, and I see Paul hidden behind some trees, so I go talk to him. He tells me everyone is really angry with him, so he's hiding out for a while.

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.