The One at the Mall

I dreamed that I was at a pretty large mall.  I went to a pet store that had tiny giraffes in the bird area and little frogs outside of tanks that would lose their legs if you picked them up.  I picked one up and a leg came off, and then another before I put it back.  Then after that I saw a sign that said not to pick up the frogs.

There was another area where they kept bringing out animals to interact with.  First there was a baby goat, so I got down on all fours and it climbed on my back.  At this point, my friend Mark met me at the store.  Then a woman dressed and made up like Marilyn Monroe brought out a lizard that looked like a baby alligator as it raced over to me, but then changed into more of a small gila monster.  At first it looked aggressive, but when I pet it, it became very affectionate like a cat.

Later I was in a restaurant or pub that had this weird bicycle looking thing and if you pulled a ring on a chain, it would open a gate into a secret section that was sort of like a cross between a game and escape room.  It was like a car with a video screen.  I "drove" the car into an area that had fire on the video screen and had to find stuff to put into funnel-like receptacles to put it out.  

A couple of kids came in while I was doing it, and they were trying to play it with me. 

Then I woke up.

The One With The Frog Dissections

I have a class today on instrument-assisted soft tissue mobilization (IASTM) and last night I had a nightmare where I was in class but we had to do frog dissections. 

We were given tadpoles that were frozen and we had to reconstitute them by pouring "440" over them, which was an alcoholic beverage like 151 rum but a different number.  We'd leave them in a container for a few minutes and very quickly they went from tadpoles to frogs, of all different types and sizes.

Then we had to kill them before dissecting, so people were spread out all over trying to kill the frogs - I was walking around trying to find a spot to do it, even though I didn't want to do the dissection at all.  People were around the room, in stairwells, everywhere, trying all kinds of methods to kill the frogs with varying success.

Some were using ligatures to try to strangle the frogs, I think I was going to try drowning the frog.

That's pretty much all I remember.

The One with the Hostage Situation(s)

The first part of the dream that I remember was that I was having dinner with some people, or at least we were in a place where people were having dinner. A group of hit-men came and threw these long grenade-type missiles at a table that blew up. I remember them being white and spinning around in the air.

These men were either assassins or mobsters that did jobs, and it seemed that I was often in the general area...

As I was running away from the scene, it became clear that somehow, unwittingly, I knew at least one of the hit-men. Someone was either asking me how I knew him or commented on how I got mixed up with the wrong crowd.

Next, I remember being in a bookstore, near the entrance, perhaps in a mall. It was like Borders or Barnes and Noble. The hit-men had followed me or something, but they weren’t chasing me specifically. At this point they all had guns and we all were lying on the floor. I think they were dressed in all black like SWAT guys or something.

A man near me was gathering little pieces of paper and was going to write something on it (on my dictation machine I used to record some dreams I said it said, “I can see it, can you?”) and he was going to try to do something to stop them. Like maybe a gun was going to fall and he was going to grab it. The guy needed a pen, and was going to actually try to get one from one of the gunmen, but I ended up giving him the pen.

But then this younger woman was trying to get money out of the ATM. I think she was one of the assassins’ targets. They knew that she was going to try the ATM, the card wouldn’t work and that’s how they were going to find her and confirm she was the one. She also needed a pen to sign a check that I think she was going to deposit.

All this time, we’re lying on the floor and the other guy with the paper and I were between two tables that books were on, or between two bookshelves, because it felt like a small place but relatively safe. They told her to come with them because her ATM wasn’t working, and I said, “You know, they’re going to shoot that poor woman, but don’t worry about it because we’re going to get through it.”

They started loading us onto the bus/train and I said, “Don’t look, they’re going to do it.” As we were driving away, they shot her by the ATM.

The inside of the train/bus was kind of like school bus - with seats that sat two, maybe three adults, and there was a longer, bench-type seat in the back that went all the way across the width. The train/bus changed shape a couple of times in the dream, however. It went from the bus configuration to more of a freight train car with a big ramp later on.

While it was the bus, I was sitting with an older woman as we were hostages, and I told her to move toward the front, because I had a bad feeling about our situation. It felt like I had the dream before, so I knew a little bit about what was going to happen.

A guy got onto the bus with a dog that was handicapped - it looked like it was missing a foot and was in general bad shape, and the guy looked like he might be homeless or something. But I knew in the dream that they were both faking it (including the dog who was trained to feign injuries) - they just wanted to get on the bus. I think the man was secretly a policeman or SWAT person or something.

As the guy moved to the back (at this point it transitioned to more of a freight train car type of deal with the big ramp... going up to a second level for storage or something), I followed them to the back and got like a greek salad. The salad dressing was like urine mixed with something. One of the hostage takers was like, “What is that?” I replied that it was some sort of ethnic food. But it turned out to just be Greek salad and I offered to give it to him, and he took it and put the dressing on the salad.

Then all of a sudden the train had stopped suddenly because we hit something and I was running forward toward the open front of the train car (the whole front was open). I would have been sliding or flying forward because of the sudden stop, but I was definitely running. I went flying out the front of the car onto the ground.

Something then slammed into the back of the train and the whole thing caught on fire. People started running out, including the hostage-takers. I ran in to try to save some people that were still in there - the old woman from before and another older black woman that reminded me of the older black woman in Speed.

But the old woman that I was talking to before decided to stay in there with her little dog - a little white dog - I think it was a poodle. I think she said something like she had lived long enough. I think the other woman was going to stay with her.

In the dream, I knew ahead of time that the train was going to get hit from behind but that I was going to be ejected just before that happened and that I wasn’t going to be injured. I also knew ahead of time that the woman was going to want to stay in the train.

The One with the Gorilla

Apparently I was staying at the school for a Martial Arts tournament because I had some bags that indicated that I was staying over for about a weekend and I had my weapons with me. I had a roommate - some guy that I did not recognize in the dream. Heather, Aimee and Mia were like one person that morphed into each other.

The Gorilla would lock the bathrooms at night and slept in the hallway near my room. If I had to go to the bathroom, I had to use the bathroom down the hallway, escorted by Heather. You didn't HAVE to have the escort, but it was safer that way. My roommate and I were waiting for Tina to come in and sneak us out - to escape. She was helping people escape, but could only take a couple of people at a time.

I went to the bathroom with Heather, using the girl's bathroom at first. I thought it was the only one. Then I had to use the bathroom again (I think I went back to my room first for a bit) and went to the boy's bathroom. I went for a very long time and then once I was done I had to go again. I had to go into this big sink that reminded me of a sink that would be in an art class for some reason. Heather was standing really close to me and she switched to Mia. I yelled at her for standing so close while I was going and she kept trying to look.

We started walking back to the room and I saw Tina and my roommate and maybe one or two other people with backpacks on like there were going to leave without me. My heart started pounding because I was scared I wouldn't escape, but they said they wouldn't leave without me. I asked if I should go back and get my bags, and Tina said maybe I should so I would have a weapon. She was carrying something like a tire iron. I thought about my stuff and said 'f that' I could get new stuff. If I got caught the gorilla would kill me/us. But all of a sudden I had my steel fan, which I was showing to Aimee for a minute while we were waiting for Tina for some reason. I was showing her how it could be used as a weapon.

We started to leave and I asked where the Gorilla was and Heather said 'In the cell checking the bathroom.' I wasn't worried that the Gorilla would notice we weren't in the room, but if it caught us outside the room, it would kill us. We got near the bathrooms and I saw the shadow of the Gorilla behind a door (had like frosted glass) and knew it was coming out so I ran toward the bathroom but didn't hide there because I knew it would check the bathroom. I whispered to a kid 'hide!' and went into another room - kind of a big empty room with some tables against the wall - kind of like a band room with no stuff, or a banquet hall room.

Then I woke up.