Dream•sync

long title I realize... sums up what I've been dreaming pretty well. Just as a heads up - this first one gets a little gory. I try not to really lay out all the bloody details, but they are bloody as it's a warfare dream. Feel free to skip it if you'd prefer. I won't be offended. Blogging them is cathartic - it helps me put them away and focus on real life :) Two nights ago:

I'm on what appears to be a very small oil rig - it's on stilts, and has at least two levels. It's made out of wood - and wood that looks like it's been exposed to the elements for a very long time. The wood appears soft and rotten in places and the boards give when I walk over them. Every available inch of wood is covered in either hanging moss or old decaying jungle vines.

The lowest level is where we all start. There is an enclosed area with wall on all sides, and only one opening that I can tell. Outside this room there is a large deck that surrounds the center room, with partitions sectioning off parts of the deck. Some of these spaces are almost cave-like as their ceilings are low.

I am with a group of people all dressed in jungle fatigues - no helmets. We are playing a game - or at least that's what this group thinks. I apparently believe that it's more than a game, but no one is paying any heed to my warnings.

We are given weapons, with a very limited supply of ammo and told that the first wave is coming. Everyone rushes out to discover that the first wave is a human-like creature, only they are 7 feet tall with very long arms and sharp-clawed two-fingered hands. They have flesh colored skin with a bit of grey tone, but after only a few minutes everything is speckled in blood - and not just creatures - human blood abounds as well.

I am standing, watching all of this as if it's not really happening. One of my friends pulls me aside and snaps me out of it. The first wave is finished, now for the second. We have a brief respite to stock up on ammo and determine a better defensive position before the next wave hits. I already have these flares even though no one else was provided them. I follow my friend to one of the small cave-like alcoves on the first level of this makeshift jungle oil rig.

The space is only 2-3 foot high - high enough for us to site comfortably under the protective roof. We have sturdy walls on three and a half sides and only one 6 foot opening in the center of what now looks like an 8 foot wall to defend. I am in the back left corner, my friend sits to my left on the wall near the opening. There are two others in this room. I recognize one of them.

The second wave is coming. Only it's not humanoids. It's 3 foot long, 6 inch in diameter worms with a circular mouth with teeth - similar to a lamprey or a tapeworm. They are hideous. Pink-grey fleshy colored once again, and already bloodied from 'cleaning' up after the first wave.

We get out our flares which are set up like bullets in a stripper clip - all pointed up and lined next to each other. We set them up as a fence along the one opening. My friend - he isn't alarmed at the worms. It's almost as if he's done this before - which he has. It's how he knows to use the flares for this wave. This is when I begin to wonder what game I'm in.

We light the flares. The worms try to crawl over them to get to us, but the flames ignite the ooze covering there outer skins. They writhe as they die, squealing. I want the noise to stop. Those in the small room with me are dozing off.

The second wave is complete. I wonder what's in store for the third wave. I return with my friends to the central room on the first level. They are all wearing a cape-like overcoat with a purple interior and what looks to be red or gold stars. I want to know where mine is.

"You don't get one until you survive the third wave," I'm told. I look around the room for other 'recruits' like me - ones without the cape. There are none. I am the only recruit to have survived the first and second waves. I remember the group before the first wave meeting in this same room - they are all gone. I fight panic.

My friends tell me there's a weapons cache on the third level that I must access before the third wave. I start my climb to what is like a larger version of a crows nest. It reminds me of a guard shack. There I find the weapons cache. I stock up, very relieved to have a powerful gun and plenty of ammo with which to fight off the third wave.

I am back in the central area again, getting briefed on the third wave. The enemy has used humans to incubate the third wave - deforming their abdomen as if they were pregnant. The humans gestating the enemy have lost all mind control to the thing inside them, and act very much like flesh-eating zombies. The General in the central room thinks it's disgusting that they would take the test to this kind of level. I am not sure if I will survive the third wave. I am beginning to believe that this is some sort of high-level training program and for some reason I've been selected to continue in it.

So yeah. No, I haven't been reading about aliens, or playing any alien games or anything near as gruesome as what I've described. I can pick out a few things that make sense. The dream is reminiscent of a zombies level, I did some target practice at the G's this past weekend, getting the chance to fire some really nice weapons which made an appearance in the dream, and elements of it like the stress are probably coming from this huge project I'm working on... Strange regardless :) Last night:

Impressions of meeting up with my ex again - him who I haven't seen in about 10 years. Finding he's figured out where he needed to be and decided to come back for me hoping that I was still available. I am at peace when I'm with him even though I know it can't possibly be for real. He will leave me a second time. I decide to settle with what I can enjoy in the short term instead of standing up for myself. Foolish choice if I think about it rationally. But I don't because I'm dreaming.

There is another part of this dream that I can't quite piece together. it's like it's there - just floating outside my recollection. Funny thing is, I remembered it when I woke up this morning. It was only later in the morning when I recalled seeing my ex did that part of the dream disappear.

And I always have an off day when I dream about my ex. Always. So it's no wonder that today I feel like I'm in limbo. Stuck in the same routine, yet desperately longing for a change. Road trip anyone?

I would love to, but until this major project is done I can't. Maybe in the spring. My desire for change is from my desire to escape from the pressures that I face at work. Which is actually going really well. Apparently I'm worrying about it through my dreams...

So we'll see what tonight brings.

And on another note, if you made it this far I applaud you! Here's a reward: I've had a few of you ask how I got my text to wrap around my photos. First, you need to go to the settings tab and look under 'formatting'. Find the "Enable float alignment" and make sure it says 'Yes'. Next - and here's probably going to be the sticking point - you need to use blogger's 'add image' button. Once you click that little 'add image' icon you'll get a choice of how to place the image on the page. Select the one you want and voilà - text wraps around the image :)

If you're using another program to place your photos let me know which one you're using and I'll see if I can come up with a solution for you :)

And with that - I'm off to bed and most likely another intense dreaming session. 'Night!

Listening to: Nothing! Left my iPod in my purse so this has been a silent zone with the exception of the rain on the steel roof. Always did like that sound... except I have to walk back through a downpour to get to bed...hmmm....
Reading: 'The Atlantis Revelation' by Thomas Greanias. Third book in the trilogy - finished 'The Atlantis Prophecy' last night and started this one immediately. Once again good so far.
Studying: 'Living Beyond Yourself' by Beth Moore. Week 3: Greatest of These is Love. Still working on week 3.
FB Friends: Read it in situ here: dreamsync.blogspot.com