A strange kid in a devils suit

I am not so much a participant in this dream as I am an observer. I can interact with the people in the dream but I spend most of my time looking down on things. My father is taking care of some strange man who is dying. The dying man is over a hundred years old and for some reason I think he is my paternal grandfather. However, Pa died in 1972. There is this feeling that he really did not die but had been alive all this time. I was afraid to visit the dying man. My aunt told me that he was 120 years old and that he was nothing more than a skeleton. I find myself witnessing little scenes from my fathers past that reveal more about this strange dying man. As it turns out, the dying man is my father's real father. My grandmother and aunt turn out to be nuns that worked at the orphanage where my father lived as a child. The last time my father had seen his real Dad was when he was dropped off at the orphanage. The was this image of the real Dad driving away in an old car with a kid that had on a devil's outfit. All of this new information about my family left me feeling strange and wondering if I was really the son of my father. The last thought I had was, "no wonder he liked my brother better...I am not his son."

Russian Espionage

The cold war is still going on. I'm on a mission with Dan in the heart of the USSR. We've detected a few Afghanis travelling across a ridge. Our position is down from them and we know we have not been detected by any Soviet soldiers. We also know, however, that there are some Soviet soldiers on the other side of the ridge. Our immediate mission is to take out the Afghani soldiers. It's not clear why we are interested in helping out the Soviets here. We take down the Afghani soldiers, but our actions alert the Soviet soldiers to our whereabouts. We duck down in the grass and slowly move out of view, hoping the Soviet soldiers don't detect us. Dan mentions that we could throw a grenade over there and take out the bunch of them, but I'm not interested in creating an international incident and would prefer to sneak away. Unfortunately, the Soviets have the same idea as Dan and toss over what appears to be a canister of gasoline. It is definitely an explosive device meant to rain fire down on us. My first instinct is to run over and grab the bomb so I can throw it back. Dan urges me to start running away from it. We're not sure how long the thing will take to detonate. Dan and I both go running for cover. We run for awhile and then jump into a little ditch. After a few seconds we decide we should run farther if we can, maybe find some trees to cover us from the impending rain of fire. The bomb takes a decent amount of time to detonate. I pull out my scope to see if I can't target any of the Soviets who threw the bomb. I have a little bit of trouble getting the thing working and then Dan tells me to look away from the explosion. Just as I do, the bomb goes off. The ground is hot immediately and there is a blinding light. Fortunately I had averted my eyes. Soon we start to feel a hot rain fall on us. I move under some foliage to protect myself. After awhile the rain is over.

Just as Dan and I are preparing to continue with our mission, a native tribe (African it appears) pushes through the foliage and takes us prisoner...sort of. They seem like a friendly group. We enter a cave like structure with them and they tell us to light the wolf and head on down the tunnel. Lighting the wolf apparently involves lighting a wolf's nose (there is a wick coming out of it). Dan has no problem lighting his wolf and carrying it off with him. I pull out a lighter and have trouble getting it to light. When I finally get it to light I put it near the wolf's nose and light the wick. When I try to pick up the wolf, he runs under a car. When I get him out I notice that the flame is out. So I have to go through the whole procedure of lighting his nose over again. When I finally get it lit he sort of has a glow all over him. I pick him up and walk down the tunnel. I think the natives are going to set us up with some sort of sleeping quarters, but that's where the dream ends.

Military Operation

I am standing on board what appears to be an Aircraft Carrier. I can't be sure because I am on the inside. I think I am a visitor or something. Sort of like a spend a day in the life of the military or something. Anyway, the Admiral has assigned me to a mission. The mission involves flying a light aircraft over Russian area and deploying two unmanned aircraft (one is a little prop plane and the other is a helicopter). The deployment will take place through a trapdoor in the airplane and I am the one in charge of this. We are gearing up for the operation and among my gear is a machine gun, a pistol, and water flippers. I question the last item because I have no intention of doing any swimming during this mission. The Admiral assures me it is merely a precaution since the deployment will be taking place over a river. So the mission is simple: fly into Russian airspace, deploy two unmanned aircraft, and fly back to base.

When I get aboard the airplane, I feel a bit uneasy. Only the cockpit is enclosed and the remainder of the plane is outside (with railings). The trapdoor part is outside. When they said light aircraft they weren't kidding. There are two others with me on the mission: the pilot and what I can only assume is a navigator. The navigator explains to me how I deploy the unmanned aircrafts. The prop plane has a handle that is depressed and pulled which starts the aircraft. Once it has started I simply drop the plane through the trapdoor. The helicopter is a bit more complex. It requires me self-starting the blades by spinning them at a specific rate (three revolutions per second if I recall correctly). Now that I am fully briefed on the operation we begin the takeoff sequence.

The flight is very windy as one would expect. I try to spend most of the time in the enclosed cockpit. Soon we arrive over the target zone. I am busy prepping the unmanned aircraft when trouble come from the cockpit. Aparently one of the engines is having trouble and there is no way we'll be able to make it back without crashing. The pilot and navigator decide we need to ditch the plane in the water and abandon the aircraft. I'm hardly prepared to deal with this situation, but there is no other option. The pilot lands the plane in the water and we swim to the shore. So there we are in enemy territory. It doesn't take long for the Russians to locate us. A Russian helicopter emerges from behind some mountains and starts surveying the area. The navigator and I duck close to some rocks and hope we will go undetected. While we're down there we discuss the plan of action. His suggestion is that we split up and head north about 80 miles to the border of Peru (we apparently are in South America, not Russia). Once we hit the neutral nation of Peru we will be safe. I'm not very happy to be going it alone, but I agree.

The helicopter has turned our way and we make a dash for it. I turn towards the river and head back over to where our plane went down. Next to the downed plane is a small sailboat meant for a single occuant. I climb in the boat and start sailing down the river. My recollection of the geography during the briefing is that this river moves north and should take me where I need to go. There is a blanket on the boat and I use it to cover up, fearing that peole will see my machine gun and the American flag logo on my fatigues. I sail pretty quickly down the river and things seem to be going well. After awhile I see a Russian attack boat ahead. I'm very nervous about passing by them and with good reason. They detect that I don't belong there and uncover my machine gun. I try to fire at them but my machine gun doesn't respond. Of course...I had neglected to take off the safety. I am taken to a secret prison where I get put in a rather small cell. The leader of the Russian prison informs me that I will tell him about my mission. I do not divulge anything and he closes me up into a smaller section of the cell. Then he opens a skylight and asks how well I do in intense heat. I'm feeling rather claustrophobic in the cell, but I don't lead on about it. The last thing I need is him exploiting my fear further. As I lay there I remember that I have my cell phone with me. I suspect there will be no signal because they couldn't be that stupid to leave me with a means of communication. What luck though! A signal! I send a text message to Lo Li telling her of my plight and to let the military know what has happened. The text message goes through. Somehow I am able to escape the cell...through the skylight perhaps? I retrieve my machine gun and pistol and exit the prison. To my dismay the prison is very close to my original crash site. I decide this time I will stick to the land. According to some source, I'm not sure what, I find out that there are only 23 Russian police guarding the terrain between my current location and the border. I figure my odds are decent to avoid them.

Meanwhile, my message to Lo Li was received and my family arrives at the Aircraft Carrier to find out what's become of me. The other two members of the crew had managed to make it to the safe zone and were being debriefed on the carrier. The last message received by Lo Li had indicated that I was being held prisoner. Both the pilot and navigator were interested in going in to retrieve me. Of course, such an operation would be difficult.

I found a northern facing road and began to travel down it. I was careful to avoid actually walking on the road for fear of running into a roadblock, so I travelled off to the right of the road. After awhile I encountered some people. I took cover and looked to see who they were. One of them was a Russian police officer. I switched off the safety on my machine gun and attempted to carefully sneak by. Unfortunately I was spotted. I took aim and fired my machine gun at the officer. He was still a decent distance away so it took quite a few shots to adequately compensate for the wind and gravity. Unfortunately that meant the expentiture of my entire clip. I threw down my machine gun and pulled out my handgun, removing the safety as I did so. The fact that I was fairly low on ammo made me push forward with greater speed and urgency. I needed to make it to the border quickly. Two more Russian police officers began pursuit. I hoped to outrun them and avoid a confrontation, but that soon seemed unlikely. As I went up some stairs I decided this vantage would be a prime spot for an ambush. I aimed my gun and began to fire rounds into the pursuing officers. I hit my marks and was once again free to push forward. I believe in the end I was successful in making it to the Peruvian border. I recall messaging Lo Li with an update as to my progress.

LAN Party

I'm lounging about on the couch and give Mike a call. He says he's interested in doing some computer gaming and that he's going over to Michael Barrett's house. I tell him fine and relax back on the couch. I haven't yet taken a shower or anything. Then I get a call from Dan. He's on his way over for the gaming. I'm confused because I thought we were gaming at Michael Barrett's house (even though I have the better LAN setup). I'm concerned because my place is a total wreck. I don't like having people over when things are disorderly. Now Dan is telling me he's on his way...not only that but he's nearby. When Dan gets there I tell him I'm going to take a shower and he should just wait there and ignore the wreck my place is in. I close and lock the door that has all my computers in it and walk into the bathroom for my shower. While I'm preparing for my shower, I am sure that he is going to try to get into the computer room to start setting things up. I'd like some privacy, though. I can hear him attempting to pick the lock. I finish with my shower and Jason, Mike, Michael Barrett, Nick, Reuben, and Robbie are there. We start to get things set up. Dan is trying to use my work laptop. I tell him there's no way that machine can handle to the games and he should use another one. I start to load up some game that takes awhile to load. Everyone else is setting up as well. Then we start playing a game of poker. Reuben, Mike, Robbie, and Jason are involved in the game. Suddenly I wonder what has happened to Michael Barrett. I check the other room and Michael Barrett and Nick are playing a game on my dad's computer. I ask what they're doing out there and they show me the game they're playing. They had downloaded it. I recognize the game and tell them that that computer already has the full version fo the game loaded on it. They didn't need to download anything.

Later on Reuben, Robbie, Michael Barrett, and myself are in the gaming room. I start to tell Reuben some secret stuff. Before I do that, I ask Michael Barrett to leave. I close the door and start talking. Reuben thinks that Michael Barrett should be asked if he's willing to keep the secret too, so he can listen and not be exluded. I invite Michael Barrett back into the room and he agrees to keep the secret. Then Robbie stands up and says he doesn't want to hear what I have to say because he's not sure he can keep it. So he leaves. I tell whatever it was I was going to tell Reuben. I wish I could remember what it was. Weird that throughout the whole dream we never play any computer games.

LSAT

It's time to take the LSAT. Unfortunately, I had forgotten about the test until the day arrived. So I'm comletely unprepared. The test is being administered by Mrs. Wright (an old English teacher from High School). I walk into the class with Reuben and notice that people have already started. They certainly didn't waste any time. I get my test materials and start going through. The first part of the test is writing an essay. I get to choose from two different topics and make some argument for or against. Apparently the test book is set up weirdly in that there are multiple types of tests in the same book. I'm on the wrong page, but the person next to me is nice enough to point that out. We talk a bit about the test which is odd because usually the teacher doesn't like talking during a test. I start to write the essay, but either the conversation I'm having or the environment in general is distracting. Before I know it, the teacher is saying I've got 2 minutes left to finish the essay. I've not even finished the opening paragraph. I scramble to finish, but there's just no way. I walk up to the teacher's desk and ask how much the essay is worth and if I can still do good without it. She is somewhat non-commital in her answer, but the general concensus is that I can do okay. I start to do the other sections, but my mind is now elsewhere. I go up to the teacher again and just tell her to cancel my scores.

Huffington Seminar

I'm at a seminar hosted by Arianna Huffington. I'm not exactly sure what she's presenting, but it's a fairly crowded house. There are two guys who seem very interested in the seminar and have coments to present. I find them rather arrogant and they've apparently been to some of Arianna's previous seminars. Arianna starts playing some music and they make the comment something to the effect of "this isn't that music by so and so is it?" Arianna is a bit flustered by these guys, but doesn't let it show. I walk over during a break and have a little conversation with her about them. She and I are pretty much in agreement that they are jerks. After the break, I take a seat near the guys. We are sitting on the floor. Gordon walks in and takes a seat near them, too. One of the guys makes some comment to Gordon. It's not a very nice comment, but Gordon doesn't respond. After awhile, the same guy who commented to Gordon puts his feet on me. I push them away and tell him to stop, but he puts them back. At this point I get up and tell the guy to stop being such a jerk. He stands up, too. I tell him to take a seat. He dares me to say that again. I don't recall saying it again, but we start fighting anyway. I find in my dreams I'm horrible at fighting. I have a very defeatest attitude and all my punches feel like I'm hitting the guy with a nerf bat or something. I'm wearing steel toed boots, but that doesn't come into play. At least not that I know of. The fight just sort of fades out. I think the assumption is that I lost, but I don't feel bad because I stood up for what I believed.

Office Friend?

I'm working at InterContinental Hotels Group one day and I'm out on a break or something. I get on the elevator to go to the lobby and I start having a conversation with a guy on the elevator. He's someone I vaguely recognize from Worldspan, but I'm not quite able to place him. I'm not sure what we were talking about, but it was an interseting conversation. I continue to talk with him after we reach the lobby and we end up walking over to another elevator and getting in. I notice that this elevator doesn't go up to the 24th floor, but stops at the 8th floor. I tell the guy I'm talking with that I'll just go up with him and then head back down. We continue talking and when we reach his floor he asks if I'm going to the meeting with him. I find that somewhat odd, but I say that I'm just going to go back down. Later that day I get an email from the guy. He basically asks if he had fun today following him around and that I can't do that anymore. He says he works for Hilton and it's just not appropriate to be going around with me. I'm offended by the email because I had no intention of following him to whatever meeting he was going to. I was just enjoying the conversation. I send him back a note saying basically that. I write the whole thing off and prepare to leave for the day. On my way out, I see the guy. I ignore him and start heading out to my car. As I'm going out, another guy yells out to me that he wants to play some racquetball sometime soon and he wonders if I'll join him. I say sure. At that point, the guy I was talking to in the elevator comes over and appologizes. Apparently the fact that I'm doing something with someone else doesn't make me a desperate fool looking for a single friend. That makes it okay for us to be friends. I say okay, but the whole thing leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

Backyard Camping

I'm in the backyard camping with my brother (I don't actually have a brother). We're around 10 years old, though I'm the younger brother. My brother decides we should sneak into the house. I follow his lead and we sneak into the house. The house is actually my grandmother's, though the door leads into the den where there never was a door. I take off my boots and follow my brother down the hall towards the kitchen. There is some intense security in the kitchen. Two motion sensored guns attach to the ceiling, and there seem to be other sensors around, too. We are only concerned about the guns, though. We duck behind the counter and try to stay out of the view of the guns. I try to sample how much reaction time the guns have by throwing stuff out in the open. The gun closest fires at the object, but the kickback from the blasts make for unpredictable fire in other directions. We are almost hit be some of the random fire. I pull out a dishcloth in order to cover the sensor of the gun with it. After trying to distract the gun and place the dishcloth over it a few times, I finally succeed. We're both pretty shaken up by the gun experience. Now, my brother says he wanted to break some stuff because our father hadn't been paying enough attention to him lately. Now, though, he's changed his mind and just wants to get out of the house. He gets no argument from me. At this point I have some concern that our conversation may be being recorded by one of the other sensors. I make some outrageous comment that might confuse the recorder if it is. We head back down the hall and into the den. I put my boots back on, but my brother tells me I'm making too much noise. He fears our father will wake up. I hear some noise coming from across the hall (my grandmother's old bedroom, now occupied by my father). We run out of the house and jump into our sleeping bags. I realize I'm still wearing my coat, so I try to cover that fact up when my father yells out to us to see if we're okay. We say that we're fine and let out a sigh of relief.

The next morning I'm watching TV and there's a news report about a break-in at my place. They play some audio clip from the break-in and it's my brother's voice and mine. I'm very worried about this thing and I run to get my brother and show him. The clip doesn't say anything incriminatory against us, but we are concerned that there might be more. At dinner that night, the break-in is the height of the conversation. My brother eventually can't handle it anymore and confesses that he's the one who broke in. Not only that, he points to me and says I was with him. For some reason, we both know that our niece Maeby (clearly an Arrested Development reference) was in on the break-in, too, but I decide not to incriminate her as well. We both seem on the same page in that. Our father is most displeased with this and puts us both in the attic to think about what we've done. He calls the police and lets them know what he's found out and to stop the investigation. We're up in the attic and I ask my brother if he'd like to play a game while we're up here. We're both kind of reluctant, though, because we're up here for punishment and it would be bad if our father walked up while we were playing games. Our father eventually comes up and lectures us about the break-in. I think somewhere in this lecture, my dad realizes that he's been neglecting my brother and he lets us know that he'll spend more time with us.