Dream Journal - 09/20/04

I am attending a buffet dinner for other people that were in my high school class 20 years ago. I already had my 20th reunion, and this dinner was for people who couldn't attend the first one.

As I'm going through the line, in front of me is this girl: Call her Terry. I (still) haven't seen her since graduation, and in the previous dream she looked exactly like she did when she was 18. This time, I don't recognize her (or I recognize her but for some reason am reticent to speak to her). She turns around as I get in the line and says something like, "******* [my last name, which she called me], do you remember me?." I look down at her (she's shorter than I am) and her hair looks much the same but, she's black. Or has a very, very, very dark tan. I'm put off by this (simply because she's not black in RL), and make small talk with her for a few moments as we go through the line.

Now, in normal folks looking to begin Lucid Dreaming, wouldn't this be an obvious "unreality" sign that they should use to tell themselves they're dreaming? Occasionally I get those images but either I'm enjoying my dream so much I don't want to wake up, or it just seems so natural I don't consider that I might be dreaming. Anyway, onward...

As I get my food and look for someplace to sit I see a woman with fiery red hair sitting at a table nearby. I think it's my best friend from high school (who I haven't seen for like, maybe 10-12 years) but again I am afraid to go and talk to her.

Eventually she comes up to me - call her Cathy.

Cathy and I had an interesting relationship in school. We were what you might call best buds, though we never "went out". She had an occasional boyfriend through school, but we hung out together all the time. She and I were in band and choir together so that was the basis of our friendship. I feel I probably should've invited her to the prom when we were seniors, but I was in love with her at the time (who was going with another guy) so I never asked Cathy, and ended up not even going. I don't think she went, either. I feel like, in retrospect, she probably wanted me to ask her. Needless to say, I probably have some unresolved issues with her.

What happens next is a little fuzzy, but eventually Cathy and I end up walking around outside down the street. The street is familiar to me - it's one we used to ride on together in the part of town where we grew up. In fact, it's the main road that connected the main neighborhoods where we both lived.

That's interesting - I didn't make out the significance of what street we were walking on till now.

We just walked and chatted with each other, I don't recall what it was about but the mood was reflective and meloncholy. I assume she looked much like she did in High School.

Eventually we end up laying in the grass on the side of the road, looking up at the sky and talking. I soon realize she is gone. I get up and look around for her, but she's disappeared.

I walk back to (what I thought was) the restaurant where the buffet dinner was being held, but it turns out to be her home. This home, however, is not the house she grew up in. It has a long, open living room and she and her mother are sitting on the couch watching TV. I come in and ask where she went, but she doesn't want to tell me.

I tell her I'm going back to the dinner, and try to leave out the back door. The first door I try leads to the garage, so I back up and try another door. I go out in the back yard and start walking.

From this point on the memories are garbled..

I'm walking in the grass behind the house, and come upon a ballfield. There's an outdoor volleyball court down a hill from where I'm walking, and some people invite me to play. I have to climb down over a wall to get into the court.

That's the end, as far as I can remember. If something further occurs to me, I'll post it.

One more thing: either before any of the dream started, or more likely concurrently. I dreamed when I was at the dinner, I was watching TV and saw Trapper John from the TV show M*A*S*H. He was working on a patient, and was presently joined by B.J. Honeycutt, the doctor that replaced him. I remember hearing an announcer on TV say this was the only episode where they appeared together. In reality, they never appeared together.

I've often considered my personality and style as very similar to B.J. I don't know if that's significant or not.