Test Time

Four dream nights in a row, weee!

This dream started out with me playing laser tag at the old Q-Zar arena (where I used to work) in Pleasanton. The arena was similar to the real one, but the rest of the building was different. The equipment we were using was Laser Quest stuff though, not Q-Zar (clearly that's important). About 3/4 through the game my laser stopped working. I tried to get help from the employee, but they couldn't figure out what was wrong; I knew I had lost my 1st place ranking because of it.

During the game, Ben F. told me that we had a test afterward. Apparently I had been away from home during the time when we were told about this test so I hadn't prepared for it at all or even known about it. It was going to be a standardized test, like the SATs except it was going to test "science" (whatever that means), and was to be held that same day.

We could bring notes to the test, so I asked Ben if I could make a copy of this pamphlet that he had with all sorts of equations on it. He said ok, so I took it to the front desk at the laser tag place but the man said their copy machine was busy copying something more important and wouldn't be done in time. Fabulous. I was hoping they would hand out an equation sheet during the test so that I would have something.

I remember standing outside a school building with some kids I knew, waiting to go in and take the test. Carissa and Jolene were there; everyone was very nervous. We got in and sat at assigned desks in a small, bright room. The desks were very close together and I was afraid the proctors would think I was cheating since I didn't prepare for the test at all.

We had about 1/2 hour before the test started, so I went to the bathroom. I went with Adele and since the girls' bathroom was only one stall, I let her go. I went into the boys bathroom instead (which I assumed would be one stall also), but it wasn't and there were other boys in there. I used the bathroom but was too embarrassed to stay and wash my hands so I went back into the girls' bathroom to wash my hands. I found there were three stalls when I went back in.

I went back into the testing room and the desks had been moved to be a bit further apart. My friend Melissa and her brother Seth were somewhere in the room too, but I couldn't see them from where I sat. I asked someone if this was the kind of test you could take again if you didn't do well, but they said no. We only had one chance. I was just hoping that I would do well since I'm good at "science" and can figure stuff out relatively well.

Overboard

It's been three nights in a row now where I've woken up in the morning in the middle of (or toward the end of) gnarly dreams. I wonder what makes a dream cycle act up?

This dream started on some sort of fishing ship; it was large and passing through a narrow canal (maybe 10x the width of the ship). There was some guy on board that insisted on hitting on me repeatedly and I was not happy to find that something had gone wrong and I needed to gear up and jump into the water with him.

I'm not sure what was wrong, it may have been something about a killer whale in the water? I don't know what we were supposed to do, but we got our wet suits on and went to the bottom deck of the ship which was right at water level and was open to the outside via a passage through the entire width of the ship. Just as we were getting ready, something happened to the ship and it jerked forward in one huge movement.

I had been putting my hair up and all my hair ties had fallen into the water along with myself and the man. We were now in the water and I was trying to find my hair ties for some reason...as though that were possible. I also realized later that my camera had fallen into the water during this accident and that my brand new camera had been lost! I was upset and intent on diving down all over the canal to find it.

After some time swimming/moving up and down the canal, I found myself with a few other people walking along a trickling, forested stream. My cousin Adele was one of the people but I'm not sure who the others were. We were searching for something but I don't remember what. We were traversing the stream over many obstacles; there were animals of all sorts disguised all along the banks and in the water that would hurt us if/when we disturbed them. There were huge eel-snakes that would whip you with their bodies, some sort of hyena that would bite you, and gigantic slug-looking things that would hurt you in some way if you stepped on them, which was almost impossible to avoid.

We had many dealings with these threats and were being continually accosted as we passed. I remember at one point someone in the party was being attacked by one animal or another and Adele was watching them a few feet away from me. As she watched, she stepped into one of those giant floor slugs and it started to freak out and flail all over the place trying to injure her. She wasn't paying attention so I called to her to move off the animal, but she didn't seem to hear me. I called her name again and again but she never heard me.

Party at Todd's

In this dream Kane and I were staying the night at Todd's house, this guy I knew from 7th and 8th grade. We had driven up from San Luis Obispo and had stayed one night and were now packing up to go home. I had packed my suitcase and folded up our tent (why? no idea) but the whole time Todd and his family were trying to convince us to stay for one more night. It was a holiday weekend and we didn't really have to be back home until tomorrow.

We had decided to leave when people started trickling into their home; it was a party! Suddenly it was actually Scott R's house (another kid from middle/high school days) and all the people were from Highland/Brett Harte/Hayward High. I actually knew quite a few people, but mostly in a "I remember them from 2nd grade" sort of way rather than actually knowing them.

Kane was playing console video games with some guy on a couch and said we could stay if I wanted to talk to some of these folks and hang out tonight. I said ok.

Alicia was there, and I was so thankful to actually know someone for real. After hanging out with Scott R for a while, I went over to talk to Alicia. She was talking to a couple other girls I didn't know and I stood with them for a minute but they were deep in conversation. I felt like a 3rd (or 4th) wheel so wandered off. I realized that even though I remembered a lot of the people, they didn't really seem to remember me or at least they weren't talking to me. It was awkward.

I noticed that people were dividing into groups in one part of the room so I went over to see what was going on. It was a scavenger hunt; I was assigned to "Group 3" immediately. I thought it would be fun but it turned out that we were looking for really stupid things and couldn't find a single one of them. The only things on the list I remember were: a girl in a swim suit, a garage full of duffel bags, and a "real" lamp.

I thought I came close to finding a "real" lamp when I stumbled upon an antique collection in one of the rooms; I was thinking we were looking for an oil lamp, though I wasn't sure. But there wasn't one, so I remained disappointed with the game.

Later we drove over to laser tag with everyone, but the facility had completely changed and was now super quiet inside. No music, no video games, and the employees briefed the players in the lobby before the game so everyone had to keep really quiet so people could hear. It was odd.

Employment

I had a dream that I had a job. How sad is that. I worked in an office and I didn't know any of the people there. It was a standard office, like you see in the movies, in a high rise building with cubicles all around the floor we occupied. I did not know what the company did, nor did I know what my job exactly was.

I had been there for some time and was beginning to think it was odd that no one had trained me or assigned me any tasks. I just sort of walked around all day talking to people and being introduced to new people. I was so excited to look in my purse (I carried one like my sister's purse; a real girlie purse) and find all these pay checks. I had 3 or 4 paychecks, each for about $1700 that I had not yet cashed. I was so excited!

I didn't realize they'd been paying me all this time; I didn't even know what my job was for heaven's sake! It was awesome! I also had some other checks in there from other stuff; I was carrying around like $5000 in checks! I was so excited because I had just bought a camera lens and flash (which I did in real life) and now I had a valid reason to be spending that money...I had actually earned some!

Ok, so this is like the saddest dream ever. I dream of being productive (in a manner of speaking) and of making money. Apparently, I do need a job.