Dream Journal

Context: I was a soccer coach at this time and the next day at soccer practice was picture day. Also, that morning in Hogwarts Legacy, I had started a race, messed up, and wanted to cancel it, but the game wouldn't let me - I had to complete it or turn the system off.

This was a crazy long and intense dream. The first thing I remember is leaving this big school building to go meet the soccer team for picture day. I found them across the field by the street. They were supposed to be wearing their dark blue jerseys and half were but a bunch were wearing light blue and a few were wearing white. I looked down at myself and I was wearing light blue. Damn!

I told them to wait by the corner up ahead while I went home and got my dark blue jersey. Jamie came with me. As I went, I thought about how this usually takes 10 minutes and I probably shouldn’t. But it wasn’t long before I was home and got the right shirt. I think I must have been fast-traveling. When I returned to the area where I last saw the team, I saw no sign of them. This began a long search as I went up the road along the school fields for a while, then crossed the street into a big park with lots of fields they could have gone to, and then continued on to what seemed like a Vietnamese part of town. I thought it unlikely that they’d gone here, so I turned around and re-searched the parks — no luck. So I returned to the Vietnamese part of town, which was a tight corridor packed with little shops on either side. No sign of them. Jamie and I walked for several blocks through it, but we didn’t see them. A block past, I was getting really upset and worried, imagining the news reports of the coach who had lost his team.

But then I heard Rebecca’s voice, calling out my name. I followed it back to the Vietnamese area. She was saying she’d found them. I couldn’t locate her, but I did finally find the team! They were on the outside of the corridor of shops, wearing aprons and cleaning while eating some sort of gooey snacks. I assumed the restaurant owner had said they could have some if they’d helped clean the place. I gathered them and told them it was time for pickup. It was getting dark and they needed to be back at the drop-off point. However, they all quickly ran off, to my consternation. Jamie and I followed, but they were soon out of my view. A little ways ahead, we saw a train stop and decided we’d get to the drop-off point quicker if we took the train, which seemed to be heading that way.

We got in a small two-person train car. As it started moving, it seemed to be enclosed in a structure like a large parking garage. I noticed the tracks were more like a roller coaster, and indeed, it turned out to be a low-key, slow-moving roller coaster. In fact it was more like a ride, taking us through different rooms, some which seemed abandoned, out of use. It spiraled slowly upwards and into more rooms and then out along a busy street in the middle of a full city that was not where we came from.

Everything looked painted, airbrushed — very realistic and detailed but not quite real. The ride was taking too long and I was feeling anxious for it to be over so I could get back to finding the team. Jamie and I decided to get off the train car and look for the way back. I tried to discern which direction we could go by trying to see the 100% real-looking scenery past the airbrushed scenery. And while I got glimpses of it in the distance, it seemed to shift back and forth and I couldn’t be sure what direction to go. I went into a little restaurant and asked someone how to get out. He said I just had to stay on the ride until it was finished. I asked someone else, and got a similar answer. I was starting to think maybe we should have just stayed on the ride but it was too late for that. I’m not sure what happened next.

Of note: this huge dream recall comes the night after a) stopping daily caffeine, and b) having no late-night snacks. I also felt more rested and awake upon getting up this morning.