My family and I are all training to use guns. We're at a firing range taking shots at targets downfield. I remember that accuracy was very important; all of us are trying to be very reliable with our weapons. Mostly, I thought we all looked silly with the big noise-damping headphones on. I never thought we'd be able to pull this off (although I never knew what "this" was; all I knew was that our training was vitally important.).

I am being followed by two children. It's all very much like this creepy movie I saw on Sci-Fi as a child with Kirstie Alley in it - I just googled it and found Village of the Damned. In all honesty, the movie is pretty stupid. There's some sort of meteor attack thing on a village, and the next day, all the village women realize they've become pregnant. They all deliver on the same day; all their children are totally evil. Anyway, back to the dream... They're dressed identically, and they're obviously tracking my movements. They're pretty good at following me, too; I'm trying to juke them off-course, and they're not biting.

I also had a strange dream based, I think, upon the opening of A Wrinkle in Time. That's what happens when you read crazy children's books before you go to bed.

I am in some sort of post-apocalyptic future. Everything looks similar to the movie 28 Days Later -- no one's on the streets, etc. I've got some sort of skateboard-looking device that I can ride faster than a person can run, and it's helped me escape from undesirables several times. I and a few other people, including Scott, are hiding out in an apartment that looks a little like Scott's, with the sliding glass door. One bad guy (they weren't exactly like 28 Days Later -- no "rage", just bad guys) has stolen my cell phone. I catch him with it in the bathroom, tackle him and pin him down in the tub, forcing him to fork it over. It is good to recover the cell phone, as we were teaching ourselves to make radio broadcasts, which hardly seems like the most useful method of 2-way communication.

I also dreamt later that I worked in a brothel. I think this was an extension of the same dream, as everything was unsafe. If you went outside, you had to sneak around. In the brothel, though, people were generally safe from the outside world. I remember only one client. He was using me to figure out if he was gay or not. He was gay.

I went to somebody's bat mitzvah. I've actually never been to a bat or bar mitzvah before, so my subconscious made it like a cross between a birthday party and prom. Also, during the ceremony before the party, I was in temple with a few friends. I've also never been in a temple before, so in my dream, it was like a Catholic church, except there were no crosses or stained glass, and it was much better lit. The person being bat mitzvah'ed had to read out of the Torah, so I got to hear what my brain thinks Hebrew sounds like.

I have no idea what made this dream happen last night, but it seems like it was a real creative step for my brain.

Edit: Courtney has pointed out that I have been to a reform temple once with her, so my brain is probably drawing from that experience.

I studied neuroscience all day yesterday. Consequently, most of my dreams revolved around the brain.

I dreamt that there was some sort of evil scientist out there doing research. I was observing him somehow. He would force his subjects to administer an electric shock to themselves. The shock looked painful, although it wasn't enough to knock anyone over when they pressed the button to receive it (All subjects were standing, all of the time). To motivate subjects to cooperate, the scientist threatened them with a much more powerful electric shock, which he could apply to them at any time. If a subject didn't administer a shock to themselves when they were ordered to, the scientist would give them a jolt capable of sending most subjects into violent seizures. Since all subjects were held in the same room, uncooperative ones were basically examples for the rest. Compliance was high with the scientist's requests, for the most part.

I also dreamt about neglect, which results from a lesion to the posterior parietal cortex. I was treating a patient with contralateral neglect; he hadn't dressed the left half of his body and described things monocularly. It was interesting.

The last dream I can recall involved some sort of high school project. For the project, each student was given a sample of marijuana. I don't know what the project entailed, but my dream picked up on the conclusion of the project, at which time each student was required to turn their pot sample back in to the teacher. Pretty much every student was coming up with ingenious ways to smuggle most of their pot sample out of the school. This was incredibly amusing. I guess it's always funny to outwit teachers when you're in high school.

1. I am in my woods at home, building a tree fort with a good male friend of mine. Mostly I'm coaching his actions from the ground, as I'm not really handy with tools and might hammer myself to a tree. In an effort to shift the entire structure a few feet in one direction, we accidentally break several branches off of the tree and boards shower to the ground. In defeat, I lay down on the ground looking up at the perfectly blue sky. My friend lays down right next to me. I normally avoid hanging around him when we are alone because we have a lot of chemistry. I'm not the cheating type, but this guy drives me dangerously close to the edge. I sincerely feel like if given a decent shot, we'd be a good couple. However, this is an impossibility right now; I'm in love with Scott and don't want to fuck that up. Furthermore, he has his own girlfriend to worry about. In a flurry of honesty, I tell him all of this. He puts his arm around me and says that he feels the same way. Pulling me close, he gives me one sweet kiss, telling me that until our timing is better and the stars align properly in our direction, we shouldn't even be near each other.

On that note, we decide to go base jumping together. With a small group, we are lifted in a helicopter to a canyon ridge. One deep breath, and I jump off of the edge. For a few blissful moments, I am hanging in midair. Then, I pull my chute and float down into an area heavily populated with saplings. The saplings are difficult to walk through without being whacked by them at every turn. Eventually, by playing a kind of Marco Polo, yelling for each other, my friend and I find each other. I am so happy to see him, but this time, I keep my distance.

2. Given Kori's mother's condition, I also had several dreams revolving around cancer and hospitals last night. I've got no detail, thankfully, though it was a less than pleasant night, as far as dreams go.

1. My friend Joe and I are walking in the woods (Joe is someone invented by my subconscious). We're some sort of gypsy people who leech off of others, a la The Riches. However, right now, we're wandering through the woods and we're getting concerned. Nothing looks familiar, and we can't find a path or anything to follow. I'm getting disoriented very quickly; everything looks the same in this area of woods. There are many animals in these woods. I see a group of monkeys about the size of house cats playing around, and I want to mess with them. As soon as I grab one, they all begin screeching and clawing at me violently. Joe and I work together to pull the attacking monkeys off me, and we have to sprint away to avoid further attack. As a result, we're now really lost. A few unnerving minutes pass, and finally we see a group of people walking through the forest. We follow at a distance, and they lead us to a clearing in the woods, in front of which is a paved road and a row of houses -- a normal city street.

We join the group of 20-odd people. They are headed to the waterfront and board a large cruise boat. We soon learn that we're going on a cruise with other students from Alaska to Vanilla (In my dream state, Vanilla was an actual place name). Joe and I find it easy to assimilate with the other students, as we're the appropriate age and have similar interests. We have no problem convincing everyone that we, too, have dropped several thousand dollars on a cruise dream vacation. I find myself very attracted to my friend, Joe, and we share some picturesque smooches on the deck of the ship (think Titanic, without the tragedy part).

When we reach the next port o' call, the people in charge announce that they're going to go through our payment vouchers individually. We'll need proof of payment, photo ID, and proof of vaccination (I'm not sure exactly what disease we were planning to catch in Alaska, but whatever). Since Joe and I have none of the above, we invent a scheme to get off of the boat. I invent a sob story about my family and have the head woman in tears. She lets Joe and I go without a hitch. We're disappointed that we have to miss out on this amazing-sounding cruise with some great fellow travelers. Joe and I resolve to have a better back story and forged papers the next time we board a cruise ship.

2. I had another dream starring my family, but I only have fragments:
- My dad lines up all of the debit cards of all my family members in a row on a table. Mine is missing, and I'm distraught. I go on a mad search for the card. It turns up eventually.
- My entire family is being towed behind a large motorboat. We're going out to some island owned by a family friend.
- This "family friend" has some sort of plot to kidnap us and force us into a life of hard labor / sex slavery. We foil the plot, of course.