Dream Journal

Context: Chip has been in various rock bands since college.

I woke up directly from this dream, with no snoozing of my alarm.

Much earlier in the night, I descended into a favorite dream location — a neighborhood made up of square and rectangle properties, with a large lake fitting into a rectangle on one side. I’ve been here a lot.

At some point I’m contacted by Sarah, who, laughing, shows me what her helper has been spending her time creating for her — a tumbleweed made out of tofu, I believe. She mentally flashes me a picture of it. I laugh and wonder at the time required to make such a thing. I joke that they should put a speaker in it advertising her shop and let it roll through the town. She invites us (Rebecca & I) to visit.

So from there I go to visit Sarah’s new restaurant. It’s on the ground floor of a skyscraper. I wonder what’s above, then know that it’s floor after floor of apartments. I peer through the ceiling to see the hallways of doors. I can’t quite figure out her restaurant. In the entryway are two little storefronts, but I don’t see the stores beyond.

Sarah’s helper is there. She’s a woman with brown hair. She shows me the tofu tumbleweed and I marvel at the detail in each branch. We’re thinking about getting dinner, and Sarah asks us if we want to crawl (bar crawl). Now as she says it, she gets to the “craw…” part and I think she’s going to suggest “crawdads” and in that moment react in disgust but then get the “L” and realize her meaning. I joke with her what I thought she was about to say.

We begin the bar crawl, but I have the impression that it’s the middle of the week so most places are closed (actually it’s Friday night). This is because the last time we did this it was the middle of the week. We walk through a sunken plaza and pass a bunch of closed places before finding one that’s open. We pay the somewhat large cover charge of $35. As we walk in, the bouncer rapidly pokes me in the butt with his pen. I’m offended but we head to our seats in the mostly empty bar. I then go to the restaurant office where three guys are lazily lounging about and yell at them.

In another scene, I go to a college.. I’m hanging out with Chip on a bed in what feels like a hallway. I’m going into his thoughts about bands and concerts. I see images from past band experiences. Then he shows me this kind of art piece that had a special name. It was a long scene of people dancing from when one of his bands began. The view started in the center, and as I looked to the left and right, it continued in that direction like a wide panorama. It was in motion, in a little loop. People were dancing. It was artistically styled, mostly in black and white, but with some shades. There were exaggerated drawings of a few people in the back — probably the band members.

After sharing in his memories and thoughts, I pull back to the bed we’re on. I notice music is playing. They’re my songs! He’s listening to songs I’ve written, but much better versions. The first was one of me playing guitar and singing. One of them is a much improved version of “Night Song” — an experimental song I made with cricket sounds.

We seem more in a bedroom now, and I’m looking through Chip’s cabinets and closets. It’s dim morning light. They’re filled with stuff I love — beautiful art, graphic novels, board games. One in particular catches my eye. It’s a tall black box, and it has some of my favorite characters on it (Illyana, maybe?). I ask if I can look inside? He says yes, and inside are many other graphic novels and such. I go into a raised area through the wall behind the cabinets and to the right is a closet door. I open it to see his games collection — lots I recognized at the time, including some of my favorites. They looked like board games.

At some point I went to explore around the college some more. It was full of people. I entered a room with tables around which sat students. I passed a table where a cute girl caught my eye. I kept going into the next room where I saw a group doing some kind of Final Fantasy wizard cosplay with puppets dancing in the center. I felt like I was intruding, so I exited back into the room with the tables. Someone tells me the girl I was looking at liked me and has been wishing me well for 10-11 years. I see an image of this being written in her personal book.

I’m back in a hallway bedroom. Some of my old college friends begin to arrive, though they’re not familiar to my waking self. One reminds me of Rafe. I give each a huge bear hug.

There’s a new version of a well-known game, and I go through the wall of the room into it. I’m at the shore of a lake. Behind me is the wall and the pathway back to the room. I go out into the greenish water along some logs. There’s a log floating next to where I’m standing but I recognize it. It’s a wood dragon! I jump onto it and it rolls over, revealing its more dragon-like aspects. I get down into riding position, and it floats deeper into the water. I try to ride it forward but it refuses to go into the darker green water. I turn it around and we return to the shore, where it becomes a wooden boat in the rough shape of a dragon.

At the edge of the lake is a market with lots of stalls in fantasy style. Something is attacking! It’s this small rock creature that I recognize, made of a few rolling rocks. I know the strategy. When one part separates to attack, I need to hit it with a blunt weapon, then hit it with an arrow. I fail at first, then succeed. When I knock out a piece, it seems to evolve and get bigger. The fight takes us into the market. Now the creature has grown into a robot with a head like Shockwave’s. I’m able to defeat it by knocking the head piece off and hitting it with an arrow. It lands on one of the market tables and I open the glass panel and take the glowing orange eye.

References: Shockwave is a transformer.