Leaks, Fire & Privacy, Bowling Bullies, and the Grocery Store

Night of: January 25
People Involved: Kyle, Tracy (ex), Brian, Carley, Parker (drummer from Up For Grabs--who we played with a few times, guitarist for Tucker--who we played with a few times and called our "brother band" for a while, and now the keyboardist for the popular band: Say Anything), Chris, Shalane Spence (friend I met when I met Brian), Davey Guy (kid from high school), ??? (guy at OCTFCU bank)

Dream 4 - Leaks

It was raining and there were leaks all over the apartment. I saw that Kyle had already put buckets and cups down, but they were completely full. I tried to empty one of the buckets into the sink, but Kyle had a ton of buckets in there, and was covering the drain because apparently the sink leaked, too. I wondered why Kyle didn't tell me about the leaks before; we could've had them fixed.
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Dream 3 - Fire and Privacy

I was in New York and thought I saw Tracy walking with some people. I thought about stopping by her place and leaving a note.
Brian and Carley were now there and we were all talking outside. I started playing with a lighter, and this turned into all of us trying to light things on fire. I saw Parker walk by as Brian was trying to light a tree's leaves. Parker acknowledged me, saying, "Justin" and I replied, "Parker," giving him the nod. He saw what Brian was doing and told us we shouldn't do that... so we stopped.
Kyle showed up and told Brian and Carley about how I was excited about having a date. I was confused by this, as I had no idea what he was talking about, but he kept going on about it. Brian kept asking, "With who?" and not getting an answer, while I persistently asked what he was talking about.
I was now in my room at my old house. I could hear someone peeing, and it was either Brian or Carley. I then came to the conclusion that everyone must hear me pee when I go to the bathroom, because it was quite loud.
This turned into me on the toilet, except the toilet was in my room. Brian and Carley were with me, but behind me, and not really watching. I just kinda sat there... then Carley walked into the next room. Brian started following, and this was a relief because I was completely naked on the toilet. As Brian was walking in to the next room, Carley appeared with a green bathrobe about to come off. She looked at Brian and said something along the lines of, "A little privacy?" So Brian came back in my room as I farted.
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Dream 1 - Bowling Bullies

I was at a bowling alley. I remember throwing one ball and missing the head pin completely, yet I knocked 9 pins down. I was playing against a few people, and everyone kept resetting the pins as another person was bowling, but luckily no one hit the ball rack.

In Retrospect: In the middle of the night, I wrote down a key phrase to this dream: "My brother Sam is dead." I don't remember why this was in the dream, but I remember someone listing a bunch of things, and this was one of them.
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Dream 2 - the Grocery Store

I was in a place that looked like a hotel ballroom, but it turned into a grocery store. I was with Chris, Kyle, and an older man that I had never met. Apparently it was some sort of "meet a stranger" program, but Chris and Kyle got paired up, and I got paired up with the guy I didn't know. I tried to think of something to do with him, so I figured we could make french fries or something. I got a potato and started peeling it, but I did a really bad job.
The man said, "You really don't know how to peel a potato."
"Yeah, I suck," I replied. But I thought this was good for me because I was learning new things and in a new situation.
He asked me, "How's business?"
I figured he didn't know about the stuff I was working on and said, "Well, I was working at Hot Topic. Do you know what that is?" Before he could answer, I added, "It's a mall-based retailer."
He asked, "Oh... they have Nirvana shirts, and ----?" (He said something else, but I don't know what)
"Yeah," I answered. I then saw the image of the famous yellow and black Nirvana shirt (circle smiley face with x's for eyes and tongue out).
"I've been there. I was thinking about jacking some stuff for my kid."
"Haha... I don't care. They're a rip off, anyway. Like $24 a shirt--a shirt like this." I grabbed the shirt I was wearing. "A t-shirt! Long-sleeve would be like $40."
The man got on his cell phone, and while in the middle of a conversation, he asked me, "What are you doing after this?"
I replied, "I don't know."
He said, "We're smoking in the parking lot."
This didn't sound like any fun. I didn't know if he was talking about marijuana or cigarettes, but in either case, I wasn't interested. I then saw some girls walking around and talking about hanging out, and one fat girl kept following us. One girl said that Brad Bobinski was working tomorrow.
The man pushed me into a girl, who I recognized as Shalane. She told me, "You look like you could be that guy's dad," and pointed to a kid sitting down next to Davey Guy. Someone else had already told me that I looked like this kid. He must've been at least 21 years old (he was familiar to me, and I now know who he was--a kid that works at the bank I go to... and he looks nothing like me. He's white). I took Shalane's comment as a compliment because the kid is a good looking guy, and I didn't realize in the dream that she was implying that I am old.
The kid was now gone and Davey took his place. He agreed that we look alike and said, "We should interview each other! We'll just sit around and go like this: [he showed his buck teeth]." I mimicked him, laughing. Now the kid was back again, and I noticed we were all wearing beige Dickies pants and Converse shoes... but Davey and the kid we wearing white long-sleeve collared shirts, too, so they looked even more similar. I told them we should take a picture together, since we all look alike (in reality, none of us look alike), but I just needed to find a long-sleeve collared shirt. Then I woke up.

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In Retrospect: Most of these were written in the middle of the night. I read that the best recall happens through writing (preferably with eyes closed) right when you wake up from a dream. People have tried tape recorders, but supposedly making yourself talk actually hurts your recall. And whenever you wake up on your own, as opposed to waking up by alarm clock, etc., you are coming out of a dream, and in this moment you have the best dream recall. I wrote most of it with my eyes open, as I don't have the skill to write with my eyes closed. A couple of things were remembered later (The whole dream about leaks and the part about Tracy).
The transcribing process, according to what I've read, is critical to the dream recording process. I can see why--I find that it's so easy to analyze as I'm rewriting it.